Episode 24: Journaling: Your Secret Weapon

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Dr. Melissa Smith 0:00
Therapists are always telling you to journal but, why? What’s the point?

Dr. Melissa Smith 0:04
Well, today I’m going to tell you just how powerful journaling can be. And hopefully convince you if you don’t regularly journal already, to start the practice today, it will change the way you love and late, really, I promise. Plus, I have a really great freebie for you. It’s really so good about journaling, it will kickstart your journaling practice. So if you don’t journal, this will be really great. And if you do journal, it will, it will help take it up a notch. So let’s jump in.

Dr. Melissa Smith 1:00
Hi, I’m Dr. Melissa Smith. Welcome to the Pursue What Matters Podcast, where we focus on what it takes to thrive in love and work. Today, we’re talking all about journaling. Seriously, journaling can be a secret weapon when it comes to love and leadership. It can be your fastest route to self awareness, self management, and transformational leadership. It’s that good. So let’s jump in. Because I’m really excited to share all the details with you. And I’ve got a really great freebie for you with all sorts of journal prompts, and specific suggestions for guided journaling and ways to kind of take your journaling to the next level ways to get going if you’re just new to journaling.

Dr. Melissa Smith 1:48
Okay, what do you think of when you think of keeping a journal? Does it fill you with dread? Do you worry that your mother is going to find your journal and read it while you’re at school, even though you’re an adult? Well, you know, if you have, if you have those fears, you’re not alone. Even if people see the value of journal keeping, it is not uncommon to have some worries about keeping a journal. But if someone finds my journal, what if they find out my dark secrets, you know, never mind that you might not even have any dark secrets, we all kind of worry about our privacy and whether people are going to read our thoughts. And unfortunately, these fears keep a lot of people from an activity that has proven very beneficial to emotional and physical well being. So that that makes me really sad, because you know, I’ve not only seen the benefits of journaling in my own life, but I’ve seen that they’re very effective for a lot of other people as well. But it also speaks to the lack of trust, so many of us have in our closest relationships, if we can’t trust our loved ones to leave our journals on open. So maybe that’s the bigger issue here. But I guess we’ll save that topic for another day. Maybe I’ve shared this before. But I was speaking with someone who said that she keeps two journals. One is a journal for her posterity where she shares the events of her family life for her family to read someday, so you know, a record of what’s happened. And then she keeps a second journal that is just for her, which is all about her emotional experiences. So you know, I guess this is how she solves this problem of worrying what others will think if they get their hands on her journal. But you know, I don’t know about you, I think we’re all hungry for authenticity. And so who would want to read about our travel log of life, we all want to read about the real life experiences of those we love the challenges they faced, you know, that’s real, and that’s compelling. But maybe after we’re long gone, so I guess there’s that too.

Dr. Melissa Smith 3:47
Okay, so I’ve always been a journal keeper, I kept a diary when I was a young girl. And then, you know, it was hit and miss during my teen years and even through adulthood, but have been much more faithful about journal keeping in recent years. And I really feel as though journaling is a lifeline for me. I feel totally out of sorts, if I’m not journaling regularly, and it really helps me understand myself better and feel more grounded. So I can always tell if it’s been a couple of days if I haven’t, you know, if since I’ve journaled because I start to kind of feel discombobulated, I kind of start to feel out of sorts. And so, in a very real way, journaling helps me to kind of feel grounded to myself, that’s kind of the best way for me to describe that, but kind of helps me to stay centered to myself is so it just really helps with self awareness. And so I found it really helpful in my daily life. So Oscar Wilde, you know, the 19th century playwright said, I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train. I love that. I don’t I don’t know that my diary is very sensational, but it is, you know, it can be helpful for helping us understand our interior life.

