How do I begin my journaling sessions?

You asked, I went through years of journals and looked at exactly how I begin each entry and have typed them out for you.

Why substack?

Hello Friend, I am so grateful to get to write to you and have important conversations with you. I don’t take this relationship for granted; thank you for reading my words and for keeping me company.

I’ve decided to move my mailing list over to substack. I want to be able to interact with you, hear from you, and talk to you more easily, and my newsletter felt like it was too one-sided. Please, if you’d rather not interact with Substack, you’re welcome to unsubscribe from this list.

I want you to read my journal

I have been journaling every single day since April 18th 2018. That means that today’s entry was entry number 2260. My life has transformed in the last five years. I owe much of that change to this practice. So forgive me, if I do go on and on about it but it is truly one of my favourite things to write about. I wanted to share with you some of my own journal entries, reflect on what coming to the pages has done for me, and share with you some incites that might help you journal more effectively.

Too many people end their journaling session feeling stuck, depressed and TOO in their feelings. Others can’t get past diarising, just listing things they’ve done in the day, finding the practice pointless and shallow. Over the next few weeks, I want to look at how I developed a journaling practice that changed my life.

Let’s start at the start. The first line. It was fascinating as fuck looking at the way I start my journaling sessions. I’m going to unpack it at the end, but for now, have the first sentences of my most private practice. These excerpts are taken from 2020. You can infer the context.

29th May: Welcome new journal, thank you for holding space for me, unfortunately you have found me on a day where I am in a really shitty mood.

30th May: Again I have woken up in a bad mood.

31st May: I am still feeling really shook up.

1st June: WE are back at the cafe and I feel like a whole different person to the last time we were here.

2nd June: Yesterday I was totally overwhelmed and sad.

3rd June: woke up in another bad mood where for some reason I look at my day in despair, which makes zero sense because I love my little life.

4th June: It is another day that i get to live, that I get to enjoy.

5th June: Just been to the farmers market and I am eating a bagel and drinking coffee. There are rainbows on my page, poppyseeds sprinkled on the paper.

6th June: Yesterday I got on the phone with mama and just cried, and it was everything i needed.

7th June: Frodo woke me up early and I just feel exhausted and depressed.

8th June: I feel more aligned this morning.

9th June: I look pale and tired, but I am in my chip beauty and the beast jumper and my long hair is messy in a very cute way. 

10th June: Two years ago was Kirsty’s wedding time is magical and strange.

11th June: I am so panicky and easily fucked with at the moment. 

12th June: Last night I watched chef’s table and It gives me such a fucking zest for life.

13th June: Damn this has been a funk.

I use the first line to meet me wherever I’m at. Whether that is a reflection on sleep, mood or a random thought. I’m dictating the internal. Witnessing the inner monologue on the tangible page. I am meeting myself WHEREVER I am at. In 2020, I was moving through shit (weren’t we all). But I allowed myself to just BE. I have and continue to use my journal as a space to alter my state and to create a future of my dreams, but I never deny my current state. The first line is always a place where I come as I am.

On worrying about repeating yourself:

I speak to people who are very worried about being repetitive in their journals. I hope my own repetition here gives you some space to breath. We do not evolve overnight. Hard times, and hard emotional states can last weeks, months, years. I have journals and journals looking at the same issues, same topics, same feelings. It takes time to process and move through things. It’s important, for our journals to be a place of repetition.

Have some recent journal entries from this month to compare:

4th June: Home. I love this home. I love my life.

5th June: I slept 7-12, then 4am-9am. lol — whatever.

6th June: English summer, I let you wrap me up.

7th June: I am anointed by the sun.

8th June: Trusting. Exhaling. Allowing. Enjoying.

9th June: My village makes me so fucking delighted and whole.

10th June: I am going slow, I sit on my throne and its like a crazy cozy throne.

11th June: Good morning sunshine, you are alive for another day!

12th June: grateful - I glow with little miracles.

13th June: Good morning, I choose to be joyful.

It is so lovely looking at the different between these two, but also, at the end of the day, my journaling will hold space for all sorts of first lines, as I navigate the full spectrum of the human experience.

So, step one: meet yourself where you’re at. Step two, we’ll look at next week. In fact, over the next few weeks, I’m opening up my journals for you to see. How have the pages allow for my transformation? How could journaling allow for your transformation? I am so excited.

All my love,

Amie