Different things at different times
So I was reading April’s post another long winter and it said something I have not been able to get out of my head.
“We need different things at different times.”
So simple, yet so true and applicable (at least for me). In this instance, for example, I feel the need to ramble in a post, which is something I sometimes try to avoid. But in this post, I’m going to let It rip. Save yourself.
In their post they used an example of letting their yoga routine slip, due to other things in life moving up in priority. Just before reading it I was thinking about how I sometimes feel as though I can write a novel in my daily journal, and other times I barely get half a page before I feel as if I have nothing to write about. I’m sure there are other examples I could give, but today I’m running with this one.
I journal every day, and in it I cover the scenarios I believe I could face that day, what I can control in those scenarios, and I remind myself of the type of person I want to be before I start my day. In the evening, I write about how my day went, what I did well, what I didn’t do well, and any sort of “lessons” I want to bring with me forward.
Sometimes I sit and write for an hour. Sometimes I struggle to hit 5-10 minutes before I am at a loss for words. Maybe on long journal days, it’s because my mind needs a long journal day. Maybe I simply need to express myself more some days than others. A shorter journal entry doesn’t have to mean a wasted day where I didn’t learn anything, and a longer journal entry doesn’t have to mean I was more productive that day. Ebb and flow.
Writing that out makes it seem like an obvious, and almost pointless, fact. And one might say, if you have nothing to journal about, just don’t journal. But, at least for me, that’s not how my mind works. If I don’t use it, I will lose it. If I don’t keep journaling in my daily routine, I am afraid I will replace the time spent on it with something like social media or doom scrolling. It’s like going to the gym. Some days, you really are just going through the motions.
Some days I am just writing words in my journal, because I told myself I have to. Some days I go to the gym and and really just do not want to be there. Or I go on a run and it just doesn't feel right. But some days, I have the greatest gym session or run of my life. Sometimes I write pages in my journal and feel like I never want to stop. It just feels good. We need different things at different times, and at that time, all I need is to journal.
But if I never opened my journal that day, would I ever know that a long journal entry is the thing I needed that day? Or would I find myself reading dopamine slow-drip feeds instead?
April, I enjoyed your post! I’m honestly not even sure what my post was about anymore. I’ve never really been able to relate to posts talking about being afraid to hit the publish button until I wrote this post. But I’m going to do it anyways.
Ramble complete.