Sunday Journal Prompt

“To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.”

– Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese-American artist, poet and author
 

My friend Nancy recently found an old journal in which she’d written, “I’m not sure if I’m afraid of success or if I’m afraid of failure” about her aspiration to become a published author. At the time, she had young children and felt “overwhelmed and disorganized, wanting something sooo badly and not sure of how to achieve it.” She confessed to not knowing whether or not her novel revisions were making it better or worse, and felt “unbearable” pressure in her head.

Flash forward fifteen years: Nancy has published seven books and is hard at work on new material. Journal entries like the one she shared gave her a forum for a conversation with herself—an outlet to reflect and coach herself along her path. Perhaps another journal page gave her the space to convince herself to reach out to an established author who lived nearby, someone who kindly offered guidance and encouraged her to keep going.

What do you want? Let your journal help you reflect on your aspiration and coach yourself toward it.

 

 

Sunday Journal Prompt

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” 

– Aristotle

 

When we repeat a behavior regularly until it has become almost involuntary, we engage in a habit. Good habits keep us moving toward our goals, and bad habits divert us from the life we want to live.

My friend Ashley recently surprised me with a planner that presents the “20-20 Challenge” of committing 20 minutes a day for 20 days in a row to planning each day in advance. I’ve long been a list maker, but this tool allows me space to write only three priority goals per day. And, as I’ve found this week, focusing my energy on three goals boosts the likelihood that I’ll meet them.

 

What three priorities do you want to accomplish tomorrow? Write them down; make them happen.

 

 

Sunday Journal Prompt

“We live well enough to have the luxury to get ourselves sick with purely social, psychological stress.” 

- Robert M. Sapolosky, A Primate’s Memoir: A Neuroscientist’s Unconventional Life Among the Baboons

As Stanford neurology professor Robert Sapolsky explains in Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, most of us do not lie awake at night worrying about whether we have leprosy or malaria. Instead, the diseases that plague us are those brought on by the slow accumulation of damage, such as heart disease and cancer. When we worry or experience stress, our body turns on the same physiological responses that an animal’s does, but we do not resolve conflict by fighting or fleeing in the way that animals do. What’s more, humans—unlike primates Sapolosky studied on the Serengeti—“can get stressed simply with thought, turning on the same stress response as does [a] zebra” when faced with a lion attacker. When that stress response is turned on chronically, “We get sick,” he shares.

The good news is that healthy outlets help us cope and can minimize the effects of daily stress—be that a journal in which to unload ruminating thoughts, a loved one’s shoulder to cry on, an outing with dear friends, an after-work run, or other channels that help us keep stress “in perspective so that we’re not done in by it.” Each Saturday after yoga class, I enjoy green tea and conversation with treasured friends at a local coffee house, an opportunity for us to unload stress, offer support, and help each other keep life’s dramas in perspective.

 

What are some healthy outlets that help you keep everyday stressors in perspective? 

 

 

 

Sunday Journal Prompt

“Please write about the things that you’re feeling and experiencing, and I know it’s going to help in the end.”

– Michael Cain, author of The Pain of PTSD and the Healing Power of Journaling, to his son prior to his nine U.S. Army deployments

Fort Bragg Warrior Transition Battalion coach Michael Cain, who had experienced the healing power of journaling for himself, gave his son a new journal before each of his nine deployments with the 82nd Airborne and Joint Special Operations Command as a way to cope with his experiences and help protect him from PTSD. His son wrote regularly and reported that it helped him immensely. Cain now works with current and past vets, especially Vietnam War veterans.

This week I was blessed with the opportunity to work with veterans at VetsHouse, a grand home on a hill where university student veterans live. Generous donors outfitted the home in luxury: granite countertops, a flat-screen TV, cozy furniture, a fancy gas stove and a handsome, sturdy dining room table. Cain advocates for people to write for thirty to forty minutes at a time, undisturbed, in a place where they feel secure. One of his clients writes while sitting on the floor behind a sofa; others write at a library or coffee shop. Writing about trauma or its symptoms—hypervigilance, barricading (not going outside), insomnia, fatigue—is scary, but a sound, safe environment like this home on a hill can help support the process. 

What’s a safe environment for you to write about trauma, its symptoms or uncertainty?