Daily Journaling and Why Writing Matters

Writing and journaling matters to me... A lot! I couldn't be without my journals, it's my form of expression and a much needed means of relaxation.  Plus I am a complete stationery addict.  And so to mark World Stationery Day and National Stationery Week I have decided to write why writing matters to me.

I have to admit, it did take me the best part of a day to think about what to blog about for National Stationery Week, it could have been a number of things; My favourite types of stationery, an up to date post about my favourite UK shops (click to read my post from last year), a list of my planners and journals or what to include in them.  However the message of the week is about writing and as a teacher myself I know the importance of it.

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How can daily journaling help you?

But I'm not a writer, what would be the point in a daily journal?  It's a fair question and you are right, you might not gain anything from it, you get out of things what you put in.  However writing daily even if it is just a few notes on tattered pages really helps to refocus your mind and get out your internal demons.  It's a great way to put your thoughts on to paper and you can also play with pretty stationery whilst you are at it, if you want to of course.

Michael Rosen sums up his thought's on writings significance over on his blog in one of the quotes below. ​

"Writing, then, has the function of storing up stuff, partly or perhaps mostly because we can’t store it in our heads: we can’t know everything. We use writing to compensate for our own deficiencies. I like that. Writing helps us. Writing is our prop. "

It's all getting a bit deep (keep it light Kerry), but I like the idea of a journal being our prop.  If I'm having a bad day I journal about it, getting it down on paper is a sense of release.  Even better if we are writing about things to make ourselves feel better.

Types of Written Journals

The Creative Journal

​Ahhh my favourite type of journals: The Creative Journal. Here is where you can really let your creativity shine.  Creative Journals cover any type of journaling style that uses a mix of writing, photographs and things that you have saved such as tickets, leaflets and keepsakes. 

​There are many names for it: Smash Books, Memory Keeping, Written Journals, Travel Journals and even Scrapbooking. I love that there are no rules and you can literally just cut and stick anything on to a page.  I recently created a travel journal (now my third) and I love it, it's a great way of keeping your memories and is much prettier than a photo album as it's a lot more personal.

The Bullet Journal

If you have been browsing the internet for the past 2 years you can't failed to have noticed the popularity of Bullet Journaling.  I love creating bujo styled layouts (bujo is a short term for all things bullet journal related). I'm not a true bullet journaler, but a lot of my planner layouts use a bujo style and I also have a lists / bullet journal style book that I add things to like mood and weight loss trackers and my Monthly goals. 

​The bullet journal system was started by Ryder Carroll over at bulletjournal.com.  It uses a series of keys to make logging and checking off tasks quicker. I often use these as check boxes in my planner that I can mark as I complete the tasks.
You can have a look at my bullet journal here 18 Bullet Journal Spread Ideas.

​I get most of my ideas for bullet journal style layouts and spreads from Pinterest, there is a large bullet journal community there and it's a great source of inspiration.  Go follow my Bullet Journal Inspiration board.

To summarise my musings and this post really is a big ramble; journaling has helped to ground me, made me a more relaxed person, it helps to keep me focused, it has made me a much happier person and most of all I enjoy it.  I have made an enormous amount of friends in the journaling community, both online and in real life. Writing matters to me ... A Lot!

National Stationery Week

To mark the week, over in my Facebook Group, I have a week of challenges to mark 7 days of stationery.  Head over there now to take part.

Monday - Create a lists page in your journal
Tuesday - A journal page using only pen
Wednesday - Go for it, anything paper related
Thursday - A journal page with writing
Friday - Is Derwent day, so watercolour, pencils etc
Saturday - I will share some of my favourite shops
Sunday - Anything happy mail related, pocket letters, flip books etc

I will do a little stationery/journal goodies prize for the person who contributes the most.

You can also join in the National Stat Week fun on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtags #writingmatters #natstatweek #stationeryaddict
​
Take Care, Kerry xx

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