Back in 2014, I stumbled across a relatively new business that was targeted to the “planner” community. I ordered one of what they call a Life Planner. Ever since then, I kept one. Little did I know the roller coaster that I was about to ride in my life. The owner and founder of this self-named company is Erin Condren. She is an intelligent, kind, and fun person who saw a need in her life and those around her, and she sought to remedy it.
With all of the many titles that we take on and the people that we care for in our lives, this planner has made it possible to keep everything organized and have some room for fun. I love the way that it is laid out and how it is also motivating with its motivational quotes in various places. No. I do not work for this company, nor do I get paid to talk about it. However, I do want everyone to know about it.
In addition to the “Life Planners”, they have notebooks, markers, pens, desk accessories, and other great items. I utilize a lot of the products, and I have to say that I find everyone that I have purchased to be very functional and also cute. I use them pretty much everyday. Understandably, you did not begin reading this to be sold products, but I am just letting you know that if after you read the rest of the post you want to purchase anything from this company, click here. Now on to the reason I began talking about this in the first place.
Recently, I developed a different way of journaling. When I began a long, long time ago, I just took some random notebook, and I began with the date and what I wanted to write down. At first, I was afraid to put anything down that someone would possibly read. But as I became more and more comfortable with writing out the positive things, I began working on gettin the negative things out of me. So, I then began writing more about the pains, frustrations, and hurts that I had been experiencing on loose leaf sheets of paper. Once done with the writing, I would tear it up and throw it away. Sometimes, I would burn those pieces of paper to be rid of those experiences or the hurt that was tied to it.
Fast forward to being a mom. I wrote about everything in random notebooks still. However, I stopped separating and throwing away the negative feelings, thoughts, and experiences. I began keeping them intertwined with the positive. I felt that I should be authentic to my future self should I decide to reread these. Just to let you know, I ended up moving quickly and unexpectedly, and not a one of those notebooks were saved.
It wasn’t until 2014, when I got the Life Planner that I began saving my planner/notebook/journal. With the first one, I began writing down the days that I work (I’m a nurse so the days fluctuate). I would utilize areas for feelings assessments, health, finances, the boys’ milestones, my husband’s work hours, etc. All kinds of things could be fit nicely in there. Then, I discovered stickers. Oh my goodness! I would like to say that I grew out of the phase of stickers, but I definitely have not.
As the company came out with new products, I felt the need to try them out and see if they were something that could enhance my life. I didn’t want anything that would just add to the clutter. I needed these things to be both highly functional and nice to look at as well. When the notebooks became available, I was so elated. Now I can have nice sturdy notebooks that I can customize to make my own. I can save them, and they won’t look crazy on the shelf. They look uniform. My planners as well look uniform on the shelf.
In 2016, my body developed cancer, and the cancer ate away at my body. I had no idea that I had cancer. I didn’t know what was wrong. So I kept adding to my planner/journals the various symptoms I was having, possible triggers of said symptoms, and anything that I could think of to try to figure it out. I went to the doctor many times with no real answers. I provided so much data that I am still to this day unsure as to why this particular doctor chose to ignore all of it. But that is a different story.
By the time the end of 2018 came around, I was 60 pounds lighter and 8 inches shorter. My hair had thinned so much. I couldn’t walk. And I was barely hanging on to life physically as well as mentally. I remembered thinking to myself, “why am I still alive? why am I going through this? why can’t I just die already?” God opened my eyes to see what He was doing. In that moment, I surrendered all control, and I told God to just use all of this to His glory.
That very next day, I was visited by someone from the church. We became friends, and she suggested that I see a different doctor at a different hospital. I did. And because of the planners/journals that I had – and that my current doctor is absolutely amazing – she had everything needed outside of clinical proof to know what it was that was going on with my body. She ordered the definitive tests. And within a couple of weeks, I was sitting in front of one of the top multiple myeloma specialists in the country talking about the plan of attack against it.
Now, I keep things organized for me and my five guys. And I have adopted a way of keeping tabs on my mental health as well. I have a separate notebook for emotions. There is a sticker out there on the web that is a wheel of emotions. I utilize this to put a word to the feelings I have and to find out the root feeling to that emotion. In the notebook, I write down the date, the feeling with its root feeling, and then scripture that applies to the situation causing the feelings. Then I write out the situation and feelings surrounding it being sure to keep the positive and negative all there. At the end, I write out a prayer to God, first thanking Him, praising Him, asking Him, and thanking Him some more. I can’t tell you how much this has helped. But I can say, if it helped me, I think that it will help you, too.
Gotta go fill up my cup…..
Coffee with Candee 