Happy Mindful May to you! In light of my birthday month and my quest to be more mindful, I will be posting every Friday, reflecting on a mindful habit I performed every day that week. Defining mindfulness has always been a tough one. I can explain it best as the idea of staying aware and being in the present moment, giving yourself the peace of not worrying about the past or future. Enjoy my mini-reflections, and make sure to come back each week in May for more!
Week Two: Journaling Every Day
During this week of Mindful May I challenged myself to write in my journal every day. I thought this would be tough for me because normally when I get around to my journaling time in the evenings, the LAST thing I feel like doing is writing out a page of what I’m thinking. Luckily, I found a quick fix. I changed my routine so that one of the first things I did each day once I got home (after changing into comfy clothes of course) was to sit down and write about anything I wanted. Turns out, I had a lot more to say than I thought.
Behold my beautiful bullet journals of past and present!
By journaling each day, I found myself free of any emotional weight that I had been carrying on my shoulders. Anything that ticked me off during the day? Write it down. Anything that’s been on my mind for far too long? Write that down too. One day, I even threw in some affirmations I created for myself. There’s something about writing what I’m feeling on a piece of paper instead of typing it that gives me a sense of leaving whatever I need to say right there on the page. After that, negativity no longer takes up space in my mind, opening myself up for more positive thoughts and feelings to flow in.
Sometimes, I can be unaware of when something is making me tick. Instead, I just feel off balance and don’t always understand why. By writing out my thoughts each day, I’m able to practice getting my emotions out and then observing them instead of investing negative energy into dwelling on them. I learned from the Power of Now, one of the most eye-opening books I’ve read, that a great way of practicing mindfulness is to somewhat detach from your emotions and look at them from an objective perspective. Writing allowed me to take a step back and understand myself through a different lense, without the added layer of strong emotions. I won’t lie, practicing mindfulness in this way can be very tough sometimes, especially when I’m so caught up in what’s bothering me. It has, however, made a huge difference in how I perceive and handle strong emotions.
If you tend to have a lot of thoughts swirling around in your head like me, writing regularly might be the solution to clearing out your mind and giving yourself some space to breathe. This past week of journaling has been nothing shy of wonderful. I almost forgot just how great it could be. Here’s to another week of Mindful May! See y’all later :)
Psst! If you missed Week One of Mindful May, click here to catch up!