1. Journaling

Writing it all down in a journal is actually so rad.


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What I talked about
Five Minute Journal https://www.intelligentchange.com/collections/all/products/the-five-minute-journal
The Hero's Journal https://theherosjournal.co/
Personal Planner http://personalplanner.com/
Full Focus Planner https://fullfocusstore.com/

Transcript

0:08

Hello and uh, welcome to Rebecca in Progress where I, Rebecca, um, share my journey of like growth, creativity, figuring it all out one step at a time. today, um, I'm talking about journaling because, for once, I have been so incredibly consistent. Oh my god, you'd be like, you're gonna be so proud of me about journaling. And I just feel like an expert now. Uh, so to start, um, I just want to say that I do like to journal the old fashioned way with pen and paper because even though I'm like a very digital, tech centered girly, with also the worst handwriting in the world. Um, I just really like putting my thoughts down on paper. Um, and there's a couple reasons why. Um, so the first thing about journaling is I do find a lot of value in sitting down with like my thoughts and like letting them out. Um, I think. Realistically, I've probably spent a lot of my life, like, bottling up my emotions and being, like, way too scared to share them with people. So, like, there's a lot of, like, fears and happiness and, like, anxieties and things that I just have never gotten out of my mouth and have never told anybody, but I do think it's good to get those thoughts out and, uh, cause I don't tell anybody, you know what? I might as well just journal. Um, you get to, like, get all those thoughts out without fear of anybody's reaction to whatever stupid thing you're thinking about. And then, the other thing Is, I think that writing things down is like, powerful and cathartic, like, um, sometimes I just feel the need to like, get my thoughts out, and I'd just rather do it with paper and hopefully no one will ever see them, you know? But like, also sometimes I get my thoughts out by like, writing a long, a long paragraph in my stories and then deleting it. I'm like, well, I got it out of my head and I wrote it down. But, Sometimes you want to look back on that stuff. Um, and then, so it can't all be in your story that you then delete. Sometimes it has to be on a piece of paper that you can look back on it at a different day. Um, And then I also just, I really like, um, taking time to be introspective and practice gratitude and that is a thing that I learned from journaling and it's a real big reason of why I keep it up. Um, just in general like journaling, Helps to like clarify your thoughts and emotions. Um, it provides a therapeutic outlet for stress and self reflection which you know can't go wrong with that and then um, It just there's all these other great things that like improves your mental clarity. It boosts your creativity and It helps to track, like, personal growth and goals over time, and that comes from a certain, I feel like that's a certain kind of journaling, I also do that kind of journaling. Um, and then regular journaling can also just, like, enhance your emotional well being by fostering, um, mindfulness and self awareness. And clearly I pulled that from somewhere, because those are never words that I would think. But that's what, why you should journal, and those are all reasons where, like, I was looking up journaling and reading all those things about boosting creativity and like mindfulness and like dealing with my emotions And I was like, well, those are all things that I really want to work on Um, I want to be a more mindful person and journaling Was the way that's what it said on the internet and I've decided it is the way Um, my first journal that I use it is my favorite And I love it forever, is this journal called The 5 Minute Journal by Intelligent Change. And it is just as simple as the name suggests, there's a couple of minutes in the morning and a couple of minutes at night that you do it. Um, it is undated and it does have prompts, so In the morning you write like three things that you're grateful for and then three things that if they would happen would make the day great and then like a daily affirmation and then at night you write like three highlights of the day and something that you've learned. And then there's also like motivational quotes and weekly challenges and it is super, super effective and um, it's really simple and it is like my go to journal and I love it. Um, There's all this text in the beginning of the five minute journal about the science behind like gratitude and like how it's good for your health and all that and also outside of this I've also just been learning a lot about happiness and gratitude and I am seeing it from all these different sources that it is really good for your mental health to be grateful to just spend a little bit of time being grateful and like You, you spend a little time focusing on the positive things in your life and then it just like increases this like overall happiness that you're feeling and, and it helps reduce stress and then just like over time you have a happier mindset and like that's the science behind it and that's what I've been doing and