Kick Start Your Journaling Habit In Just 28 Days

What is journaling?

This lecture briefly introduces you to journaling

A journal is a written record of your thoughts, feelings, experiences, and observations. You can write in your journal daily, or only when you feel the urge. Journaling is then the act of keeping, writing, reflecting and making personal change through the art of keeping a journal.

Ok. That feels very formal. That's ok as we go through the course it will become more apparent what journaling is to YOU. Because what it means to you is what will give you the healing, change and transformation.

Later we will look at why, the benefits and how to journal.

Let me ask you:-

• Do you feel stuck and unable to move on?

• Do you feel that you have something to heal, but 'it' never seems to go away?

• Have you tried every personal development course available, but still feel no further forward?

• When you do write, do you fill up with emotion and can’t move on?

• Do you stare at a blank page and wonder what to write about?

• Have you ever wanted to write your life story or memoir, but stopped, staring blankly at the page in front of you. Full of doubts you put your pen away.

What if...

• What if you could take the bold step of exploring you and your life and could discover how to make changes through writing and reflection? Would you be tempted?

• What if you could get your story out, heal your wounds, be in control and confident. Would you want to take that step?

Who knows where you will find yourself at the end of the course?

Why does writing from the heart make a difference?

In this lecture we examine why we should write from the heart.

It is vital that we journal and write in the right place, in the right frame of mind, that we let go of our self-consciousness, become one with ourselves and write without judgment. If you write from your head, your left logical brain is engaged, in writing from your heart you will open up the space for you to love and to be loved.

When we take responsibility for loving ourselves then our lives can change.

Hearts get broken and unbalanced by our relationships with others and ourselves. By writing from your heart you can let go and start walking towards the person you know that you are.

Your Workbook

This takes you through what journaling is and your 28 days. Print it out for reference.

Day 1 - Why do you want to journal?

Journaling is a guide for the book of your life. Every page you write is a page in the chapter of you, which provides you with a map for the past, present and future. It is the compass for your heart and soul.

The truth is we hold the secret to who we are, the healing medicine book and cure for what ails us.

The journey to journaling starts here, and it starts every time you muse and write. That writing unlocks the key to the inner journey that is always within us.

Your journal, if you let it contains:

• Truth and insight

• Vulnerability and fear

• Resistance and what holds you back

• Magical moments

• When you write, you must give yourself permission to release the words that tell you what you need to know who you are and what you want.

• You'll find universal connection, wisdom and peace if you set yourself free to write from your heart.

You may even find that your writing reveals your legacy and perhaps even a book... We'll see.

Your journal is where you mine the gold of your heart and soul, and it starts here.

Journal it: Right now put pen to paper and explore why you want to journal. It could just be one word, one page or a flow of unconsciousness that travels until it's journey's end.

When you have written, reflect on how you feel about what you have written.

The benefits of journaling

There are many benefits to journaling and it's important for you to tap into the benefits that you believe you will get. Read through these and see and feel which ones resonate with you.

Remember unless you have a big enough WHY you won't do it. Or you will start and then the practice will fade.

Benefits - which resonates with you?

• Healing - mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually

• Improves your mental health

• Express your feelings and thoughts in an uninhibited way

• Become emotionally aware and intelligent

• Safe space to vent

• A place for positive self-talk

• A space for self-expression, understanding and compassion

• Clarify goals, before acting

• Creating habits for change

• Release unhelpful thoughts and learn to let go

• Gain a sense of perspective and control

• Store and analyse your dreams

• Catalyst for change and creativity

• Problem-solving and ideas

• Spiritual growth

• A source for your stories, which you may want to turn into a memoir

You will start to:-

• Understand who you are, what you want and how to get it

• How to heal your way

• Find inner peace

• Connect with your intuition and inner wisdom

• Find what matters to you and what depletes you

• See patterns and pictures of unhelpful ways of behaving

• Get insights and aha's

• Find new ways to tackle old behaviours, issues or problems

• Unwind and relax

• Communicate with others better.

• Create positive intentions and affirmations

• Discover a pathway to self-awareness which provides insights, upon which you can act and create change

• Find creative solutions to problems and challenges

• Discover memories

Journal it: Which benefits call to you. Choose 2 or 3 to focus on and write about how they will support this inner journey and keep you motivated in your practice.

Your connection with feelings of peace

So far you have looked at why and the benefits and hopefully explored how these things make you feel.

Practising journaling will bring you more benefits so that you will want to write, rather than feel that you have to.

What we want to do is to create an anchor and we'll do that with the tree.

Journaling brings peacefulness

Is your body, mind and soul been craving inner peace? Perhaps you don't feel peaceful for a lot of the time and you want to change this.

What I wonder would inner peace give you?

Do you wonder how other people seem to exude this sense of patience and peace, while you're feeling all tangled up inside?

Does peace only come in tiny moments? Does it only come for short periods? Perhaps when it does it is joyful and fleeting.

If you are anything like me you will want to preserve that feeling, hold onto it and welcome more peace to your whole being for much longer periods?

Peace comes from within.

We need to open ourselves up and set an intention/affirmation that we want inner peace. How about 'I am open and ready to welcome inner peace into my life today'?

Let's begin by exploring how you are feeling in the current moment.

Stop what you're doing. Stand up slowly from your chair. Take a few breaths and your breath flowing through you. This is your life force!

How does this simple act of putting your body upright on two legs make you feel? Take a few moments to scan your body. Do this without judgement. What sensations are you experiencing as life flows through you?

Are you currently relaxed and present? Or are you tense, eager or even anxious to move on to the next thing?

Feeling peaceful is as much a physical sensation as it is an emotional state. Sensations and emotions share a causal relationship.

