When I got back into my journal, I needed to truly understand why I do it and why I love it so much. Once I purposefully wrote down my reasons, it became clear that it’s SO much more than a task-management system and collection organizer.<\/p>\n

\n

Journaling helps me be mindful and focus on improving myself.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Rather than being reactionary and trying to cope with things as they happen to me, my journal helps me create a space where I can:<\/p>\n

\n
• Purposefully plan ahead for greater things<\/li>\n
• Recognize and document what I am grateful for<\/li>\n
• Find patterns in my health, behaviors and habits that I can improve<\/li>\n
• Organize my thoughts and feelings<\/li>\n
• Engage my mind in a new way (handwriting and drawing)<\/li>\n
• Express myself creatively<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  Once I realized all of the ways my bullet journal helps me, it actually helped release a lot of my guilt over neglecting it here and there. Why? Because it’s actually a lot of work to feel and do all of those things in that list! While they are all very important to my well-being, make no mistake — it’s also work.<\/p>\n

  Writing down all the ways your bullet journal helps you can quickly show how much hard work you put into your journaling — and into yourself! (Hey, you\u2019re awesome!) This activity is a really great way to also identify sections you could completely neglect while keeping to bare-bones essentials. Maybe you just came down with the flu. Would it be okay to only write out tomorrow\u2019s task list and leave out your ‘grateful for’s’, health tracking and daily summary? Of course!<\/p>\n

  The main take-away here is that sometimes you just need to let yourself BE. You don’t always have to take advantage of all the wonderful ways your BUJO helps you. Maybe it feels like too much work sometimes, or maybe you just don’t need to get into all that every day! Be flexible and give yourself some grace.<\/p>\n

  For me, living with a chronic illness and having a big family means there are plenty of days when life is throwing some heavy stuff my way (good and bad). Sometimes I need to take a break. Other days, life is feeling very peaceful and slow. I\u2019ll be sitting outside watching the birds in my garden and journaling doesn\u2019t even come to mind. And that\u2019s perfectly okay.<\/p>\n

  I hope some of this has resonated with you! I\u2019d love to hear your own thoughts on neglecting your BUJO. Feel free to leave a comment below or you can email me at jess@pineconepapers.com!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  When I first started bullet journaling, I was so excited and full of ideas that I could have spent an entire week writing, listing, lettering and drawing. Like many new passions, I dove in head first and couldn’t imagine missing a single day. But is that realistic? A few months in, I had a lupus flare up and I went into “survival mode” which meant I was lucky if I could cook dinner for my family, let alone plan for the next day. Once I adjusted to the flare, I felt bad that I had missed an entire week in my BUJO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[26,18,19,111,29],"yoast_head":"\n