3 Quick Start Tips For Journaling

I used to have a really visceral reaction to the word "Journal". It made me angry, frustrated, and completely resistant. I hated that word with a passion!

 Here's the thing, I didn't realize how extreme my reaction was until one of my coaches brought it up back in 2018. We were going over goal setting for the year, and she was really taken aback by my reaction to her suggestion about journaling. 

 So, what's an Neuro-Emotional Technique practitioner to do? Why, dig into my own stuff of course! Through Neuro-Emotional Technique (N.E.T.), I was able to trace my reaction to an incident in high school. I used to be a writer as a kid and poetry was my absolute favorite! In high school, I was part of a school club and entered my poetry in a county contest. I won! The next level was to enter my poetry at the state level. I won again! It made me feel completely validated and totally thrilled. So, the next year I entered again. I won at the County level, and went to the state competition. Clearly I expected to win. Well, I didn't. I placed third and I was absolutely crushed! Sure, the adults all thought I did great and were very proud of me. But I was a kid remember? I felt like a failure, and my writing was crap.  The result? I stopped writing completely when I was 15 years old. 

 Flash forward to 2018 when I had this "Journal" reaction. I had decided to make it a goal to write a weekly blog and a super secret email for my mailing list. I was really struggling at first coming up with topics, sitting down to write, and it was taking me hours to do a single blog. This was because I hadn't cleared the deeply internalized sense of failure about my ability to write. The brain is tricky about the wording of any block or problem. My issue wasn't really about journaling at all. It went much deeper than that. I had to clear all the blocks about writing, and then specifically about journaling to make forward progress. Now, here we are! I'm cranking out some awesome ones! At least I think so, and I hope you totally agree!

So, now I can talk to you about journaling without a hateful sneer in my voice! Ahhhh, the power of N.E.T!

 Getting Started

 1) Beware the Inner Perfectionist

 Have you ever bought a journal with the intention of writing amazing things, and then you just can't do it? Have you ever thought it could be because you don't want to mess up a perfectly good blank page? One of the biggest obstacles to getting started is overcoming your inner perfectionist.

 There's no right or wrong way when it comes to journaling, and your technique is probably going to be as unique as you are. Your Emotional brain is the inner perfectionist. It can cause you to leave the page blank because what you put on it might be terrible, you could do it "wrong", and you would ruin a perfectly good page. So, clearly it's safer to just leave your journal intact without your scribblings right? Remember this mantra, "Done is better than perfect." to silence the inner critic. Just get started! Even if it's only a sentence or two.

 2) Choose some tools

 I'm a big fan of writing your intentions, goals, dreams etc. but others prefer to type out their journals. You can't go wrong either way! When laptops became a "thing", I had to transition from writing my notes to typing them in college. It was hard at first, but I physically couldn't write fast enough to keep up with my professors. So, out of necessity, I learned to write well using a laptop. However, there's something powerful about putting pen to paper and working on a plan to make your dreams come true. It's also therapeutic to furiously scribble out your troubles for a cathartic release. You might choose a special book, colored pens, or keep it simple with plain paper and a basic pen or pencil. There are also special programs to customize a digital diary if you'd like. You may want to keep your writing all together and look back at your progress over time, or burn it as soon as you finish. You might even decide to do it all! Just choose something that you're comfortable with at the time and begin!

 3) Make the time!

 One of my excuses to avoid journaling was that it would take too much time out of my day. Because of my blocks, I felt I wasn't able to write anything "good" quickly. I felt like journaling didn't count unless it was at least a page. That's not true! Journaling can be just 3 bullet points, a few sentences, or even a paragraph. That's it! Don't make my mistake and get hung up on the length of what you're writing. It's important to do a little something just to get the ball rolling. 

 Dr. April Darley is an expert at resolving stuck patterns of behavior through Neuro-Emotional Technique (N.E.T.). By identifying self-sabotaging behaviors, she can help you regain confidence, improve relationships, remove blocks to health, wealth and success in any area of your life.