Reflect, Write, Grow: The Power of Journaling

Welcome to This Daring Adventure podcast, where we work on bridging the gap between where we are and where we want to be in order to live a bigger and bolder life. In this podcast, we will provide inspiration, tips, and skills you need to make your life the adventure you want it to be. Here's your host, mindset mentor and life coach, Trista Guertin.

Hey everybody, welcome to This Daring Adventure. Thank you so much for joining me. This is episode 57. I wanted to do this episode on my journaling practice. I think I've talked about my journaling previously in an episode and I think it was a part of a larger or a bigger episode. So I wanted to go through here just quickly, but in a bit more detail, my journaling and why it's so important and why I recommend it to all of my clients. And I'm recommending it to you too. I have been journaling for a while and I was trying to think earlier. Like, when did I really pick this up? When did I start this? And I think it's been the past five years. Definitely it's been the past five years when I got into life coaching and discovered coaching and getting coached myself. I'm not quite sure if I was doing much of it before then, maybe a little bit on and off, but certainly not consistently as I have been over the past few years. And I find it one of the most important ways to grow and to learn and to transform my life. Now, of course, I would also include meditation. I would include yoga. I would include tapping. And most importantly, I would include getting coached. But certainly the journaling is right up there. I would say probably. Number two behind coaching, it has that effect. It's that powerful in my life. And so I'm going to give you just an idea of what I journal about, It has different components to it. And then I will tell you a little bit about why I think this is important practice. and this is in no particular order, but I actually, I do have an order. I do usually do each of these in a particular order, and there's no real reason for that, to be honest. It's just become a habit. I do some power thoughts, you can call them mantras, you can call them affirmations if you want, but they are thoughts that I write out and that I practice through the day. I have ones that I use consistently. And then from time to time, I will add new ones if I want to practice them. Most of them have to do with my growth. Some of them have to do with business. Some of them have to do with money. I like these because they resonate with me, so they feel good. And I feel like they are believable, which is really important. If you're going to practice thoughts, you want to practice thoughts that resonate with you, that you connect with, that you find are believable for you because, you just don't want to be ranting, rhyming off these affirmations over and over again if you don't, if they're not believable for you. And you do want to practice them, though, until they do become 100 percent believable. And that you feel them, and that you feel them within yourself, and they feel centered, and strong, and steady. You want to choose something that, is, not rainbows, and daisies, and unicorns, and My life is fantastic, and I'm amazing, and everything's great, and I have It's 10 million, but you want to look at, something that is maybe you have to grow into a little bit, but for the most part resonates is believable. Maybe it's a little bit of a stretch, but you can get there with some practice. And so one of the things, one of the thoughts that has been particularly useful for me is it's safe for me to be seen. And this comes from my work as a coach and some of the social media that I do. I'm on Instagram, and it's scary. Especially at first, to be creating content, to be putting yourself out there, to be posting photos of yourself, to be posting videos, it is really uncomfortable and nerve wracking. And so that's something that I still continue to, work on, obviously, I've been doing this for a few years now, so I'm a lot more comfortable and I don't have to give it as much thought. I think the videos are still a little uncomfortable for me. If you see, I haven't posted a video in several months but that's fine. I will get back to that. I haven't done any Instagram lives or Facebook lives. That certainly is not comfortable to me and I'm not quite sure I want to go there, but I will be doing some webinars this year. So in that way, I do have to work on being seen. I practice the thought, I am creating the results I want. And that's applicable to every area of my life. My health, career, business, whatever it is. I am creating the results that I want. I am allowing with ease. Living in abundance and working with the energy of give and take. And creation, I think, requires a sense of this abundance that I am allowing with ease. That things can flow easily to me. That it doesn't have to be a struggle. There doesn't have to be any resistance. There doesn't have to be any scarcity. It all flows easily. I also practice, I am figuring this out bit by bit. This is helpful when I'm working towards a goal, when I'm trying to create something. It doesn't matter whether it's a course that I'm working on, that it's my business, whether it's my weight, whatever it might be. Just reminding myself, practicing, I am figuring this out bit by bit, and that helps me to not become overwhelmed with everything, and not needing to know the how, not needing to know exactly what to do next, or when things go wrong, or I make a mistake, I can figure this out bit by bit. I also practice, I live in the totality of all possibilities. I picked that up many years ago. And that was from Louise Hay. She's big on, she was big on affirmations. And that's actually where I started with some of this. I like the idea of, living in a totality of all possibilities. Anything is possible and I can create it for myself. So there are many thoughts like that, that I practice. I actually have a list I've picked up from people along the way that I, and some of them I've, morphed into something that, that serves me. That resonates with me. I do share those with my clients. I think they're really important to keep your mind on track and to start working on that belief and you want that belief in order to create the results that you want. The only thing holding me back is just a mental construct it's my brain, The only thing between me and what I want is my