Embracing the Journey

In our July self care journaling mini-retreats, we journaled to Embrace the Journey. What does that mean? It means feeling whole, worthy, and complete while we're in the journey, before we've reached that goal or destination. It means viewing every step along the journey - whether it's a step forward, backward, sideways, or upside down - as a gift.

The thing is, it can be easy in this "results-oriented" "goal-oriented" "outcomes-driven" culture to tie our self-worth to crossing that finish line. But, as I have found through my self care journaling, that doesn't necessarily serve our well-being. Because what happens when we're still far from that finish line? As I continue to remind myself in my self care journaling, we deserve to feel worthy no matter where we are in our journeys. 

Honestly, when I started Zenit to offer anyone a customized health and wellness journal that would speak to them, I set enormous targets for my first year. I wanted to make a huge impact in terms of people who would be empowered to do regular self care journaling with their customized health and wellness journal. A year later, did I reach that target? Nope. And in fact, for that whole first year, seeing how far I was from my goal, I felt like a failure almost every day. In my daily self care journal, I wrote about my disappointment. My Zenit daily self care journal I made for myself was my safe space to write the truth of how I felt: I felt like a joke. I was ashamed. 

One time I told a friend, "I feel like I'm putting so much work into this and making such small impact." She said, "You have no idea what impact you're making. One person could get a Zenit journal, and it helps them, and then because they're in a better place, they lift up the people in their life, and the impact continues."

I needed to hear that. And yes, I wrote that down in my daily self care journal. We all need to hear that when we're in it - when we're in the journey. As I recently said in a self care journaling workshop for an organization: 

"The change doesn't wait for the end of the journey. It is happening as you go."