April & May in my Unraveling Journal
Hello Lovely.
I know it’s been a while but I wanted to share my April and May pages in my Unraveling Journal.
I’ve been so hard at work this year creating in my Unraveling Journal for my Unfurling class that at some point I just stopped sharing the pages I was making. And to be entirely honest, I didn’t keep up with my journal the way that I had hoped and wanted to keep up with it this year. So much so that I think there’s still so much to explore with the word Heart that I’m considering keeping it as my word for next year. I just don’t feel like I’m done with it, you know?
These two spreads I’m going to share are all about forgiveness and letting go. I have a few more written entires in my journal for these months, but since they’re straight journaling, it didn’t make sense to share them here.
Listening to my inner critic
This is probably one of my favorite journaling techniques I like to use in my journals. I actually shared a similar process for Get Messy May one year. The technique is simple. It’s just journaling out the hard, ugly stuff, covering it up with paint, and then journaling some good stuff on top. For this version in particular, I wrote out all of the lies that little incessant voice in my head keeps trying to tell me about love and how unworthy I am of it because people keep leaving me.
Now, I know that is not true—hence the lie—so covering it up and then painting, collaging and writing on top of it all the ways I am worthy of love and how I have love right now was quite a meaningful and profound process for me. The day I created this, I was feeling exceptionally low and really felt all of these things. The words just came out like a stream of consciousness, so the writing on top had to be more mindful and deliberate. It made me notice all the way I am worthy and loved.
Letters to myself
This is another one of my favorite prompts I like to revisit from time to time: writing letters to myself. Specifically, writing letters to my younger, present, and future selves. I think it’s always interesting to write these with the intention of reading them back to yourself in a couple of years.
The fist time I ever did this prompt was in high school. I had a history teacher in my sophomore year who made us write letters to our future selves. She gave us each an envelope and a stamp and told us to address them to ourselves. She then collected all of the self-addressed stamped letter and ended up mailing them out sometime after we all graduated. It was really nice receiving a letter from my past self in the mail and reading what it hoped I’d become in the future.
This is a similar prompt, except I often find that I’m forgiving my younger self, encouraging. my present self, and praising my future self. I made cute little envelopes to house my letters then stuck them into my journal by making a large 3-tiered vellum pocket.
I obviously talk more about both of these prompts and processes in my upcoming Unfurling class. I honestly can’t wait until I’m completely tied off on it and it’s finally released to the world! Definitely stay tuned!
xx Tiffany