Last week I sat down and listed my priorities just before submitting my classes for Senior year. It is refreshing to write out all of the things I care about, especially in the home stretch of Junior year but it also made me aware of what I truly care about. I realized some of the important things in my life (ex. Gigis) weren’t talked about on this space I call my own. The top of my list was my faith, which I’m not going to turn into a preach-y Christian blogger. (While Christian writers are great, I’m not a big fan of reading tons of Christian blogs.) (If you aren’t into the whole faith thing, I still reccomend you stick around. Journaling, regardless of what it is about is such an amazing thing!!)

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But my faith, especially my doodle journal is something I have really embraced. I began a journal during my freshman year and managed to sporatically journal my highschool journey, in addition to this blog. My journal originally started out as what I call “highs” and “lows”, a few daily reflections. Today I write several pages a day filled with random doodles, many prayer/praise webs and what I am studying. My journal is also a free flow goal setting space similar to Lara Casey’s PowerSheets and sometimes I even track the foods I’ve eaten that day. I’ve been reading the She Reads Truth Lent study (as mentioned here) so I summarize the different chapters I read & any key notes I learned.

I start my mornings with working out & getting ready there then camping out at a coffee shop with my journal. This has been such a peaceful part of my day and in my sanity starting it with endorphins and Panera’s amazing coffee. I’ve became a regular at the Panera near my school for my biweekly coffee days. I’m a naturally “on edge” person and I have found if I don’t do my quiet time/workout in the morning I’m a lot more likely to be a prickly cactus all day. If I don’t go to CycleBar that morning my friends know they can find me reading that morning’s passage & doodling about it in my car in the parking lot.

Last week I attended an art competition where I participated in a few art workshops (including artistic doodling & art journaling) and fell even more in love with my daily journaling. So my journal is now not only my doodles and summaries but also holds really artistic collages of some of my favorite words (stories from women in the middle east, testimonies from mission trips, verses & sections of liturgy). I am asked often what journal I used, suprisingly it is from IKEA and I bought this pack of three to take my chemistry notes in. When January 1st rolled around, I needed a notebook and fell in love with them. I take these books everywhere with me and they are always in my backpack, purse or car, even traveling when I spilt my water bottle all over it. They work really well with gel pens and the pages are light enough that pen doesn’t bleed through.

My big rule is that this space is allowed to be messy. I love for my planner to look relatively organized and for the majority of life to be color coded, but with my journal it is my little white space messy zone. My “art” is for sure not perfect unlike the massive Bible Journaling community and is truly authentic. If people ask what I’m doing, especially at school, I don’t hestitate to share it with them because it’s an authentic messy, perfect, little space. I love getting to look back (& cringe) at my little Freshman year journal book and even reflect on the past year.

If you can’t tell I highly reccomend journaling and if you have any questions let me know! Let me know if you journal or something that is a major part of your morning routine!! I love hearing a little glimpse into someone’s life. Also let me know if you like this kind of content, I hope so because I love sharing it!

xoxo 
Mags