I Want to Feel It Again Again Again

I Wanted To Experience Live Again

No bluff no fluff of how I journaled for 30 days.

Image past Hannah Jacobson from Unsplash

Stuck, unmotivated, lifeless — these are the words describing how I was feeling for quite a while. I felt as though I'thou just going through the motions every twenty-four hour period and I was heading nowhere.

And then, I came across i of Ryan Vacation(a.thou.a modern-24-hour interval stoic)'s video nigh how journaling can get you your life back.

"Hah! Information technology'southward one of those journaling hoo-haa videos over again", I idea to myself. Then again, information technology IS Ryan Holiday talking about it so it must have some use to it.

Here's a TLDR version of what is journaling — thinking nigh your life. It's a daily practice that even i of the great rulers of Rome, Marcus Aurelius takes seriously. He uses journaling equally a mode to:

1. Clear his mind;
2. Visualizing challenges ahead;
3. Remind himself most what's of import;

This was exactly what I needed — clarity. I'm gonna acknowledge that I had my doubts if this would even change anything but information technology's still meliorate than just doing nothing.

The "How" role

30 days — that's how long this experiment was going to be. Other than some pages, ink, and a little fourth dimension, I've got nix to lose even if this doesn't do anything.

Office of edifice a habit is to make it every bit elementary as possible to follow through. The last thing I wanted was for journaling to experience like a task. So I decided that the journal wasn't going to have any quota, just rather sections that I can just write one-liners about. With how simple my journal was, I could get it washed within xx minutes, which I had no excuse to not do information technology.

Also, I journaled generally offset thing in the morning earlier I showtime my day task. That was the time when I'm at peace without having to worry almost my commitments.

Section ane: 3 Grateful Things

Oprah Winfrey was an advocate for cultivating gratitude. She shared in an interview that she could notice the difference between times when she made journaling a priority and when she didn't. She felt happier when she journaled because she could appreciate the little things more than.

With that, I introduced this as the first section in my periodical. I wrote 1-liners about 3 niggling things that I can be grateful for. It can be something that happened the day before or even the smallest particular I noticed on the day I wrote the periodical.

Hither are a few of my humble i-liners:

• I woke upwardly early today without snoozing too much;
• Excited about the new serial I and my wife are going to binge on;
• The instant coffee this morning tastes better than usual;

Fifty-fifty today I still cringe at what I wrote sometimes. Simply I can't discredit the fact that these niggling, mundane things were what made me appreciate daily life, just a little more than.

Department ii: Focus of the solar day

This is the part where I set the intention for the day. I put more thought into this to decide what should be done for the day. And of course, to feel a picayune more guided.

I was tired of waking upwards lost for the day.

I write nearly iii areas that I would like to focus on for the day instead of goals. And so it feels similar I'one thousand setting the direction for the mean solar day rather than a physical destination. I have a to-do list for the specific tasks to be done, and then this office serves as a baseline for the tasks ahead.

It'southward not life-changing, to exist honest. I still get carried away sometimes with other stuff. However, I am now more aware of the time I'm spending on these time suckers.

It also became a piddling easier for me to come up with some course of organization to limit temptations. For example:

• I realized I was non writing as much as I wanted to at my piece of work desk, so I changed my "writing seat" to the dining tabular array;
• Working out was on my focus list simply I wasn't paying enough attending to it, so I signed up for a thirty-24-hour interval conditioning plan. This freed upwards my time of planning for my workouts, all I had to do was to show up;

Section 3: General reminders about life

As much as I desire to remind myself of what'due south of import about life, I take the retentiveness of a goldfish. I can't even remember what I ate for breakfast, permit alone post-obit through with some traits that I wanted to build.

And this is likewise why I accept this section in my journal. If I can't remember by middle, writing them repeatedly every day should help me internalize some of it — I hope.

I wrote down 10 things that I wanted to remind myself every day. Simply to proper noun a few:

• "You lot ever have a choice" — so that I retrieve in that location is always something I can do;
• "Hell yes or no" — and then that I don't say yep to everything;
• "Anger solves nothing" — to keep my emotions at bay;
• "Speak your mind" — speaking up for myself;
• "Amor Fati" — to beloved my fate;

There's more to this but this is a dynamic list. This means that if some items felt irrelevant to my life at some signal, I'll remove or supervene upon them with something else.

Although I tin can't say for certain I'm a completely changed man at this indicate, I practise feel more mindful about my decisions.

Section 4: Quotes of the day

I'grand non kidding, I hand-copied 10–15 quotes that I found relatable throughout the month. I felt like a get-go-grader again with homework due every morning.

However, after some fourth dimension, it transitioned into a chat with philosophers, in the morning when the earth is withal quiet. I'd relate to some quotes more than others on some days, which could be due to what happened the day before.

Just to proper name a few of my favorite stoic quotes:

• You lot can exit life now. Allow that make up one's mind what yous practice, say, and recollect — Marcus Aurelius
• Wealth is not in having great possessions but in having few wants — Epictetus
• Happiness is to be content and enjoy the present — Seneca

To make things simpler, I've cut them down to 5 quotes a mean solar day now. They can be a reminder of my favorite quotes or something new that I see on my random quotes app.

New Sections: Slumber Journal

I read James Clear'southward blog about one-liner journaling and just decided to add these new sections after the 30 days of journaling. I should've washed this sooner because it's been helpful so far.

I've been feeling groggy than usual and then I wanted to track my slumber to observe out if there was anything wrong. I took James Clear's advice to write a one-liner about how I felt virtually my sleep last night.

It wasn't long afterward I started journaling about my sleep that I realized I was sleeping way after than I should. The chronic sleep debt has been piling up and started affecting my energy levels.

Duh, I already knew this earlier (who doesn't?). But crystalizing the problem by writing them downward helped remind me that this problem is going to continue if I don't modify anything.

Here were some patterns that I discovered when I was in bed:

• Watching random Indian street nutrient YouTube videos;
• Scrolling Shopee for their free shipping deals;
• A trivial too much late-nighttime movies — bad for the eyes too;
• Sometimes, belatedly-nighttime coffee (terrible thought);

I oasis't completely rid myself of all these bad habits but I can proudly say that I'm keeping some of them at bay. I'one thousand more than aware when I'chiliad engaging in these bad habits and it's easier to stop doing them too.

At to the lowest degree better than before.

New Sections: Mood Journal

This was too introduced to me in James Clear's blog. The purpose and method are the same as slumber journaling only this records my mood for the day instead.

There were days when I tin pinpoint how I was feeling and put them into words: Sad, happy, excited, etc. However, more than often than not, I found it hard to define my feelings.

Somedays, I just don't actually feel annihilation, more like a void. On these occasions, my mood journal would kinda turn into a mini-version of a morning page (popularized by Julia Cameron).

Tim Ferriss explains morning pages every bit brain vomit in this video, I couldn't agree more. I did feel lighter after these forenoon pages sessions, just similar how you would feel after vomiting.

In Summary

It'southward been more than 2 months since I started journaling and it's still going strong. Here'south what I feel after this experiment:

• Less anxiety and grounded to the present a lilliputian more;
• Able to appreciate niggling things that happen in life more;
• Life feels more intentional, rather than just surviving;

Before I let you go, these reminders might help you lot become started with journaling if you lot're interested:

1. Y'all're journaling for yourself, so no one will judge what you write;
2. You can get a new journal if you want, but I simply used my old used journals;
3. Brand it as like shooting fish in a barrel as possible (one-liner for everything if that's what information technology takes);

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Source: https://medium.com/illumination-curated/i-wanted-to-feel-alive-again-3ff7b3c0b88c

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