A Conversation with Sheena Jones, Author of the LovMore Journal

A few months ago, Sheena Jones found herself in a space where she knew she needed to create something, but she didn’t know what. After a conversation with a good girlfriend who, with total confidence in her, simply told her to “write a journal.”  So, she did.

Sheena recently released her first self-published book, the LovMore Journal, a self-reflection guide to “identify your willingness or reluctance to be vulnerable across all areas of your life.” It’s a journey through journaling to develop connection and meaningful relationships.

The Baltimore native, who’s been a news editor for CNN for the past six years, currently resides in New York. She’s always had a big personality and while working as a dolphin announcer in high school at the Baltimore Aquarium, she knew she wanted to work in television. Sheena would go on to earn her bachelor’s degree in Communications from Bowie State University and then work for FOX 45 in Baltimore, behind the scenes as a production assistant and later as a booking producer.

She also loves writing and has written in journals for years. She even wrote a 360-page book of various stories from her life while living in Atlanta, but decided not to publish it (hopefully, she’ll change her mind, Lol). She instead focused on painting and now her published journal.

Sheena designed the journal to serve as an interactive journaling session where she displays vulnerability through personal stories in each section, she then provides prompts for you to journal your stories and reflect.

Dareise: What do you want people to get from their LovMore journal experience?

Sheena: This book is a basic introduction to reflecting on how we love and how we want love.  It’s a way to identify what we’re getting in our friendships and relationships. A way to say those things we don't really communicate with other people, like the difficult things that start the process of forgiveness, the release of some relationships, or that lead to deeper and more meaningful relationships.

The journal goes across different avenues of love. It starts with reflecting on self-love and asks you to examine how you love yourself or damage self-love by making bad decisions. You then look at your relationships with friends, co-workers and romantic relationships. You start identifying who you are as a person by writing down what you think love is and what you don’t like. I think a lot of times were not identifying it, so I did the pre-work and if you take the journey with me, you’ll notice things about yourself that you may have never noticed before. And then, hopefully there will be a second layer, another book, where you’ll be able to take those lessons and turn them into something. No promises [laughs], I don’t know how long that will take.

Dareise: In the introduction to the journal you talk about being vulnerable. What do you think you’ve learned by being vulnerable and putting your personal stories in the journal?               

Sheena: Prior to writing this journal, I spent a lot of time just learning to be vulnerable with my friends, learning to say this hurts, I don’t feel right about this or what does this mean? Am I doing this too much? How am I when I date guys? I’m very self-reflective, so I want their perspective on what I’m doing, who I am showing up as and am I always showing up as my best self? When I'm not my best self, what was it?

Dareise: What do connection and meaningful relationships look and feel like to you?

Sheena: I think I learned that I appreciate when someone sees me. I appreciate when someone thought about me and sent me a gift or picked up the phone and called. I feel most seen when people are recognizing my wins that aren’t “traditional” wins. I didn't have a baby or buy a new house, but I did this really great thing at work, or I broke up with this guy and removed an emotional chapter in my life. I feel seen when my people in my circle notice those things because I think we don't all have a traditional path of what “success” looks like, but we should be celebrated.

Get your copy of Sheena’s LovMore Journal and snag one of her beautiful paintings at www.LovMoreBlog.com (Instagram handle: @lovmoreblog)