Hii Marc,
I got the idea of keeping a journal from multiple sources. We have multiple meditation classes at our university. I personally dont take these courses, some of my friends do. All of these courses have requirements of keeping a journal, to track your progress, and think about whats going wrong. It also helps debug things. It seems to me that you shouldnt be focusing on improving your meditation practice during the meditation practice, because that causes more harm than good. But should be thinking and analyzing it after or before the practice.
I also do this in all areas of my life, and it has been immensely helpful.
10/20/2014
Almost fell asleep. I did this at the end of the night, which is not a good idea. Tried keeping a straight back, but I would sometimes fall over. It was relatively ok, definitely better than when I want trying to improve my posture.
10/21/2014
meditation was good. I came back to the breath multiple times. But I would drift off unconciously to something else. Most of it was ruminating about stuff I have done and havent done.
10/22/2014
Meditation was good, but not great. The last 8 minutes were good I think. I could sense when I had thoughts and return back to my breathing. I just have to keep doing that watch for thoughts and bring it back to the breath over and over again.
10/23/2014
Had a really intense period of focus when I stopped judging or trying to prevent myself to improve my meditation. I guess this was a thought I didn't notice before. I also did a full body apana, which lead to very focused concentration. Towards the end though, I started getting
10/24/2014
Meditation was very calming. I focused on my breath as a whole initially and got into a pretty deep state where I could see the random thoughts originate and stop them immediately. Then I decided to go and focus on my breath at the nose again. For some reason it didn't work out well. I think when I am focusing on the entire feeling of breath, my mind tends to be preoccupied with feeling the breath, so it doesn't get distracted that much. I had two periods, I think where I got lost in my train of thought. I slouched once. I got a bit more distracted and was just waiting for the bell to go off. I didn't catch that thought and I was a bit more distracted towards the end. Overall, I had maybe 10 minutes of deep meditation, the rest was light meditation.
10/25/2014
Ok meditation. Not as good as yesterday. Wasn't putting in the effort to bring my mind back to the breath. I knew what I was supposed to be doing, but couldn't implement.
10/26/2014
Good meditation. Back was straight, but I was distracted a bit. I was focused enough, that I didnt notice the bells. I dont know whether its a good thing or not, that I dont notice the bells. I have improved a lot since I stopped trying to force myself to improve and just focus on the breath.
10/27/2014
Chaotic in the beginning. Then I calmed down and had a very deep meditative state. I think this is happening mainly because I am no longer trying to improve. Just observe thoughts.