Person in gray sweater holding white paper
Ive bored you many times before that I am writing a book about my experiences with childhood trauma , so you won’t be surprised when I bore you again. Part of the book is my attempts at trying out things that might help and the many , many people in the know say that journaling is an important part of this .
It won’t surprise you that I know very little about journaling and I thought I might design one as part of this process that suits me and I might be able to sell alongside my book . Ive looked at ones for sale and , well they’re not going to suit me . Firstly most seem to be geared towards just women , and secondly they are full of inspirational made up quotes . These quotes seem made up for a dictators personal assistant , who is worried about keeping their jobs and their heads . ” you’re Sooo amazing! “, You light up the world with your wonderful smile!” ” you’ve got this , your fantastic!” ” The world is so much nicer now that you’re in it !”. If I had to see that before my breakfast Id throw up , the pictures and logo on the front are equally troubling . Manifestations , self -care , Grief ,my wellness journey , I don’t know about you but I don’t want to sit on a bus ( ok, I haven’t been on a bus in 20 years ) and have everyone know what I’m writing in . Why not ” Last year I was able to keep all my New Years resolutions ….tucked away in a journal on my bookshelf”
So I need to design something with an attractive plain front ….perhaps a picture of me ? ….perhaps not . I also get really annoyed when my pen ink goes through a page , Im not talking fountain pen her just a roller ball , but who wants to put down their thoughts and have them reversed on the next turn of the very thin page , so a thick page it is .
Guilt is next , I don’t want something that will make me feel guilty if I don’t write in it , Id like to have something that will help me make good habits , like a tracker , but I might not want or have time to do anything else every day , so flexible it should be .
My wife is annoyingly organised , when I used to work for the Police I had a boss , a Chief Inspector , he wrote down everything and I couldn’t get away with anything as he kept it in his journal , my wife is a bit like that , no ,not a old policeman I mean, organised. She used to keep a bullet journal and I tried it for a few days , I had all the bells and whistles that went with it and it lasted a week , I couldn’t be bothered with all the fluffing about drawing g dates and lines. My wife now just uses a big diary and uses the dates like a bullet journal , so I need something that is a bit like a bullet journal but not .
The other thing lots of journals come with , are stickers , lots of them ” Happy Birthday You”. , ” A special Day!”…what am I 10 ? So I don’t need stickers , glue or washi tape.
I also want to gear it towards trauma survivors , so I am going to need sections that chart our progress , we are not great at remembering the good things we do or how we are progressing . This is clearly going to take a lot more thought and research and I may need to ask other victims of child abuse what they might need , because believe it or not Im not sure I have all the answers, if you have ideas please feel free to let me know , like my wife says when I start a DIY project , ” You need all the help you can get ”
Anyway , have a great day , keep fighting ( I sound like a journal ) and have a great day!
