brave journaling

My journal holds my stories and the inner weavings of my heart.  It knows everything about me and gives me space to bravely show up and spill open.  I can tell anything to those pages and it will soak it up.  There is no judgment or talking back, just an open space that I can fall deeply into.  

I have been journaling ever since I was young.  Scribbling down thoughts about my crushes and writing about my deepest fears and dreams.  There is no story that is off limits.  I tell the truth, the whole messy heart wrenching truth.  I work through the darkness and come out on the other side a little bit lighter.  

When I was younger I thought there was something wrong with me because I struggled to form sentences when I was going through something deep and emotional.  I would try to piece together the words but they never came out right.  During one difficult moment my boyfriend at the time saw me struggling deeply so he urged me to pull out my notebook and write.  I wrote and wrote getting it all out of me.  Once I was finished writing we sat down and talked about it and I could actually form sentences and speak, it was incredible.  Showing up on the page first gave me the opportunity I needed to process and understand exactly what I was feeling.  Once I had that space cleared I could articulate what I was going through and we were able to have a really good conversation about it.  

It was in that moment I learned there was nothing wrong with me, I just needed time to process what I was feeling.  The page gives me this opportunity to show up and say everything that is in my heart.  I can write about my deepest and darkest fears.  I can write about the things I feel others may judge me on.  I can write and write.  Once I get it all out of me my head is clear and I am able to have a discussion about it.  

The page is my best friend.  It is the place I turn to first.  It is where I process all of my feelings and figure out my next steps.  My writing is messy.  There are incomplete sentences and misspellings.  There are cross outs, times where I begin again, and other moments where I stop half way through.  It is raw, real, and beautiful.  It is exactly how I feel in that moment. It is my heart spilled onto the page.  

I am grateful to have this space to turn to. Grateful that it allows me the opportunity to be brave.  It is always there waiting for me and I carry it around with me wherever I go because I never know when an emotion, feeling or story will need to be told.  It is my security blanket in a world of uncertainty.  

Yes, journaling is how I come home to myself time and time again. 

Journaling is one of my self care practices.  It is the thing I turn to time and time again.  There may be long stretches where I do not show up, but I know that my journal is always there waiting for me with wide open arms.  

My Brave Journaling class is back for another installment and I couldn't be happier.  It has been incredible to see the way other individuals open up to the page and dive on in.  From first hand experience I know that journaling is healing and seeing that healing take place in others is pure magic.  

This class is for YOU if you are:

• Interested in self-exploration and learning how to use writing as a tool to help you heal and dream
• Looking to unearth your stories
• Wanting to learn how to see the page as a friend and not an intimidating blank space
• Looking to learn how to write from a place from a place of honesty and compassion
• Curious about writing

First time journalers and seasoned writers are welcomed.  

I invite you to join me for 21 days of brave journaling where together we will show up and let our stories spill out onto the page.  

Journaling will:

• Provide you a space to tell your stories
• Help you gain confidence in your voice 
• Help you to become more present
• Guide you into tuning into your feelings
• Provide you the opportunity to release the stories you have been carrying around for far too long
• Awaken your inner spark
• Allow you the opportunity to write from a place of compassion, free of judgement

Class begins February 21st and runs through March 12th and for the very first time I will be offering the opportunity to get a session of mentoring along with the class.  I am beyond excited about this opportunity and the chance to work one on one.  I know that journaling can feel like a very lonely experience at times and through the mentoring session we will be able to connect and work through anything that comes up for you.  

Click HERE to learn more about Brave Journaling!  

I hope to see you in class!  If you have any questions feel free to leave a note in the comments or drop me a message at jbelthoff@gmail.com

journaling will open you up

When I was younger I would tuck my journal underneath my bed so that my brothers would not find it.  There were deep thoughts in there about my current crush and the butterflies I got in my stomach when I saw him.  I filled those pages up, writing long after dark and safely tucking it away under my mattress.  Oh how I would have been devastated if someone were to have found it.  That tiny little notebook contained my heart.  All of the honest words that I couldn't speak to friends were spilled out onto the page.  It was an outlet.  A chance to really set free and be exactly who I was. 

Writing in that notebook gave me courage to take risks.  To ask him out and have a place to turn to when he said no.  It was all ok because the page helped me sort through it.  It pushed me to live body in a world where I was so timid.  It encouraged me to spread my wings just a little bit more and see how far I could go.  The page held the heartbreak, the tears, and the struggles and made them seem not so bad once I wrote it out of me.  Having this to turn to was a gift.  An extremely precious gift I turn to time and time again.  

I hear so many people say that they are not a writer.  They think there words have to be pretty and packaged up.  A neat story contained between the lines with a beginning, a middle, and a beautiful ending.  But that is not what journaling is all about.  Journaling is the freedom to tell your story from wherever you are standing in it in this very moment.  The feelings may be raw.  The emotion unprocessed.  That is ok, because the page does not judge.  It simply catches your words and holds them for you so that you no longer have to carry them around with you.  

There is no right or wrong way to journal.  Spelling does not matter and there does not even have to be one cohesive story.  Sometimes are hands will jump from one moment to the next and we never know what story may emerge.  The beauty that comes with journaling is in watching it all unfold organically.  In giving our hearts permission to just write whatever comes up.   

Yes this is journaling.  The roaming, the wandering, the adventure.  Spilling it all onto the page and not looking back to see where you can take it, but rather letting it take you where it wants to go.  We all have stories inside us.  From places we have been, people we have encountered, moments that have changes us forever.  These stories want to be told and only you can set them free.  

Journaling gives your heart an opportunity to heal.  A chance to tell the story again.  
So see it from a new perspective or to spill deeply into where you are in this very moment.  It is a gift.  A gift that only you can give yourself when you grant yourself the permission to show up and spill open.  The page will never judge and neither for you.  For any emotion you feel in any moment is yours and it is ok.  It doesn't meant that is how it always has to be, but for that moment we must acknowledge it so we can move forward.  

Allow your writing to help you move forward.  To forgive yourself and others.  To take a leap.   To gain confidence in yourself.  To have the courage to keep going.  Allow the page to hold it all for you and reflect back how strong you really are, how much you really know, and how courageous you really can be.  

I invite you to join me from Sept 9th - 29th to bravely step into journaling and grant yourself permission to release your words and see where our stories take you.