When I was younger I would tuck my journal underneath my bed so that my brothers would not find it.  There were deep thoughts in there about my current crush and the butterflies I got in my stomach when I saw him.  I filled those pages up, writing long after dark and safely tucking it away under my mattress.  Oh how I would have been devastated if someone were to have found it.  That tiny little notebook contained my heart.  All of the honest words that I couldn't speak to friends were spilled out onto the page.  It was an outlet.  A chance to really set free and be exactly who I was. 

Writing in that notebook gave me courage to take risks.  To ask him out and have a place to turn to when he said no.  It was all ok because the page helped me sort through it.  It pushed me to live body in a world where I was so timid.  It encouraged me to spread my wings just a little bit more and see how far I could go.  The page held the heartbreak, the tears, and the struggles and made them seem not so bad once I wrote it out of me.  Having this to turn to was a gift.  An extremely precious gift I turn to time and time again.  

I hear so many people say that they are not a writer.  They think there words have to be pretty and packaged up.  A neat story contained between the lines with a beginning, a middle, and a beautiful ending.  But that is not what journaling is all about.  Journaling is the freedom to tell your story from wherever you are standing in it in this very moment.  The feelings may be raw.  The emotion unprocessed.  That is ok, because the page does not judge.  It simply catches your words and holds them for you so that you no longer have to carry them around with you.  

There is no right or wrong way to journal.  Spelling does not matter and there does not even have to be one cohesive story.  Sometimes are hands will jump from one moment to the next and we never know what story may emerge.  The beauty that comes with journaling is in watching it all unfold organically.  In giving our hearts permission to just write whatever comes up.   

Yes this is journaling.  The roaming, the wandering, the adventure.  Spilling it all onto the page and not looking back to see where you can take it, but rather letting it take you where it wants to go.  We all have stories inside us.  From places we have been, people we have encountered, moments that have changes us forever.  These stories want to be told and only you can set them free.  

Journaling gives your heart an opportunity to heal.  A chance to tell the story again.  
So see it from a new perspective or to spill deeply into where you are in this very moment.  It is a gift.  A gift that only you can give yourself when you grant yourself the permission to show up and spill open.  The page will never judge and neither for you.  For any emotion you feel in any moment is yours and it is ok.  It doesn't meant that is how it always has to be, but for that moment we must acknowledge it so we can move forward.  

Allow your writing to help you move forward.  To forgive yourself and others.  To take a leap.   To gain confidence in yourself.  To have the courage to keep going.  Allow the page to hold it all for you and reflect back how strong you really are, how much you really know, and how courageous you really can be.  

I invite you to join me from Sept 9th - 29th to bravely step into journaling and grant yourself permission to release your words and see where our stories take you.