One of my favorite ways to ground myself and check-in as well as take care of my mental health is through my journaling practice.
I don’t know about you, but I most definitely had a diary as a kid. I don’t know if was TV or magazines but I always started it as “Dear Diary….” and no one could read it and it was all super secret. It’s funny to look back and think about how far my journaling practice has come, and I do kinda wonder what young me would think about almost 35 year old me still writing down my feelings.
Journaling has a ton of health and mindful benefits:
- Manage anxiety
- help prioritize problems and concerns
- record ideas
- set & achieve goals
- track your progress
- inspire creativity
- boost your mood
- help provide an opportunity for positive self-talk
- identify negative thoughts
Having a journaling practice has really helped me a lot the past few years, it’s been a great opportunity to sometimes write things down before I say them, I’ve also sometimes just turned on a timer and told myself to start writing and not to pick up my pen until the timer goes off…eventually thoughts just start flowing.
Journaling has also helped me cultivate the courage I need to have hard conversations because I wrote them down first, and it also helped me find perspective on things that I wasn’t able to see until I said them to myself.
A big part of my journaling practice that I wanted to share this week is my self weekly check-in. I have one for the end of the week and the end of the month, but I call it the End of Week KPI. Just like you would create your KPI (Key Performance Indicator) for your business, I do it with myself and my head. I like the word progress instead of improvement, because sometimes the thoughts in my head didn't improve from last month, but the fact that I can say that is progress from a long time ago. The thing with KPI's are they can show you how effective you are and they can show you where you are veering off your path. They create the nudge you need to keep going or slow down.
Here are some questions I ask myself at the end of each week and I’ll write them down:
- This week I achieved:
- I am grateful for:
- I took care of myself by:
- Steps I took to help me achieve my goals were:
If you find yourself with an extra 5 minutes, use that time to break out your journal and check-in…you can doom scroll on your phone later.