00:00I'm Lucy Fink and this is 5 Days of Journaling.
00:06For my third episode in this series, I tried 5 days of meditation and setting aside time
00:11each day to practice mindfulness really helped me feel happier and more at peace with myself.
00:17And I've heard that journaling can have very similar effects and although I know that it's
00:21meant to be a very individual, personal activity, this week I'm up for the challenge of trying
00:26it and sharing my experiences with you.
00:28I sat on my bed this morning for 10 minutes and I just did stream of consciousness journaling.
00:34I didn't edit my thoughts, I didn't edit my grammar, I just wrote.
00:37And writing stream of consciousness about what I had to do and what was coming up and what
00:41was on my mind really helped lift some weight off.
00:44Here's my journal telling me that things are totally going to work out.
00:47Let's hope she's right.
00:52So yesterday I wrote about what I had to do and what I needed to accomplish this week.
00:57It was sort of a to-do list, a task list and I know it's going to sound a little
01:01bit cliche
01:02and fluffy so bear with me but I felt physically different after my first day.
01:07I also learned something incredible about myself.
01:11Apparently, I haven't been giving myself enough time to spend time with myself.
01:15I wrote, the weekend was fast paced and I wish I hadn't done so many activities.
01:21I rarely spend time alone, I want more moments like this.
01:25But I knew that my mind could extend further and dive deeper if I put myself in a different,
01:30more colorful setting.
01:31So today I took it out of the home and I sat in a few different locations around the city
01:36and I journaled there.
01:37I thought more about the people around me and the world at large.
01:40So all of my stream of consciousness on my bed journaling started sentences with I need
01:45and I can't or I want but I didn't start any sentences with I in today's journal entries.
01:53Interesting.
01:58It's been two days of stream of consciousness journaling and I know there's so much more
02:02to journaling than just sitting down and writing stream of consciousness.
02:06So this morning I tried goal-oriented journaling.
02:08If you had asked me to do that last year, it would have been a breeze.
02:11But this year, I mean, my life is changing so much.
02:14So much exciting stuff is happening around me.
02:16I just have no idea what my goals are.
02:18Blank slate.
02:19I really wanted to approach this with some creativity.
02:22So today I'm going to sit down with Piera Gilardi.
02:25She is the creative director and the co-founder at Refinery29, my place of employment.
02:30Here she's written a whole article about how to live a creative lifestyle.
02:33She's full of inspiring ideas about bringing more positivity into your life.
02:38She is definitely my creative icon.
02:40Sitting down with her today and hoping I can get past this roadblock.
02:44So I do a couple different types of journaling.
02:47One is that I have this kind of like master list of like goals and some of them are really
02:52big, some of them are fun, some of them are like practical.
02:55And I'm kind of always adding to them and I have them organized by like different areas.
02:59That's good to know that when you're sitting and writing your goals, you're thinking beyond
03:03the scope of your career.
03:05And it didn't even cross my mind to write about personal stuff.
03:08Life goals.
03:10Brunch goals.
03:10Hair goals.
03:12Brow goals.
03:12Brow goals.
03:13You.
03:13Oh.
03:14Or my brow goals.
03:15At the end of every day, I have to write my highlights of the day and my lowlights
03:19of the day.
03:20A, it like makes me reflect and then I'm like, wow, I actually had some like really amazing
03:24highlights and it makes you realize certain things that you appreciate like, you know,
03:28my highlight today will be doing your show.
03:29We're a highlight.
03:31Yeah.
03:31One other tip that I think is super important if you're going to get into the habit of
03:35journaling, because an idea can pop up at any time, is I always have a notebook on me.
03:40Always?
03:41Always.
03:41Do you have one on you right now?
03:43It's in my pocket.
03:44Here it is.
03:45Oh, it's so cute.
03:51Something that I've always had a huge interest in are dreams.
03:54And I've heard that if you start logging your dreams and identifying recurring themes, it
03:59can get you a little bit closer to being able to lucid dream, which is where you're actually
04:04in a dream but you know you're dreaming, so you start to be able to control your actions.
04:08So cool.
04:08So I made myself a dream journal.
04:12Dreams are everything.
04:13I kept this next to my bed, woke up at around 4.15 in the morning yesterday, turned the light
04:17on, wrote my dream down, and then went right back to bed.
04:20I know that there is so much potential for me to tap into my dreams as a source of creative
04:25inspiration, both for my job but also for my personal life.
04:28And I know you're probably wondering what my dream was that I wrote down, so I'll read
04:33it to you while you enjoy this nice reenactment of me playing the part of Lucy in Lucy's dream.
04:39I was walking down the streets of New York City when suddenly I stopped.
04:43I realized that I left my keys at home, so I turned around to get them.
04:47Realizing they were locked in my apartment, I turned back around and kept walking.
04:51I now all of a sudden had french fries with me, so I started eating those.
04:55When I got to the last fry, I discovered that it was actually my apartment key.
05:00I stared at it for a moment, and then I woke up.
05:04Hmm.
05:06I wonder what that means.
05:11I can totally see how moving forward I'd be able to learn more about myself and what
05:16I really like and what my place is in this great big world if I continue to journal.
05:21Dream journaling is something that I'm definitely keeping up after this week.
05:25I wonder if the french fry turning into a key had some sort of deeper meaning attached to it.
05:29Maybe everything that I want is actually right in front of me.
05:32Maybe I just want fries.
05:34We should get fries later.
05:35Thanks for watching.
05:35Subscribe to Refinery29 on YouTube.
05:37And as always, comment below letting me know what you think I should try next week.
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