a [Music] last year I entered my 30s and was at my lowest point so far in my life navigating so much change and wondering what life was going to look like in this new decade in those moments of Despair I had kept a journal where I would write pockets of good things somehow like a gratitude list and it allowed me to hold on to those little moments that made life wor living no matter how small they were at the time I was writing in the diarist journal to fill my days and it became a habit to use up the German terway calendar I had bought last year which allowed me to somehow Journal daily I would tear out these pages of every day from the date calendar stick them on my A5 size journal and I didn't focus on filling up a page as long as I wrote something to summarize what had happened sometimes the pages would have two to three entries from 2 to 3 days or just the whole day if I feel like there were a lot of things I needed to share I found joy and fulfillment in documenting this way and the more I kept doing it the more I felt encouraged to hone the habit of journaling about my days no matter how mundane or how simple they [Music] were over the holidays I did two things during our family trip to Japan I bought a hobonichi Tacho the A6 size original an attempt at redeeming myself after failing to finish it in 2016 when I first got my first hobonichi and I had asked my mom to bring my cherished Camp cover from Manila where I used to [Music] live 9 months later here's how my Daily Journal is looking like chunky filled to the brim overflowing with thoughts musings and moments encapsulated in the story I've been writing about my life for the year that we're in now surprisingly I have kept it up no matter how many trips I've taken or days I've [Music] missed I take some time to settle into habits so in instead of forcing myself to fill this up every day I figured out that the easiest way to incorporate it into my routine was to write for 10 minutes in the evening with a nice cup of hot tea just right before bed as a way to end the day I found that as I kept writing in my journal my Golden Rule was to not go over 3 days of no updates because the more I leave the pages blank the more my memory Fades the more it all becomes a chore to update it and the more I get demotivated to open my journal and start writing I'm currently in this season of life where I'm constantly learning more about myself enjoying my own company for now and being comfortable with the circumstances I'm in each day as I Journal about the day that was or how I felt or a mix of both I slowly unlock new realizations and hold space for myself s in these moments I want to share with you a couple of entries I've written this year they sound so silly looking back but I love how candid I can be when it comes to how I Journal after all this is the story I tell myself and this is how I want to remember it January 26 Friday full moon energy is real with all the emotions just been looming around and thinking and asking questions and it just feels utterly uncomfortable these days the sadness is wearing me down yeah this was the height of winter so I can imagine I was very much in the dumps and also it was very cold and the full moon was full mooning for [Music] sure May 2nd had backtack calls with my faves soapie and CH lots of De briefing and reassessing goals making big plans and dreaming up ideas it was edly exhausting and a wee bit overwhelming but somehow it feels like I'm on the right track honestly May was such a good month because I was just in Berlin the whole month and I had this like it was a pure on like recharge month so I think that kind of helped me get back on track with work and preparing for things to come the last one was a bit of more of the chaotic busy side because July was my busiest month so far this year before August July 10 Wednesday I will say that I survived today and managed to endure the be 81 torture woo so tired got the supplies I needed in modore co-worked with c and glow walked along cburg got into a meeting made pasta salad and work this is crazy but I'm savoring this busy season so very grateful yeah that was that was wild also that was the day I think I got rain Dawn surprisingly while walking along Berlin in Clarksburg because it just suddenly there was like a downpour was super wet and then I managed to make it to the workout so I feel like I would like to give myself a little bit of credit for making it through that day before we continue I'd like to take a moment to thank skillshare for sponsoring this video skillshare is the largest online learning community for creatives with thousands of classes led by industry experts across film illustration design freelance productivity and more skillshare can help you take your career skills Hobbies passions or side hustles to the next level with back to school season and fall incoming I personally am always looking for ways on how to be a constant advocate of being a student of Life which means constantly learning figuring out ways on how to improve not in a very drastic way but just like little additions here and there of knowledge and pockets of of learnings that I can incorporate into my day-to-day life one of them is obviously journaling but with journaling I also want to explore more and how I can write better and cultivate a habit of being able to get my thoughts across and also write in a way that would be more meaningful to me and one of the things that I've been discovering over at skillshare is there are a lot of journaling classes that you can explore but also writing classes which I think would be really really great as an accompaniment to journaling because when we Journal we usually write like from the first person point of view and we always have our own like way of reporting but with writing I think it's a great way to kind of add this in with your current