I am posting this right after I finished teaching a 2.5-hour workshop on journaling, my favorite part of my morning routine.

At the end of the workshop, a bride-to-be participant shared with me that she’s afraid to lose herself when she starts a new life with more responsibilities and commitments. She asked me: how would she keep her good habits, like journaling, then?

My answer to her was this: Yes, you will change as you enter a new life, and yes, you will have less time for yourself than you do now. However, I’m here to remind you that you have a head start. You are already on the path of self-awareness; taking this workshop is one example, and this means you will notice when you wander away from your best self as you adjust to your new life. It will take time to figure out the person you would like to be in the relationship, to define your boundaries and your non-negotiables, but nothing works if you abandon yourself. The relationship thrives when you are happy as an individual. Journaling is one way of taking care of yourself among many. If/when you stop it as life gets busy, I promise you this; you will find your way back.

You are not the same person you were years ago. You are aware enough, you worked so hard on yourself, and you grew so much that no matter what changes disrupt your life, you will endure and find your way back. That even if you fall, you will not stay down for long nor dwell on your failures; instead, you will rise up, way faster than the past you.

• What if we get quarantined again for some reason? We will find our way back.
• What if we grow our family and life gets too hectic? We will find our way back.
• What if we travel and stop some habits we worked hard for? We will find our way back.
• What if someone needs us to step up and constantly be there for them? We will find our way back.

Isn’t that the definition of resilience?

Give yourself this reassurance as fear creeps in when you embark upon the unknown: If you start and stop or if you get lost, you now know your way back. Trust that you have created an anchor you’ll return to again and again. You can restart as many times as you want.

Liberating.