Why Looking Back Can Move Us Forward
When you get together with a friend you haven’t seen in a while, it’s fun to reminisce about the good old days! It can also be therapeutic talking about the not-so-good old days. It’s not so different when you write in a journal and then look back on it days, weeks, years and even decades later! In this bonus episode, we reflect on last week’s chat with Tareka Wheeler of Professional DNA, Change Your Life By Changing The Way You See Yourself. In that episode, we discovered the tremendous power of journaling; and how we can use the past to help us in the present AND plan for the future. If you are a non-journaler like Sandy, you may finally decide to take the leap. If so, we have some easy tips. If you already journal, you’ll benefit from some unique ways to use it in your life. And, no matter what, we think you’ll laugh along and learn some powerful lessons as Lanee takes a trip to her middle-school diaries. We hope these lessons lead to some profound revelations to help you with your own self-discovery.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Sandy Kovach [00:00:01]:
Welcome to Imagine Yourself, where we help you imagine your next chapter of life with grace, gratitude, courage, and faith.
Lanée Blaise [00:00:10]:
We are Lanee and Sandy, and we wanted to dig a little deeper into some of the things that we discussed in a previous episode, we had a wonderful guest, career and mindset strategist, Tareka Wheeler, from Professional DNA, And we kinda went in some areas that didn't really have to do with just career and professional life. It went with the whole Personal life, the whole gamut. One of the pieces of advice that she gave that really seemed to help was on how important journaling is. And Sandy, we've had a whole week or so to kind of soak in what she taught us. What have you been doing on the journaling front?
Sandy Kovach [00:00:57]:
Well, I took step 1, and that is I purchased a a journal at, well, our listeners can't see it. I was gonna show it, but Could imagine. It's a pretty journal, and I bought it at 5 Below when I took my niece. But I have not written in it yet, so I guess what I'm looking for is, first of all, just a little backstory in case people did not here, Tareka's episode, she really made a good point in that a journal is a great way to memorialize things that are going on in your life to look back on how far you've come to work out your feelings. Sometimes you just can't talk to anybody about something while you write it on the paper or you type it in your computer or however you're gonna do it. And it can also show you how God has brought you through. You can write down your prayers. Lots of different things that Tareka talked about doing with this journal, and my hesitation was always like, I'm not writing down my personal things because I don't want anyone ever to see them.
Sandy Kovach [00:01:56]:
But Oh my goodness. I know. But it's so ridiculous because no one cares. Not that no one. No one's got time for that. Right? They they're living their own life, you know? So I am convinced, and I bought my journal.
Sandy Kovach [00:02:08]:
So is that good enough, step 1?
Lanée Blaise [00:02:10]:
That is step 1. I hope you have a fancy pen to accompany your beautiful journal. That's Step 2. And step 3 is to write it.
Sandy Kovach [00:02:19]:
Now I gotta actually get the put the pen to the paper. How do you go about it, Lynnae? I I wanna talk to a professional journaler here.
Lanée Blaise [00:02:26]:
Instead of telling mine because mine is as simple as getting a pretty journal and actually writing in it when I feel up To it, I don't have to do it every single day. It's when the spirit hits, but it is very important when you go back and you can reflect And kinda see the different seasons of your life. And what I did to get ready for this little bonus episode that we have here and to fire up people like Sandy, is you know, because remember, Tareka told us how it was so important in our self discovery process. It's like a time capsule. It helps document our progress, and it helps us to talk to ourselves, which is kinda like being your own best friend. So I did kinda old school. I don't know if you remember that book. Are You There, God? It's me, Margaret.
Sandy Kovach [00:03:14]:
Oh my gosh.
Sandy Kovach [00:03:15]:
Yes. I mean, That's from your childhood. Right? everybody read that.
Lanée Blaise [00:03:20]:
Me that. Yeah. But what I did a step further is I went down in the basement, And I found my journal from middle school. What? Oh, absolutely. So I just wanted to flip back. I kinda put some tabs, And I want you to listen to just a couple of things so that you can see how, again, how cool it is to document your life and look back on it And see your growth and things like that. Things that you're worried about that have really changed. So January 31st 1985.
Lanée Blaise [00:03:53]:
Dear diary, I'm only gonna write in here if it's really important. And today, I saw this cute boy in the hallway, But he didn't even look at me, but I don't care because I really love Ralph Macchio, Alfonzo Ribeiro, and Ricky Schroeder much better anyway.
Sandy Kovach [00:04:10]:
Wow. The Karate Kid and Carlton.
Lanée Blaise [00:04:17]:
Even that part, these dudes are still around. It's just, you know so okay. June 1, 1985. Dear diary, I broke all my New Year's resolutions. I'm a bother to everyone in my entire family except Blaine. She's my sister, but I think she secretly thinks I'm a selfish, lazy baby just like everyone else. I know I'm feeling sorry for myself, and I hope God will always love me.
Sandy Kovach [00:04:43]:
Wow. Now that's deep. A therapist would have a field day with all that.
