Memoir Journaling

While journaling is a way to keep in touch with your thoughts, reflections and inner self and is meant for private writing, Memoir Journaling, on the other hand, allows you to select images, events, and memories that reveal important things about yourselves and may not be exclusive to yourself.

To be honest, I don't know the exact use case of memoir journaling but I picked this up from a Skillshare class by Lana Blakely .

Let's understand the why before we go to the what and the how.

An example of journaling could be that you visited a beautiful tourist spot today. The same example in memoir journaling would be writing about how the place made you feel, the weather, the people, the sensations in your body and more. But why is this important? I have 2 reasons.

1. As Lana mentioned in the class, Memoir Journaling (hereby referred to as MJ) helps us in developing the art of storytelling. This is not just for writers because storytelling helps us at work, in relationships, and in living our life to the fullest.
2. Personally, this approach made me more self-aware- makes me pause and reflect, helps me relive my best moments in life, and lets me re-enjoy the little things we often tend to take for granted on an everyday basis.

So, what does MJ involve us doing?

I'm pretty sure there are many ways to do this but this is how I learnt it - pick moments from a day in your life, whether that’s today or a day in the past, and turn it into a story. For each moment that you pick for each day, focus on one of the five senses (sight, smell, feel, taste, hear).

A story can be as little as 2 sentences long or even 2 pages. The goal of this practice is to not just have fun while doing it but also recall, relive and re-enjoy the best moments of our lives while using just our senses.

How do we do this?

I'll share 3 such stories I have written and that will give you a glimpse into how you can go about it. Always mention the date and time and what you are currently doing while writing them (listening to the fan, listening to music, doing absolutely nothing etc).

Ratatouille (Sight) Nov 1, 2022, 1:17 AM

Listening to: The sound of my ceiling fan

It was the first week of December and working from home, we had just finished our morning meeting. It was tiring- marketing meetings are either tiring or exciting & tiring. I remember wanting to shut down my laptop, crawl into my bed and sleep like a baby but I decided against it.

The visual of my messy and clumsy workspace is something I still recall- food and beverages on one side, electronics and gadgets on the other and books spread all over. But little did I know that in a few moments, none of these would matter anymore.

We were called into a meeting to meet some new joiners & as I entered the meeting room with a dull and depressed face (because it was one more meeting ??), I began to scan the room and in a fraction of a second, everything around me stopped.

For a fraction of a second, it was almost a Dolce Far Niente moment where my eyes stopped dead in their tracks as they came across the most beautiful woman I’d seen in a while- the cuteness in her face, the innocence in her eyes, the warmth in her smile, the vibes coming out of the screen - made me speechless.

I could hear a film song in the background. I could sense fireworks going off in all directions. For a brief moment, the entire sequence felt like how Anton Ego felt when he took a bite of Ratatouille- just an explosion of senses (visual for me), a hit of nostalgia (familiarity) and a loss of words (speechless). It was indeed filmy, not gonna lie!

The interesting part was although a lot has happened in my head, all of it was only a second or two in reality.?

Looking back at this moment (literally), it always fills me up with a kid’s excitement when the kid’s favourite show plays on the TV or he hears the ice cream guy- pure and from the heart!

Petrichor (Smell) Nov 4, 2022, 8:36 AM

Listening to: Silence

2 weeks ago, I was playing cricket at a venue that never really favoured me- I failed to pick the line and length on that wicket and end up going for runs. And when I do bowl well, clouds start to applaud (in their own way, lol)!

I still remember the visuals that day- gloomy weather, energetic boys, a slightly wet outfield, dogs barking in the background and engines of vehicles roaring from the road. It seemed very chaotic yet so peaceful. I felt I belonged there, at that moment.

After an initial onslaught, I was brought in to bowl and boy, I did bowl well that day. Getting the bowl to swing both ways, cramping both the hitters for room, and not giving away any free runs- that spell brought us back into the game.

A few overs before the innings ends, I started to smell that dreaded smell every cricketer would not want to smell when on the field- petrichor (the smell that arises when raindrops hit the soil). And I immediately looked up to see rain droplets. The smell started to get intense and my thoughts started to wander off, losing focus from the match.?

Luckily, this didn’t last long as the clouds passed by. No luck whatsoever! A couple of hours later, while I was sitting in the dugout, an eerily familiar smell started to tingle my nose again. As I sniffed for confirmation, my mind went, “Oh God! Please no!” and as the petrichor intensified, yeah, you guessed it, so did the rain. And it poured!!?

I still recall sitting in the pavilion, smelling the petrichor with a confused smile on my face. Why? Because I wasn’t sure if I were to be happy smelling it (I love that smell) or if I should be sad that it stopped the game! Either way, I understood that the rain was not in my control so all I could do is just sit, observe and take it all in!

Vibrations! (Sound) Nov 1, 2022, 2:00 AM

Listening to: Deva Deva (Bollywood song)

I’ve been listening to this song for a while now. It became my staple audio; alarm tone, the song I listen to before heading out for practice or a match, when I’m in the metro or when I want to just feel energised after a long, tiring day. It just gets me in the right feels!

The song takes us through the protagonist’s relationship with fire, with the Divine, with Shiva, and with love. The soulful voice of Arijit Singh just makes this song that much more pleasant to the ears. I best enjoy this song with my earphones plugged in so I can feel and listen to every note, every drum beat, every guitar string being plucked, and every vibration that it produces in my body.

The song starts off with a melody when Arijit starts doing his magic with his voice and just like that, I’m in a trance. As the song progresses, and the beats start coming in, I start tapping my feet and oscillating (lol) my head quite often!

When the lyrics…

Om Deva Dev

Om Deva Deva

Namaha

Namaho Namah Om        

…hit, everything seems perfect. It’s almost as if divinity is entering my body, the hair on my arm stands up, the instruments in the background- the kick drum, the Stranger Things-esque music, the guitar strings make it feel as if I’m the protagonist and living this song. I could literally sense the vibrations the song produces in me.

Just as he compares himself and his love with the tune and rules of singing respectively, this song helps tune my emotions and thoughts. Right at the very end when the Deva Deva chorus starts to play after a beat drop, I can’t help but raise my hands and groove like a free spirit dancing with fire in my hands (not literally) that has long been repressed in my heart!

As the song ends, I can’t help but play it back again and experience the emotions one more time!

I observe and enjoy the little things in life. I don’t necessarily journal them but moments like the fresh smell from the pages of a new book, the bubbly movement of the like button on Spotify when I like a song, the warmth the blanket gives me just before I fade into my dreams, exchanging eye contact with that girl, smiling at a cute baby at the mall, my fingers feeling the red new ball at the top of my mark before I get set to run in and bowl, my brain freezing when I eat my favourite ice cream and much more live rent-free in my head!

Does this make me a better person than who I was previously?

A resounding yes. It helps me understand myself deeply by making me more self-aware and lets me just live in the moment and live the moment to the fullest. And to do that consciously and consistently, at a time when it's super easy to get distracted, makes me proud and grateful at the same time.

If this edition resonated with you, I hope you make it a practice to put ink on paper or pixels on screen and start your journey of MJ for a more fun and conscious living!

If you like what you read, do share this practice with your network. I am always open to feedback, learning, relearning and unlearning. Thank you for taking the time to read my Newsletter,?WideBallFreeHit - Be Confident in Being Different!