How Journaling Inspires Mindful Activism

One of the most momentous parts of life is realizing we can make waves in this world. No matter how old you are when you first understand your beneficial potential, it can feel like you’ve found a new lease on life. Whatever your calling is, you begin to realize that the world needs you in more ways than you could imagine. For self-care, open the pages of a journal to plan, execute, and reflect on your mindful activism.

What is Mindful Activism?

Mindful activists use big picture thinking. Be mindful of what it may be like to live in someone else’s shoes. Sometimes you choose a cause that is close to home because you want to elevate your family or your community. In this way you educate yourself; you empower yourself and you step into a leadership role, right in your own backyard.

Sometimes you challenge yourself and serve a purpose that has nothing to do with you. You see the inherent oneness of yourself and another, and then another, and another. You ask for education or for support and you empower yourself with the guidance of the ones you seek to serve. Mindful activists help to create a bridge between stakeholders and their goal.

To be a mindful activist, it is important to focus on self-care and learning about your own motivations and biases.

Journal prompts for starting your mindful activism:

1. What images come to mind when you think about activism? How do these inform your definition of activism?
2. What is the power of the individual activist? How about the community? What is the role of the leader? How are these things exemplified?

The Ultimate Activism

By now, you probably understand that this is not your average blog. I’m not able to tell you what journaling means to me, what mindfulness means. I can only ask you questions. I can only ask that you ask yourself questions. That’s the power. That is reflection. That’s the act of expanding intelligence.

The ultimate goal is to see a world with empowered people seeking their most basic right and most extraordinary power, the power to expand and grow. The ultimate activism is the kind that builds inside and pours forth molten courage over and in-between preconceptions and misery. When you are driven by compassion and love, your cause becomes your course. You can’t pick up a flaming gauntlet unless you’re on fire too.

Journal prompts to guide your mindful activism

• What do you burn to see?
• What do you love?
• Who do you care about?
• How do you show your love already?
• How would you like to?

Why Mindful Activism?

Some people may hear the word activist, and picture riots, dissent, anarchy and revolution. Activism is so much more than overthrowing power though. Anything thrown out can be picked up again. We want power that swells up from within and moves us to stand up for what is right, not just for ourselves but for the global community. Now and into the infinite future.

Journal about empowerment and what exactly that means.

Power is nothing if it does not come from the straight backs of enlightened citizens. It isn’t true if it can’t be held in the hands of children. Power is nothing if it doesn’t spread like wildfire, empowering every being in the known world and confirming within us, our inexhaustible powers of great benefit.

Mindful activism is about electricity, moving it from one dead-end way of doing things, into a neural network of possibility. Activism is as complex as we are. It exists in our everyday life, not in grand proclamations of purpose and pomp. How you spend the hours of your day is your legacy. If you are a provider, a nurturer, a labourer, a teacher, therein is the wealth of wisdom and ability. You don’t have to step outside of yourself to bring about positive change. In fact, you need to be more like yourself than ever before.

Who is your teacher? Why does it matter?

You are not the first generation to want change. Every generation brings change. That’s evolution. Your teacher is the one who paved your way, the one you must be mindful of. Your teacher is the one you look up to even if you are a founder of change. If you don’t think you have a teacher, think about the many beings you learn from every day.

Who makes you rethink everything you’ve ever known and then asks what you discovered?

Your teacher isn’t the one that hurt you. Not the one who makes you feel small. That’s not a teacher, that’s a poisoned apple on the very first day. There are schools of thought for every being. Every being gets a guru. No one is excluded. And guess what, sometimes your calling is to be a guru too. Aha. So, there are a few items that you need to reflect on in your journal.

Self-care journal prompts for mindful activism:

• What drives you and what thrills you? what gets you up in the morning?
• Is there anything about you that changes over time?
• What about you stays the same?
• What in your heart tells you that there is a way, somehow, some sweat-drenched day that you will be the change you always wanted to see?

