Celebrating Yourself

Being able to appreciate and celebrate successes can have a huge positive impact on our sense of worth. Finding ways to celebrate yourself is a big part of that. Here we are going to look at how we celebrate ourselves so we know what options we like and also see if we can identify some new ones.

Please write a list of ways you, or family or friends have celebrated themselves. Include what you liked about that style. These can be big things like throwing a party or small things like pausing to watch a sunset. Partly it is just things you can do to enjoy the moment but we want to remember that celebrating ourself can be about rewarding our hard work or choices that helped us get something we want.

Examples:

-My friend always has coffee in the morning on weekends to celebrate that they are off work.

-After graduation my cousin had a small party with her friends.

-When my aunt finished her craft project she presented it to us all and we clapped and cheered.

-I treated myself to my favorite dinner last week after sticking to my goal of tidying the living room every day for a week straight.

-My kids and I all yelled, "Wohoo!" and danced a little after we finished the dishes.

List examples of how I have celebrated or how I have seen others celebrate something:

Are there any people in your life who are really good at celebrating themselves? Might you want to ask them about it?

Are there any things that are coming up in the near future that I want to celebrate? What way might I choose?

How would you want the celebration to feel? Happy, relaxed, peaceful, loud and boisterous?

Changing our focus

Please go back and read over what you wrote. Notice the positive feelings as they are there. You can keep or get rid of the writing, totally your choice. Now please write a bit about your favorite type of weather. What do you enjoy about it? What parts do you appreciate the most? Does your travel or commute change very much during that weather? How long until you expect to get to enjoy your favorite weather again? Did you always enjoy it or did it change with age?

Remember, the point of changing our focus after the original writing is to shift to something that might feel neutral or easy to focus on. That practice is really good to have so we can do it more in life when things come up that can be stressful.

Things I’m Proud Of

Today we are writing about things you are proud of. These can be things you have achieved in your life, positive things others have said about you, things you like about you or anything that makes you feel good about yourself. Our goal is to have a good list of things that when you think of them you smile or feel happy about you.

Please write as much or as little as you want. Including more detail can sometimes help you remember it better and also enjoy it for longer. It's especially helpful to include things that are related to choices you made to achieve the positive (example, Because I studied for the test our class all got ice cream when I was in 5th grade). I'm including several prompts here in case they help.

Something people told me about myself that I'm proud of:

Something I remember from when I was really young that I'm glad I did that way:

An example of a time I was really kind to someone else that stands out to me:

A thing I changed about my life that brought about positives that I'm proud of:

A time when I helped someone and I'm glad I did:

A great compliment I got once:

An award I'm proud of having gotten:

A time when I'm proud of standing up for something that I believed in:

Changing our focus

Once you are done please read over the things again just to be reminded of them and savor any enjoyment. You can keep this writing or shred or delete it. The point is the activity and the memories, not having to keep it. Then please look around your space and see what you notice that is shiny, what things look fluffy, what items look like they would be cold to the touch. Can you find 10 of each? Our goal here is to have practice at focusing on one topic (the journaling) and then comfortably moving onto another topic (the mindfulness exercise). Take care!

2 - Describing Yourself

Todays prompt is about describing how you see yourself. This can include positive, neutral and uncomfortable views but please remember to include at least some of each.

What are some things you like about yourself?

Are you always able to remember them? Is there a way to remind yourself of them more often?

What things are neutral about you? (Basically things that are possibly common about you and make up a lot of who we are. For example, I like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Pretty neutral but definitely true about me.)

What things about you make you feel uncomfortable or frustrated?

Can you be kind to yourself when you think about them or are you judgmental?

Do you notice when you make progress in areas that used to be frustrating and now you do better at?

-Once you have finished writing about these topics please pause and have a look around your space. Notice the shapes of things. Notice the colors and textures. These things are usually pretty neutral but can still have a calming effect on us. Now write a bit about how it feels to be relaxed and calm (even if you aren’t feeling that right this moment).

1 - Preferred Wording

Going through any type of emotional experience can be very difficult. At times we might get a diagnosis and then people start to use that wording much more often. In our prompt today please write about labels and terms that you have had associated with you and your opinion of them.

Labels you have been given.

Do you agree with them?

Do you feel they are accurate?

Do they change the way you feel about yourself?

Are there other terms you would like people to use when they refer to your experience?

Can you ask them to do that or does that feel impossible?

Have there been times that others did use wording you prefered and how did that feel?

-After you have written as much as you want then please write about something you are grateful for or proud of yourself about. You deserve to shift the focus after thinking about more difficult topics. Take care.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Journaling section of our website. Our interest is to offer journaling prompts for you that allow you to gain insight into your past, where you want your future to go, and things that are sometimes difficult to share with other people.

Please allow yourself a comfortable space to think about the prompt and then write whatever comes to mind. You do not have to share your writing with anyone. If you have someone you consider safe and want to share it with them that is your choice. Reading it to your therapist can also be very helpful. Please remember though that you may have to help the therapist understand how you are feeling about it now since sometimes journaling can bring up emotions that may sound more intense than we feel at a later point.

After you finish with the prompt please spend a bit of time changing the topic and either writing about or thinking about something you are proud of, something that makes you happy or something you are grateful for. This allows you the chance to shift your focus back to your daily life and more ease.

Some people keep their journaling entries and others delete them or shred the paper. You can do whichever you prefer. The goal is for you to have an outlet for your thoughts and then be able to move onto other things after the journaling. If you find yourself getting upset after journaling or have difficulty changing your focus back to your surroundings please consider if it is not a helpful activity right now in life and choose something else that is less uncomfortable. You can always try journaling again at a later point to see if it goes better at that time.

Sending you caring.