The ‘Journaling’ Gremlin
Turn The Page
There’s something about putting pen to paper that makes me feel grown. Not in the way my younger self imagined, all heels and lipstick and independence, nor in the paying-the-bills kind of way. More in the grown sense of being able to regulate myself. As a child I didn’t have the language for that, but I think that’s what I was always reaching towards. Somewhere along the way, pen became keyboard and paper became screen, but the feeling remains. Writing is a place to return to oneself.
I started journaling in 2018 and I’ve barely missed a season since. It became the first place I ever gave myself permission to be radically honest without judgement. What surprised me wasn’t how liberating honesty felt, but how confronting it was to realise how often I had been lying to myself. The contract I made with the page was simple: nothing I wrote had to be acted upon, the only requirement was honesty. That was my gateway into transformation because once I heard a truth I couldn’t unhear it. My caveat (no action is required) meant it was OK for awareness to arrive. For that year it was simply enough to know. The next year I read The Artist’s Way, and kept up with writing ever since.
Painting helps me discover visions and drawing slows my awareness. But words are different, they’re a scalpel to the truth.
Even though I’ve tried different forms of therapy and revere its place, it remains financially out of reach for so many. For that reason, I think the accessibility of journaling is the most UNDERRATED FORM OF SELF DISCOVERY there is. It’s FREE, you don’t need internet, and you can take it anywhere.
It’s why every edition of my newsletter contains journal prompts. Not because I think the Gremlins like writing or feel comfortable around it, but because I think everyone deserves somewhere to tell themselves the truth.
So back to writing. Journaling to be specific.
There is no right way to begin. Do it morning pages style and write three pages of consiousness every morning before your check your phone. Do a brain dump anytime you get overwhelmed and spill your skull onto the page.
Write notes in your phone. Write a letter to your future self and open it on your birthday. Write affirmations and put them in your wallet and make it your screen saver. Write to someone you need to forgive, whether or not you ever send it. The medium matters less than the act, because there is something about moving thoughts from your head into your hands that changes the power we give to them.
And finally, even if you don’t believe writing can change your life, what have you got to lose? As Summer rolls around and everyone else is taking time off, perhaps buy yourself a notebook for the new season. Write something. Read it back. The end. No big deal.
From The Factory >
Prompts >
JOURNAL:
Write three pages of by hand. Do it first thing in the morning and write without stopping or editing.
ASK SOMEONE:
Do you keep a journal? Why or why not?
CREATIVE ACT:
Buy yourself a notebook (A6 works well) and carry it with you every day this week. Write in it whenever a thought is worth keeping.
Musings >
“Morning pages are the most cost-effective therapy I’ve found.”
- Tim Ferriss“This is a valuable tool to get in touch with their own creativity.”
- Martin Scorsese“Creativity is always a leap of faith. You’re faced with a blank page, blank easel, or an empty stage.”
- Julia Cameron“Passion is a tower of flame, but curiosity is a tiny tap on the shoulder.”
- Elizabeth Gilbert