25 days of hot yoga and thankful thoughts – day seven
today’s class: 60 min of hot vinyasa flow
thankful thought of the day #7 – reflecting through journaling
over the past two years, journaling has become an important part of my daily routine.
it’s been life-changing, actually.
i think what it comes down to is that my brain just thinks differently when i have to organize my thoughts in a way to write them down. it forces me to give certain thoughts and feelings more clarity than if i just let them swirl around with the million other thoughts in my mind.
…does that make sense?
keeping a journal might not be right for everyone, but for me it’s the best way to reflect on what’s going on in my heart and mind. the process can feel a little bit awkward at first, though, so here are my three tips for keeping a journal.
1) keep journals for specific topics. for example, you can have one journal dedicated to a career-related vision, one dedicated to relationships in your life, one dedicated to something you’re trying to overcome, etc. it may seem like overkill to have that many journals, but it can really help with narrowing down what the core priorities in your life are and cultivate growth in those areas.
2) answer your own questions. a lot of the time…well, most of the time…when i sit down to journal i have no idea what to write. so something i started doing almost daily is to write down questions and then answer them myself.
my go-to’s are:
my go-to’s are:
What’s heavy on my heart?
What am I thankful for?
What are my prayer requests today?
What improvements/goals do I currently have…
What improvements/goals do I currently have…
simply answering those questions can really help put things into perspective and change my outlook for the entire day.
3) just WRITE. Anything. Everything. it can look like chicken scratch. it doesn’t matter. the bottom line is to just get your thoughts and feelings down on paper. the point of keeping a journal isn’t for it to become a published work – it’s to improve your mental, emotional, and spiritual life. and that’s going to look different for everyone.
