HOW TO START JOURNALING AND STICK WITH IT
Welcome back to The Dairy Free Diaries! I know it’s been a minute since I last posted on here, but I am going to go into that. For the past couple of weeks, I have been debating where I want this blog to progress towards.
Especially with the start of 2021, I wanted to make sure that I was giving you all content that was truly me. And with that being said, I want to share where I am at. I am going to be shifting my content to become more focused on health, wellness, and lifestyle while shifting away from limiting myself to just food sensitivities.
Of course, there will also be content relating to food sensitivities because it’s the life I am living in this moment. But I do want to stress that I will continue to provide recipes that are friendly to all ways of eating (vegan, gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian, etc.).
I am so excited for what’s to come for The Dairy Free Diaries and the direction I am taking it in. I also have been trying to figure out ways in which I can better interact with our little community and have decided to introduce a little segment.
I want to share my journey as this blog continues to grow. Before each Sunday blog post, I am going to do share how my week has gone and I would love to hear how everyone of your weeks have gone as well.
So, each week I am going to be sharing one word to describe how I am feeling, one high point from the week, and one low point from the week. I think it’s so important to have these mental check ins often because it allows us to be more aware of what’s happening and how we are feeling instead of going through the motions.
I want this blog to be a place of honesty and respect, where individuals can come together and grow to their fullest potential, which starts with being honest with others, but more importantly yourself.
Without further ado…
One word-Aware: During the month of December, I felt very unsure and often confused about many aspects of my life. And this feeling resulted in a backwards shift in many of the healthy habits I had adapted for so long.
I felt like I was back tracking all of the progress I made and couldn’t get out of this funk. This past week was the first time since that I have felt aware of where I want to be, how to get there, AND actually taking steps every day to attain it.
Low Point: On Monday I didn’t eat as on track and healthy as I usually do, and I started to get down on myself. I think this is such a common thing, especially for perfectionists. For 2021, I sat down and set goals for myself in areas such as fitness, health, finances, school, mental, etc.
And one of my health goals was to get back on track with eating the things that make me feel good. For the first week of the new year, I was killing it. But once that second week started, old bad habits started to creep back in.
And once that perfectionist side of me got wind that I wasn’t perfectly executing this goal of mine, I started to make myself feel bad, which I later learned completely unnecessary.
High Point: Realizing that there is no point in getting down on myself for one day of bad eating. One bad day is going to keep your from reaching your goals. And I had to remind myself of that very thing. It is one thing to tell someone or listen to those words, but a completely different thing to apply them to your life.
I have struggled with this ideal in the past and gladly was able to overcome it, although it still tends to come back, as it did this week. A year from now as I am reflecting on 2021, am I going to remember that one time where I didn’t eat as healthy as I had planned? Of course not! So, there is no point in getting down on myself for it.
I think this is such an important topic especially being that many people have goals and expectations for this year, which is awesome. But it is still good to remind yourself that one bad day won’t affect your entire year unless you let it.
Tomorrow is a new day so take advantage of it! And now back to this week’s blog post where I talk all about my love for journaling, how it had changed my life, and how to utilize it to drastically improve your life. Enjoy!
HOW JOURNALING CHANGED MY LIFE
Journaling has been such a critical part of my life for the past year. I first got into journaling because I felt so overwhelmed. I just had so many decisions to make such as what university to transfer to, what my career was going to be, etc.
And once the pandemic hit and social interactions were extremely limited, I started to really struggle, as many others did. And journaling really helped me to work through these issues.
I have used many different types of journaling based on what I needed during that period of time. When I was struggling to figure out what I wanted to do for a living, I would just write down everything that was going through my head when I thought about different career paths.
I would continue to do this until I had pages and pages of writing and at this point, I would objectively read over my thoughts. The act of writing and reading over allowed me to decipher between what was the truth and what were lies I told myself to justify my thoughts.
Fun fact, most of what we think is never true. And without journaling I wouldn’t have made the much-needed transition from becoming a doctor (the career I felt pressured to have) to a lawyer (the career I wanted).
When my anxiety and mental health started to decline because of the abruptness of quarantine and lack of social interactions, I used journaling to get the thoughts out of my head and onto paper. It lifted so much weight off of my shoulders to express my feelings.
When I wasn’t able to reach the unrealistic expectations, I had made for myself, I used journaling to challenge my thoughts. When I needed a reminder of the person I am and strive to be, I used positive affirmations.
When I started to take things for granted, I utilized a gratitude journal. Journaling is so special to my heart because it has helped me in ways, I couldn’t have every imagined. For me personally, it is extremely difficult for me to open up to the people around me.
