Journaling for Self-Love

So, one of my goals for 2024 was to cultivate more self-love/self-care for myself. And I had a brilliant idea one day in the shower (as one does). I decided to pull a Tarot card each day and think about what good quality I had that matched it — and journal a bit about it. For example, if I got The Chariot…the Chariot is about victory, attaining your goals, taking steps to move forward…I’d write about how I’m driven to succeed, I’m a go-getter, and how I’ve accomplished many of my goals because of this. And so on. And then I thought, hey, it’d be cool to decorate this journal a bit, kinda like a scrapbook, make it kinda fun and pretty. I’m not the best scrapbooker, to be honest. I used to scrap back in the day, with my sister and a mutual friend (we even did those 12-hour events which were a blast) and I did okay, but my pages were never gorgeous. But they were decent. My sister brought me supplies in boxes for this project and one of them was mine. I saw some of my old stuff, and I was a bit taken aback because…wow…twenty-some-odd years ago…I didn’t even remember creating those pages…and they were of things I’d done with my ex-husband…but they weren’t bad. Not at all.

The journal is for me only, so I am not about making it perfect. Just fun and pretty. I want to add pictures and poetry and collage-type stuff eventually as well. It’s going kinda slow right now, because I’m pulling cards and starting the pages, but I’m doing the journaling/decorating usually on a different day. But I do think about what card I got, and what quality I’d journal about, and meditate a bit on it before moving on. And again when I work more on that page, I think about it some more. So it forces me to think about myself, and good things about myself, things I might not normally think about. Like yesterday’s page was the 6 of Cups. The card of nostalgia and childhood. I thought, well, I’m extremely sentimental about things. Like, to the point where I’d save a completely mundane object (to someone else) for many years that has a super special meaning to me. Just because it has sentimental value. Stuff like that.

So how is it going? It’s only been a few weeks. I started officially a few days after the new year. And I haven’t been able to do it every single day. Certain days have been too busy. But I try to do as many days as possible. (I’ve been tracking those, too). And I’ve been trying to take some time every week and decorate a few pages. I originally planned on doing this for a whole year, but I might continue it longer if I feel it’s working well.

But Erin, the Tarot readers might wonder, there are only 78 cards in a Tarot deck, and there are 366 days in 2024. How will you keep from getting duplicates? Well, I got that covered. In fact, I’ve already gotten a duplicate draw. Since I have the belief that Spirit guides my hand, I don’t really believe in a redraw. Plus, I can’t. Not enough cards! So, I’ll do something different with the duplicates. For the Ace of Swords, which was the first one, I wrote a short poem instead of journaling again. So I think maybe I’ll just decorate or somehow make the page a bit different, but still retain the idea of matching the card to a quality of mine.

So there’s the idea. Self-love is so difficult, isn’t it? And why is that, I wonder? Do we feel weird or even selfish in doing this? Why shouldn’t I bestow some love onto myself? I give other people love — family, friends…hell, even my favorite band, Queensryche, gets my adoration. But yet I forget to give myself love in return. And that sucks, because I deserve some of that too. I am worthy of it, just like everyone else. And my inner child needs it, too.

If you think this is a good idea, feel free to take it and modify it for yourself. And then let me know how it goes! You could probably use another kind of card, too, rather than Tarot cards if you’re not into them: Oracle cards (I hear these are really good), Affirmations cards (these are very similar to a set I own), those cool Rage Create cards, Energy Oracle cards…(I make no money from these links…they are only suggestions!) whatever floats your boat. Anything that inspires you, really, and makes you think of what’s inside you that shines. And be sure to write about it. Handwrite. That’s important. (Did you know that today — well, Jan. 23rd — was National Handwriting Day? Total coincidence. Honest!) I think the act of handwriting stuff is totally different from typing. Of course, if you’re anything like me, you’ll probably have trouble reading it in a few years, but that’s, as my friend Scott says, a “future problem.” LOL.

So go get your self-love on and start writing. 🙂

Notes on the pics:

#1 Quote/Feather: Has this inspiring quote: “The girl you once were, heal for her. The woman you are now, protect her. The queen you were created to be, fight for her.” ~Morgan Richard Olivier – I thought this was perfect for the first page. I had 4 possibilities, but this one won. 🙂 The feather is from my personal collection and is a symbol of angels, of birds, of flight, of dreams manifesting. (It’s actually not done yet…the quote needs a frame, or the page itself needs a frame, or something. Been holding off to figure out juuust the right thing).

#2 Poem/Bird couple – Continuing the bird theme…A poem I wrote recently, “Letter to my Inner Child,” with the bird couple below because in the poem, I refer to her as “little bird.”

#3 Judgment page – Journaling about Judgment – being fair, choosing the right thing, and spiritual awakening with the butterfly, which is not only a reoccurring theme in this journal, but is a reoccurring sign/syncronicity in my life currently. (Butterflies are a sign of transformation).

#4 Ace of Swords/poem – Ace of Swords #2, with the poem I talked about above as an alternative to journaling. I know it’s not perfectly centered, LOL, and actually — I think it’s perfect the way it is. Perfectly imperfect, just like me!