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Hello Wednesday!

We welcome back Sandra today who shares with us a message from the heart. This message is inspirational for us all who love to tell our story.

Be inspired.

Hello everyone!

This month, I’m changing things up a bit. Opening up. Releasing.

This month we’re talking journaling…and in particular, journaling of the therapeutic kind.

Heartfelt journaling, especially sad or tragic stories are extremely personal, so it’s not widely seen on public scrapbooking layouts online. This can work to your advantage, in that you shouldn’t feel the need to compare your work to anyone else’s. It is yours, and can be as short or long, joyful or sad as you need it to be. Either way, how I feel most fulfilled and pleased with the outcome, is to write straight from the heart.

I asked my fellow PDC team members to jot down a few thoughts on their own journaling also…

Jodie | “Writing is like an emotional purge. The bad, the good, the happy, the sad, joyous and scary. Sometimes I hide raw emotions behind the photos. Like a secret stash of thoughts. Seeing the written word  reaffirms my feelings of love, appreciation, joy, sadness etc. And seeing those words makes it all real for me. It also relaxes me knowing that that memory or feeling has been captured.”

And in particular, this comment of Jodie’s really hit home to me: “It means I don’t have to hold on too tight in order to remember it.”

Ellie | “I don’t always share the really personal stuff, but it’s good to go back to later after ‘it’ has passed, read it and know that it didn’t break you.” This is such an empowering point…remember ladies, that you are stronger than you realise!

Petra | “For me the therapy is in the memory storage. Once I have written it down, that’s it. Done, dusted, and I don’t have to ‘try’ to remember it. BUT when I go back and re-read it later, it’s like a whole new rediscovery of those feelings or that event, and that’s what makes me happy, smile and gives me that giddy feeling. Whether it’s a good or bad memory.”

Anna | “Getting more personal with my journaling is very calming and releases what I have had couped up inside! Which only shows how emotional journaling can bring tremendous healing and a greater perspective on life and our feelings. I find writing things out to be my best outlet for inner release – things make better sense in writing them down rather than trying to sort out thoughts or speaking it out. I seem to be able to explain things better on paper. It’s a very free-ing experience to just ‘let go and let it flow’.”

In a nutshell, any writing you do on your layouts or journals, can have such a profound impact on your health and happiness. In short, it’s like a great big hug!

Now here’s my verbal hug for you all this month. I chose to record it outside this time to help ground me in case I broke down while I was recording {I didn’t, yay!}. In so doing there’s a bit of background noise, so I apologise for that.

May PDC Sandra – Therapeutic Journaling from Polka Dot Creative on Vimeo.

As I mentioned in the video, I’m certainly not here to tell you what or how to journal. In my opinion, there’s no wrong or right. Just {please} do so from the heart.

Here are a few suggestions for the tougher journaling, based on my own personal experiences…

* Write your journaling on scratch paper or type it first. With emotional content, let it flow, but don’t be disheartened if it doesn’t come out the way you expect on your first attempt. It may take a few sessions before you get to the place you feel it’s “done”. And by a few sessions I mean that it’s absolutely ok for it to take days, weeks, months… however long you need.

* Sit in the emotion. Don’t place time constraints when you’re writing these types of stories. Acknowledge the emotion, sit with the emotion and truly feel it, so that you can move through it. For sad or scary events, aim to get to a place where you can find peace or even joy that the experience happened, helped you grow, and that you are still here to tell the story, and perhaps even help others.

* Say it out aloud. Find a quiet space and talk to yourself (no, that doesn’t mean you’re crazy!) If it’s something I can’t find the words for and struggle to write, I just start talking. Can’t work out how to start? Try starting in the now and work backwards. How do you feel now? How did you feel/what were your actions a month ago, a year ago, 5 years ago? Say it out aloud and you may surprise yourself.

* Approach it from a different angle. When I wrote about my first miscarriage, I made two pages. One was a letter to my unborn baby. The other was factual, more about what happened that week, and who was involved. 3 years on, and I still think about that baby very often. But this letter I wrote to them, was my way of honouring that soul, and my soul. Honouring the bond that will be forever between us. It is something I’ve only gone back and read a couple of times, and each time I read it, the tears still flow. (This is an old layout, so you’ll notice how my style has changed quite a bit!)

* Throw the rule book out the window. To be honest I don’t believe there is a rule book. But if you’re a stickler for a title, photo and the who, what, when, where details… forget it for a moment. Often the heavy stuff evolves over time, and if it’s a big life lesson that continues to show up in different circumstances, the dates don’t often matter. Conversely, a timeline layout could be an option.

* Photos take a back seat. Many of the memories, stories or emotions we need to heal don’t have corresponding photos. And if there are photos, often they don’t suit the story you wish to tell. Don’t feel as though you need a photo to make a scrapbook page.

* Don’t feel obliged to share. There are so many ways to release those emotions on paper. Write to process the story for yourself, but don’t feel as though you need to keep it. If you do choose to keep it, consider putting it into a separate album, if only just for now until the emotions aren’t quite so raw. If you still want to keep it with your other stories, there are creative ways to hide journaling in scrapbooking or pocket pages. You can find (or even make your own) envelopes or journaling tags that can slip in behind photos or other layers on the page. There are pocket flaps that work on both pocket pages and traditional pages.

* Don’t feel obliged to keep it. We often hear of people who burn old letters. If that’s what you need to do, go for it. Write it down, then burn it, paint over it, whatever you choose is fine. Often just the act of writing is all we need to process those emotions, discover how we actually feel, and move on. Sometimes there’s no need to look back!

And finally, for those extremely tough stories, please don’t think you need to deal with things on your own. Talk it out. It is important to seek help when needed. It takes strength, but please know that you have it in you. Talk to a family member, friend, or professional if you need to. We are all here to help each other to grow, and there are always people you can lean on.

Know that I am sending all my love and light to the entire PDC community. I truly hope that some of you who may have been struggling with the big stuff, now have some courage to go a little deeper with your journaling as just one way of letting go…

Sandra xx