Alrighty, I'm gonna be journaling for 30 minutes a day for the next 30 days. I'm nice and prepared. I'm really excited to see what benefits take place. Let's do this. So I know there's so many different incredible benefits. I'm really excited to share that with you guys throughout this next month. But is it the one habit that I've definitely been struggling with? The one that I want to just make a consistent habit of and just see all the amazing things. I truly believe in order to do something and experience the benefits you have to do something consistently. So I'm really pumped to see what happens and let's enjoy. The biggest common known benefit and it is no surprise here is improved mental health, reducing stress and anxiety and just helping you feel so much better. Getting the pen to paper helps you just understand so much more. You know, just work through any internal conflicts, external conflicts. There was actually a study that showed that expressive writing like journaling for only 15 to 20 minutes a day for three to five times over the course of a four month period. It was actually enough to lower blood pressure, improve liver functionality and so much more. There are so many incredible benefits, but that's number one. Okay, day one complete. Honestly, I've never journaled for this long. It's definitely a challenge trying to find things to come up with. I do predict as I go along, I'll get better at just kind of writing and the whole journaling side of things. But honestly, right now I'm just writing down anything that comes to the top of my head. So day one down. So one of my favorite parts about this, especially just even on day two, just the simple fact that you become more aware and clear of what's going on in your life. You sit down with your own thoughts, your own experiences, everything that's going on, just get that on paper and it just allows you to be fully present for at least 30 minutes a day, which a lot of people unfortunately don't get. So today's day two, it is almost 10 p.m. and I'm realizing that my brain definitely doesn't have function as well as it usually does. Especially this late in the day, definitely is at its best in the morning. I'm slash early afternoon. So going forward, going to try that out, see all the thoughts that come into my head. But for now, day two complete. Another one of my favorite benefits is the fact that it helps you achieve your goals. When you use your journal to write down your goals, you can keep track of your intentions. It helps you stay accountable and it's a great reminder of what you're striving for. It's actually been proven that you're 42% more likely to achieve your goals simply by writing them down. So it's an incredible benefit. I absolutely love the fact that you can just work through any situation as well, no matter what's going on, just simply put it in on paper, just puts it into a completely different perspective, helps you slow down a little bit, and helps you through any challenges. So one thing I've really made a priority to do, it's the day eight, absolutely loving it, and it gets challenging. But I'm making sure to do 30 minutes all in a row, because I feel like if you were to split it up, you know, at first I was kind of like, oh, maybe I'll do 10 minutes here, and 10 minutes when I have time, but I don't believe that's going to be where the true benefit comes from. Whereas when you fully have to sit down, undistracted, no phone, 30 minutes, and just like be present and write everything down, it's a massive difference versus just like taking five minute intervals when you have a bit of time. So that's what I'm doing, and so far it's going really well. Halfway done. Let's keep it going. So halfway through the challenge has been going great. One of the biggest things I've been making sure to do is just keep my phone not near me, especially because I know for 30 minutes, that time can go by quick, especially if I'm picking it up, checking text messages, going on social media. So that's definitely been a great habit. It's just put into the side, not checking it. And I think a lot of times when people do these things, they get so distracted, they lose their train of thought. So that's what I'm trying to avoid doing, and it's been going really well. Think of yourself as a puzzle. You get to discover a different piece or pattern every single day, and journaling will actually provide a much needed pause to help us reconnect to ourselves, and rediscover who we are. And every single time we write, we learn our preferences, our pain points, our favorites, our fears, our dreams, and as we are constantly evolving, it helps us listen to these changes and simply get to know ourselves a whole lot better, which is another incredible benefit of journaling. So just a few short days left. This has been a great challenge. I find myself very often just sitting here, thinking, trying to come up with what to just reflect on. One of the mode, I've just absolutely filled up these pages, but one of them, it was just getting you to think, what is one big thing you could do this month to expand your comfort zone? The other one was right down, one or two experiences that have had a life-changing influence. So I've been really enjoying this. Once again, also doing a lot of journaling in here. You can see right here, actually, as we speak, the time is up. My phone is ringing right here, telling me that I'm done. So yeah, just thought that was pretty cool. And onto the next day. And last but not least, I'm going to have to say improved happiness. Every single day, I would write down three different things that I'm grateful for, three things I'm looking forward to within the day or week, as well as reflecting on the winds for the day and just setting intentions for the next day. And you can't be angry and grateful at the exact same time. So I just felt so much gratitude rushing through my body. And I would always just reflect on the amazing moments that we're taking place. And it's so easy to focus on the positive when you're constantly writing it down. I'm really glad that I've done this challenge. I've actually learned a lot and I'm feeling just super great about it, especially going from doing zero journaling to 30 minutes every single day for 30 straight days. And what's been really fun is I've been able to try different things, see what works. Originally, I started doing 30 minutes in the morning until I realized that it ate up most of my morning. And I wasn't as productive. I tried 30 minutes at night until I realized that I just didn't have as much to write down just because I was super tired. So I found that the best split for me was 10 minutes in the morning. So I'll do a brain dump or a brain drain, write a bunch of things down. I'll write my five goals down. I'll do three gratitude, just three things that I'm grateful for. And then three things that I'm looking forward to, which has been great around lunchtime or just the afternoon. One of my brain is also a little bit tired, but you know, I want to get it fresh and up. I'll just kind of check in with myself. And that's what's really cool about journaling is it's a great time to just spend time with yourself. There's no judgment involved. You can get some thoughts down. So I've been doing about 10 to 15 minutes in the afternoon. I've been taking some of these discovery questions, which has been really cool, getting you to think back and reflect on past experiences and all that great stuff. And then before bed, I'll spend about five minutes just writing down three wins for the day and setting three goals and three things I want to accomplish for the next day, which I did learn is a really powerful thing to get you, you know, just thinking about some great things before bed. So that's kind of how I structured it. I didn't want to just do 30 minutes and cram it all in and then just never do it again. My biggest thing with challenges is to take things and incorporate it for the rest of my life. So I've been able to do this perfect structure, which has worked really well for me. And I just want to say thanks for tuning in. Hopefully you enjoyed this content. Give it a shot. It doesn't always have to be 30 minutes, but I think the biggest thing is no matter how you're feeling knowing that you showed up for yourself, just like Josh with his cold showers, just like me with my pushups, doing something every day, even if it's kind of tough for you, even if you're not really wanted to do it, it'll go a long way. It'll help you build some great habits and great discipline. And that's all I got for now.