I love keeping a journal! Haven’t been writing in it as much because now I have substack to process my feelings intellectually, but sometimes when my emotions are overwhelming or I’m having a lot of anxiety, I’ll write in it. It feels so cathartic afterwards. Even if I don’t have coherent words to write, I will paste in stickers and draw in it as a form of release.
The concept of common humanity is so important! Even if we feel alone in our struggles, they are more universal than we think (as you mentioned with stories of prophets, or with authors who wrote centuries ago that we can still relate to when we read their works).
Hi Leena 🌠 I myself keep multiple journals lol. I have multiple digital journals (DayOne), a few physical notebooks as well. A helpful reminder is that you don't 👏🏻 have 👏🏻 to 👏🏻 journal 👏🏻 every 👏🏻 single 👏🏻 day 😫
there i said it. Why the guilt for those blank days? Who's coming for you if you skip a week, or a month? What i find for me is sometimes my brain is too loud i need to offload the contents somewhere. Sometimes it's quiet, and content to simply be.
I've been journaling for the last six months now and subhanallah it helps a lot. Sometimes it is a thought dump of the millions of fears and feelings that I feel at that moment swirling uncontrollably through my mind, other times it is thoughtful, trying to more mindfully work my way through a difficult moment, thought, or emotion, and some times it is just me writing out my duaas which sometimes is easier than saying them out loud. With dyslexia it is sometimes so hard to express myself or put what I am feeling into words so I could better act on them. Even so, just trying and continually trying to write and understand myself, things will slip out and I'll start to better understand myself to then be able to act on it in a way that has self compassion so I help myself improve or work through that barrier.
Jazakulahu kahirun for sharing today, as always. It was thoughtful and helps remind me of the important things. Tbh I struggle a lot with self compassion - i have a lot of high expectations of myself and perfectionism is something I am constantly trying to fight off. I may move more in that direction in my journal entries to better work on it <3
I love that you journaling abundantly! It absolutely helps with navigating emotions. I totally agree on the dua part!! I wanted to start writing them down as well, I feel like when I say them, I don't word them well or don't express myself the way I want to, so hopefully writing will help with that.
Dyslexia might make words slippery at times, but Allah understands us and knows what's in our hearts even when we can't fully express it.
Self-compassion is definitely a habit that needs be built, I didn't realize one of the affirmations I was already using, reflected self-compassion, but now that I know more about it, I want to be more intentional about adding self-compassion to the little moments, Insha'Allah! It's all about making little steps in the right direction.
May Allah keep softening your heart towards yourself, because you deserve that kindness and deserve to feel like you're good enough as you are!
I agree that journaling is a great way to deal with all sorts of negative emotions but I also use it for the positive ones too. Journaling has helped me become more empathetic and accepting of myself and the opportunities God has chosen to give me. I recommend it to everyone!
I love keeping a journal! Haven’t been writing in it as much because now I have substack to process my feelings intellectually, but sometimes when my emotions are overwhelming or I’m having a lot of anxiety, I’ll write in it. It feels so cathartic afterwards. Even if I don’t have coherent words to write, I will paste in stickers and draw in it as a form of release.
The concept of common humanity is so important! Even if we feel alone in our struggles, they are more universal than we think (as you mentioned with stories of prophets, or with authors who wrote centuries ago that we can still relate to when we read their works).
I love putting stickers in my journal!!
Ya reading books or and other people’s post makes me feel so seen.
Hi Leena 🌠 I myself keep multiple journals lol. I have multiple digital journals (DayOne), a few physical notebooks as well. A helpful reminder is that you don't 👏🏻 have 👏🏻 to 👏🏻 journal 👏🏻 every 👏🏻 single 👏🏻 day 😫
there i said it. Why the guilt for those blank days? Who's coming for you if you skip a week, or a month? What i find for me is sometimes my brain is too loud i need to offload the contents somewhere. Sometimes it's quiet, and content to simply be.
OMGG I remember I tried DayOne a couple times!! The interface was super nice!!
I totally agree, journaling is supposed to be a fun activity, there’s no need to create unnecessary pressure to journal daily if you don’t need to!
I've been journaling for the last six months now and subhanallah it helps a lot. Sometimes it is a thought dump of the millions of fears and feelings that I feel at that moment swirling uncontrollably through my mind, other times it is thoughtful, trying to more mindfully work my way through a difficult moment, thought, or emotion, and some times it is just me writing out my duaas which sometimes is easier than saying them out loud. With dyslexia it is sometimes so hard to express myself or put what I am feeling into words so I could better act on them. Even so, just trying and continually trying to write and understand myself, things will slip out and I'll start to better understand myself to then be able to act on it in a way that has self compassion so I help myself improve or work through that barrier.
Jazakulahu kahirun for sharing today, as always. It was thoughtful and helps remind me of the important things. Tbh I struggle a lot with self compassion - i have a lot of high expectations of myself and perfectionism is something I am constantly trying to fight off. I may move more in that direction in my journal entries to better work on it <3
I love that you journaling abundantly! It absolutely helps with navigating emotions. I totally agree on the dua part!! I wanted to start writing them down as well, I feel like when I say them, I don't word them well or don't express myself the way I want to, so hopefully writing will help with that.
Dyslexia might make words slippery at times, but Allah understands us and knows what's in our hearts even when we can't fully express it.
Self-compassion is definitely a habit that needs be built, I didn't realize one of the affirmations I was already using, reflected self-compassion, but now that I know more about it, I want to be more intentional about adding self-compassion to the little moments, Insha'Allah! It's all about making little steps in the right direction.
May Allah keep softening your heart towards yourself, because you deserve that kindness and deserve to feel like you're good enough as you are!
I agree that journaling is a great way to deal with all sorts of negative emotions but I also use it for the positive ones too. Journaling has helped me become more empathetic and accepting of myself and the opportunities God has chosen to give me. I recommend it to everyone!
I agree, we should celebrate our wins too through journaling!! Absolutely everyone should do it, journaling is awesome!!!
I might be obsessed actually haha
Loved the read as always. It's packed with really useful methods to cope with our negative feelings.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading, I’m glad you liked it!!