My Journal
Gandhi has said, “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
“Keeping a personal journal a daily in-depth analysis and evaluation of your experiences is a high-leverage activity that increases self-awareness and enhances all the endowments and the synergy among them.” — Stephen R.Covey
Journaling each day can be life-changing. It is one of the best habits you can build.
It can be so healing and insightful to write down your feelings and thoughts around your adoption experience and then go back at a later date and read them over.
Feeling overwhelmed with emotion and need a way to vent? Journaling is an extremely beneficial way to express your deepest and private thoughts.
Writing can be an extremely therapeutic way to come to terms of acceptance with some of the really painful and traumatic times in our lives like the adoption experience. It is beneficial in removing mental blocks and allows you to utilize all of your brain cells at one time.
How does it do that? The left side of your brain is activated which frees the right side to create.
Research shows that regular journaling does the following:
*Strengthens immune cells, called T-lymphocytes.
*Decreases the symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.
Other perks?
*Reduces the stress you feel by giving you a tangible outlet to express yourself.
*Helps you to work through solutions to problems by seeing them before you.
*In times of opposition with others and before you approach them with a problem you have a place to work through your feelings first.
*Helps you to get to know yourself better.
What things make you feel the certain ways you feel become evident patterns in your writing.
Writing helps you to get clearer on the fuzzy things you may be facing and lets you work through them for a period of time until you work up to a solution.
How To Begin:
Simply start by finding the special journal that meets your needs. Make it a fun trip to the store if you don't already have one. It's an awesome gift to self!
Begin by writing for a short period of time each day. Find a time that is practical and will always work for you despite the busyness of daily life. Record your goals, dreams, sorrows and ideas. Keep it located in a place that is always guaranteed to be private. Spend some time every 4-6 months looking back over what you wrote and you will be amazed to see how you have worked through certain issues.
Whether you are working through past pain or current decisions that are before you, I believe you will find this to be a helpful tool.
Here's a great online resource for you to journal each day: https://journey.cloud/
Would love to hear ways that journaling has been a part of your life journey. 
Journaling Resources:
Here is information on 2 awesome journals written by birth mom, Michelle Thorne called "Revealing You" and "Being You".
"Revealing You" is the first journal she wrote about finding your new normal inside of adoption.
"Being You", the second journal is about accepting and living out WHO you are inside of it. 
You can contact Michelle and get a copy here:
michelle@michellethornebooks.com or I have Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/michellethornebooks/), Twitter (@mthornebooks), and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/michellethornebooks/). The journal is $14.99 and can be found at this link: https://www.amazon.com/Being-You-Birthmothers…/…/ref=sr_1_6…