After a psychedelic experience, a notebook works best as a record of what you noticed today, not an explanation of the experience. Two or three lines are enough, and the three prompts below give you somewhere to start.
Journalling is often suggested after a psychedelic experience. It can quickly become another task you have not done. A long entry may feel manageable one morning and impossible the next.
The problem may be the job you have given the notebook. If every entry has to explain the experience and extract a lesson, opening it becomes hard work.
Give it a smaller job
Use it to record what happened today. Looking back later may show what repeated and what did not. You do not need to explain either one yet.
Two or three lines can be enough. You can stop there.
Three prompts to try
You don’t need all 3 every day. Pick whichever one has something in it.
- What did I notice today? A feeling, a reaction, a moment. There’s no need to explain it.
- Did the experience come to mind? Sometimes the answer will be obvious. Sometimes it will be no.
- Is there anything I want to try tomorrow? Keep it specific enough that you will know whether you did it.
Keep feeling and meaning on separate lines
A useful habit is to write what you felt on one line and what you think it means on another. “I felt calm in the meeting” is an observation. “So I’m finally over my anxiety at work” is an interpretation. It might be true, or it might be one good day. Keeping them apart stops a single day turning into a story you then feel you have to live up to. We explore the same idea in Big decisions can wait.
Read it back later
After a couple of weeks, read back over what you wrote. Repeated entries can give you something specific to consider. A single difficult or unusually good day may look different beside the days around it.
The regular check-ins in the Reweave programme serve a similar purpose. They let you compare your own reports over time. They do not produce a diagnosis or decide what the experience meant.
If writing isn’t your thing
Not everyone thinks in words. A sketch, a colour, a private voice note or a single word can record the day just as well.
If the openness has faded and the notebook feels pointless, pause it. Reflection is optional. A notebook does not need perfect attendance.