Hi, and welcome to my podcast, The Journey Never Ends.

Today we're going to talk a little bit about journaling.

This is a very, very important topic, in my opinion, when it comes to being self-reflective.

So I'm going to talk a little bit about how I pick out a journal and

how to review your journal,

maybe some best practices that I have found during journaling,

as well as just some ideas on how to get you journaling.

So I started journaling in 2009 after I was diagnosed and I have journaled a lot since then.

So it's been a very helpful tool for me to manage my moods and to really understand my life.

Because sometimes when you're deep in an emotion and a deep in life going through it,

you don't really realize what you're going through until afterwards.

So when I pick out a journal, there's a couple things I like.

I like to have a very inspiring cover.

So it has to kind of vibe with me in a sense.

It has to be pretty, I guess is the best way to put it, inspiring.

The other thing is that it needs to have some type of clasp.

Sometimes it's a leather strap,

sometimes it's a magnet,

just as long as it kind of closes to protect the actual journal.

I originally started with lined journals,

but as I progressed,

I ended up really enjoying having no lines on my journals.

And recently I've actually kind of upgraded to like sketching art paper.

So it's these,

I have a very large kind of sketch pad that I use because I guess the words I write

is my art.

So anything that really works for you.

The other thing is I think it's important to have

many places that you journal.

So maybe having a digital version in your notes that you can access on your phone,

as well as having maybe a little notebook by your bed.

So when you're having a thought in the middle of the night, you can write it down.

You can really enable your creativity to do ideas,

but also to capture how you're feeling by having different journals available to

you in the right time.

So

A lot of people will tell you to journal.

And in my experience,

when I talk with people about journaling,

a lot of times they're okay with journaling every so often,

but they don't review what they journaled.

A lot of people actually,

I've seen people burn their previous journal writings,

which in my opinion,

I'm trying to convince you is not the best thing to do.

So my recommendation is to journal as often as you can,

and I'll give you some tips on how to get started,

but then also to review what you've done.

And I'm saying don't review it the next day.

Wait two months, wait a year.

And even what I do, sometimes I'll get a different color pen or pencil and

And when I review my journals, I'll make little notes.

It's very interesting to see what was the most important thing for you five years ago.

It's very interesting to see the depths of your emotions that you did last month.

It's very empowering and reflective.

So that's something that I recommend that everyone does when they do their journals.

Another thing that I've been asked

is should I do it digitally or handwritten?

My advice, do it any way you can.

And don't just do one method.

Like I mentioned, you might want a mobile copy that's on your phone.

I do see there being value in handwritten journals.

And this has to do with a finding that your emotion is

is very documented by the pressure you put on your writing tool,

by the size of your words that you write,

and as well as the speed at which you write.

So if you have,

like me,

you know,

countless journal entries,

you can actually see my emotional state.

There are times where I was very manic and you can tell just from looking at the page.

There are times when I'm depressed and my handwriting gets very tiny and very deliberate.

I write really slow and really tiny.

So I think that that's important for emotional regulation,

which might not be what everyone needs,

but that's something you're focusing on.

It can be very valuable to do a handwritten note.

All right.

So now let's get into it.

Most people, they get a blank piece of paper and they go, now what?

So I'll tell you about what I normally do.

And this is what created my book and my poems.

But I want you to make it your own.

So what I normally do when I'm ready to journal, I just think of a word.

Any word that really comes to mind that makes me feel some sort of way.

And then...

I just write it down and I do a poem.

I start rhyming.

So I'll pick one word and then the next sentence has to rhyme with it.

And so that's kind of how I work and make little poems based off of kind of that emotion.

It gets me going.

It's just kind of my creative outlook.

But really, if you don't rhyme, if you don't like poems, that's totally fine.

There's more simple ways to kind of get writing.

The most important thing is to start.

And sometimes you can create different mechanisms that help you start.

Another more simple thing that I do is to write the word today.

So I just start a journal writing and say today.

And you'll be surprised that once you start writing that down,

you'll be able to talk about what happened today.

Today I was broken up with.

Today I feel that I need to close my eyes and never open them again.

Today I'm ecstatic because I graduated college.

Whatever really is going on.

