Unloading the Backpack: A Mid-Week Journaling Practice

Hi everyone, Michael here. As the founder of Coach Roger, I spend a lot of time behind a keyboard thinking about how we navigate our days. If you are reading this on Wednesday, you are standing right in the middle of the week. For a lot of us, Wednesday has a distinct weight to it. The energy of Monday's fresh start has worn off, and the weekend is still just far enough away that you can feel the stretch.

Lately, I’ve been noticing how much mental luggage I carry by the time Wednesday afternoon rolls around. It is rarely one massive thing. Instead, it is a collection of tiny, nagging details: half-finished projects, text messages I forgot to reply to, an awkward conversation from Tuesday morning, and a low-level hum of 'I need to do more.'

If you were carrying a heavy hiking backpack all day without taking it off, your shoulders would ache by the afternoon. Yet we do this mentally all the time. We carry our worries, our to-do lists, and our rushing thoughts into meetings, conversations, and quiet moments alike, wondering why we feel so exhausted.

That is why I want to share a simple, zero-pressure journaling practice with you today. You do not need a fancy leather-bound notebook or poetic words. You just need a scrap of paper, a pen, and permission to be messy.

Journaling is not about crafting a memoir or solving all your life's puzzles in one sitting. For me, it has become a physical act of unloading. When I take the thoughts swirling in my head and put them down on a page, they stop bouncing around inside my skull. They land somewhere outside of me, where I can finally look at them without panicking.

If you want to try this out today, here is a gentle way to begin:

• Find a quiet corner: Step away from your screen for just five minutes and sit somewhere comfortable.
• Do a brain dump: Write down everything currently taking up space in your head, no matter how trivial or messy it feels.
• Let go of editing: Do not worry about spelling, grammar, or making it sound good. Let the ink flow without judgment.
• Close the book: When you are done, physically close the notebook or fold up the paper to signal to your brain that these thoughts are contained for now.

It is amazing how much lighter your shoulders feel when you simply give your thoughts a place to land. You do not have to fix everything today. Sometimes, the most productive thing you can do is just set the heavy bag down for a few minutes and catch your breath.

I hope you carve out a little kindness for yourself today. You are doing better than you think you are.

Warmly, Michael