Journalling – Aylssa Temple

Biographical Contents Page: Reflections of Your Life

I opened one of my uni notebooks yesterday and chuckled loudly. In November last year, a couple of months into my doctoral program, I had come across a narrative exercise which asks you to think about your life in terms of chapters and what they would be called. I found it quite a fun thing to do, and it helps you narrate your life on your terms. You could do it for any big events in your life – parenting, relationships, studying, career changes or even just naming the year you’ve had. In particular, this exercise was looking at jobs – this is what I wrote:

Age	Job	Chapter Title
16	Pub DJ (it was the 90s…)	Play David Essex for me…
17	Telesales	Hidin’ in the Booth
18-20	Customer Service Operator	The Toilet Button and Other Tales of Woe
21 – 24	Detached Youth Worker	Wandering the Streets
22 – 26	Drop-in Worker	Condoms, Chlamydia & Conservative Christians
27-30	Charity Management	I really like Spreadsheets, no really I do
30 – 31	Charity Management	Life on a Dot in the Middle of the Ocean
31 – 32	Sexual health outreach worker	Trundling with the Trolley
33 – 42	International School Counsellor	Repeat after me: Thoughts are not Facts!
42 – 44	Business Owner	Stop trying to kill me, Thailand…

I had to chuckle after the last one. I had no idea that this year I would survive ovarian cancer while still here in Thailand. Maybe I jinxed myself by calling this chapter that!

Do you think this could be an interesting exercise for you to do? Let me know how it goes, and I wish you call a lovely 2015.

Self Care Planning

20200215_101258_0000

The idea that we need to care for ourselves is not new but many of us still neglect it. Why? I think it’s because when times are good, like our physical health, we don’t take much notice of our mental and emotional health. We just potter on.

On the flipside some of us roll our eyes at the idea of self care while actually practising it. Self Care doesn’t have to mean sitting meditating every day, for example it doesn’t do it for me, but exercise where I can immersed in the moment does. For some spiritual self care will be about prayer, for others walking in the woods with their dogs will rejuvenate their spirit.

It also depends on how you are doing overall. If your emotional weather is generally sunny at the moment, self care is putting routines in place that can help you when your storms come. If you’re in the midst of a mental health crisis your self care routine may be as simple as focusing on ensuring you have eaten & had a shower. Something which isn’t as simple as it sounds when you are not doing okay.

Your support system is also really important to acknowledge – who can you turn to if the going gets tough, or to have fun with this week? Your support system doesn’t have to be IRL it could be friends online, helpline numbers or support services. There is always support out there, no matter how alone you feel.

So choose to take some small steps today to invest in your emotional wellbeing – it would be great to hear how you look after yourself in the comments!

Sentence Starters are…

…great for getting people talking.

I bought these coloured lolly pop sticks a little while ago & finally got around to writing on them today. Each stick has the start of a sentence on it which the young people can finish.

Ideally they shouldn’t think too hard about what they answer. A way to do this could be to give them a sheet of paper & ask them to write down the first thing that comes into their head.

You could do a similar thing if you are into journaling and want random topics to write about. You could write things like – love, politics, family, religion, hope, tragedy, fulfilment etc on them and pull them out at random. You could colour coordinate them as well, so the yellow ones could be internal emotions say, the orange could be about relationships, blue about the world, green about self etc. The questions or topics you devise will depend on who is going to use them and for what purpose.

Mine will be used in counselling with young people so explore a range of emotions, wishes and coping strategies. What will you use yours for?