Notice your breathing. Do your breaths come slowly, from your centre? Or do you take short, rapid breaths? We shallow-breathe when we're stressed or tense - which is certainly the opposite of feeling peaceful!

Pay attention to the sensations of your fingers and toes. What do you notice? Any tingling, hot or cold?

What about your head? Wiggle your eyebrows up and down. Tilt your head from side to side, not too fast. How does that feel?

Are you peaceful, or is there still a restlessness inside of you?

Stretch, yawn, wiggle that body. The simple act of stretching our bodies releases inner tension from our muscles. Tension makes us feel stressed, tight. Tense feelings affect our thoughts and reactions.

Ask yourself a simple question when you feel tense, and the answer will be very different as compared to when you feel relaxed and at-ease.

Are you that tense person? Be honest. Where do you notice the tension in your body? For me it is often in my jaw and shoulders - which is why I have a weekly massage, meditate and walk the dogs 4 times a day...

Let's work on changing this, so you can find more peace, and that peace may find you.

Exercise: Become the tree

While standing, assume an upright posture. Straighten up. This simple act, often tells us that we have not been holding our bodies well. Keep your head held high and plant your feet firmly to the earth. Your feet should be about hip-width apart. Let your breath flow through you.

I invite you to imagine that you have roots growing from your feet into Mother Earth. See them flow all the way into the centre of the Earth where there is a pot of grounding and healing energy. Drink this energy in through your roots and into your body. You are now securely anchored into the ground. Feel yourself becoming grounded.

You are a tree!

Visualise yourself as that mighty tree, connected deep into Mother Earth. Solid, unshakable (well maybe like shake of your branches in the wind), connected to Earth yet rising upward with head held high to the heavens.

Gently roll your shoulders back. Then, softly press your shoulders down toward your hips. Pull your chin in slightly so that your throat aligns with your spine.

Point your tailbone downward with stomach gently pulled in. Inhale, slowly and deeply. Fill your lungs. Exhale mindfully and slowly.

Exhale past the point of thinking you were finished with the exhale.

Now breathe in again, slowly and mindfully. Continue focusing on holding that strong posture, but keep your body fluid as you breathe.

Focus on feeling grounded and connected to Mother Earth. How does that feel? What are your roots drinking in?

Stay connected and breathing for at least a minute. While you do this focus on what peace means to you.

Journal it: The first was to quietly observe our own body sensations and being grounded. Take a moment to write down what you learned.

• How did you feel before you became the tree?

• Were you fretting about something? Worrying that all of your day to day plans must be executed perfectly?

• Did you feel peaceful, or were you more keyed up, thinking about all you still have yet to do?

• Describe the sensations you picked up while being mindful of your breathing and feeling grounded.

• Were your thoughts calmer?

• How was your breathing?

• What sensations do you get from the roots you have sent deep into Mother Earth?

When you leave the house today, you can approach the busyness of your daily life with dread and anxious feelings. Or, you can take a mindful and meaningful approach to creating a most beautiful day for you and everyone you meet.

Sharing daily peace begins with a peaceful feeling from the inside. Breath and ground your way to being at peace! Share that lightness of being with others you meet. Remember to smile...

For the Future:

Going forward, increase peaceful thoughts and feelings from within. Make it a ritual to practice slow, mindful breathing and grounding.

See what a difference a minute calm makes for your feelings of inner peace and well-being.

Observe how these simple self-care rituals help you show patience and compassion for others, in the name of being peaceful.

Your deeper why

Yesterday you connected with a tree and inner peace. Today, imagine you are the tree. See or feel it into place. See or feel how strong your trunk is, how deep your roots are, how your branches reach to the skies and the wild array of colours of our leaves.

The tree is your anchor to the why and the benefits of journaling.

• As you breathe into this, ask how journaling makes you feel - name that feeling.

• Touch the place on your body where you feel the power of journaling.

• Affirm that you are a powerful journaler.

Journal it: Write about your experience of being the tree. Set a timer for 10 minutes and just write.

Choosing the right journal

Now that you have been journaling for a few days, it's time to ask how you feel about the journal you are using. It doesn't matter if you are new or a seasoned journaler this is a great time to check in with yourself.

Digital, paper or both?

Digital has many benefits. It's faster to type, edit, delete, easier to hide, and if it is on your phone you can take it anywhere. You can also add photos and videos. It's also searchable and if you are so minded you can index it better.

The downsides are that if you choose an App it may not be around for the long term. A program like WORD might be preferable, in that case.

Paper, on the other hand, brings your heart and soul to the paper. It's slower, let's you pause for breath and find the right words. There is the pleasure in seeing and feeling the flow of words, the re-reading and even the opening and closing of it.

One thing is for certain, the more you love your journal, the more you will write in it. However, if it is too beautiful, it may never get used.

Science says that writing by hand is similar to meditation and you will certainly find it brings you into a mindful space - unless of course, you are having a rant on the paper.

Handwriting activates parts of the brain for language, healing and thinking.

And of course, as we have already said it slows you down.

With both, you have the benefits of both systems, using them in different ways to suit where you are or your mood.

What can you use a journal for?

You can use it for anything - gratitude - affirmations - dreams - goals. The question is 'should' you have one journal for everything or one for different things?

The answer is experiment. I have one for everything other than affirmations, and if I am healing something specific, I'll have one just for that.

Give yourself permission to change your journal if you don't like it. If it doesn't feel good change it. The most important thing is that you keep yourself motivated.

Journal it: Explore how you feel about the journal that you are writing in. Why do you love it or why might you change it.

Day 6 – The right environment

A sacred space is a place that you come to relax and write. For me, it is my bedroom, and on a particular sofa in what I call my cwtchy room and my terrace which looks over the hills. These spaces work because of the feeling I get when I am in them. Mostly though I write in bed. If I did not live alone, I would find another space to make just mine as I think it is essential to have an area that is only yours, feels comfortable and the energy is protected.

