Getting Back Into Journalling After a Slump

I love to journal and that is very apparent with my social media channels and with how I’ve started talking about it openly about keeping a journal. I’ve been journalling consistently since 2017 I think (I’d have to go find the first journal I used when I started journalling consistently). 

I always end up going into some kind of journalling slump where I don’t actually journal as much as I want to and I don’t know why I get into that kind of slump. Lately I’ve been in a little bit of a slump, but it’s not near as bad as it was before I got myself a new journal for the beginning of June.

I want to keep myself in the routine that I’m getting myself into with journaling, so I thought I would share how I get myself back into journalling when I go through a bit of a slump. I’m also going to be implementing a couple of new things into my journalling routine that I’ll talk about as well.

If you’re unsure of how to get yourself into journalling I have a blog post that you can check out here where I talk about how you can get into journalling.

I guess you can say that I have a few ways that I can get myself back into journalling after being in a bit of a journalling slump. And the different ways come into play depending on what stage of the journalling slump that I’m in.

1. Buying a new notebook. When it’s been getting to be almost a full month or more without journalling I will often end up buying myself a new notebook for myself. I hate not using a notebook up fully, but sometimes it’s best to just buy a new notebook because I know by doing that I will be more motivated to spend time journalling. Personally I only like using one kind of notebook to journal in, so I always make sure I buy myself a Moleskine notebook. It all has to do with how the paper feels after writing on it.

2. Use journalling prompts. There are endless journal prompts out there, so that can be a great way to get yourself back into journalling. One of a way to get back into journalling is by finding journal prompts that relate to what you’re going through. A couple ways to help implement journal prompts is to have journal prompts on flashcards that you can shuffle through, or have some written on sticky notes that you can put on the next page of your journal. These two ways to implement journal prompts will be helpful, because it places the prompt right in front of you instead of searching for one online before trying to journal.

3. Writing things on a sticky note throughout the day. If things come up throughout the day that have you think to yourself “I should journal about this later today” make sure to make a note about it on a sticky note. That way you’ll remember everything you want to journal about from throughout the day.

4. Writing whatever is in my head. If a lot of things are going on in your head just write from whatever comes to your mind. As soon as you get the feeling that “I need to journal” grab your pen and notebook and start writing.

5. Using pictures to journal about. I always come back to this journalling technique I guess you could call it and I find it easy to write about the pictures I add into my journal from the day or a trip that I’ve been on.

Personally for me there are a couple of things that I’m implementing into my journalling routine. I’m adding journalling prompts on flashcards into my routine. At the start of a week I’ll find prompts that go with how I’m feeling going into that week, and any prompts that I believe will be good for me to do during that week. The next thing that I’m going to implement is writing things on a sticky note throughout the day that I want to journal about. I’ve noticed lately that I always end up thinking to myself “I should journal about this later tonight” but I always forget what it is that I wanted to journal about, so this way I can remember those little things that I think about during the day that I should journal about.

How do you get yourself back into journalling after being in a journalling slump?

-Elizabeth

Getting Out of a Funk

Lately I’ve been in quite a funk and getting out of this funk has not been easy. Usually I can seem to bounce back quicker, but this time it has taken a lot to get me out of this funk.

I thought I would share some of the things I try and do to get myself out of these funks that I’ve been finding myself in, because I find that I often search online to find inspiration for getting myself out of these funks.

July 2023 Goal Planning

Lately I’ve been struggling with motivation. While I was watching this YouTube video I got inspiration for how I should set goals for myself every month. Of course I know I could just easily write down some goals, but I’ve tried that and it doesn’t really do much for me. This video showed me a way that I can goal plan and actually achieve these goals.

How I’m Making time for Self-Care

For a while now I’ve been struggling to make the time for self-care, but I’ve come to realize how crucial it is to make time for self-care. I notice how I feel if I don’t make time to do anything self-care related for myself and I need to prioritize it much better then I’ve been doing. 

What’s on my Vision Board

It took me a couple of weeks into the New Year to make a vision board. I’ve loved the idea of creating a vision board for quite a while now, but I never got around to putting one together. That is until this year and I finally got the ideas to put on my vision board while scrolling on Pinterest and that made me motivated to finally make a vision board.

