I’d like to share a quick insight into my journal for a moment (and yes, I am aware ‘journals’ are meant to be private- but the lesson I learned today is too huge to keep secret).

Every morning I do the ‘morning pages’ exercise from Julia Cameron’s book, the Artist’s Way. What that consists of is writing, long-hand, stream of consciousness for three pages. No filter, no editing, no thinking. Just writing free flow.

Today, as I sat down and looked at my journal I realized: ‘Almost time for another journal’. My next thought was: ‘Gosh, I am flying through journals these days; I feel like I JUST bought one.’ Which was sadly following by this thought:

‘Well, instead of doing three pages of long-hand writing, I can just do two. Make the journal ‘last’ a little longer.’

As soon as I wrote it I was furious. The more I wrote, I realized that this statement was an old pattern- a habitual belief: hoard what you have, lack mentality, make it stretch out because you never know when you’ll get another one.

A journal! My goodness. A journal is like 10 bucks. A journal can be found at any store, maybe even the Dollar Store!

Continuing on with my three (yes, I made myself do three not two) long-hand stream of consciousness pages, I used another tool that Julia recommends in her book. I asked myself, “Little Elizabeth, what does this pattern mean? Why do you do this? Why do you go straight to ‘lack’?”

Well, the answers I came up with are not part of the moral of this post- but what I do want to share with you is this: the writing totally helped.

I shifted from hoarding behavior, lack mentality, feeling unworthy, laziness, and futuristic planning to realizing that I can let these unwanted routines go.

Through the three pages I wound up with this: an idea for a fun and creative way to secure my next (and many future) journals that won’t take a lot of time, effort, or money.

Now I know this example of running out of space in a journal to finding a fun and easy way to get my next one is sort of a silly story. But what I hope this story showed you was this:

You can shift your thinking. You can make tedious, boring tasks more fun. You can transform from feeling stressed out and not good enough to empowered and alive, in an easy and fun way.

A journal can help. Or maybe another tool would suit your needs better. I just encourage you to find what works for you. But the three things you must do are the following:

• Stop existing in auto-pilot;
• Become aware of your thoughts: actually watch and observe them;
• Then shift in a healing, powerful way right in the moment!

Instead of ruminating on how enraged I am with this engrained ‘lack mentality’ I chose to work through it. Let it go. Come out on the other side of the writing feeling happier, grateful, and calm.

But you’ll never be able to change if you aren’t even aware of your own patterns, routines, and thoughts. Want to shift some of this in your own life? Join us for my upcoming virtual retreat. The theme is perfect for this post: Get Out of Your Own Way. For more information and to join us, visit this page.

Let’s hear from you! How have you shifted in the moment? What tools work for you? How can you let go of limiting beliefs and embrace healthy, fun habits!?