Consider what items you would like in your space. I have a few crystals by my bed and lots of hearts. I have a small altar with a picture of my dad to bring in the divine masculine, some fairies for earth energy, a water nymph, crystals, candles and cards. These are objects that hold a special meaning.

The colour of my space is also important. My bedroom is soft, the cwtchy room is quite vibrant yet feels soft, and the terrace brings the gentleness of Mother Nature in.

When you have your space, set an intention for it and smudge it and you with white sage and clear the energy. Once you have done this, allow your space to evolve over time. The most important thing is to create the right vibration and energy to manifest magic from.

Journal it: Describe your sacred space and the feelings you want to evoke. What special items would you have in there?

The space within

It is a good idea before you start to write that you take a personal inventory. That means focusing on you, your body and your inner space. Do not change anything; just notice what you notice.

Breathing and meditation

We will take a closer look at breathing and meditation later. To create the right energy connecting to our breath is vital. Meditation is something you may or may not already do. It is also very powerful and will enable you to find your way to your heart and hear the whispers of your soul. Take a few deep breaths now and ahhhhh let go. Feels good, right?

Body awareness

Your body is also a sacred space. It is afterall where you live. It pays to become body aware so that you never again miss the nuances of communication and connection. Body awareness is where you sit quietly for a few moments and become aware of your body. Try it now. Take your attention to your toes, now let your awareness move up your body through every single part. Feel which parts feel uncomfortable and which parts feel comfortable. Breathe into each uncomfortable part and let it go. You could imagine that the awkward bits are a piece of newspaper, which is old news. Scrunch it up and throw it away.

What about the mental pictures that you have? What do you have now? Where are they? How far away are they from you? Are they in colour or in black-and-white? What do these pictures mean to you? How might you interpret them? These will come to you at all times of the day, simply make a note.

As you sit quietly, what sounds do you notice? Are there sounds in the room? Can you hear noises in the distance? Are you talking to yourself? What sort of things are you saying? What are you filtering in or out?

What about how balanced you feel? You need to stand up for this one. Place your feet hip-distance apart, let your hands hang by your sides, close your eyes and feel a sense of where you are in the room. Are you leaning to one side? Are you falling forwards or backwards? How can you rebalance you? Get a sense of balance and then open your eyes.

This is a great exercise to do when you're feeling a little bit disoriented or maybe when you're about to start reflecting; it is a great starting point.

• Sitting down, close your eyes

• Ask yourself what your current state of mind is

• Ask yourself what your most dominant emotion is

• Where do you feel it in your body?

• Put your hand on the place that you feel it

• What does this tell you?

• Come back to the present and write

Journal it: Describe your inner sacred space and the feelings you want to evoke.

Tips for your journal

How did you feel about your journal? Are you keeping it or changing for something else?

While there is no wrong way to journal so long as you write consistently, there are things you can do to create the maximum amount of impact upon your life.

Write by hand

Time and again, studies have shown writing out your journal longhand is more beneficial.

Why? When you write things out by hand, you have better long-term memory recall, meaning you process what you're writing more effectively. This is important when journaling, as the whole point of putting things down is to guide you through processing data, whether you're writing details about your day or recalling something that happened years ago.

Another study showed how people who journaled longhand processed the traumatic events they'd experienced much more quickly and were able to move on faster than those who wrote similar entries on a computer.

While there was still measurable benefit for people who wrote on the computer, there was such a significant rate of increase in writing by hand the recommendation was clear: Journaling by hand wins …er… hands down.

Choose your journal to fit your needs

When journaling, don't just pick out the first pretty book you see. Consider how you want to use your journal. If you're using a bullet journal and carrying it everywhere, you might want to choose a smaller size, one convenient to stow in your purse.

Lined or unlined pages? Choose what gives you the most freedom, allowing you to be as creative as you like on the page. As a side note, a cheaper book is more apt to be written in, as the tendency is to 'save' a more beautiful journal (like the fancy leather-bound ones) for only special posts worthy of the book.

Start simply

There's no need to go for long, elaborate posts from the get-go. Write what's comfortable in the format you're most comfortable with. Don't be afraid to switch things up and try new things until you find the model that works best for you.

It's too easy to overwhelm yourself if you get wrapped up in complexities, like having the perfect bullet journal or requiring you to start with an inspirational quote at the top of your entry every day. You can always add in the finer points later as you get more used to the idea of writing every day and feel surer of yourself.

Ignore the word count

There is no perfect length for a journal entry. Write what's on your heart. This might mean three pages of dense text one day, or a bullet point list another. That's fine. This is your journal. You do what you need to do with it.

Embrace inspiration

If you find yourself with an idea or something you want to write about during the day, make a quick note of it. Don't lose out on something worth exploring just because it's not your 'regular journaling time.' This spontaneous list will become an essential part of your journal, as it will give you a wealth of ideas to write about when the time comes.

Choose a time of day that suits your needs

Some people swear by journaling in the morning, as a way to set up your day on a positive note, geared for success. Others like to journal before bed as a way to process the day. Whichever works for you, go with it. While both times of day are loaded with benefits, one is no more 'correct' than the other.

Go into detail

When writing about an incident, be sure to layer in the details, thereby making the story so much more profound and interesting. These are the words that will bring the memory into sharp focus years later when you re-read the entry.

Focus on the emotion and feelings

When detailing something from your day, try to put an emotion on the incident. How did you feel at the time? How do you feel now in recalling it? A careful examination of your feelings helps you to process the incident, allowing you to move past it.