Dr. Melissa Smith 5:07
So first of all, let’s start by talking about some of the incredible benefits of journaling. And they really are incredible. They’re it journaling is awesome. Like I said, it’s like a superpower. It’s really cool. So journaling has been recognized to benefit emotional well being. And that’s, you know, when people think about the benefits of journaling, that’s one of the first things that they think about. So there’s definitely good reason that therapists have been recommending this practice for a long time. But did you know that journaling is also beneficial to physical well being. So, you know, of course, there’s no hard line in the sand that separates physical and emotional well being. But journaling has been found to strengthen the immune response, it decreases the stress response, and it can reduce the responses to asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. And that journaling acts as a stress management tool, reducing the impact of stressors on your physical health. And, I mean, I can definitely attest to that it, it’s one of my best coping skills that I have in my life that’s kind of helped me sort through some of my stressors that I deal with on a daily basis kind of helps me manage those a little better. So let’s dig into some of the details of the benefits. So it helps us to manage anxiety. It helps us to reduce stress. So you can journal to understand stressful situations. Understand, what about the situations are upsetting or stressful? Is it your reaction to the event? Is there something you need to do to change the situation, journaling allows you to dress rehearse scenarios before taking action, and determine what action if any needs to happen. So sometimes you just need to vent and journaling can be the best space for that to happen, right, because sometimes it wouldn’t be good to vent to a person, right, that could be really bad. But sometimes you just need to vent and journaling can be a good place for that. Sometimes you need to better understand the situation before you take action. And journaling can provide a really great vehicle for that process. journaling can also help us cope with depression. journaling can help control your symptoms and improve your mood. And some of the ways that it can help with this is by helping you prioritize problems, fears and concerns. It can help you to track symptoms day to day, so that you can recognize your triggers and learn ways to better control them, right. So it can really help increase your self awareness. And by providing an opportunity for positive self talk, and identifying negative thoughts and behaviors. So to be able to, to spot patterns, and to spot some of your self talk to be able to say oh my goodness, I’m I’m saying the same self talk that I was saying yesterday, and that I was saying last Tuesday and that I was saying last Wednesday. And that can be really very helpful as you start to identify those patterns. So scientific evidence also supports that journaling provides other unexpected benefits. So writing accesses the left brain, which is that analytical brain, and that frees the right brain to create into it and fill right so it accesses both parts of those brains. So in essence, the act of writing helps to remove mental blocks, and allows you to access more brain power in order to increase awareness of yourself and the world around you, which I think is so cool. So I’m documenting some of the research findings around journaling. And so I have got all of the links to some of these research findings in the show notes. So I’m not going to cite here exactly where I, I’ve got all of those but I have all of those citations in the show notes. So you can definitely find those on the show notes which I will link to at the end of the podcast. So just so you know that journaling helps you to clarify your thoughts and feelings. So writing helps you slow down your emotions and thoughts so you can clarify them and better understand them.

Dr. Melissa Smith 9:35
So again, this is really key to self awareness and self reflection. So this ability to create space for yourself through the act of journaling. In order to identify your thoughts and your emotions, get them down on paper or a screen if you prefer, in a somewhat organized way. Like this act of writing or typing necessarily really forces you to slow yourself down and organize your thoughts and your emotions. And that’s critically important because when we are emotionally discombobulated, right, our emotions, and our thoughts feel very chaotic. And so this act of writing, typing really forces us to organize ourselves, and that brings order to our minds. And so right there is a really important skill. So your ability to do this makes it much more likely that you can communicate your needs effectively, and meet the needs of others more effectively. Because, right, like, think about the skills involved in this, like your ability to identify your emotions, your ability to identify your needs, as you kind of wade through some of this chaos. Ss that right? Like, those are important skills that you’re developing, and that you’re honing through the process of your journaling. And as you write, or as you journal, you develop more clarity about your needs. So that then if there’s something you need to follow up on, say, I need to talk to my guy friend about this, or I need to talk to my boss about this, or I need to talk to my team members about this, you have more clarity about what needs to be communicated. So lots of skills encompassed in that process.

Dr. Melissa Smith 11:39
Another great benefit is it helps you to know yourself better. So, again, journaling regularly increases self awareness of your needs, wants and desires. So you start to identify patterns and develop clarity about situations and people. As you develop clarity, it becomes easier to take action on what you are understanding about yourself and your needs, which is essential to well being right, you start to you start to spot patterns more quickly, and take action more effectively. And that that’s that’s huge. Another benefit is that it helps you to solve problems more effectively. So the processes, the process of journaling slows your thinking down such that it allows more time for problem solving. So if you tend to be a left brain, analytical problem solver, journaling will help you access your right brain. Right. So I talked about how that works. journaling helps you to bring in another perspective, to ask, how is my boss seeing the situation? What stories Am I telling myself, or to recognize, boy, I’m being really defensive here. So the act of writing the act of journaling on a screen, think about it, it gives you literally it gives you a space between your brain, right between yourself and the page or the screen. And that space. It allows you to infer perspective. And perspective is really essential for problem solving. essential for problem solving. So you start to identify patterns, you start to see another perspective that you wouldn’t, that you wouldn’t pick up on if you were not journaling. And right it’s allowing you to organize and clarify things. So this process really increases the quality of your problem solving. So think about all the applications for that and relationships and leadership and just everything It’s huge.

