Journaling Demystified: How to Start a Gratitude Practice You'll Actually Keep?
Three Essential Steps to Mastering A Consistent Practice
It has long been said that journaling is the key to manifesting your desires. Only when we ascribe to persistently packing more things on our to-do list than there is the actual time to get it done.
We spread ourselves so thin to the point where there is no way in hell that we could even think of adding yet another thing, making efforts to carve out a consistent practice feel dam near impossible.
Luckily there are no rules around what a practice should be. Therefore, you can develop a customized practice to fit your individualized needs. This post will delve into the three essential steps to support you in curating a consistent journaling practice that you’ll keep.
You Are Not Alone
The thought of journalling can cause several feelings and emotions to arise, often leaving you with more questions than answers. If you’re anything like myself, you may have found yourself raising any number of the following questions:
What is journaling? Not just in the literal sense, but beyond writing your thoughts and feelings, what does it mean to journal, and what are its benefits? More importantly, how is it beneficial, and how does one know if they’re doing it right?
We live in an Information Age, where the answers to our most pressing questions are literally within reach. As a card-holding member of generation X, I can wholeheartedly attest to the ease of accessing information at the touch of a button.
Notably, our technological advances have grown leaps and bounds from the earlier times when communication was limited to using outdated encyclopedias. Likewise, just because the information was available didn’t mean it was easily accessible.
Going to the library was more than just a one-step process; as we had to learn and become proficient in accessing and leveraging a specific searches commonly referred to as the Dewy Decimal System. If your search skills proved insufficient, you were regulated to rely on the kindness and patience of the local Librarian to search the endless shelves of books, references, and periodicals to find what you were so diligently seeking. In doing so, a trip to the library could run the gamut from a half hour to the whole day.
Thankfully, in this day and age, we have access to endless information in the palm of our hands. We carry actual hand-held computers with the functionality to make calls and take professional-quality photos at the click of a button.
So naturally, why wouldn’t we be able to gain insight and clarity into the answers we seek? So glad you asked. Unlike the objective information we intellectually observe, digest, and apply through our senses, creating and remaining committed to a consistent journaling practice that places gratitude at the forefront is individualized journey which evolves from within. Likewise, no matter how many books or experts you consult can give you the exact practice that will work best for you.
An Individualized Practice
Beyond reading, researching, and gleaning insight from others’ individualized accounts of their journeys, no two paths are the same. In other words, we can read and research journaling, gratitude, and manifestation all we want, but it isn’t going to stick until we tailor it to meet our individualized needs. We are all individualized expressions of the Divine in that no two individuals are the same.
Even in the case of identical twins who are physically be indiscernible to others, no two people are the same. Therefore, there are no rules set in stone for us to follow, only universal laws with which we must align ourselves to harmonize with our desired abundant life.
Note that “abundance” is interchangeable with whatever you seek to invite more of in your life. Be it financial wealth and abundance, or more life, and to quote Howard Thurman, “I want to be more loving in my heart.” (aka more love).
To take it a step further, how does giving thanks for all I experience through my senses serve me? How much much journaling is sufficient? Likewise, does one have to write a few lines, several pages, or the equivalent of a dissertation? How does this affect my availability of time? How do I know I am doing it right? More importantly, how long will it take to see the fruits of my labor?
The list of questions can infinitesimally go on and on. Not only can these questions leave one feeling a sense of discomfort, but they can further leave one feeling that journaling practice is not meant for me. If this resonates in the least bit, I’m here to reassure you that there are no rules, as you can curate an individualized practice to meet your unique needs. Rest assured that you can evolve an approach that is well-suited and sufficient to your exact requirements.
The Power of Gratitude
Gratitude is one of the most widely misunderstood practices. Understandably, most are well-versed in giving thanks (aka gratitude) to those outside themselves. Be it an act of kindness, gift, goodwill, or gratitude forms the premise of the age-old saying that one should “do unto others as we would have them do unto us.”
Understandably, anytime you or anyone outside of yourself does anything for your benefit; it should be followed with gratitude. One would thinks this same approach would apply when working with the universe to co-create our desires.
