Hello Lovely Butterflies!
I hope you are ready. I hope you are in the starting blocks for a new year of 5 minutes of daily journaling. I hope you will share your makes with us in the France Papillon and Creative Butterflies facebook group, so that you too, become a spark of inspiration for those who might need it!
I know I'm ready for it, I promised myself I wouldn't miss one week this year. Whether I'm traveling or teaching, designing new stamps or filming a new Journal on Monday video, I will do my 5 minutes of daily journaling! Because it is way too good for the soul not to.
Before we get to it, there are a few changes this year. I'll tell you all about the most important one in an upcoming newsletter. But this one is already good to go: each month, I'll select a commenter of the month right here on my blog. You can leave a comment on any given blogpost in January, be it the Butterfly Squad inspirational posts or the alad challenge posts or my Journal on Monday/ Mixed Media Shorty posts. The more comments you leave, the more chances to win.
Win what?
Oh, just a 15% discount code valid on my web shop!
So don't forget to spread some love!
If you've never read about my A Layer A Day challenge, check out the first blog post on the subject here, where I explain what it is all about.
Now let's get to it!!
Week 1
Intention setting
I said it last year and I'll say it again: I don't believe in resolutions. January is too close to the holidays to start changing things and once February comes around you already forgot about it because of, well, life. I do believe however in intention setting. I do like to have a look at my current habits, how those work out for me and how I could make them work better without promising myself in vain I'll turn the wheel around 90 degrees. A gentler approach does actually work! I promised myself that for 2018 I would art journal more and that is exactly what I did. That is why I came up with this challenge in the first place. But I want to take this a step further and actually do it 5 minutes every day, no matter what I already did that day. Because I know how beneficial it is for me. And for you too!!
So that is my intention setting. A habit that I already have and that I want to take one step further. Because I know it will be good for me.
How about you? When you look at your current habits, which one does actually serve you and could be even more beneficial for you? Or a habit that you would like to take down a notch? Not promising yourself you'll never do it again (you know you won't keep your word ;) ) but do it a bit less?
Now here comes the most important part of intention setting: can you image yourself feeling good about taking it one step further? Like really good? Can you imagine how accomplished it makes you feel? How it puts a smile on your face to feel that way? Can you? Good! Give in to that feeling, let it overwhelm you. Let's hold that thought!
And let's put it in our journal while we're at it. To remind ourselves of how good it made us feel to imagine setting that intention. Just grab your journal and put down the first thing that comes to mind, no matter what that is! Because if you do it when you just set that intention, you are in the right mood! Your mojo will take you to the places that will express that the best. Don't argue with your mojo looking for a better idea, you know your mojo knows best ;)))
It will tell you which color to grab or which texture to start with. Don't overthink it. Don't try to figure out if there isn't a better way to express that intention setting. Just go with the feeling and what it makes you want to put on the paper. It doesn't matter if what comes out doesn't look like you imagined it our if it doesn't look pretty. What matters is the feeling. Trust that. Follow that first idea. Every single day this week!
I know it can feel uncomfortable to work that way at first. But I promise you that if you find the courage to trust that first idea, every single day again, it will be worth the ride!
If you want to know more about how my pages come together, check out my Patreon page. I do tell why I'm doing what and how in a short daily post. Anyway, I'll see you on the Facebook group. And I'm looking forward to seeing your spreads by the end of the week!