Dr. Melissa Smith 13:55
Okay, another benefit: resolve disagreements with others. So similar to above journaling allows you to bring in the perspective of the one you are disagreeing with and to put yourself in their shoes and you see their perspective. So you may not want to, but a willingness to look at the issue from their perspective will be valuable to you in not just resolving the conflict but in transforming the conflict. So you may be missing something in the situation. And so by slowing yourself down long enough to see the others perspective, can really pay big dividends for getting to better solutions, and for repairing relationships.

Dr. Melissa Smith 14:37
Okay, next benefit. journaling helps you track your own patterns over time. So journaling becomes a pretty powerful record of your own development and progress over time. When you feel stuck, you can turn back to your past journal pages for strength, perspective and hope. And this can be a really powerful ball in times of trouble and it can also be A refreshing reminder that this too shall pass, I think it can also be helpful, you know, if you feel stuck, and you look back at a time, where you can see, oh my goodness, like I’m repeating the same pattern. And that can be real, you know, sometimes that can be frustrating. But it can also be helpful because it can push you to move yourself to action more quickly than perhaps you did the first time you were in that pattern. And so, you know, that self awareness and that self reflection can be really beneficial for moving you to action more quickly as you reflect back on some of your past journaling.

Dr. Melissa Smith 15:42
Okay, there are even more more benefits. So let’s keep going. So another one is stretching your IQ or your intelligence. So journaling can actually increase your intelligence. So writing specifically can make a big difference in in that and so typing, typing is good too, writing can really make a big difference with that. So journaling is an exploration of language. And you’ll have the natural urge to search for new words and increase your vocabulary. So one of the best single measures of overall intelligence as measured by intelligence tests is vocabulary. So if you are a regular journal writer, that could correlate to higher intelligence, it’s not a given, right. But that is certainly something that could help. Another benefit of journal writing is that it can increase your mindfulness, right, because it journaling helps to create space and helps to create a stillness for you and helps to quiet the wandering mind. And so that can be really helpful. Another benefit is it can help you to increase accountability and alignment to your goals.

Dr. Melissa Smith 17:02
And so one of the things that I’ll share in the freebie maybe I’ll talk about it even before that is, you know, one of the ways that you can use journaling is to help you to remain accountable to your goals. And that can be really powerful for goal pursuit, we’ve kind of talked about this throughout. But journaling can be a powerful tool for increasing emotional intelligence. Two of the foundations for emotional intelligence is self awareness, and self management. And journaling is totally geared towards self awareness and self management, because it’s a self reflective process. And so, absolutely, journaling as part of that. journaling can also boost memory and comprehension. So that’s, that’s another cool potential benefit of journaling. And just like any good habit, consistent journaling is something that can strengthen your self discipline can increase your self discipline, if we think about some of these daily practices, that, you know, we think about kind of these daily, consistent, healthy practices, whether it’s making your bed, whether it’s weekly review of your goals, whether it’s daily journaling, what are some of these positive health practices that, you know, help to convey self discipline, and journaling certainly can be one of those that can strengthen self discipline. We’ve already talked about this as well, but in, you know, it can improve your communication skills. Because if you think about, you know, not only just the vocabulary, increase and benefit of journaling, but also, if you have more self awareness about your needs, then you can also start to identify, okay, what do I need to communicate to other people, you can increase your communication skills via journaling, because it allows you to kind of slow that process down and identify what do I need to say to this person, and what’s going to be an effective way to communicate my needs or to make this request. And so in that way, it can absolutely help with communication skills. journaling can also really help spark creativity. There’s a lot of evidence to support that. So whether you do stream of consciousness writing, which some authors recommend, first thing in the morning, Julia Cameron’s book, morning pages, has been a popular book for stream of consciousness writing, but there’s lots of ways that you could do that. She recommends three pages done first thing in the morning, but even just a little bit can kind of get those creative juices flowing. And journaling can also boost self confidence in terms of increasing the self awareness and this belief in yourself and this trust in yourself as you develop this awareness of what are my needs and developing this, you know, what I would say is this, this trust and this respect, and this compassion for yourself. And as you develop some of these skills, you have more willingness to act on your needs, and that, that really builds a foundation of confidence because you are willing to advocate for yourself and that, that is a really lovely thing. And that can really lead you to a virtuous cycle of getting your needs met and building more confidence and more trust over time.

