Interview with Hayley Curtis

I am SO excited to bring you all this interview with the amazing Hayley Curtis from the popular Instagram Account @soulfull.journaling and The Journey Home community. You might remember last month when I featured Hayley’s community in my Things I’m Obsessed With/Love section, and I’m delighed that Hayley agreed to be interviewed for this month’s Augurly Issue.

So without further ado…

One thing I absolutely love about you and the spaces you’re in is that it’s obvious just how important writing is to you. It’s what I strive for in my community and offerings as well. I think that was part of what drew me into your orbit. But I want to know what role has writing played in your life?

I have present day moments where I am so taken aback that a huge part of what I do now is putting pen to paper. Through my school years and even into my early 20’s I really despised writing. It was always my least favourite subject in school, but looking back it was because I always felt like I wasn’t “good” at it. Creating a safe space for myself within the pages of my journal to be able to write, knowing it will never be read by anyone else has definitely been a huge catalyst in building my confidence around writing. I now even see myself as a “writer” which just blows my mind! I still see my gift laying more with the spoken word (hand me a microphone and I’m in heaven), but I love that I’ve also embraced expressing myself through the written word. Words of Affirmation is my primary Love Language so I just adore the art of articulation and putting language to the human experience.

There’s not a lot of people that I can ask this question to and be understood but I have a feeling you will get it as someone who puts a lot of thought and intention behind your journaling promopts — Did you organically develop your journaling prompt style or did you study/learn it another way?

I organically developed my journaling prompt style. The way I write my journaling prompts and other teachings are all based upon the ponderings or questions I’ve asked myself over the years. I see one of my greatest gifts as having the ability to pose questions that peel back the layers of the Soul. I call journaling prompts “portals to other worlds”.

People often find it hard to believe when I say that journaling has given me way more benefits than what people can see on the surface. There’ve been so many unexpected blessings to happen because of it. So what are some unexpected places your journaling have taken you (both personally and professionally?)

Oh gosh, I never expected journaling to play such a massive role in my life. In the pages of my journal I rediscovered my entire identity and worldview which has impacted every single facet of my life. One thing that I remember being surprised about in the beginning phases of journaling was how I was noticing such obvious shifts in all the ways I showed up in the world. Whether it was in my career as a primary school teacher, within my marriage, as a friend, a sister or a daughter… every single part of me began to shift. I also wasn’t expecting that as I started digging into myself that so many of my long held opinions about life would shift. What a wild and incredible ride!

I’ve mentioned it to you privately, but I’m obsessed with the community you’ve created. It feels so fresh and unique compared to most of the communities out there. And trust me, I’ve been a part of A LOT of communities. What led you to create The Journey Home Community?

Thank you so much for your kind words about TJH, I’m so grateful to have you as part of our beautiful community! The initial catalyst for creating The Journey Home was my yearning to go deeper with my community in an affordable way. I absolutely adore my Instagram community, but there is only so deep you can go in an Instagram post, story or reel. I was craving a space where I could share my deeper thoughts, concepts and ideas and truly walk alongside women as they journeyed Home to themselves. Another large contributing factor was to create a space where women didn’t feel alone in their suffering. When I took my deep inward journey Home to myself years ago, it was a very lonely and isolated voyage. While I still made it in the end, I know it would have been so much easier and more enjoyable to have had a community to lean on and connect with in the process. I created The Journey Home for Hayley 8 years ago. And in the process of creating for her I have created for us all.

How would you describe your community and what it offers to someone who has never heard of you before?

I would describe it as an all-inclusive membership that not only has all the tools and resources you need to journey Home to yourself, but also the most phenomenal village of women from all around the globe who you get to walk side-by-side with. It is a place where you get to feel safe, held, loved and acknowledged as you peel back the layers of your Soul to reveal your magnificence and true worth. It is a space where your voice is not only safe to be shared, but also celebrated. A place where you matter and your story matters. Within The Journey Home the women have access to incredible course (which I call Journaling Journeys), a self-love meditation library, a monthly women’s circle (called The Campfire), monthly Masterclasses with phenomenal guest speakers, daily deep dive journaling spreads and so much more.

I’m sure you’ve heard this loads of times but I get pushback about journaling from people who haven’t experienced the magic of what it can do for them. What do you tell people when they say, “oh I’ve tried journaling and it doesn’t work” or “do you mean writing a diary?”