Don't beat yourself up

Life happens. While you do get the most benefit from writing regularly, it might be your schedule doesn't allow for daily journaling. If you write every day and miss a few entries due to being sick or some other life event getting in the way, it's ok.

You're never 'behind' nor do you need to 'make up' for lost entries by writing extras. Simply pick up where you left off next time and go from there.

Make journaling part of your routine

If you strive to make journaling part of your routine – you will be less likely to forget or skip it. When you figure out what time works best for you, try to stay consistent with that.

Even better, connect your journaling routine with an existing pattern in your life. If you have a morning or bedtime routine, try to fit journaling in there. When you do this, journaling can become as second nature as brushing your teeth.

Forget perfectionism

Mistakes happen. You spell something wrong when using ink or create a mess. You cross things out as you reconsider what you've said. You get distracted and doodle all over the page. Who cares?

It's all part of the process. A journal is a reflection of you at the moment. Embrace who you are, random artwork and all. Write from the heart—content matters, just not how it's presented on the page.

Get artistic

If you want to play with design and graphics, create a bullet journal. Or if you're into art, consider a self-portrait journal where you try to express who you are in by drawing yourself each day.

Add artwork, cartoons, or creativity to every corner of the page. Decorate with flowers or skulls. Draw whatever suits your mood! Journaling doesn't have to be about just the words on the page.

Try a brain dump

Feeling muddled, with too much going on at once? Throw it all on the page in a glorious stream of writing to clear it out of your head. Sometimes you need to let go of everything you've been holding in. I do this every Sunday evening so that I have a fresh start for Monday morning.

Let therapy happen

You might not have realised just how deep you might go while journaling. One minute you're writing about your dog, the next you're lost in some childhood incident you'd all but forgotten.

When this happens, write what comes to you. Allow yourself to work through the memory and explore why it's coming up now. At the same time, remind yourself this incident happened in the past. Try to let it go when you're done writing.

Your journal

• Experiment and be curious with your journal set-up

• Leave the first few pages blank for your intention, an index and keywords

• Use the back for other notes, celebrations and successes

• Date every page - full date

• Start each new day on a new page

• Number the pages

• Use coloured pens or coloured highlighters to highlight insights, ideas and important things

Your journaling practice

• Show up fully to the page

• Be emotionally present, alive and ready to share your truth

• Let go of judgement and censorship

• Do not edit, but feel free to reframe as you write

• Pause to find a better word or phrase

• Pause to check in with your language - what are you saying

• Write as little or as much as you want to - your rules, your way

• Let your ideas flow

• It's ok to vent - this is your energy flowing into the page and you can always tear it out and burn later...

• Be curious, experiment and use your intuition

More ways to consider

• If you find it difficult to start, simply write one word each day, which is how you want to experience your day

• Write about everything that catches your eye during the day

• Follow Julia Cameron's morning pages idea. Let your writing flow without censorship or a period of time or a number of pages

• Use prompts, song lyrics, oracle cards or lines from books

• Have a daily conversation with you or your guides

• 3 things list

• Daily gratitude, affirmations and mantras

• Doodles or colouring in mandalas

• What if questions

• Create your own daily prompts

The biggest tip is DO IT YOUR WAY as your journaling will evolve and change.

Journal it: Read through the list and write about anything that catches your eye. Design your journal and your journaling practice. What benefits will you get doing it 'your' way?

Day 8 - Setting an intention

What better way to start your journaling practise than to greet your journal. We do these prompts to bring super positive energy to your journal. I believe that journals are living things and need to be set up to receive whatever is coming over its life. This is foundational journaling magic. As you start to do more writing and reflecting in your journal, you need to consider how to bring magic to your daily practice.

Bring energy and intentions to your journal

All of my journals are living breathing beings that hold my vibration and essence. Before I use a journal, I want to bless it and create intentions for it. The simplest way to do this is to hold it in your hands and breathe love into it. Go to the first page of your journal and write your intentions. I also colour in a hand mandala and write my intentions and affirmations around it.

Your intentions

Dear Universe,

My intention for this short journey is...[add in your intentions]

I am open to discovering all that I am on the way to getting what I want

I am fully open to receiving all of the abundance that the Universe has to offer me

I am an open channel for spirit to work with me for the highest good of all

All my love [your name]

Sign and date the page. Say your intention(s) out loud.

If you have white sage, you could also cleanse your journal.

Go to the first page of your journal, draw around your hand and set your intentions inside your hand.

Journal it: Do the drawing, bringing your energy to the page and set your intentions and then reflect on what comes up for you.

Daily prompts

Let's get deeper with why, benefits and how.

If you find it hard to get going with your writing then prompts could be the way to go. By prompts, I mean ones you design yourself and for you to answer these for a number of days.

What matters is that you have the motivation to keep going and allowing your feelings to flow.

Feel into your why, what inspires you so far and brings you pleasure?

You could tie your daily prompts in with another practice, for example after meditation, a walk, when you have a tea break and your going to bed ritual.

Daily prompts

• Your one-word anchor for the day

• Daily goal or intention

• What do I want to learn today?

• What did I learn today?

• How will I stretch myself today?

• How did I stretch myself today?

• What do I want to experience today?

• End of day reflections

Journal it: Look at the prompts and design your daily questions. Try them out for at least 7 days.

Being heard

One of the reasons you are journaling is that you need to find your voice and speak your truth. You can do this with the written word, but you may want to be heard. This could mean reading aloud, recording your writing or sharing with a trusted friend.

The more comfortable that you get with reading aloud, the more comfortable you will feel about what happens if someone reads it, as well as all of the healing benefits.

It's important that you are willing to write like no ones looking. Write in the moment, where you find yourself, how you feel and what your truth is.

Writing gets to the truth of who you are and what your heart and soul wants to share with you.

