Benefits of Expressive Writing: Why You Need to Start Keeping a Journal Today!

"Anything worth remembering, is worth wrting down"

-McNair

Oh! How I love this kind of post!!! I can't emphasise enough on the importance of reading. I myself am a confessed avid reader and I love how because of this blog, my friends and even strangers, now turn to me for reading material. I was at a small gathering the other day when an old friend (and male reader of this blog!) approached me and showed me one of my usual book recommendations downloaded on his phone. I decided to test the waters, and to my surprise he had definitely read it! I was ecstatic. You'd be too if you knew what book it was...

As much as I'd like to spend my days cuddled with a good read, one of my resolutions for this new year is to write more. Don't worry, I won't bombard you with meaningless posts everyday (just occasionally). To be more specific, I'll be writing more for myself. Ever since I can remember I've kept journals. Problem is, I usually start them and at the beginning, am pretty rigorous about my writing, but I never seem to finish them. A new year comes, or a new stage or project in my life and I'll end up with a pile of unfinished journals. I have confessed before how intimidating a blank page can be for me, or probably for most of us for that matter. I am however a firm believer in the power of writing things down and how jotting down your ideas, feelings or anything for that matter, can aid your brain, your soul and your heart. 

Writing can have endless benefits for your personal growth. It has been shown to have concrete health benefits, both physical and mental, and according to some studies can even help heal wounds (the kind of the heart and the kind of the body). According to a 2005 study cited by the Huffington Post, expressive writing can improve mood, well-being, stress levels and depressive symptoms, lower blood pressure, and improve lung and liver function.

If this didn't get you out the door to purchase a new journal, here are other known benefits of expressive writing and keeping a journal:

1. Writing is a great way of expanding your vocabulary and improving your communication skills; both written and verbal. Whether you end up using them for business e-mails or love letters, writing can help you express yourself better. 

2. Writing helps you keep track of your goals and dreams. By writing them down, you will have a constant reminder of what you've set yourself to achieve, holding you accountable for your success  or your failure. Having and keeping them written down will give your goals a more serious and formal meaning. It'll give you a sense of accomplishment. It will also keep you motivated and and will help you keep moving towards fulfilling them. Writing can help you review your progress in achieving your dreams and refocus when you've wandered down the wrong road. 

3. Writing will keep your brain sharp. It's a good way to exercise your brain and your memory. As you start writing things down you will begin to recall small details that would easily escape your attention otherwise. Suddenly you will remember things you've done, people you've met and haven't though of in a while, or places you've been to. You'll want to keep written track of everything, the big things and small, coming back to mind. It is also a great way of fueling your creativity.

4. Writing will help you build a life record and keep track of significant and memorable events. Journals make great heirlooms to pass down to your children and grandchildren. 

5. Writing can help you pause, take a step back and look at the big picture. Here's a simple exercise: hold the palm of your hand an inch away from the tip of your nose. It's hard to see and tell apart those fine lines right? Now, extend your palm to arm's length. You get a better picture of all the small lines running through your palms,  your veins, spots, that freckle between your fingers you'd never spotted...Writing helps you keep things in perspective and seeing them in a new light. It can also help you focus on the larger (and brighter) scheme of things. 

6. Writing can help you achieve clarity in your thoughts, goals and actions. It can force you to pause, order your thoughts, gain insight and ask the bigger and more important questions, and come up with better strategies.

7. Writing can help you learn from past mistakes. It can help you identify past wrongdoings, negative behavioural patterns, and use this information on past events to take better decisions for future moves.

8. Writing can help you practice gratitude. Count your blessings and write everything you are thankful for. It can help you appreciate what you have, instead of focusing on what you don't have.

9. Writing can help you build better and stronger relationships. Writing down your disagreements, arguments, fights and frustrations with your relatives or colleagues can allow you to vent without hurting anyone's feelings and sensibilities, and gain new perspectives on how to manage situations and relationships. It will allow you to order your thoughts and feelings towards that someone and shed new light on how to solve your differences and express your emotions.

10. Writing can help you reconnect with your heart and soul. It has the undeniable power of allowing you to get to know yourself better, and explore your inner self. 

