02.21.2025 Journaling for a Quiet Mind   For months, I struggled to fall asleep, tossing and turning as my mind raced. It was frustrating to feel so exhausted, yet unable to quiet my thoughts enough to rest. On a friend’s recommendation, I started keeping a bedside journal. Before trying to sleep, I would write down everything on my mind — unedited and unfiltered — transferring my thoughts onto the page. To my disbelief, this simple practice helped me fall asleep effortlessly. Over time, journaling became part of my daily routine, a practice I turn to whenever my mind feels particularly full. Beyond improving my sleep, journaling has helped me reduce stress and feel less overwhelmed. While it doesn’t solve the problems themselves, the act of journaling allows me to address the feelings of anxiety and stress with compassion. As James C. Hopkins writes, “journaling itself is nonjudgmental and observational. In this way, journaling is like meditation.” Simply observing our thoughts and letting them drift through our minds is easier and more effective than trying to banish them, or force them away. We are not our thoughts, yet they often consume us, draining our energy. Writing freely, without self editing provides an outlet — a way to acknowledge our thoughts, release them without judgement, and move forward. The three pieces below explore the power of writing as a tool for self-reflection and emotional clarity. I hope they offer you a moment of self-compassion this weekend. –Martine Panzica, assistant digital editor, Lion’s Roar 5 Tips for Mindful Journaling James C. Hopkins on how — through writing — you can find the flow of awareness, free of judgment. I realized that language can be a tool for understanding that which lies beyond concept and that writing can be part of a path that might at least point in the direction of awakening. So, three years after abandoning it, I went back to writing, and mindful journaling became a key practice for me. It’s a way to open to immediate or recent experience. The main idea behind journaling is usually about capturing the moment — just “getting it down on paper.” Revision comes later, but journaling itself is nonjudgmental and observational. In this way, journaling is like meditation. ADVERTISEMENT Zen Mind, Writer’s Mind Author Natalie Goldberg discusses Zen and the writer’s practice. I think the combination of writing and Zen did something like that for me. In my first book, Chicken and in Love, a book of poetry, I wrote about ordinary things, things that you would think a Jewish American woman from New York would write about. I wrote about the Holocaust, about marrying a non-Jew, about times I was unhappy. But I found my true voice when a Japanese Zen teacher and zazen crossed this Jewish woman’s life. The combination broke my voice open, and that’s when I wrote Writing Down The Bones, which is totally based in the dharma. I think if I had just continued writing Natalie’s stuff and being Jewish and from Brooklyn, it would have been good, but it wouldn’t have broken open my voice. It was the combination of Zen and writing that woke me up. Nothing Is Wasted   If you use your difficulties to create art, says Ruth Ozeki, it will give them meaning. When you’re a writer or an artist, nothing is wasted. Even the most painful and difficult situations in life can be recycled into material for a project, and it’s the artist’s job to be awake, aware, and opportunistic. This attitude might sound a bit cold and calculating, but it’s not. Quite the opposite. Art, when it comes from dark and difficult places, gives us a means to fully feel our most powerful human emotions and transform our suffering into something meaningful.