050: Journaling for the future YOU

What are you doing on Tuesday the 26th of September, 2023? Because myself and Francesca Amber are coming to the Barbican Hall in London. Our event is called One Night Stand, and this one-night event is all going to be about manifestation, crystal healing, and ridding your limiting beliefs to help you achieve your goals. We've curated an immersive experience that will leave you feeling inspired and empowered throughout the evening as well. We'll also have interactive exercises, we'll have empowering discussions, and the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals on a similar journey towards personal growth and manifestation. There'll even be an opportunity for you to ask questions as well. This event is your chance to break free from the shackles of self-doubt and unleash your inner greatness. It's time to release those limiting beliefs that might be holding you back and step into your true potential. And if you want to come on your own, by all means do that. Single tickets are available and seating is totally unreserved, so you can even meet up with your spiritual friends and sit with them as well. Head to @kanni_crystals on Instagram and click the link in my bio. Tickets are limited, so secure your spot and be part of this transformative experience. Don't miss out on the chance to manifest your dreams and achieve your goals. We can't wait to see you there. Hi everyone. I hope that you're all well. Thank you so, so much for joining me on another episode of Cani Crystals, the podcast. Now, just writing some notes for this episode, I quickly realized that this will actually be episode number 50. That means I've recorded about 25 hours worth of content, bearing in mind that my average episode's about 30 minutes long. That's literally me talking for more than an entire day. Who's listening to this? Um, and I guess when you put it like that, it makes me so grateful that you're all still here. So thank you so much. You're all all here, you're all still listening. The numbers are going up on listeners week by week. It's crazy, honestly. But I appreciate you all so, so much. So I just want to start today's episode with a massive thank you for giving me 30 minutes of your time again this week. So yeah, I've recently got back into me fitness, and if you're a long-term listener, you'll remember that I lost almost 2 stone at the start of this year, and then I've kind of gained 2 stone in the back half of this year. Fun times. So yeah, I've decided to switch it up recently and I've changed gyms. So the gym that I was going to was kind of a CrossFit style gym. If you don't know what CrossFit is, Google it. Fucking awful. Anyway, I was going to this kind of CrossFit style gym, and I think I just got too comfortable with it, and I ended up falling out of love with it. And it's so hard, isn't it? Because no one really, like, enjoys exercise anyway. Do you know what I mean? Unless you're a masochist. But when you fall out of love with it, I think because it was so strenuous, I was finding any excuse to not train. So I would kind of look at me watch and be like, "Oh well, I've already done 10,000 steps today, I don't really need to go to the gym as well." Or I would have 30 minutes till I was due to go into class and I'd decide to stay on the couch instead. And that's not me, like, I don't wanna be fat. I don't wanna be this useless lump. I've got absolutely horrific metabolism, so if I don't exercise, it's kind of like someone's put one of those bike tyre pumps up me arse and started inflating us from the inside out. You get the picture. So I've been looking at gym alternatives for a while now and places that kind of have gym classes all day long rather than just like, you know, 5 o'clock till 7 o'clock like the one that I was going to did. And I remembered something that Francesca Amber told us when I was with her about this place called David Lloyd, and it had kind of like an outdoor area, like an outdoor pool and stuff for the summer, and it was kind of like a gym, but it had childcare and various classes. So I had a look online, I ended up booking myself a little tour. A couple of my friends go there, and I went to have a look around the place. And when I went, um, like I said, I bumped into two— no, actually I bumped into three people that I know. But yeah, they've got a pool, they've got a sauna, steam room, jacuzzi, tennis courts, lots of classes like yoga, Pilates, you know, HIIT workouts, Body Pump, spinning, you name it. And what's more is that they also have a kind of coffee clubhouse thing where you can get like food and drinks from, and you can even work there. You can connect to the Wi-Fi they've got super, super fast Wi-Fi. I'm loving it. So when I need a break from the office, I've been last minute booking myself onto a yoga class, for example, and then, you know, like working a little on my laptop, then going for a swim, having a bite to eat, doing a spinning class, and then coming home. And honestly, I feel like I've been on some bloody retreat. Honestly, it's wild. But I just think it kind of fits my heavy work schedule better, and I'm not rushing around or waiting around for a set time class at 5 PM every day because it was driving us insane. Like, I would rush all me work and then I would really hold it against the gym that I was there at 5 o'clock every single day when I had work to be doing. So yeah, I've been every single day for the last fortnight, which is wild for me because as of late I was going to the gym maybe once a week, if that. So I did this class last Friday night, right, and it was called Spirit, and it was a mix of kind of yoga, Pilates, and a bit of sound meditation as well. So it was right up my street. Mind you, the instructor had us kind of balance on one foot doing this thing. Is it half moon in yoga? I think it's half moon it's called, who knows. But she had us balance on one foot like a flamingo, but the other leg was stretched out behind her, like with our backs flat in kind of a T-shape. So we're balanced on one foot, and honestly, holding that for like 3 minutes, my bum cheeks were vibrating with cramp. I could barely walk the next day. Honestly, I felt Wow, just, I've never known a workout like it. And oh, I know that Lisa Jane, one of me followers from Instagram, she'll be buzzing at this because she's a spinning instructor. But I absolutely love spinning. Who would have thought? So honestly, I didn't think I would ever get back on a bike again after me little accident. Oh, to hell with it, let's share it. I might as well share it with you all. I share bloody everything else, don't I? So back in 2019, we moved into our new house and I was working at the end of the Tyne Bridge in the city centre here in Newcastle. And I could drive in, but I would have to pay for parking every day, like £8 a day. Ridiculous. Or I could walk in, but it would take about 50 minutes each way. So I invested in a bike. Not an expensive one, not a cheap one either, but I absolutely detested— and when I say detested, let me just clarify that for you— I detested cycling along the quayside every single day, okay? It hurt me bum along the uneven paving slabs. People walked in the way every 2 seconds, it constantly rained in me face, and I generally just turned up at work a hot sweaty mess. So one day I even passed out in me work toilets after sweating me tits off on the way to work in a heatwave. But anyway, this one day I was coming out of work, and it was midweek, the sun was shining, I had me shorts on, I got on me bike with me backpack on, and I started freewheeling down towards the quayside. For anyone listening from Newcastle, I'm talking about Dean Street. You know how friggin' steep that hill is. So I was flying down it on me bike, thinking I'm clever, and I went to bump up on the curb, and me front wheel didn't quite make it up on the curb, okay? So the rest of us went forwards, straight over the handlebars, me bike went sideways and slid underneath us, and I basically somersaulted over the top of the handlebars. Literally somersaulted. It was lucky I had a backpack on because it broke me fall. I probably would have smashed me back off the bloody curb, But you know in those moments where you just want the earth to open up and swallow you up? This was definitely one of those moments. I remember just being lay there on the floor, and over the top of bloody whatever it was, like Spice Girls or S Club 7 or something blasting through me headphones, I could hear a bunch of rowdy lads, you know, on the drink going "Woo!" and all cheering and clapping and chanting, laughing away it is. Not one single person helped us up. So I jumped up to me feet, obviously embarrassed, I grabbed me bike and I ran off onto the riverside path where, if I remember rightly, I found the nearest bench, sat down on it, and burst into tears. And I hadn't realized, but me Apple Watches also detected me falling off the bike as if I'd been like severely hurt, so it started ringing 999, doesn't it? So the next thing I know, in me ear I can hear a woman asking if I required fire, police, or coast guard. Honest to God, I could have just screamed. And then 2 minutes later I had Johnny ringing us because the fall detection had sent him a text message with my location stating where I was and that I'd had a nasty accident. I mean, it's great for when we're actually in danger, isn't it? But I fell off my bike. I'm sure I picked up the phone to Johnny and just like screamed and went, "Fuck off!" So yeah, sorry about the foul language. And I just basically cycled off home crying. I had a wonky wheel, a bloody leg, scraped all up me forearms. Oh my God, I was a mess. I went to a walk-in center the next day because me legs and arms were bruised. Nothing was broken, thankfully. So that's kind of my roundabout way of stating why I'm surprised that I love spinning. Maybe it's the fact that I'm stationary on a bike. Maybe it's the fact there's music. Maybe it's just that there's lots of people doing it there with me. I don't know, maybe it's in the— because it's in the dark with disco lights spinning. Who knows? I absolutely Love it. So that story has absolutely nothing to do with today's episode. I just thought I'd share it as to what I've been up to. So just before we do actually get into today's episode, I've been working so hard this week on my Law of Attraction Masterclass. I am so gagged at how it's turning out. I honestly can't wait to launch this. I think I also might release the entire thing as a huge workbook, but we'll see once it's all finished. It's It's coming along, it's coming along nicely. It's basically me going into great detail about the science behind the law of attraction, how to get the most out of your manifestations. There's like 11 or 12 exercises and tasks to do. There's lots of video content. There's going to be an online Facebook community with like weekly visuals and weekly meditations, that kind of thing. Honestly, I'm so excited for it, so keep an eye out for that. It's probably going to be launching in the new year, you know, January 2023. Keep an eye out for it. But this is what I want to base today's episode on, because as I was writing content for it and thinking up of ideas, you know, for tasks, I got looking into something which really captured my attention, and it's something called future you journaling. Okay, and I know we've spoke about journaling in the past and kind of the energetic power that this holds, but this is something that I've started doing myself this last week, and I'm making more of a conscious effort to do this for the foreseeable future. Okay, you know when you really just want to kind of measure your success rate at manifesting. Well, I'm there right now. So remember back when I had my £30,000 month? I was doing the most. Seriously, I was doing EFT twice a day. I was meditating with crystals 5 minutes every day. I was listening to subliminals, practicing gratitude, journaling, reading self-development books, even little witchy type stuff like blowing cinnamon over my front door. I was following the moon cycles. You name it, I was doing it. And for the last 2 months now, like I mentioned in a past episode, I've just kept saying to meself that I'll, you know, start again tomorrow, and all those bullshit excuses apparently that I don't have time and things like that. But we all can make time. So all of that stuff that I've just said there was literally taking me maybe 20 minutes or so a day because I was doing them while I was doing other stuff. So it wasn't taking up any extra time. So for example, I would have subliminals on me headphones while packing orders and cleaning around. I would be practicing and gratitude whilst on me dog walk, yeah? I would be doing EFT in the bath or shower. So it wasn't actually eating into my personal time too much at all, actually. But I've seen a real decrease in my manifestations happening this last month or so. So I'm kind of eager and keen to measure the success I have in October by following this daily and just being really, really strict with meself. So, back to future you journaling. This is one of the exercises that I'm going to have in me Law of Attraction online masterclass. Class, and it's something that I'm doing myself over the course of the next month. So what is it? Okay, so future you journaling, it's kind of a practice in that you're going to create a written journal. It's going to be regarding how you would like yourself to be in the future, and it really is that simple. So before getting started, you need to find a journal that's attractive to you, and I tend to find that I'm more willing to keep up stuff like this if I buy myself a designated notebook or journal. Like, for example, every time I do the magic, I buy myself a new journal. Not an expensive one, but it's just almost signifying to meself that this is a clean slate. I'm starting this fresh, and it's not just me, you know, writing in the back of one of me old notepads from a job that I had 10 years ago that's just been whacked in the back of a set of drawers. Yeah? So once you've got your journal, I tend to buy these lovely little ones off Amazon. They're like £4 or something, so it's really not breaking the bank. But once you've got it, you're going to start writing down everything in your life that you're grateful for, for already having accomplished, okay? And that's no different to doing a gratitude practice. So just sit yourself comfortably where you can have a little headspace and just write down everything that you're grateful for. It could be that you've got money to pay your phone bill, which keeps you connected to your friends and family, or it could be that you even just have a job which pays you money. But try and write down as much detail as possible not just what you're thankful for, but why you're thankful for it as well, okay? So next, write down what bad habits you'd like to change. So basically the habits that you think might be preventing you from becoming the person that you want to be. So if you think of the person that you want to become, say for example, all you want is to be loved by everyone, you're going to need to change those bad habits such as pushing people away or not responding to texts because you're so busy or not making time for friends and family. And I say all this because that's what I'm working on at the moment in my own headspace, so this is a real-life example for me. So what you're gonna do is you're finally, you're gonna write down how you'd like your life to be in the future. So almost as though, you know, boom, it's 10 years from now. Where are you living? Who are you with? What can you see? What's around you? Where do you work? Who's in your friend circle? How do you feel? Write down as much detail as you possibly can. A future you journal is very similar to maintaining and keeping like a regular journal, but the big difference is that you're just going to fully focus on your future instead of the present, okay? So the long term. For instance, a typical journal entry will focus on how you imagine your future will be. So by writing down how you imagine and desire your future, you can actually make it come true. And it's not magic. It's not like every single word that you write down in this journal is gonna come out of the paper and jump out in magical fairy dust or whatever. The real magic happens with your conscious and your unconscious because they work harder to ensure that your future becomes what you write in your Future You Journal, okay? So we know already that we can gain many benefits from practicing Future You Journal. It can help you to realise how smart decision-making can help you build a better future. For instance, if you want to lose weight—preaching to the choir here, do you know what I mean?—but by you deciding to eat yoghurt and fruit for dessert instead of a piece of chocolate, that's going to help you get closer to your future goals. So by writing down your plans for the future in your journal, your problem-solving skills can improve as well because you can more easily visualise all the different ways to overcome these obstacles that might pop up when it comes to building your ideal future. Sometimes when we dread the future because our lives aren't currently going as we'd like them to, we can become, you know, stressed, anxious, and sometimes even depressed. And Future You Journaling is similar to writing a plan for your future, basically. So as you're planning out your future and actually see it written down on paper, you can then anticipate your future improving, which in turn then increases your happiness and reduces that stress, anxiety, and depression. And what's more, if you're regularly creating, you know, entries in your journal, you can then refer to earlier entries and see the progress that you've made towards changing your life for the best. And believe me, there is something so powerful about that because it can dramatically increase your self-confidence, your self-esteem, and make you proud of how far that you've come. So now that we've kind of talked about the Future You Journal and its benefits, it's time to look at a plan to start planning your improved future. So I'd say the number one thing is to try to journal as often as possible. So if you fail to journal on a regular basis, you're not going to reap the benefits of practicing Future You Journaling, okay? We can all say, "Oh, I was too busy today. Oh, I didn't have time today." While it's ideal to write in your journal daily, you might miss a few days here or there in the beginning, and that's fine. You're starting a new habit, okay? And we all fall off the wagon when we start new habits. It's natural. It's part of human nature. But in order for this practice to be as effective as possible, your daily entries are important. Okay, it's kind of like how I'm going to do everything every single day to measure me success. Your journal entries should include all of your goals. It should be a series of short-term and long-term goals, and they'll help you to become the person that you desire in the future. That's why it's important for you to create a full list of goals, both short-term and long-term. You'll then see quicker progress with the shorter-term goals, which will then in turn motivate you to work harder towards achieving the long-term goals, yeah? And you need to focus on what you can control. Unfortunately, we can't control everything in our lives. We know this. In fact, there's quite a bit that we can't control, yeah? However, there are many things that we can control. Don't be lazy about it. We know what we can and can't control. The things that we can control That's what you need to focus on when making entries in your journal. Remember to be patient as well. So when you start practicing Future You Journaling, you're likely to want some instant gratification. You're gonna want the results there and then, as we all do with everything that we do. However, patience is necessary because you definitely won't see huge changes right away. This process takes time, but don't get discouraged, okay? You'll kind of notice these small changes and many small changes will equal big changes in the future. It'll all eventually snowball. Stick it out and keep at it, okay? One of my biggest tips for journaling would be to create helpful templates because it can sometimes be difficult to come up with things to write about every single day, as you know if you've done journaling in the past. But by creating templates with helpful writing prompts on them, that can help you out immensely. You can also find writing prompts online that will I don't know, help you create some amazing and productive journal entries so that you won't feel like you're writing the same material every single day. But don't expect perfection. None of us are perfect. So while you're treading along on your Future You journaling journey, be sure not to create goals and plans that are so far detached that they make you think, "I'll never get there." Because if you do and you fail to meet those goals, which you likely will, you'll be so disheartened that you'll wrongly believe that this type of journaling doesn't work for you. And that's not true. As long as you realise that none of us are ever going to achieve absolute perfection, so we should never ever strive to, okay? You need to set realistic goals and that'll help make them more attainable. It'll increase your overall results. And just remember to create motivating daily journal entries, okay? So by creating motivating daily entries in your journal, you're gonna keep things fun. You're gonna keep them inspiring and exciting, and it's gonna keep you wanting to journal every single day. You could develop positive aspirations that you plan on repeating throughout the day, or even create like Post-it notes with these positive aspirations on them, and that'll help you work towards the wonderful future that you're striving for. And that can help you achieve your goals 10 times faster. You could even create, I don't know, a daily mantra to focus on in your journal. Now, a mantra can be anything from a positive quote that you might have heard, or an inspiring verse in a song, whatever it is, you can focus on the same mantra when writing your entries, or you can create a new one every single day, like a quote of the day. Whatever works for you is fine. There's no right or wrong way to this. But remember to try and write physically with a pen and paper instead of type their journal entries. I get so many questions about this as well when people are talking about journaling and whether or not you can use a computer, an iPad, your phone. You can do whatever you want. Type them out if it's easier for you. But studies have shown that there's something really, really powerful in handwritten entries. Okay, they're more effective. Our brains process handwritten material so much differently than when it's typed. When you're typing, you don't put much thought into it. When you're having to physically write it, you're physically thinking about how each letter is and how each word looks on the paper. Okay, handwritten material is so much more differently than like typed when our brains process it. You might see quicker results if you handwrite your notes, okay? So try to journal at the same time every day as well because there's no particular time of day that's better for journaling and each person will be different. But if you find that you have more quiet time before