skill set and one of the classes I would like to suggest is by Yasmin shayen it's entitled writing for self-discovery six journaling prompts for gratitude and growth I think this is a great way to learn a lot more variety of journaling Styles and techniques and also to be a bit more introspective with how you would like journaling to be in the greater scheme of how you want to document your life your travels and everything in between so I do hope you check it out if you're looking for more options in journaling I also found a learning path that would be useful for you so learning paths are a series of skillshare classes that are usually in sequence that give you a lot of ideas and inspiration on a certain topic so there is one that I found which I think would be really great to add to your journaling journey and it's reconnect to yourself with guided journaling it features a bunch of classes not just with writing but also like art journaling so you can explore more and discover on how you can further like add more ideas and inspiration to your own Creative Energy and also how you can Implement these in your creative process thank you once again to skill shareer for sponsoring this video and the first 500 to click the link in my description will get a month's free trial of of skillshare Premium so get started [Music] today my main goal with journaling daily is to keep it simple anything that feels like a chore doesn't sit well with me I like to enjoy and use my time [Music] wisely when I used a larger size Journal a few years ago I found out that the mental strain of having to fill an entire page gave me the unnecessity anxiety that I didn't need in the end I chose this smaller size because it's Compact and easy to fill up plus my handwriting is relatively small and when you add up the bits of tape and stickers and stamps I put on a page there isn't that much space to fill up considering I love to write I get to finish it fast close it off and do the same thing again the next [Music] evening when I'm traveling this journal also comes along with me and is usually the first one that gets written on because as I mentioned it has been built out of routine and that routine is something I still carry when I'm traveling so I I in some way it feels like I'm carrying a bit of home with me and that really allows me to not feel like I'm behind and not having to catch up if I don't have my journal with me while I'm traveling and eventually you know the Habit stuck and I've been consistently writing here and never missing a day so far this 2024 [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] it's interesting to read through my pages and you'll see a pattern of the same things a bit of a same same but different situation I have I think my own pattern that I try to like make sense of when I write my pages I mostly write about getting up working socials how I ended the day what I cooked for lunch if I did interesting thing that had happened that day that I would like to remember in the years and months to come here and there I will share some things I learned from the day that passed or I'll get so hyper fixated on a movie TV show or a song that I will end up writing about it non-stop but mostly it reflects my perspective and I write to make sense of my inner narrative free from judgment September has been so far an opportunity to catch up on lost time and to slow down while I can it is after all the last month of Summer and as the seasons change into Autumn and the crisp cold air starts to come in as I open my windows every morning I'm reminded of the beauty that change brings so the past two September since I moved to Berlin I was always back in Manila it used to be the designated month that I would visit home and I was fairly busy with other endeavors this year though I'm happy to be easing back into my routine I'll bait I would say it hasn't been the easiest and it has been kind of chaotic I'm still like tapping my toes and figuring out my way into it but I'm working on getting myself to a place where I can feel more [Music] myself whether it's through the work I do the walks I take or the people I meet it's always interesting where life always leads me and the choices I make to get to where I am really inform how everything is going as they say you know it is a journey after all and it's never a destination so these two days were the last days of the work week and while I try to keep my days fairly well planned out sometimes they just don't turn out the way I want them to that particular week this particular week did not turn out as expected but I learned a a lot about myself and made peace with the spontaneity that it brought [Music] me life can definitely be surprising sometimes and being able to adapt to those surprises is a reminder that flexibility is definitely a sign of growth ultimately by writing about my days I get to see all these patterns and connect the dots as to how I live my life especially in the season that I'm in writer Annie Dillard in her book The Writing life says how we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives in a way I hope these words on my journal pages become a testament to the life I've been living documented in these books that will hopefully outlive me capturing the small moments and thoughts that together shape my journey each entry is a reflection of who I am in that moment and and a snapshot of my evolving self I hope these journals serve as a reminder not only of where I've been but of How Deeply I've lived with intention curiosity and a commitment to growth if you're looking to start a journal or build your journaling habit this is definitely your sign to do so I hope you join in on this journaling Journey with me get to know yourself a little bit more hold space for the stories you have yet to write and parts of yourself you have yet to discover [Music] he