Journalling exercises
Journaling is a powerful tool that fosters clarity and deeper self-understanding. By putting thoughts to paper, you can explore your experiences, leading to greater insight into your emotions, feelings and behaviours. This practice can not only enhance self-awareness but can also aid in nurturing healthier relationships with your internal family of Parts.
Journal exercise for Grief
Here's a journaling exercise to help you navigate grief with compassion::
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1. **Body and Emotion Check-In**: Take a moment to sit quietly. Notice how your body feels and what emotions are present. Simply observe them as they are.
2. **Heart Reflection**: Gently place your hand on your heart. Tune in to the feelings there —notice whether you feel pain, shock, disbelief, sorrow, loss or a simple missing of something or someone. Acknowledge whatever comes up for you.
3. **Acts of Love**: Consider how you can respond to these feelings with kindness. This could be through tender words to yourself, a self-hug, or simply placing your hand on your heart. If these actions feel too difficult, just acknowledge that this is how you're feeling right now and try saying "right now, this belongs".
4. **Identifying Distractions**: Reflect on the ways you may have been acting to block out your grief. Create a list of activities you've engaged in to or distract yourself from the pain, e.g.keeping busy, working excessively, using social media to distract yourself, comfort-eating.
CONTINUE
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Exploring Self-Energy Journal Exercise
Welcome to your "Exploring Self-Energy" journalling exercise. This practice is designed to help you understand what nurtures your spirit and access more self-energy.
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Begin by listing the things that deplete your energy, followed by the people, places, and activities that energize you.
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Reflect on what nourishes your soul and recall a memory when you felt grounded and present—describe that moment and observe how your body feels as you do so.
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Next, jot down three things that help foster self-compassion and connection with yourself, such as good sleep or a nature walk.
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Consider what obstacles prevent you from engaging in these activities,.
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Finally, commit to one self-loving action you can take daily for the next week.
Journal exercise for Mapping Parts
Here's a journalling exercise to help you explore the different Parts of your internal family:
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1. Find a quiet space and take a few deep breaths. Begin by reflecting on the thoughts and feelings you are currently experiencing.
2. Write down one or two thoughts or feelings that feel most dominant, loud or compelling to you.
3. Sit back and read what you have written. Then notice what reaction you have to your written words, whether that is emotional, physical and/or mental.
4. Jot down your observations on a separate part of the page.
5. Sit back again and read these second observations. Then consider both sets of observations as a whole and consider the relationship between them.
6. Finally, notice how you are feeling towards both sets of observations. If you want, you can jot down these third set of observations.
Feel free to revisit this exercise whenever you want to deepen your understanding of your internal family!
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