In this behind-the-scenes solo episode, I reflect on 2024 and how I ended up publishing the Create Your Kindspace guided journal. I did a lot of things last year that stretched me and I’m so glad that I took the time to invest in myself and focus on fewer but more meaningful projects. So grab yourself your favourite tea or coffee and join me for an intimate look at how a year of consistent journaling transformed both my personal and professional life.
Timestamps:
00:01:14 My Double Life on TikTok
00:03:34 The Power of Storytelling and Catching the Speaking Bug
00:06:08 The Power of Morning Journaling
00:09:56 Creating the Kindspace Guided Journal
00:11:11 Personal Reflections on 2024
00:12:14 Looking Forward to 2025
00:13:39 Do you have a word of the year for 2025?
Links:
Journal with Me: https://createyourkindspace.com/journal-with-me/
International Women’s Day Talk: https://createyourkindspace.com/stories-that-shape-us-with-caroline-laurenson/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-laurenson/
Transcript:
Do you ever push yourself out of your comfort zone? I was well and truly out of my comfort zone in 2024. I feel like I’ve almost been leading a double life for the last year. Now that might sound a bit weird, but all will become clearer as you listen to this episode. I suppose what I mean is I have been working, is that the right word, on something that I think most people would be very surprised by, I think I have even surprised myself that I have stuck with it for a whole year and am still doing it now.
So today’s episode, as you may have gathered, is going to be a bit different from my usual guest interviews, but I hope that you enjoy seeing a little peek the behind the scenes and hearing some of my reflections on the past year. And I hope that it inspires you and shows that stepping out of your comfort zone can lead to some amazing and unexpected transformations.
I haven’t been as active across all the social media platforms over the last 12 months, and instead I decided to focus on this podcast and experimenting with TikTok would you believe. I feel like I had fallen into this trap of churning out content, to like feed the algorithm but not maybe having the impact that I wanted. And I felt like what I was doing just didn’t make sense to me anymore. So I took a leap and started posting regularly on TikTok.
TikTok was a place that really scared me, I guess it still is and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to show up as myself. But on the flip side of this, if I was going to experiment with doing something different TikTok is actually the perfect place, because things don’t have to be as polished and produced. And it is all about talking to camera and sharing you know what’s happening in your life and more of that raw behind-the-scenes.
So around the same time as I started doing this I decided to call in some help from an amazing speaker coach called Susan Perry. And the reason I wanted to work with her is I had been asked to do a keynote speech for International Women’s Day on behalf of Aberdeen University. So that event was happening in March and I wanted to give myself enough time to kind of prepare and you know think about what impact I wanted to have with that event. And I think similar to the TikTok experiments I really wanted to do something different and something that was uniquely me. And of all of the things that I worked on with Susan, the biggest thing I learned was the power of stories and being vulnerable. And that day on International Women’s Day, giving that speech, and feeling the emotion and the connection with the audience was absolutely incredible and the coaching work helped me to take what would have been a really, I was gonna say boring, but you know a really kind of standard factual presentation into something that was exactly what I wanted it was far more impactful and inspirational and I think it really got people thinking about what it means to lean into the things that we’re afraid of and how it is that we have such a capacity for overcoming challenges and building resilience and growing in the face of adversity. And yeah it was just amazing.
So I guess I’ve maybe got the speaking bug now! And I guess the other thing that I learned from that or what I took from that was that the only way I was gonna get better at speaking and having more of these opportunities to speak to an audience was to get lots of practice. So actually, doing the TikTok videos has been an amazing way to try things out and tell little mini stories and I guess desensitise myself of that fear, of that fear of speaking and talking about the things that matter to me.
So yes, I’ve spent the last year putting all the amazing tips from Susan into practice and looking for opportunities and I was delighted to get the opportunity to speak at the recent Aberdeen Health and Wellbeing Festival and yeah, I decided I would again push myself out of my comfort zone and try something different. So for today’s podcast episode I thought it would be really nice to share a version of the talk that I gave with you here as well.
It’s 7am. You’re snuggled up in your warm, cozy bed. The alarm is blaring – beep, beep, beep.
What do you do next?
Hit the snooze button and drift back to sleep for 10 more minutes?
Reach for your phone and start scrolling?
What if instead, you sit up, pick up a notebook and pen, and begin to write?
At first, the words might come slowly, but as you continue, you feel your mind start to clear. The worries and stresses of the day ahead begin to fade, replaced by a sense of clarity and purpose. This is the power of journaling – a simple yet profound practice that has the ability to transform your wellbeing and your life.
Over the past year, I’ve been journaling on TikTok, encouraging others to experience the benefits of this incredible habit.
In the space of a year, I’ve created over 280 journaling videos. That’s over 13 hours of me talking to the camera about the day’s writing idea and about my life in general. Have I gone viral? No, but it was never about that.
