What if I told you that a pen and paper could unlock profound self-discovery and personal growth? In today's Journey to the Soul episode, I share my own transformative experiences with writing and how it has reshaped my life from the inside out. We'll explore the incredible benefits of various writing practices such as gratitude journaling, morning pages, and bullet journaling. These simple yet powerful tools have helped me gain clarity, connect with my higher self, and build emotional resilience. By integrating writing into your daily routine through techniques like habit stacking, you too can start a journey toward deeper self-understanding and alignment with your true self.
Tune in as I dive into the practice of journaling and discuss the importance of vulnerability and self-compassion. Learn how altering your inner dialogue can bring you closer to your authentic self and why different journaling techniques cater to unique personal growth needs. From the positivity boost of gratitude journaling to the creative revelations of morning pages and the organizational power of bullet journaling, each method offers something special. Whether you're a seasoned writer or just starting out, this episode provides the insights and inspiration needed to make writing a transformative part of your life.
Get the 5 Minute Journal HERE. Intelligent Change offers a handful of other journals you can explore. Explore Superhuman Activations HERE. They have loads of curated writing meditations if you want more guidance! Learn more about the Morning Pages HERE.
What if I told you that a pen and paper could unlock profound self-discovery and personal growth? In today's Journey to the Soul episode, I share my own transformative experiences with writing and how it has reshaped my life from the inside out. We'll explore the incredible benefits of various writing practices such as gratitude journaling, morning pages, and bullet journaling. These simple yet powerful tools have helped me gain clarity, connect with my higher self, and build emotional resilience. By integrating writing into your daily routine through techniques like habit stacking, you too can start a journey toward deeper self-understanding and alignment with your true self.
Tune in as I dive into the practice of journaling and discuss the importance of vulnerability and self-compassion. Learn how altering your inner dialogue can bring you closer to your authentic self and why different journaling techniques cater to unique personal growth needs. From the positivity boost of gratitude journaling to the creative revelations of morning pages and the organizational power of bullet journaling, each method offers something special. Whether you're a seasoned writer or just starting out, this episode provides the insights and inspiration needed to make writing a transformative part of your life.
Get the 5 Minute Journal HERE. Intelligent Change offers a handful of other journals you can explore. Explore Superhuman Activations HERE. They have loads of curated writing meditations if you want more guidance! Learn more about the Morning Pages HERE.
Instagram: @jacendamarie
Speaker 1:
Hi, loves, welcome to the Journey to the Soul podcast. I am your host, jacinda Villa, a spiritual life coach and holistic health coach. Every week, we will be diving deep into all things purpose, wellness, spirituality and creating the life that you dream of. This space is meant to be safe and transformative for you to dive into the deepest parts of yourself. I will share what I have learned from my journey along this path years of research and mentors along the way. Having spent many years living life out of alignment and afraid to go after my dreams, I know firsthand what it means to take the first step down, living a life authentic to you. We are on this road of self-discovery together. It is time for you to live the life you imagined. Hello, my loves, welcome to another episode of the podcast.
Speaker 1:
I hope you are tuning into this week's episode with maybe a cup of coffee or a cup of tea and getting ready for us to dive into this week's episode. I am really excited to talk to you more in depth about this. I have mentioned it before in a couple of other podcast episodes and I just wanted to go more deeply into it with you, and that is writing. If you've heard a couple of my previous episodes. You probably always hear me mentioning, when I talk about putting things into practice, about writing it down journaling. I am a big believer in this and the power of writing and how writing can help us connect to a deeper part of ourselves. So that is what we are going to be talking about today is how writing is such an incredible tool for understanding, for gaining clarity, for connecting with our highest self, for learning to understand our patterns or to build emotional resilience, or for you to tune into your values and what is important to you, and I know a lot of people talk about different kinds of writing and there's so much information out there. There's gratitude journaling. That's something that has become more and more popular over the last couple of years, and I think that's beautiful. There's the morning pages. There's bullet journaling. There are so many possible ways that we can put writing into practice in our life, and we are going to be diving into those a little bit more today. That way, if you have never developed a writing practice, and perhaps you've been thinking about it or have wanted to try it you can take a closer look at some of these practices that I'm going to be sharing with you today and see what resonates. You can feel what sounds good to you, or try a couple on to see what feels good and what you feel adds value to your life. And I feel like, with so many of these things that we listen about when it comes to self-help is we feel like there's only one way to do this. And, as you're listening to this episode and taking all of this in, as I share my writing practice with you, I just want you to know that there is no one way to do this, that, as you're listening to this, keep that in mind that you can change and evolve, and what you might need out of a writing practice will also change and evolve over time, as you do. It is in our nature. So don't let that deter you away from giving it a go, because I really feel like it can be anything that we want it to be and what it can bring into our lives is so extremely powerful.
