last items i packed...alllll my 2019 notebooks. sprinkled with tears and spilled coffee, they traveled to several states, countries, and moved apartments a few times. they’re bent and bruised from it all but it maybe made the content inside more interesting....(like me?) they hold... -self-awareness, self-loathing, bursts of ideas. -anxiety spirals -depressed lows -high moments -encouragement -late night silly gratitude -early morning extiensial dred -paralyzation of where to start -an embarrassing amount of indecision - hopes, dreams, doodles, lists, and learnings. they’re imperfect, messy, and disorganized. (also like me) i often wish i could hire the right coach, therapist, professional organizer, or friend to come in and clean all this up. to just tell me what to focus on and what to toss. but the closest i’ll get to that is a notebook. i’m scared i’m going to miss a gem of awareness or not follow up on something I wanted to in these. . but does it matter? . since my book on journaling came out, i often get asked what i do with old journals. i always say, comb through, look for gems (ideas, self-awareness etc.) then recycle. but lately i haven’t felt ready to let these go. like there’s something in here i need to find. maybe that’s true, but i think the more productive thing is to ... keep writing because just cataloguing my thoughts & fears somewhere is cathartic. regardless of what i do next. the best part of journaling is that it’s exclusively for you. i’m glad i picked journaling, as the topic of my first book on a whim in 2013. it’s a practice that will age well, is free, useful, & easy. it was cool to see people give it as gifts this year.l. when people discover #letitoutbook & find it useful it still blows my mind... i’ll probably write about it in my journal. ha! if you’ve read it, tell me what tools you liked and which ones were hard? i’d genuinely love to know. 🍩 by @chrissstttiiine (at Greenpoint, Brooklyn) https://www.instagram.com/p/B66-5FZAdKV/?igshid=ampsbihcbl4a