i have been reading through the diary I kept from ages 14-17 and realising how helpful it can be to keep a record of how you're feeling at different moments.

not only is it helpful to write down and process how your feeling and give yourself time to truly think about it, it's nice to have something to look back on. to not just remember how you felt about a certain situation but to actually have yourself from that time tell you.

and also, from an adhd perspective, it's really lovely to have reminders of things I'd almost entirely forgotten. it's easy to think that your life right now isn't interesting, but in 5 years time? to know what songs you were listening to or book you were reading or even that Thing that you were so worried about but now you can't even remember the details. it's nice to have a physical reminder that time passes and things really can get better.

As a notebook lover, I always buy new notebooks and leave them empty for ages! But now I've found ways to fill them up and I wish to share them with you guys too<3

Now there are thousands of posts that say specifically how to fill up notebooks. This is a bit broader and "umbrella term" type ideas. Regardless I really hope you consider these useful and end up using them!

Lots of love

-Mirah ☆

Put your music on shuffle and post the first ten songs.

I have less music on my phone than on my computer…But that’s in the other room so phone will have to do.

1. Be with You by Noah Guthrie

2. Song of the South by Alabama

3. I Like That (Stop) by Jae Millz

4. Part of Your World (Reprise) from The Little Mermaid sung by Jodi Benson

5. I Can Only Imagine by MercyMe

6. Canadian Idiot by Weird Al Yancovic

7. Lego House by Ed Sheeran

8. Lose My Mind by Brett Eldredge

9. It’s Not Unusual by Tom Jones

10. Tomorrow Never Dies from Tomorrow Never Dies sung by Sheryl Crow

My taste in music is even way more all over the place than this actually.

does anyone know where i can get a normal ass relatively affordable notebook (dot or grid preferred but lined is fine too - not blank) with this kind of thick, recycled speckle-y paper? everything i can find is either stupid expensive and not actually a notebook ("guided journals" as pictured lol) or on the opposite end of the quality spectrum (tissue paper dollar store notebook). in my wildest dreams it's like a bound a5 that lies flat but i will take spiral too. as we once said in a long forgotten era: i have a mighty need please send me leads if u have them

JOURNALING!

JOURNALING JOURNALING JOURNALING!!

Damn that word looks so weird when you see it repeated 💀

ANYWAY!

Cannot stress how important journaling can be when you just don’t know what to do anymore. I hate to admit it and I’m sure most people do as well but the human brain can only take so much. Everyone has a limit and there’s nothing wrong with that. But don’t pass out trying to finish a marathon with no water breaks you know what I’m sayin?

Sometimes (recently) I’ve actually felt embarrassed about journaling. I know nobody is gonna look and I don’t even go back and read my entries, but it can feel embarrassing to see your thoughts on paper. It’s true! Sometimes I feel that my problems are pretty stupid once they’re on paper but it’s really important to get out of your head.

I garuntee you will most likely go mad if you keep running in a circle about your bad thoughts and fears and anxieties all day long. Getting something off your brain and physically onto paper is extremely relieving. So- just give it a go. Doesn’t have to be in a book. Grab some spare paper, write something, and even throw it away after if you want

Just give it a shot!

Journalling Guide xoxo !!

A journaling guide for anyone who wishes to start journaling; if you’re looking for reasons to start, journaling helps with mental health, overcoming fears and discovering your identity. Or it can be just a chill thing you do in morning/evening <3 

Things to do with empty notebooks

I have a bad habit of collecting notebooks "because they're pretty" and then forgetting they're there so this is mostly for me to save money and paper lol. If you have any ideas feel free to add some!

40 Fun Things To Do With Empty Notebooks

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sew-much-to-do: a visual collection of sewing tutorials/patterns, knitting, diy, crafts, recipes, etc.

Journaling 101 : types of journals

Additional journal ideas (some of this could also be used as spread ideas in your personal journal or bullet journal):

journaling tips / reminders

1) it’s your journal your private space think of your journal as a little home you are free to decorate and adorn it how you will. you can use as many stickers as you want or none at all ! you can write lengthy entries or just write very little

2) you don’t have to journal in order !! who said your journal must be in chronological order … you can pick a random page and start writing or drawing it makes things more fun that way ( don’t forget to write the date so you can look back on it )

3) journal about your interests movies shows books you’re reading write down quotes you want to remember write movie reviews make silly drawings stick photos of stuff !! write your to do lists stick reminders on sticky notes ! it’s your journal have fun with it !

