Journaling has long been a tool for achieveing better emotional and mental health. It is a remarkable device for easing concerns, identifying hopes and fears, allowing the creative process to flourish, and connecting with your inner self. Journals help to identify your personal wisdom and realize that you are wiser than you once believed as ideas and solutions flow from deep inside. The process of uniting your conscious and sub-conscious mind through ink and paper, in black and white, empowers and enlightens, connecting us with our true selves and shining a light on who we truly are.

Adding journal writing to your yoga practice allows you to access these transformative benefits and takes the process from being simply a physical experience to becoming a window to the soul. 

You never know what you will learn till you start writing. Then you discover truths you never knew existed. – Anita Brookner

There are two way to use journalling: prompted or free flow. Both have their advantages and disadvantages as well as a place within the yoga journal experience.

Prompted Journaling & Yoga

Prompted journaling is when the teacher assigns a topic for students to journal. For example: “We’re going to do Pigeon pose and I want you to pay attention to what your hips are telling you. We’ll then spend a few minutes recording the thoughts and feelings this pose generates.” Journals also are a wonderful place to record personal affirmations, set goals, and recognize our strengths and weaknesses. Topics I’ve used include:

• Comfort is relative – how do backbends teach this idea?
• How does doing Fish pose help you look at life from a different perspective?
• What do you feel while doing Eagle pose? What do you feel after?
• What images come to mind while doing Warrior pose?
• Let’s write an affirmation for Mountain pose. Everytime you do Mountain Pose repeat this affirmation to yourself.
• Which is your favourite yoga pose and why?
• What do you want/need to get out of class today?

Free Flow Journaling & Yoga

Free flow journaling occurs as an organic result of the yoga experience. Allowing yourself to simply reflect upon the experience, identifying and putting into words your thoughts, feelings, insights, etc. while upon your personal yoga journal, is an enlightening endeavour. It is not uncommon for yoga asanas and breathing techniques to release strong emotions. We often hang onto negative emotions such as fear, anger and sorrow because we have not dealt with them adequately in the past. Our bodies remember and hold these feelings deep inside. A regular yoga practice will release this negativity and tension, allowing us to return to a state of happiness and relaxation. Journaling these experiences will hasten emotional recovery and is widely used as a self-discovery and therapy tool.

How to Use Yoga Journal Writing

In children’s classes I almost always provide a prompt. This helps the children get to the journaling without wasting time on wondering what to write about. Younger children can draw a picture of their feelings and insights while older ones can put these into words.

Teens and adults are more familiar with the journal writing process and can adapt it to the yoga classroom generally without difficulty. Since this is the case I will use both techniques while encouraging them to ponder and explore their yoga practice. Yoga classes that begin with setting an intention are a wonderful place to start if students seem stumped for a topic to journal.

Entries by my students have ranged from sketches and quick insights, to lists and pages and pages of emotional outpouring. The lovely thing about journal writing is you can’t get it wrong. It is a snapshot of who you are today. There are a number of fantastic yoga blogs which serve as journalling for the authors. Some of my favourites who share the more emotional/trans-formative side of their yoga practice include:

• Everyday Yogini – Nona’s life through yoga coloured glasses
• Grounding Thru the Sit Bones - Brenda shares her life & revelations from the mat
• It’s all yoga, baby – Roseanne probes into yoga culture and community
• Karmaspot’s Blog – Jen shares thoughts on yoga for kids and parents
• Lifebloom Yoga – Abby’s creative expression of yoga in her life
• Linda’s Yoga Journey - Linda explores the world and her personal yoga journey
• The PranaMama – Amy provides yoga from a Mom’s perspective
• The Queen of Bohemia Cleans Her Own House – Sydney connects yoga and emotional recovery
• YogaChickie- Lauren writes about her life and the insights gained from yoga
• Yoga Demystified – Bob entertains and educates through poetry and probing questions
• Yogic Muse – Brooks reveals her personal journey one yogic step at a time
• Yoga With Spirit - Amy applies yoga to her life

Related posts:

1. Endangered Animals Kids Yoga Class – Elephant Journal I love National Geographic. Always have. Maybe it was because...
2. Affirmations Prove Powerful for Kids Success Affirmations are short phrases that affect the subconscious mind and...
3. Yoga Teaches How to Explore and Accept Life Changes Change is inevitable. Our reactions to change determine much of...
4. Warrior Poses – Anger and Heartbreak to Heal and Defend A personal application of, “This is Virabhadra, the personification...
5. Steps to Bringing Yoga to Your School – Get Creative Often when people think of practicing yoga with students they...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.