Earlier this week, I held a self care journaling workshop and invited folks to share their experiences with wellness journaling. One thing that came up a lot was that the desire to do self care journaling regularly is there, but, "it's a struggle."
Yes, it can be a struggle. Building and keeping new habits takes time and work. It's not easy.
My aspiration is to journal in my custom wellness journal daily and in my astrology journal weekly. Am I at 100% with this? Nope.
One thing I've started to observe in myself is, I'll go through times when I'm holding a weight in my heart. I feel down or stressed or too tired. I see my journal lying there. Its bright colors call to me. It chimes, "Journal in me! You know you want to!" I look at it, and sigh, "Yeah, but I don't have it in me today."
A few days pass where this happens. But, I've found that, eventually, without forcing it, I'll get to a point where I do feel ready. I feel ready to open up my custom wellness journal, and let the feelings and thoughts out in my custom wellness journal.
Allowing myself those days where I'm just not feeling it, even though I know "it would be good for me," has helped me keep up my self care journaling over the long run. When I'm finally ready to do some self care journaling, it comes more naturally. It's coming from a place of desire - I want to journal in that moment when I see my custom wellness journal - not from a place of obligation. I've been able to maintain self care journaling at least a few times a week over the past few years, and it has been transformational.
There are some things for our health we really need to do everyday, like brush our teeth. For self care journaling, though, would it be "good for me" to journal literally everyday? Yes. But, trying to force that perfection makes it harder. Allowing myself slack to not be at 100% has been freeing. It has helped me journal consistently in my custom wellness journal over the long run.
So, if you feel pressure or even fear at the idea of self care journaling "daily," let it go. Gift yourself some slack. Give yourself permission to be up and down. Journal not out of obligation but from the heart, for your heart.
Keeping up journaling with some slack
Posted by Alina Liao on