I've been like writing down. How I'm so grateful for, like, slow mornings and sunny days and, like, plans with my friends and, like, alone time and my family and my home and, like, my Shinnecock people. Oh my god, I've written all of that stuff down and I've written down that, like, I'm so grateful for Shinnecock a hundred times. And, like, through this repetition of, like, what are two, three things I'm grateful for, I have noticed that I am more thankful, and over time of just having to acknowledge it so much, I have acknowledged so much. How, like, thankful I am for my opportunities, my health, and my ability to move. Those are, like, the three major things that I'm so incredibly grateful for, and I've written them down so many times. And this journal has really helped me see and appreciate all these really good things in my life. Um And I, I genuinely do think it has affected who I am as a person, um, if you've noticed a change in me in the last couple years, ideally it's that, um, and it's, my last couple of years, I mean, like, last year, but, I really love this journal a lot and I've actually gifted it to some of my loved ones over Christmas, um, because it's just a simple and it's an easy, simple way to get into journaling and gratitude and I really love it and hopefully the people that I gave that journal to actually do it. This year, 2025, I started fresh with a new version of the 5 Minute Journal. It was the Fitness Edition. It just has a couple differences in it. You track like your wake up and sleep times, your water intake, your mood, your meals, your fitness. If you know anything about me, I'm a pretty fitness orientated person. I'm very involved in all that stuff. So, I thought I should track that kind of stuff down on paper and not just have it all in my apps. Have it just, you know, pull out a piece of paper and like, here it all is, here's all my workouts. You don't have to look up the Garmin and Shrava apps and stuff like that. I also had to start fresh with it because I had that 5 minute journal since March of 2023 and it is a 6 month journal because as I said, I only just got very consistent with it in the last couple months. I cannot believe, I just cannot believe I sat here and struggled to fill out a 6 month journal for 2 years. I didn't actually even finish it. There was probably still like 20 pages at the end of, But I was like, I can't, I just can't do it anymore. I need to kind of move on. So like I, I got it in 2023. I think I used it for a month or two, and it was an absolute total bust. Couldn't get into it. 2024 was better. But I was still sporadic and it was better because If you follow me and you know me, you know I've been like messing around making some very inconsistent content that never goes anywhere It is seen by anybody other than my mutuals. But like last year I told myself I was gonna start making more videos and I was gonna make reels and I wrote I think a pretty good video about real about journaling and I was like i'm gonna continue this I'm gonna do it next year. I did it. I'm doing a podcast instead about, instead about journaling rather than try to force all this content into like a minute. But I did that video and then I journaled for like another month or two and then I had stopped and then I'd start again, and then I'd stop again. And it was just sporadic the whole year of 20, 24 until October. October, 2024 is when I. Seriously finally committed to journaling and I got really good at My five minute journal I had a lot going on and I thought maybe journaling would be a way to kind of keep me, I don't want to say contained, but like keep myself from going crazy. And then, it also was a really big part of me maintaining and getting back into my morning and night routine. Which is a different topic for another episode, but I do believe morning and night routines are really important which is why I loved having this journal that you do in the morning and night. It was just helping me stay consistent And now it's February and between October and February. I missed maybe like a handful of days But I've been super super consistent and I think since October I've noticed a change in my own personality. Hopefully, If we're friends, you know me in real life, and you're like, Wow, you know, Rebecca has been nicer. Tell me it's working. I want my positivity to be clear to other people. I don't want it to just be in my head. I want the good effects of what I'm doing to spread to other people. And I want to know if it's actually working the way that I think it's working. I think I have been a lot more positive since I've been very consistent with my 5 minute journal. Get a 5 minute journal is the best. Um, and then I also have this other journal. That I was doing in 2024 called the hero's journal, which was also part of my little video that I made that I still think my reel is cute. And um, so the hero's journal is another undated daily journal. And that just means that you can just pick it up at any time and start it whenever it doesn't have dates on it, you have to put the dates in. So it's undated and it has prompts the same way the five minute journal had prompts But the difference is it is a fully illustrated story. So you you Y e w you are the hero and you go on this epic