Isolation Journal Out Now
Leila Chalk • April 21, 2020
Out Now - Isolation Journal
So, our isolation journal has finally gone live.
What is an Isolation Journal?
The Iso Journal is a note book with guided questions and opportunities to document your experience of mass isolation.
Why should I journal?
The benefits of journaling have been known for a long time - it is a great way of getting in touch with your feelings, processing current anxieties, and planning goals.
Why Isolation Journal?
Mindfulness and gratefulness journals, success journals, they all exist. I found I couldn't write in any of them since everything with Coronavirus started happening. I would stare at a blank page and I would not know where to begin. Many people that I spoke to mentioned the same situation.
How often should I write in my journal?
You should use your journal when ever you can. Like any mindfulness practice, even sporadic and inconsistent use is helpful to de-stress.
What are the added benefits?
The great thing about the journal is that it will also help you find a way to document this very unique moment in your life and in history. Writing down your experiences means that you can re-visit the way you felt and remember your journey.
It has been weeks of hard work to get it to the point where it was available for printing and sale. We hope that you like the journal and find it helpful and I look forward to hearing from everyone who uses it.
Leila Chalk's Isolation Journal is available via the e-store here.
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Earlier last month, over at Forty Four Degrees , we got all the lawyers together on Teams over a number of afternoons to just chat and create different LEGO masterpieces. It started, like anything in life, from a little inspiration and a little desperation. Talk of mindfulness is everywhere, the benefits are debated strongly, but it is one of those things that we can see working for ourselves - and it is never as obvious as right now, during lockdown. Melbourne lockdown feels like it is never ending. Everyone is tired, and that tiredness snowballs, so that each interaction in each day means that we are endlessly collecting little bit of sadness from each other. From our clients, and from the lawyers on the other side, and from our families and from the media. It multiplies and snowballs. One sleepless night, I thought it would be important to start the conversation about how mindfulness and positivity can also snowball. (I'm not talking about all the toxic positivity bullshit, but simply the attempt to connect and talk about the things that are working in keeping us sane). The next morning, I reached out to my team at work, I spoke to my friends, and I asked people to share one thing that had recently inspired them. My inspiration had come from my daughter, who would busily sit under my desk with her buckets of LEGO, finding calm in the daily task. That day, I also ordered boxes and boxes of LEGO to be delivered to each of my staff, and that is how our Brick mindfulness has begun. We hope all to see each other sooner rather than later, but at the latest, we are looking forward to our LEGO themed Christmas Party. If you have kids or adults in your life who are struggling, maybe journaling isn't their thing. Maybe yoga isn't their thing. But we keep trying, just in case little tiny bricks are their thing. The most exciting Harry Potter sets can be found here . Leila Chalk is a lawyer and founder of Forty Four Degrees , a boutique Melbourne law firm. She is the author of the Isolation Journal. *This blog post contains affiliate links.
Every lawyer has a different experience, but those of us who work for boutique practices and own our firms have an added layer of flexibility that makes work interesting. Sometimes that means that I am able to take off a morning for brunch, other times it means I am negotiating a dispute while dressed in a ballgown ready for a masquerade. I wanted to share this picture (and others) with other working mothers who may be considering starting their own business so that I can show them the real life examples of what the "working for yourself" lifestyle brings you. Some pictures are missing, of course. The ones where I was taking phone calls while breastfeeding, the ones where I was giving a presentation while eight months pregnant and in labour. Why are they missing? Because let us be honest here, my hair probably wasn't that great in them. And yes, there are moments that I have missed out on, but that is the reality of work (and not necessarily the reality of running your own business). I have been focusing recently on what it is that running the business means separately to what it means to work as a parent so that I can hunt down which moments are responsible for all my mothering guilt. The realisation: Working for myself gives me the freedom to offset the unfortunate reality of working as a mother. So, what are the major differences? Some people think that working for yourself is going to be more stressful because you care more. To that, I say, that everyone who works at my firm cares a lot about their work and their files. Yes, emotional boundaries are hard and finding ways to be off the clock is necessary. I am not sure I believe that those emotional boundaries are easier as an employee. Instead, they are either something you do, or something you do not do. What's more it is something you can learn to do. Is your journey going to be different? I think that really depends on what you actually find important and worthwhile, what you prioritise, and whether those priorities are things that bring you joy. I take great pleasure in the things that I do and the clients that I can help. When you are ready to take your business journey, check out my 10 minute business plan link over at Forty Four Degrees. Leila Chalk is the author of the Lost Chef, Kyoto with Kids, and the Isolation Journal. She runs Forty Four Degrees , a boutique Victorian law firm.