Morning & Evening Journal Meditation Routine

Hey, it's Ben Greenfield here.

I'm often asked about how I structure my morning journaling and spiritual disciplines practice and also how I do that in the evening. And I want to show you in this video how I actually do that. How I bookend my day with gratitude and and service in the morning and with purpose and self examination in the evening.

So the journal that I use is this. It's a spiritual disciplines journal.

And.

When I flip open to my page for the day.

You will see that on each day I have a verse in the at the top and then my journaling area underneath that. So what I typically do is I begin.

With the verse at the top. Now I use an app called Insight Timer. I set that timer for a total of seven minutes, allotting the first two minutes for reading that verse and meditating upon it and settling myself with breathwork and preparation for journaling and meditation. I use the second two minutes of those seven minutes, minutes two through four, to move on to the gratitude. I use the third two minutes of those seven minutes to move on to the service. And then I use the final minutes to tap on my heart, to bring myself that feeling of peace and to say a final prayer to God. And so what I would do is as follows. I read for you are my hope, O Lord God, you are my trust from my youth. And then I start the timer on this Insight Timer app, which just allows me to hear a little bell when it's time to move on. And I like to use the angel choir background music that's probably one of my favorites on that particular app, which I believe is free or minimal cost on the app store. So I read that verse and what I do then is I close my eyes and I dwell upon what that verse says to me, what it means to me. I pray to God, I say, I am here, God, please open my eyes, open my spirit.

I just basically get myself into a good space for those first two minutes and I use that verse at the top of each page to do so. And magically, the verse is just like always what I need for the day. And so then I hear a little ding on the Insight Timer right after I've done that, after I've meditated and prayed and closed my eyes and also done a little breath work, I typically do about a six count in and a six count out during this entire process, which is really good for increasing heart rate variability. It's just a very settling breath work.

Timing that isn't too distracting. Just six in, six out. It becomes very Natural. Then I move on to the first question in my journal. What am I grateful for today? And what I do for the next two minutes is I close my eyes and I really dwell upon what it is I'm grateful for. I bring it to life. I visualize it, right? It could be the sunshine, the trees, the birds, an experience from the previous night, something I've experienced that morning. But I replay that in my head, because that's the power of gratitude, is you're replaying it in your head and creating all the same feelings that washed over you in that instance when you received something that you didn't deserve, or when someone did something you didn't expect, or when you simply were struck with the awe that comes with gratefulness and the peace that's also accompanied with that. And so what I do is I dwell upon that moment of gratefulness with my eyes closed. And when I've really, truly decided upon what it is that I want to write down that I'm grateful for, I write a few notes about that in the what am I grateful for today's section.

And if the two minute chime is not yet chimed, I then simply close my eyes and return to replaying and reliving that moment of gratefulness in my mind.