Speaker 1:
Writing is something that I started doing not actually knowing how much it was going to help me. It's mostly in the last few years that I have been able to take a look back to see just how much I have been able to grow and evolve and heal because of it. And when I started wanting to incorporate a writing practice into my life, I wanted to do something that was easy to habit stack essentially is when we're trying to do something new for the first time in our lives. To do something new for the first time in our lives, we can't go from zero to a hundred. So if I wanted to build the habit of writing 20 minutes a day, I'm not going to do that from one day to the other. You want to start slowly. You want to build on it, starting with maybe one minute a day, then building up to five minutes a day the following week. You want to do it very slowly. That way you don't set yourself up for failure, because building habits takes time and habit stacking is a great way for us to build new habits. So whenever I want to incorporate something new into my life, this is how I do it. I already had a meditation practice, so I added the writing to that chunk of time essentially.
Speaker 1:
So when I started wanting to dive deeper into journaling, I did the five-minute journal by Intelligent Change for many, many years and for me this was such a micro way to just get into the habit of writing, to not overthink, to get my thoughts out on paper, to not overthink, to get my thoughts out on paper. And for people that have never done this before in their life, it takes practice to be able to do these things. So I'm going to touch more on what Intelligent Change's product is like in a little bit, but it's essentially gratitude journaling. So it is a five minute journal that you do morning and night and it really focuses on gratitude and looking at the good things that happened in your day and taking account for that. So it was perfect and it really helped me build up that habit of writing every day and I used it for a long time. I really enjoyed it. I really loved looking at life through the lens of gratitude, what that did for my life. It was the first time that I was focusing in on it with so much depth and it really added so much richness to my life.
Speaker 1:
And when I wanted to start doing some longer writing practices, I did some writing meditations on the Superhuman app, which I've mentioned before in other podcast episodes, and there are so many different writing meditations that you can use on there If you want to plan your week, if you want to get clear on your goals, if you want to connect with the highest version of you, I mean, there's something for just about anything that you need. And these were meditations writing meditations that were longer periods of time, so it really helped me build up to writing for longer periods of time. But all of these writing practices that I have used so far in my life, or that I have tried because I really try just about everything it is in my nature, it's part of my human design, which I am going to make a podcast episode about soon. But in human design, my profile is a 1-3. So I go deep into everything and I put it into practice into my life. So whenever I am going to bring something into my life, I really experiment with it and find what I enjoy and what works for me. So I have really tried almost every kind of writing, just like I have tried so many different types of meditation and all of those things.
Speaker 1:
So the writing can offer so many different things, depending on what you need. The gratitude journaling that I did with my five-minute journal brought so much richness into my life, and the superhuman meditations added so much more clarity and focus into my life, and that is what we're going to touch on on today's episode is how these writing practices can focus on things like getting your thoughts out. You know, if you feel like something that may have a prompt every day may work better for you, there's writing practices that do that, or practices that help you focus on your goals and your dreams and your ambitions. You can find prompts and journals now for just about anything. So, whatever you feel like you want maybe more clarity or guidance in your life right now, you can find some kind of writing practice to support you in that. If you're trying to see the good in every day, gratitude journaling is so great for that. If you're trying to get more clarity on your path in life stream of consciousness, the morning pages or goal journaling is something that could really help you gain a greater understanding on that.
Speaker 1:
A few years ago, I started doing the morning pages, which is something that Julia Cameron discusses in her book the Artist's Way, and the morning pages is essentially three full pages of just stream of consciousness journaling, and it's three pages front to back, and when I started doing this, it felt like a lot of writing. I felt like it was a big time commitment as well, because writing three pages front and back really takes some time. I felt like I didn't know what to write sometimes, or I could be a little bit repetitive, but I felt like I could gain a lot from it, so I stayed with it and this really opened a whole other door for me when it came to writing. This practice in particular just changed my writing practice completely and how I began to to view writing as a whole. It allowed me to connect with myself at a level that I had never been able to before, and it's been almost four years since I started doing the morning pages and looking back now I can see just how much it truly transformed my life in such a beautiful way.