story you fight bad guys you explore the world You grow as a person you Y O U, you are the hero in your own story, and that story is a hero's journal, which is a very, like, normal, um, I should've put this up. I should've looked this up. Now I have to, like, just look it up really quick. But the hero's journey, is this trope, um, that has been going on forever, and it's just like, you're a hero who goes on an adventure, and you come home changed and transformed, and that's the point of The hero's journal. Is you're following this story and you watch yourself grow. Um, and there's a couple different versions of it. The one that I got I think was like Lord of the Rings inspired. And then there's like a Star Wars one and a Harry Potter one. And it's funny because it is nerdy and it is cute. But also I don't care about either of those three things. So I just like had to pick one at random. Um, and they're not like straight up like Star Wars. But it's like you're in space. You are a hero who has to get across. The land, and go on this epic tale and fight giant spiders is the one that I had, I was like, that seems like Lord of the Rings, I don't really care about that, um, but, and I don't care about Harry Potter, I don't care about Star Wars, none of those things interest me, um, but it, it is really cute, and it also, um, had a coloring book, like you could color all the pages, cause it was this like fully, This big story where every day the story would progress a little bit more, you know, I had to fight off some raccoons and then I had to fight off some yetis and then I had to fight off some other things And it was cute. It was a coloring book. If you're into coloring books, I like it, too Um, and then lastly there was these weekly reflections. I was a big fan of those and so it all did sound really good except for I just struggled with it a lot, and it was weird because like, I just found it all really overwhelming. Um, the prompts were, to me, overwhelming. Each day I had to fill out what was my quest, three things that I was grateful for, three goals for the day. Today's allies and enemies, and then like there's two blank spaces. And I just always felt like It was too much. It was just too much, and I couldn't get my mind around it, and then some of the stuff, like, overlapped, like, what I was grateful for, what was my goals for the day, I'd already written that in my five minute journal, and then, like, the allies and threats part, I couldn't ever figure out what that was supposed to do, like, should I have filled it in the I feel like I would always fill it out in the morning, and then I'd be like, that was so stupid. I should have filled it out at night and then I could never convince myself to fill it out at night And then there was this whole thing in the beginning You had to come up with your quest and I was like really in my head about the quest It was too much pressure. It was in my head a lot, which is not helpful If I feel like i'm trying to get out of my head and I was far too into my head When coming up with my quest and then I felt like I was stuck with a quest and I didn't really like it And like I said the allies thing never really made sense to me i'd already written down my goals for the day and the three things I was grateful for in the space the five minute journal allowed me to write so much more stuff in there and I was Absolutely going crazy with it and I was super super annoyed with it and I stopped doing it and it was probably also why? I was being sporadic about journaling in general because I had this habit and This routine of sitting down with both journals in the morning and at night and when I stopped doing one It made me stop doing the other it was a whole thing But When I picked the habit back up in October, I was like, you know what, maybe I don't have to do it the same way I've been doing it. Maybe I don't have to fill everything out. Maybe I can just like, focus on the things that worked for me. Um, and there's two sections in the pages. on the daily pages that I really liked that were blank, actually. And I think one was supposed to be a time blocking section, or like for a to do list or something. And I started every night writing my daily recap of my day, just like everything that I did. I worked out, and then I had a meeting, and then I went and had this for lunch, and then I worked on this project, and then I ate this for dinner, and like, then I watched a show, and I would write like a recap of my day. And then there was another blank section on the daily pages. That I think was supposed to be like notes for the day as you were working But anyway, I just wrote how I felt about the day like was the day successful Did I have any major feelings about the day like here's all the things I did, but how do I feel about it? So I had those in two different sections and that is how I started using the hero's journal and it made such a huge difference like Writing about my life, and my day, after I had already practiced gratitude because I would do the five minute journal and then go to the hero's journal, it would like naturally put me in a better mood. And then like, if something had gone wrong in the day, when I was writing in my journal, I didn't feel like I was ranting, I felt like