A topic that came up in the Simplified Happiness group that I run, was journaling with purpose.
There's a lot of people out there that say you need to journal every night.
And I don't know about you, but for me, at one point, I’d pick up my notebook and be like, what the heck am I supposed to write? Today I did this, I felt like, that didn't seem to have a purpose.
Now, I know there's lots of courses and things out there that you can do if you really want to get stuck into it.
But I thought today I would share what I do. And you can see here I do a lot of different types of journaling, depending on my mood and what I feel the topic/experience in my life requires.
I do three types of journaling.
I write from the perspective of me a year in advance.
Now wrapped around that I've done a lot of work around stepping into my future timeline.
For those of you that haven't done any timeline work, basically it's as simple as going. What do I want my life to look like?
You can imagine that, but then I want you to step forward a month, six months, 12 months in advance, and journal like you're reflecting on what's already happened.
And be super grateful for everything that has occurred.
Now I find when I do this, I get inspired ideas, I get a different perspective, because we know as humans, we're always changing.
We're always growing, we're always improving.
It really is inspired journaling for me.
I like to future journal. So at the end of the year, I journaled as from the perspective of December 2020, and I was reflecting got some really great ideas and insights and into where I wanted to go.
I wrote without filtering, whatever came up, I wrote it down.
This is the fun with future journaling.
Don't filter it, don't start saying yourself, oh, that can't happen.
Step into a space of intention and step into a space of possibility.
What could happen if I let whatever come out, right.
So don't filter when your future journal.
What I also do from a future journaling perspective, is I journal like I am a month ahead in 2020 reflecting on the previous month.
You can break it down to the week, you can do it like for the two days gone, whatever works for you.
That's future journaling at a very sort of basic level.
And then there’s reflective journaling.
It's just reflective journaling, just like at the end of your day.
You might be journaling going, how did I feel about today? What results did I create? What didn't I create? Where did I feel I dropped the ball, what could I do differently to get a better outcome? So that's reflective generally. And that's kind of like writing a diary.
I used to keep a diary for about five years, I wrote a diary every day when I was a teenager.
Wow, was I messed up. I looked back on that once and went, wow there was a whole lot of hurt and pain in there.
But it that also was quite interesting.
I can congratulate myself and celebrate how much I've grown.
In doing that reflective journaling note that is it more like just writing out what happened in your day.
Reflective journaling is exploring what happened and how you showed up and just asking yourself one or two questions about how you could do better, what could improve.
And always, always, always remember when you're journaling, to really feel it and celebrate it and experience the joy, and feel good about whatever you're writing, even if you're writing about something that didn't work out, still feel good about it.
Now, I want to share some journal prompts, which is the third way that you can get into your journaling.
I run a course called Embrace and we look at shadow values.
What I created for the ladies in Embrace was journal prompts around each of the shadow value, so they could reflect where they were at when it came to that value, and start looking for ways to move forward and improve.
Now in the journal prompts, I also combined affirmations as well that they could use to support change.
Attention is one of the shadow values, because quite often we feel bad receiving attention.
We want to feel good about that, right? Because when the more attention we comfortable receiving, the more we can share our work, the more we can show up online, the more we can speak our truth with confidence.
And the easier it is for us to step into our purpose. And the easier it is for us to be happy.
Because if you love attention, but you've got shame, or guilt or judgment wrapped around it, you're denying yourself something that you love.
You're denying yourself your happiness. I love attention, right? Look at me.
All right, so some journal prompts for attention.
When was the first time you remembered receiving attention that felt good?
Were you looking for it or did it just happen?
Ehat does this mean for you receiving attention now?
Does receiving bad attention In the past impact how you receive it now?
What belief was formed in this moment, and what can change to allow you to receive attention, so you not only feel safe, but it feels like something you want to cultivate in your daily life.
If you sat down and journaled on that and, pulled it apart, and came up with action steps of like, Okay, so what do I need to do to feel safe about receiving attention? Okay, I know when I got it, and it felt good. I know when I got in it, it felt bad.
But why am I basing all my beliefs on all this past stuff, if it's not supporting me in the present? And what can I do now to feel good about receiving it right so you can reflect and you can get action steps out of it.
Now, some affirmations if you want some affirmations around attention is I can attract all the positive attention that I desire.
It's safe to get attention and it's my attention.
My getting attention helps other people.
So that's the general prompts and affirmations for attention. What's another one?
Let's do Belonging.
Everyone thinks belonging is a good value.
But if you're staying in spaces that keep you small and contracted and don't feel good, belonging is actually not a positive value. It's contracting you and keeping you small.
What is your relationship like with your family? Do you feel a part of it or disconnected? Does this impact how you relate to non family groups?
Now the reason I asked that is because if you don't have a good relationship with your family, and you're in Facebook groups, for example, and you don't feel good about relating to people, how is that impacting that?
Have you transferred those feelings from potentially from childhood into adulthood? adulthood?
What do you need to feel or design in your life to feel safe, to stay in places that you're celebrated and leave places you are not.
Now with a bit more context around what I teach and Embrace that would make a little bit more sense, potentially, but the affirmation for that I, I choose me first, I choose spaces and communities where I am celebrated. I am safe in my own wind surrounded with the right people.
If you're in Facebook groups that don't celebrate you, support you and uplift you, there's no point being in them. But I know sometimes it can be hard to leave because it feels scary going out on your own.
Leave those groups that don't feel you don't feel supported.
I've had asked some market research question in a group and got torn down and absolutely attacked by this lady.
Well, she wanted to tear me down.
I was just like, all right, you've obviously got some stuff around what you're writing.
I just left the group because there was no support. I wasn't celebrated. I wasn't feeling happy. Excited to be there and I wasn't feeling loved.
This is part of your happiness.
Why would you stay where you are not loved and celebrated online? And in friendship circles and groups, you know? So anyway, that's the belonging one.
Let's have a look rebelliousness.
I love working with the rebellious types.
I am a massive rebel, works for me and against me.
If you're a rebel, here's some good journal prompts for you.
Where in the past, have you been punished for rebelling? In the rebelling when you actually making smart choices? Or was the person attempting to protect you? For you to feel comfortable to break the rules again? What do you need to see feel or hear?
What would it mean for your business outcomes if you decided to allow yourself to do something different to normal business rules?
Now, affirmations challenging the status quo allows me my business to find new Pathways Forward. I'm open to new ways of doing things. Life doesn't change unless I'm willing to do new things. Right?
So that's my tips around journaling.
Let me know what you think.
Feel free to share this if your network needs to know a little bit more about Journaling.
And if you want to join my group simplified happiness, just go to Facebook and search simplified happiness. I’d love to have you a part of it.
Here's to amazing journaling, whether it's future journaling, reflective journaling, or you work with the prompts that I've given you.
Let me know how you go.
Journaling can be healing, cathartic, it can feel really good and it can really set your future up and set you on the pathway to really help you align with your purpose and your vision and your mission.
If you want to work with me on values, identity and removing shame and judgement from your life, Alignment is open for enrolments!
Next live round is starting soon! If you're curious, click here to find out more: http://bit.ly/AlignmentGlobalSparkles