Let Journaling & Meditation Be A Life Raft In Challenging & Uncertain Times

Now more than ever, we need tools that will support our emotional, spiritual, and physical health. Use this interactive, guided journaling practice to support you. Release your anxiety, fear, frustration, anger, grief—whatever doesn't serve you—onto the page. Create space and ease in your body and your mind. Build your own personal life raft with writing and meditation, so that you can feel some ease, support, and strength as you move through your day.

Best to listen with headphones.

Transcript

Hi,

My name is Carolyn Zeal and I appreciate you and I'm so glad you're here to meditate and to journal with me.

We are all moving through a period of unknown,

Of change,

Of rapid change.

And even though we don't ever really know what the future holds and things are always changing,

In this period of our collective human experience,

The change and the unknown have been taken to new heights.

What we may have taken for granted in our lives before,

A simple trip to the market,

A hug,

A handshake,

Is no longer available to us in the way it once was.

And although it will be back and we will be able to hug and shake hands and touch again,

We don't know when.

And it is with this level of rapid change and unknown comes a lot of stress,

Anxiety,

Fear and dis-ease.

And it is my intention to support you with tools that have supported me in my life,

Meditation and writing.

Writing and meditation.

Meditation is the salve that soothes,

Eases,

Offers hope and grace,

Light and love.

With meditation we focus on the present moment.

We focus on our breath and our subtle body movements,

Our heartbeat.

And it is journaling that serves as an emotional release and it forces us to focus in the present moment as we focus on our words.

And I believe that you put these two things together and you have built yourself a life raft.

And I invite you to join me on this life raft of journaling and meditation.

What you'll need for this meditation is a pen and a journal,

An open heart and an open mind.

So settle in,

In a comfortable seated position ideally and gently close your eyes.

Find your breath.

Follow your breath as it moves in and out of your body.

We're just witnessing the breath in this moment.

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

Take a moment now and really feel into your body.

Feel into where you might be carrying any anxiety and fear.

Allow yourself to turn toward these difficult emotions,

Fear,

Anxiety,

Any anger you might be storing in your body.

Worry,

Stress,

Frustration,

Even tiredness and fatigue.

Really turn toward these emotions.

Breathe and allow them to release and bubble up and feel them.

Feel into the fear,

The anxiety,

All the uncomfortable emotions.

They need attention as well.

Feel into them.

And when you're ready,

Gently open your eyes,

Turn toward your journal and release all this discomfort,

The anger,

Fear,

Anxiety,

The dis-ease from your body and right.

And as you write,

Don't worry about what you write about.

Just write.

Let the emotions,

The uncomfortable emotions,

The emotions that you might think you're not supposed to have or show,

Let those move through your body,

Through your hand,

Through your fingers,

Through the pen onto the page.

Dump them there.

I'll give you a few minutes to write.

Now hold your breath and breathe nice and hard.

I'll give you another minute to keep writing to release all these emotions onto the page.

I'll give you another minute to keep writing to release all these emotions onto the page.

Take a moment to finish up your final thoughts,

And when you feel ready,

Gently close your your eyes and breathe into those same spaces in your body and see if you feel any differently.

Maybe you've created more space in your body or those little aches and pains feel more relieved.

You feel relief,

A little lighter,

Maybe more relaxed in your shoulders or your neck.

Breathing into this new space,

This new way that you're feeling,

Take a moment and turn toward your journal and answer this question.

In this moment,

I feel.

In this moment,

I feel.

As you answer this question,

Don't force yourself to feel a certain way.

Just write what is true for you in this moment.

There is no right or wrong.

You are just writing how you feel in this moment,

Whether you feel the same or whether you feel a little bit different.

It doesn't matter.

Just write.

This process is always available to you.

So just write,

Knowing that you can always go back and try it again.

Breathing in,

Feeling,

Writing.

It's always available.

So write how you feel in this moment and I'll give you some time.

Take another minute,

Write about how you feel and I'll come back.

Gently coming back to your body,

Closing your eyes,

Focusing again on your breath,

Witnessing your breath.

Without judgment,

Just noticing.