Interestingly, manifestation ascends the physical and works according to the predominant frequencies in which we vibrate.
As spiritual beings having a human incarnation, we are taught to experience the world through our five senses. Likewise, gratitude practice essentially calls for us to put aside all that we have been trained in and shift to an entirely new approach that aligns with the frequency of our desired intent.
We are all energetic beings with an innate power to co-create with the universe through thought's creative power and energy. Everything is energy, and whether conscious or not, every idea we think and entertain generates an energetic vibration that magnetically attracts all required to materialize our thoughts into tangible form.
Invariably the thoughts we think emit a frequency that magnetically attracts the object of our attention. At any given day or time, our thoughts can stray away from our intent and into a downward spiral of worry, fear, lack, and limitation, magnetically attracting more of the same, derailing our efforts.
Anytime we use physical evidence as tangible proof of our actions, it disproportionately relies solely on one dimension (aka our physical world). Notably, a large majority of our world exists within the unseen realm. The key to manifesting our desires resides with gratitude practices that support us in raising our frequency to align with the desired intent.
3 Steps to Cultivating A Gratitude Practice You’ll Actually Keep?
Building a consistent gratitude practice is an evolving process that ebbs and flows with the flow of life. As with any new habit, the beginning will likely be riddled with discomfort. However, the more you engage in the activity, regardless of whether one feels like it, the more it becomes automatic, creating habit patterns that soon require little or no thought.
In other words, the key to establishing a consistent practice is making it a non-negotiable habit. Understandably, there will be times when you will miss the mark and fall short of your efforts; forgive yourself and repeatedly begin again, as many times as need be. At minimum repeat these steps for thirty days.
1. Designate A Consist Time
You can choose a time each day in which you can carve out five to ten minutes (preferably in the morning shortly after you awake) a day to sit in solitude to practice journaling. Before you put pen to paper, take a few moments to direct your awareness to the natural rhythm and flow of the breath.
Take a few deep cleansing breaths and naturally breathe through your nose for a few breath cycles. Aligning your awareness with the natural flow of the breath is a supportive practice that pulls your attention out of being solely in your head and into the present moment. Begin to feel into what you are grateful for.
We are multidimensional beings in that there are three planes to our existence, as we are spiritual beings living in a physical body with an intellect that allows us to tap into our higher selves. Holding our desires in our mind’s eye (aka gratitude) will enable us to use our imagination to lock in and raise our frequency to align with the vibration of our desire.
Doing so empowers us to feel the energy of having our wish fulfilled (aka manifestation). This aligns us on two planes; physical (the feeling) and intellectual (imagination). According to universal law, the more consistently we hold our desires in our mind’s eye, believing and holding the frequency that it is already done, the faster it will materialize. Therefore, it is already happening now. Consequently, it is only natural that we feel into the energy of gratitude to give thanks, that it is already done.
“What exists physically exists first in thought and feeling. There is no other rule.”
- Jane Roberts
2. Contemplate & Journal What You Are Grateful For
Depending on the time you have available to dedicate to the practice, list 3 to 10 things you must be grateful for. Go beyond the physical, and journal the things you are thankful for that are already happening now, regardless of whether or not it has materialized. For instance if you desire financial wealth and abundance, feel into the vibration that it is a current fact.
Pull yourself away from any objective facts surrounding your current account balance, and use your imagination to feel into how it feels to be financially free. Afterwards give thanks by forming 3-10 statements in the present tense expressing gratitude for what has and has yet to manifest. Be sure to structure all statements in the present tense with “I am grateful for.”
3. Journal What Actions You Are Taking to Attract It
It has long been said that faith without works is dead. One can have a desired intent to manifest a specific thing; however, merely feeling into the object of your desire without action is futile at best—Journal what steps you will take to bring you closer to actualizing your intent in present tense for each day.
These entry’s can be as short or long as you time permits. The premise is that journal intended actions on a daily basis supports you to remain active in putting in the work to manifest your desires
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