Field Guide to
What Really Matters:
Your Field Journal

Why Keep a Field Journal

This resource page will explore why you may want to keep a Field Journal as a place to record your experiences on the 7 Paths of Wisdom. In fact you may want to continue this practice in the future.

Journaling about your interactions with nature can help you feel connected to the natural world around you, which is essential in today's environment where we are continually distracted by screens and technology.

You will sharpen your observation skills and improve mindfulness even if you journal for just 5 minutes each session.

On this page you'll also learn some tips for keeping a journal and making it meaningful to you.

Helpful Resource if you
want to dive deeper:

Keeping a Nature Journal:
Deepen Your Connection with the Natural World All Around You
by
Clare Walker Leslie

Getting Started

It's important to make your Field Journal your own special place for recording observations that matter to you. The details of your journal are up to you so choose whatever supplies you like that feel pleasing to you.

Select a notebook to use. It can have ruled or blank pages and be any size that works for you. I carry mine in a small bag so I've chosen a smaller size - 5X8 inches. But you might like a larger one.
Decide what type of pen or pencil you like to write with. And consider getting a set of colored pencils as well. It's nice to add some color to your drawings.
Other items you may find helpful are a small bag or backpack, binoculars, water colors, a technical drawing pen, eraser, clip to help secure pages in the wind, a water bottle.

The Basics

A field journal is not only a record of nature but a place where you reflect on the changes that are happening within you. It doesn't have to be beautiful or perfect--just meaningful for you. A field journal can be kept from a balcony or window; you don't have to travel far to find the nature that is all around you.

You may want to visit one place over and over again and record the changes you see there each time. Or carry your journal with you to many different places.
Include whatever you like in your journal: maps, poems, postcards, stickers, drawings, questions, memories, leaves, pressed flowers, song lyrics. You are creating this notebook just for you so let it reflect who you are.
You don't need to know the names of plants or animals you encounter - just describe them and look them up later.
Have the courage to draw badly! Illustrations will deepen your entries and add to the meaning. See the book by Clare Walker Leslie linked to above for excellent tips on how to draw and sketch in your journal.

Setting Up Your Page

Here is a simple way to begin each entry and help you get started. But don't hesitate to change this and make it your own!

Date and place
Weather and conditions
What I notice outside me
What I notice inside me
What I wonder
Add sensory details about sounds, textures, smells, movement, changes you notice, tiny things you might have missed if not for your attentiveness.
Close with: Today I am grateful I noticed ...