Spirituality (Traveler’s) Notebook Update

It’s been just about a year since first mentioning my Spirituality Notebook.  I have made a few small changes, which one of my readers asked me to go over.  You can read the background of this book in the linked post above, but to sum up the major details, the notebook I’m using for this purpose is a traveler’s notebook made by Ray Blake, and its purpose is to focus on things that I’m grateful for, things that I’m concerned about, and quotes that motivate me.  This notebook also houses projects and notes related to my church, as I am involved in a few committees there.  Having all things spiritual in once place is great.  Plus, I find that it’s a great use for this awesome book!

First, I have three sections in my (regular size) book.

Inside the front cover of the book, there is a small pocket, which I use to keep lined Post-its for random notes and a business card from the Goulet Pen Company.  The refill notebooks mentioned below were purchased from Goulet.  I love the design of their business cards, so I keet it in the notebook.

The first section is a Midori Quadrille notebook.  This section is where I keep notes from a church committee. 

We have a specific mission that we are working towards accomplishing.  This mission needs money in order to get started, get going, and to keep going.  Needless to say, there are a lot of fundraisers to help get us there.  So any notes from this committee and the fundraisers we do for it are kept here.

Any other notes for any other topic that comes up (say, our website, which I assist with) goes in this section, too, though on its own page.

I also have a Midori Quadrille notebook as the third section.

I keep notes in here as well, but this is for a different committee, one that is more confidential in terms of what we discuss, hence the need for a separate section.  Keeping this section at the back helps to keep it a little more private.

The back cover also has a pocket, though this one is more of the secretarial kind.

Here I keep important papers, as well as larger Post-it notes for additional detailed notes.

The middle/second notebook is where all of the magic happens!

For this, I use the Midori Diary notebooks.  This is where I write down a daily inspirational quote (to keep me motivated and grounded), any exercise or meditation I’ve done (to focus on feeling good and not so anxious), my gratitude list (to keep me mindful of all that I am blessed with), and my list of concerns (to get them out of my head and send them into the universe). 

Here is an example:

I try to do this daily.  However, if I have to run myself ragged to get it done, then it’s not serving its purpose.  So my goal is to do it daily, but if I don’t get to it, I will skip that day’s page and move on to the next.

The gratitude list and concerns list are just three bullet points per day, though I will add more if I feel I need to.  I find that for the most part, three is a good number.  And a bulleted item allows me to keep it short and sweet.  If I feel the need to expand and write a further explanation for my item, that’s what my journal is for.

The quotes I write down are quotes that I gather while I’m on Facebook, reading articles, or surfing the web.  Any time I come across a quote I like, I will take a screenshot of it on my iPhone or iPad (the home button and the power button pressed at the same time for you Apple users).  I will then add the photo into my “Quotes” album on my phone.

When it comes time to write one down, I will scan my photos and see if one pertains to what I’m feeling that day or to something that may have happened.  If nothing specific comes to mind, I will copy the first quote on the list.

I can then open the photo and copy the quote into my notebook.

Once I’m done with the photo, I delete it from my phone.

Capturing quotes in this way helps me to keep them organized, have easy access to them, and easily allows me to delete them when I am done with them.  Currently, I have 34 quotes waiting for me to add to my notebook.

In my original setup, I did keep sermon notes and scriptures that struck a chord with me.  I still do that, though not in the formal way I used to.  I used to come home from church and sit down for about an hour, writing down everything I had made a note of, but it was very time consuming, eating at my precious Sunday afternoon hours, which is when everything else needs to get done, too.  I found I was taking notes just to have something to add to my book and not really putting down things that I wanted to focus on.  So now, if I come across an idea or scripture that really resonates with me, I will add that to my notebook for the day’s page.  But it’s not something that I have to do.  This helps to ease the pressure I put on myself to fill my notebook.

That’s pretty much it!

My Spirituality Notebook isn’t anything fancy, just something that keeps all of my inspiration together in one place.  The exercise notation does overlap with my daily planner, but that’s okay.  I look at my planner more for keeping track of my exercise, but keeping track of it here, too, allows me to see if doing or not doing exercise and/or meditation impacts my thoughts for a particular day.

So there you have it!

Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy Spring!

**Note: I am in no way affiliated with or getting kickbacks from any of the products or companies mentioned above.  All opinions are my own.