Journal it: Pause and connect with your body, breathe and then write about the truth about where you are and how you feel right now.

Safety and vulnerability

Privacy

Although I adore the feel of the pen on paper, and the way that unconscious thoughts simply flow, my prime instinct is to have my raw thoughts and feelings locked away where only I can read them. You could:-

• Use a computer package with encrypted software

• Find a good hiding place

• Decide ‘who cares?’ If someone snoops and finds something they don’t like, then tough, they shouldn’t have looked

• Ask others to respect your privacy

• Lock it in a safe place

Journal it: Describe what it means to you to keep your thoughts and writing safe. Explore what your approach will be

Vulnerability

The dictionary defines it as the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally, which sounds quite scary. There is no doubt it can be hard to be vulnerable, especially if you didn’t have positive experiences with it as a child. However, while it can feel scary to open up and be vulnerable, it is something to embrace.

Vulnerability is a part of life for all of us. Feeling vulnerable is normal. It is not a sign of weakness, instead, it is a sign of courage. It requires work, self-examination and lots of self-love. It is what makes you beautiful and human.

Being vulnerable starts with being honest with yourself. How can you be your best self if you don’t share what makes you feel exposed? When you write, you will have moments of feeling unguarded, which will arouse all kinds of thoughts and feelings. Give it a chance, and you will see that it is excellent for your heart, health and well-being.

It, of course, feels risky, but when you dip your toe into the pool of vulnerability, you will have more meaningful interactions with yourself and others and increase your resilience.

Journal it: Explore what it means to expose yourself on the paper.

Day 12 – What will you do with your journal?

We've explored keeping your journal safe, and what it means to be vulnerable and brave, what came up for you? What did you notice? Are there any patterns to your thinking?

Today we want to consider the life of your journal – aka what will you do with your journals?

Every time I moved home, I burned or shredded mine. I have also done regular burning ceremonies, typically on a full moon when I want to let it all go.

I know people who have over 30 years worth of journals, and I have been asked the question what would you do with them?

There are a few answers:

• Leave them as a legacy

• Scan in what you want to leave and burn/shred/soak the rest

• Burn them as you go along and release the energy

What is curious is that you will have spent time writing in them, being vulnerable and keeping them safe – but what happens when you die? Will you leave them or ask for them to be disposed of? I think that it is important to tell others what you want to do with them. You can do this with a conversation and adding a note to the front of every journal. Make sure you are very clear and give the job of what to do to someone that you can trust.

These thoughts will take you back to how you journal and why you journal. Once you are gone, you will not be able to explain or add in anything extra. Though I quite like the idea of a legacy journal that you create as you go along.

Journal it: Will you keep or destroy your journals. Will you burn, shred, or soak them? Who is your trusted person – set up a conversation now and write the note for your journal. Explore what you want to do with your journals on your death. How does this influence how you will write?

Day 13 – Noticing Your Patterns

Something magical starts to happen when you’ve been journaling for a while. Patterns begin to emerge. Words you keep returning to. Feelings that show up again and again. Stories you tell yourself on repeat. Today is about learning to spot them.

Patterns are your journal’s way of waving a flag and saying, “Look here – this matters.” They are clues to what is really going on beneath the surface. You might not notice them in the moment of writing, but when you step back and read through your entries, they become visible.

What to look for

Go back through what you’ve written over the last twelve days and notice:

• Repeated words or phrases – what language do you keep using? Are there words that feel charged with emotion?

• Recurring themes – do certain topics keep surfacing? Perhaps around relationships, self-worth, fear, or longing for something you can’t quite name?

• Emotional shifts – where does your energy change on the page? Where do you start calm and end fired up, or begin excited and trail off?

• Stories you tell yourself – we all have them. “I always…” “I never…” “I can’t because…” These are powerful to spot because once you see them, you can choose whether to keep believing them.

• What you avoid – sometimes the pattern is in what you don’t write about. The thing you skirt around. The topic you start and then abandon. That avoidance is information, too.

This is not about judging what you find. It is simply about noticing. Awareness is always the first step. You cannot change what you cannot see, and your journal is showing you what wants to be seen.

Think of it this way: your journal is a mirror. When you write in the moment, you are looking into it. When you read back and notice patterns, you are seeing the bigger picture – the one that was always there but needed time and words to reveal itself.

You might want to use a coloured pen or highlighter to mark the patterns you spot. Some people like to keep a separate page at the back of their journal for recording their pattern discoveries. Find what works for you.

Journal it: Read back through your journal entries from the last twelve days. What patterns do you notice? What words, themes, or feelings keep showing up? What are you avoiding? Write about what you discover – and notice how it feels to see yourself reflected back in your own words.

Day 14 - Giving thanks for your learning

Journaling is a powerful way to learn more about who you are, where you are, what you want, what you want and need to heal and discovering your hearts desires. Today is very simple, my invitation is for you to go back through your journal and look at what you have written and to ask – what have I learned? And to then say thank you for your learning.

You have learned:

• Your why

• The benefits for you

• How you want to journal

• Using prompts

• Keeping your writing safe and being vulnerable

• Considering any challenges

• What you want to have happen to your journal when you are gone

• Your legacy

Place your hands on your journal and say thank you.

Journal it: Go through your journal and read what you have written, what comes up for you, think of lessons, challenges, gifts and learning. Explore what this transformation FEELS like

Day 15 - Setting Your Healing Intentions

Healing cannot begin until you have clearly identified what you need to heal. Daily journaling will help unlock what these areas might be. You will start to notice themes in your writing as your unconscious mind starts to reveal itself, and it is often not what you thought it might be. Start by asking yourself - What do I want to heal?

Next, draw what you want to heal. This could be a stick person or some other drawing, doodle or scribble. (It will all make sense)

This acts as a prompt to your unconscious mind to search and find what it is you really need to heal.

