Written by Happy Easter everyone! What an exciting and rejuvenating holiday. Spring has got to be my most loved season with all the new growth and optimism for the year.
Today I wanted to share with you a tool my counsellor has been encouraging me to do for years. Of course despite my strong will and unwillingness to create a new habit that wasn’t my own idea it took my about three years to implement it every day. But here we are and it’s been such a helpful tool for me. What is it you ask? It’s Journaling. Journaling has been around for centuries from diaries to even just documenting events. It is a great way to remember parts of your life. I have a journal about both my kids for them, it’s kind of like a love letter book that I started when they were both born. I look forward to giving it to them when they are older. I write in it occasionally.
When I started my journey to healing after loosing my dad,my counsellor had recommended I start journaling my feelings and memories as a way of processing it all. At the time I couldn’t see the benefit but I would entertain the idea on occasion. I always felt like I should know what I was supposed to be writing down and it felt like alot of pressure. On the flip side I felt like the activity was silly and childish (yes, I’m ashamed to admit it). I found a thousand reasons not to do it.
So why did I start doing it more regularly? For mindset training and honestly to vent my big emotions. I got such good practice at just showing up and writing down whatever I could it became something I enjoyed and found effective. When I started I would just focus on sitting down and opening my journal up. Sometimes I wrote nonsense. Then I started to dissect words that would come up. Explore limiting beliefs with word maps. One time I sat down and wrote out everything that made me feel a certain way like a list. I tried all the things. Here’s what I have learned:
- A journal doesn’t judge your worst and darkest thoughts.
- Getting unorganized thoughts and big feelings out of your head feels like a release.
- Writing out ideas around your thoughts and feelings even if untrue helps us understand them and find perspective.
- Journaling doesn’t have to take more than 5 minutes a day.
- Journaling about gratitude, what I want for my future and who I want to be before I go to sleep has monumentally changed my mindset when I wake up in the morning.
- Practicing detachment from my feelings and leaving them in my journal has helped me grow in ways I never knew were possible.
- Journaling can be a safe place for a person to have a conversation with their self.
Why do I share all of this here on my blog every week? Because I want you to enjoy your life. I want to share my journey of hardship and how it’s possible to still find joy. This isn’t about toxic positivity but rather about my journey of healing after hardship and giving you hope that you can heal too. Life is hard and we all go through really hard things. We need to spend time there before we can heal. We need rest and learning and space to grow. Shed our past and our pain and be able to see a life where we are happy again. We can all do it together no matter what the challenges are. I want you to feel confident in your choices and knowing your worth.
I love you guys and I believe in you,
Chantel.
Chantel Funk + Co. 