How Journaling Transformed My Mornings

Create Yourself - Practical Activities for Self-discovery, Transformation and change.

OMG, we are nearly halfway through the year. How the blumers did that happen! Blink and it will be Christmas.

In today’s episode, I’m sharing my new journaling practice with you. If you've never tried journaling, it can feel daunting, and you might wonder where to start. Don’t worry; I’ve got you covered.

I’ve been journaling since I was about 12, although I used to call it keeping a diary back in the day. I really should dig out some of my old diaries and share a little of what I wrote. I dare say it will be seriously cringe-worthy. But that’s the beauty of keeping a journal—it’s for your eyes only. You can write whatever you like. When I write, I don’t give a damn about spelling, grammar, or punctuation, and sometimes it’s hard to read it back because my handwriting is so scruffy.

I go through ebbs and flows with journaling. For years, I religiously wrote Morning Pages (check out Julia Cameron's book *The Artist’s Way* to find out more). Recently, my journaling practice had started to dry up a bit, and that’s a bit rubbish when you’ve started delivering journaling workshops! It was a struggle to fit journaling in, what with yoga, a dog to walk, and a nine-year-old to get to school.

Then I had a brainwave.

What if I put my journal under my bed and let it be the first thing I do as soon as I open my eyes? This is the time when Zen (my son) and Luck (my dog) are still asleep, so it seems a perfect time, and it doesn’t involve me getting out of bed and waking anyone up.

So far, (yes, it is only day 4) it’s working a treat, and I seem to have got my journaling mojo back. Whoop whoop!

I’ve also introduced a new structure to my journaling sessions that surprisingly seems to have created more insight and personal reflection.

Here’s the format I’m using:

- What energized or excited you yesterday?

- What depleted or drained you yesterday?

- What did you learn yesterday?

I was a bit doubtful that this would work for me because, let’s face it, some days nothing much exciting happens. But actually, what I found was it helped me connect with those small moments in the day that were pleasurable and enjoyable. These questions got me thinking about the moments in the day where my mood lifted. The writing has ended up taking me off in directions that I would not normally write about, like past memories.

The truth is, though, you do not need to follow any format to journal. It is totally up to you what you write about. You can free-write on anything and everything—your thoughts, feelings, ideas, plans, to-do lists, a gratitude list, dreams, goals, or reflections on your day.

I would love it if you could take the time to give the podcast a review.

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