We want to connect the body and mind in this activity, as we know that the mind and body are one.

Remember that you cannot heal experiences, but you can change the way in which you view them, and you can make choices about how you will react or behave next time. What you can heal is you.

Journal it: Ask what you want to heal. Reflect. Draw it. Write out your healing intentions. Are there any conflicts between what you thought you wanted to heal and what has come out through your writing or drawing?

Day 16 – I Want, And I Desire

At the start of each new journal (month, new moon), it’s a great idea to think about what you want. The things on your list can be anything; the point is for you to just scribble and to keep scribbling. These can be anything from new shoes, the windows painted, to a baby, a new job or a change in business direction, better health, self-love, inner peace, or meeting your soul mate.

Just get them all out.

Why anything? Because often, what we desire has a deeper, fundamental meaning. New shoes could be about self-esteem, new doors – safety, or a holiday – you need to unwind and escape from the day-to-day stress.

Start with the mundane, move on to the material and finish with the magical. Keep coming back and adding things in. This is great fun, and you will end up with all kinds of things on your list.

When you have your list of what I want, scan the list and notice if there is anything that really calls to you. Place a hand on your heart, and ask, “Is this a heart’s desire?” Your heart’s desires will usually be on your magical list and will have a different energy.

Journal it: Write your I want list – start with the mundane, move to material and end with the magical. Then ask what is my heart’s desire? Write about what these desires mean to you.

Day 17 – Dear Heart

This is a wonderful exercise to follow up on your heart’s desires. Open up your journal, write dear heart and let your heart speak with you. Set a timer for 10 minutes and go. A few days later, write back to your heart. To make this even more powerful, read your letters aloud – this will help you to find your voice.

Journal it: Set a timer for ten minutes and write dear heart...

Day 18 – The One-Minute Mandala

The word mandala comes from the ancient Sanskrit language, and it means “circle” or “centre”. They have been used for centuries in rituals and for meditation. While they look like interesting shapes, there is much more to a mandala than that. If you look around at nature, you will see that there are all kinds of unusual shapes. Bring a snowflake to mind or a spider’s web. These are both intricate and beautiful, and when you look at them, you may find yourself transported into a world of wonder.

Colouring mandalas (or other mandala-type images) has been proven to produce a calming effect on the person colouring them in. Journaling and reflective writing have also been shown to have a profound effect on the writer. Putting the two together is incredibly healing. The very act of colouring releases tension and allows your unconscious thoughts to flow. When you then write about what comes up, you will get incredible insights. Then, upon reflection, you begin to make sense, see patterns, ways through your problems and onto solutions, ideas and inspiration.

Combining colouring mandalas with journaling and reflective writing will change your perspective and your life. Then, if you choose, you can make some significant changes based on what you learn.

Try the one-minute mandala

The one-minute mandala is quite simple. Get everything ready, set a timer for one minute and colour. You won’t get much done, but it’s a lovely way of being aware of being mindful for a minute. When you colour, bring to mind how you would like your day to be. This can be today or tomorrow if it’s now the evening. What about that magic you want to manifest? Even if there is nothing on your mind or nothing in particular you want, choose an affirmation, start colouring it in and enjoy the process.

The mandala is in your workbook

Journal it: Colour in the mandala and reflect on what comes up for you in your journal.

Day 19 - Freewrite

Freewriting is a way to let whatever needs to meet the page flow. The key is to relax, breathe, ground and centre first and then write. I have a method for getting to the heart of what needs to come out, and that is to start writing about the mundane and allowing the magic to flow. The idea is that you let your thoughts, feelings and emotions arise without judgement and without censoring your language or words, express yourself freely. When you let go of judgement and expectations, your writing will flow, and you will feel great for having got it all out.

You can use freewriting to either let it all out and let the day or thing that is bugging you go, or you can choose a topic and focus on that. For example, one of my favourite freewriting exercises is to write to my heart and then ask my heart to write back to me.

Journal it: Set a timer for 10 minutes, either write to your heart or simply put pen to paper and write. Simply enjoy the process.

Day 20 - Mind Mapping

When I want to explore an idea, thought or feeling, I simply create a mind map. A mind map is a collection of thoughts around a central idea. It is quick and simple and serves to ignite my imagination. I also use it for creating plans and developing ideas.

5-word mind-map

This is very simple and is similar to the mind mapping idea, except the word is a word for today. You write a word in the middle of the page and then allow five other words to come, and on each branch five and five more until you run out. Then you can write about what comes up for you.

Journal it: Pick a word and explore what word associations come up for you. Next, freewrite for 10 minutes about what these words mean to you

Day 21 - Reframing

Reframe your thoughts – you can do this! Turn your can’t to can. Think about a picture you have on your wall. What would it look like in a different frame on another wall? Reframing is about taking something that you hold in your mind and framing it in another way. That might be seeing a problem as an opportunity or a perceived weakness as a strength, or a can’t be as a can. In the context of healing, it is reframing the issue so that you see it as healed or in a new way. This reframing creates new neural pathways, and so they become how you think normally.

Create a simple affirmation and repeat it to yourself during the day. For example, you might replace the belief ‘I am ugly’ with the new belief ‘I am beautiful’. You wouldn’t use the negative ‘I am not ugly’. Other examples might be:

• I am unlovable – I feel unlovable - I am lovable

• Nobody loves me – I feel no one loves me - Everyone loves me

• I don’t deserve- I feel I don’t deserve - I deserve all my heart desires

• I can’t manifest – I feel I can’t manifest - I can have all that I desire

Your energy creates your reality, so smile, choose new thoughts and don’t forget to write in your journal things that you are grateful for.