Dr. Melissa Smith 20:49
Okay, so now you’ve heard so many great benefits of journaling, it can totally be a superpower for self care, for emotional intelligence for cultivating happiness, gratitude, mindfulness, self awareness, and self management. It’s really that good. And here’s a bonus, it’s cheap. All you need is a notebook and a pen. There’s no need to get fancy, although, you know, you totally can if you want. But the key really is to get started. So you know, keep it simple. So it’s sustainable, there is no need to be a purist and, you know, do what works for you. And the research is also clear on that. The key is do what works, there’s so don’t, don’t feel like you have to be rigid in your approach. So I’m going to give you a lot of suggestions. And then of course, I’ve got a really great freebie to get you started on journaling. But the important thing to remember is that this is very individualized. And so while there are some guidelines, the research has also shown that there are many ways that journaling can be effective.

Dr. Melissa Smith 21:58
Okay, so I’m going to start with a caveat first. So I’m talking about journaling for self awareness, and self reflection. So I’m not necessarily talking about journaling, to process traumatic events. So the purposes and aims for you know, processing traumatic events are going to be different. But I do just want to say a couple things about that here, just in order to clarify. Okay, so if you’re dealing with a really distressful or traumatic situation, the research indicates that daily journaling may not be the best thing, because it can create more distress and rumination as you are spending more time thinking about the traumatic situation. So though journaling related to traumatic events has been shown to be beneficial, it is better to journal less frequently in these situations, so like, say three to four times per week, and to keep it time limited to like 15 to 20 minutes at a time to ensure that you’re not getting lost in the distressful content too much. And really like if as your journaling, you find that you’re becoming emotionally overwhelmed, then just stop, just call it a day on the journaling. And if you’re dealing with a significant trauma, it’s always best to do your journaling in the context of comprehensive therapy, and to have the guidance of a therapist in this process. Okay, so that’s important. Hopefully, that clarification is clear. So for our purposes, we’re talking about journaling as part of daily living for self awareness. All of us will be dealing with experiences that are distressful. And so while hopefully, you won’t be dealing with something that falls into the category of traumatic, just keep that counsel in mind that if you find that journaling about a distressful event is stirring you up more emotionally, than just give the journaling a break until you’ve had a chance to let some of those emotions settle down. And definitely take advantage of other forms of emotional copy, such as paste, breathing, meditation, and emotional support. But if you find that journaling is amping up your emotions, then just give it a break for a day or two and then come back to your journaling, as your anxiety has settled a bit more. Okay, so hopefully that’s clear. Hopefully that’s clear.

Dr. Melissa Smith 24:38
Okay, so now let’s let’s, let’s move on to tips to help get you started with journaling, okay, so try to write every day. So set aside a few minutes every day to write because this will really help you to develop a consistent habit of journaling. Make it easy, keep a pen and paper handy at all times, then when you want to write down your thoughts, you can, you know, you can also keep a journal in a computer file, if that’s something you prefer. Do what works for you write whatever feels right. So your journal does not need to follow any certain structure. It’s for you, right? So let the words flow freely. Don’t worry about spelling mistakes, or what other people might think. Use your journal, according to what works for you. So you don’t need to share it with anyone. You know, if you do want to share it with someone, then you can show them parts of it.

Dr. Melissa Smith 25:41
Okay? Use your journal as it works for you. So you definitely don’t need to share your journal with anyone. If you’d like to share it with, you know, trusted friends or loved ones, you could show them parts of your journal, but don’t ever feel obligated to do that. So, you know, in my clinical work as a psychologist, like I will often make recommendations to people, to my clients to journal and I will let them know like if they would like to share specific journaling assignments with me, they are welcome to but under absolutely no conditions do they ever need to feel obligated to share any of their journal writing with me, and I think that that’s really, really important that the expectation with your journal is that it’s private, it’s yours. And so if you ever feel like, you know, I’m going to have to share this with someone, it will alter what you write, or you know, you’ll filter or maybe you will decide not to write because, gosh, I might end up sharing this with someone and so just know that the journal is for you. And so don’t feel like you need to share any any of it with anyone.

