Writing down your wounds: A morning ritual to transform your business

A stationery aficionado I love nothing more than a visit to Kikki.K.

Quite aside from the hard-to-resist selection of pens and paper clips (not to mention the mini wooden pegs I’ve found plethora of uses for), it’s the stacks of un-filled journals and yet-to-be mastered to-do lists that really inspire me.

Yep, the whole place just oozes creative potential.

From a business perspective, founder Kristine Karlsson is equally inspiring.

Kikki.K’s Dream Life podcast

In the first episode of her new fabulously named podcast, Dream Life Kristina said everyone wondered how she escaped burnout when she was building her business because she was “working all the time”.

Expecting to hear about a pre-dawn exercise routine, I found her answer surprising:

“I got up early and wrote every morning. And whatever I wrote down I burnt afterwards,” Kristina  said.

“The writing and journalling gave me work life balance because I got everything out on paper and out of my head.”

Morning writing rituals empower your day

It’s a morning ritual that Kristina’s first guest, scholar, humanitarian, motivational speaker, educator and author Dr Tererai Trent also shares.

Although she described the ritual as the “writing of wounds”: by putting her thoughts and fears into words and burning them straight after, makes space for dreams to come to life.

“Whatever is written down and grounded in your thoughts becomes a strong belief that you can feel and think,” said Dr Trent.

I find this idea revelatory.

Having always written a journal in the evening, to put my day to rest, I love the idea of using the morning to literally burn away negative thoughts and clear space for positive change.

To literally make room for the new day.

“I don’t believe we can balance things …. We are human beings”

Dr Trent’s perspective on the notion of work/life balance is equally refreshing.

When Kristina asked if their shared ritual also aided work life balance (Dr Trent has four children), she said:

“I don’t believe we can balance things because we are human beings. We just have to do the best we can …

“Life is not perfect. If we want to live a perfect life, where everything is balanced to a tee, then we live in frustration, because we can’t maintain that.

“The question to ask yourself is, how do I remain who I am and how am I taking care of myself so I am able to do the work that I am doing?”

Starting a ritual of your own

While it’s easy to be inspired by new ideas like Dr Trent’s writing of wounds,  it can be harder to know how to kick off a practice on your own.

If digging deep emotionally before 5am is not your bag, you might like this list of journal prompts from bemorewithless.com.

Or you could even try this fun list of creative writing prompts I found on Pinterest the other day.

Just as with most new habits, success boils down to process – you’ve just got to decide to make a start.