August 2018 In My Bullet Journal & Some Life Thoughts

Hello world! A month has passed without me posting anything and I’m realizing that having a part time job again takes up more of my time than I would have imagined, haha! However, I’m really happy with my new job and I’m starting to get more organized again 🙂

Let me tell you a story… The two or so weeks after I came back from Taiwan I was feeling extremely frustrated with myself. I was constantly trying to motivate myself to get stuff done, blocking out entire days to do these things (doing my taxes, writing reports, scheduling doctor’s appointments…) and then at the end of he day, I would find myself sitting in front of my laptop, having done nothing all day but watching YouTube videos and aimlessly googling random, pointless stuff. I was in that weird state where I was neither productive nor relaxing, too unfocused and restless to do anything, really. Two or three weeks went by like that and I would tell all my friends how annoyed I was at myself until I received some much needed wisdom from my cousin who’s always able to put things into perspective for me.

My cousin showed me that I was being way too hard on myself and listed all of the emotions and new situations I went through in the first half of this year –

• being thousands of kilometers away from my family, friends and boyfriend for months,
• going through finals week,
• saying goodbye to all the lovely people I met in Alabama and to the place that had been my home for nine months
• readjusting to life back in Germany
• crashing at my boyfriend’s and then at my mom’s place for weeks before being able to access my apartment again
• going through family problems and the loss of a dear family member
• traveling to a place I’ve never been before at the end of the world just weeks after coming back from the US
• starting a new job just two days after coming back from Taiwan
• making plans to move in to a new apartment
• and of course, starting this blog and trying to keep up with it

Hearing all of this from my cousin and now writing everything down felt and still feels so strange. This may not sound like a lot to some but reading through the list makes me wonder how I’ve even survived. I have realized that I NEED to give myself permission to take the time and process my emotions. I’m the type of gal who is always trying to keep herself busy, sprinting from one goal or task to the next, to feel good about the things I accomplish on the way.

But these days, I seldom take the time to process everything and to rest and really do stuff just for myself and my own personal enjoyment. Sure, I spend evenings watching Netflix and drinking tea, but taking a whole day off, not to mention multiple days? Nah. Of course, I take the time to be with my loved ones and I could do that for days, weeks, years. But I really, really need to take some alone time soon that doesn’t include any kind of ‘task’ at all.

So, I’ve made it a goal this month, to find ONE day, just one to start with, to do nothing but nice things. Sadly, I really have to start with just one day a month because anything else would create results that are completely opposite of what I want out of this – it would make me anxious. Are you anything like me? I hope you guys are not – I hope all of you have a greater appreciation for your basic human needs than I have 😀 If you do, please share your secrets with me in the comments! <3

If you’re interested, here’s some of the stuff I will try do on my day off:

• leave my phone at home (this is SO scary to me)
• go to a library, wander around, take some books
• go to a nice quiet place like a park and read
• go to a museum
• have a chai latte at a café and watch people/journal/read a magazine
• cook myself a nice dinner I haven’t tried before

Ok, by now all of the people who came here for the bullet journal content will probably have left again, annoyed at my rambling, so I guess it’s time to share my spreads 😀

I am not SUPER happy with my monthly layout this time, but I like the colors 🙂 I included a Hemingway quote that captures my current mindset pretty well and hopefully reminds me thoughout the month to j u s t   e n j o y   l i f e. There’s also a ballerina painting by Edgar Degas that I found in a magazine and I really love.

Same as last month, one of my goals is still to read more, so I made space for a reading list on my monthly goal/task overview. I just finished a novel by the Swiss author Alex Capus and now I’m going to start Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig which I already had at home. There’s also space for me to write down all the fun stuff that is going to happen in August to get myself pumped 😉

At the top of the post is my first weekly spread. I tried something different again this time with the layout, and even though it’s not the most visually organized spread, I like that it feels a little artsy 🙂

This one above is pretty simple. However, the idea to use the yellow washi tape actually was born because I made a lettering mistake and needed to cover it up! I just used some correction tape to prevent ghosting and then applied the washi and I like the clean look it created.

To set the event section of each day apart from the to do section in this spread, I used scraps from a magazine photo. The photo actually shows the smoke of an erupting volcano 😀 I think I will forever enjoy the combination of grey and blush pink.

This was the most time-consuming spread this month. I created this weekly spread last night, after a day of happiness and gratitude, feeling very inspired. So, including a big, fat life is beautiful slogan seemed appropriate 🙂 To create the ombre effect on the font, I first spelled the days out with the lighter color, then applied the darker one on top and blending everything together with the colorless blending pen from my Tombow Dual Brush Pen set.

This last spread is pretty simple, just some lines and letter stickers.

So this is it for my August set up and now I’m ready to plan my me time day! What do you guys do to unwind and spend some time on your own? I’d love to hear from you!

Take care,
Lena <3