I wish I had started auditing my life earlier. Now that I’m 35 and filling out these templates, I can see that:

— the mistakes I was making would keep on repeating unless I put my mind to doing something different;

— the pain & discomfort that I was feeling were a fact, not my opinion;

— inaction is just as real as action because the consequences are still there;

— the life I was living wasn’t a dress rehearsal but something that deserved my attention despite its imperfections.

I wish I had started auditing my life earlier. I would have made some decisions sooner and more eagerly. Because when you have the facts on paper, it’s much harder to fool yourself into doing nothing about something that requires your close attention:

What’s going on with your physical or mental health, money, career, intellect, social circle, or family?

What are the reasons for that?

Are you happy with the state they are in? If not, are you going to do anything about it? Why? What exactly?

These are the questions that naturally pop up as soon as my pen touches the paper. Am I happy to see that some of my life areas are at the bottom? No. But at least I’m happy to realize that this is the end of my neglect. After all, I am my own best friend. I know that for sure.

P.S. Feel free to join my private blog 💌 It’s a safe, close-knit space for those who are interested in self-reflection journaling and developing sharp critical thinking. As someone with a PhD in Philological Sciences, now I look at journaling not just as a self-help tool, but as a textual practice to renew our mind and level up our lives through sharper and more precise thinking. In this private space, I want to share some linguistic tools that help you achieve that.

Here is a glimpse of the toolkit I’m thinking of offering:

Poor vocabulary means poor life experiences because we can’t recognize what we don’t have a word for. That’s why we’ll learn new words to help us describe all the intricacies and nuances of what we go through, enabling us to find more effective solutions to our problems and live our lives more fully.

We’ll dive deep into the specific words we use in our own journal entries. Many of our cognitive mistakes, as well as negative beliefs, happen simply because we misunderstand or misuse the true meanings of certain words. By breaking down our personal vocabulary, we’ll uncover hidden meanings and correct self-deception.

We’ll learn to direct questions to our negative beliefs that’ll help uncover the hidden reasons why they remain so strong, and find the most compelling arguments for our minds.

In addition to our personal journal notes, we’ll read a novel by Dostoevsky, a renowned Russian ‘master psychologist of the human soul’, slowing down to analyze his text line by line. Instead of just reading, we’ll learn to notice the hidden cues and nuances in his writing and begin making sense of these excerpts in relation to ourselves. This might be challenging but super exciting!

At the beginning of the week, you get:

• 1–2 language exercises based on a literary excerpt I provide

• 1–2 language exercises based on your chosen journal entries, complete with examples

At the end of the month, we also write a monthly summary to help you spot hidden patterns in your thinking and behavior, and uncover insights that usually get lost in daily life.

At the moment, the blog offers two subscription tiers:

• Self-Guided Access 📝

Includes access to all exercises, the community chat, and support (no direct feedback).

• Personalized Mentorship 💌

Includes everything in the first tier, plus personalized feedback on your completed exercises.

Please note that since we’re all from different countries and the political & economic situation is very turbulent, you might experience some technical problems while paying on your end & have to contact your bank. If that doesn’t help, please contact me via telegram @ilinakr or via email kristina-msu-illina@yandex.ru