Journaling Community - Blog Posts

~ We give so much of our time to things that do not benefit us. I realize this as I struggle with staying off my phone. But becoming aware each time we’re giving away our time to what isn’t good for us, and pausing to reflect and change is a practice. 

🌸 I hope we keep practicing making better choices, to feel and live better. 🌸 ~

- a note from today

~ I made coffee for myself this morning and it tasted perfect-- bitter, nutty. slightly sweet. It was filled with a thick cover of bubbles and was piping hot. 

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Today I finally begin a passion project here --- sharing my Zen moments with paper. 

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Thank you for being with me. I hope you have a lovely day ahead. 🌼

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Illustration: https://www.instagram.com/wiwadd/?hl=en 

I may not have the wisest words to say but I do want to spread love. That’s the guttural calling I cannot ignore, despite the days when a safe, known life feels easy. 

I do not know what adventure awaits but I can already feel the stirrings of something beginning. Something warm, something exciting, something to make me smile from the inside.

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Sometimes, the easiest way out is to cave in to what your heart already knows but what your mind is too afraid to take a leap for. 

Today, more than ever, may we take that leap. 🌸

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~ The day has its own music. Chirping of birds, the murmur leaves make when they move with the wind, vehicles honking, people talking or passing by, and the sound of your own breathing entwined with the melody of this day.

This day has its own music and you are a part of it.~🌸

~ Doing ordinary things with care fills you with soft warmth and joy.~ 

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Yesterday, as I cleaned and organized my stationery folder, I realized I was happy doing this seemingly banal thing because I was doing it with care. May be the little moments of life, which means almost every moment we spend, are not really that little if we pour care into them. 🌞

~ Your positive thoughts from today are far more powerful than the negative thoughts from all the yesterdays ~🌼

I hope you have a very good morning.🌞

~ To build something with care requires time. It requires infusion of your spirit. Things built slowly smell of love and patience. Haste has no room when time expands, and you create from the well of joy in your heart. ~🌼

~ Currently crushing on: Bellaanna and Sabrina ~ 🌺

I was watching a journaling video in 2020 and spotted these. It was love at first sight. I decided to wait until these became available in India. 

I finally found these last week, listed on a local store’s Instagram page. You can imagine my delight. 

They were delivered yesterday and I had to play with all the inks I had to make tons of Bellaanna and Sabrina flowers! (The stamps from Mo Card are a journaller’s delight.) 

There was this quote on their boxes that made my heart smile, “Look for the most beautiful flower in the box and give it to you.” 

~ New journal cover + ‘Love Soul’ is the direct English translation of ‘sarang yeonghon’ ~❤🌼

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Do you like stickers on your journal cover? For some reason, I love looking at them when I pick up mine to journal.🌼

~ I love making little paper pockets in my journal pages and I love using bills as paper layers. ~ 🌼

I tried something out of my comfort zone the other day. Inspired by @milkyystudy I decided to do a stickers-inspired spread and it turned out quite delicious.✨🌼 . . Stickers from: @thepagemark @noonchie.co @stationerymoon_21 (Using someone's art in your journal is priceless.💕) . Celebrated my first MT washi tapes as well.🌼 . . Music: Lay Down Beside You Musician: Carl Storm (@carlstormofficial )

“My love language is reminding you of your power.” ~ @galadarling

"No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself." - Virginia Woolf

Sometime last year, a post of @galadarling said, "You are not stuck. You are choosing not to choose." . This hit home. . I was in a rut, in regards to a lot of aspects of my life. I kept telling myself "I don't know what to do" and I kept chanting that "I was stuck". . Slowly, on reflecting upon Gala's words, I realised, I wasn't stuck, I was choosing not to make a choice because I was afraid I would make the wrong ones. . But, I learnt that if you don't choose, you don't move forward and as hence, you stop yourself from growing. . So this year, I started to choose to choose. I am learning to become "unstuck" one choice at a time. . For anyone who needs to hear this today: make a choice. Even if it turns out to be a terrible one. Because despite the bad result, you are at least moving, you are at least learning and you are at least willing to choose a direction. Sometimes, that's all it takes to come unstuck.🌼

“Y’all treat 30 like our lives will be over by then. 30 is extremely young. Some people just start new dreams in their 30s. Most are finally figuring out how to live fully in their 30s. Our 20s are not the peak. Not even close.” - Kaya Nova

“Literally just romanticize your own life. What’s stopping you. Who will care. Commit to enjoying things.” - @trainthief​

“It is okay if you are slowly becoming the person you want to be. Real growth takes time. The things that stick and the things that stay are often the things we put together gradually, with heart and soul and effort. What arrives too fast often leaves that quickly, too. What arrives slowly is often what we savor most, because it is what we placed all of our love into, it's what we made space in our lives to hold. Please do not think you are falling behind just because your growth is not happening as fast as you thought it might. Seasons don't turn overnight, but always arrive just in time.” - Brianna Weist

~ Details from an old spread ~

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Sometimes I don’t feel like clicking the whole page. At such times, I really wanted to appreciate the individual stickers, prints, washi and sequins through my photos.

“It’s okay if every weekend doesn’t lead to big moments and campfires and laughter that carries on for hours and hours. Some weekends maybe quiet, still, with plenty of room to contemplate. And in that contemplation, there is room to grow. So hold those weekends dear. Don’t see them as less or as threats to the more exciting times. There is beauty and truth even in the seemingly mundane.” - Morgan Harper Nichols

~ Over the last few months, I’ve been enjoying more minimal spreads. A funny connection that I’ve observed: the more I declutter my space (clothes, books, stationery, etc.), the more cleaner and simpler my journal pages turn out. I love how content they make me feel. And here’s to the tiny sushi stickers to whom my heart belongs. ~

“serious transformations begin with two commitments:

the courage to try new things and act in new ways

the honesty needed to no longer hide from or  lie to ourselves.” 

~ @yungpueblo

“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.” 

~ George Eliot ~

But art has no name, Neither yours nor mine. It is divine energy Claiming the heart, body and mind. It is love itself, Talking through us, To us.

~ Anvi Doshi

“How your life feels is more important than how it looks.” - homebody club.

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| Passport Journal |

~ Move With Humility ~

start where you are. and move with humility. recognizing, you’ll surely make mistakes along the way. and that’s okay. what matters is that you are showing up. 

fear and shame have no place here ---  they are counterproductive. 

so, do not invite them into the conversation. give them no power, no voice, no authority.

instead, choose grace.

knowing that grace will guide your steps, and help you to find  your footing as you navigate your way to the future.

| Excerpt from a pep talk by Lindsey Eryn |

“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson 

“I was born to join in love, not hate --- that is my nature.” - Robert Fagles