Salaam friends,
I journaled for 30 days and here is what I learned.
This past Ramadan, I set a goal of journaling every day. To give some structure to my journaling sessions, rather than dumping anything and everything on my mind, I divided them into three sections:
- Mental state and mind dump
- Physical and health state
- Gratefulness section
I appreciated each section based on my experience that day. The mind dump section was really helpful on days when I was busy or distracted, to help me focus on the most important tasks. When I fell ill for a week, the health section was really helpful to express my pains and be conscious about treating them. The gratefulness section was my favorite. It forced me to name the good things in my life, which are more than I can count, despite whether I was sick or busy with a project at work that I didn’t enjoy.
Another benefit I realized was that writing every day about the thoughts circulating in my mind and the experiences I was going through helped me be more articulate about the challenges I was facing. For example, I noticed that my procrastination in replying to a difficult email or making a phone call sits in my head as a nagging emotion. Whenever I remember it, I immediately come up with excuses to avoid it. Journaling about this helped me list the reasons I’m avoiding the task and map a plan to get it done.
However, two weeks into Ramadan, journaling felt like a chore I had to do. Some days I just wrote one sentence, to check it off my to-do list. Some days I had to force myself to do it, leading me to make stuff up to fill out the page. But I still enjoyed the gratefulness section, which I always started with “Today I’m grateful for…” and wrote the first thing that came to mind. Some of what I jotted down are:
- Being able to read and write in two languages
- The pen I’m writing with
- The walks I take with my wife and daughter, where we chat about writing, medicine, and our common fear of the neighbor’s dog.
After Ramadan I found myself continuing journaling, which I didn’t expect. I plan is to make it a daily habit, because I’ve found it more helpful than not. I won’t beat myself up for missing a day here or there, but that’s the easiest way to stop a habit. So my rule of thumb will be that I can’t miss more than two days in a row.
Stay Creative!
📖 Books I’m reading?
I recently started reading As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow* by Zoulfa Katouh. I have been zooming through the book, for how good the writing, characters, and story are. I almost missed my train stop the other day reading it. I have to have Zoulfa on the podcast this year. If you can help, let me know.
Here is a snippet of the book:
“A love letter to Syria and its people, As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow is a speculative novel set amid the Syrian Revolution, burning with the fires of hope, love, and possibility. Perfect for fans of The Book Thief and Salt to the Sea.”
🍿 Movies I’m watching?
I’m watching “The Wonder” on Netflix. The investigative part of the movie and the way religion and medicine are portrayed were fascinating to me.
Movie snippet: “[this] is an intriguing exploration of the relationship between science and religion set in the Irish Midlands of the 1800s. The story begins when English nurse Lib Wright (Francis Pugh) is brought to a small village to investigate the case of Anna O'Donnell (Kila Lord Cassidy), an 11-year-old girl who has stopped eating but remains inexplicably alive and well.”
🔖 Quote I’m pondering
"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”
— Epicurus
📸Through My Lens
Please give me feedback on the newsletter by replying to this email. What do you want more or less of? Or other suggestions? Also, share it with a friend that you think will find it valuable.
Thank you for reading. Stay Creative!
Mohamed