How journalling helped me find my inner energy.

Can you imagine finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow? What might that feel like? Exciting? Full of abundance? Like unlocking a special future?

Rainbows appear when rain meets sunshine – which is a good metaphor for our emotions and feelings… and I’d love to show you why journaling is like the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

Harnessing our energies, and feeling abundance

If you are on a journey to self-discovery, one of your best wellness tools is a journal.

Because our emotions can drain the energy from us, we need ways to get this energy out of you, and journaling is one of them. If you just allowed yourself to write it all out - how you were feeling, what has made you feel this way, your ambitions, your dreams, and even what you would like to say to others - that energy will be released from you.

Unlocking our truths through journalling

I have always liked to write down my thoughts and have always had beautifully lined books on hand. I started a regular journaling practice in my teenage years, but I do admit to often feeling worried they would be found and read by others, so I only journalled sporadically.

Usually, I would write down how I was feeling, what I was achieving, my challenges, what I wanted to do and my dreams and visions for the future.

Then, in 2017, I went back and read these journals again! Yes, I had kept them for 11 years. As I flicked through them, I started to notice how my energy changed from week to week.

My journalling helped me to record the changes in mood, energy and even what I felt like doing.

There was an obvious pattern, but at this point I still had not connected it to my menstrual cycle or the moon cycle. I reflected on how this behaviour had been with me since high school. How one week I would be feeling good about myself and the next be involved in a lot of girl drama, often drama I had started.

But that special year 2017- the year where I finally understood why I was unstoppable one week and then struggling the next – and I have to give some thanks to a book called Open Wide by Melissa Ambrosini. All it took was to get to Chapter Two and EVERYTHING just fell into place for me.

By journalling regularly, and reflecting on what I read in that book, I was able to see how my period affects my energy and to what extent it affected me.

So, I shifted my journaling practice towards tracking my menstrual cycle and my energy cycle. I started to notice that one week I could lift heavy weights and the next I had to drop down a few kilograms. I noticed how some weeks I was happy to play on the floor with my children and other weeks I just wanted to lie on the couch!

The key thing here to note, is that I did not mentally bash myself, I did not feel guilty, I did not feel like I should be doing more when I knew I couldn’t.

How to journal

Now, are you wondering how to journal? What to do? Are there any rules?

The great news is that there are no rules!

Journalling is a way of creating a meaningful connection with OURSELVES.

Journalling is a way to track patterns in our life, in our emotions.

Journalling is a way of processing our thoughts and feelings.

In my book, She Energy, I have a whole chapter dedicated to journaling, and how you can start your very own journey into self-discovery. I share dozens of journaling prompts in that chapter that you can use in your practice.

Many people find that journalling works best either first thing in the morning or at the end of the day before bed. But it’s really up to you, if it’s more ad-hoc, or more regular.

I like to journal first thing in the morning, but I do find that I don’t feel like journaling in the morning during my Winter Week – rather I lay in bed and listen to a meditation recording or podcast. By journaling first thing in the morning, you can process any energy from your dreams, and release it so it you don’t carry it into the day.

Or you might like to start journaling at night before you go to bed. This is a great practice to get into as it provides you with an opportunity to process all your thoughts and the day’s events before you go to sleep. With all that energy processed, imagine the type of sleep you are going to have.

Journaling benefits

So, I think we are all agreed that journalling is a lovely practice. But I’d like to just list a few more benefits of journaling:

·        Managing anxiety

·        Reducing stress

·        Coping with depression

·        Journaling helps you to prioritise your problems & fears

·        Tracking your triggers and how to be aware

·        Journaling helps to identify negative thoughts and behaviours

·        Clarify your thoughts and feelings & get to know yourself better.

·        Journaling allows us to see our problems with more clarity & a new perspective on things that are happening daily in our life.

The practice of just dumping words without stopping is really therapeutic, so just start and don’t worry about what you are writing, or spelling and grammar… it might take 5 minutes or one hour.

Remember there are no rules – it’s your journal so it’s yours to create.

Not only does journalling build self-awareness, but it also helps you to figure out how to manage triggers from happening altogether.

Let’s find time to dream. Time or reflect. Let’s understand our power and our energies.

Are you looking for some prompts for your journalling? Maybe you’d like to learn how to get in touch with your energy? You can buy the book, She Energy here.