Speaker 1:
But, like I mentioned, every form of writing has brought me something that I didn't have before. It's all built upon itself A new perspective on life in some shape or form. Whatever that scope of writing is really focusing on, it has brought that to my life, and now I write almost every day, 99.9% of the days I am writing, because it truly helps me move through life with more levity and just clarity. It's like a brain dump for everything. I feel so much lighter when I write and having my thoughts have more space. I can feel that difference on the days when I write and the days when I don't write, because I feel like some of our thoughts can be so intrusive, constantly showing up and things like that and sometimes just getting them out of your head is all that you need for you to find peace. It's truly as simple as that.
Speaker 1:
Sometimes, if I want to understand why I am reacting a certain way now, I write. If I am anxious, I write. If I want to feel gratitude for my life, I write. If I have ideas and dreams that preoccupy my mind, I write. If I feel angry, I write. If I am confused, I write. If I want to connect with the best version of me, I write. If I want to feel connected to my purpose, I write. Or if I want to work through any experience that I am going through, I write. This has brought so much into my life. It has brought me comfort. When I feel uncertainty, I constantly have conversations with my highest self and my spirit guides. I receive guidance constantly. If I want clarity, I come to the page with an open heart and sometimes it might take some time, but the guidance eventually comes. Other times I get it almost immediately, but it's showing up and writing and putting it on paper that truly allows me to do that.
Speaker 1:
I am able to process certain patterns I have more objectively, and writing is a wonderful tool in conjunction with therapy. If that's something that you are currently doing or just alone Alone, it can be a therapeutic act within itself. It has truly helped me connect to my creativity. I never thought I was very creative before. As a child I felt like I did, and I've let it go some in adulthood. But this has truly allowed me to tap into my creativity and I have been able to see that I am actually a writer. This is when I started writing poetry and other tidbits, so it helped open that door for me as well.
Speaker 1:
Learning how to be more vulnerable, really being able to say what you need to say with an open heart, without any you know fears or anything like that what you normally wouldn't say out loud sometimes is easier to say when you write it down. So vulnerability and learning to have more depth with ourselves. It also showed me where I needed to be more compassionate and loving to myself, because you can see so clearly how you're speaking to yourself and it's easier for us to be able to change those patterns and it just brought me closer to the authentic version of myself and what she values. Over the last couple of years, I've truly been able to see how I've been able to just live more and more in alignment and what that version of me chooses constantly and what's important to her and what she prioritizes. It's just easier to see on paper sometimes, because when you write something it's embedded in you. You remember things so much more when you write it down Most people do, at least. So.
Speaker 1:
When you're writing the same thing that you thought about which could have been some divine wisdom that you got, you know, a year ago, and then six months ago, and then three months ago, and you're writing it for the fourth time, you're like, oh, a year ago, and then six months ago, and then three months ago, and you're writing it for the fourth time, you're like, oh, this is something that's important to me, or this is something that I shouldn't miss. It's very easy for us to, can just help us heal, and now I am just addicted to it. It helps you let go of things mind, body and soul, things that no longer serves you, and this is something that I really began to notice on days where I did write and days where I didn't write. Now I want to go into a couple of the different kinds of journaling practices that you could try for yourself, and I'm going to link more information in the description boxes regarding some of these things. That way, if you want to take a closer look at some of these items that I'm mentioning, you can definitely do that.
Speaker 1:
And I use the word journaling lightly in this episode, because it's more the act of writing that I am speaking about and, fundamentally, how this is unique for each and every one of us, and I feel like so many of us have this connotation when it comes to journaling what that should look like, what that should be like, and we could lose touch with, maybe what we actually need out of the practice, out of just writing, actually need out of the practice, out of just writing. And the first kind of journaling that I want to dive into is gratitude journaling, which I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, and, like I mentioned, the five-minute journal is a form of gratitude journaling. You do not need the five-minute journal to do this. You do not need any kind of journal to do any of these practices, even though you can find curated journals for almost all of these kind of journaling practices and sometimes those are fun. Sometimes those are fun, but if you're just starting out, just getting any old journal and just creating the space for you to write down with these intentions is all that matters.
Speaker 1:
So if you wanted to put gratitude journaling into practice, writing down it can be simple as writing down three or five things you are grateful for today. It does not have to be long, it can be as long as you want. You can make it 20 things and I know with the five-minute journal it also reflects on three things that happened to you, that were good, good things that happened to you today. And again it's looking at our life through this lens of gratitude of what is the goodness that is in my life right now. And this is such a beautiful practice. I do this a couple times a week because I just need to connect with this sometimes, because sometimes we can lose touch with all the beautifulness that is in our life. We get so caught up in our day-to-day. So gratitude journaling is a beautiful practice that you can try out for yourself.
