When You are at One: Journaling
“Healing is not happiness. Life means tearing the most exquisite things down only to mend them back stronger. It’s about seeing pain as a process of healing and failure as a part of success. It’s about understanding that the pillars of strong people were once the cracked bones of young children. It’s about accepting that you can’t control what breaks you, but you can control how you react to it.
Healing is not happiness; it is about completeness.
It’s being angry. It’s grieving. It’s disappointment. It’s feeling lost. It’s finding joy. It’s getting excited. It’s choosing to travel across the entire spectrum of human emotion and being okay with that.
Healing is what it means to be human.”
- excerpt from Tired of Being Tired, Sick of Being Sad by Azia To
Journaling is a form of mindfulness and such an accessible medium to tap into as part of a healing process. The practice of journaling is one of the most accessible and affordable self-therapy practices that is often forgotten.
I've journaled for over 13 years and it's been the ultimate game-changing practice in my self-care routine. I'm stressed less and my mental health has improved - and it only takes 2 minutes of my day!
Every journal entry starts with a list of three things I'm grateful for. I find it's the simplest exercise and is something I can do no matter how I feel. If you're just starting, I recommend focusing on showing up versus the quality of your writing. For example, writing one line a day sounds less daunting than a whole page. If you can show up once a day and write one line, this still counts as journaling!
It is about choosing to be present with your thoughts and writing without judgement.
It's normal to have days where you don't have the motivation to write and days where you have so many thoughts and could write for pages. If you are someone that is new to journaling, I suggest writing one line a day to practice consistency!
Many people find journaling an easy practice to help reduce overthinking. When they start to ruminate, overthink or have a negative thought pattern, they take their journal and write whatever is on their mind. Sometimes, people write fast and messy just to get their thoughts on paper and end up with a few pages. This is okay!
I recommend reading back your entry after you write. Once you release your reactive emotions, you may be more calm and think about what you wrote with a clearer headspace.
As you can tell, there are many ways to journal! It can be as simple as 'How was your day today?' to 'What do people most misunderstand about me?'. You can make it profound and do some soul-searching or you can make it casual. It's such a versatile practice!
The time of day or night does not matter when it comes to journaling. Personally, I like to journal in the morning for a few reasons:
In the evening, I'm too tired to write and have lower energy levels so it's more difficult to concentrate. Whereas in the morning, I'm wide awake and fresh with lots of energy!
In the morning, I always start my entry with three things I'm grateful for. This grounds me and sets up my day to take on any tasks or challenges with a sense of appreciation.
Before you go off and start journaling, I want you to think about what type of experience you want when you journal?
Habits are easier to stick with when they are enjoyable! I like to journal outside in my backyard or have a cup of tea with me. If I journal in the evening, my scented candle is usually on along with some soft music.
Why do you think spas are a top self-care experience? The aromas, the music, the lighting - the whole experience is taken into account for! Your journaling setup should have the same amount of love!
This spring I launched my own 300-paged journal that has over 65 prompts from, 'What are you excited about today?' to 'What is currently expanding in your life? What is shrinking?'. But it also offers you the empty paper space to write when you just want to dump your thoughts.
The best thing? Journaling costs less than your groceries and it lasts you months to years. All you need is a notebook and pen, or if you want a notebook that has questions and prompts ready for you, buy a guided journal!
Tap here to support my small local business and get your copy and begin your journey!
https://www.aziamto.com/purchase-journal-here
- Azia To