Smile Every Day, Then Write Down Why

Life is one of those things that is tough, I think most will agree. Whether you're an angty teen or drowning in the waters of #adulting I think most of us find that we all have struggles and half of that struggle is searching for a way to just be done struggling.

"Can't I just smile and breathe for a moment?"

But there's no time for either.

Life was really tough for awhile. Eating, writing, working—all of it was a struggle. I spent my days dreaming of sleeping. Because when I sleep that's the only time I don't have to feel, to remember, to do anything (I'm one of those lucky people that sleep easily and never have dreams to bother me as I sleep).

But . . . I didn't want to sleep my life away. And I didn't want to live it depressed, either,

It was so hard, but every day I had to want this over and over and over. It was exhausting. And sometimes I wondered if it was worth the effort.

But I pressed on. I did a lot of things. I prayed more. I cared less about stress. I drank tons of water (now that I drink around a gallon of water a day I haven't had migraines in forever!). I ate better. Walked more. And started pursuing old and forgotten childhood dreams. All of these things helped tremendously.

Yet, there was something else I decided to do and I believe it helped the most and is the reason 2018 was the best year of my life.

I decided to calendar journal. I had tried to write something I was thankful for every day in my regular journal, but that proved to be too hard. So instead I brought a pretty calendar and decided that at the end of each day I'd write something that made that day worth living and special.

I was inspired to do this through seeing all of my friends bullet journaling. But I think this is still a bit of a different thing? I don't know? I've looked around and I haven't seen anyone else doing this.

Though when I was eleven a girl that I wanted to be friends with but didn't like me also did this as a form of journaling. And I talked about that in my post The Art Of Journaling.

I'll admit sometimes it was really hard to find something special to write about (and some days I had a hard time choosing between several things!). On the hard days I'd search harder. Did someone say something funny? Did I say something funny? Did I try something new? Read a quote I liked somewhere? Start a book (reading or writing)? Finish a book? 

Did I have a thought that whirled around all day? 

Did I see something unusual in a familiar place?

As you can see, I managed to make every day special. Because, after all, every day is special. Even on the hard days I found a reason to smile. 

And that's why it was the best year ever! 

That little calendar was for my work hours—all the houses I cleaned! I won't bore you with posting those pics here, but if you're actually interested check out my Instagram because I shared all my calendar pictures monthly there ;D

And colored pens. That's one of my favorite parts of journaling! Something I stole from Lydia, I think. 

I don't plan to stop this calendar journaling. I'm so excited about this calendar I bought for 2019. It's full of German fairy tales and beautiful illustrations. I bought it from MerleMadeTales, an Etsy shop that has gorgeous artistic work.

So what do you think? Can you read all of those little days between the blurriness and my awful penmanship? If you can, share with me your favorite entries! 

And can you tell my penmanship became worse as the year progressed? Guess that means I'll need to work on penmanship this year. 

Is this something you'd do? Or have done? Share with me!