2024328

Keeping a Meditation Journal

A Japanese stationery shop is a dangerous place. Walk inside and you’ll immediately be tempted by a slew of gorgeous planners, diaries, and journals, all vying to organize your life. The quality is simply on another level from most of stuff I see back home in America, and they seem to be constantly innovating, with enticing new products on display every time I stop by. I have to exert myself not to buy a new planner or journal every time I visit, reminding myself that I already have my planner setup for the year.

The planner section at Loft in Shibuya (Source: Loft)

The planner section at Loft in Shibuya (Source: Loft)

But several weeks ago, at Loft in Shibuya, I saw something that proved to be too tempting. It was a product called “Breath Diary”, and it was my first time seeing it. It stood out with its novel size - a square that fits in the palm of your hand - and its relaxing, minimalistic design. While the publisher lists a variety of “hints” for ways to use the diary, the breath-inspired design motif made my mind immediately go to meditation.

Breath Diary (Source: Iroha Publishing)

Breath Diary (Source: Iroha Publishing)

I had read about the benefits of meditation in the past - reduced stress and negative emotions, more patience, better sleep, and so on. And I had tried multiple times to form a daily meditation habit. But I’m lazy, and new habits don’t come easily to me. Maybe, I thought, owning and being able to write in this cute little diary would give me the extra bit of motivation I needed. I took a few days to think about it (again, restraint is essential in Japanese stationery shops). I did some research about meditating with a diary - benefits, techniques, and so on. Eventually, I made up my mind. I went back and bought the diary, and in doing so I renewed my resolution to meditate each day.

Leaving Shibuya Loft with my new purchase

Leaving Shibuya Loft with my new purchase

About the Diary

Released by Iroha Publishing in 2022, the Breath Diary is a roughly 10cm square 366-page blank undated diary. The cover simply reads “BREATH DIARY” and is available in several subdued colors. The inner contents are all printed in light cornflower-blue ink that’s gentle on the eyes. Inside is a title page with a space to write the start and end date of your diary. Following that are the diary entry pages. At the top of each page is a place to record the date and the day of the week. In the bottom outer corners of each 2-page spread are the words SŪ and HĀ, Japanese onomatopoeia for inhaling and exhaling, respectively. The publisher’s website explains that these are to remind you to take a deep breath every time you open your Breath Diary.

The tranquility of the Breath Diary contrasted against the chaos of my desk

The tranquility of the Breath Diary contrasted against the chaos of my desk

The main part of each diary entry page, the blank space in the middle, is what drew me in most to this diary. It features a dot grid pattern that fades away as it radiates from the center, a design meant to resemble a breath. Because the dots are densely packed and because they fade away, it’s not really possible to use them as writing lines, but you can use them to keep your writing straight if you choose. This design, combined with the unusually small size, favors quick, short, casual diary entries. You won’t be writing paragraphs in this diary. It’s best for just a couple sentences, or even just a single thought, scribbled right in the middle of the “breath”. The publishers stated that they aimed to create a diary that’s “easy to continue even when you’re tired”, and I think this unique and eye-catching design accomplishes that goal.

At the end of the diary is one additional page with the aforementioned list of “hints” for things to write in your diary. Some of the hints, translated from Japanese, include...

  • Words of praise for yourself
  • Something you worked hard at
  • Something that made you happy
  • A purchase you’re happy with
  • Something you’re looking forward to
  • Something you’re uneasy about
  • Something you’re grateful for

Customizing my Breath Diary

While the minimalistic design of the inner pages were what drew me in, the minimalistic design of the cover, I felt, was lacking. Luckily, the diary comes in a clear plastic jacket, so customizing the cover is as easy as inserting whatever you want into the plastic jacket. Rummaging through my collection of stationery - papers, stickers, and random scraps I’ve collected over the years, I found this adorable photo of some little kids meditating that I once cut out of an old magazine. I love their stern expressions as they struggle to concentrate. I inserted it into the cover of my diary. Next I added this Hightide “Penco Bullet Ballpoint Pen Light” that matches the size of the diary perfectly when capped, and finally this Laccio rivet book band. (I know, this is all getting a bit materialistic for a hobby that’s supposed to be about detachment from earthly desires). Now I was happy with the outward appearance of my Breath Diary.

One last minor complaint I had with the Breath Diary was its lack of a year overview page where you can stamp or check off each day that you made a diary entry. Whether you choose to use it as a meditation journal, a gratitude journal, or something else, I think a lot of people would enjoy having this feature. So I created a printable 2024 calendar overview insert that fits perfectly inside the diary. If you’d like to print a copy for yourself, you can download the PDF below.

PDF breath_diary_2024_calendar.pdf (32kb)

Meditating with my Breath Diary

At the time of writing, it’s been about 2 months since I bought my Breath Diary. While I haven’t been perfect about keeping up the habit every day, I do find that the journal motivates me, especially since adding the calendar page, and I haven’t completely forgotten about my resolution like I did so many times in the past.

Over these 2 months, I’ve learned a a number of things through trial and error about both meditating and keeping a mediation journal. I found it helps to do a relaxing activity, such as yoga or even just taking a shower, directly before meditating so that I don’t go into it with my mind all wound up. I tried meditating in various locations and positions around my home - sitting in an arm chair, laying in bed - but I ultimately found that sitting on a zabuton (Japanese floor cushion) facing out towards my veranda to be best. It’s comfortable enough that I can sit up straight for 10 minutes, but not so comfortable that I fall asleep. I found some incense from MUJI, the smell of which reminds me of Japanese temples, and which lasts for about 10 minutes, allowing me to use it as a timer and to store my phone away somewhere where it won’t be a distraction.

On keeping a meditation journal, I tried once or twice to record my thoughts in it while meditating, but quickly realized that was silly - I wound up writing and thinking about writing the whole time and hardly meditating at all. So now I write a brief diary entry after each meditation. There’s still a temptation at first to worry about what you’re going to write later, to try to remember things, which can become a distraction. But I found it gets easier and more natural over time. This article from the Melbourne Meditation Centre was helpful. The author uses the metaphor of a football team doing a post-match review. He recommends not trying to remember and record every little detail of your session, but just to meditate as you normally would, and then use your journal afterwards to reflect on what you experienced, what kinds of things you keep getting hung up on, etc.

Also from the aforementioned article, I got the idea of jotting down a couple “thoughts” and “attitudes” - distracting thoughts that popped up in your head during your session (e.g. things you want to buy, imagined conversations), and attitudes that were present (e.g. curiosity, kindness, frustration, optimism). So my diary entries these days consist of a sentence or two reflecting on my session in general, and then a list of any thoughts and attitudes that came up. This system is working well for me, and I would invite others to try it as well.

A typical diary entry

Final Thoughts

My Breath Diary now sits in a little basket, along with some incense and matches, by the veranda along with my plants. I know it was a somewhat frivolous purchase. You don’t need a journal to meditate, and if you do choose to try keeping a journal, it doesn’t have to be this one - any old journal will do. But its presence in my room reminds me to find those 10 minutes in my day to put my phone away and take a seat by the veranda and be with my own mind. And its design (along with my own alterations) make it an object that I look forward to using each day.

-Dylan

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