Realizing that your “normal” doesn’t have to be that way is how you can quickly get on the road to recovery. Adam Nugent and Kate Strong are joined by McKenna Brown, creator of My Wonder Woman Journal. The art of journaling has lead her to incredible healing from experiences with anxiety and postpartum depression. Learn more about her journey, the help she offers to others, and her passion to show every woman and girl the wonder inside of them!
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In this podcast excerpt, McKenna Brown talks about the power of journaling and the importance of celebrating small victories and laughing at ourselves.
AN: On your journey with your business, how long until you realized that journaling was really kind of a key thing for you and in your healing process?
MB: I was at the behavioral hospital. I remember sharing that I was having anxiety. I was like, “What do we do here? What am I going to wear? Where do I sleep?” And she goes, “We journal a lot.” I thought, “Journaling, huh?” I’ve always been told I should journal, but I have bad handwriting, and I have horrible grammar.
I remember my first journal entry was the day that I drove myself to the behavioral hospital. And I had this introspective like “a ha” moment. The journaling for me connected my heart and my brain. Our brain has like what, 80,000 thoughts a day. But our heart, we get anxiety because it’s trying to keep up with our mind. We’re just rolling from one thought to the next, and our hearts can’t keep up.
KS: Have you noticed or found that people get stuck with the journal in hand and go now, “What do I do?” And if so what have you done to help that?
MB: When I created this blank journal, everyone would get intimidated by the blank pages. Women still struggled, saying, “I still don’t know how to take pen to paper.” And I would say, “Start with gratitude.” So then, I had this thought like, “Now I’m creating things. I feel like I can create whatever I want. Let’s create a gratitude journal.” So I did. I created My Wonder Woman Gratitude Journal where 3/4 of the page is filled, and It just says, “Today, I’m grateful for….” And then at the bottom, there is still like a 1/4 space that says, “My wonder woman moment of the day is….” But wonder woman moments aren’t just good moments. They can be about celebrating moments too.
During my darkest days, breathing was a wonder woman moment. I’m going to celebrate that. I’m breathing cause I’m alive. And sometimes it was just, “I got to take a shower. I didn’t get ready today, but I took a shower, and I’m going to celebrate that.” Instead of shaming, “The dishes are overflowing. I’m so behind on laundry, but guess what? I’m breathing. I took a shower.” We’re gonna bask in this. Allowing ourselves to celebrate what we are getting done is so important.
I always say embracing the hard is a wonder woman moment. But then so is learning to laugh at ourselves. I laugh at myself all day because I just sometimes wonder where my brain is, and that’s okay. When you take a minute to laugh, it lightens your load instead of adding to it. So I always say, laughter is so important, but then so is gratitude. Those are the main wonder woman moments.
Learn more about McKenna Brown at mywonderwomanjournal.com.
► You’ll also like: Episode 4: The Strength Within Your Circumstance with Jeanette Bennett
