"Write It Out!"

As many of you know, I love writing. While away on my trip around the world I sent out numerous "email updates" and received really great feedback from everyone. I enjoy writing in a conversational style; in fact, many people wrote back saying it felt as if they were chatting with me at the kitchen table! I really enjoyed engaging in this exchange while traveling on my own. It also made me feel positive and uplifted, which is also how I feel when I "write it out" in my journal. 

You may be interested to know that I've been keeping a journal since the age of 12 (I'm now 24), and have filled up at least 10 full journals and numerous notebooks. I've always written to the same name (dear "blank"), which I have continued to keep secret. I keep it a secret because it's the one thing that is uniquely and purely mine. It's the one place where I can go and explore/extract every thought in my mind without judgement...not that I do that on a regular basis, but you get the idea. It is very special to me; sort-of like my own personal consultant, which is the point of my blog today; a little advice for the day.

Just a few journals I've filled up in the last couple years!

Often times when I am feeling lost, indecisive, or confused, I write about it in my journal and this is what I swear by: reflecting, arguing, being honest, and getting it all onto paper will so often bring clarity to my thoughts. Time and time again I "figure things out" when I write about it. I will spend hours upon hours, upon days stressing or scrutinizing over something; until I can make the transfer from obscure, transparent thoughts in my head, to visual and conceptual ideas on paper, I will be lost swimming around in my mind with no where to go. It is the same as when we talk aloud about something to someone. Well sometimes we don't want to talk to anyone or we can't, and so writing about it will produce similar results....at least this is my theory. I can't tell you how much it has helped me. Like I said, journaling is like my "own personal consultant."

Now, I realize that many people don't particularly enjoy writing, and the idea of keeping a journal may sound silly, but here are my thoughts: Let's say you are at work or trying to study for example, sometimes we just have thoughts racing through our head that won't allow us to concentrate. Often times in yoga class we are asked to empty our mind, leave our troubles at the door; easier said than done. I often wish I had a notebook on hand so that I could take a few minutes to write about all my thoughts, almost like a to-do list, and then set it aside for later. I believe that often times thoughts in our mind distract us from the "task at hand," whatever that may be, and they just want to find some way to escape. Writing it out serves this purpose. Once again, if you are at work and really need to be focused on something but are too distracted thinking about the argument you had with you boyfriend/girlfriend the night before, you'll never get any solid work done. Taking out your handy notebook and spending a few minutes writing about it, will help to empty your mind of these thoughts. Then you can close your notebook and tuck it away for dealing with later, but for now you have money to make!

So that is my advice for the day. Get a little notebook and carry it around with you. Whenever your thoughts are too much to bare and you can't focus, just take a few minutes and "write it out." The thoughts aren't going to go anywhere, and you won't solve anything by thinking about it to death, so give it a try, and if it helps tell me about it! Thanks for reading!