As women, our emotional and psy- chological health benefit from having meaningful and consistent self-care practices that allow for self-discovery. Self-reflection facilitates personal growth through fostering new in- sights, learning and “aha moments” that can improve our lives and inspire our gifts.
Reflective journaling can help you replenish and serve whole heartedly with the gifts you’ve been given. Journaling is like meditating with a pen in your hand. You show up fully. You slow down. You breathe. You trust. You surrender. You question. You listen deeply. You witness. You let go. You renew.
Where to start with reflective journal writing? Whether you are an avid journal writer, someone who used to journal and got away from it, or have never written in a journal before...
“There is a Spanish proverb which says: there is no road, we make the road as we walk. I would say the same thing about journal writing: we make the path as we write.” Christina Baldwin, Author of Life’s Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest. In other words, just begin. Writing will lead the way. Whatever you write is right!
7 Ways to Enhance your Health, Well-Being & Personal Growth through Reflective Journaling
1. Unwind and relax after a busy day – you can show up to your journal with the intention of relaxing and renewing. Start your journal with this prompt: What do I most need in this moment to relax and renew…
2. Debrief your emotional reactions after challenging or difficult situations you might encounter in your personal and/or professional life. Deepen your self-awareness by noticing your own
reactions, beliefs, attitudes and pat- terns of behaviour. During this difficult situation, I noticed that I felt…
3. Capture stories from your day, from your life that inspire, motivate or move you – write them down. Nourish your mind, body, heart and spirit with words, ideas, poems, images, quota- tions, and affirmations – the journal can be a playground for all of these things.
4. Explore career/life decisions you might be making. Use the following decisional balance tool in your journal to explore your decision: What are the positives of things changing? What are the positives of things staying the same? What are the negatives of things changing? What are the nega- tives of things staying the same? You can put this into a 4-quadrant table and see what insights emerge that can inform the decision you are making.
5. Connect with what is feeling mean- ingful and rewarding to you within your life and work. What is meaningful to me about my life is… What is meaningful to me about my work is… Note: The more connected we are to a sense of meaning and purpose in our work and our lives the less likely we are to burnout.
6. Brainstorm your goals and set
intentions for your health, your work, your relationships, or any other aspect of your daily life. Make a list of all of your goals and then number them in order of priority. What is most impor- tant? Where do you want to put your energy and time?
According to Henriette Anne Klauser, Author of Write It Down, Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want – And Getting It! shows how writing down your goals and intentions is the
aspiremag.net
first step in achieving them.
7. Honour gratitude – list 5 things you are grateful for at the end of each day. What you
focus on grows!
Your journal can be a creative, soulful and nourishing space that supports you in every way. A journal will lovingly hold whatever you choose to embrace within it! I have grown to believe that how we show up on the page is how we show up in our lives. When you can allow more gratitude, joy, curiosity, energy, vitality, hope, patience and whatever else you might want more of in your life - to have consistent residence in your journal - these same virtues can have a deeper presence in your life and work.
Reflective journaling can remind you that you are enough! As one of my favourite authors says, “We have to accept ourselves in order to write. Now none of us does that fully; few of us do it even halfway. Don’t wait for one hundred percent acceptance of yourself before you write, or even eight percent acceptance. Just write. The process of writing is an activity that teaches us about acceptance.” Natalie Goldberg, Author of Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within.
Lynda Monk, MSW, RSW, CPCC is a Writing for Wellness Coach and founder of Creative Wellness (http://cre-
ativewellnessworks.com). Lynda speaks, writes and teaches about the transforma- tional power of writing to enhance health, well-being and personal growth. Receive her FREE ebook A Reflective Journaling Practice: Creative Writing Exercises to Discover and Nourish YOU at http://
www.creativewellnessworks.com/Get- tingStartedGuide
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