Much Needed Self-Care
I started this
blog with the intention of getting back into daily journaling. As I mentioned
in my first blog post, I wasn’t as diligent with journaling as I had been
before because of the huge influx of work that comes with the school year. I always
journal right before going to bed, meaning that the state of my alertness
affects the quality of my journal entries (by quality, I mean the degree to
which the journaling actually helped me to relax, think through my day, de-stress,
etc.). Unfortunately, even after starting this blog, I would just quickly jot
down a few interesting things that happened and call it a night because I
barely had the energy to even hold up my pen by that time.
Technically,
this blog didn’t really do what I had originally intended. However, I think that
through this blog, I was able to think more deeply about things that I always
wanted to think about but never had the time to. Because of this blog, I had to make time to journal, and since
journaling is a form of self-care for me, in a way, this blog helped me to practice
better self-care. Although we only
posted every other week, writing these posts helped me to take a step away from
other schoolwork and allow myself to think and learn about things that I genuinely
cared and was curious about. Each time I wrote a blog post, I felt a surge of
relief (from all the piled-up stress), and it served as a reminder for me to
catch my breath once in a while. This blog may not have revived my journaling
habits, but it definitely taught me the importance of having good self-care
habits.
I definitely agree with you. Writing blogposts this semester has been really fun and enjoyable. It's helped me remember fun memories and learn more things about myself. Journaling is a great thing to do. It enables you to do so many things from writing down ideas, saving stories for the future, or just getting things off your chest.
ReplyDeleteI love that this is a concluding remark on this blog. I hope that you're able to find time to journal even as the year goes on. Sometimes I write my thoughts down in my Notes app on my phone when I don't have my journal with me, so maybe you can find that helpful as well - I often look through the thoughts, emotions, and experiences I had at a different time and appreciate that I am able to reflect on personal growth. In any circumstance, I hope you always make time for self care because it's truly so important. Sending love always!! <3
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you that journaling is a) extremely important b) hard to make time for. I also find journaling to be a really valuable means of self-care, and it's great that this blog has helped you reignite that. Having documentation of your past thoughts and feelings is actually really interesting months and years later for a variety of reasons. I hope that you're able to continue to find time for this and other forms of self care!
ReplyDeleteI loved writing blog posts as well. It was an opportunity to write how I naturally speak, which is much more fun than forcing myself into a more academic voice while writing essays. I really fell how the extra school work cuts into more and more time that we used to spend doing things we like. I used to read a lot about math on my own for fun, but with all the extra work we have this year, I've been too burned out to continue.
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