When the chime goes off. And this would be at minute four. I then go on to adopt a very same practice. For who can I pray for or serve on this day? I ask God. He would bring someone to my heart. Sometimes I already know of someone who needs me. I write down how it is I might help them. I write down that person's name. I close my eyes, I bring them to life in my mind. Sometimes I begin to pray for them and send them positive emotions right then and there. And it's interesting because when you write it down, you'll find yourself returning to that same person throughout the day, sending them positive emotions, praying for them, or going out of your way to help them in the same way that by beginning the day with the gratitude, you keep getting washed over with feelings of gratitude throughout the rest of the day for both that initial thing as well as other things that you find yourself grateful for. So those are the first two questions. And then when that final bell chimes, which is at minute six, I spend minutes six through seven saying a final prayer. And I personally just like to say the Lord's Prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, the classic Lord's Prayer. And I continue to breathe and prepare myself for the day. But I also like to Tap. As I'm in that moment of peace, and really the calmness that comes after seven minutes of meditation, I tap over my heart center. Because when you tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, when you're in that state of peace, you're setting an anchor. And then later on in the day, if I'm stressed, if I'm busy, if I'm rushed, if I feel that I need to return to that state of peace, I can simply tap and bring myself back to that state if I tap in the same location that I tapped during my meditation. And for me, I like to do it right over the heart center. So that's how I meditate in the morning. Begin with the verse, close my eyes, dwell upon it, move on to gratitude, move on to service, and finish with a final prayer and tapping with a six count in, six count out, breath work throughout. This is often done with my family. We simply sit and do it all together in a circle. Now in the evening, it's two processes, self examination and purpose. And so you can see, in the evening I also have the areas that I would write in. And what I do in the evening, I also do this with my family is before bed. I don't use the time or anything for this. I just don't really have technology in the bedroom. So I simply close my eyes and I begin to do a more relaxing form of breathwork in preparation for bed. A four count in and an eight count out. I close my eyes as I'm doing that and I begin to replay in a process of self examination my entire day, like a movie in my mind. Okay, from when I got up, to what I did, when I got up to who I spoke with, to what were the first tasks that I did for the day? What was my movement in the morning? What did I have for breakfast, if I had breakfast, or my meetings and calls and books and research and everything else that I do during the day. How did I accomplish that? How did I feel? How did I act? But I'm watching this all like a movie in my mind, right? Me and the third person. And the entire time I'm watching it, I am paying attention to be able to reply to these two questions in my journal. What good have I done today? And what could I have done better? Because when you're watching yourself, you'll find yourself like a character in a movie saying, oh, I like what that character is doing right now. That feels really good. And in many cases, that's what I'll be writing down in the section of what good have I done this day, you know, part of the day where I just feel as though I was just really in a good spot. And then you'll notice other times as you're replaying the movie of your day in your mind that you aren't rooting for your character, or you're saying, gosh, I wish they made a different decision. I wish they hadn't snapped at that person. I wish they'd chosen to eat something different. I wish they'd have not been in such a rushed and stressed mode in the morning. And what happens is you'll identify that moment and you write down, what could I have done better? And as you do that, every day continually improves upon itself as you eliminate those failures and those things you could have done better and continue to build upon those things that you did that you feel really good about. Now, there's a third question at the bottom of the journal that you'll also pay attention to as you play that movie of your day in your mind. And that's what is one way I lived my life's purpose statement today. In the beginning of this journal, I teach you how to identify your purpose statement. But what you'll find is that at a certain point, as you replay the movie of your day in your head, eyes closed, four, eight breathing, you'll see yourself doing something that you think, oh my gosh, I was so self actualized, so impact tactful, so purposeful, so in the zone. Felt as though that was the time that I was really accomplishing my true calling in life. And as you play the movie in your mind, be looking for that part. You know, for me, it's usually writing an article or doing a really impactful podcast, or really helping someone, well on the phone during a consult or teaching my boys something or being with my wife in a very loving way. Those are usually the things that kind of tend to pop up repeatedly as purposeful, purposeful activities for me. But I'll choose one and write down that one way in which I accomplish my purpose statement for that day. And that four, eight breathing that playing the movie in your mind, the what good have I done this day? What could I have done better? And how I live my life's purpose statement today. That's typically about a three to five minute process around in there, so it's not super long. You're just playing your day for three to five minutes and jotting down the good, the better, and the purposeful. So it's about seven minutes in the morning. And I pair that with the insight timer. Again, the gratitude and the service and the verse and just the connection to God and connection to self and establishment of peace and the tapping. Then the evening, about three to five minutes. And that's a process that actually works really well for me, and I wanted to share it with you because I often do get a lot of questions about how I meditate, how I journal, how I use this journal, and that's how I do it. And it works really well. It's not incredibly time consuming, but. But it really bookends the day quite nicely. So I hope that's helpful for you. Thanks for watching. If you want a journal like this, they are@spiritualdisciplinesjournal.com and I'm very grateful and blessed to be able to share this process with you. Thanks for watching.