Journal Your Way Into July
Emma Benyon is a Self Care and Motherhood Coach and Educator as well as a regular YOMU contributor and I love this piece she has written for you about journaling your way through life, because that sounds wonderful, right?
We know we need to make the time and space to reflect, be creative, pause and be present but how do we fit it in? Well, Emma is here with some ideas that will help you make it work for you. No right or wrong, just how you can use journalling for your wellbeing.
Over to you, Emma……
Though often when we hear people talk about journaling it can feel like something else you should be doing, something else to add to your never ending to do list.
It could even be something you might not have any idea how to start, or something you feel would take enormous amounts of time which you simply might not have and time away from other priorities too.
As someone who is a busy parent, juggling the school run, with running my own business and working as a full time educator I struggled to develop my own meaningful journaling practice. It was only when on coming across a journal with simple prompts that I began to really invite this practice in in a way which felt purposeful and easy for me.
It can often be a misconception about journaling that it has to include writing reams and reams each day or that it has to become a daily practice completely in written form. None of this is true, journaling can be what you make it. There is absolutely no set way to use this practice, it simply can be what you need it to be and that might change depending on the intention behind why you are doing the practice.
For example, you might wish to use journaling to write a gratitude list and/or set daily intentions, though you may also wish to journal each quarter and reflect on how each quarter has gone and what your goals, dreams or intentions are for the next quarter. Some people also like to dedicate time to a longer yearly reflection to invite in the next year too.
So how can you bring in a journaling practice that works for you, my advice would always be to keep it simple. You can always build on simple and add in the fancy bits later, if you choose to.
One way to bring journaling in simply is to start with one prompt each day. You might wish to use a notebook, notes on your phone or even voice note your thoughts to yourself.
A good prompt to start with is: ‘What do I want to invite in today?’
Or try one of these:
What do you want more of today/this week/this month?
What did I learnt from yesterday that I could use today?
What do you love most about your life?
What is one thing you want more of in your life?
What would your best friend say to you about …… ?
There is no right or wrong about what you should or shouldn’t write about, where you should start or how much you should write or what format it should take. Again that is completely up to you.
As you start to bring in these prompts you may find that you start to add in further prompts or you spend more time journaling. The more you can make that small space to be reflective the easier it becomes to build this in to a habit. Practices can take up to 21 days to really become a habit, though if you miss a day because life happens and you are only human, you can start again the next day.
So why not grab your notebook and a pen or your phone, get comfy and gift yourself just five minutes to give one of the prompts a go!
And if you want more support with how to deepen your journaling practice you can download my self paced ‘Getting Started with Journaling’ course over on my website.
Emma Benyon
Self Care and Motherhood Coach and Educator, Editor of Positive Wellbeing Zine for Mums & Host of Self Care and Motherhood Edit