Wilder. strives to encourage more people to unplug from our hyper-connected world and experience the joy of putting pencil to paper with their beautiful range of stationery. We talk to co-founder Rupert Marlow about the slow practice of journalling.
As the tendrils of the digital world snake ever-deeper into our lives, it’s nice to think that some analogue processes still have the edge. Take journalling, for example. Often made out to be more complicated than it is, journalling is essentially just the regular habit of thinking through writing. You might reflect on yourself or the world around you, but really you just pick up your pen and make your own rules. And journalling seems to work best on paper. Useful as they are, digital devices are engineered to distract and intrude, and there’s something soothing in turning all that off and seeing what thoughts flow through the nib of your pen.
“A question is a good place to start,” says Rupert Marlow of Wilder., whose own journalling led him and wife Sarah to produce these rather lovely notebooks. “What did I do today that I am or should be proud of? Was my response to x/y/z reasonable or fair and if not, why not and how could it be better next time? What are my regular habits that I know aren’t positively serving me? What do I do sometimes that I know I would benefit from doing more?”
Rupert suggests that an often helpful way to start journaling is with a question
For Rupert, a journal is about regular self-reflection and subtle change. “Journalling – the way I do it – is a way of quietly, honestly and privately looking at things you might want to change about yourself or simply change the way you view a behaviour or pattern. It can also help you spot patterns that help with this identification.”
“It’s important to be honest and kind to yourself, and to know it’s a process and takes time. There will be flashes of realisation, but mainly the result is often a subtle trajectory change, whether in mood, behaviour or simply a change in how you view things. It’s mostly the case, for me at least, that after a while you look back and notice how much something has improved.”