Speaker 1:
The morning pages, which is essentially stream of consciousness, is a beautiful practice that you can try out for yourself. The morning pages, which is essentially stream of consciousness and this truly can encompass almost any kind of journaling, because it is going to be different every single day, depending on what you need. If you need a place to dump your thoughts, a place to connect with your creativity, if you just want to write what you're grateful for for the day, this can really be whatever you want it to be. It can be all of those three things in one go, in those three pages that you're writing. The point of the morning pages is more to commit to the time. It's committing to the length of time that you are writing, because even when we feel like we have nothing else to say, something always comes up, and these are the things that Julia Cameron talks about. Paying attention to is that everything that we say is important to some degree. We shouldn't disregard it, even if it feels like it's just messiness in our thoughts. So essentially, with this, it's simply whatever comes to mind, write it down, don't overthink it.
Speaker 1:
Bullet journaling this is more neat and tidy than the last two that I mentioned, but it's a more organized way to process your thoughts and it's just like writing it down in a journal, but with bullets. And again, this can be whatever you want it to be each and every day. Some days this might look like a task list for the day, or your ideas for what you want to do this weekend, your daily reflections, how your energy was today, what could have gone better. It could encompass every single one of these things. Again, it's just a more organized way to have it, because some people's minds, some of us, have minds that process things in a more organized fashion in this way. So this is where this kind of journaling can be supportive for that Reflective journaling and this is the most thought about kind of writing practice.
Speaker 1:
When we think about journaling and what that means, this is typically what most people think about, and it is simply a place for you to reflect on your life, on any emotions that you're feeling and being able to process those emotions, any experiences that you're going through as well. It's just a place for you to digest all of that Goal journaling and this is just a place for you to write down your goals and your intentions. You can come back to this journal whenever you want to connect with it, whenever you want to reground with your intentions, and this can be goals in every area of life. And sometimes it's nice to have this because a lot of us have goals. We all have intentions, most of the time, big, small, whatever they are. But writing it down and getting it on paper makes a world of a difference, because if not, it is just another thought in our head and it could be hard to actually connect with that goal on a deeper level to bring it into fruition. So the first step towards wanting to accomplish our goals is actually to write them down or get them on paper, because then it is written, that's you bringing it into life to some degree in this three-dimensional realm. So having a place if you are a super goal-oriented person, having a place where you can come back and look at them every week if you want to refocus on them, or every quarter, it's nice to just have a place where they're all listed for you to connect to that Ideas journaling and this is very similar to the goal journaling and it's a place for you to just jot down any ideas that come to mind, to just jot down any ideas that come to mind.
Speaker 1:
Whenever something comes through to you, you can simply write it down. If you have any persistent ideas that come to you, I encourage you to write them down. They are typically divine wisdom and guidance from the universe. So if you've had an idea about starting a cookie business or to find a place to volunteer, where you may want to travel, listing all of these things down. That way, when you have the space and the time to come back and visit these ideas, you can really feel into them and see if they are right for you and you want to pursue them more.
Speaker 1:
Or maybe the season of life might not be the right time, but two years later or five years later, you feel like now is the time to start the cookie business. It can truly be anything and everything, but again, it is another place for us to just let our ideas out, because so many of us have so many ideas about what we want to do and be and experience in this life and again, it just takes up space in our psyche sometimes, and allowing us to create more space for whatever else needs to come through to us is key. Moving through your day being more light and not letting these ideas or thoughts consume you is really the key, which is why I touched on writing in my anxiety video, because I really feel like, if you do struggle with here, writing can be anything that we needed to be and anything that we want it to be. There is no one way to do this. So if you have never tried a writing practice and you feel inspired to do so after this episode, I really encourage you to simply try different things and see what feels right for you and experiment with it and notice what it brings into your life. On the days that you do it and on the days that you don't do it, this practice will look so different for each and every one of us. We are all so unique and our needs out of it will be so unique as well, so don't hold on to any single way of doing this. Allow yourself to try different things and evolve. I feel like that is really important when trying anything out in our lives is not holding on to it too tightly. Have fun with it, be curious, see what comes up and if you feel like trying something else, allow yourself to do so.
Speaker 1:
I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and it comes to you at a divine time. I would love to hear what writing practice you are going to be trying out or, if you have one, how that has impacted your life. I would love to know, so you can send me a message on Instagram or leave a comment here on Instagram or leave a comment here. I always look at them and I really look forward to hearing what all of you have to say. I will talk to you all in my next episode. I am sending you so much love and light. Have a beautiful day. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Please make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode and share this message with any friends and family. I'd love to hear your takeaways, so share them with me by leaving a comment below or heading over to my Instagram at Jacinda Marie. I am sending you all so much love.
