Contemplative Creativity Lab: Journaling as Practice [Online]

Many of us like to journal and even consider it a practice.  

And yet, journaling can sometimes become stale. For example, it can become a place that privileges the "figuring out" mind, that in turn can choke out possibilities for freshness.  Or it can become a place of hoarding and holding onto our insights, or a place of mindless verbosity, thus disintegrating into a kind of project of ego.

But journaling can also be a place where fresh new perspectives and understandings arise, drawing us closer to our hearts and to what truly matters to us. This, in turn, can profoundly affect how we choose and navigate within our lives. Sometimes, the freshness is accidental or spontaneous (perhaps in the midst of verbosity!), but a more conscious way at it might be through asking the right kinds of questions and returning to them again and again. Journaling then can become a form of structured inquiry, or contemplative inquiry.  At some point, it may even become indistinguishable from meditation.

In this workshop, we will explore a few such questions and see where they lead us, both inwardly and outwardly. 

Yuichi Handa is a 30+-year meditation and qigong practitioner, who is also a practicing phenomenologist. He used to teach mathematics at CSU Chico, and now writes, coaches, and “runs” a small business in Bali.  He has written and published a number of books, including Contemplative Meditation: How to Build a Sustainable Daily Practice, The Gifts that Lie Hidden within Difficult Emotions (Parts 1 through 5), and What Does Understanding Mathematics Mean for Teachers: Relationship as a Metaphor for Knowing.  He is also a lifelong journaler!  www.yuichihanda.com

Contemplative Creativity Lab is an online meditation community group led by Shambhala Art teachers and special guests. Join us from anywhere in the world, live via Zoom  –  Second Saturday of the month 10 AM – 12 PM PT.   The aim with our labs is to engage the senses, bringing the fullness of our awareness to any task. Everyone is warmly welcome, no exceptions. And there is no need for any experience with art or meditation to take part. We've found that contemplative practices work well via Zoom – since the focus is not on the screen, but more on what is arising within your own experience.
See Contemplative Creativity Lab