If you follow this blog and my YT channel especially recently, you would notice that I have been creating some buzz around Journaling. It really is a super power for me and it continues to both make me effective with my tasks, and extremely joyful at soul deep levels. However, I have made some Journaling mistakes, and I don’t want you making them. So if you are ready to get the gains of Journaling without these mistakes, please keep on joyfully reading. You’ll love this one.
Welcome welcome to my amazing blog, you darling Reader. Thank you for being here, and I promise, this would be worth your time. If it is, please drop a comment let me know. Amazing how I meet all these sweet souls who tell me how they read my blogs, and even watch my YT videos BUT I don’t even see your brake-light in the comments section.
Feedback like that makes me both joyful and know how this is impacting you, so if you don’t mind, drop a comment of your highlights and thoughts at the end.
Thank you!
Ok, so Journaling like you know is a super power for me, and I have actively journaled since 16. that’s 20years in the bag, Fam. Yet, I am not immune from making mistakes, and I even found myself extremely guilty of one major one recently.
Let me share 3.
- Journalling does not replace your time of Prayer.
Ehh, I had to start here because it can get easy for us Believers think that because I poured out my heart on paper, I have prayed. I found myself guilty of this for maybe 2 to 3 weeks, then one day it hit me that what I was doing was not PRAYER. Now I know that we have our prayer journals and sometimes we write down our prayers there, and in fact, in his book, Draw the circle, Batterson even talks about writing down his prayers. However, I have found that completely or even ‘half-ly’ replacing all my prayers with Journaling is not it. As believers, we need to declare and also pray out loud. Speak to the devil and situations. They don’t read journals, they hear words!!!
And even especially, praying in tongues. You cannot write down tongues now, can you?
Thou shall decree a thing…
Job 22 v 28.
In fact, there are many scriptures that talk about praying out loud.
So journal, yes, but even better PRAY!!!
Out LOUD!!!
P.S: Now you may not agree with me and that is OK. If writing down all your prayers works for you, please do.
- Don’t fall for ‘Journal Overwhelm’ :-
One thing about the stupid devil is how when he knows that you have caught light and truth concerning a matter and have made the plans to start it, he find a way not to stop you but to distract you from doing it well. So while you still KNOW it is a good thing to do, you are distracted from doing it. And one major distraction tactics of the enemy is overwhelm!!!
You have heard and read all the things I have been saying about Journaling, and yes you wanna start but you are like, how do I start?
Eziaha has 20plus journals
Eziaha has been Journaling since 16.
Eziaha is very orderly and systematic when she journals
She even indexes them.
Maybe that is why she has all these benefits and impact from her Journaling
Me that I am just starting, how can I keep up?
Then bam, you are so overwhelmed that you keep planning and planning and waiting for when you can have at least 5 dedicated journals before you start.
3 years later, you are still here, not started yet, and missing out of the blessings, impact and joy that this amazing gift of journaling can bring to your life.
Today, I have come to call the devil a damn bastard liar, and declare over you that you will now, from today, start to take baby steps if you have to, and make Journaling a daily or even weekly discipline, with a firm commitment to continue to build steadily on this practice without overwhelming yourself.
I wont dim my own light so that I don’t overwhelm you, because shining it loud and bright brings glory to God and should give you something to be inspired about, not intimidated!!!
You don’t need 4 journals for starters, you need one.
You don’t need to have started at 10 before you get the benefits. You can start now and then start enjoying the benefits.
And for goodness sake, you don’t need to listen to the foolish devil any more.
Like James Clear said in Atomic habits, “let’s make a habit first the standard, before we think of optimizing it.”
- Not making time to consistently read your journals
Again, something I found myself guilty of, especially because I would be so overwhelmed by how much I was writing anyways, and I felt that if I read one page or two, what’s that to the volume I have to cover. And now just to be clear, the operative word here is consistently not even the volume.
You don’t have to read a lot everyday; you can read 2 or even a page and that’s fine. All you need to do is do it daily.
Remember, standardize before you optimize.
What this looks like for me is deciding to even read what I wrote down in the morning again in the evening, or even the next morning before I end or start my day. Gosh this simple practice has been SUCH a game-changer for me in making it the standard. It reminds me again of what I wrote down but may have forgotten due to the ebbs and flow of normal life. And like I said in this video, one thing we journal is our WHYs especially at the start of certain projects, so reading it again the next day helps. This can take as little as 5mins or less, and we all have 5mins, even more than 5mins to invest in your own life.
We underestimate the power of a little a day, and overestimate the power of these magical bulk hours we keep expecting that never show up.
Start small. 5mins, first is OK!!!
And as I have optimized this habit, I also take one day a week to create a block of time to read through my thanksgiving journal and my day-to-day for the week, and then bam, it sets the tone for that week both for gratitude and action. I do these on Sundays and my goodness, the energy it creates as I go into the new week is catalytic.
I think I should do a Journaling Masterclass because honestly, my journaling game and gains have SKYROCKETED just this year alone and I would LOVE to share it. It will be a PAID for class though, so let me know in the comments if it sound like something you wanna learn?
Ok, that’s all for this blog.
What resonates most?
What would you be starting?
Do you have any Qs?
And I also wanna know, how long have you been a journaller and how many journals do you have?
don’t be shy, share.
And also share this blog with anyone needing some journaling wisdom, please.
Till next week, blessings and blessings.
Your Sister,
Eziaha
P.S.
I curated a list of blogs and videos I have done to help you if you are just starting on the journey to journaling consistently.
Here they are:
P.P.S.
My latest YT video is UP!!!
If you wanna know more about WOW! and the Jesus Girls’ ‘For-Purpose’ body, please check out these links…
WOW! Move your ‘For-Purpose’ Body from Vision board to Mirror Image
WOW! Our First 3 Citizens-only videos
I loved point number 2 about overwhelm. The key point however for me is start the habit before you optimise. Love it. Yes to the journalling master class please, first dibs for WILD sisters.
Big Yes! Then it becomes sustainable.
and Yayyy to the Masterclass!!!