Consider this prompt: "I'm having a hard time with..."
This prompt always makes me pause. When I read it, my spirit exhales.
With our Custom Wellness Journals, you can choose the prompts that go in your personalized wellness journal, and that prompt is one of the more popular prompts chosen for folks custom wellness journals.
Hmmm... Interesting, right?
But maybe not surprising... I've often felt the pressure to "wear the mask." To deny my struggles and present as "all good" - even to myself! Have you?
But we are all human.
Say it again.
We are all human.
Life is up and down. We all have shit we're going through, or have gone through, or will go through.
We all need that safe space to acknowledge and process what we're having a hard time with.
I've been asked a bunch, "How do you avoid getting stuck in a negative space?"
It might seem counterintuitive at first, but my response is, write it out.
And yes - physically writing down our thoughts with self care journaling is different from thinking them.
I know it can be scary, because of that fear that we'll get stuck in that negative space if we open up that door. What I've found is, writing about what we're having a hard time with allows us to actually process our more difficult thoughts and feelings. When we give those feelings what they are due, we are able to continue moving to the other side.
When we try to avoid those feelings, or when we keep them running in circles in our heads with no outlet - that's when we can get stuck.
As we journal in our custom wellness journals what we're having a hard time with, we learn that it's OK to struggle. We learn that we can struggle and still find a way. We learn that having a hard time doesn't make us weak or less than.
I also like to pair the self care journaling prompt, "I'm having a hard time with..." with a self care journaling prompt that brings us back to our inner wisdom and love, like, "How can I be kind to myself?" or "What serves me?" That guides us in going through a process of processing our difficult feelings and then using our wisdom and love to find a way forward.
You can give it a try for a few minutes... What's something you're having a hard time with? Allow yourself to give your feelings what they are due....
With love,
Alina Liao, founder of Zenit
Feel it, write it, Zenit