Walks and words.

Hi !

I hope everyone is well. So another week passes and we are in May.

10th - 16th May is Mental Health Awareness Week.

The goal for the week is to inspire everyone to have at least 30 minutes walking in nature each day, for our mental well-being.

My ethos at Elements of happiness:- is to take a mindful walk, capture your time spent in nature with your camera/phone and take some time out to journal. I personally aspire to these three on a daily basis. When I first moved to the island I would take a phone photo a day, just so that I could scroll through a pictorial calendar, which is always an uplifting reminder of just how much nature provides us. I tend to have three categories of walk: coastal, country, woodland. Most of them have animals involved, which add to the feel good factor.

The importance to our well-being is phenomenal. Even on the cold, wet days, we now treat a walk as a daily practice. I also enjoy capturing our walks, as you can see from this tree. Nature is such a place of natural art. I always try to look up for interesting patterns. Since moving here I would say my appreciation of nature is possibly at its highest. Which leads me to the next part of my daily rituals.

Journalling and why it is such a positive activity

When we journal our neurotransmitters release the following:-

Serotonin - This plays an important role in calming and balancing brain activity.

Dopamine - This stimulates and calms. It is important for reward and motivation.

Endorphins - These look after our positive wellbeing, our euphoria gene and also reduce anxiety and depression.

Journalling is incredibly therapeutic and also:-

Improves your mood.
Downloads and declutters the brain.
Strengthens your immune system.
Reduces stress and anxiety (better out than in)
Improves memory.
Keeps things mindful, focused and motivated.
Allows your imagination and creativity to flow.
Goals and gratitude journals are uplifting and once written down things are more likely to become a reality.
Dreams become more doable.
Dilemmas become manageable.

I am a real stationery queen, so for me it is all about my love of all the beautiful journals that are available. Journalling is now so massive. When I started over twenty years ago (eek), Journals (or notebooks as they then were) were few and far between. Now they are everywhere!

I have now used printed guided journals, bullet journals, bound journals and personally I prefer regular lined pages that you can convert into the use that you require. I used to get my journals from all the big well known stationery suppliers and now I get them from supermarkets - Yep and they are just as pretty as my photos prove. This season, my journals are from Morrisons. Thank you for feeding my desire to write.

Pens, once again my pens used to come from the main dealers. I do still love coloured pens. I generally write in purple, turquoise or pink, purple being my big go to colour.

Digital Apps - there are also lots of journalling apps available too. These seem to be perfect for someone looking for a diary/private format, an app has the safety element of a password and also the speed of typing if you wish to do it while you are out.

How do you start your journal journey?

Choose a journal and pen.
Create a space in your home, that is going to be your journalling zone.
Candles and music are nice additions.
A timer is good, especially if you are feeling guilty for even being in the space. To start with set if for something like 4 minutes.
Set a time to write. Are you a lark or an owl, does your inner creative prefer mornings or evenings?

As an example, set your timer for 4 minutes and then just write whatever the prompt below triggers.

Today I ……….

There are also lots of journalling prompts and tips available on-line.

Finally once you start writing, you will soon find yourself in your own personal flow/style/pattern of writing.

Your journal is your private space, so how you store it, is how and where you feel comfortable. My cats love playing with the page marker ribbons in journals and my husband has plenty of other reading awaiting his attention :-) I think my journals are pretty safe.

If you are new to journalling, I hope you enjoy it, it really is very therapeutic and fascinating to discover what we hold in our minds.

“When writing from the heart, we provide our souls with the opportunity to write with honesty and clarity” Jules Matthews

I hope you have enjoyed reading.

Until next time.

Stay safe.

Jules xx

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