Lanée Blaise [00:04:51]:
August 29, 1985. Sherry's party was so cool. I danced a lot and even slow danced with 1 guy who was a good dancer, And he didn't even try to put his hands in the wrong places. I got in trouble with my mom when I got home because my room was so messy, but I didn't even care. Now, Sandy, you know me now. Like, we've had an episode about professional organizers and stuff like that, so my house is all organized and all that stuff. So, yeah, Got in trouble for a messy room. Here's another one that kinda shows the aspect of how you do get through things in life.
Lanée Blaise [00:05:27]:
September 26, 1985. School's back, and I don't like this year at all. My mom's mad at me, and we have to bring in all the plants And fill up all the bathtubs with water because hurricane Gloria is coming. It's supposed to be the worst hurricane of the century, But so far, it's just raining. And I found out today that my stepmom is having twins.
Sandy Kovach [00:05:49]:
Wow. That's a lot happening.
Lanée Blaise [00:05:51]:
Here's the last one. This one is the whole reason I went down in the basement because I remember that I had written something about this, And it always reminds me, you know, we dealt with COVID and wars and all kinds of things, and sometimes you think that this is the worst life has ever been. But I went back to this entry. This was April 30, 1986. So it's 35 years ago. It says, dear diary, I just finished crying hard and long. Russia had a nuclear meltdown. Radiation is going everywhere, and they can't put out the fire.
Lanée Blaise [00:06:28]:
It's not fair, all the dying and sick people. The radiation might get us. Why do some people hate each other so much? I wish the world were happy. God, please help. So as a kid back then, I thought radiation might get the whole world, and we all might die.
Sandy Kovach [00:06:48]:
Chernobyl?
Lanée Blaise [00:06:49]:
Yeah. It was Chernobyl.
Sandy Kovach [00:06:51]:
My gosh. And wow. That is a, pretty profound reaction for a kid. Yeah. Not only
Lanée Blaise [00:06:59]:
I was like early teen, but yeah.
Sandy Kovach [00:07:01]:
That was a horrific thing, and we don't even think about that anymore.
Lanée Blaise [00:07:05]:
Right. And I thought it was the beginning of the end. And sometimes we think that even now, even though that's a terrible situation, you do see that humanity does Seem to get through, you know, and seem to push through. And everything we do at Imagine Yourself is about trying to keep people uplifted. And between journaling, reflecting, whatever way people wanna do it, it just seems like it's a necessary part of life.
Sandy Kovach [00:07:35]:
Life. Wow. That was a pretty good testimony for journaling, and the fact that you kept the journal for all these years. I mean, it went from something very humorous like, you know, your crush on Ralph Macchio, which I remember, along with who and who are the other 2 guys?
Lanée Blaise [00:07:52]:
Alfonso Ribeiro, because remember he used to be in those Pepsi or Coke commercials with Michael Jackson.
Sandy Kovach [00:07:57]:
But this was before Fresh Prince. Right?
Lanée Blaise [00:08:00]:
Because that was he was on Fresh Prince and before he was on America's Funniest Home Videos.
Sandy Kovach [00:08:04]:
Okay. And then there was one more. Who was the other one?
Lanée Blaise [00:08:06]:
The other one's Ricky Schroeder.
Sandy Kovach [00:08:07]:
Oh my gosh.
Sandy Kovach [00:08:13]:
Every time I watch, Cobra Kai or something, I think of you because of Ralph Macchio. But now I have even more. I'm gonna be hitting you up with the, Carlton dancing GIF all the time now. But okay. So we went from this little or something very kind of middle schoolish, and we laughed about it. To the serious thing about Chernobyl, and I guess that's a year in the life of a middle schooler. You think about the scope of a year in the life of anybody. You know? And it probably does have those lighter moments that you wanna journal about, and it as those heavier moments about things you're feeling, about loss and hurricanes and just different things that can happen.
Lanée Blaise [00:08:51]:
And it shows you that some of these things are temporary, And you do get through them. And some of it you laugh at, and some of it you are grateful that it's, you know, not The current situation. So, yeah, that's my testimony on helping everybody out there get those fancy pens and journals and write Even if you're a middle schooler or even if you're
Sandy Kovach [00:09:12]:
A middle ager.
Lanée Blaise [00:09:14]:
Oh, yeah. Middle schooler, middle ager. Or Yeah.
Sandy Kovach [00:09:17]:
Senior, or, yeah, however. You know? Just because life is full of great lessons, and you can pass those along to your kids too.
Lanée Blaise [00:09:26]:
Yeah. So overall, imagine yourself journaling. Easy breezy.
Sandy Kovach [00:09:33]:
Thanks for listening. If you haven't listened to the episode that we were referring to, change your life by changing the way you see yourself, it is the one right before this, and you can get that in all of our episodes wherever you normally listen to podcasts in an imagine yourself podcast.com. We hope you'll visit us there and hook up with us on social to media or drop us a note, and let us know how you're doing. And until next time when we have something new to imagine, take care.