I was like, processing it, and I was like, getting it out and moving on. It was. Helping me like accept my feelings and I was able to just like write them down and then feel it while I was writing it down And then I could move forward without like ruminating and focusing on it and thinking about it for a long time And I really, really like that So, um, that was 2024 I finished, I actually did finish that, uh, the first week of January So, um, the first full Week of January, which was January 5th was a Sunday. Actually, I think I started on Monday because a lot of my my journals and my planners and stuff have starts on a Monday. So I started this year technically on January 6 with journaling and that's when I started the five minute journal and because I had finished my hero's journal had to find something else to do and I'm sure. You guys are thinking, well, Rebecca, if you were just using these two blank spaces to just write a bunch of stuff and not do the prompts, why don't you just get a blank notebook? Yeah, dude, I'm already on it, alright? I'm there. It's happened, okay? I have a moleskin. That's a soft covered moleskin, and I just like, write down my daily reflections in it. But also, now that I've said a lot of this, I realize that I am doing that before my five minute journal. Um, because my five minute journal says it's the last thing you should do for the day so I've started doing it to be my last journal. But, there was a day that I was feeling crazy the other day and I wrote a lot in my moleskin and it was a lot of me being angry about things. So maybe I do need to go back. To 5 Minute Journal first, and then my actual little journal, cause I will be in a better mood. Um, because basically right now what I'm doing is I take a half a page of my little moleskin journal and I just like write out what I did, any big feelings I had, how I felt about it, any plans, anything that went well, anything that went bad, anything I may be trying to do tomorrow. It's a very, very stereotypical version of journaling, and it works really well, and it's funny that I had to spend a bunch of money on these fancy prompted journals to get to this level of just, like, I'm writing down things the way that people have been journaling, like, forever. My stack so far this year is my fitness version of my five minute journal and then a blank notebook. But there's more. Um, because there was more last year. It wasn't just those two notebooks, there was some other things. Um, 2024, I also tried bullet journaling. And I loved tracking it. Oh my god, I loved tracking my days and my moods and what I ate and my habits. And like, if I was sick and my stomach hurt, oh my god, I loved it. I absolutely loved it. It's like stats, and I love me some personal stats. I love my data. I love data about me. Um, and so if you don't know what a bullet journal is, basically, um, every month, I would sit down with a dotted notebook and I would draw grids on it and then I would label all the boxes of what they were. Um, and it was beautiful and it was customizable. It was the most customizable thing you could ever do because I was just putting down the stats that I cared about. I cared about how my day was, a rating of it. Was my day great? Was my day okay? Was my day a rollercoaster? Do I just like not remember what I was doing? Um, was I sick? Was I pissed off? Was I kind of like neutral? Like what was my mood? And it was just all these little blocks and you just fill them in with like color in the blocks every day And I really really loved it I was only tracking the things that I wanted to do because like even now in my five minute journal I don't know I have to track I think it's like tracking how much water I drink and like I hate tracking my water So like the fact that's even in there is like so annoying to me I didn't have to track my water in my bullet journal because I didn't put that in a thing. Um So it is really really nice to have this like really customizable journal that is based towards you The reason I stopped doing it is because it was like incredibly time consuming. It was so time consuming I just couldn't keep it up like every month. I had to sit there and do all those lines For each month. Okay, is that this is my habits? Like I put my habits and I put my food and I put my illness and I put what I did like what workout I did I had to put all these lines every month and write all these labels and it was like awful and it took so long and Um, I think one month I just got like super busy and then suddenly the month was over and I was like, well, I miss, I missed April and then, and then I just like stopped, um, but, uh, this year, uh, because I loved it so much, um, I got it in my, I added bullet journaling Habit tracking, to my planner, and I just have like a regular planner, um, it is a custom planner, I got it from, um, personalplanner. com Also, all of these planners, I will link them, and I love them all. Even the ones I don't like, Hero's Journal, get that one, it's so cute, it just didn't work for me. But I will link it in the show notes, but um, So I have this planner, it's like a daily planner, like the thing like you would get from like a CVS, like, like a, like a daily, yearly planner, like here's, here's all the months