Dr. Melissa Smith 26:59
So you know, keeping a journal helps you to create order, when things feel kind of chaotic. And so I would say approach your journaling, as, you know, your personal time as self care time, maybe it’s as relaxation time, a time when you can kind of de stress wind down, you know, think about where you write, is it relaxing? Is it soothing? Maybe you do it with a cup of tea, and do what you can to look forward to your journaling time. And you know, something that is that, you know, you’re doing to take care of yourself. So I used to write at night. But that did not work well for me. So I am a morning person. And when I was writing at night, like I just wasn’t very consistent with it because I was tired. And so I didn’t really want to write or I didn’t have much to say because I was just worn out. And so I switched my journal writing actually to the morning, and that works so much more effectively. And usually I right, you know, my kids just went back to school. And so you know what, during the summer, they were still in bed, so that wasn’t an issue. But now I usually write like, right when they leave for school, and I have this before I head out to work. And oftentimes I’m the only one home. And so it’s like me and my pup. And so it’s a nice quiet time. Sometimes I’m you know, enjoying my breakfast at the same time. But it’s, it’s actually a really nice relaxing and enjoyable time for me. And so I really like this suggestion of, you know, make that an enjoyable, relaxing time for you that you can look forward to every day. And that will make it something that you’re more likely to do for sure.

Dr. Melissa Smith 28:49
Okay, so what I would say is kind of aim for 15 to 20 minutes, that’s a that’s a pretty good target because it kind of gives you enough time to kind of let yourself get some energy going with your writing. But really, the the key is just some consistency. So if you have five minutes, just do five minutes. Don’t worry so much about spelling and punctuation. Make sure you have some privacy. So if you want to put your journal you know, under, you know under some other books in a cupboard or something like that, do that right quickly. free association is good. If it’s helpful pick a theme for the day, the week or a month. So some examples might include peace of mind, confusion, change or anger. The biggest thing is like there aren’t any hard or fast rules. So do what works for you. I think when you’re first starting out, you want to maybe try a couple of approaches and figure out works what works best for you. So do you prefer some structure or do you like stream of consciousness? You know, like a unstructured approach. So, so let’s talk about a structured approach. So you can buy journals that includes specific prompts. So this can be nice if the blank page feels daunting to you. Or if you’re like, oh my goodness, like, I have no idea what I’m going to write, or I can’t think of anything. So I’ll just do a little shout out to Michael hyatts full focus, journal. I love it. And it’s the one that I use, it provides really great structure, I used this journal to get back into the habit of daily journal writing. And I really loved the prompts. Because I felt like it, it gave just enough structure to kind of get me going on my journaling. And I still use this journal daily. But I don’t ever even use the journal prompts anymore. So I still use the same journal, but I just kind of write right over the questions at this point, because I really don’t need them anymore. Because they serve their purpose. They got me into the daily habit of journal writing, which is what I needed with those prompts in the first place. But now I’m at the point where like, I’m really hungry for journal writing every day. And so I like have plenty to write about when I opened my journal, and so I don’t ever use those prompts anymore. But they can be really helpful, especially if you feel a little intimidated by the blank page, or you need a little help to kind of get going, you know, I have a pretty active interior world, I think is part of being a psychologist, like I just think in the language of emotions, I think in the language of What am I thinking, What am I feeling, you know, like, that’s how I spend my, my days. And that’s how I spend my life. So I often have a lot to consider and very self reflective. So it’s usually not an issue for me. But if you don’t tend to approach your life that way, sometimes these prompts can be super helpful.

Dr. Melissa Smith 31:58
So with the freebie I will include some suggested prompts, but here are some that you might want to consider. So what lessons did I learned today? How was I challenged today? How did I grow today? What did I learn about myself today? What did I learn about others today? And you can see how all of these questions are geared towards self reflection and self awareness. So you can always create your own prompts. So what are you currently working on? What are your goals? What have you received feedback on? What is your mission statement? What are your values, take some time and identify some prompts that work for you. And I think that can be really great. So you can think about specific goals you’re working on, and create a prompt that fits with those goals that can be so, so helpful. And so I have lots of ideas for you on that.

Dr. Melissa Smith 32:53
So use journaling to check in with your emotional experience throughout the day. So this works well with a phone a simple notebook or a document on your computer. So what you would do here is you’d set an alarm throughout the day, and then check in with your emotions. So the prompts would be, what am I feeling? So that the aim is to get curious about your emotions and ask what is contributing to these feelings. So right, we want to understand what’s the feeling. And then we want a connecting link between your thoughts and your emotions. So we want to cultivate curiosity about your emotional experience, and begin to draw a connecting link between your thoughts and your emotions. And this will really help increase your self awareness and identification of patterns throughout your days and weeks, and is a useful way to utilize journaling.

