Category Archives: soulful journals

Our Biggest Giveaway EVER

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We’re excited to announce our biggest giveaway EVER!

We love living our best lives and inspiring others to do the same!
And we know firsthand that having tools and a support system in place make transitioning into your ideal life so much easier. When we have the structure set up beforehand, lasting change has a real chance at happening.
This is why Dan and I do what we do – we want to help create a foundation of support for you so that going within, finding the answers, and living the life you were meant to live is an exciting and joyful experience rather than a scary and intimidating one. 
 

We are thrilled to announce our new Manifesting Happiness E-Course, which is a 3-month course that sets up this essential structure so that lasting happiness and lasting change can occur.

Our course follows three of our Soulful Journals:
Gratitude Book
Being grateful for what you already have.

As If Book
Visualizing and dreaming about what you would like to have.

The Commitment Book
Committing to and taking action to make those dreams your reality.


Please click here to learn more about this exciting and helpful course!
We are offering a super low introductory price of just $90 for the entire course through the end of the month, too!

What We’re Giving Away
Because we are so excited about this e-course and the journals 
that go along with it – we are giving them all away!
Grand Prize
1 Manifesting Happiness E-Course 
(worth over $800 – normally sells for $299!) 
This is such a great prize – bigger than anything we’ve ever given away before!
We really want to help someone make lasting changes in their life, which is is why we are giving this ENTIRE program to one lucky person!
It’s a 3-month course that includes personalized consultations, journals, worksheets, and so much more!
Please click here to read all about the program!

This prize will be awarded to the person who enters our contest AND refers the most people to our contest!
You can tweet about it, post about it on your blog, put it on your Facebook page – get creative with it!
Please tell your friends to mention your name when they enter.  

Second Place Prize
3 Manifestation Journals
(The Gratitude Book OR I Am Grateful For, As If, & The Commitment Book)
 (worth $45!)
How to Enter
  1. Leave a comment telling us what you would like to manifest in your own life and why. It could be anything – more happiness, abundance, love, balance – whatever you desire! Please make sure to leave your email address, so we have a way to contact you if you win!
  2. Follow this blog
  3. Become fans of our Facebook pages: Soulful Journals & Jodi Chapman
  4. Follow us on Twitter: Soulful Journals & Jodi Chapman
  5. Subscribe to our newsletter
How the winners are chosen
The Grand Prize winner will be chosen by determining which person referred the most people to our contest. 
The Second Prize winner will be chosen based on their answer. We would like to give our journals to someone who truly wants to make a lasting change in their life. (They also have to be following our various pages mentioned above.)
Giveaway Ends July 26th at midnight (PST).
We’ll post the winners here and also contact them directly!

We can’t wait to read all of the ways you would like to manifest your ideal lives!

Have fun, and good luck!

Embracing the Good

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I love choosing one of our Soulful Journals and randomly picking a writing prompt.
Today’s question comes from our Journaling Further Within book:
When something good comes your way, 
are you able to embrace it or do you sabotage it? 
If you do sabotage yourself, can you think of why you might be doing
that and what you can do to change?
Why Sabotage Yourself?
You might be wondering why we would ever sabotage ourselves from receiving something good into our lives. 

It could be for a number of reasons:
Maybe you were comfortable with how things were going in your life. 
Maybe the unknown is scary – even if you know that the unknown is a good thing.
Maybe you feel that you aren’t really worthy of this good news or good fortune.
Maybe you are afraid that now you will have no excuses – nothing is standing in the way between you and your own happiness. 
Maybe you are waiting for the bubble to burst or the other shoe to drop. 
Maybe you think that something this good definitely couldn’t truly happen to you,  
and you wait for it to go away.
The Right Emotion at the Right Time
It’s okay to not be completely ecstatic when good news appears in your life. 
It’s okay to take some time to take it all in.
It’s okay to sit with it until you understand the ramifications of how it will change your life.
It’s okay to notice any feelings of fear, anxiety, or uncertainness that surface. 
It’s okay to be in whatever emotional state that you are in. 
As long as you are aware of your emotions and are able to delve into why you are feeling the way you are, you’ll come to see that any reaction to any circumstance is just right.
Embracing the Good
By truly believing that you are worth all of the good fortune that you are receiving, you will open yourself up and be able to embrace all of the wonderful things that come your way. 
Hopefully after spending some time calming down your own saboteur and building up your self esteem, you will come to realize that you truly deserve happiness.
You can start to embrace all of the good that enters your life!
You’re worth it! 🙂

Paying it Forward with a Giveaway!

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***This giveaway is now closed. 
Thank you so much to everyone who participated and congratulations to the winner! 
Stay tuned for another giveaway soon!***

It always feels so good to give, so we’re having a giveaway that focuses on paying it forward! 
And the more you pay it forward, the more entries you will have! 
Read on for details… 🙂
What We’re Giving Away:
Grand Prize:
$50 in credit toward any of our Soulful Journals! 
Spend it any way you like – get a few handmade journals for yourself, give them as gifts, get a few ebooks, or have us send a gift certificate to your loved one. It’s up to you! 
Most referrals award:
$30 in credit toward any of our Soulful Journals! 
Spend it any way you like – get a couple of handmade journals for yourself, give them as gifts, get a few ebooks, or have us send a gift certificate to your loved one. It’s up to you! 
How to Enter:
Check out our Soulful Journals & leave a comment telling us which is your favorite and why!
Please make sure to leave your email address, so we have a way to contact you if you win!
1 comment = 1 entry
Bonus Entries:
Want to increase your chances for winning? 
Leave a separate comment below for any of these things you do:
Pay it forward – help someone, give a compliment, practice a random act of kindness…leave a comment for each pay it forward act = 1 extra entry for each comment! 
(So if you keep paying it forward throughout the week and leave comments here about it, you will have many entries!)
Follow this blog = 1 extra entry
Follow us on Facebook = 1 extra entry
Tell your Facebook friends about our giveaway = 1 extra entry
Follow us on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway  = 1 extra entry
Subscribe to our newsletter -1 extra entry
Buy ANY of our products and get 1 extra comment for every dollar spent:
(Ex: If you spend $15 in our shops, leave 15 comments saying, “$15 spent.” Please give your email address.)


How the winners are chosen:
The Grand Prize winner will be chosen completely randomly through a generator. And the more entries you have, the better your chances will be! 
The Most Referrals Award will go to whoever refers the most people to our sites! When they become a fan/follower, they simply let us know who referred them. We’ll tally it up when the giveaway ends and see who is ahead! 
Here are our sites:
Giveaway Ends March 30th at midnight (PST), and we’ll post the winners here and also contact them directly!

We can’t wait to see how you get creative and pay it forward! 

Have fun, and good luck!

Journaling Within – Describe Yourself

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I thought it would be fun to post questions/writing prompts from our Soulful Journals from time to time.
A question from our Journaling Within book is up first!

If you had to describe yourself to someone, 
what words would you use? 

Really take some time to think about this and then write what words come up. 

If you would like to take it a step further, write about how you feel about these words. 
Did any surprise you? 
Are there any that you are proud of? 
Are there any that you would like to change? 
Would you want to be friends with someone who had these traits? 

Have fun getting to know yourself – that’s what it’s all about!

Affirmations and a Free Gift!

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I first learned about saying affirmations many years ago after reading Louise Hay’s books. She is an expert on them, and they were a huge part of her recovery from cancer. 
They can be both powerful and life changing.
If you haven’t said affirmations before, it might feel a bit strange at first. Especially when what you are saying doesn’t feel real yet. 
For example, say your affirmation is, “I live a calm, balanced life.” 

You created this affirmation because this is what you want for yourself – this is how your ideal life looks. 
However, at the present moment, your life may be far from this. That’s okay. We all have to start at the beginning. Say this affirmation to yourself and out loud often throughout your day. Look at yourself in the mirror and say it. Write it onto post-it notes, and hang them all around your house. Even if it feels strange at first, keep saying it – keep believing it – and before you know it, it will sink in, and you will be living a calm, balanced life. 
They really do work, but you have to keep at it and keep believing in it. When you say it to yourself, really feel what that calm balanced life feels like. Really remember why you created this affirmation to begin with. Really imagine yourself living this life each time you say the words. 
Affirmations are amazing tools for visualizing and creating our authentic lives. They are wonderful for our self esteem and our well being. 
Spend some time today writing down your affirmations. This is the fun part of the process – you get to dream and really think about what kind of life you want to create! When you write your own, make sure to write in the first person whenever possible.

To get you started on this journey, we are giving away our Soulful Journals Affirmations Screensaver! 

I created this screensaver for myself years ago, and I still use it today. I am happy to share it now with you! It comes with 12 affirmations – each paired with one of our paintings. 
Simply put “affirmations” in the subject line. We’ll then email it to you with instructions.
Have fun creating your affirmations, putting them up around your house, and saying them! You’ll be amazed at how much your life will change once they start to sink in! 

Being Able to Roll With the Changes

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Change is inevitable. 

If you are a planner and like to be in control, this can be an unsettling fact. But if you can learn to roll with and embrace change, it can truly be seen as a welcome and much needed adjustment to your life when it appears.

We are going through some pretty major changes with our business, and I have to keep reminding myself that change is a good thing – knowing that without it we wouldn’t grow, learn lessons, or expand our horizons.

Our changes involve moving more toward our passion of writing and helping others – and away from anything that doesn’t fit into that vision.

This means that I am in the process of saying goodbye to a lot of products that have been with us for years. They have become old friends – and I have been very grateful to each of them.

Saying goodbye to them, though, means that I will clear up space in my studio (and my mind) for what I am truly passionate about – which is very exciting!

So if you, too, are going through a transition in your life – it might be a good idea to take a step back and write about your thoughts, fears, hopes, and dreams regarding where you see your life going. Take some time to explore any feelings of uncertainty and unsettledness. It is completely normal to feel this way. It may also be helpful to write how your life will look after you have gone through this transition and are living your new life. This will be a great motivator for you to push through and not turn back because it feels uncomfortable.

Change is good for us – it helps us become our best selves.

And that is a great thing.

Saying Goodbye So You Can Say Hello

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Sometimes in life we have to make tough choices if we want to grow and live the life we know we are meant to live. We may have to give up a part of ourselves that we have grown comfortable with, even if we know that it isn’t the self we want to bring on our journey. 
I was watching Peter Walsh’s decluttering show the other day on the OWN Network, and I love his approach to physical clutter. He first has you create a vision for your room. Then you only bring in the things that reflect that vision. Everything else has to go. I was thinking that this system could also be applied to mental and emotional clutter. 
Let’s try this exercise together:
Think of the person you strive to be: your best self. 

Now create a vision for this new self.

How do you look (e.g., peaceful, radiant, rested)
What do you think about (e.g., the present moment, happy and positive things)?
What kind of friends do you surround yourself with (e.g., supportive, nurturing)?
How do you spend your days (e.g., reflecting, laughing)
What else can you visualize about this new self?
Take some time with this and get as specific as you can. 
Write it all down, and then hang it up where you will see it frequently.
Once you are clear on your vision, you can start the process of decluttering all of the emotions, thoughts, activities, friends, etc. that no longer fit into your current vision. 
This can be a painful process, and change can be hard.
If you keep your vision at the forefront, though, and remind yourself that in order to grow into the person you know you can be, you will need to let go of the person you have become. (At least parts of you.)
It’s your rebirth – and it’s a beautiful thing!
Goodbye to you.
And hello to you.

An Authentic Life

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Are you living an authentic life? 

When you look at yourself in the mirror, do you know and like who you see? 
Is there anything that you aren’t being truly honest about with yourself or others? 
Is the “you” that you represent to the world the “you” that you really are?

I thought it was interesting the other day when a friend posted on Facebook that they sure hoped they could live up to their profile there.

In one of his stand-up routines, Chris Rock talks about dating and how we tend to send our representative to make a great impression.

While these are funny concepts – they are also very true. We all want to be liked. We all want to please others.

Sometimes to live an authentic life, we have to rock the boat. We have to stir things up a bit. And change isn’t always easy – for you or for anyone who knows you. It may seem threatening. “But they have always been this way – maybe I never really knew them at all,” they might say.

When this happens, stand strong in your own beliefs. Stand strong in knowing that you are living your own life to the best of your ability. Live the life that feels most like you, even if it’s not how you’ve done things in the past. Your inner voice will let you know if you’re on the right track.

Live an authentic life. And when you look in the mirror each morning, you can be proud of who you see smiling back at you.

🙂

Coming Full Circle

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Do you ever think about what were you like as a child? 


What did you like to do for fun?
Did you like playing indoors or outdoors?
Did you have a lot of friends or just a few close friends?
What did you spend your time thinking about?
What did you want to be when you were all grown up?

Sometimes the responsibilities of being an adult can lead us away from our path – we take the safe, secure road, which isn’t always our true calling.

If you ever sense that something is missing in your life or if you ever think that maybe things didn’t turn out how you imagined they would, take a moment and think about how you were as a child – before all of the responsibility and adult-like roles came into play.

When I was young, I knew that I wanted to be a writer. I used to write poems and cards and give them to all of my loved ones. I loved making people feel good. Even after college, my long-term goal was to write books that helped people.

And I know that everything in my life led me to this moment. I am living my dream, and you can, too!

Just take some time to get clear about what your dream is. When you were young, how did you envision your life would be as an adult? Are there any aspects of it that keep coming back? Is there any part of it that has more of a charge for you? Do you feel a calling toward something that you keep pushing aside?

If we take the time to go within, we will find that the answers are always in us. 

Have fun with this – it’s a great exercise, and I know you will learn a lot!