I would ask, “Did you just try brain dumping or did you try transformational journaling?” Because they are 2 very different things. Brain dumping or diary writing is simply putting your thoughts on paper. The style of journaling I teach and personally practice isn’t just about dumping my thoughts, feelings or behaviours on the page, but rather seeking to understand my thoughts, feelings and behaviours. I see my journaling practice like zooming out to observe my life and putting all of the puzzle pieces together. It’s not simply a tool to dump thoughts but rather gain clarity on who I am and walk my path in a soul-aligned way. Your journal can be the most potent tool of self-discovery you ever come across.. you just have to be willing to dig under the surface and allow it to transform you.

I know I get this response a lot from my community, “I don’t feel safe writing things down. I’ve been betrayed or burned before…” How do you promote safety within the journaling context?

To be able to write in a non-censored way and to get the most out of your journaling practice it is very important to feel like your journal is for your eyes and your eyes only. I have put in very clear boundaries with my husband and familly/friends that they are never to read my journals. My husband very much respects my boundaries and I feel safe to even leave my journal out and open on the desk. However, if someone did not feel safe to do so in their own home I would suggest keeping it somewhere private. I’ve even gone as far to declare my dying wishes as being that my journals are burned with me haha! My journals aren’t like the ones you see in the movies where they are passed down to my children when I die. One day I’ll write some type of memoir or book or important revelations from my life to hand down as my legacy. My journals where I work through my deepest, darkest shadows are not that! There are things in my journals that are just for me, and that’s one of the things that makes them so deeply beautiful.

One of my favorite aspects of journaling is the rituals leading up to actually doing it. The making of the beverage. The lighting of a candle. The pulling of an oracle or tarot card. The silent invocation before pen hits paper or fingers hit keyboard. Do you have any rituals that make your journaling practice even more sacred?

We sound very similar in this way! I ADORE pre-journaling rituals and love to create a nourishing space to help me drop into my practice. I always make a mug of ceremonial cacao, light a candle before I write and put on my Journey Home playlist. Depending on how I’m feeling in the moment I sometimes add in an oracle card pull, some deep breathing or a little visualisation.

Because I’m part of your community, I know a few things my readers don’t — like the fact that you are a fan of oracle and tarot cards (yay!). I am constantly encouraging people in my community to leverage the power of the cards to deepen their journaling practice. How have oracle or tarot cards played a part in your journaling practice? Do you find that it adds different layers or perspectives to your writing?

I ADORE oracle cards and love to use them to enrich my inward journey. I believe that oracle cards can be utilized with either a victim mindset or an empowered co-creation mindset and always ensure I use them with the latter. I see an oracle card as a catalyst for further digging. I love to pull a card and then ask myself “How does this relate to me right now?” and that always takes me on such a magical inward journey of self-responsibility!

It’s been my experience that a lot of people want to become journalers, but quickly grow overwhelmed. To be fair, there are so many guided journals out there, so many different entry points into journaling (stream of consciousness, bullet journaling, 5-Min journaling, CBT journaling, etc) that it’s easy to become overwhelmed if you are just starting out. What advice do you have for people who want to begin journaling and create a sustainable practice out of it?

MY number one piece of advice is always to set a small and attainable goal. Don’t over commit yourself. When I first started journaling, I expected the cultivation of a new practice to be difficult and went into knowing very well that some days I wasn’t going to “feel” like journaling, but was committed to showing up nonetheless. To help myself to show up, my commitment was to simply write for 5 minutes and 2 sentences every morning. By setting an attainable goal, it meant that it never felt overwhelming and I was actually able to show up to my pages. What you write isn’t actually the most important aspect of journaling… simply showing up for yourself is. To this day my only commitment to myself is to show up to my pages and write a list of 5 things I’m grateful for each day. Because I show up, I create the space for MAGIC. Some days 5 points of gratitude is all I write, and that’s incredible. But other days I find glorious flow and ignite the most potent and life-changing revelations within me. Revelations that never would have been channeled through had I not created the sacred space for them to flow.

And lastly, because I’m selfishly curious, tell us anything else you want us to know about you or your community?

I would love you to know how deeply I love and adore the Soulfull Journaling and Journey Home communities. This is my Life’s Work that I feel so honoured to be wholeheartedly devoted to. I believe that there is nothing more powerful than a woman who deeply knows, loves and understands herself. First she changes her world  and then she changes the world. Thank you so much for offering me this opportunity to share my voice and my passion.