and here's all the weeks, something like that, um, but I got it from this place where I was able to customize it and um, the, the customization isn't like super crazy, it's like you got to pick the color, the cover and like the layout and like what things are on the spreads, um, It's really not anything crazy, but I do kind of like it. And then you can also add on pages into the back and the pages that I added on were habit tracking in sort of the bullet journal grid format. So it was just there and I don't know if it's enough space for how many things I want to track in a month. Um, but, I like that it's just there and I can just like fill it out every day. So, I already have that book, I already use that book cause it's my daily planner that I just put all my stuff in anyway. Um, and that's, so it's just like another form of journaling that I like. And I'm a big fan of and I like a bullet journal Because i'm telling you if you like stats for whatever reason like I have a garment And i've previously worn a fitbit and a whoop like I love my data And so being the person who like I like writing down my data the bullet journal was really nice and it's also just a different tracking something different While while my regular journal is so much about my thoughts and feelings and stuff like that My bullet journal is just a really simple Here's a piece of paper with everything that I did or didn't do. Um, And then it also honestly helped me keep track of stuff. Like I used to put like cleaning the litter box on it So like, you know there's a lot of times where like I won't clean the litter box and then the next day I can't remember if I cleaned the litter box or not So like writing it on a little piece of paper, like I checked off our clean the litter box was honestly very, very helpful. Um, so I love the bullet journal. Um, there's some habit tracking in I think my five minute journal, but I didn't want to use that one, and I just wanted to put it in my other journal, in my planner. Um, so yeah, I have a three stack journal. Kind of. It's like three and a half. There's another journal that I was going to talk about in this podcast, but it's not really a journal. It's literally a planner. It's called a full focus planner, but I'm once again using a note section in a book to write about my feelings, but because it's a planner and it's like a productivity planner, and it's not anything we just talked about, but it is so work focused, I literally just like, basically journal about what I, my, how productive I was and what I was productive on in it. Because like, I'm not journaling, in my regular journal, I'm not gonna journal about like, photo editing, or like, I don't know. Transcribing a meeting and writing minutes for a meeting. I'm not going to write about that in my regular journal. But I will write it in my, in my work planner because it's a work thing. But that is journaling. Um, because journaling is simply a part of my life and I think I'm stuck with it. And I really like it. I never expected to be a person who's journaling all my thoughts and things down. It has really helped me. Build a habit, a very healthy habit of gratitude and processing my thoughts and just like staying consistent with self reflection and being really honest with ourselves. I hear this word all the time and I really don't like it, but accountability. People talk about accountability all the time around me. I don't like it. I'm not gonna get into why I don't like it. It's not a, I'm not a, it's not a thing I like, but I I feel like I can hold myself a little bit of accountable if I'm writing everything down if in my bullet journal I'm writing if I stretched, if I don't stretch for like two days in a row, I feel bad skipping over that little box. You know, and so it has really helped me be accountable. It has it's forcing me into these habits it's just like really really great. I really suggest journaling. I feel like i've gone on a tangent I've gone off basis, but journal it's the best. And if you're thinking about journaling My advice for that is to keep it really simple like find a journal literally just find a journal that works for you Don't overcomplicate it. You don't have to do every prompt. It doesn't have to be perfect just write out your thoughts figure it out Journaling is the best Or anything you might want to pass along, please tell me. I am a person who really spends a lot of time researching things. So I've actually spent an obscene amount of time researching journals. And I know so many Interesting journals that I didn't buy, but like, I would suggest to you, if you like, if you want a deeper reflection, all this kind of things, hit me up, I'll tell you some journals, we'll talk journaling, I would love to know the journals you use, um, what your methods are, if you have any tips for me, cause maybe I need to be doing better journaling, maybe I'm doing too much, I don't know, I have three notebooks, that's crazy, uh, anyway, follow me, on Instagram, R underscore Becks, Blue Sky, Rebecca Phoenix. Um, and then please subscribe to the podcast on your preferred podcast player or YouTube. And like I said, I'll link all of the journals I just talked about in the show notes. Thank you for listening and we will talk again soon. Thanks.