How I Use My Journal & Your FREE Download!
Journaling, Today's Top 3 & Morning Pages [] I Found Myself Through Writing! My Self-Help Journal! (youtube.com)
(Your FREE Journal Prompts Download is below)
When I was at school I used to keep a diary, I wasn't very consistent with it and often would forget to write in it for weeks at a time. However, I felt a sense of safety in my diary, this was my place to write whatever was weighing on my heart, whatever I was excited about, whatever I wanted!
For the longest time I didn't keep a diary at all and these were probably some of the darkest days of my life... I kept everything in my head and never took pen to paper to express how I felt, so it stayed bottled up, for YEARS!
Last year, I started a course called Bond7, a truly inspirational course to build Women's Confidence! It's hosted by a company called UPFRONT, Who are on a mission to change confidence! During the course I was tasked with keeping a journal, for all the notes I took from the modules and my thoughts and feelings about the topics and anything else that came up as I was working through the course.
After about 3 weeks of doing this, I started to notice that the more I was writing things down, the lighter my shoulders felt. So I continued to see what would happen.
Fast forward a few months, and I had started to find Journal Prompts that would help me to dive in to areas that I hadn't considered asking myself before, things like: -
What does confidence look like to me?
How can I be more authentically me?
What can I do that will help me be more visible in my work life and home life?
What can I do today that will help me achieve my goals?
Will I need any help to reach my goals?
Is there anything in my life I need to change? If so, how will I change it?
These are just a few of the questions I asked myself in my Bond7 Journal, and so I continued the journaling because it was starting to make more sense to me why people use this tool. I had a focus, I had good questions to keep my mind focussed on what I want to get out of life.
It was like a breathe of fresh air when I realised how much clearer my mind was and that when my mind is a million miles an hour, it wasn't focussing on the negatives as much and it was running purely on positive things and how I can improve and do better.
It completely changed my mindset, and now I will only forget to do it, if I have a serious busy day, otherwise every morning I will sit for 30 mins with my pooch, a hot cuppa and my journal. I will write today's 'Top 3' (anything that I'm grateful for, happy about, excited about; essentially anything that's a real positive for today!) and then I will write a few pages of whatever is in my brain at the time.
I try to use this time to be creative and think about things from different perspectives, so whatever thing it is I want to write about, I will write it out as I see it at the moment. I will then start to see the holes in what I'm hung up on and write about that, so that I can tie everything up and lead it on a positive path. I actively look for the positives and draw more focus to that, however I do still need to write about the negatives in order to see the positives that come with it, so that's usually where I will start, if it's not a negative it will be something I'm confused about or something I keep thinking about or obsessing over.
I started 2024 with this Journaling Routine that has been developed over the 8 months I have been journaling for. It honestly has changed my perception of myself, the world around me and how I deal with problems and successes. I feel in control of my emotions and It's all because I have a safe space and an outlet for my pent up, revolving thoughts, once they're in my Journal, they no longer effect me. I live them in my Journal for Future Jaimie-Leigh to reflect on.
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