I recently posted a video on my YouTube where I shared more information on this topic. Ugly journaling…what is it? What does it even mean? Is there such a thing?
To me journaling has always been a best friend, someone who I can count on, not something that is aesthetically pleasing. I have had some type of a journal since I was about 8 years old and my journals were filled with what my days entailed, and going to the pool with my friends and who likes who and all that sorts. I have always added little stickers and embellishments and business cards and any other ephemera to my journals to help commemorate things that were important.
Once I joined the planner community and began to look at my instagram feed of all the beautiful pages that filled peoples journals I began to question my own. I thought well are my journals good enough? Mine don’t really look that good, and geez I never thought to include that into my journaling. I needed to stop myself before allowing this kind of thought enter me. Like I said my journals are my friends, my confidants. These pages are filled with love, happiness, sadness, anger and confusion. It’s a different kind of art that I have in my journals. They are pages that I don’t often want to share. They are not something that I want other to judge or to see me in such a personal and vulnerable state. I have spent years and years developing relationships with these books that it didn’t seem right to have to change that. What I have done instead is incorporated some of the ideas from instagram and pinterest to better my journal pages but not to change or judge my journals.
Whenever I speak to anyone about journals I always share with them that it’s YOUR journal it’s about you, that’s the most special part about it. No on else in the world is you. The thoughts and feelings that you have poured throughout these pages are incredibly special. You may not always realize this , especially when you first start a journal. You begin to realize the importance of this book once you are near completion. At that time you start to f
eel some sorrow that soon you will be parting ways with this friend. You won’t be saying good bye buy you might need to say ‘well old friend it’s time to move on to another chapter’. I have some journals that on the day I closed them I never wanted to open them again. I was thrilled to be moving on and working on something else. I have journals that have tear stains on them that when I do look at them I can see how much I have grown.
Journals are incredible treasures. Books that keep memories of your existence and no matter what they ‘look’ like they are incredible because they are yours. Do not be intimidated by others with beautiful instagram photos, instead take inspiration and realize that their journal most likely has ‘ordinary’ pages in it as well. People who are posting a photo to Instagram are showing their best work. I wouldn’t necessarily put up something that I didn’t think was great. Just know that the more you love and trust your journal the more treasured it becomes and becomes and extension of you!