Journaling through Journeying

 

‘Dear Diary, Today I met a handsome prince who eventually turned out to be a toad. A kiss absolutely wasted.’

Don’t get confused. Netflix has its Christmassy charm in full swing and I am completely bowled over by it. It is my feel-good thing. But I have always been fascinated by the power of ‘diary’. Somehow only a princess maintained it and was later caught up in the cacophony of sweet bitterness of her frenemies.

I never did maintain a Diary, actually, that is not true. I did maintain a diary but never felt the need to hide it from anyone.  As a result, all my emotions were pretty scattered over for anyone to read. My parents were cool so never really bothered to infringe on my space. Now my journaling is this blog that I write. It gives me perspective and has helped me learn.

In my session day before yesterday, someone asked me about a way to maintain motivation while discussing focus during the journey. I use gratitude journal now. It is a list of things I am thankful for in that particular day.  To delve deeper into gratitude journal, we need to understand a bit more about the word gratitude and how is it different from a diary we maintained or still maintain.  Gratitude means thankfulness or to be grateful for something in life. I often quote this experience of mine when I talk about gratitude.

I was surveying a relocated community as part of my volunteering assignment, and one of the questions was, “Where do you go for toilet?”  Call it my ignorance or arrogance but the fact that I had to ask this question to them was beyond me. It was only on seeing their living conditions I understood the importance of it. Something that I took for granted in life wasn’t so. Not everyone was as blessed as I was.

I used to come back alone by bus and felt safe. That too is a privilege.

Gratitude is not about entitlement. It is about everything that makes my life easier in my journey.  I expect my life to be safe, and have health and roof over my head and food on the plate and education for my children but at the same time, I am genuinely grateful for having these things. I am grateful that there are people around me, I can talk to, and share this gratitude with.

In your journey, when you are journaling, you realize your progress becomes a story and every milestone is one interesting chapter after another that serves not just your purpose but also others.

Keep journaling, keep reading and keep sharing.