bed, then choose that time to make your daily journal entries, yeah? Be clever about it. Don't put so much pressure on yourself to think, "Oh, I'm going to do this the second I wake up." If on a morning you find that you're rushing around, yeah, don't put pressure on yourself. And last but not least by any means, don't make skipping a day habit. Yes, we can all get sidetracked. Yes, we all get busy. And while skipping a day here and there when it comes to creating new entries in your journal is fine, it's expected, it shouldn't really cause any problems, don't make skipping a day a habit, okay. If you continue to skip days, especially consecutive days, one after the other after the other, you're gonna lose that momentum. You're gonna lose your motivation, okay? You might eventually even quit journaling, which is not what you want, especially if you've been journaling for some time now and seeing those results. But all in all, Future You Journaling can be a life-changing practice that can help you to map out your future by writing down your plans, your desires, your goals, and so much more. It can help you to achieve goals that you would have never even thought possible. Okay, without this technique that's helped so many people. But as with any new practice, it might be difficult to make a habit of writing entries in your Future You Journal on a daily basis. So remember, be kind to yourself, don't be too hard on yourself. But the more progress that you notice, the more motivated that'll make you to continue with that practice, okay? So get yourself out there, buy yourself a lovely little journal, a nice little pen, and get on writing. And I think that's about everything I've covered in my notes, what I wanted to talk about today. So just to wrap up— oh yeah, so this weekend I'm going to a sound bath. I'm really excited for it. It's where you lie on the floor and meditate and let the sound of like gongs, tingsha cymbals, sound bowls, and things like that wash over you. I did one— when was it? Was it like September, October last year? Oh my God, was it that long ago? No. It wasn't that long ago. I'm having a conversation with myself now. It wasn't that long ago, but I did have one. I vaguely remember. I can't remember when it was. Anyway, I've talked about it on the podcast, I'm sure I have. Anyway, weird fact about this one that I'm going to on Saturday night though: the guy who's doing it used to be the drummer in M People for All United Kids. M People, you know, search for the hero inside yourself. Yeah, so I'll be, um, shoot a post on Instagram about that and let you know my experience. He's called Andy, he's lovely, can't wait to meet him. Um, oh, and one last thing, I've just launched my new range of 8 different luxury Reiki-infused affirmation candles. Woohoo! So my normal candles were the aromatherapy ones, and there were 6 different ones. I'm kind of phasing them out now. These ones are much stronger. In fact, as I'm recording this pod, I've got one of them burning away The smell in me office is unreal. They've all been infused with Reiki energy as well, but they're, um, they're around the subject of things like love and romance, wealth and prosperity, health and well-being, fertility and abundance. There's 8 in total. Go check them out. What's more, each one has a specific affirmation on the back, like, of the box to repeat for 60 seconds as well while you light them. So that helps to bring your affirmations to fruition. They come fully boxed. They are literally perfect for gifting. How canny is that? Honestly, these have taken me ages to get right though, so go and check them out. Or maybe you're interested in my new Swarovski crystal birthstone necklace range that I've just launched. I'm feeling very like bougie this week. Um, they're all on my website anyway. Go and check them out. Use the discount code, which is the word PODCAST. Cannycrystals.co.uk. Um, if you've enjoyed today's episode, please feel free to leave us a review wherever you're listening to this from. Share like screenshots of yourself listening on your Instagram stories. I love when people send us photos of themselves like on trains and stuff, and they're like, just getting my canny crystals fix. I love to hear it and I love to see it. I appreciate you all so, so much, and hopefully I'll see you all— I don't know why I'm saying hopefully, of course I'll see you all again next Friday for another episode of Connie Crystal's Podcast. Have a lush weekend, everyone. Speak to you soon. Bye! Come and join me in the Manifest with Mart community. For just £10 a month, you'll get exclusive access to my app, and you'll join all the other beautiful souls in the Canny community, where each day you'll be held accountable to making your dreams and desires come to fruition. You'll also be set daily and weekly challenges. There's a chat room built in so you can talk to people in real time, and you can also pop over any questions that you have in the Q&A forum and I'll answer them for you. It's changing people's lives, and we've already had so many people manifesting things in the first 2 weeks alone. Each new moon, I'll also be going live within the group on a face-to-face video to help you get the most out of the lunar cycles, as well as answer any burning questions that you have. And these live meetups are so powerful, and everyone in the group has had nothing but praise for the safe space that we share. There are very limited spaces for this community, however, just to ensure that I can place my focus on you and nurture you into the ultimate manifester. So if you'd like a spot, please be quick and reserve your seat now. Head to cannycrystalsacademy.co.uk and choose the Manifest with Mart option where you can get instant access. And what's more, you'll also get access to all of the past recordings and chats too. Join now and start living the life of your dreams.