Journal it: What negatives do you need to reframe before you start? What might get in the way of your manifesting magic? Turn your cant’s to cans.

Day 22 - Where Am I?

Taking a moment to pause and ask, “Where am I?” is a wonderful place to start your practice of self-reflection. It is akin to being a traveller momentarily stopping on a journey, putting a stake in the ground, and assessing the surroundings. This may seem very simple, but it is, in fact, very powerful and may bring up all kinds of feelings.

When we put a stake in the ground, we are symbolically anchoring ourselves in the present. This act represents a commitment to confronting our current situation, regardless of how comforting or challenging it may be. It is like saying, “Here I am. This is my reality at this moment.”

This is also the moment where you stop pretending everything is fine and actually look around. At your life. At your choices. At the distance between what you say matters and how you actually spend your days.

Where am I? means:

• Where am I living someone else’s script instead of my own?

• Where am I performing rather than being?

• Where have I made myself small, quiet, acceptable?

• Where have I postponed what my heart actually wants?

Observing our surroundings and inner feelings without judgment can be enlightening. By truly looking around and taking it all in, we are opening ourselves to understanding our current situation. This means observing our inner world, physical environment, the people around us, the vibration or energy surrounding us, and the circumstances we find ourselves in.

It might unearth feelings of anxiety, sadness, or longing. Regardless of what surfaces, accepting these feelings without judgment is essential. They are valid indicators of our current state of being. They can provide valuable insights into what we truly desire or fear. The discomfort is not the problem. The discomfort is the compass pointing you toward what needs attention.

As you can see, “Where Am I?” is more than just a question about physical location. It is an invitation to delve deep within, to confront and understand our present reality. Whether we find ourselves on a peak of happiness or in a valley of challenges, acknowledging and understanding our current state is the first step towards meaningful change.

Diagnostic Questions

As you answer these, pay attention to where you feel resistance, where you want to skip over, where you catch yourself in familiar justifications:

Presence and Reality

• Where in my life am I physically present but emotionally absent?

• What parts of my daily reality would shock the 25-year-old version of me?

• If my life were a house, which rooms am I avoiding? Which have I locked entirely?

The Gap

• What do I SAY is important to me that my calendar contradicts?

• What do I tell myself I’ll do “someday” that I’ve been saying for years?

• Where is the biggest gap between my public self and my private truth?

Energy and Aliveness

• When do I feel most alive? (Notice if the answer is “I don’t remember”)

• When do I feel like I’m going through the motions?

• What activities drain me that I pretend don’t?

The Patterns

• What patterns are most familiar right now?

• What story am I telling myself about why my life has to be this way?

• What would I be doing differently if I weren’t afraid of disappointing anyone?

Journal it: Where are you? Pause, explore and reflect. Describe where you are. Consider how this feels. What do you see and what do you know about this place? Mark your life focus areas out of ten.

Day 23 – What Do I Really Want?

Ok, so what do you ‘really’ want? Stop, pause, breathe, ask and scribble in your journal. This is getting your unconscious mind ready for going after what you want. So that what you go after is aligned with your best self and true to your heart. Review your I want list (day 16).

• What do you want?

• Why do you want it?

• Where will it take you?

• What will you get as a result of having this thing?

• What won’t you get?

• How will you get it?

• When do you want it?

When you have done that, do some soul-searching and look further. What else do you want? And is there an order you want these things?

• Happiness

• Money - wealth

• Freedom

• Inner Peace

• Balance

• Fulfilment

• Confidence

• Health

• Love

• Success

• What else?

As you can see, these aren’t material things, but they are very worth considering.

Journal it: Go back to your I want list, put your hand on the list and ask – what do I really want? Then write for 10 minutes about what you really want.

Day 24 - What Do You Want To Create?

Creation is about envisioning. Shortly, you will be writing about your perfect day. But first, kick-start the process by asking the question, “What do I want to create?” Not achieve, not accomplish - create. What wants to emerge through you? How will you feel when you have created it? Not “successful” or “validated” - how will you actually feel? Free? Expressed? Whole? Alive? That feeling is what you’re creating toward.

Often, if you can’t see it, you can’t create it. Think about how it will make you feel when you have what you want. The Universe will respond to the energy of what you put out. This is a question I ask all of my clients when we start working together because it gives me an idea of what is in their hearts, and it starts them wondering what is possible for them. I want to create a community of conscious people who use writing and energy work to discover what they want, who they want to be, heal, find meaning and purpose and go on to inspire others to know what is possible in the world.

Who will you be? Not what you’ll have done, but who you’ll have become in the process of creating it. More honest? Braver? Less apologetic? More yourself?

You might realise that the creation itself matters less than who you become by creating it. The novel, the business, the garden, the art - these are vehicles. What you’re actually creating is a version of yourself who no longer betrays herself to stay safe, acceptable, small. You’re creating a life where you get to be fully you.

Journal it: What do you want to create? Not what would look good or sound impressive. What wants to be made through you? How will you feel when you’ve created it? Who will you be?

Day 25 – Reflecting

Reflection is your response to experiences, situations, events or new information and a phase where processing and learning can take place. When you reflect, your unconscious mind searches for evidence and analyses it. After which, it tries to make meaning and draw conclusions based on the evidence presented. Once you have been able to evaluate what you are reflecting on, you can then decide what’s next. Reflection is a powerful learning experience, which is not about sitting in the lotus position omming, though of course, you could.

Reflection then allows you to further process what you have written so that you can make meaning of your words, make changes, and start the healing process. Reflection is simply a process which enables you to make meaning from your writing, challenge your thinking, learn who you are and gives you the opportunity to make choices about changing the way you behave.

To make sense of your writing, you simply have to leave it. Reflective thinking is about going back and looking at your journal, analysing what you have written, with the goal of making decisions about what to do or what not to do. It is when you do this that you will discover inspiration and clarity.