I downloaded a bunch of photos and found some photos that I’ve taken to all go onto a vision board that represents everything that I want in my life this year and what I want to achieve this year. I based some of the vision board with some of my 2023 goals (which I have a blog post on that you can find here).

Starting with the top of my vision board is for photography. I want to be creative with my photography this year and try out as many new creative ideas that I can. I also want to take as many cute photos with my boyfriend because I’m always wanting more photos of us together.

To the right of the photography is for wanting to go on more breakfast and coffee dates and to have cute photos like that from those dates. We always talk about going for breakfast and coffee dates, but those don’t always happen, so this year it’s a must to go on more of these and to document them. There are so many cute breakfast places and coffee shops that we need to check out.

Under the photography represents content photos that I want to take and just some inspiration of the kind of photos I want to take and the aesthetic I want to have on my Instagram page. This year I want to be consistent with creating content and I want to have a specific aesthetic for my content.

To the right represents photos I would like to take at any time, especially in the summer at the lake. I’ve always wanted to take cute photos at the lake and this year I’m determined to do that whenever we go to the lake.

At the bottom of the page is eating healthy. I need to get better at eating healthy and I want to find the perfect quick and easy healthy meals to have this year.

At the top left of the second page is travel. This year I want to travel as much as possible whether it’s a road trip or going somewhere on a plane. And I want to document any trips I go on with photos like the ones I found on Pinterest.

To the left of that is wanting to have some kind of picnic dates this year and to take photos like that especially if it’s around sunset. On the middle of this page it represents getting a job that I love and how I want my home office area to be set up and what I imagine my workspace to be like and what I imagine a work day could include with a set up for a meeting or working at a coffee shop.

The bottom left of the page is for self-care. I never take baths and I need to do that more and fully create a self-care routine for myself. And again I want a specific aesthetic with what I do this year. To the right of the self-care section is for working out. This year I want to be more active, go to the gym, go to lots of yoga classes, and find the best way for myself to stay active.

The final part of my vision board is the different quotes and “definitions” of things I want this year. They all go with what I want my life to be this year.

For 2023 I want to take more creative photos, go on cute dates, take a lot of cute photos, create content as much as possible, eat healthy, travel as much as possible, have my dream office set up, create my ideal self-care routine, and be as active as possible. I want to have a specific aesthetic to a lot of these things on my vision board and want to document a lot of these things throughout the year.

Did you create a vision board? And if you did what do you have on your vision board?

-Elizabeth

How to Start Journaling

Jouranling has become an essential for me. I think I started journaling consistently in 2017 and it’s something that I can notice a huge difference in myself if I don’t take the time to journal for multiple days in a row. And I think journaling could help anyone because there are so many different ways you can journal.

Alphabet Date Night Challenge

While I was scrolling on TikTok a little bit ago I saw a video where a couple was planning date nights for each letter of the alphabet. As soon as I saw this video, I had to tell my boyfriend about this idea and basically made the decision that we need to do this challenge. I think it’s a great way to get us to try new date ideas that we wouldn’t typically do. And I wanted to make it into a series here on my blog documenting the dates that we end up going on throughout this challenge. Making this a series on my blog is going to keep us accountable to find date ideas for all 26 letters of the alphabet.

My Favourite Hobbies

Lately I’ve been trying to get back to the hobbies that I love because I have not been prioritizing them as I should be and I’m working on prioritizing things I enjoy and that make me happy. I need to prioritize these hobbies because they help keep my mental health at a good place.

Getting into Routine

Lately I’ve felt so out of routine because of having so much free time on my hands and I don’t know what to do to get myself back into routine. Every week I tell myself “this week I’m going to get myself into a routine” and I proceed to not get into routine. And I know that I’ll keep going in this run around saying I’ll get myself into a routine this week. I need to stop pushing off getting myself into a routine. There’s so much that I want to get done in a week, but I don’t prioritize them properly. When I start prioritizing properly and do all these things that I want to do during the week I know that I’ll feel 1000 times better.

2023 Goals

Every year I like to set goals for myself as most people do. I know that I don’t need the New Year to set goals for myself, but of course I set more at the start of the year compared to what I set during the year. I also look at goals more like habits for myself and that I’m trying to get myself on track with healthy habits.