It is something I am constantly working towards but has been such a struggle for me for practically my entire life. And since I didn’t feel like I could go to others with my problems and feelings, I kept them bottled in, which was a recipe for disaster. I couldn’t keep going like that and I found what I had needed and that was journaling.
Being able to get my feeling and thoughts out in a safe way for me was life changing. I was able to release my negative thoughts in a similar way to venting to another person.
And a lot of the time, something that I had agonized over and over in my head didn’t feel as overwhelming once I had written it down. When its just me, my journal, and pen, its my safe place where I can be honest with myself about how I feel and what’s going on with my life.
And that is something I wouldn’t trade for the world. Journaling has truly changed my life and is something I recommend everyone use whether you feel content with your life or the exact opposite.
REFLECTIVE VERSUS INTENTIONAL
It’s no secret that there are so many different ways to journal. I have gone through quite a few as I described above. All types or ways of journaling will always fall into two separate categories: reflective and intentional.
Reflective journaling is the most common way of journaling out of the two. You do exactly what it sounds like: reflect. It’s about reflecting on anything going on in your life, whether it be an event, relationship, period of time, etc.
The simplicity of this type of journaling is what makes it so special. It is something that anyone can do at any point in their life. And I want to make it clear that you don’t have to have these big, huge moments in your life in order to reflect.
You can reflect on anything you choose. It can be something as simple as an interaction you had with another person. The beauty is that even our most simple interactions can be the most telling about who we are and reflecting allows us to go back and ask questions.
Questions that would’ve easily been overlooked if we were going through the motions. But these questions provoke us to analyze what is present in our lives and to learn from them.
You are able to have a second opinion on whether or not, for example, you should’ve handled the situation differently or overreacted to a meaningless comment. I think it is so important to constantly be questioning your own behaviors and thoughts because it can be so insightful.
It can lead us to why we behave or think the way that we do, which is a steppingstone for being able to create the changes we desire.
Now onto intentional journaling. This is the less common category of journaling but has an immense amount of power in our everyday lives. Intentional journaling is an umbrella term for so many different ways to manifest your life in the way you choose.
It’s about writing down intentions for not just your year, but as big as the rest of your life. It’s about being intentional and writing down any and all goals on a consistent basis. And I’m not just talking about your goals for the year.
I’m talking about the person you want to be. It’s about telling yourself of all the ways you want to act, think, etc. This is most commonly done through writing out small statements called positive affirmations.
These are sentences that you write down and say to yourself every day, and by doing so you will soon start to attract those exact things into your life. I know a lot of people are weary of this, but please don’t knock it until you try it.
If we take a minute to think about how we have attained the beliefs that we have, you will learn that you get them from those around you. When we were growing up, we were constantly listening and absorbing information from those around us and that is exactly what shaped who we are at this point.
So, if the words and behaviors of others had such an influence on who we are right now, shouldn’t the words and behaviors of ourselves have a much larger impact? YES. The information that we hear has the ability to shape our beliefs and actions.
So why don’t we take control and make sure that the information we are hearing will benefit us. And this is where intentional journaling comes into play.
GETTING STARTED + STAYING CONSISTENT
So, I know I just hit you guys with a load of information and at this point you might be wondering where to go from here. And that’s exactly how I felt when I first got into journaling.
There are so many different types out there, it can be pretty hard to figure out where to start. But instead of stressing out over where to start, just pick a type and try it out. If you don’t like it after trying it out, then choose another one. And just keep going until you find something that sticks; that’s what I did.
So, when it comes to picking your first journaling exercise, I recommend starting off simple. When I was starting out, I decided I wanted to try out one type of reflective journaling and one type of intentional journaling.
For reflective journaling, I did the thing that seemed most basic to me. And that was to take 5-10 mins at the end of each day and not only writing down what happened, but also my thoughts about what happened. Whatever came to mind, I wrote down.
For intentional journaling, I started with writing down 5 positive affirmations every morning. And these positive affirmations were focused on how I wanted to think and act, as well as what I wanted to believe about myself and my future.
Overall, just go with what you think you’d like. It might look different from what I chose, but that’s alright. Its just about starting out. And honestly, odds are your first choice won’t be what you end up sticking with for a long time and sometimes it is.
Its just about finding what you like and what is most beneficial to your life. But you have to just take the jump without knowing.
So now onto how to stay consistent with it. I think many, including myself, would like to believe that it is going to be a piece of cake to take 5 mins out of our days to journal. After all, it’s only 5 mins, right? Well, I can attest that this is not the case.
Even something as simple as writing for a few minutes can be difficult to keep with. As with any goal or new habit, it can be really exciting in the beginning and you are just absolutely on track, but then the excitement wears off and other things get in the way.
