5 Stories We Tell Ourselves About Journaling

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Hi,

I'm Crystal Joukowsky,

And this is Breathe In,

Breathe Out,

A weekly mindfulness and meditation podcast for anyone ready to own their own shit and find a little peace while doing it.

Welcome back to Breathe In,

Breathe Out.

I'm Crystal Joukowsky,

And thanks for joining me today.

I want to talk about journaling this week.

It's just a great topic,

And a lot of us,

It can be this scary thing where just the word is overwhelming,

And it really doesn't have to be scary.

It doesn't have to be overwhelming.

Some people have this impression that it's supposed to be something huge,

And that impression can really reduce the draw to write anything at all,

And that blank page staring back at you is just going to stay that way.

Perhaps changing the mindset would help.

My husband hated the idea of saying,

I'm retired.

So we talked about it,

And we changed the name from retired to I'm graduating because retirement felt final and end of.

While graduation feels like the world is before you and you have so many options and opportunities that you can do,

And it's really exciting.

And with that,

His whole mindset changed and he was excited.

Now he's back to saying he's retired and he's okay and he's embraced it.

But in that moment,

He really needed to change the name.

So if there's anything else along these lines,

I encourage you to find that.

So instead of fighting against the overwhelming weight of the word journal,

Find another one that's inspiring and encouraging.

Seek one that evokes you,

Like evokes what you're aiming to do and encourages you to achieve your writing.

So maybe it's a reflection book,

Maybe it's a book of discovery,

Maybe it's just a dream writing book because you want to keep track of your dreams.

Maybe you call it surprise idea storage and it's just a place where you keep all of these inspirations because even writing goes down is technically journaling.

You can call it my scribe.

Maybe you decide that it's letters to an old friend.

When I was a kid,

I used to write to this mythical friend and that's what got me to write in my journal because it felt like I was talking to someone and not just writing to the great big void.

My scribe,

A blog,

A vlog,

A notebook.

I call mine musings.

Musings is more personal.

My musings are feelings in my heart and thoughts in my head.

A journal makes me worry someone will read it and yet that's exactly what people do with my musings.

Ironic,

Right?

Like I'm afraid people will read it and yet that is exactly what I'm doing.

It's backwards and yet I still have to call it musings because that makes me feel better.

In the past,

I have used writing to get to know myself better,

To process emotions and release pain.

I have used it to document little thoughts and ideas for safekeeping or experiences that I've had for safekeeping or just I need to keep this specific thing right here for whatever reason it is.

I write to remember.

Just recently when I've been doing my spring cleaning,

I can't tell you how many journals I have come across where I've started writing in them and not finished it.

And I go back and I read tidbits and I read unfinished thoughts.

They're exciting.

So then I transpose those into my laptop because then some of them become musings that you may read later and yet some of them you may never read.

They may never be published.

They are just for my own eyes.

Because of all the different reasons that I have journaled,

I encourage other people to journal.

Getting to know yourself,

Processing emotions,

Documentation,

Writing to remember.

So I encourage other people to journal in whatever form that takes.

Now it's different for everyone.

Some people it literally might be little voice memos here and there.

Others it's pen to paper.

Others it's typing on a computer document.

And some people actually might want a relic typewriter.

Long drawn out stories,

Bullet pointed lists,

Scribbles of nonsense to anyone but you.

I encourage people to find their flow like start right where you're at.

You don't have to do anything huge.

Nothing huge.

And yet just starting is fantastic.

So while we're on this topic,

I'd like to just chat about some of the myths and stories you've been telling yourself.

Number one,

I am not a writer.

And I say you absolutely do not have to be.

And congratulations.

In your world,

You get to throw away punctuation,

Spelling,

Grammar,

Writing in lines.

You get to throw out the window.

You get to go wherever you want on that page.

None of it matters.

You're the only one you have to report to.

Let it go and just see where it goes.

Another one is I don't have time to journal.

And this one is a big one.

I personally believe that people that say I don't have time,

They're just saying it's not that important right now.

How many of us have started out a daily journey in practice only to give it up on day three?

