Hi everyone! I hope you’re well 💗. If you’ve been reading my most recent posts you’ll be aware that my beautiful little dog Toby passed away at the beginning of the year. This left an invisible cloud over my families life but I won’t go too far into that or I’ll cry, I’m trying to be positive here 😅. The day before Toby died I did something that has altered my viewpoint and strength throughout this sad event……I started journaling! And through this I was asked to make a long term vision board and a short term vision board too.
I truly believe that no matter how short my journaling journey has been so far, it has helped me immensely and I feel like I’m reclaiming the year. No, 2025 hasn’t physically been taken away from me but someone I care about has and that gives me the feeling that the year was almost taken too by this passing that was monumental to me.
Shall I let you in on what guided journals I’m using? They are The Head Plan journal and The Day by Day journal! The Head Plan journal focuses heavily on goals and The Day by Day journal is whatever you want it to be as it’s full of suggestive prompts. I think at the end of the year I’ll do a review on each of these journals and let you know how much they’ve benefited me by then, that would be fun! These journals both motivate me in their own unique ways and I’m very excited to see where using them takes me ✨️.
I used to bullet journal but this feels hugely different for me. I was gonna say I lost that creative spark but in the Day by Day journal there is free space and I have found myself scribbling away 😄. Now, I’m no Picasso but I’m enjoying drawing things again and that’s big to me. I don’t know if I’ll ever bullet journal again, never say never and it was so fun sharing those spreads as posts on here but I’ve found my way back into having a private outlet. I call it private because I’m not gonna be showing you written pages or my vision boards (they stay exciting to me that way, I always lose interest when I show people things 🤣) but it’s not too private for me to mention here as I wanna keep you guys in the loop.
When this post goes up, I will be coming home from a few days away with my mum and my sister (it’s my mums Christmas present from my sis!) but I’m writing this two nights before we leave so its something i’m really looking forward to! We’re staying in the same county, in a place we’ve been to before but a different suite. And it’s above a Tkmaxx guys!! Remember how I used to rave about Tkmaxx? 🤣 I even wrote a post called Why I Love Tkmaxx 🙈. I still love it but boy did I used to be crazy about it. Anyway, I’m going off point here but what I wanted to add in is that I’m packing my journals to come with me of course! They are always by my side as The Head Plan journal is an undated planner but once you commit to writing a date it kinda ropes you in to continue the week 🤣, I need that push to do it so no complaints here tho!
So yeah, I’m reclaiming the year by journaling! Let me know if you want to see an end of year post about the journals and whether or not my vision boards came true! I have a good feeling about them so fingers crossed!! Ps: I tried printing out the vision boards myself alongside a picture of Toby to frame but my printer ate the paper as it had gone too thin in the cold weather and I don’t even know if it works properly anymore so I had to get them printed out at my local library instead. I paid for black and white versions by accident at first and then got help to change it to colour 😅 all that so I could sellotape them into my journal, put them up on my wall and frame the picture of my beautiful baby boy so it was worth it! Not a hassle but thought was a funny story…I’ll go now 🤣.
I will see you in the comments and maybe over on your blogs as I’m getting back into reading posts again! It’s been nice 🥰. I hope you have a lovely day/night depending on when you’re reading this, take care and buh-bye ✨️💗
Do you journal? Have you got any journaling tips for a newbie? The comments section is open! 🤣
Elsie LMC 
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