A Self-Confessed Journal Addict
A note taking, sketchnoting, journal fashionado stationery addict.
I am a self-confessed stationery addict.
The Moleskin and Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks for journaling and sketching will be my lifelong legacy for my long-suffering children.
I have one shelf dedicated to my journaling antics since 2008 solely for this purpose.
One day, when I pass through this world, my children can read the mind of their demised mother or, if required, provide an endless flow of tinder for the fireplace.
I've always been delighted by the little store I stumble across when travelling that sells stationery items.
I can't help but make a purchase.
We spent my birthday in Oxford, the home of the famous Blackwells bookshop.
My husband lost me for over an hour while I pondered the bookshelves, and I bought a pop-up map of Oxford highlighting all the main sites and colleges.
How cool is that?
I also purchased another Leuchtturm notebook in lilac, another to add to the ever-expanding collection.
When did this obsession start?
At the start of September and a new school year, I would secretly covet the new textbooks, exercise books and stationery items.
There was something irresistible about the smell of a new text and notebook that I couldn't resist.
I am in the print industry because of my love of paper and print.
I have to fess up owning a Lamy Neo pen and a Moleskin elliptical pen, allowing you to write on special 'ncoded' notebooks that digitise and save your notes in the respective app.
Why, might you ask, is the point of that?
If you lose the notebook, all your notes are stored in the cloud.
You can also draw, make sketches, add colour, and extra notes when you access the digital version.
I love the crossover from analogue to digital and can see the point, but there is no natural substitute for pen and paper.
I love to write, from daily musings to substacks to blogs on our website.
While I am genuinely shy about writing and putting it out there, something about making notes in a notebook thrills me.
How do you know which one to use for what my husband asks?
I know which one, and that's it.
I can dive into any page in any notebook, timestamp it with the place and time, and then note a fleeting moment or thought that drifts into my mind.
The great actor Matthew McConaughey swears that having a notebook and pen is ideal for any manifestations that come to mind.
I am reading his book Greenlights, and I get the whole point.
For fifty years, he has taken notes and written down thoughts and ideas, all part of understanding human existence and what it is to be human.
Writing is a creative process; whether journaling, essay writing, blogging or scribing morning pages, it takes time and deliberation to sit down and write.
No matter what level or stage you are at, writing requires time and thought, and that's why I am drawn to notebooks.
The blank page never scares me.
A random thought comes into my mind, and I am off writing by hand or on my Remarkable Tablet.
I start with the headline.
For me, the headline starts my gears to make notes and write.
Even if it's not the finished working title, the headline boosts the direction of writing.
Whether it's keeping a diary or journal or merely writing notes down on sticky notes, thinking and writing are cathartic.
I've lost touch with what they teach in schools regarding learning to write, but I strongly believe in writing for wellness.
Whatever comes to mind, write it down: your mood, how you're feeling, the weather, what your boss said yesterday, do you really want a divorce, to the real innermost recesses of your mind about deeply personal things that have happened.
Writing it all down is food for the brain.
It allows you to unleash sadness, frustration, love and happiness; it's all in the words.
If schools gave over an hour a week to free-flowing creative thinking and writing, children's mental health would be all the better.
Keeping a notebook allows the free flow of thoughts to have completely off-the-wall ideas and to be creative and carefree.
Having that freedom to write down your thoughts is a tool that facilitates clarity of thought, helps decision-making, and is a mechanism for self-expression.
Journaling and keeping notes provide comfort and help during difficult times.
But mostly, there's nothing quite like flicking through the pages of a journal or notebook, reading about an event or a snapshot in time, and realising how far you've come.