So really my advice to you is to find something that you can just write on a piece

of paper to get you started.

Whatever it might be, a little concept, anything to get you writing, a prompt, et cetera.

So that's what I wanted to talk about today.

I really appreciate you guys being here.

Much love.

Hi, and welcome to the second episode of my new podcast, The Journey Never Ends.

Today I'm gonna talk a little bit about manifestation.

And you've probably heard a lot about manifestation.

I feel it's pretty mainstream nowadays.

People create vision boards,

they talk about what they want,

and as they all say,

they pretend like it's already happened.

Okay, great.

Everyone can do that, I guess.

But what really keeps people from manifesting?

In my opinion, it's action.

Action is the foundation of manifestation.

In my opinion,

manifestation occurs when you visualize what you want,

bring that top of mind,

and then create a plan to execute on it.

So from my project management standpoint,

I really see things pretty analytically or systematically really where you or

myself have mapped out kind of what my current state is.

I have a corporate job.

I live in Magnolia, Texas.

I rent.

I have 643 followers on Instagram.

I'm not widely known.

My brand, Crazy Good, is just a brand.

It's just an idea, really.

It's not mainstream.

That's my current state.

The future state that I'm really looking to get to,

that I want to manifest to,

is to have a much larger reach.

A larger reach that impacts those that struggle with mental illness,

their friends and family,

but also can resonate with every human being that is experiencing the human condition.

And I think I can do that because emotions are universal.

Everyone experiences life through emotions.

And I just have a very intimate relationship with emotions.

That being said, recording this podcast on Substack is really my action that is being...

that is taking me over to manifest my dreams.

So my future state is having my brand be more mainstream,

having impact on people to see themselves in a better situation,

to go from rock bottom and climb the mountain,

the mountain that never ends our lives.

So today I take action to move forward.

The concept I want you guys to think about when you're

planning your action to create and manifest your life is to be able to take large milestones,

you know,

going from having 600 followers to having a million.

That's too big to bite off.

But to create milestones to say, okay, my first step is to get 1000 followers.

That's a milestone.

What can I do

in a very deliverable fashion to do that.

I can follow accounts that focus on mental health and mental illness.

I can post more consistently, et cetera, et cetera.

I can promote my brand.

For me,

one of the first steps I wanted to accomplish was to,

the milestone I wanted to accomplish was to write a book.

It took me several years to write a book

It was very difficult,

and my book isn't even very long,

so I give kudos to every single author that has ever written a book.

That being said, I took it day by day, week by week, to say, I'm gonna write a little bit today.

I'm going to review what I did today and just take minuscule steps that helped me

get to that milestone.

Now that I've reached that milestone, I'm going more digital.

And that's my next step.

Again,

there might be a thousand steps before I get to the million followers,

to the impact I'm looking for,

but being able to drive down a road in the dark,

you only see,

what your headlights can show.

You don't have to see the entire journey,

just one step at a time,

one deliverable at a time to meet,

reach each milestone kind of simplifies things for you and allows you to take action.

In my opinion,

in a lot,

a lot more systematic way that makes you feel confident of what you've completed.

So I would really recommend

trying to decompose specifically where you're trying to go,

break it down into smaller milestones,

and then making it into a to-do list,

a deliverable.

And I think that's very important for people to realize.

Nothing's gonna occur unless you put pen on paper.

Nothing's gonna occur unless you run outside and start training for that marathon.

So that's really all I had to say today.

Today,

tomorrow,

every day that I post on this podcast is me taking action to the manifestation that

I have been visualizing for the last 10 years.

So I hope you stay tuned.

Really appreciate you guys being here.

We'll be in touch soon.

Much love

.

Hi, and welcome to the first episode of my new podcast, The Journey Never Ends.

Today, I'm just gonna chat a little bit and tell you a little bit about myself.

I'm 36 years old, I live in Magnolia, Texas.

In 2009,

I was diagnosed with bipolar one disorder,

which for those of you that do not know,

it is a mood disorder that causes

disability can cause hallucinations,

psychosis,

and can be very difficult to diagnose and to treat.

So I wanted to talk a little bit about my perspective on why the journey never ends.

