[jspann]

I've been journaling (handwriting in a composition notebook) almost my entire life but started taking it more seriously over the past 2 years. It's the first thing I do in the morning and I usually spend 1 hour writing my feelings over the past few days and reflecting on things that made me happy. I love it and it's created a tremendous amount of motivation for me. Not only has the routine of writing first thing in the morning given me the feeling of accomplishing something before I've left the house, but it gets all of my feelings out, as if I'm telling a friend, so I don't ruminate on yesterday and can focus on today. It was tough to start but worthwhile over time.