Know Your Cause

We become mindful activists when we find our calling and we fly to it like an arrow nocked and loosed. Unfortunately, many causes fail because they lack one crucial understanding. Your cause does not exist in a vacuum. You are not only an island. Some people fight for civil rights, some for LGBTQ rights, some for workers’ rights, criminal rights, addicts’ rights, animal rights, environmental rights, but all fight for rights. Rights that are only put into law when the majority says so. We vote for each other’s rights because we know they exist.

More journal prompts for mindful activism:

• What happens when we stop being aggressive and start being active?
• When we are angry and distressed, who rallies around us?
• When we are kind, forgiving and humble, who recognizes what we really need?
• What happens if we take the lead without taking over everything?

If you want to know your true cause, the one that fuels your fire, look in your heart and ask what is there now that was not there when you needed it most? What do you have inside you to give? That’s what’s required. Use that power and set the world on fire. The most fundamental activism is also the most explosive, the opening of one’s heart to the world. As you journal to discover your calling, ask yourself these questions:

Journal prompts to help you discover your cause:

1. What are my core beliefs and values? Where in the world do I see these things exemplified? Where are they lacking?
2. What if I went over there and filled in the gaps?
3. What are my strengths? How do I build them? What are my gifts? How do I share them? What are my talents? Who can benefit from them?
4. What problem do I see a solution to? How can I implement change and who can help?
5. What positive change do I see in the world and what can I do to support that?

Step-by-Step Guide to Mindful Activism:

Use a journal to start exploring each one of the following steps:

1. Research all angles of the situation. Who is involved? What are the chief complaints? What are the grey areas and the desired outcomes, what’s at stake for ALL stakeholders?
2. Brainstorm solutions. Who are the stakeholders and who are the benefactors? What are they saying? Where do disagreements begin? What are the perceived barriers? Where does trust and communication breakdown and how can you keep things civil and compassionate?
3. Know your history. What has been tried in the past? What were the results? Can you use existing avenues to pursue new reaches? Or do you need to pave a whole new road?
4. Lead by Democracy. Who needs a spot at the table? Ask. What needs to be healed before progress can be made? Ask. What are the possibilities for compromise and collaboration? Ask.
5. Create an action plan. Who are your team leads? What are they offering? How can work be streamlined and egalitarian? How can the funds? Who is accountable? What is the timeline and what are your resources? How can you secure funds, tools, and labour for the future?
6. Follow through and Stay true. Reflect on the success of your action plan. What new obstacles arise and how are you handling them? Return to steps 4, 5, and 6, again and again.

Leadership in Action

You are a natural born leader. The things outside of your control do not control you. The recognition you require is not outside of yourself. The power you feel is yours.

Still, it is beneficial to have a teacher when pursuing mindful activism. You need someone to guide you, to hone your ambition—not diminish it—only refine it. You choose your teacher as much as they choose you. Who you follow is the one you aim to be.

All causes need a platform. Rather than competing for prime time television, we need a more inclusive model. Enter the internet. Enter the oracle. We are the content creators, we are the editors-in-chief. The internet is the journal we share with everyone. We tell stories online that could never be carried alone. The internet is not a game. It is a live wire, not a melting pot. The internet is not a place to steam, to boil, to spew. However, it is an incredibly fast way to communicate and to organize.

Mindful Activism Needs You

The world of mindful activism needs you. Your journal is not always your own and the influence you have is not an algorithm. It is a skipping stone. Look at the ripples and sparks. What does it feel like to go with the flow? How does it feel to know you’re not alone? How does it feel when you remember to stand up for someone even if they can stand on their own?

Every question you put to the test reveals your true nature. Visualize an open notebook. You are the change you want to see in the world and it is an honour to share this space with you. Please enjoy this extraordinary message from Sakena Yacoobi, a fearless teacher and reflect on her activism in your journal: