Simple journaling tips for beginners to help you slow down, clear your mind, and build a practice that fits your real life.

There are days when I sit down at my desk, pull out my journal, a basket of washi and stickers, and my favourite fountain pen, put on some music, and just begin writing. Some days, the pages fill easily. On other days, I’m there because I need to work through something that’s bothering me.

Getting to your journal daily, especially if you are a journaling newbie, can be a real struggle sometimes — life happens, and journaling is one of the first things to fall by the wayside. At other times, you may look at your journal and just not know what to write.

But in a time when so many of us are trying to slow down, step away from our screens, and return to more analogue ways of living, journaling offers a quiet, tangible space to do just that. Still, building a journaling practice for beginners that feels natural rather than forced can take a bit of experimenting.

2020 has been a highly uncertain and a very unusual year. No one would have imagined we would be locked up in our homes, that self-isolation and social distancing would become our new normal.

And yet here we are. Isolated. Distant. Uncertain of how and when all of this will end.

For those of us familiar with the tarot, this year represents Tower time. Everything that we knew as truth, everything that we took for granted, has been shaken right down to its foundations.

The first thought that crosses my mind as I’m drafting this post is what the bloody hell was I thinking? What can I, the person who struggles most with accepting myself, possibly say about self love?

And then I realize – just the fact that I was excited about doing this, shows how far I have come on this journey of loving myself.

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