How Journaling and Oc​ca​sion​al Coffee Shop Visits Do Wonders to My Soul

Happy day, hivers! ✨ It's no secret that I'm obsessed with stickers, pens and stationery stuff. Today I'd be writing about how journaling (including everything stationery) can be therapeutic, based on my own personal experience (not necessarily research-based).

This list is in no particular order, okay? Here's how journaling and ample amount of me-time (in coffee shops - because it's my go-to place) can be good for a weary Earthling like me (and I highly suggest that you try too):

#1: Journaling helps me with my vast array of emotions, especially the suppressed ones.

In my journey with writing & keeping a journal, I can say with certainty that it has helped me channel my emotions, extreme ones - too happy or too sad - onto paper. I do not care whether my grammar is bad or my penmanship is out-of-this-world: I write for myself and not for others so why the hell would I care, right? Whenever I feel like all out of sorts, I get my notebook and pen and I start to write whatever I think. Sometimes it's just scribbles - other times I form decent sentences. Most of the time, what I write doesn't really make sense, but the feeling of unburdening oneself just feels so, so good. For me, once I write it down, it's like I'm letting it go and I let the paper carry it for me. I get a heightened sense of freedom after writing.

Now you understand why in therapy sessions we see in films (and even in real life), a medical professional would suggest that you ought to keep a journal and write down your thoughts. Now that you've read that, will you consider journaling?

#2: Journaling improves my inner monologue.

If you're an adult human being who's matured enough, you'd say that, at some point in your life, you have experienced negative self-talk, or you may have trouble with it now. As for me, I have so much negative self-talk back in my teenage years. Though don't get me wrong, I still deal with it from time to time as an adult. If we think about it - the negative thoughts about ourselves are often brought about by our environment, the society in general. Growing up we believe those words were true and as if we held on tight onto those words.

Writing and me-time help me clarify who I really am without the influence of what the world tells me about who I am. I write down things that I am certain about me. This practice of getting clarity about how I see myself has improved my confidence and it has significantly decreased the odds of the negative self-talk resurfacing.

#3: Journaling makes me happier.

I guess in general arts and crafts are statistically proven to make someone happier than usual. The process of focusing on "creating" something makes no room for other messy stuff in one's mind. For a moment you forget about the world as you tune in to the creative genius living in you.

Writing, calligraphy, putting stickers onto pages, making art out of stationery items - doing this inexplicably puts a smile on my face and leaves me happier. The idea of making "something" out of nothing (blank page) is kind of exciting.

At this point, I recommend you try it yourself to find out what I'm taking about.

#4: Visiting Coffee Shops and Journaling uplift me, especially when I seem to be having a bad day.

A person who's not had a "bad day" is not even a person. You get what I mean? We all get our fair shot of a "bad day" at least once a month, or for some "lucky" people at least once a year. When bad days come, we usually have our workarounds in going through them.

The pattern I've noticed for myself now in my twenties is that I usually go to a coffee shop to clear my head, get me back on track, to breathe, to write it down, or maybe read a good book - in order to bounce back from the "bad day". Of course it helps also when I see my besties and talk to them, but sometimes I process it differently and just bleed out my sentiments in my journal. Most of the time, it works for me, so I try to stick to it. It actually also helps me to recharge and gain back my energy and positivity.

The list goes on and on but I think I've covered the general important ones that summarizes it all up. I don't know about you, but I hope you find journaling helpful - if you haven't tried it, I strongly suggest you do. On a personal note, (in my opinion, in case it's not clear haha) the benefits outweighs the risks in journaling and being crafty with the stationery stuff.

The photos below were taken just last month during my much needed Me-time in a coffee shop here in Cebu. I always enjoy every second of my quote-and-quote "journaling moments".

‘Til the next post, hivers! Remember that you are loved beyond borders and beyond time & space. Okay? Okay. 💛❤️

Ciao for now! 🤗🥰

This original article is written by Jong, the blogger behind writetowander.com. All photos are hers, too.

Jong CL

_{Hive-llo, everyone! Welcome to Jong's little buzz-y corner in Hive. Jong believes that every person she meets can teach her a thing or two (or three, or more) about life. She shares her love for life here-- the captivating beauty of life! To be more specific, but not necessarily in this order, she's interested in: wisdom, love, poetry, single life, books, travel, health&fitness, fashion, gratitude, unspoken hurts, heartbreaks and healing. Lastly, she loves Jesus.}

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