Filling up Notebooks Brings Me Joy
A lot of people are talking about the "Tidying Up" show on Netflix with Marie Kondo at the moment, so I'm sure when I talk about what "brings me joy", a petite and perfectly dressed woman with the most perfect hair ever pops into your head.
Seriously, that woman's hair is never out of place and I'm sitting here blowing my split ends out of my eyes as I type wondering, "HOW?!?"
But I'm talking about a slightly different type of joy. One that doesn't involve purging my belongings.
I love notebooks. I love looking at them, and buying them, and all the other stationary hoarding tendencies that some of us tend to exhibit in the world of writers. Unlike our buddy Ms. Kondo, who would have you try to thin out what you're not using, I'm all for being surrounded by these bad boys.
In a recent blog post about my 3 months of morning pages, I talked about how amazing it felt to fill up a notebook for the first time. I am onto my red notebook with the floral edging. I had to adjust my mindset a little, but I'm back on track and have been writing daily for over a month again with my Miracle Morning SAVERS.
The act of filling up pages and not worrying about it being for something "important enough", is exhilarating. As I inch closer and closer to the back cover with my chicken scratch, I get a little giddy.
Folks, I'm about to fill up my SECOND notebook ever.
Here's the thing. I don't know why I ever stopped journaling. I had diaries as a kid. That I never finished. I had idea books as a teenager, that sat more than three quarters empty. But now I'm starting to actively journal in a stream of consciousness way without pressure and it's been incredible. I feel lighter, I feel happier, and I feel like I'm taking time that is just for me and not a damn other person on the planet. If I'm working a challenge, or doing some kind of self-improvement class work, that goes in the journal too, but the important part is, I'm putting pen to paper EVERY SINGLE DAY.
A YouTube Channel I follow, Heart Breathings, is giving herself a challenge this year to fill up one notebook a month. (She's also a notebook hoarder and is working through her collection.) Check out the video below for what she's working on. Check out her channel if you want some serious notebook porn, because she has a video dedicated to flipping through her entire collection. And it made me want to go shopping.
While I'm not trying to use any specific number of notebooks each month, I am, as part of my goal to practice my Miracle Morning every day in 2019, going to be writing in a notebook every single day. I don't have as extensive of a collection as some, but I've got more than I'd like to admit. So I'm going to do my own #HBNotebookChallenge, and take a picture each month for my Instagram showing how my bookshelf progresses as I slowly fill it up with filled notebooks.
Right now, there are only two. One I filled up near the end of 2018, and the new one I've been working through in 2019. I'm hoping to add at least 5 more to the shelf by the end of the year for my notebook challenge.
Quick note, I was seriously about to say, I don't think I have enough blank notebooks to use for the whole year, and then my eyes landed on one of the bookshelves across from me in my bedroom where I'm typing this. I can count six on a single shelf. I swear. I have notebook amnesia. I don't even remember buying the damn things!
But it's all good. Because they make me happy to see them. They make me happy to flip through them. And as I fill more of them up with morning thoughts and intentions at the start of each day, I find so much joy in the process of writing in them.
What about you? Do you hoard notebooks? Are you going to participate in your own #HBNotebookChallenge? If you are, tell me how many notebooks you'd like to work through in 2019. Or tell me how many you've got stashed around your house. I'd love to hear about it.
~Roxy
Seriously, that woman's hair is never out of place and I'm sitting here blowing my split ends out of my eyes as I type wondering, "HOW?!?"
But I'm talking about a slightly different type of joy. One that doesn't involve purging my belongings.
I love notebooks. I love looking at them, and buying them, and all the other stationary hoarding tendencies that some of us tend to exhibit in the world of writers. Unlike our buddy Ms. Kondo, who would have you try to thin out what you're not using, I'm all for being surrounded by these bad boys.
In a recent blog post about my 3 months of morning pages, I talked about how amazing it felt to fill up a notebook for the first time. I am onto my red notebook with the floral edging. I had to adjust my mindset a little, but I'm back on track and have been writing daily for over a month again with my Miracle Morning SAVERS.
The act of filling up pages and not worrying about it being for something "important enough", is exhilarating. As I inch closer and closer to the back cover with my chicken scratch, I get a little giddy.
Folks, I'm about to fill up my SECOND notebook ever.
Here's the thing. I don't know why I ever stopped journaling. I had diaries as a kid. That I never finished. I had idea books as a teenager, that sat more than three quarters empty. But now I'm starting to actively journal in a stream of consciousness way without pressure and it's been incredible. I feel lighter, I feel happier, and I feel like I'm taking time that is just for me and not a damn other person on the planet. If I'm working a challenge, or doing some kind of self-improvement class work, that goes in the journal too, but the important part is, I'm putting pen to paper EVERY SINGLE DAY.
A YouTube Channel I follow, Heart Breathings, is giving herself a challenge this year to fill up one notebook a month. (She's also a notebook hoarder and is working through her collection.) Check out the video below for what she's working on. Check out her channel if you want some serious notebook porn, because she has a video dedicated to flipping through her entire collection. And it made me want to go shopping.
While I'm not trying to use any specific number of notebooks each month, I am, as part of my goal to practice my Miracle Morning every day in 2019, going to be writing in a notebook every single day. I don't have as extensive of a collection as some, but I've got more than I'd like to admit. So I'm going to do my own #HBNotebookChallenge, and take a picture each month for my Instagram showing how my bookshelf progresses as I slowly fill it up with filled notebooks. Right now, there are only two. One I filled up near the end of 2018, and the new one I've been working through in 2019. I'm hoping to add at least 5 more to the shelf by the end of the year for my notebook challenge.
Quick note, I was seriously about to say, I don't think I have enough blank notebooks to use for the whole year, and then my eyes landed on one of the bookshelves across from me in my bedroom where I'm typing this. I can count six on a single shelf. I swear. I have notebook amnesia. I don't even remember buying the damn things!
But it's all good. Because they make me happy to see them. They make me happy to flip through them. And as I fill more of them up with morning thoughts and intentions at the start of each day, I find so much joy in the process of writing in them.
What about you? Do you hoard notebooks? Are you going to participate in your own #HBNotebookChallenge? If you are, tell me how many notebooks you'd like to work through in 2019. Or tell me how many you've got stashed around your house. I'd love to hear about it.
~Roxy
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