Introduction
In our screen-dominated lives, journaling on paper can seem like an archaic activity, but keep in mind that you can journal on your laptop or by doing voice-to-text on your phone, even if it’s only to capture a few quick thoughts. Meaning journaling doesn’t have to be long to be useful.
Okay, but what exactly is “meaning journaling?” Whereas people may use journaling or a diary to record events and reflect in a general way, meaning journaling challenges us to assess the meaningfulness we’re experiencing in our lives and then to actively engage in meaning-making.
The tagline for this Substack argues that meaning-making is “the most important thing we’re not bothering to do,” which is more accurately stated as “the most important thing we’re not bothering to do consciously.” Meaning journaling is one practice we can use to increase our consciousness of the meaning we’re slathering all over our daily experiences.
In this first post on meaning journaling, I present a simple meaning assessment using a journal template, which is included below and as an attached PDF.
This basic meaning assessment involves looking at the different areas and relationships in our lives and rating how meaningful these are feeling to us right now. This is obviously a subjective exercise and is meant as a gut check that can help us identify which areas of our lives are sources of emotionally significant meaning, and which areas might need some more attention.
A word of caution: How we feel about meaning in our lives can be highly influenced by how we’re feeling right now – or how we’re feeling at the time we do one of these meaning assessments. So I strongly encourage you to take this assessment a few times and in different moods (ideally once per week for several weeks). The goal is to increase awareness and curiosity, not to beat ourselves up. In other words, we’re going for, “Hmm, I wonder why I’m not feeling so much meaning in this area of my life?” rather than, “My life is meaningless!”
Also, as I’ve covered in earlier posts, meaning is social, and, in fact, I argue that it is mostly social. So if you notice that you’re not experiencing much meaning in some areas of your life, it’s important to consider that this is likely linked to our larger social meaning infrastructure – which, in many ways, is not supportive of emotionally satisfying meaning.
Take work as an example. Given our employment practices in most companies in the US, your boss can decide at any moment that he or she is not satisfied with your work and fire you on the spot. If you lose your job, you are likely to lose your health insurance and since many Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck, there isn’t much financial cushion to lean on while looking for a new job. All of this creates a background stress that makes it difficult to give attention to meaning-making at work.
Financial stress can also take a major toll on our ability to build thoughtful, satisfying meaning in our primary relationships. If you and your spouse or partner are under financial stress are you as likely to be as emotionally vulnerable with each other?
Another thing I would encourage you to look at carefully is whether you’re putting all your meaning eggs in one basket. Perhaps work or your kids are the center of your life and you don’t feel the need to give much attention to developing meaning in other areas. But what happens when you retire or your kids move out? Will you have meaning in other areas of your life that you can lean on?
When we reflect on the meaning in our lives, it is very important to remember both the social and personal dynamics at play, and to be forgiving of ourselves if we notice that there are multiple areas of our lives that don’t have as much deep meaning as we would like.
We can take some steps towards developing more meaning and a practice like journaling is one possible way forward. I invite you to try it!
Template Overview
The attached template has three simple parts, and the first two can be completed in just a few minutes:
Context: These 3 questions ask you to consider your general mood and what’s happening in your life as you take the assessment.
Questionnaire (check boxes): The second page has the questionnaire which allows you to rate the meaningfulness of different areas of your life on a 1-10 scale. I encourage you to go with your gut and mark down the number that first comes to mind.
Journal Prompts: Beginning on the third page, you can choose to journal based on the prompts I’ve provided, or on whatever topic you prefer. The intent is to gently reflect on what you see in the results of your questionnaire.
To create a fuller view of the meaning in your life, I recommend that you do the assessment at least three times and, ideally, in different emotional states.
Options for using the template: You can implement the template in a number of ways. First, if you already have a handwritten journal that you use, you can respond to the prompts and pick out just a few items on the questionnaire to respond to. Second, you can copy and paste the contents of the assessment below into a document format of your choice (e.g., Word) and use it that way. Third, you can print out the PDF and take the assessment that way. As a fourth option, I’ve been using an e-reader (Onyx Boox) that has a stylus pen. This allows me to load the PDF template into the device and then use my stylus to fill it out:
If you have any questions about using the template, please feel free to post them in the comments section below this post.
Template
Meaning Journaling 1: Meaning Assessment
Introduction: The purpose of this non-scientific assessment is to help you get an overall picture of your meaning satisfaction in life, and in particular areas of your life. By doing this, you may discover areas of your life that you want to reflect on, either because they have really solid meaning or because they are lacking in meaning. This assessment is only for your own journaling (unless you choose to share it with others).
Instructions: A) Complete the pre-assessment questions, B) Rate your meaning satisfaction in the indicated areas of your life by putting an “x” in the appropriate box. If any items are not applicable, just skip them. Add other items as needed in blank spaces. C) Journal using the prompts included below the assessment, or on any topic of your choosing.
Important: Keep in mind that this is a subjective assessment and your ratings can change over time and depending on your emotional state. To create a “baseline” it is recommended that you do the assessment at least three times on different days and, ideally, in different emotional states.
Name:
Date:
*Before taking the assessment:
1. My general emotional state at the time of this assessment: 😑☹️😢😠😌😀😁
2. Any major things happening in my life right now:
3. My overall level of meaning satisfaction in my life, on a scale of 1-10 (10 = Highest): ___
Meaning Assessment:
Journaling Prompts
Check any that you plan to address in your journal entry:
_How I feel after taking this assessment
_What surprised me most about my results
_The area of life where I have the most meaning and why
_The area of life where I have the least meaning and why
_The area I want to focus on right now and why
_What has changed since my prior assessment(s)
Journal Entry Space