brain. And so it's managing that mindset. It's guiding my brain to be thinking intentional thoughts that serve me, and this is how I start my day and practice this and tell it what to focus on. I think that's one of the most important components, telling your brain what you want to focus on, because when you don't do that, it goes off. It takes you into the ditch. It's a mess. And then that's when all the doubt and fear starts to creep in. Power thoughts, mantras, affirmations, whatever you want to call them, very important to practice. Set the tone of the day. Focus your brain. Next, I do a bit of a, an appreciation or gratitude list. It's very short, can be five, ten things. Most of the time, to be honest, they are the same things that I appreciate day after day. My family, my dogs, cats, coffee, weekends, weather, whatever it is, friends My job, my clients, my coaches, just again, reminding myself of the good things in my life and what's really important. What you focus on, you create more of,. it's just, really focusing my brain on some of the good things, some of the things I enjoy during the day and Allowing that, again, a sense of abundance and gratitude. Next is a list of goals. I think writing down your goals is one of the best ways to help you move yourself forward towards them and to create them. I saw a reference. For a study by Dr. Gail Matthews at Dominican University, which found that achievement of your goals is 42% more likely just by writing them down. To be honest, I didn't look at that study yet, and I've heard this from multiple sources and for me, whether it helps me achieve them or not, that would be an interesting by-product, but my primary goal with writing these goals down is to remind myself of them. And it's also an opportunity to be creative and to use my imagination to think about what I want to create in the future for myself. So I vary in terms of the goals that I'm writing down. It could be goals for this week, this month, this quarter, this year, five years, 10 years, lifetime. It really varies. There's no rhyme or reason. Sometimes it's just more fun to do like the goals that I want, for my life. Whether it's like owning a house in Provence or a Porsche or, traveling to a hundred countries or writing a book, just thinking of some of those bigger picture items that I can, imagine, 10 years down the road would be something I would like to accomplish. Otherwise it could be just, this week and I want to do three Instagram posts and I want to do my podcast episode. But it's fun and it keeps me focused and I think it's a really important part of the creative process. Thinking about what I want to create for myself and the results that I want to achieve. Next is a thought download. I got this from my coach recommending a thought download every single day. You can call it a brain dump, take five minutes, write a page. And it's basically a spring cleaning for your mind. Just putting everything down on paper. It could be random, like it could be just whatever's on your mind right now, whatever sort of you're ruminating about, or it could be on a particular subject. Sometimes, there is a certain thing that I want to clean up and focus on. I will write, again, very simple, five minutes, one page, just get those thoughts out on paper. It is a bit of a release. It is a cleaning. It helps you to see what's going on in your mind and whether it's helpful or not. A lot of these thoughts are not serving me, they are going to hold me back, they are going to distract me, they are going to keep me unfocused or in a sort of a negative spiral. Sometimes our thoughts can be very negative and cleaning some of that up, seeing what's there and then deciding on purpose what you want to think instead, going back to those power thoughts. Seeing that what is going on in my mind is not going to help me create my results. So Therefore let's focus on what will She recommends doing it on a daily basis I may not do it on a daily basis But I try to do it as often as possible. Then, for this year, I've added two other components. One of which is including an intention or setting an intention. I think this is important, especially since I, if you caught my last episode, thinking about what I want to create this year, getting to December 2024. And having this sense that how I've changed, how I've transformed myself and my life, setting this intention helps me to focus in one particular area. So let's say this week, my intention is to eat as healthfully as I possibly can. And writing that out every single morning, again, reminds me, keeps me focused on what I'm trying to achieve and in a way holds me accountable. I like the self accountability and, looking at what it is I want to create being very conscious and setting that intention. It's one of the best ways I'm discovering to do that with. It's something that I've just started, so I'm just playing with it, but I do like the way it keeping me very focused. I have constrained myself just picking one intention. it's very interesting to me to pick several intentions. Maybe I will do that down the road, but I think picking one for the week. Or you could do it for the day, it's just a great way to focus and constrain yourself. Next and the sixth and final piece is Celebrating, picking a couple of things just to celebrate what's working really well. I think this fits in nicely with my over arching theme for the year of transformation and growing and learning and Taking that time to remind myself of the progress that I'm making. I'm not creating a gap between me and December, but I am just taking a moment to find that evidence that I am making progress. And this is really important to point out to your brain because otherwise your brain will focus on the gap and it will focus on what's not working or What you're not doing taking a moment to celebrate and this can be for anything whatever you're doing whatever goal you're working towards Whatever you're trying to create Taking a few moments to pick find a few things to celebrate is great evidence for your brain And it's a great way to, to focus it on what you want to create and where you're going. So those are the components of my journaling practice. If you have any others you want to recommend please let me know. My email will be in the show notes. Otherwise, just to reiterate some of the reasons why these. These components are so important and a journaling practice is so helpful overall, it cleans up my brain every single day. Just keeps me focused. I find that when I don't do it, when I don't take that time to focus. My brain goes literally into the gutter. It's just like it just veers off. And the fear and the doubt and the worry start to overtake me. This is really important as I work and build my coaching practice. It's important for whatever goal I set. I find that, your brain does default to the negative. It will go there every single day, regardless. So taking the time to just, steer it back, keep it focused, is important. And I can tell the way I'm thinking if I haven't done my journaling in a few days. It really does make a difference. So I use it to organize my thoughts, gain clarity. Sometimes just, especially with the goal process, writing those out, seeing, what's important to me, what would be be fun, where I want to go, what I want to do. Gaining that clarity is invaluable because if you don't know where you're going, you're never going to get there. I also use it to be intentional with my thinking, as I mentioned, creating those thoughts, practicing power thoughts, being intentional with what you allow your brain to focus on and to think. Is some of your, that's where your power is, that's, that really is one of the best tools that you can use to create the life you want and to become the person that you want to become. It tasks my brain. So when I'm listing my goals, when I'm practicing my thoughts, I am programming my reticular activating system, the RAS. I'm tasking my brain as to what to focus on and what to spend its energy on. if you don't do that for your brain, it will focus on the negative. It will look for problems. It will look for evidence as to what's not working or why I can't do something or what went on in the past. I am tasking it purposefully as to what it should focus on and that is really important. My journaling practice is a good way to track progress. Some of the points that I'm including in my celebration obviously would help to track progress. Maybe that's something that I can add. It's actually quite an interesting idea, tracking your progress, celebrating your wins, creating that evidence for yourself, for your brain, that it is working. Again, a great way to motivate yourself and keep yourself going. It's an excellent time for self reflection and self discovery. It's an opportunity for me to gain a deeper understanding of who I am and what I want. It doesn't require a lot of time, but that introspection is really valuable and it really does help to generate that creativity, that positivity, and that focus that I need to move myself forward. It helps with emotional regulation. Seeing some of this, like doing the thought download. It really helps to release sometimes and process some of the bigger emotions that I may be experiencing. And by sitting and taking that time to journal, it allows me to focus on, what I'm feeling. And actually, now that I think about it, I used to. You know how I wanted to feel so I could intentionally generate those feelings and I haven't done that in a while So there you go. That's an interesting component there, thinking about Exactly how you want to feel during the day. it could be determined. It could be focused. It could be motivated. It could be clear. It could be generous, could be kind, could be patient, could be calm. Calm is a big one for me. just listing those out and focusing again, generating that emotion for yourself could be really important. So this is a great way, as I said Allow yourself to emotionally regulate and to process your emotions because your emotions are what's going to drive your actions. getting in touch with those, processing some of the bigger emotions that, that maybe, distracting you, you're ruminating on could be really helpful. And then finally, with the gratitude or the appreciation list, it's a great way to create abundance and to help yourself move out of that scarcity. Which could be common when you are trying to create a goal or to create more money or to create Anything more in your life just to really focus on the things that are working and the things that you do love and where things are going well for your brain, again goes back to that evidence, but it's all part and parcel of that. Focusing your brain, it's all really important. And it creates that space, that feeling of space in you that this is working and that all is well and there is possibility and abundance will flow. Whenever you're creating something, you don't want to be in that scarcity, needy, grabby sort of space. Because that sort of desperation, that sense that things aren't working, that you need more, that there's a problem, is not the space that you want to create anything from, let alone your future or yourself. So that's my practice and that's why it's important. I do highly recommend that you try it out for yourself. Can be some of those components, not all of them. Can be, whatever you want. It's your practice, so you can make it anything. And start with one, and then you can add on as you go. If you so want, and you may pick up other ideas along the way, certainly these are all things that I've picked up from other people and from my mentors and my coaches. So there's a lot of really great ideas out there. And as I said, if you have any yourself, please let me know. thank you so much for joining me. If you're interested in trying a private coaching session for yourself, I will include the link in the show notes. I offer free private 45 minute coaching sessions. It's a great opportunity for you to bring any issue, any problem that you wish. Let's talk about it. Let's see what's going on for you. and you can get coached on it. And I will tell you a little bit about my three month coaching program. Coaching is a great way to solve problems, to help you feel better, to think better and to live better. So I look forward to meeting you in those sessions. Thanks everybody. Have a great week. Take care. Bye bye.

Thank you for listening to this daring adventure podcast with your host Trista Guertin. We hope you enjoyed the tips and conversations on how to get excited about life again. As always, you can head to tristaguertin.com for additional resources and to book a one on one coaching session. You can also follow Trista on Instagram at tristavguertin. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple podcasts. Thanks again for tuning in and we'll see you next time.