3) make things fun by adding texture and stuff to your journal example you go outside and get a ticket to the bus to train stick it there you go to a restaurant with your friend stick the receipt there !! think of your journal as an art book sketchbook whatever you want it to be it’s a story of your own telling and there are several ways to tell a story 🤍

4) it should never feel like a chore you should journal whenever it calls to you even if you don’t journal everyday but build the habit overtime ease into it slowly

5) finish new journals before buying another. I’m also guilty of wanting to purchase a new journal everytime I see one that calls to me ! try and fill your journals up before you buy a new one you can fill it however you feel and with whatever

man journaling is so underrated. like it does wonders for your mental health to write down your thoughts, it helps you remember what you've done, and you can add in all the fun stickers and tickets and things that you've found along the way. it's just such a good way to be off a screen and really think and use your hands and there's no wrong way to do it!!

Journaling When Your Life Feels Too Boring

(This is something of a departure from my usual posts here, but I figured I'd suggest some journal prompts for anyone who needs them ☺️)

So I read a lot about people who want to take up journaling, but are too intimidated by it. One of the most common reasons is they have nothing to write about - your life is dreadfully boring and nothing fun or exciting ever happens to you anymore. (Cue the "I'm being attacked" from millennials and generation z)

If you hate the tired old advice of writing about your day or complaining about your relationship troubles, maybe I can help. And I should know, I have an embarrassingly large plastic storage box in my room full of roughly 20 years' worth of journals.

The most important thing is that you're journaling for YOU, not for Tumblr or Instagram or YouTube. It's okay if you don't journal every day or if your notebook looks like it got run over by a car, as long as you're actually using it. Nice but empty, unused notebooks make people sad :(

1. Pretend you're a space alien - I can't take full credit for this one, I got the idea from an art journaling guide I found at a secondhand bookstore. If you try to describe your everyday life to a Martian (or some other nonhuman being like a robot or an ogre or a ghost from 17th-century France), it's going to look a LOT less boring.

2. Useless trivia and history - A side effect of #1 is that your imaginary audience might start asking questions about where things come from or why certain human practices are the way they are. If you're anything like me, you'll probably start Googling out of curiosity and wind up down a one-hour Wikipedia hole about liberation theology or bleeding heart doves or ruby chocolate. You can't go wrong with writing about the weird or neat things you've learned.

3. Describe your hobby - No, I'm not just talking about the usual like book or movie reviews. Go into really fun stuff you can't find on Wikipedia, like hobby in-jokes or shipping (or how silly you think shipping is) or petty internet drama. This has the added bonus of you secretly laughing (or losing faith in humanity) from all the dumb things going on while you're too busy swooning over Chris Evans or Taylor Swift.

Note: If you're REALLY clueless about what to write, the nuclear option is to take a random TV show or movie you're into right now... and look it up on tvtropes.org. I apologize for everything that comes after.

5. Moderate your greed (with apologies to early 2000s Philippine politics) - Agonizing over those fancy shoes you'd been eyeing in the mall? Arguing with yourself over getting the latest iPhone? You can try getting to the bottom of those desires by journaling about that thing you want or why you want it. This can help you come up with reasons to quell those desires - or backfire completely and accidentally convince yourself to buy it after all. Exercise with great caution.

4. Why aren't you doing _____ - Lets face it: we all procrastinate. So be honest and write about the secret, shameful reasons why. The __ can be as simple as why you haven't washed the dishes yet, or something big like why you still haven't gone backpacking through Asia like you always dreamed of.

6. My toes, my knees, my shoulders, my head - This is a common mindfulness exercise to help you calm down when you're stressed: sit quietly for a moment and do a mental inventory of how you're physically feeling right now. Has that small cut on your leg healed yet? Do you need a haircut? Do you feel like crap because you haven't been getting enough sleep? Go ahead and complain about all those things on paper.

