The Second Question: Are You Jean Valjean?
Looking inward as we attempt to build our journaling practice.
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Happy Sunday! Hope you’ve been enjoying a weekend that filled up your Sugar Jar (h/t Yasmine Cheyenne for the terminology + practice), and maybe even spending some time journaling. I’ve not picked up my pencil since Thursday, but I can assure you that as soon as I publish this I’m going to shove my laptop to the side and start putting pencil to paper.
And before we dive into it, I want to say thanks to all of you for reading, sticking with me, sticking with your journaling practice, and for all the kind feedback I was sent after Friday’s reflection. Your words mean everything to me.
Now, let’s get to the second question.
Here it is:
When do you feel completely like yourself?
I tried to give you a question that was a bit more inward-looking and perhaps a bit less…uncomfortable…this week. I’ve been thinking that looking at our secrets was too heavy for a first foray into journaling. Consider approaching this week with a brainstorming or free writing approach. Maybe you just want to write down words, ideas, or phrases instead of sentences and paragraphs. Maybe bulleted lists will work just fine. Tackle this in whatever way feels authentic and useful to you.
As I did last week, let me give you a few different ways to consider engaging with this topic:
Who are you with in these moments?
Where are you?
What time of day is it? Year? Season?
What are you doing?
What does feeling like yourself feel like?
Have you identified these moments before, and known you were in them?
Have you EVER felt completely like yourself? Why or why not?
How can you build more of these moments into your everyday life?
Is there something in your life preventing you from feeling like yourself? Is it possible to come to terms with this, or maybe eliminate it?
Write In!
As we grow this community together, my hope is that you won’t just be hearing from me about journaling and its benefits, but your fellow readers and writers too. If you ever want to share something, anonymously or otherwise, that one of our questions has brought up for you, just drop me an email or a DM with your story.
A Parting…Something
My decompression this weekend has come thanks to Apple TV’s new show Shrinking. Are you watching this yet? If not you HAVE to dive in ASAP, if for nothing more than watching Harrison Ford get the munchies after taking an edible. Shows about grief always have a way to hook me, and this one is no different. Every episode brings me to laughter and to tears. And Jessica Williams is always It.
Watch the trailer below:
See ya Friday!
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