Dr. Melissa Smith 33:47
Okay, so the next idea is to examine your stories. So you can ask yourself, what is the story I’m telling myself? So this comes from Brene Brown. I think it’s a really excellent question. Does reality fit your story? It’s a really good question as well. So now describe the situation from another perspective. Is there another way of understanding the situation other than the way you are making sense of it? So in your journaling, take the perspective of another person in the situation and tell the story from their perspective? What did you learn from this experience? What parts of your story are you willing to relinquish? What parts of your story are you still holding on to so this can be a really powerful tool to use to kind of really help you examine your stories, and you might not want to, you might really want to hold on to your stories that can be really powerful.

Dr. Melissa Smith 34:51
Okay, another tool is journaling after a difficult conversation. So some of the prompts that you can use what made this conversation difficult. What emotions Did you notice in yourself? What emotions Did you notice in the other person? What emotions do you notice in yourself currently? Can you have some compassion for yourself currently? How might the other person be feeling currently? What is the story? You’re telling yourself about the conversation? If you could have a do over of this conversation, what would you change? If anything? And why? Is there a repair that needs to happen here? If so, what might that look like? And what and right, so this is really focused not only on self awareness, but relationship management, which is really key to emotional intelligence. So it’s helping you to clarify situation, to slow it down, to kind of bring in some logic to some of the emotion based thinking, and to take some action consistent with reality.

Dr. Melissa Smith 36:16
Okay, so the next one is journaling for self care. So of course, we know journaling is an excellent form of self care. And it’s also a great place to document your self care. So you can consider using journaling as a place to document your use of self care activities. So this can become a valuable resource for you. And a reminder that there is plenty you can do to help yourself when you’re struggling. So right, like you can just make a list of Okay, these are the skills that I use today to help myself. And that’s, you know, that’s a great place to keep track of what you’re doing. You can also journal to track your goals. So I mentioned this before, so use journaling to hold yourself accountable to your most important goals by writing them down, reviewing them weekly, and tracking progress. So this is where we would want you to consider using the smart framework. So specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, realistic and timely. And then using your journal to really track your progress.

Dr. Melissa Smith 37:21
Okay, last recommendation, but it’s a big one, it’s an important one anyway, is journaling for gratitude. So this is one of the single most valuable things you can do to cultivate more happiness in your life, which is a key foundation of self management. So there are many ways to express gratitude and keeping a gratitude journal is simply one. So you can identify five things you’re grateful for each day, or write about one experience in greater detail. So perhaps you write a note of gratitude to someone once a week, and then record your feelings about that person in your journal. So, you know, when it comes to expressing gratitude, you want to mix up your gratitude practice, so it doesn’t get stale. But those are, you know, several recommendations where you could incorporate gratitude into your journaling practice that can kind of help mix it up a little bit. So Okay, there you have it, I hope that you can see how journaling really can be a superpower when it comes to love and leadership. And hopefully, you’ve got some really great ideas to help you get started. And you know, if you’re already a faithful journal writer, that I hope you have some ideas to kind of help take your journaling to the next level. And of course, I’ve got a really great freebie for you associated with this podcast. So I hope you’ll go to my website and download it, it’s going to have a lot of great prompts and suggestions geared towards very specific things. So examining your stories, looking at difficult conversations, looking at gratitude journals, everything like that. So lots of different ways to use journaling.

Dr. Melissa Smith 39:08
So hopefully you will check that out. And this is where you can find it. So make sure you head on over to my website, check out the show notes with all the great resources for this episode. And of course to download that great freebie, it’s going to have all sorts of awesome journal prompts for different ways to utilize journaling that’s at www.drmelissasmith.com/episode-24 one more time, that’s www.drmelissasmith.com/episode-24 as in the number 24. And there at the show notes, you know, in addition to being able to download the freebie You can also make to an article that I was recently featured on in mind body green, I also will have a link to Michael Hyatt full focus journal. It’s awesome. I love it. And I hope that you will start journaling today all you need is a piece of paper and a pen. It’s that easy. And it’s that good. It’s it’s really an awesome thing. So I hope that I hope that you will consider doing that. So I’m Dr. Melissa Smith. Remember love and work in love. That’s all there is. Until next time, take good care.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai