Journaling Made me a better wife & mom

Journaling SAVED my life!!! Okay, that may be a little dramatic, but, journaling played a HUGE role in getting over post partum depression, learning to move past traumatic events, and more. READ MORE!

*DISCLAIMER: this post may contain affiliate links, at which we may receive a small amount of income from any purchases made, at no extra cost to you! Also, this post will contain links to our etsy shop, which proceeds do go to us. 

While my intro may have been a bit dramatic, it is totally true. 

Journaling has played a major part in my life; it has helped me through some of the darkest times of my adult life, and I honestly couldn't be more grateful.

I will warn you, the passion I have developed for journaling has turned into a huge problem. I am highly addicted to journals, notebooks and pens. I guess that is why I started making my own! (Check them out here!)
​

BACK STORY

To understand my why, you need to know a little bit more of my backstory. 

I got married at twenty-two years old. Do I feel like that is too young? No. Do I feel like I was ready? Yes/No. Not because I married the wrong person, because that is hardly the case, but because I had no clue what it was like to be a wife, to be married to a traveling man. When J and I got married, he traveled twenty-eight-ish days out of the month! THE MONTH! And I worked night shift, so there were months where we didn't see each other. I had no clue how to be a wife to him, be away from my parents so much, or to manage a house hold basically on my own. Also, since I worked all the time, I had very few friends. This is kind of where I allowed myself to slip into some depression. I mean how could I not? Talk about lonely!

Well, he came off the road, and within six to nine months, we were expecting our first baby! I was so excited. Excited to have a baby with my husband, excited to start a God given family. I felt like life was moving as it should. 

With that first baby came the baby-blues and some post partum anxiety. I constantly beat myself up over the fact that we had to have emergency C-section, that nursing didn't go as planned. I let anxiety rule my life.

Then, SURPRISE. Our second baby was on the way! That pregnancy went by so fast, and ended with a scary experience with an almost three week NICU stay. A rollercoaster ride I wouldn't wish on anyone! I had never cried, leaned on my husband or God, ever before. The girls are eighteen months apart, to the day. From the NICU stay and various of scary incidents that my baby fought through and overcame, came tons more of anxiety and tons of post partum depression. 

THEN, eleven months later, I went in for a routine wisdom tooth removal, and the oral surgeon broke my jaw. BROKE MY JAW. I said, what I said! That was truly a traumatizing event. I was literally wired shut on the spot, and was forced to eat, I mean DRINK a liquid diet. While that looks and sounds like a horrible experience, and it WAS. Good still came out of it. 

Out of all of these life changing and scary events, good came out of each and every one. 

And that in itself is a great lesson learned, and a humbling reminder. 1 Peter 4:12-19, the author, Peter instructs us to rejoice in suffering, so "that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed". I am also a firm believer, that if we can't find joy where were at, we won't be happy in our next venture. 

When my jaw was broke, I literally had to write everything. Have you ever heard the old saying "alone in your thoughts, too much". That was me. So. Me. That's when I began journaling. 

It started out with a pretty walmart journal, and a journaling prompt graphic I found on Pinterest. I did that for a bout a week or two, and then it turned into an everything journal. I used it for the prompts, and to talk to God. I filled this journal up, and then I began to dig back into His word, and reading more and more. I even began reading as a form of self care, not just religious books but personal development and even raunchy romance. Yes, I am that girl! :)

When I began journaling, I had such a peace in my spirit. Even if I was just journaling about my kids, I was getting stuff off my chest, off my heart and mind. 
​

SUMMARY

With all that being said, it's easy to see that it was not just the journaling that pulled me out of the funk. It was all God. But, God gave me a way, the tools and the willingness to pull out of the bad place I was in. 

Journaling gave me a place to kind of "protect my peace", so to speak. When I had a really bad day at my hospital job, I went to my journal. When I needed to get things off my mind, I went to my journal, even when I didn't know what it was I needed to say, the words have always found me; and if they didn't I used a journaling prompt, and they found me. 

Journaling also gave me a place to leave lessons and wisdom for my babies. When my grandmother (dad's mom) was still living, my mom gifted her a journal. She asked Jane to write down whatever her heart lead her to write, and that she wanted it to be for me. I remember that journal like it was yesterday, while it has been over fifteen years since we gifted her that journal and almost six since she passed away, I have never gotten that journal. Am I a little bitter about it. Yes, a little. Only because I don't have much of her left. Some notes she wrote me, a necklace I gifted her right before she passed, and some books she gifted me is all I have. I would love to have that journal, and see what she wrote, and keep it safe. I hope my girls will cherish my journals and Bibles like I would Jane's journal, and I hope these journals and Bibles will give them some wisdom one day. 
​

I HAVE A FREEBIE FOR YOU!

Are you ready to begin journaling? YES! I am so excited for you! 

If you are feeling at a lost on how to start, I created a FREE journaling prompt PDF just for you. Even if you already journal, this would be a great tool to use on days when you need a little help on finding the words you need. 

These prompts are prompts I use very often, and they help me get the journaling process going, and I love to look back at these entries and see our growth as a family, personally and see how are lives have changed and progressed!

DOWNLOAD HERE

---

I would love to hear about your journaling experience! Drop it in the comments!

---

NEED A NEW JOURNAL? 
​SHOP HERE!

Shop journals here