# life/training journal



## DangerMouse (Oct 17, 2017)

I started training MMA and kickboxing around 4 months ago to help with my anxiety depression and to get myself into fit shape. normal gyms just bored me since picking up martial arts my mood has increased dramatically. I'm hooked!! love the sport and reading about different cultures etc. 

My question is, do people keep a training and or life journal to keep track of their progress be it in training and or day to day life. I've been toying with the idea and I've bought myself 3 notepads one for training one for logging my food and finally the third being for my spiritual side for my meditation logging. I meditate daily on a morning (when i can) before training i get a quick 10 mins in the back room at the gym and bed on a night time. struggling with a way to get it down on paper in the sense of a structure. 

anyone do this and can help with a structure?


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## Gerry Seymour (Oct 17, 2017)

A lot of folks (in all areas) find value in journaling. It's a common practice among CEO's, and most executive coaches I know encourage it. I find value in it, but don't maintain it on a consistent basis (a personality trait). Some of the benefits of journaling:

Writing things down helps you process them, so you get more out of experiences.
Writing often helps commit to memory (the physical act of writing - there is less evidence of this with typed journaling).
The practice, itself, is building a disciplined approach.
If you want to find out why you got the results you did, you can read back over what you were doing at the time.
If you include your thoughts and emotions in the entries, you'll be able to analyze your own reactions to things (this can be useful in your food journal, for instance, to see if you vary your diet discipline by mood).
You can look back over your past practices to look for patterns, or for things you've forgotten and want to go back to.
When you go back years later, some of it will be quite amusing!


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## AngryHobbit (Dec 22, 2017)

DangerMouse said:


> I started training MMA and kickboxing around 4 months ago to help with my anxiety depression and to get myself into fit shape. normal gyms just bored me since picking up martial arts my mood has increased dramatically. I'm hooked!! love the sport and reading about different cultures etc.
> 
> My question is, do people keep a training and or life journal to keep track of their progress be it in training and or day to day life. I've been toying with the idea and I've bought myself 3 notepads one for training one for logging my food and finally the third being for my spiritual side for my meditation logging. I meditate daily on a morning (when i can) before training i get a quick 10 mins in the back room at the gym and bed on a night time. struggling with a way to get it down on paper in the sense of a structure.
> 
> anyone do this and can help with a structure?


When it comes to documenting meditation, I find it more beneficial to record the thoughts I came up with while meditating - rather than the fact of meditation itself or how I arrived at the meditative state. The beautiful part about meditation is there is no right or wrong way to do it - it's a cliche, but it's true. Sometimes, I have nothing to write down afterward. Not a problem - a good, empty-minded meditation, when nothing floats up to the surface, is beneficial in its own way. Sometimes, I might have pages. Sometimes, what I have to say afterward is bursting to be shared with others, sometimes I keep it to myself, and sometimes I set it aside for further consideration.

If you like the idea of recording what bubbles up in your mind while meditating but you still want to have a structured approach, perhaps split up your meditation book into segments: ideas to research, discussion topics - martial arts, discussion topics - life in general, etc. You can make it as high-level or as granular as you want, setting up your segments by time (to be addressed now, soon, or further in the future), by subject matter, or by some other factor you find helpful and logical.


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## wingchun100 (Apr 30, 2018)

I write down what I practiced for the day in one journal and what I eat in another. Any thoughts I have go into that first journal, whether it is thoughts on how to defend against something, or maybe an observation on life.


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## LastGasp (Aug 29, 2018)

Another thread that makes me feel I am in the right place 

I've thought about keeping a journal on a number of occasions in the past, but just never got around to it.
Now, coming back to fitness training and a new interest in MA, I am finding it useful/cathartic/interesting to do so.
Any thoughts I want to examine, comments on experience (largely to do with health and MA at the moment, but not restricted to), what I'm reading; and daily I list what was my diet for the day. I separately record what training I have done each day too.


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