Its been a challenging five months since March for sure and one that I have had my own personal ups and downs with (hence the lack of blog posts!). It's just been so busy with home schooling and life in general. I have been journalling before I go to sleep for the past few years as a way of writing my day out and sometimes processing what has been going on. It has also helped me immensely when I started including in my journaling a list of things that I am grateful for or that were positive aspects throughout my day.
There is a recognised link between showing gratitude and positive mental health. The same link can be found between exercising and feeling good about yourself. They are both tactics that I turn to when I am feeling down or challenged by things in my life. Over the lockdown period I have been honing some of the questions that I ask myself daily to create a good blend of gratitude, and recognising that there may have been things that have challenged during the day and allowing space to reflect on those challenges, but also allowing space to create a (if need be retrospective) solution to the challenge.
I have bought a few guided journals over the years and have not found the one that works well for me a as a solution focused and active person. So I decided to pop my thoughts down onto paper and created, re-created and eventually re worded a PDF that worked well for me. It is full of positive affirmations and guided spaces to write down my thoughts. Whilst doing this I was chatting to a few friends about the journal. They encouraged me to publish it, so they could also easily get copies of it. So welcome to the world an amazon KDP published journal.
I am really excited about it, although it is a big change from what I have written before. I think it in a weird way it complements it though. All of my books take you on a journey or adventure in the outdoors. This journal is linking the outdoors (where I like to take most of my exercise) to adventures in my mind and allowing the space to celebrate the good things that happen and be creative with how to tackle any issues that come up. Like luck, the more you practice gratitude the more you find you are able to be grateful for.
If you fancy trying gratitude journaling, I would love it if you keep a look out for my link once I am fully ready to publish. It can be found on my amazon author page linked to through my other books on amazon.
Please note these are affiliate links and I may receive a small commission from amazon (no cost to yourself) if you use these links.
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