Focus now on how you want to feel today.

Think of the words that might describe how you want to feel.

Healthy,

Strong,

Brave,

Happy,

Joyful,

Loving.

See yourself moving through your day,

Feeling exactly the way you want to feel.

When you feel ready,

Turn toward your journal,

Put your pen to the page and write your day.

Literally write your life.

How do you want to show up?

How do you want to live and feel?

What do you want to do?

Who do you want to be today?

I'll give you some time and I'll come back.

Take another minute,

Continue writing your vision for today.

Take another minute,

Continue writing your vision for today.

When you feel complete,

Come back to your body,

Close your eyes and focus on your breath.

Witnessing your breath,

No judgment,

Just notice your breath.

And as you notice your breath,

Feel into your body.

How do you feel in this moment?

And as you feel into your body,

I invite you to really appreciate who you are because you are strong and brave.

It takes courage and heart and love and kindness to turn toward the uncomfortable emotions that we all feel.

And it is in this process of feeling,

Allowing,

Witnessing,

We build compassion.

We build a muscle of compassion and we can turn toward others and offer them the space that we offer ourselves.

And no matter how you feel now or in the future,

Remember that you're doing the best you can.

You are doing the best you can do.

You are an ever-changing being with ever-changing emotions that come and go.

I invite you to revisit this process on a daily basis so that you can create your own life raft where you can float free,

Where you can just be safe to feel and be whatever you are feeling and whomever you are in any given moment.

Thank you for taking the time to meditate and to journal with me.

I wish you much health joy,

Love,

Compassion,

And all that you wish for yourself.

Namaste.

Reviews

Sooooo happy I stumbled across this topic of journaling and randomly picked you. Thank you 🙏🏻. To be continued.

This is a fantastic session. I woke up early with anxiety and overwhelmed at things in my life. This has helped me be more grounded and set a lovely intention for the day. I'll be back again tomorrow. Thank you.

Really needed this support and permission to feel my feelings. Thank you for sharing this with me.

I didn't follow your prompts perfectly or exactly, but once I was prompted to write, I found that I wrote more than I have all week. I wrote of abundance, fulfillment, of gratitude and kindness. The raft has been there, I've been building it for myself and others all my life, and it is time now to float on it, myself! Thank you for the very nurturing space you have built here, with this work.

Loved this. Showed me a new way to use journalling, breathing and feeling into the emotions before and after and feeling the sense of freedom and lightness. Thanks 🙏🏼

Carolyn words are encouraging and heartwarming. This meditation feels supportive and comforting.

What a beautiful practice this is! It was so grounding and healing. I will return again and again! Thank you! 💗🙏💗

Thank you so much this has really made me feel good will practice every day 🙏🏻

That was fantastic! Thank you so much. I set a reminder to journal this morning and your meditation smacked me in the face this morning. I’m having the best start to my morning. I appreciate your words of encouragement. I write for fun and I’m just starting to become more interested in writing for more than just myself someday. Have an amazing day! 🙏🏾🌸🙏🏾

So much more than I expected. Listened while starting to recover from COVID. Well done.

This was great. Thank you for helping me get my feelings on the page. I loved your message at the end and found it very comforting 🙏

This meditation help me be present with my negative emotions. When I wrote I was able to release these emotions. I will add this to my playlist. Thank you. 🙏

Excellent combination of thought provoking meditation and journaling- thank you 🙏

A wonderful exercise! I will have to grab my pen and pad and do this again another time, with a clear head and an honest and open heart! 🙏🏽💛☮️💫

I loved this session on writing for well-being. A great resource to go back to x

I have so much trouble journaling, I’m not really in touch with my emotions, when you ask how I feel or to write how I feel, I don’t know what to write, I feel plain. Not happy not sad not content just blah could it be from the medications I take? Or could my sacral chakra be blocked?

Dear Carolyn, thank you so much for the journaling meditation. I will return again and again.

Thank you for creating this safe space for us!

Thank you. Will keep revisiting this exercise. Very helpful.

This was a new experience, joining meditation & journaling simultaneously. A release of emotion for sure.