The Best Journaling Exercises
Self care can be one of the most challenging routines to build. Many people soon realize that there are so many things to choose from, and that you actually have to maintain them. In your daily life, how much free-time can you truly dedicate to self care? The average person can’t commit to such a task, which is why I curated the easiest, best and most productive journaling exercises to help people that need a booster in self care. Whether you are new to this community, or have been a part of it for many years, anyone can benefit off of these exercises.
- The Brain Dump
This might sound odd, but it works. Draw six large circles on a sheet of paper. Label each one a different category of thoughts and emotions. e.g; sadness, anger, fear, unmotivated, laziness. For ten minutes, write down everything you think of when you address the prompts, and spend an extra ten afterwards reflecting. Soon, you’ll have a plan on how to tackle the world.
2. The Pentasense
Silly name, serious results. Draw five boxes. Label each one a different sense—touch, taste, scent, image and sounds. Turn off all background noise and sit yourself in the center of your room. Close your eyes and observe how each sense is affecting you. Can you hear the air conditioner whirring? Can you feel the carpet slide between your toes? Take five minutes, then write everything down. This will help ground you during anxiety attacks, and help you become more mindful. This is perfect for kids and adults alike.
3. Positively Positive Interactions
Just like the name suggests. Close your eyes and think about all the people you interacted with that day. Even your cashier at the grocery store. Write the person’s name down on the left side of the paper, and yours on the right. Now, draw an arrow pointing to the left, in between both the names, and an arrow pointing to the right, directly below that. Now, above the pair of arrows, write down how that person positively affected you. Below the pair of arrows, write down how you positively affected that person. Repeat for each human you talked to that day. If you can’t think of anything, write down how you plan to make their day next time.
4. Golden Goals
Make your shiny, precious goals reality. Write down five of your values in life. At the beginning of each week, come up with 5 goals that align with them, that are also manageable. e.g; living a healthy life — limit to one sweet treat a day. On Sunday, before writing your new goals, check to see which ones you’ve accomplished. Draw a golden yellow circle around all the ones that you have done. This gives you a great visual on which values you need to work on integrating into your life. You can even carry on previous goals to the next week, if they weren’t completed.
Seriously. These exercises were made to make your life better. Take advantage of such a simple task and start integrating mindfulness into your life! All you need is some paper and a pen!