Is journaling/self-inquiry a good meditation?
 

Growing up I've experienced my share of trauma that created alot of block energy within myself.Now that I'm 24 it's important that I address these energies so I can show up fully in life. I really enjoy meditation. It has made me a "lighter" being, with the ability to feel the universe and much love all over. Traditional meditation has proven to calibrate my mind and body. Still, however, I've noticed after days of meditation my trauma showed up mentally. It was like my thoughts were weighing me down. I just couldn't let go of all the pain I experience years ago. That was until I started journaling, self- inquiry. I put my thoughts and emotions on paper. I question everything I wrote to find a peaceful state of mind. After doing that I felt thankful for my past and much compassion for those I believed hurt me. My whole life shifted when I question my thoughts and beliefs. Could journaling be a adjunct to meditation?

I'm not sure if I would adjunct journaling to meditiation. It's a tool by itself and a good one I guess.
I've written down a lot of my thoughts recently. Not only does it give me lots to think about, it also increases my awareness of what I think and feel. Often I have a thought which I previously would have forgotten in a moment. Now that I write everything down I actually notice that this thought might be an important piece of the puzzle.
Of course in meditation you can make use of these discoveries but they're still two different tools with two different purposes.

I would say the same thing.
Meditation when defined, well, this would not be part of it.
This is a psycho-therapy tool, for sure...and you can be centered doing it. :thumbsup:

I also view journaling and meditation as two separate tools, but paradoxical to that I also view everything as being connected; everything as one. Nothing can exist in a vacuum standing alone by itself. So from this perspective whatever we do is going to find its’ way into our deeper being.

What we think, what we say, and what we do, creates karma. Journaling will find its’ way into our dreams, as what we journal are usually thoughts about things that have impacted us, either emotionally, physically, or spiritually. So journaling does have a spiritual component.

I have talked to people who journal about something they read in the Bible, writing down what their thoughts were on what they had read, and then later they were visited by an apparition, while they were in quiet prayer, an that apparition explained to them the very verse they had read and journal about.

If this can happen in prayer it can also happen in meditation, as prayer is how we talk to God and meditation is how we listen; both are as an attempt to commune with the divine. But meditation is much more than just periodically sitting and quieting our mind. We should be in meditation 24/7 if possible, while we are doing other things and going about our daily lives. I would say don’t limit yourself; journaling and meditation are two excellent tools, and you can journal and then sit quietly, without thoughts, in meditation, and something may come to you about your journaling, an impression, feeling, intuition, etc., while you are sitting in meditation.

But I would not have any expectation or anticipation about receiving guidance while meditating. Things like this have happened to me when I completely let go, that includes letting go of expectations. An if nothing is revealed in reference to your journaling, you still had a fulfilling meditation. Although meditation is not the techniques that we do to quiet our mind, rather meditation is the experience we get from quieting our mind, and we need to learn how to hold on to that experience regardless of whatever else we are doing, or what may be happening in our lives. We sit in meditation to charge ourselves with the presence of pure spirit, but we need to be quiet inside embracing that presence for the remainder of the day after we have risen from our sitting practice. If you endeavor to do this you most likely will receive impeccable guidance and answers during the day when you least expect it.

As you progress in your meditation practice, and deepen your cup, your meditation experience will become more dynamic. You may have an out-of-body experience or you may have an incredible expansion where your consciousness, like a bubble, literally expands beyond your physical body, and you see that you are one with everything. But again, do not anticipate or have any expectations. It works when you least expect for it to work.:smile: