Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

  • Home
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
    • About
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Contact

October 31, 2016 By Admin

Writing Your Own Reflective Journal Anthony R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC

 

My blog site mindfulhappiness.org has many posts on meditation, Buddhism, education, clinical practices and self-activated emotional health practices.  Perhaps you may wish to initiate a Reflective Journal practice after you do practices presented on journalwriting-mindfulhappinessthe site.  There are many  benefits from maintaining a written journal about personal experiences and practices.  Not only does a journal help concretize your thoughts and emotions, but later re-reading of entries may improve your motivation, mood, and skills. I suggest you consider the format noted below.  Of course, you can use any format you please.

  1. Why are you interested personally in the www.mindfulhappinesss.org site?
  2. Why are you interested in specific posts and practices- is there a pattern?
  3. What do you hope to gain from the posts and practices?
  4. Do you have a personal, more private desire/need for suggested practices and posts?
  5. What are your personal goals in life, and how does participating in posted practices support your efforts?
  6. How does personal suffering influence your practices?
  7. Are you aware that attachment and never-ending change are the primary causes for suffering?
  8. How does the concept, process, and reality of impermanence impact your goals, desires, practices?
  9. How does the concept, process, and reality of ultimate emptiness impact your goals, desires, and practices?
  10. What makes you happy in life?
  11. Have you learned yet that chasing and grasping after sense-pleasures provides only short-term joy AND long-term suffering?
  12. Are there other areas for meaningful comment?

reflective-journalwriting-mindfulhappiness-anthonyquintilianiGood luck with your journal work.  Hope it helps you better understand what you are doing and why you are doing it.

Inspiration for this post on reflective journals came from Keiser, D.L. and Sakulkoo, S. (2014). Fitting in breath hunting. In J. Gunnlaugson et al. (Eds.). Contemplative Learning and Inquiry Across Disciplines. New York: State University of New York, pp. 81-91.

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont

ChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

Filed Under: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, Featured Tagged With: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, BENEFITS OF WRITING, JOURNAL WRITING, MINDFUL HAPPINESS, REFLECTIVE

Twitter

Mindful Happiness -Currently in Production

Mindful Happiness Posts

Mindfulness Skills and Psychotherapy Outcomes There are at least ten good reasons why mindfulness training and regular practice may improve psychotherapy outcomes. These reasons assume the training is presented by a well-trained clinician-mindfulness practitioner. Of course improved outcomes also depend upon the client’s motivation and energy to actually practice mindfulness skills on a regular basis. […]

Spirit Wars and “Spiritual Warfare” This post will discuss the topic and personal strategies.  Most content will relate to both physical realities and metaphorical meanings and categories. Since a person viewing their self as fighting a spiritual war most likely holds onto certain parts of self in this endeavor, it is highly unlikely that the […]

Reminders for Your Psychological and Physical Health If you desire to be more compassionate with others and with yourself, remember the following. Be certain to ACT on the following. 1) Life is complete only with joy/happiness, neutral experiences, and suffering/pain.  These are the realities of human existence. These are the conditions of human life. Make […]

Mindfulness Can Activate More Grace in Our Lives Today we all need to be cultivating more and deeper grace.  Grace needs to be activated. Given so many of our cultural problems (murders and mass murders by gunfire, rampant personal and corporate greed, ego-entitlement, chronic stress, feelings of insecurity, technological advances that do not ADVANCE us, […]

Quintiliani’s Whole Person Recovery Planning To me the “whole person recovery planning” includes biological, psychological, social, spiritual, and self components and changes. To simplify – it is not simple or quick – I will simply list the core components of this comprehensive form of recovery process.  I may add more details to this process in […]

Trauma Therapy:  Basics from Some Expert Clinicians For many years trauma therapist have used many approaches in their psychotherapy. Most of these approaches lack strong empirical support for outcomes, and are often the “favorites” of these therapists.  One might wonder what benefits therapists derive from using approaches that are not evidence-based. If an intervention fails […]

Tips for Improving Your Mindfulness Practices The following practices may improve your mindfulness skills.  It all depends – it all depends on whether or not you will do regular, daily practices.  If you desire to improve your mindfulness skills, consider following the tips noted below.  Most of the practices below involve sitting meditation.  Likewise, regular […]

“The Other Shore” to Happiness and Enlightenment Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, The Other Shore: A New Translation of The Heart Sutra…Berkeley, CA: Palm Leaves Press brings us on an inner journey toward a happier, more peaceful and enlightened life. Wisdom implies that we understand that life is made up of mental formations, no-self (more clarifications later), […]

The Heart Sutra – Thich Nhat Hanh “Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha.” This ultimate mantra is one of the most important in Buddhism. Thich Nhat Hanh’s new translation of The Heart Sutra offers a great deal of enlightened, sometimes more advanced, information and process. Avalokitesvara and other great Bodhisattvas present important views of this […]

Tips on Practice During These Troubling Times Some people are religious, and I am sure turn to those sources for support and hope. Others are spiritual, and I hope also pursue those sources for emotional stability and closeness to the “their” divine. Other people may  be Agnostic or Atheist; I am certain such people also […]

Contemplative Practices – Affirmative Self-Inquiry Contemplation and affirmative self-inquiry may be helpful in improving your awareness of your better parts of self – your positive strengths and traits.  Our self-critical mind often causes us to spend far too much time on critical, negative thinking about ourselves and about others.  The practice below may be helpful […]

Mindful Observation  Through Mindful Breathing The following guided meditation is a combination meditation from Asanga’s Grounds of Hearers, Jam-Yang-Shay-Pa’s concentration meditation on the breath, and the Anapanasati Sutta. These guided meditation instructions have been simplified and combined for contemporary use by lay meditators. Observation of Observation – Mindfulness in Breathing Contemplate breathing in and out with complete […]

Personal Happiness in the Age of COVID-19 We are all in this together!  However, wealth and employment status do play important roles. RTI International and the Consortium for Implementation Science have serious concerns about the links between racial equity, social justice, and personal responses to COVID-19. Neuroscience notes that personal happiness in a brain-mind-body thing. Its […]

Winnicott’s Ideas – Best Possible Clinical Alliance To develop and maintain a strong clinical alliance it is best to follow some of the well-known clinical advice on this topic.  Rogers, Kohut, Winnicott and many others have suggested just how to do so.  Here are some general clinical recommendations for enhancing the clinical alliance. Develop authentic […]

What The Buddha Taught About Metta In the Metta Sutta (Anguttara Nikaya, 11:16) The Buddha said that we should seek the following characteristics in how we live our lives: Wholesome goodness; Gentle speech; Human Humility; Personal contentment; Personal calmness; and, Pure-heartedness in all we think, say, and do. By living this way we would be […]

Mindfulness in the NFL Yes, mindfulness as part of sports psychology programming is being used in the NFL.  Yes, big and physically tough football players are being helped via a mindfulness component of sports psychology. There are some important roots here. Dogen, the famous ancient Japanese Buddhist meditation master, brought Chan Buddhism from China to […]

Today’s Troubled World Needs More Self Compassion and Compassion This is an interactive activity on contemplation between your executive brain, your conscious mind, and your emotional brain areas. Looking at the world today any aware person must admit the human race is in serious trouble.  This reality impacts the developing, industrial, and post-industrial cultures of […]

COVID-19 Brings Higher Stress and Emotion Dysregulation The Book of Job notes “Man is born unto troubles as the sparks fly upward.” Current stress surveys indicate Americans are stressed out due to COVID-19 concerns, work stress (money needs), imbalance in life-work experience, and lack of support (social, emotional, financial).  The 2020 American Psychological Association national survey […]

Loving Kindness – An Alternative Version The writings of Thich Nhat Hanh offer a different version of Loving Kindness Meditation or Metta (Pali). This version may be influenced by Buddhaghosa in Visuddhimagga (or The Path to Purification,  fifth century system of The Buddha’s teachings). The reality of no-self, or a static, permanent and inherent self is a core […]

More on Yoga Nidra Yoga nidra is sometimes called yoga sleep or yoga relaxation. It is a very powerful mindfulness technique that allows one to relax the body and limbic brain area, while holding mental control for deeper relaxation and projective practices without falling asleep. For some it may be like lucid dreaming, but a […]

Mindful Happiness Tags

BRAIN MINDFULNESS TRAINING MINDFUL TRAINING SELF COMPASSION MINDFUL HAPPINESS EXERCISES MINDFUL MEDITATION PRACTICES JOURNALING SELF SUFFERING ADDICTION PSYCHOTHERAPY TRAINING SELF ESTEEM ENLIGHTENMENT EMPTINESS MINDFUL MEDITATION CONSCIOUSNESS BUDDHISM VIPASSANA MEDITATION DR ANTHONY QUINTILIANI WALKING MEDITATION COVID-19 ANTHONY QUINTILIANI PRACTICE ACTIVITY SELF CARE MBSR CLINICAL SUPERVISION BREATHING COMPASSION THERAPY. VIPASSANA MEDITATION PRACTICE HAPPINESS ACTIVITIES THICH NHAT HANH TRAUMA SELF MEDICATION VERMONT ELEANOR R LIEBMAN CENTER MINDFULNESS WISE MIND

Mindful Categories

Mindful Happiness Pages

  • About
  • Contact
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Site Map

Copyright © 2022 · Mindful Happiness