Have you ever reached the realisation that you've completely lost touch with yourself? You don’t know who you are anymore. It hits you like a ton of bricks. I had that revelation a few years back. I had moulded myself to fit other people’s expectations of me. At the same time, I had eroded my sense of self and who I truly was. 

It was a lightbulb moment that something needed to change. I wanted to be myself. But I had no idea who that was, I needed to sort my real self out from who I had become to please other people. Much of my journey of rediscovering myself happened in my journal. I would journal to explore what I liked and disliked, what I believed in, what I was passionate about, what I wanted to do with my business and where I wanted to take my life. My journey of self-discovery is an ongoing one. It has already got me to a place where I am living much more happily with who I am, as well as who I am becoming because we are always changing and...

I first came across gratitude journaling when I was in therapy for depression. Needless to say, I was in a dark period of my life and didn’t see much to be grateful for, but as I picked up the habit of gratitude I did start to notice a change. I was beginning to see shimmers of hope. Gradually, I was able to see more positivity in my world. 

That’s the thing about gratitude journaling, it seems silly at first, especially if you are starting small by writing down things like how grateful you are that there were fresh oranges at the shops. You may be thinking that you are already grateful for your life. There’s a difference between being grateful and practising gratitude. 

When we turn gratitude into a conscious habit through journaling, we ensure our minds acknowledge the good in our lives. The more good we acknowledge, the more we see. Then the more positive we feel about our ability to experience good things, the more good things we are able to create in...

It’s time to emerge from winter hibernation, bask in the sunlight when it finally graces grey old England, and embrace the energy of springtime: new life, new colour, new opportunities, new excitement. 

For me, I think now is a perfect time to clear away the dead leaves blocking your path forward, get your ducks in a row (Can I think of any more seasonal analogies?) and initiate the progress you’ve been longing for. It could be to wake up 15 minutes earlier. It could be to start a whole new career. 

Whatever you see for yourself, it’s useful to tidy up the 4 main areas of your life. Your physical environment, mental wellbeing, digital presence, and time management can drag you down or propel you forward. I’ve come up with a list of techniques to help you make sure they are doing the latter. 

Spring Clean Your Physical Space

You deserve to have an environment that enables you to focus on your ambitions. A messy and chaotic space can...

There’s a good reason why I built my coaching business around journaling after using it myself for years and enhancing my knowledge and experience into practice during my Journal Therapy diploma. It’s a powerful tool for achieving meaningful results.

It's not just me saying that either, it's also backed by science. Among other proven benefits, this study shows that journaling can effectively reduce anxiety and check out this study to show that it can improve physical health too! It sounds crazy I know! It goes to show that when you look after your inner world using techniques like journaling, it reflects in the outer world.  

You may hesitate because it doesn’t seem like writing down your endless thoughts will particularly help you.  However, there is a strategic way to approach journaling for self-improvement that will allow you to enjoy benefits like these.

Reasons journaling can be so powerful

As the studies above show, journaling isn't...

Let’s talk about gratitude 

What is gratitude?  The Oxford English dictionary definition is “The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.

Practising gratitude is recognising and acknowledging the things that others have done for you.  It’s recognising and acknowledging the things you have in your life.  

Thing is, you know you're grateful, you don’t take things for granted and you always say thank you when someone holds a door open for you! So, why actively go out of your way to show gratitude for all this fabulous stuff in your life?  

Actively practising gratitude daily has been shown to give you masses of benefits including (but not limited to)

• Improves your physical and mental health
• Reduces anxiety, depression and stress
• Improves your relationships
• Increases your productivity
• It aids your sleep, boosts your energy and your self-esteem
• You feel more positive emotions...

Funny thing - I've journaled for over 30 years in some form or another, yet for many years I had no idea I was journaling.

Yup, I confess I always assumed journaling was the American phrase for keeping a diary.  I also figured that keeping a diary was for teenagers and in my 20s and 30s I was just doing a more grown up version of that because it had grown up words in it like - "job", "work", "finances" and other scary, stressful grown up things.

During the first lockdown I really started to research journaling in more detail, looking at the studies surrounding it and completing my Journal Therapy diploma, all of which opened up a much bigger world to me.  The subject of journaling is vast! Hence this blog, can't cover it all in one post so I'm breaking into little chunks - starting with what it actually is.

A diary and a journal are very similar in their forms and uses, but the main difference is - 

A diary is a factual recording of your life.  A place to record...

Hi everyone and welcome to The Journal Vibe blog!  I’m Claire and I’m the founder of The Journal Vibe, so I thought I’d start off with a little story about my journey that has brought me here and to share a bit more about me. 

I started keeping a diary when I began senior school at 11 years old.  I recently found an old one from 1991 when I was 14 years old and it’s full of teenage woe and angst.  I didn’t write every day, but I found it was a great way to rant about the unfairness of life, school, friends, family and unrequited love!  I could be truly honest in the pages of these books; it was quite liberating.  Writing got me through some tough times without me even realising.  I probably would’ve exploded without that space to rant my way through those teenage years of hormones, life following my parents divorce and all the politics of school.

When I read back through that old diary, it all came flooding back...