It’s the last Slow Experiment episode for September! For the final week of Mindful Moments, Brooke and Ben look at journaling as way to bring a pocket of slow and mindfulness to a busy day. It’s no secret that Ben is not the biggest journaler alive (see: the great journaling experiment of 2016), but by the end of the episode even he is convinced to give it another crack. Maybe.

Brooke is a big journaler, and has used it as a tool to manage anxiety, give shape to her mornings and help her find slow moments in everyday life for many years. She found during the book tour that the busier life got, and the more she had to strip back her morning rhythm and self-care, journaling was a thing that stuck, and kept helping. It gave her immediate relief on anxious days, was portable and easy, could be as big or small a task as she needed and she felt the effects throughout the day. If that’s not a testimonial, we don’t know what is.

The guys then share a few ideas for ways to bring journaling into your day, from Brooke’s ideal scenario (Julia Cameron-style, 3 A4, handwritten, stream-of-consciousness morning pages over a cup of coffee) to the reality of some days (a couple of bullet points quickly jotted down). They also share techniques floating around, including Gretchen Rubin’s one sentence a day and the movement that is Bullet Journaling (abbreviated to bujo, I believe). Whatever works for you is the way to go.

Brooke also talks about the research she found about the impacts of journaling on physical and mental health. Studies have shown that journaling can help strengthen your immune system, and that people who journal regularly heal more quickly and get fewer colds/flus and viruses. Journalling also reduces levels of stress, anxiety and depression, and influences our emotional intelligence, and ability to identify and solve problems in relationships.

Sounds good to us! Join us this week and experiment with a different kind of journaling. Feel free to share your efforts over on Instagram, using the hashtag #slowexperiment.

A big thanks to everyone who played along this month - we’ve loved seeing your mindful moments. Next month we’ll be sharing some live recordings, as well as a hostful reflecting on all things book tour. So stay tuned, and be sure to keep an eye on slowyourhome.com/events for all the Canadian mini-book tour stops as they get confirmed. To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/257/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.

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