What to write about? 

-How your day went

-Significant events
-People you've met, you miss, you admire, you love
-Memories
-Feelings: hopes, fears

-Milestones
-Failures and victories
-Goals (Long and short term)
-Ideas you've had
-Anything that caught your attention

Tips for Best Results

1. Commit.  Set aside the time to write everyday. Find a specific time of the day that best suits you. If you fail to write on a say, a given morning, make some time on that same evening. 

2. Begin with Baby Steps. Jot a line a day, start with a sentence, even a word, and work your way up. There will be days you'll find it will just flow and you'll end up with paragraphs or even pages!  Others you'll struggle. Remember it is not about quantity, 

3. Write by hand. You couldn't imagine how much your handwriting can tell when looking back at your entries.

4. Use different colors and styles depending on what you are writing and how you are feeling. Use red to express rage, blue to express sadness, bold to express determination or closure, italics to emphasize anything, exclamation marks to express excitement and happiness.
5. Write for yourself. Write as if nobody is reading. Remain true to yourself.

In my attempt to actually stick to this resolution I found these great aids to keep me on track.
Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project One-Sentence Journal is an easy way to kick off this habit for the long term. It's actually a five-year record! Each page allows you to write a brief four-line sentence for the following five years, and I swear the quotes at the top of each page for each day are scarily on cue!

I can't tell you how many times I've heard friends with children say, "I wish I could write down everything they say". Well, now you can! My Quotable Kid is a fun way of recording your children's funniest and cutest remarks. Each page has fun colourful bubbles to be filled with Who, When, Age, Where, and the Quote you wish to record. The Grandkid version also by Chronicle Books would make the most awesome gift!

My Mom: Hes Stories, Her Words (My Dad version is also available) is probably the most fun, beautiful project I've been working on for my daughter. It's basically an album with my whole life story, told by me, gathered in one same album for her to read and get to know me better. From basically the house where I grew up in, to childhood anecdotes, advice, family recipes, to favourite memories it pretty much sums up who I am, my family, where I come from, the kind of parent I aspire to be, and the Mother I've been and I wish for her to know, love and remember me for. A gift I most definitely want my daughter to pass down to my own grandchildren one day hopefully!

I was recently gifted this journal by someone who knows me all too well. 642 Things To Write About! I am having so much fun completing this journal! Chronicle Books do make the best journals. Try their Listography series as well.

I amass journals. No, really. Last time I counted I had over fifty (Can anyone say hoarder?) If you prefer no guidelines as to what to write about, I buy these classic Composition Books in bulk.

I found these Knock Knock journals on my last trip to Barnes & Noble (also available on Amazon) and found them absolutely hilarious inside out!

Here are some of my fave options. these titles are all available on Amazon:

As if I haven't provided you with enough reasons and options, start writing today!

XO

The Full Scoop on Belle de Mar + New Pics!

Fact: Holidays make me lazy and bring out the procrastinator in me. I'm trying to catch up with my writing and realized I owed you this post. So here it is:  the full scoop on Belle de Mar.

Before the Holidays I offered a sneak peek into Belle de Mar. I don't know where you might be reading this post, but in my latitude of the world, it is officially summer, so this post comes just in time to hit the beach in style. I myself will be hitting the beach regularly and I'm on the constant lookout for cute finds both for my beach spot and my not so tanned self. A while back I discovered and fell in love with cotton towels. They are so chic, look ever so gorgeous against a tanned skin, on the sand or as a throw on a sofa indoors or an all-white bed. 

Just when I thought I'd managed to get a grip on my summer accessories obsession first sparked by OfiBella's featured designers such as Tiffany Chou, Frasier Sterling and Hula Hoops Maui. Sofía, one of OfiBella's creator once again manages to spark yet a new obsession: Belle de Mar. 

