As the year comes to a close, I am thinking of how my day comes to a close.
Do you end your day with a review? I do! Most days.
In early March 2023, I experienced an inspiration. I book a Five Year Diary to use for my nightly practice of reviewing my day and preparing for tomorrow.
Every evening (almost every evening) for the last few years, I would get into bed and do five inner activities. I would review my day from three different questions:
What am I celebrating?
What am I grieving?
What am I forgiving?
I would then
set an intention for the next day and
shape a question to take into my sleep.
This brought such a thoughtful and meaningful closure to each day, but I often felt too tired to bring clarity and a good energy to the practice. I also had no way to review my practice.
Then I thought of a five-year diary!!!! My night process has five elements. A five-year diary has five sections for each day and each section has only six lines for writing.
I don’t use this process for journaling. Each task is just a note so six lines is plenty.
I also do this practice right after dinner when I am still awake and have energy.
Because writing embodies thought, this process became much more alive and powerful than just thinking about my day. Here is what I realized several months ago:
- When I practice forgiving, I am asking what a difficulty or hurt was given for. This is a deed of crystalizing “suffering” into wisdom. It is wisdom to develop equanimity in understanding the purpose of the undesirable.
- When I practice grieving, I am learning to let go of my attachments to relationships, things, dreams, etc. Every day I notice what I have lost…small losses usually. When we can grieve without drama, we awaken freedom/freiheit.
- When I celebrate the small elements of my life, my relationships, my contributions, my well-being, and my inner development I awaken self-love. When I celebrate the simple wonders of nature and the complex expressions of other human beings, I awaken love for everything and everyone.
Reviewing the day like this frees me from my drama.
Let me say it again.
The ability to forgive, to know why the “harm/suffering” was given for, is the key to experiencing Wisdom
The ability to grieve, to practice the experience of loss of what you were attached to, releases the need for attachment and is the key to experiencing Freedom.
The ability to celebrate every aspect of life with equanimity and enthusiasm is the key to experiencing Love.
The I/Ego/Spirit of Selfhood incarnates to “know” Divine Wisdom, Freedom, and Love” beyond all drama and story.”
My Tomorrow
And then comes my practice around my-yet-to-be-lived future…my intention. I am learning not to think of this future as completing tasks but to reveal the path of my destiny. Most days it is just my desire to initiate or complete something.
My Sleep
And finally, my question for the spiritual world that seeks imagination, inspiration, or intuition. Sometimes it takes a few nights or a few weeks to wake up with a response, but writing the question makes me think and feel, and intend to connect with my higher self and the forces of spirit.
My Diary
Here is the link to the Five Year Diary I bought on amazon
It is hardbound and comes in lots of colors.
(Disclosure: If you buy one, I will get a few pennies from amazon.)
Remember it is not a journal. It is a support for a valuable daily spiritual process.
Sending you best wishes for 2024.
