I was kneeling with my head bowed to the ground, my hot tears wetting the cold wooden floor. I had been crying to ease the ache that was ripping my heart apart. But it wouldn’t stop. I needed a more powerful release.

I reached for the black journal resting on my bed, thinking I would write the pain away.

I flipped through the pages and stopped to an entry just a few weeks before. And the words hit me hard, like a brick had been dropped on my head.

I created this.

Just a few weeks before, I wrote the exact words that brought me to that excruciatingly painful albeit humbling moment.

I realized then the power of my words to create as much as to destroy.

I put the journal in my bookshelf and reached for a new one with smooth white pages just waiting for me to write again.

And write I did. Only this time, I wrote about what I wanted: a future I wanted to create.

It felt weird, even crazy, to write about experiencing something that hasn’t really happened. But I let my imagination fill the page.

They said, “fake it ’til you make it.” I told myself, “Write it ’til you live it.”

And I did.

Months later, I gathered all the journals I had ever written and flipped through the pages one last time. Waves of bliss, sorrow, joy, pain, loss and triumph washed over me one after the other.

I wondered if that was how it felt like when you stood in heaven and watched your life in review.

I put the journals in a pile on the ground, lit a match and set them on fire. I watched more than a decade of memories burn and slowly turn into ashes.

I felt a slight tinge of pain as I watched the flames engulf my past but there was no way of saving it now. I didn’t need them anymore.

It was time to move forward and I was ready to start again.

How to start writing a journal

Years ago, if you had asked me how to start writing a journal, I’d say, write about your day. Write about your past. Write about everything you’re feeling. Especially the pain, oh most especially the pain.

Because writing them down would help you to release your feelings and to make sense of what’s happening to you. Writing them down would save you from saying words you would regret.

And while I still believe in the cathartic and healing power of journaling, I also believe we can use our words to better serve us.

If you ask me now, “How do you start writing a journal?” I say, “Write what you want.”

Write about people you want to have in your life. Places you want to visit. Things you want to own. Success you want to achieve.

And here’s the part when I want you to use your imagination:

Write as if you already have them all.

Describe what you’re seeing, hearing and saying when you’ve got everything you want. Most importantly, write about what you’re feeling when you’re living the life you love.

Own your dream.

Some might say it’s just wishful thinking or daydreaming. But I’ve proven time and again in my life that this kind of journaling is just the beginning of powerful manifesting.

I am a big believer in the saying “What you focus on expands.”

And when you write about your dreams, it helps you to focus on them. Your dreams expand far beyond your imagination until they become your reality.

Opportunities, connections and blessings come.

It seems magical really, but I’ve come to realize that’s how the world works.

The Universe conspires to give you what you want when you ask for it. All you have to do is to follow your bliss and take inspired action.

Before you know it, you’re living the dream.

And that’s just the time when I’d like you to recall your past and see how everything fell into place.

When I do look back, I say a big “THANK YOU” for everything, even for the moments of hardship and heartache because those paved the way for me to live as I do today.

Your words create your life

What life do you want to create?

Keep dreaming and believing that as you keep writing, your dreams will keep on coming true.

They may not always come in the way that you expected or wanted. But I believe they will always be way better than you ever wished or hoped for.

Yes, the Universe loves you and you’re special like that.