To think or feel positive is not easy, especially if things are not going your way. But one has to keep going, work our way towards feeling better and, learn to deal with problems and hassles. There are things we can do to help us maintain the clarity of our mind and a positive outlook in life, despite all the trouble.
There are practices and things one can do to stay positive, live with joy, and keep in check all the negative emotions. Some things are easy, like getting good sleep, helping in the community, do some activities like shop, browse Facebook, or watch the news. You can take some classes and be a yogi. Doing things will make us feel better about ourselves.
One can try other things and break the daily routine, like practicing meditation. Practicing meditation allows us to have feelings of self-awareness. It frees us of thoughts that are bothering us, allowing us to stick to positives.
Even better is to practice activities that are proven to promote and deepen self-awareness, help us be mindful of ourselves, and teach us to further cultivate positivity. Things that will make us in creating anew the self to escape the grip of negativity, and continue to enjoy life as it is. One such kind of activity is writing journals.
Contents
What is the difference between a diary and a journal?
What is a journal, and how does it differ from a diary? A diary is simply a narration of events, what you do during a particular time. A journal, on the other hand, is methodical writing of things and ideas, chronological, but not necessarily so. A journal allows for more reflection and more mindful of events and things.
To illustrate by way of example, think of a particular event on a day or a month, reading books for instance. A diary entry will probably include the date of days, as well as the title of the book and its author. A journal, on the other hand, will include other entries and more extensive information. It may include things you discovered and learned, or even their impact on your life.
A journal, as we discover, is more mindful of things. To jot an idea on a paper, and to put words and sentences in a journal is, really meditative. It requires a thoughtful understanding of experience which reflection deepens.
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How Do You Start A Self-Love Journal?
An example of a journal is a self-love journal. A self-love journal contains the essential idea about journals. to write a self-love journal is a great way in expressing thoughts. It is also a great way in practicing for far, more serious types of journals such as mindfulness journaling.
It is easy and the themes are simple in a self-love journal. One must write “prompts”, different questions or themes that you have to answer. In a self-love journal, these themes can be divided into the following.
Description
One can start describing oneself, the appearance, the personality. One can make a list of positive attributes, weaknesses, desires, or even fears. All in all, it is a discussion of what is your idea about yourself.
It can answer questions like ‘how do I look?”, ‘what do I like about myself?”, your greatest strengths, and the like.
The Idea of Self
Prompts about this theme are about how you see or perceive yourself. It talks about the attributes that you think you are known for. It talks about those qualities that make you lovable or endeared.
Prompts under this theme include questions such as “how will your friends describe you?”, what is the thing that they like most about you?”, what is the thing that your family loves most about you?”, and the like.
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Habits and Goals
These two themes contain prompts about what you usually do or plan to do., what activities you love. It also discusses one’s goals and everything one needs and wants to accomplish. A list of to-do things as well as hopes and dreams.
Events
Prompts about this theme usually discuss important things that happened in your life and their impact on you. It also talks about things you are truly, and, really grateful for having or happening. It also talks about things that one has already accomplished as well as future things and happenings.
In summary, a self-love journal is a journal to discover yourself. By being mindful of things and events, it can deepen one’s understanding of the self. Another form of journaling is mindfulness journaling.
What is Mindfulness Journaling?
“Mindfulness”, as described by American professor Jon Kabat-Zinn, is the thoughtful “paying attention” to the present moment and its continuing unfolding. It is then the awareness of what is happening to the world and surroundings, and how it is related to the self.
Mindfulness journaling is about that very self, that is mindful about the world and its surroundings. Mindfulness journaling then is about creating the necessary self-awareness to deepen our reflection about the self, world, and its surroundings.
Since mindfulness journaling is all about increased awareness, it will help you in organizing your thoughts. It will help you focus and concentrate on a theme that you want to discuss or elaborate on. Doing mindfulness journaling is helpful in practicing your concentration and attention to detail.
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Is Journaling a Form of Mindfulness
Journaling itself is already a form of mindfulness. As mentioned before, to write a journal is to be already mindful of things, the world, and its surroundings. But aside from being mindful, journaling itself already contains the aspect of mindfulness as described by Professor Kabat-Zinn.
Journaling requires reflection, the proper ordering of thoughts, keeping tabs of events, having a to-do list, thinking about useful questions. As such, journaling itself is mindfulness in practice. The very act itself promotes that kind of self-awareness about the present, about the moments, the world, and its surroundings.
Elaborating further, journaling increases your focus and attention to detail. It makes you aware of things that have gone unnoticed. The act of journaling itself will deepen your understanding of the ways of the world as well as of other things.
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How do you do Mindfulness Journaling?
Self-Awareness is a precondition for mindfulness journaling, as well as awareness of the world and its surroundings. One can also take a cue from a self-love journal in doing mindfulness journaling. The prompts however are of different emphasis. Here is an example, a four-step way of doing mindfulness journaling.
Write Your Thoughts
Write anything down. Any idea, or themes that are worth thinking, reflecting on, elaborating. Anything that can deepen your understanding and awareness of yourself, the world, and its surroundings, and put it on writing.
Think Those Thoughts
Keep those thoughts on your mind. Track the date to always have awareness of the context surrounding those themes or ideas. It will allow you to have a reflection, whether your view about those things, themes, or ideas changed as time goes by. Write them down.
Think Deeply Those Thoughts
Have a deep reflection and awareness about those thoughts that you have written down. In this way, you can stay focused, aware, mindful. Try to ask questions about those things, themes, or ideas. Questions like “why” will help you have a better understanding of yourself, and will deepen your reflection upon the things, events, the world, and its surroundings.
Write Your Feelings About Those Thoughts
After having a deep reflection, be honest and tell yourself how and what do you feel about those things. Write as to how it affects and impacts your living, understanding, and dealing with the world. You can also tell yourself about the things that you learn and discover while doing the whole process of mindfulness journaling.
This is but one example of doing mindfulness journaling. There other ways to do it. But one can always do it the easy, convenient way.
How Do You Use Bullet Journals?
It can still be broken down by making it a bullet journal. In the bullet journal, you have a “things to do list” or some tasks, indicated by dots, events indicated by circles, and notes indicate by a dash. It is an easy, step-by-step guide to doing something, whether in journals or anything else.
It is a different way but helpful one of doing mindfulness journaling. A bullet journal allows you to stay focused on the things that were mentioned already in the discussion of self-love journals and mindfulness journaling. Since everything is detailed and elaborated with great clarity, one can easily accomplish the task.
It allows you to clear your mind of cobwebs and declutter it. It gives you clarity of thought by having more attention, being concentrated, and more detailed.
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Do Bullet Journals Help with Anxiety?
Writing itself is a meditative activity. Bullet journals are great tools that make you focus on things, themes, or ideas, allowing for greater emphasis in dealing with them. It allows for better concentration, more attention to things, allowing for better creativity in dealing with them.
Bullet Journals can help in dealing with anxiety because it gives you a meditative way of dealing positively with problems and issues. Writing thoughts down allows you to be confident. It will teach you to be more aware of yourself as well as your surroundings. It could also unleash your creativity, proven to help deal with anxiety.
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References
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