Spiritual Prayer Journal

Adapted from SeaShellies’ post here, with her help!

My purpose in creating a spiritual prayer journal/binder isn’t to pray, but to create a daily ritual. Daily rituals can help to create stability and structure. Daily rituals can also serve to create a moment to take a breath and let things go. Both of these can lead to reducing anxiety levels. My mental health isn’t something I usually talk about, but it has gotten to the point where it affects my daily life. And I am going to do something about it.
By creating a spiritual prayer journal/binder for myself, I am furthering to reduce my anxiety and to create a moment for reflection each day.

My Layout:
-This is in progress and likely to change or be added to.

• Calendar
• The Five Reiki Ideals/Principles
• Meditations – I am going to do a meditation daily and add my favorites to the binder.
• Dear Universe – Where I receive guidance on life
• Prayer – For Prayers to the Universe (or deities, or ancestors, or the void)
• Be Grateful – Record daily “grateful fors”
• Course Reflections – For reflection on random lessons from A Course in Miracles

My Materials:
-Pretty much everything I got from Target, Michaels, or my own collection.

• 1 Binder
• Two sets of five dividers from Target’s dollar section
• Washi Tape from various sources
• Die cuts from Michaels
• Sticky notes from various places
• Colored card stock from Michaels
• Loose-leaf lined paper
• Markers, pens, and other writing utensils
• A calendar
• Double sided tape (because sometimes washi tape and sticky notes need a little help)
• Glue Stick
• Scissors
• Three-hole punch
• A small cutting board

The first time using the binder felt a bit clunky. Let me explain first about the organization of the content. Each section (Meditation, Dear Universe, etc.) is behind it’s own tab and many of the sections have loose leaf paper in them so that I can write my reflection or gratitudes. Almost like mini diaries or journals. Due to this, using the binder felt like less streamlined. I was repeating the date at the top of each section.

By having it divided, I was making sure I hit each section but it wasn’t giving me the flow of a ritual. It felt more like homework. If it wasn’t working divided, then throw it all together! And that is what I did.

I made one page with a checklist of sorts. This worked so much better! I didn’t really like having to flip back to the page to see what I had next on the list, but I think that will decrease with time. Once I work it enough, I won’t need the reminder.

I imagine there will be more things that get added to this list as life moves on. It will be easy enough to replace or redo in the future. For now though, this fits well with my needs and my life.

Are you ready to take on the challenge yourself? Share your Spiritual Prayer Journal/Binder ideas in the comments below!