As a result, that goal of yours stops taking priority in your life. I can guarantee that this has happened to everyone at least once, but most likely many times. I know I am guilty of falling into this cycle on more than one account.
So here are the things that have helped me to kick this cycle to the curb and stay consistent with my journaling. I think the thing that helped me the most was having a constant reminder that I committed to journaling. I would make sure to write it as a task in my planner, as well as write it on a post it note and stick it in my room.
The other thing is to assign a time or time of day. When journaling is just a note on your to do list, it gives the feeling that you can just push it until the next day if you’re busy. But when you set a time to journal that fits with your schedule, it becomes more of a priority in your life.
And my last tip is definitely the most important and the true thing that has helped me to stick to my journaling. It’s a phrase that is very common but has such a powerful message. Remember your “why”.
This is a great source of motivation because it taps into the person you want to be. You need to take an introspective look at yourself and figure out exactly why you are making this commitment to journaling. It might be to manifest your future life, or to work through past trauma.
No matter what your “why” is, you need to use it as a source of motivation to stick with your journaling. I like to do so by writing out my “why” on a piece of paper and hanging it on my wall to read whenever I feel like pushing off my journal.
And it truly does work. When I first started out journaling, I was struggling with a lot of areas in my life and wanted a safe place to figure out what I wanted to fix about my life.
My “why” was to manifest the person I wanted to be and the life I wanted to have. And this was my ultimate source of motivation. Every time I felt like pushing off journaling to the next day, I would remind myself my “why” and would immediately feel more inclined to journal.
This is simple, but extremely effective and can not just be applied to journaling, but to any goal you may have.
MY CURRENT JOURNALING ROUTINE
I hope by this point you guys have gotten a pretty good idea of the journaling style you would like to try out and are feeling motivated to stick with it. Now I am going to share the journaling style that benefits me the most at this point in my life.
But before I do so, I want to stress that your favorite journaling style can change from time to time. We are constantly evolving and growing and to be honest, life happens.
And life can be full of many ups and downs and even mediums, so it is important to remember that what you might need during your downs differs from what you need during your ups. And this is something to be aware of and open to.
My journal routine has changed over the year I have stayed consistent with it, but for the past couple of months I have been loving my current routine. I really enjoy starting off my days with positive affirmations or good reminders.
I find that if I start my day by writing down or speaking aloud my goals and aspirations, I feel ready to tackle my day. For the positive affirmations I do one of two things, depending on my mood. I will either just write down 10 positive affirmations that I can think of on the spot or I will refer to my master list.
My master list is on my phone and contains a lot of different positive affirmations that I have come up with over the year. Either way, I am reminding myself of the person I strive to be, the goals I want to reach, and the life I want to have, which is a step in the right direction.
Then, when I am winding down at night, I take a few mins to write down and reflect on what happened that day, how I felt, and why I felt that way. I am really taking this time to control how I react in different types of situations and reflective journaling really helps me with that.
And I do this on a daily basis so that on every Sunday I am able to look back at these journal entries and reflect on my week as a whole. And that take us into the next step of my journaling routine, which is what I call Sunday reflections.
So, in addition to reflecting on prior entries, I also like to answer some general journal prompts that help me to reflect even more and to figure out what I can do better the following week.
Here are some of the general prompts I like to use at the end of the week:
What did I struggle with this week?
What did I excel at this week?
What steps can I take next week to get closer to reaching my goals?
Where can I improve next week?
I absolutely love having this weekly check in because it allows me to focus on a bigger picture in a manageable way. And if you think my journal routine ends here, you better try again!
The final and newest part of my routine is much less structured than the previous ones, but still vital. For my morning and nighttime journaling, I just write it down in a plain, lined paper journal notebook. But, for the final part I use a specific type of journal.
It is the Anti-Anxiety Notebook by Therapy Notebooks. I discovered this book about a month ago because I wanted to find a better way to manage my stress and anxiety journal. And this journal has helped me out immensely.
Its very simple and allows me to challenge my negative thoughts that are causing me anxiety and stress. And 90% of the time, I end up realizing that what I was worrying about either is something I have no control over, something that doesn’t matter, or something that is not true.
It has helped me come to conclusions that I couldn’t have otherwise. And I really recommend it for anyone who is struggling with anxiety, stress, or worrying.
Once I realized how helpful this journal was, I committed to using it whenever I experienced negative thoughts or feelings that were causing me stress. And it has really helped me to be able to better sort through my thoughts and figure out what was lies I was telling myself and what was actually factual.
My journal routine as a whole has helped me to grow and come to many realizations. One of which being, starting this blog. Journaling truly helped me to figure out that starting this blog was something I truly wanted to do and now it has truly come full circle.