By now you probably know Sofía as well as I do, her passions, her family, her hobbies and her love for nature and the ocean. She is a surfer's wife and has for years shopped pieces, designers and brands usually owned and designed by other surfer wives. She leads an active life both in the city and at the beach. She needed something that would work with her as she is surfing with her kids, exploring natural caves, or running her businesses (that's right...plural!) in the city. She can pull off better than anyone I know a pair of silk pants in the city and equally rock them the next day on the sand. This store just goes with her, with her lifestyle. Her family's passion for the ocean is after all, not a mere trend, but a lifestyle. Her husband used to tease her about how if only she could actually start her own business out of her obsession with finding the perfect bikini (which has been a new year's resolution for her! You gotta love this girl!) Well, guess what? She finally did, and got a store out of it! Five months ago she began working on her new baby, and now shares Belle de Mar with us mortals.

When you first walk into Belle de Mar, you walk into an oasis of tranqulity. The soothing colors and textures are a feast to all your senses. She wanted the store itself to reflect the vibe of the pieces. From the moment you set foot on the store you are transported to a world of beachy textures, sights, colors and smells. 

Being the daughter of a talented sculptress and artist, she dragged the beautiful logs scattered around the store right out from the ocean and worked on even the tiniest decor detail herself, including the gorgeous fitting room doors which once belonged to a convent and were rescued from her mother's workshop, and which she sanded, treated and varnished herself.

In her store, she wishes to catch the eye of sophisticated but laid back women, who can master the art of dressing any piece up or down when at the beach or in the city, who manage to give away that elegant and chic yet relaxed vibe and are on the constant search, much like herself, of comfortable and versatile pieces. 

She speaks passionately of the fit, textures, and prints of the pieces. She understands about the importance of the cut, fabrics, and the right amount of strategic stretch. Always detail oriented, you can tell the amount of love, attention and time that has gone into picking every single designer and piece when she speaks of buttery fabrics and emphasizes the importance of a piece flowing as you move, the feel of it against your skin...

Sofía wants to introduce smaller and cheekier bottoms, understanding a universal truth, take note ladies: the smaller the suit's bottom, the smaller your bottom will actually look. At Belle de Mar you'll find two or three sizes per style max. Tops and bottoms are sold separately and can be mixed and matched. The idea is to find the perfect bikini and the best fit for you.

Most of the designers she carries are hawaiian, and most of the pieces are produced in Bali, in beautiful soft fabrics such as the finest silks. As I write, the store carries five different designers, and will soon expand to ten brands, with other additions throughout the new year.

At Belle de Mar you'll currently find cover ups, silk pants, dresses, tees, bikinis, pouches and cotton towels.

Visit https://www.facebook.com/shopbelledemar for more details!

XO!

The DREAM JAR System

Wow. A little over two weeks and a new year, and I'd already forgotten how intimidating a blank page (or a blank screen in this case) can be. 

I believe a Happy New Year to all of you is in order! A happy, healthy, joyful, busy, blissful, good crazy, eventful year. 

I know it is a cliché but every year around this time, I try to squeeze in some time for myself, and reflect  about the past twelve months gone by and draft some serious resolutions for the new year.

A couple of years ago, amidst all The Secret hype I was introduced to Vision Boards. These basically consist of creating and putting up a board with pictures and magazine cutouts of all the things you wish, the goals you want to accomplish, and the dreams you have for this year. The idea behind it is that putting up a board with your dreams and wishes on it will keep your goals constantly in mind.  Taking a constant glance at your vision Board and visualizing your dreams is a good way to focus on the things you want, and actually go and make them happen. If you actually see an image of what you want, it'll be easier for you to consciously -or not- set out to make it happen, as you've already pictured it. It is basically a way to graphically illustrate and constantly remind yourself of what you want. I know...just please bare with me...

In january 2011, I created my first vision board. Yes people, long before Pinterest, there were Vision Boards. Except I just didn't have an actual board at the time so I created a sort of Vision Booklet that I got at my local scrapbooking store. It pretty much consisted of:

a) Fitness images - Every year I vow to work hard for not a slimmer body, but a healthier body. (Although let's not kid ourselves, I wouldn't complain if I could get my increasingly closer to a size 8 butt in a size 4, but at this point that would just be an added bonus)

b) Places I'd like to visit and pictures of idyllic beaches, cities I'd like to go to, and holidays I'd like to take.

c)Skills I'd like learn and other hobbies I'd like to take up such as photography, writing or cooking. A language I'd like to master, books I'd like to read, etc. This blog was first conceived on a vision board.

d) Cutouts of words that summarize and illustrate what I want my year to be i.e. calmer, easier, happier, healthier, feel good, smile, love etc.