My word for 2024 was Grace. And I gravitated towards journaling because I needed to give myself space and show myself compassion. For most of us we spend all our time running about looking after everyone else and rarely get a moment to focus on our own needs.
Journaling is my time, it’s where I can express how I feel and be creative. I’ve always told myself that I’m more of a numbers person than a words person. You might have similar limiting beliefs about why you don’t write more or why you think journaling is not for you.
If you look at TikTok, it’s filled with those beautiful aesthetic bullet journals, or planners with an overwhelming amount of detail and pages. This can make people feel like journaling takes up a lot of time. But it really doesn’t have to. My number one tip is to choose a consistent time and place to journal, but also be flexible with yourself because you might not always be able to journal at the same time. Starting small and keeping it simple also really helps, any notebook will do and even if all you focus on is writing about what you’re grateful for or a single line reflection on how you feel or what you did, this is a great start.
Probably the most important and biggest impact I’ve experienced from journaling on TikTok, is how it has helped me to really reflect on what’s happening in my life. I have learned so much about myself in the process of doing this, both by talking out loud and writing down my thoughts and feelings.
I think my confidence has grown too, I even sometimes sing in my videos and I hardly ever sing for people, even though it’s truly what lights me up. And as the days, months and weeks went by in 2024, I thought, wouldn’t it be lovely if we had a special book we could journal in together, that has a space to check-in each day and write about the day’s journaling prompt. And so that is what I did. It’s available on Amazon and it’s called, would you believe it, Create Your Kindspace – A Guided Journal.
So, to close, I invite you to ask yourself: what will you do next time that alarm goes off? Will you hit the snooze button, or will you take a few moments to connect with yourself and try journaling? The choice is yours. You have the power to transform your life, one page at a time. You are of course more than welcome to journal with me on TikTok every morning too.
So that was my talk for the Aberdeen Health and Wellbeing festival. It was over in a blink, but I really enjoyed it and it was great spending the day showing people the new journal and talking about the work that we do in our business supporting people with their smart home technology.
2024 was my year of Grace and boy did I need it. We lost our beautiful dog Skye just before Christmas and I am still adjusting to life without her. When we got her as a puppy it was more so that my mum had company when I was out at work. And losing her has just brought up all of these memories of mum and you know the things that I miss about her and the time that we spent together. But I know mum will be so delighted to see Skye again.
Reflecting on all that’s happened, I think the thing that I take away I guess from last year is actually how nice it was to just lean into just one thing and not feel like I was spinning a million plates. I mean to be fair I was still spinning quite a few plates, but nowhere near the amount that I have in previous years. I haven’t entirely settled on what my word will be for this year, but I’m gravitating towards, I guess something similar to grace in that I’m craving more simplicity and wanting to make space for doing creative things and spending time with my family. My son only has one year left of school after this year and then I guess he will be heading off to uni. And my daughter, she starts secondary school this year, so it actually won’t be long at all before she is also heading out into the world.
I have so much to be grateful for and am looking forward to what 2025 will bring. Hopefully more speaking opportunities and opportunities to connect with the Kindspace community and all my beautiful listeners and my TikTok buddies as well. I have some really amazing guests lined up for you to meet here on the podcast too. It’s funny because I feel like my daily journaling on TikTok has almost become a mini podcast in itself. Because I’ve been sharing it on YouTube and it has it’s own special little kind of podcast playlist, so if you did wanna check it out it’s called A Daily Dose of Kindspace, which is on our main Kindspace YouTube channel.
I’d love to know if you have a word for this year and what it means to you. What goals or plans have you set for yourself? And how have you embedded this into your consciousness. I am a big fan of a vision board, and obviously journalling and writing things down to help manifest those dreams. So yeah, let me know if you have any tips or other ways that you feel help you to yeah achieve those big goals. And if you fancy giving journaling a try, I literally have hundreds of little bite-sized videos now, so you’re welcome to come join me in my dressing gown every morning too.
Thank you so much for listening all the way to the end, before you go, I have a little favour to ask, so if you’ve liked this episode, please screenshot it, tag us on social media @createyourkindspace and maybe share what your key takeaway was from the episode. I would absolutely love to hear from you. It would also be so wonderful if you could rate and review this podcast as it helps other people to find it.
Disclaimer:
The information on this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. You should seek the advice of an appropriately qualified healthcare professional before making decisions about your own circumstances. You should not disregard, or delay seeking professional medical advice because of any information contained on this podcast.
Unless specifically mentioned on the podcast, Create Your Kindspace and Caroline Laurenson do not formally endorse or have any affiliation with any product or service mentioned in the podcast. The opinions and content provided and/or shared by any third-party guests, any third-party material or third-party website referenced in this podcast does not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Create Your Kindspace and Caroline Laurenson.
