12 days of Christmas~ Self LOVE challenge ~ DAY 8

HAPPY 2019!!! It’s a NEW YEAR…and I want to get one thing super straight on this first day of the year.

YOU DO NOT NEED A NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION.

Let me repeat that. You do NOT need a new year’s resolution.

Anyone else feel that deep sigh of relief when I said that?

ithaca, NY, Senior portrait photographer, upstate, Elmira, Horseheads photographer, best

I think its time that we start to reclaim what is necessary and unnecessary in life when it comes to being the best versions of ourselves possible. The reality is that we don’t need a resolution, we need a recollection.

What do I mean by that?

Well today for day 8 of the 12 days of Christmas Self Love Challenge, we’re going to talk about that. RECOLLECTION.

The act of recalling. Retelling. Reframing. ReCognizing.

What I’m getting at here is this beautiful thing called JOURNALING!!!! (insert applause sound)

Yes JOURNALING.

Journaling is today’s challenge, and its going to become your new best friend. Let me tell you why.

ithaca, NY, Senior portrait photographer, upstate, Elmira, Horseheads photographer, best

  1. Journaling can boost your self esteem. Documenting all of your feel good memories is an exceptional way to acknowledge and honor your achievements, and successes. At the same time, it becomes a great place for intentional goal setting, and progress checking. Your self esteem can sky rocket when you’re seeing progress, and the journal becomes the living proof of it. Alternatively, if you’re not making progress, it can show you WHY you’re not making progress and help you adjust your actions accordingly!
  2. BECAUSE “ME TIME” IS CRUCIAL. In a world thats become mainly online, consciously unplugging from the endless newsfeed, and scrolling about OTHER people’s lives is essential for our mental health and well being. Taking the time to do a self check in can increase feelings of contentment and self awareness, thus leading to..yes you guessed it, POSITIVE SELF IMAGE.
  3.  IT HELPS YOU LET GO OF THE PAST. Finding ones’s self is not always an easy task, nor is coming to terms with our actions, or lack thereof. Journaling is an amazingly effective way to help one self reflect. Journaling helps you to get to know yourself more deeply in a safe space where you can clearly see, (and re read) as necessary. This level of self awareness can help you let go of the things in the past that otherwise may have been left unsaid. Sometimes its those unsaid feelings that are preventing you from moving forward into embodying self love. Writing it out, literally will get it OUT of you so you can objectively see things for what they are.

ithaca, NY, Senior portrait photographer, upstate, Elmira, Horseheads photographer, best

Looking for some helpful journal prompts to get you going?

Here are some of my 5 personal favorites:

  1. What went well for you today? What went terribly? How could you improve?
  2. What makes you unique?
  3. What would you do with your time/energy if money was not a barrier?
  4. What makes you happy? What makes you unhappy?
  5. How do you want to be remembered and what do you need to do in order to be remembered for that?

SELF LOVE is about SELF AWARENESS

Journaling might just be your missing link, so write it out…create a private blog online, start a google doc and just start typing, buy one of those fancy journals with incredible prompts, get a blank drawing pad. Whatever your preferred style is. DO IT!!

Create it, Write it, ReCognize, Remember, Reflect. You’re creating your own life story after all, you might as well start writing it out! How does your story begin? How does it end?

Good questions~ I’d love to hear your thoughts.

1 Comment

  1. Chele Jones on January 1, 2019 at 1:32 pm

    Awesome idea! I love journaling ❤️ It’s like therapy for the spirit

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