And it all started when I did get diagnosed in 2009 and

I had a very severe manic episode with hallucinations, delusions, you name it, the works.

And after I was diagnosed and hospitalized,

a lot of other things went poorly in my life as well.

I was broken up with, I had to take semester off school, a lot of other things.

So I got really down in the dumps, but I

Bipolar depression, it's not down in the dumps, it's down in the mantle of the Earth's crust.

And so I stayed there for a while and I started journaling.

I have about 15 journals now,

but I started journaling and at the time I just wanted to make a quote.

I was like really depressed and I wanted limited words to express the deep emotion

that was going through me.

And I came up with a quote and I came up with this quote after feeling the most

deep sorrow, this void of hope.

And this quote that I journaled got me out of this hole.

It gave me hope.

And the quote is, “life is the unsuccessful organization of chaos”.

In other words,

We already failed.

It's unsuccessful.

You know,

you look at chaos as entropy and chemistry,

you will see that we are all trying to just decompose.

We are just trying to have chaos in life on an on on like an atom level, molecular level.

But we still live life.

It's okay.

We already failed.

It's unsuccessful.

This is life.

Life is a failure.

And we're all in here together.

It sounds a little morbid,

but that was actually really hopeful for me at the time,

just to give you a little bit of perspective.

And that kept my journey going, to be quite frank.

But my journey for the next couple of years was an interesting one.

It was one of survival.

It was one where I could not see the future.

I thought I was going to die when I was 30.

I didn't try to kill myself, but I just assumed that this existence was just going to end.

I had no aspirations for the future.

I was in survival mode for a while, for many years.

And then I turned 30 and I decided to pledge to myself, make a pledge for life.

I pledged that I would not self-destruct.

I pledged that I would not self-destruct, not just for me, but for those people who

that love me, for those people that believed in me, even when I didn't believe in myself.

So when I wrote this pledge,

when I turned 30,

when I was in complete awe of the fact that I was still alive,

I realized that my journey will never end.

And that concept is because I will persevere through everything.

I mean, and then I'll die naturally in my bed with my dog next to me or something like that.

I mean, ideally.

But all I know is that I will not end my journey.

And I hope that any person that is listening to this right now that struggles with

suicidal ideation or has a family member or a loved one

that has committed suicide or has had issues with suicidal ideation, I send my prayers to you.

Suicidal ideation is no joke.

I don't think there's anything worse than experiencing the void of hope that takes

you into the tunnel of suicidal ideation.

And I highlight this for people that can't comprehend suicidal ideation.

I guess those neurotypical people they call them nowadays.

I just try to put people in their perspective.

Imagine feeling so much emotional pain.

And I believe that emotional pain is pain.

That the only thing you think that's going to make it better is to self-destruct.

That is wild.

That is, that is some pain you're going through.

And so again, if anyone's going through that, just please hear me out.

Make a pledge, a pledge to life.

You can persevere through any obstacle.

I promise you.

I made a pledge to life and I realized that my journey will never end.

And that's how I live my life every day,

knowing that I must persevere because I pledged to persevere.

I also wanted to highlight a little fun fact about bipolar disorder.

It's not really fun.

Actually, that's completely not fun, is that 20% of people with bipolar disorder

kill themselves.

So that's a pretty high rate.

I just thought you should know about that.

In addition, 2.3 to 2.5% of Americans are bipolar.

So if you think that bipolar doesn't affect you, I guarantee it does.

Maybe it's your aunt.

Maybe it's you.

Maybe it's your husband.

Maybe it's your coworker.

Maybe it's the person.

Maybe it's your neighbor.

You know, who knows?

But I'm telling you that mental illness affects every single person.

And every person can learn something from someone that is mentally ill.

Because we...

We've been through it.

And I hope that I'm that mentally ill person that can help you through what you're

going through.

I mean,

that's really the concept that I'm trying to do with my podcast is in a sense,

suicide prevention,

obviously very passionate about that,

but then also just perspective on life,

perseverance,

getting through obstacles,

spreading mental health awareness,

mental illness,

And maybe having a little fun while we do it.

So this is today's episode.

It's my first episode.

I hope you liked it.

I really appreciate you listening.

We'll be in touch soon.

Much love.