Tiffy's Journal

This is a story of the lessons gratitude journaling taught me. Context matters. I started this journaling because I was going through a depressive time. I had experienced actual depression before and I didn't want to again and so, I decided to start gratitude journaling. Gratitude was inaccessible to me. I couldn't both feel that everything sucked and find space for appreciation. I met myself where I was at and chose to just journal about what didn't suck. I journaling about

If you're willing to ask about something, that's demonstrating bravery. Usually when we are afraid of something, we want nothing to do with it. We just decide it's threatening and that's it. We get avoidant, rather than inquisitive.

I think about the parallels between journaling and meditation often. I think of meditation as spending time between thoughts, non-judgement of thoughts and feelings, respect of what's happening internally without fighting or arguing with it. That usually looks like sitting quietly, eyes closed, being harmonious, watching thoughts go by. But, that's what I do when I journal, no singing bowl, buckwheat cushion, or "ohms" needed. What mindfulness demonstrates is exactly what my

What you find when you look up "how to journal" advice online is some prompts, some structures, some guidance but journaling is way too personal to be plug-and-play.

A feeling of gratefulness and humility for what's grated without opportunity to earn it.

At times, I feel "out of my body." Not myself, not attuned with life, careless, diverged from my routine. I called it "motivation running out," but that's not accurate. It's existential dissatisfaction. It's what happens I notice my choices have been mismatched with what I know I can be. But what brings me back into it? What makes me satisfied again? I've found the answers, at least in part. I know there's always more to discover. The answer is challenges. When I do something

Story about how stashing journals away symbolizes the de-aggrandizing of fleeting emotions and thoughts, choosing instead to prioritize the more stable personal truths.

Language was here before you Language is one of many expressive vehicles. Language is thought, feeling, and perspective in an expressed form. It plays a role in establishing, changing, informing, and creating our belief systems, and we don't choose how our associations with particular words develop. Language was here before you. It was created by, maintained by, and evolved by all of humanity before you. — Connotation is made possible by cultural consensus. On an individual