I think after all my gibberish you get the idea by now. I usually begin my board in january but will add images (never remove) throughout the year. You should keep it handy or somewhere you can easily spot it and glance at it once in a while, not to check your progress and rate or evaluate your year, but to keep your eyes on the prize, stay motivated and remember what you set yourself to work for. These past two years (2012 & 2013) for some reason (it might have to do with some renovating I did in my workspace) I shoved my vision boards under a pile of papers and only found them until I set myself to write this post. 

Here's the incredible part. Looking back, even without having taken a glance a it during the entire year, I realized I've visited 90% of the places I'd collaged, I've worked on my photography and on my writing, I've worked on my language skills, I've read most of the books I'd included and basically I've come pretty close to living and achieving my wishes and dreams I'd illustrated in words or images (except for the fitness part I have sadly yet to master). Here's a teeny example. In my 2013 booklet/scrapbook I'd created a whole page dedicated to Paris. I collaged pictures of the eiffel tower and other spots of the city, metro tickets, a tiny eiffel tower key chain, a Parisian building, and I'd written the phrase J'habite à Paris. Okay, so maybe I didn't and still don't live in Paris, but I got to rent a beautiful property and spend my summer in the city with my husband and the kids, an unforgettable experience I've written before on LADV. I'd pictured this months before we even decided to do this, and it wasn't even me who suggested we do it! I could go on with examples like this.

I highly recommend doing a Vision board, or Dream Board, or Wish Board, or Goal Board; or whatever you choose you name it. It is a fun, entertaining activity. Work on it 10 minutes every night during the first days of the new year and keep it visible. Come back to it every once in a while. I will warn you though, creating a vision board will not magically make your dreams come true, but seeing what you want and where you want to be, everyday, will increase the likelihood of you setting out to making it happen; everyday. 

I am currently writing this under a pile of old magazines, ready to begin my 2014 Vision Board. This year however, I came across on Pinterest, the Vision Boards of our time; the idea of a Dream Jar and instantly fell in love with it. Once again, you can name it whatever you choose. The idea behind it is pretty much the same as the Vision Board. You'll need a Mason Jar, or any kind of Jar for that matter, pen and paper (post-its are perfect, if you're feeling really crafty you can use some string to tie around each piece of paper or you can even use wood sticks to give it a twist).

Write whatever you want to achieve, dream, wish for and live in 2014. It can range from career goals to relationship milestones, to parenting achievements, to fears you'd like to conquer,  to spiritual and physical transformations, to something as lavish and superficial as your next big fashion splurge. It is of utmost importance to be as specific as you can.

You can roll each dream up, deposit them in the jar and wait to watch them happen or... at the beginning of each month, retrieve from the jar one or more dreams and set yourself to work on them. Channel all your energies, love, passion and efforts into achieving that dream, maybe not that same month, but keep it pinned somewhere visible so you won't forget it. Carry it around in your wallet, glue it to your nightstand, or just carry it in your mind and heart.  If constant in your work, and maybe with a little bit of luck, by the end of the year you'll have a jar of fulfilled dreams. 

The jar system has great and endless possibilities. Create your own system that best suits you. You can create a Gratitude Jar and write down all the good things that come your way as they happen and all you are thankful for. At the end of the year you can retrieve them all from the jar, and revisit your year, revisiting and focusing and all the good things, big or small, the year has left you with.  

A Dream Jar is a very personal project, however you can have a Family Dream Jar and it would make a great activity to do with the kids. Help them think of all their little or biggest dreams and make this a new year's tradition for everyone!

Browse Pinterest for great ideas such as the ones shown below.

Uploaded by Pinterest User

Uploaded by Pinterest User

Hostess With The Mostess, www.hwtm.com

labelleparties.blogspot.com

fashionbymim.blogspot.com

I'll leave you now, I have some serious dreamin' and wishin' to do!

XO!