Bookend your day with a daily practice of slowing down and taking stock, and discover the benefits, urges Jackee Holder
The fast pace of the working day, accompanied by speed and haste to get things done, doesn’t leave much space for slowing down in the week. I’ve always been a morning person, and the morning is when I do most of my journalling. Having curated in excess of 100 journals – and more than 10,000 hours (and counting) spent on the page – you could say I am an addicted morning journal writer. Almost every entry in my 100 and more journals has been deposited at the start of the day.
This month, I want to leave you with two very simple journalling practices that can be carried out in the morning and in the evening, which introduces a daily practice of slowing down, and is the best alternative I know to scrolling on social media. That’s what I love about journalling: its immediacy, its flexibility, and the fact that it is inexpensive yet carries a range of health and psychological benefits. Here’s a quick reminder of some of those benefits: when participants wrote about a traumatic event for 15–20 minutes over four to five consecutive days, there were physical and psychological improvements. This included an improved immune system, less visits to the doctor, better sleep, decreased rumination, and a more optimistic outlook. A study by Cambridge University found that journalling helps improve wellbeing after traumatic and stressful events.
This practice is to ask yourself a set of questions for five minutes in the morning and then a second set of questions for five minutes or more in the evening. Morning journalling has been shown to help set you up for the day, to clarify your thinking, and encourage you to enter your day with a more level head. Repeating the same questions for the week allows your thinking to deepen over time. An old African proverb reminds us that repetition is the mother skill – when applied on a regular basis, repetition inches us forward. Repeatedly asking yourself the same question gets you closer to the heart of your answer.
It’s really simple. You’ll need a minimum of at least five minutes every morning. Choose a prompt or two to work with from this list of morning cues created by high performance coach Brendon Burchard:
●One thing I can get excited about today is…
● I’ll complete this day proud of my efforts if I make sure I…
● A situation that might stress me out today is…
●The most important thing I should be doing
