With love,
Alina
]]>It's September... we are nearing the transition from summer to fall. While we're still baking in heat (at least I am here in DC), we can start to look ahead and prepare ourselves for the seasonal transition. As we turn inside, as the weather cools, as the days shorten, we get less sun. Our lives get busier as school starts, or as work picks up following the end of summer vacations. This seasonal transition can affect our mental health (referred to as Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD). We can feel tired, drained, moody, depressed, down, anxious, stressed, irritated, withdrawn, unmotivated. This can affect our sleep, appetite, social interactions, balance, and routines. Here are some ways that we can use self-care journaling to support our mental health as we navigate seasonal blues. Journal to Stay on Top of Your Feelings Seasonal blues can sneak up on us. When we're less in tune with our feelings, we often don't notice we're feeling down or drained or anxious until we feel REALLY down or drained or anxious. At that point, it's harder to take a step back and say, "Oh, this is because of the season." So, even before those blues hit, we can build a routine of journaling our feelings. This self-care journaling practice helps us become more aware of our feelings day to day, moment to moment. This way, we become more aware of how our mood is changing with the seasons, which helps us be more prepared for those down times. Journal to Develop Positive Mental Health Strategies Journaling also helps us gain a deeper understanding of what positive things we can do for our mental health. After we express how we're feeling in our self-care journaling, we can journal to come up with ideas for how we can support ourselves. This helps build our sense of ownership of our mental health journey, even during down times. It's ok if some of what we try doesn't work. Journaling about it helps us continue with the trial, error, and learning. Eventually, we find the ways of thinking and ways of living that nurture our mental health. So, what's next?
Optimize Your Journal for Your Mental Health We know that your mental health journey is personal to you. We are all unique beings in different places in our lives. That's why we created our Custom Wellness Journal, where YOU can actually choose the journaling prompts that go in your journal, so it's customized to you. How it works is, on our website, we provide a menu of prompts based in mental health practices. You choose the prompts that speak to you, and we hand-make your custom journal with your prompts in it. Here are some recommended prompts in our menu of prompts to help you navigate seasonal blues:
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With love,
Alina
Feel it, write it, Zenit
]]>I'm taking a moment to celebrate you. No matter how you're feeling about yourself today, you are worthy of celebrating yourself - your existence, your perseverance, your mind, body, and spirit. As a good friend of mine said, "It takes so much bravery to be alive everyday." That's one line I absolutely jotted down in my custom wellness journal.
Celebration is an important part of our mental health, healing, and wellness. Now, I'm not talking about forced positivity, or "turning that frown upside down," or telling someone who feels depressed "Cheer up, you have so much to be grateful for," or telling someone who's struggling, "You'll be ok - you're so strong." As someone on the receiving of those words, I know they can miss the mark.
I'm talking about using our self care journaling to give ourselves the credit we deserve. I'm talking about coming back to love for ourselves, for the people in our lives, for our communities, for our cultures, for the earth. When we celebrate, we keep our love alive. We keep our hope alive. We give ourselves some relief. We affirm that we matter.
In our capitalist culture, it can feel like, we only get to celebrate ourselves when we win. Or, we only celebrate what we do and achieve.
To that, I say, No.
Even when you feel not enough, you are worthy of celebrating yourself - celebrating all your effort, your courage, your progress, and all the steps you have taken to get here, wherever you are.
And beyond celebrating what you do, you are worthy of celebrating you for you - for ALL of you, quirks, imperfections, and all. "In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect" (Alice Walker). That includes you too.
In our May Mini-Retreats, we'll gather on Zoom, and I'll guide us in using self care journaling to celebrate.
We'll start with a self care journaling round to get out of our heads and celebrate the earth, or someone in your life, or your culture. Then, we'll do some self care journaling to practice celebrating ourselves even when we're not at 100%. Last, we'll do a special self care journaling exercise that is about self-expression as a form of self-love, as a way of celebrating all of who you are, wherever you are, however you are.
I would love to see you there. Come as you are.
With love,
Alina Liao, founder of Zenit
Feel it, write it, Zenit
"Alina, you are not your father.
You are your own person.
You cannot be anyone else but you.
So stop trying to be someone else.
You cannot follow someone else's path.
You cannot mimic someone else's path.
You have to find and create your own path.
This is YOUR path to create."
I realized, "I have to do this my way." With this realization in my self care journaling came an image of blank canvas. That image invited me to exhale, and to release the unfair expectations I've been putting on myself. With that release of expectation came release of the shame.
I'm still working through the negative self-talk, but now, I understand more of where it's coming from. I can reconjure the image of the blank canvass to remind myself to release expectation and be fair to myself.
What about you? What expectations are you holding that might be unfair to you? What are fair, kind expectations for yourself?
Give it a try in your self care journaling. Grab that pen and paper, let your pen flow, let your heart flow. You got this.
With love and kindness,
Alina Liao, founder of Zenit
Feel it, write it, Zenit