Happy Friday readers! 🙂 Today’s post is dedicated to journaling — why I started, how it is changing my life, and how to get started if journaling is something that you want to begin doing. Let’s jump right in! 🙂

Although I used to write a lot in high school, I stopped writing regularly around 2011. By that point, my life was much less stressful than it had been in recent years. I was no longer dealing with the stress of school or as consumed with grief – both of which had inspired a lot of poetry years earlier.

It wasn’t until I decided to start this blog in 2017 that I began writing again. My daughter had been born, and I knew I wanted to write out my birth story and maybe start blogging about motherhood. Around the time I started my blog I had also started seeing a therapist for a while regarding PTSD related to Julia’s birth. We weren’t a good fit and I didn’t continue seeing her but she gave me one piece of invaluable advice: journal every day.

I didn’t take her advice immediately. It took me well over two years before I would do the whole “journal every day” thing. But I did start journaling occasionally. Even though writing out my feelings felt uncomfortable at times, it also helped. When I took the time to write about what was bothering me it felt like I was taking a bit of the stress off my shoulders simply by getting it onto paper.

It wasn’t until the summer of 2019 when I found two Instagram accounts that really inspired me to start getting serious about journaling again.

Firstly, I found The Holistic Psychologist, also known as Dr. Nicole LePera. She is known for her teaching people how to become self healers. Her work explores a variety of topics ranging from healing your inner child, to  “Future Self Journaling”  — the latter of which I decided to implement in my life (I also succeeded in getting my husband to try it!).
Put simply, Future Self Journaling is a way to help you manifest your goals. There is a simple set of steps you follow and commit to. I saw a change in my general mindset almost immediately once I started doing daily Future Self Journaling. When I fully accomplish my first Future Self Journaling goal I think I will write a post all about it here 🙂

The other Instagrammer who inspired me is @inspiredtowrite. Her name is Amie McNee and she is a writer and creativity coach who also runs the podcast Unpublished. I began following Amie for her insightful bits of writing inspiration that are posted to her feed. I also fell in love with her daily Instagram stories showing her morning journaling. Seeing someone so committed to the task of daily journaling made me really want to try it. Therefore, I set aside my excuses and started implementing journaling in my daily routine. I try to do it in the morning during breakfast before I’ve looked at my phone.

Amie shared in one of her podcasts that at first, she often struggled to daily journal because she didn’t always feel like she knew what to write. But still, she wrote. Even if it was mundane fact listing. I did the same. And yes, some days I struggle to write anything but  I force myself to write one page. When I’m really stuck I try to fill an entire page with a list of what I am grateful for, or a list of affirmations. On other days I have no problem writing and words flow right out and before I know it I’ve journaled 5 pages!

At the end of the day, journaling has helped me to get my feelings out on the paper to work through them and to make my thinking process more clear. Daily journaling has helped me to feel more in tune with myself by forcing me to carve out a spot of time each day where I can disconnect from all outside forces and tune into what’s on my heart. The process is incredibly grounding.

Journaling can be a wonderful, and constructive habit to have and I really encourage you to try it! Even if you don’t know what to say at first. Give it a chance and see what comes out of you. Pay attention to how it feels and maybe you’ll end up finding a new outlet that you never knew you needed ❤