A Journaling Template, Beating the Post-Holiday Blues and Living for the Now

You'll find some useful info inside!

Oct 08, 2024

Hello there, you beautiful thing! 😍

Welcome to this week’s newsletter, where I’ll be sharing an easy template for journaling beginners, some advice on post-holiday blues and my thoughts on surviving the rest of the year.

Let’s get started!

📖 An Easy-to-Follow Journaling Template

As many of you know, my day job is copywriting. In a few days, I’ll be writing an article about the benefits of journaling. I’m so excited to write the article that I’ve already started doing some research for it because I am a strong believer in the power of journaling.

Here are just some of the benefits of journaling:

✅ It’s a safe space for you to express however you’re feeling without being judged.

✅ It’s the perfect place to process your emotions and let everything out.

✅ You’ll feel so much better once you’ve written everything down—trust me!

✅ It improves your overall mental health.

✅ It can boost your self-confidence and even your emotional intelligence.

✅ It inspires creativity, improves memory, and enhances critical thinking skills.

If those aren’t some really good reasons to pick up a pen and notebook, I don’t know what are!

However, I know that if you’re new to journaling or it’s been a while since you last tried it out, it can be daunting. That’s why I use a template each day for my journaling; it makes it more structured—which is why I call it structured journaling (I’m not sure if I’m the first person to come up with the term or if it refers to something else).

Here’s my template:

➡️ Today/tonight I feel… (list however many emotions you feel).

➡️ Today/tonight, I am worried/stressed/anxious about… (list one thing).

➡️ Today/tonight, I am grateful for… (list five things).

➡️ Today/tonight, I am proud of myself for (list three things).

➡️ Today/tomorrow’s focus (list one thing).

If you want to go into even more detail, you can list things like:

➡️ What are today’s wins? This is if you’re writing in your journal at the end of the day.

➡️ Your glimmer (the opposite of a trigger) for the day. It’s one tiny moment or thing that made you happy. The more you look for glimmers, the more you’ll see.

➡️ What went well today?

With a template like this, it’s quick to sit down and fill out your page for the day. Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

⛅️ What Worked for Me When I Had the Post-Holiday Blues

I recently had a four-day break from work, and it was amazing! I made so many new memories and had a total blast. But by the end of the last day of my holiday, I started feeling so down. This feeling bled into my first day back at work, and ‘blue’ doesn’t describe how I felt.

So, like I always do, I turned to the internet and searched for solutions. I found loads of articles listing different things you can do to combat post-vacation depression, but nothing really stood out to me.

However, I did stumble across one small tip, tried it out and found that it helped. The tip was to declutter one small space in your home.

So, I made myself a cup of coffee (which always helps when I’m feeling low), put in my earphones, blasted some nostalgic tunes and decided I was going to tidy my office. I wiped down all the surfaces, organised my heap of stationery and rearranged a couple of things.

This simple act made me feel so much better! I can’t tell you why or how it worked for me, but it did. You don’t have to declutter an entire room or reorganise your whole house. Just do something small.

Next on my decluttering list is my ‘everything’ cupboard (I know you have one, too 😉)!

😨 Ugh, I Have No Leave Left!

Last year, I had serious spinal surgery and flew through my three years’ worth of sick leave in just a few weeks of recovery time. The company I work for is nice enough to let me use my annual leave when I’m sick these days until my sick leave renews in a year. But that means I don’t have a lot of leave left this time of year because I’ve been sick, etc.

But I know it isn’t only me. After the September public holiday, most people don’t take leave until December. It’s one big push until the end!

I’ve been giving some thought to how I’m going to survive this time, especially seeing as December is the craziest month where I work.

Leave always gives me something to look forward to, even if it’s months away. Now that I don’t have any ahead of me for a while, I’ve been feeling kind of lost and sad.

I know they say you shouldn’t live for Friday, for the weekend, for the end of the year. But let’s be honest, we do.

So, now it’s about changing my mindset. I’m going to try this new thing where I spend my mornings grateful that I’ve been given the gift of another day and focusing on living the day ahead of me rather than thinking long-term. I’m not sure if it’s going to work, but I’m going to give it my best shot.

Do you have any advice on ‘living in the now’? Let me know in the comments!