Trigger warning: For those of you struggling with body image issues, this prompt might have the side effect of dredging up all those old insecurities. Be very cautious when approaching those thought processes, and remember to take care of yourself.

7. Don't write at all - You probably have a spot in your house full of things you can't quite bring yourself to throw away: movie tickets, family photos, bus tickets, shopping lists, post-its from the office, a wrapper or label from the sweets your aunt brought home as pasalubong. Or you probably make stick figure doodles all the time about all the gruesome things you want to do to your boss. All of those can find a place in your journal. Journaling doesn't have to be just writing; it's meant to be good for you, not to make you even more stressed or pressured.

Note: "Pasalubong" is a Filipino word for gifts your friends and relatives take home from their travels, like t-shirts or fancy chocolate or bottles of lotion and perfume. Yeah, this is really common in Philippine culture, you can look up the (sometimes tragic) history of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) for context.

Reblogging this for people looking for journaling ideas. Will also pin it going forward.

a small collection of my journals and their very specific purposes (june 2022)

100 shadow work/journal prompt ideas

I enjoy journaling. It’s almost like therapy, but you’re figuring it out by yourself. You’re trying to figure out your own issues by putting it on paper, sometimes it’s for self reflecting or for figuring yourself out. This is very similar to shadow work. 

What is shadow work? 

Shadow work is addressing your shadow self, the side of you that you bury deep down and avoid. It’s your unconscious mind, and it is important to uncover this side of you in order to achieve your highest self. There are multiple ways to do this, but the most known (and most effective in my opinion), is journaling. I thought I should share 100 prompts that really make you think. 

1. What was one time you remember feeling wronged as a child? How did you react? Has this affected you into adulthood? How?

2. Think about one time where you’ve felt betrayed. What would you say to the person who broke your trust?

3. Write about a time you felt let down by someone you’d previously looked up to.

4. What’s one trait you see in other people that you wish you had. Why do you not possess this characteristic yourself?

5. Do you often find yourself over-thinking what you’ve said or how you’ve acted? What usually triggers this?

6. What were your parents’/guardians’ core values while you were growing up? Do you hold these today or do they differ? How so?

7. What are your core values as a human being? What’s the most important to you? What are you morally passionate about?

8. What tends to trigger envy for you? Why do you think this is?

9. What are the first signs that your mental health is dipping?

10. When are you hardest on yourself? Why? Where do you think this stems for? Why do you put yourself under so much pressure? Why are you so reluctant to be kind to yourself?

11. How do you react when you’re angry? Is this similar to other people who have been in your life since childhood? Why do you think this is?

12. What triggers you? Can you identify where this came from?

13. How do you perceive failure? What is your definition of failure? How does it make you feel? Are you afraid of it? Why might this be? How did your parents/guardians react to failure?

14. What situations make you feel less than or not good enough? Why do you think this is?

15. What is your relationship with your parents and/or siblings like? How was it as a child compared to now? Why do you think this is?

16. What parts of your parents/guardians growing up do you see in yourself now? When did these begin to become apparent?

17. What toxic traits have you recognised in your parents? How did it make you feel when you realized that your parents weren’t perfect? Do you also possess these traits yourself?

18. What are your toxic traits? How do these present themselves? How do you project these onto others?

19. What aspects of yourself would you like to improve? Why? Has anyone in your past ever made comments suggesting that you should? If so, how did this make you feel?

20. How do you feel about who you are as a human? Why?

21. How often do you forgive yourself? What kind of things do you feel you need to be forgiven for? Why is this?

22. Write about a time where you messed up and needed forgiveness. Did you ask to be forgiven? Did you apologize? How did it play out?

23. Do you form obsessive or unhealthy attachments easily? Why do you think this might be; do you have a fear of change/abandonment/rejection? Or, on the other hand, do you find it difficult to form emotional attachments; do you struggle with commitment or get restless staying in one place for a certain amount of time? Where do you think this stems from?

24. How do you fill your time when bored? What gives you enjoyment? What self-care do you regularly practise?

25. What negative emotions do you tend to avoid? Why might this be?

26. What negative emotions do you actually feel quite comfortable sitting with? Why might this be?

27. Write about one person you’ve never forgiven. What happened and why did you not forgive them? Was it warranted? How has this event affected you going forward? Do you think you could forgive them now? How did you move on from this?

28. How do you carry the weight of your past trauma? How has it affected you?

29. How did you process emotions as a child, teenager, and young adult? How do you process negative emotions now? Has this changed over time?

30. How do you enforce boundaries? How do you feel when people overstep them? How do you react?

31. What is the biggest lie you consistently tell yourself? Why?

32. What misconceptions have you noticed about your harbor? Can you think about where these started?

33. What are your preconceptions about femininity? Why do you think this is? Where did they come from?

34. What are your preconceptions towards masculinity? Where did these come from?

35. What does the term ‘Shadow Work’ mean to you?

36. What are three main goals you want to achieve with your shadow work?

37. Did you have any heroes growing up? Who did you look up to and why?

38. How were you taught to deal with emotions as a child?

39. How do you deal with negative emotions now?

40. What’s the most hurtful thing you’ve ever done to someone else?

41. What’s the most hurtful thing you’ve done to yourself?

42. How have you moved forward from hurting someone else?

43. How do you plan to move forward after hurting yourself?

44. What’s the biggest promise to you that someone else has broken? How did it make you feel? Why?

45. What’s the biggest promise you’ve broken to yourself? Why? How do you feel about that?

46. Have you ever broken a promise to someone else? Why?

47. When you really think about it, is there any area of your life you’re in denial about?

48. What do you constantly lie to yourself about?

49. What do you lie to other people about? Why?

50. What’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told and why?

51. Have you ever had your heart broken? Write about this time in your life.

52. Have you ever broken someone else’s heart? Was it unintentional or intentional? Write about this.

53. Do you ever find yourself manipulating people in an attempt to protect yourself?

54. What’s a question you had as a child that you never got a real answer to? Do you have that answer now?

55. What is something that you’ve always wanted to confront someone about? Why haven’t you? Do you plan to? Why?

56. What is the meaning of life to you?

57. What was the last argument you had about? Was it resolved?

58. How do you feel about confrontation? Why do you think this is?

59. Do you ever have physical reactions to emotional feelings? Write about these. Why do you think this happens?

60. What’s your favorite way to self-soothe? Describe your perfect self-care day.

61. What family patterns am I repeating? 

62. When was the last time I truly felt at peace? Where was I? Who was surrounding me? 

63. In what situations do I feel less than others, equal to others, or better than others? Why do I feel that way? 

64. How do I define failure? 

65. What has been my biggest personal failure and why? 

66. When was the last time I felt jealous of someone else? What do they have that I want? 

67. What is your ultimate dream? Are you currently living your dream? What steps can you take to make it happen?

68. What is your favorite book of all time and why? Movie?

69. Are you doing what you love for a living? What is your dream job?

70. Make a list of 10 things that make you smile.

71. What do you wish you could do everyday?

72. Write down your own bucket list.

73. Write about someone who inspires you.

74. What’s an embarrassing moment you can look back on and laugh now?

75. List 10 of your favorite things, can be anything.

76. Write down your top 10 travel destinations.

77. How do you spend your time alone?

78. What are you the most grateful for in your life?

79. Do you care what other people think of you? why?

80. What excites you about the future?

81. What are some new hobbies you would like to try?

82. How do you want to be remembered?

83. What do you want to accomplish today and tomorrow?

84. What is your favorite song and why?

85. What motivates you?

86. What are your top priorities in life?

87. What are 5 physical features that you love about yourself?

88. What gift do you think you were born with?

89. What holiday or event do you look forward to every year?

90. How would you describe yourself to a stranger?

91. What life lessons have books taught you?

92. Which fictional character would you most like to be, why?

93. What is your favorite place?

94. Is there anything that has changed your outlook on life?

95. Can you keep a secret?

96. How would you change the world?

97. Are you good at organizing your time?

98. What would you do if you could travel into the past?

99. Where in your life do you need to be more fearless?

100.What would you change about your high school experience?