I guess my journals aren’t your normal write and fill pages with my thoughts, in fact I haven’t written like that since I was a teenager. My journal progress is more turn to a page collage page and then start writing, my pages aren’t in chronological order but still dated. I just find it better to write that way and I have already filled several journals this way. I journal photos and anything else I want to in my pages, which means it becomes quite colourful, very quickly indeed.

I add quotes, mood boards and my own art, I carry my journal everywhere with me even if I don’t write in it is there for me to flip through especially if I am feeling anxious or down.

I even write letters to myself and tuck them in their for later reading. I have begun to realise with journaling is unique to you and you only and nobody else. I used to do the “Dear Diary…” when I was younger and that is perfectly okay to do, it’s just now my journal has become a huge part of my mental health state and so it has turned into a journal more than a dear diary. All I know is I have kept a diary/notebook/journal all my life and it has helped me come back from the edge many times before now.

When I went to counseling the Therapist drew on that strength and told me to keep up journaling and my art because I didn’t realize until that moment how therapeutic those past times really were. They helped me deal with the stuff I was going through, so I was healing myself without realizing it.

To me journaling has been a way to remember things in my life, especially after having Chemo brain where I forgot the simplest things. My way of expressing myself has always been in words and through my art, I find it hard to talk to someone face to face especially the real tough stuff. I feel too I have been able to process my cancer journey through my words in my journal pages.

Expressing myself is the most important reason for me to keep my journal going. I am naturally a very bubbly and talkative person, yet I need an outlet somewhere, so that is where journaling comes in. I am also able to put down my travels and document my life and any little things I want too write about.

I guess what I am saying is to make your journal work for you. There are no hard or fast rules only what you want to do yourself. I write when I want too, maybe every day and yet at times not so much. The main thing is you create and write in it even if it is only a few words, maybe some song lyrics or a favourite quote you like. I feel sometimes we put way too much pressure on ourselves to journal, when it doesn’t need to be so hard at all.

Happy journaling 😁

Kitty-Kat xox