Too often the significance of moments and things in our lives are only understood retroactively, and certainly journaling is one of those things in my own life. Although now, I am facilitating workshops and hosting retreats that are centered around journaling as a tool for processing and connection, my understanding of the value of this incredible tool wasn\u2019t always present in my world. So before getting into the extreme value that journaling holds now in my own life, let’s start from the beginning of my own journaling story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
High school was some of the most memorable years of my life, but they were also some of the toughest emotionally. Being an empathetic person simultaneously in the raging hormonal years of adolescence, certainly made for emotionally overwhelming years. I spent most of my time in my bedroom when I wasn\u2019t at school or cheerleading practice. With the bedroom door closed, I often found myself writing song lyrics as I listened along on my Discman and writing teenage romantic fantasies of crushes and celebrities in my notebooks. My favorite was to stay up late enough for everyone else in the house to be sound asleep, to then switch on my bedside lamp, and scribble away into the late night hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can remember specifically receiving my first true journal from one of my friends for my 16th birthday, and that provoked me even more to treasure my thoughts and keep them on paper. Truthfully speaking, journaling became a ritual in my own life as a necessity in those angsty years. It was the place I felt I could write the words that I couldn\u2019t speak, it was the place I felt understood, and a place I felt I could feel all the things fully with a closing sigh of relief. Even beyond high school, journaling remained present in my life.<\/p>\n\n\n