Happy Journal Thoughts

I've been feeling really close to (and happy about) my little journal lately. I have been doing some strange little paintings and making mini collages with them. Sometimes I feel most comfortable putting things directly into my journal, but sometimes it feels more freeing to make things for it on separate pieces of paper to put in later. Knowing when to use each approach is useful in making it feel like more of a genuine reflection to me.

I definitely feel less attached to the pre-configured daily diary set-up that I've been doing all this year. Writing my thoughts in this journal feels a lot more limitless right now. Having set pages for each day is restrictive, and that can be a good or bad thing depending on how much of a guideline you want, but at the moment I really just want to write whenever it feels most right. In a day-by-day diary I feel like I should be writing about my day and summarising it, or at least picking out things that were specifically about that day or things from that day, but in this journal I feel free to dedicate pages and spreads to whatever I want, and that's more exciting!

I can stick in more paintings, or receipts, or weird things. I can dedicate as many pages as I like to the beauty of hedgehogs, or cool socks, or Napoleon. I can write a small essay on apples. I can really put all of my strangest and most sudden thoughts in here. It just feels so much more natural, and varied, and I like that a lot.