Journaling is the new therapy? #1

Hey you?

I hope you're on the path of growth, discovery and kindness!

Today, I wanted to talk about something that directly improves the way I decided to look at the world: Journaling.

I've always loved to write pages of my feelings, daydreams and hopes, but I've learnt a few tricks through the years to make this daily activity even better, and I'm here to share them with you today!

First of all, I have approximatively 20 notebooks that all have a different purpose that I use very often, and I'll talk about some of them in this series of posts "Journaling is the new therapy?", so stay with me!

Let's start with the first one: Daily Prompts.

This one takes only a few minutes to fill and it's such an easy (but effective) habit to introduce in your life. 

Here are my prompts, split in 2 categories: Morning and Evening.

MORNING:
These prompts help to set your intentions for the day and will naturally pop up in your mind whenever you meet your expectations. They help staying more present and attentive during the day, on a positive and curious way. They shouldn't take too much time to fill, since you probably have many other things to do before starting your day. Don't set expectations too high, the goal isn't to add pressure on your shoulders.

"What am I looking forward to today?"

"What could make this day great?"

EVENING:

"What was the most memorable moment of the day?"
This one helps scanning the day, with an excitement filter. It's fun and might bring joy to you.

"What am I grateful for?"
It can be literally anything. Don't be shy and don't hesitate to write down multiple responses.  

"Who made me feel good today?"
I personally tend to quickly forget who had a positive impact in my life, since I'm used with having meaningful interactions with people. But I don't think getting used with this precious aspect of one's life is fair. So I decided to bring back attention to this and I'm loving it. I write down the people who send me kind messages, the ones that made me smile in the street, the ones that helped me through their jobs, etc. It is such a pleasure to remember every single one and write them down.

"What act of kindness did I do today?"
I think kindness is necessary for a sustainable society and I want this to be a priority in my daily life. By asking myself this question over and over every single evening, I make sure to give it an important place in my daily decisions. 

What was my best quality today?"
Observing ourselves with love is important for self awareness. We roughly know our strengths and weaknesses, but do we really or do we get stuck into what we used to know about the previous versions of ourselves? Reinvent yourself daily. It's fun and so freeing!

What could have made this day better?"
Self observation, again. This one helps me to analyze my bad habits and catch them more easily. I often write "less screens" and remember it during the day when I'm meaninglessly scrolling social media, so I can decide to take action. 

"If I had one wish today, what would it be?"
Self observation, always. This one is great to go back to after a while. Let your mind have fun with huge wishes. 

"What am I looking forward to?"
Focusing on what's coming next with excitement is so important. It slowly replace anxiety with joy, and you deserve to feel more joy than anxiety!

"What is my progress of the day?"
It is easy but so unfair to forget our daily progresses. If we don't acknowledge and celebrate them, we can easily feel stucked in a version of ourselves we feel we didn't choose. A happy life is built one progress at a time. 

I hope this first Journaling tips helped you! Feel free to let me know if you'll try them, or if you have other fun prompts you love to journal about!!

Have a wonderful day,

Talk to you soon,

Flavie.