You can reflect on what you have written at any time.

Journal it: When you come to reflect on your journaling after you have completed all of these prompts, consider how what you have written about has impacted your life, and ask these questions.

• What have you learned about yourself?

• What are your most significant insights?

• What is one thing that you will do differently because of what you have learned?

Day 26 – Perspectives

The value of changing your perspective

The thing to know about perspectives is that every single individual on the planet has a relatively unique point of view, which encompasses their own individual experiences and situations. While it’s true that some people cross over and come to the same conclusions based on their lives and experiences, the way in which they got there is totally unique to them.

For this reason, and the unconscious biases that can accompany any one perspective, it’s valuable to learn to change perspective before making final decisions. Once you understand the value of changing your perspective, you can use this in all life areas.

• Enjoy a better understanding – when you seek knowledge from every angle, getting information from different sources, you will gain a much better understanding of the problem and its solutions.

• Change your feelings – hearing from someone else about an issue can even change your feelings about it, despite your own internal biases due to your own personal perspective.

• Improve your relationships – being open to other perspectives and points of view automatically makes you a safe person to be around for the people in your life. If you’re not judgmental and you listen, your relationships will be deeper.

• Overcome biases – every single person on the Earth has unconscious biases about everything due to their own perspective. When you can look at other people’s perspectives, sometimes you can overcome your biases and thus make much better choices based on the real facts, because, sadly, our own perspective sometimes can be clouded and not factual.

• Resolve conflict constructively – one of the best skills you can develop if you need to resolve conflicts regularly is to be able to argue issues from other people’s perspectives. When you can do that, you can usually come to win-win conclusions.

• Solve more problems successfully – a person who can go outside of their comfort zone to collect and listen to many perspectives about a problem that needs to be solved, they’re more likely to find a solution. That is why choosing diverse teams is essential to business success.

• Become a more persuasive person – the fact that you can look at and understand many perspectives as well as explain issues from these different points of view means that you’ll be able to argue much more persuasively because you can use words that relate to the people you want to persuade.

Visualise meeting you!

Seeing yourself from another’s perspective is very powerful and revealing, especially if that other person is you, looking in on you. You can do this by looking at yourself from a photo and/or from your imagination, and describe what you see as if you had never met yourself. Scary stuff!

From a photograph

Get a recent photograph of yourself. Place the photograph in front of you; now answer these questions. Looking at that person: -

• What do you see?

• What are you wearing?

• What colours do you have on?

• What is the style of your clothing? Are you dressed for business or leisure?

• What is your hairstyle like, your facial expression?

• Who else is in the picture with you?

• Now, imagine that you have never met yourself. Write a few paragraphs about the person in the picture.

• Who do you think they are?

• Write a bit about their life, hopes, dreams, fears and maybe their perfect day

From your imagination

Look in the mirror, take a good look. Close your eyes, and when you open them, take a moment and imagine that you are meeting yourself for the first time.

• What is your first impression?

• Are you interesting?

• Are you a sad or happy person?

• What does this person do for a living? What is their dream job?

• Do they have a partner or children? What are they like?

• What is their house like?

• What other questions do you have? Ask away.

Journal it: Do both of the perspectives exercises and reflect on what you learn.

Day 27 - Your Perfect Day

Connect to your heart, bring in what you want to create, who you want to be, what your heart desires and then write about your perfect day. This is an imaginary day, sometime in the future, when you have everything you want... You’ve achieved every desire you could ever have; you live exactly where you want, with the person or people you want to be with and have everything you want. Write it as if it were already true and here. Remember to date it and say thank you. Have fun.

Your unconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between reality and imagination if they are both fuelled by an emotional response, so it’s important to fully engage with the sights, smells, tastes, sounds and the feel of the situation you are imagining because reality involves all the senses.

Once you clearly describe your perfect day and focus on it often, your unconscious mind will do everything possible to balance the reality it sees with the reality it has been shown. Once you have the story of your perfect day set in stone, bring it to mind often. You will soon be able to recall the story at will.

Write about your perfect day. Write it as if it were already here. When you have written it, leave it for at least an hour to reflect. Remember to write it as if it were already true and here. It is important that you bring this activity alive and make your experience of your perfect day as rich as possible.

Journal it: Write your perfect day story in your journal.

Day 28 - What Is Your Big Life Goal, Dream, or Desire

When you look at your I want list (day 16) list, what is the one thing that stands out and screams – me, me, me? This will be the ‘thing’ that I call your big life goal, dream or desire. This is a great moment to step back and consider if the things you are doing and the things in your life are serving you.

Start by reviewing your list and then asking your heart what your big life goal, dream or desire is. See it as done and then say, “And so it is done.” Your big life goal, dream or desire will often come from the magical part of your list. Look at your list and intuitively pick that one big thing.

For example, when I look at my list, I know that writing novels is my BIG dream. This is my prime focus outside of my business and life goals. To enable me to achieve this, I need to create conditions that allow me to do it. Underneath this big life dream sit smaller goals and other desires.

The key thing to remember is that a dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal with daily aligned actions helps you to make your dreams come true. To make this work, your big dream or desire needs to become a goal.

Journal it: Write out your big life goal, dream or desire, get out your coloured pens and make it bigger and brighter. What do you see, feel, sense or know? Who will you be when you are living this goal, dream or desire? Explore.

Working with your heart

At this stage you will be ready to connect with and work with your heart. These exercises in this workbook are designed to support you in finding a place for self-love.

Thank you for taking this course

Remember to complete all of the lectures to get your certificate.

My invitation is for you to come and discover what else I have to offer at https://daledarley.com/start-here/.

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Love Dale