I’ve been wanting to start writing here on Substack for so long and now that I’ve finally started, my brain is bursting at the seams with thoughts and experiences I want to share.
About my journey. My struggles. Things I’m learning. Things I’m still trying to figure out.
I don’t know where to start sometimes but that’s totally ok.
This! This is what I wanted.
I wanted to feel inspired again.
I wanted ideas. Creativity. Something that made me reach for my journal because whoa, wait, I need to write that down.
It’s happening so often now. It’s exciting and just what I wanted to start building.
I journal in the mornings and often again in the evening and somewhere in all those ramblings, things start connecting.
An idea for something I want to share.
A thought about the kind of work I want to do someday.
Something I could do with individuals and with a community of people who love journaling.
Or sometimes, it’s nothing nearly that exciting.
Sometimes it’s just: Why am I avoiding this thing I said I was going to do?
So I write about it.
And I ramble.
Until...
Aha! Well, that makes total sense.
And suddenly I understand what was underneath it.
Journaling doesn’t necessarily give you answers. It gives you somewhere to sit still with the question long enough to hear your own answer.
Ooooo, that’s good. I don’t remember where that came from but I wrote it in my journal years ago.
I’m not opening my journal every morning because I have profound things to write down though. Most of the time it’s just a rambling brain dump.
I just start where I am.
What’s bothering me?
What am I excited about?
What am I avoiding?
What’s stuck in my brain and I can’t let go of?
What do I want?
And if I don’t know what I want, what do I know I don’t want?
I keep writing.
Somewhere in that rambling, clarity starts taking shape.
Not necessarily a five-year plan.
But just an aha.
Something clicks. Something makes a little more sense than before.
Nothing groundbreaking but it’s just enough to take the next step.
You don’t need the whole answer. You just need enough clarity for the next step.
If you’re feeling stuck, try this…
You don’t need a fancy journal or the perfect morning routine. Grab a piece of paper and choose a question that makes you want to keep writing:
What keeps coming back into my mind lately?
What am I avoiding, and what might be underneath that?
What do I want more of in my life? What do I want less of?
If I stopped worrying about whether my idea was practical, what would I want to try?
What do I already know about myself that I’ve been ignoring?
What’s one small step I could take toward the life I keep thinking about?
Pick one. Start writing. It doesn’t have to be anything perfect. Don’t even try to make it good.
Just ramble.
You might be surprised by what comes out.
Somewhere in there might be the little bit of clarity you needed.
I don’t know exactly where Joyful Rambling is going yet…
And that’s one reason I’m so excited to be writing here.
I have pages and pages of ideas. Things I want to explore. Stories I want to tell. Questions I’m still trying to answer myself.
A younger version of me would have thought I needed to figure all of that out before I began.
I’m trying something different now.
Beginning anyway.
I’m writing.
Dreaming again.
Paying attention to the little aha moments.
Taking the next step.
And the one after that.
I don’t know exactly where I’m going yet.
But I’m moving.
Hi, I’m Sarah. Welcome to Joyful Rambling. This is me rambling about journaling, joy, books, keeping it simple and creating lives that feel more like our own. I’m sharing my own messy, imperfect journey as I go.
A gentle reminder that none of us has to have it all figured out at once.