---
title: "Return of a Lapsed Journaler: My 27 Days Journaling Challenge Experience"
description: Eleanor, a lapsed journaler, shares her 27 Days journaling challenge experience.
---

[Mari's Journaling Power Blog | CreateWriteNow ](https://www.createwritenow.com/journal-writing-blog)

# [Return of a Lapsed Journaler: My 27 Days Journaling Challenge Experience](https://www.createwritenow.com/journal-writing-blog/return-of-a-lapsed-journaler-my-27-days-journaling-challenge-experience)

 Written by [Mari L. McCarthy](https://www.createwritenow.com/journal-writing-blog/author/mari-l-mccarthy) | February 3, 2016

I recently returned to journaling. Many years ago I used to journal a lot, but fell away from it for reasons I don’t remember. At the end of last year, I was drawn back to regular journaling, and discovered some of the great online resources are now there to help. My aim in doing Mari’s 27-day program was chiefly to re-establish the discipline of putting pen to paper every single day, and also to explore some aspects of my life that I might otherwise not even think of doing.

**27 isn’t carved in stone  
**I took 34 days to complete the 27-day program. On one very busy day I gave myself permission to wait till the next day to tackle a particularly intense (for me) topic. At two other points I took a couple of days to write about stuff which came up in daily life before returning to the set program. But I wrote *something *every day, even if it wasn’t from the workbook.

I devoted two days each to two of the 27 topics. Once, I spent so long writing on one of the sidebar prompts that there was no time left for the main exercise, which I did the next day. And my final exercise, a review of everything written so far, also took two days. 27 is good - 34 is good too!

**The topics aren’t carved in stone either  
**The daily exercises are there to serve, not to enslave. I changed some of them around a bit. For example, I couldn’t do Day 24, journaling outside in nature – not in sub-zero Ottawa in January! Too dark even to observe nature through the window, I wrote about something else instead.

Other topics didn’t work for me. Using a random word from a dictionary, for example: I tried, but after half a page I scribbled, ‘This doesn’t interest me in the slightest - here’s what I *really *want to write about…’ and continued on another topic. I didn’t remember any dreams on the ‘record-your-dreams’ day – so I journaled about something else that was on my mind. I got over my initial worries about doing the exercises “properly”, and got comfortable with the idea that writing about anything *real* is more important than sticking strictly to the given exercise. As Mari says, just WriteOn!

**Don’t presume to know what will come out  
**On first seeing some of the writing exercises I thought, ‘Ah, I know where *that *will lead…’- but in reality, it led to something quite different. I thought that spending a whole session journaling about my physical health would feel indulgent. It didn’t, it felt responsible. I thought my Inner Critic would be just a whiner – but he has moments of humor too. And my Inner Coach – hey, she’s sassy! I’m so glad to get to know her!

**Every day is not a peak moment  
**There were lots of days with insights, *aha *moments, or surprises – but there were days that were ‘just ordinary’ too. That’s okay. Every moment can’t be a peak moment, by definition.[ Journaling](https://www.createwritenow.com) is a tool, not a magic wand.

**Where to from here?  
**I need to learn more about reviewing my journal writing. What spills onto the page includes a wealth of wisdom from within, sometimes better noticed on re-reading. But how often should I review? when? how not to forget my insights, but integrate them into my life? These are part of the journey that lies ahead. I look forward to exploring more. It’s good to be back!

**Bio**

Eleanor is a Cistercian nun from Ireland, currently studying at St Paul University, Ottawa. She loves monastic life, diving into good books, exploring Ottawa, and making hand-crocheted christening shawls.

..

[View full post](https://www.createwritenow.com/journal-writing-blog/return-of-a-lapsed-journaler-my-27-days-journaling-challenge-experience)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Mari L. McCarthy"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2018-10-23T12:30:09.218Z",
  "datePublished" : "2016-02-03T13:30:00Z",
  "headline" : "Return of a Lapsed Journaler: My 27 Days Journaling Challenge Experience",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 286,
    "url" : "http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/1520/blog/Eleanor_Jan_16.jpg",
    "width" : 209
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://www.createwritenow.com/journal-writing-blog/return-of-a-lapsed-journaler-my-27-days-journaling-challenge-experience",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60.0,
      "url" : "https://www.createwritenow.com/hubfs/CWN-Logo-9-24-option3.png",
      "width" : 236.25
    },
    "name" : "Mari's Journaling Power Blog"
  }
}
```