It may not be important right now.

And yet I hope that this comes into your mind the next time that you're feeling just intense emotion and don't know what to do with it.

Write it out.

Even if it's just in huge block letters.

I am angry.

Get it out.

Guess what?

Those three words you just journaled.

It doesn't mean that you have to keep it forever,

But you got it out of your heart.

You got it out of your body and were able to express this is what's going on.

And maybe after you do that,

You crinkle it up and you throw it as hard as you can.

Or maybe you decide that you're going to burn it.

It doesn't matter.

You just scribed a little bit to heal and release.

It's a beautiful thing.

Start small.

One sentence,

One word.

I don't have time to journal.

Yes,

You do.

It doesn't have to be big.

What emotion are you experiencing today?

And maybe you just start writing down.

These are my emotions today.

I was groggy when I woke up and then I was satisfied after I ate breakfast and had my chai and then I was a little irritated at thwarted intentions in the middle of the day.

And then I had lunch and like,

What are your emotions?

What are you experiencing?

Which feeds into what would I even write about?

Now I just said you could write about your emotions,

But you really get to write about whatever the heck you want to.

Would you rather write stream of consciousness?

Like whatever's on your mind.

You start with a blank page and maybe you just start doodling with hearts and flowers and I don't know,

Skulls and crossbones and whatnot.

And you just start doodling and the next thing you know,

You're just kind of writing.

What's there?

Don't worry about punctuation.

Don't worry about caps.

Just go for it.

Or maybe you need some prompts to get you started,

Which we have so many of them.

They're in almost every one of these podcasts.

They're in our newsletters.

They're on our Facebook and Instagram pages.

They're everywhere.

Just go find a journaling prompt and you don't have to get them from me.

They're all over.

You can pull it up on the internet.

Just grab some journaling prompts.

What would I write about?

The beauty of this is that it's not a one size fits all activity.

You make it your own.

Do you hear the mantra?

Make it your own.

Start each day with an intention.

What is your intention for today?

My intention for today is to record a podcast,

Drink a little chai tea and maybe write a little musing.

I mean,

You know,

I can handle that.

A big one that people tell themselves is what if someone reads it?

And this is a challenge and a fear we all face.

I faced it and now mine are on the internet.

I have multiple journals in the form of my phone,

My laptop,

Notebooks,

Legal pads all over the place.

Some of the stuff I keep password protected because I'm not finished processing my feelings in that arena and others,

I'm perfectly fine letting it lay around and letting somebody else read it and it really doesn't matter.

You got to find what works for you and perhaps you'll find that writing things down helps you find peace and expressing what's in your heart.

The last one I want to talk about is I can't write it down because then it's real and oh,

I get it.

Once it's in black and white,

You've got to deal with it.

It's not going away.

In the same aspect,

I've found that writing it down makes it less upsetting.

In releasing it to a page,

You have removed some of the power of that issue.

You reclaim it for yourself and maybe you find that things shift beautifully in your favor.

There's this magical thing that happens when you acknowledge and shed light into the darkness that's hanging out there.

It's like when you were a little kid and there was that boogeyman under the bed.

When you looked,

You shined a light there.

He was gone.

There was less likeliness that he was going to jump out and get you.

Writing it out,

Taking away its power and figuring out how you can process and move forward is huge and beautiful and it will heal your heart while you're getting it out.

Hey,

It might be real.

You can also throw that.

You can burn that.

You can rip it up into shreds and flush it down the toilet,

Whatever works for you to help you process and move through that.

The bottom line here is journaling,

Documenting,

Musing,

It's all form over function.

You get to do it however feels right for you.

So I encourage you to dive in,

Let it flow and see what new things you can discover about your amazing self.

I look forward to being together again next week here on Breathe In,

Breathe Out.

I hope this moment of self-care and healing brought you some hope and peace.

I'm Crystal Dikowski on Instagram,

Facebook and YouTube,

And I hope you check us out and follow along for more content coming soon.

I look forward to being with you again here on Breathe In,

Breathe Out.

Until next time,

Take care.