Blogging Benefits

Helllooooo... anyone out there? I am guessing not- short of my #1 blogging fan, my Aunt K (thanks for the reminder, K!). I neglected this blog... oh... about a year ago (eeek!). At the time my full time job was keeping me busy (a bit of an understatement... maybe 'keeping me wildly attempting to stay afloat while neglecting many elements of my personal well being' would be a more accurate descriptor-?), and life was just too hectic to blog. I was considering my blog as a tool to communicate with my Weight Watchers members, and hadn't really considered the blog as a tool for myself.

Fast forward to today- November already (yikes)! I've changed full time jobs after being with the same institution for 6 years. Change is good. Change is hard. However, in this case, it is truly for the best (despite the challenges that being a 'newbie' brings...). I've had some time to breathe, reflect, and consider my life- not just my work life- but really my life (and no, those two things aren't one in the same...). In the summer I resigned from my regular WW leader role because at the time I was still working crazy hours and was finding myself needing to find substitutes too often for my meetings-- not ideal for my members. Since then, I've remained on the staff roster and am available to sub meetings myself when the needs presents itself and I'm available. The best of both worlds if you ask me!

When I stopped my regular meetings I figured I'd stop the blog too (although really I had been remiss in my posting for some time even at that point...). I figured if I wasn't leading a meeting and didn't have member 'followers' what's the point? Again- the focus was on others.

As I've had that time to reflect, I've realized that blogging can be beneficial for me- Braelin- the member, the person- not necessarily the leader. Although I've never been a diary/traditional journal writer, I did enjoy blogging while I was at it. So, I'm back to the blogging- this time for me. Granted, I expect the topics and themes to still be focused on weight maintenance/loss- but I'm writing for me this time (and my Aunt K, and anyone else who cares to read-- I'm not kidding myself-- blogging is inherently a public forum). The benefits that I hope to realize include:

• A 'space' to ramble... (err... I mean, 'reflect'...) on my own successes, challenges, and goals in regards to my own weight maintenance. I've always be an "auditory processor" (translation: I think out loud and talking through things helps me form my ideas)- so writing can have the same effect. It just may take me a few pages or posts to make my point. Hey- if I'm doing this for myself, that's a-okay!
• A place to hold onto my thoughts and keep them for future reflection. I am a nostalgic person. There's nothing that I love more than reading old letters that I have in boxes in my basement. I like a reminder of who I was from reading letters, old school papers, and the like. Now most people might not immediately link reading traditional letters (think curled up paper, creased notes from 6th grade, cool handwriting, etc.) with the web-log (blog)- but the way I see it, blogging is a more streamlined way of capturing the memories, and perspective from the past. Traditional letter writing is still something that I enjoy, but that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy electronic communication too! I totally hope that I'm reading this very post years down the line much in the same way I read old letters and notes.

Really, that's it for now- the benefits of blogging are for me this time. Simple and straightforward. I may still 'speak' to an external audience (just b/c I think that's more fun to write sometimes)- but my purpose behind the posts won't be about providing information to others. If there's a secondary benefit of that- great! If not, hopefully the blog will benefit me in the ways that I've outlined.