Journaling helps us to clear our minds in order to focus on what’s ahead of us. Think of your mind as an Etch-a-Sketch and as journaling as your hands shaking off the past, in order to be awake in the present.
Etch-A-Sketch Journaling
Therapists & Rockstars Get Stressed Too
Everyone gets stressed. Even rockstars, yogis, coaches and therapists (loving seeing therapists and rockstars in the same sentence). So grateful for celebrities like, Megan Thee Stallion for spotlighting mental health (see Bad Bitches Have Bad Days Too) and showing us that even the most together people one can imagine, can still have bad days. Anxiety, sadness, worry, insecurities…These feelings flare up for all of us and can steer us into a pit of gloom. My surefire way of steering clear, or shoveling myself out, is to write in my journal. I start with the truth as I know it, and then begin my inquiry. For example try this in your journal…
Breathe & Journal: Easy, Effective Meditation Moments
Meditation doesn’t have to be something formal, with rules and rights and wrongs. Give yourself the gift of the present, but just taking time to reside fully in the present. Giving yourself an opportunity to bring your attention to Now, helps energize and ground you. This is a great place to start a Journaling session. Ground yourself with these few deep breaths and this body awareness and answer the following,
Good News about S.A.D
Journal Prompts for Presence
Ruminating on the past, or worrying about a future that has yet to come, can keep us from being fully present with all of our energy and self love intact. Instead our attention and energy flow into experiences that have already passed and cannot be changed, or into prognosticating a future crafted by our worries.
Writing about our thoughts and feelings, plucks this anxious energy from the ether, forming it into a language we can comprehend. Labeling and defining the static of our buzzy inattention, allows us to ground ourselves in the now, harnessing our energy to fully experience the wonder of the present.
Three ways to improve your mental health right now
Life is hard enough, why do we have to be so hard on ourselves? If we’re generally pretty good at being kind to, and having compassionate for, others, what’s the deal with that mean inner monologue?
Scientists believe that one reason is due to our “negativity bias”, wherein we evolved to be constantly scanning our environment for danger, training us to orient to what is, or potentially will, go wrong. Retraining something at integral as evolutionary hardwiring is not easy.
To that end, it’s helpful to have a bunch of self-healing tools at the ready. Here are three tools that may come in handy.
Journaling T.I.P. for mindfulness & self-compassion
5 Ways to Use Your Journal Right Now
Want to get started writing in your journal? Here are 5 simple, yet effective methods you can try right away.
Learning by failure: life on the edge of the comfort zone
I’ve always learned by failing, like getting lost in a new neighborhood, in order to find my way around (pre-Google maps!). But, this can come at a cost to my self-esteem, as I’m constantly in what Brene Brown calls “Fu*king First Times”.
To get me through the feelings of being a stranger in a foreign land, I’ve had to focus as much as possible of my WHY. Why did I want to make this course/book? How do I wish to change the world/give back to my community? Focusing on my why (mostly) gets me through the rusty machinations of the unknown.
My WHY : Creating and delivering inexpensive and accessible mental health tools to as many people as possible so they can take charge of their own healing.
