If you struggle with your self concept and you find it hard to believe that you are capable and worthy of all of your desires, if Affirmations sound hollow and meaningless to you and you keep crashing out over your 3d, try this exercise:
Grab a pen and a paper and let's get into it.
Take a deep breath, close your eyes for a second and settle into your body. Once you're relaxed and ready, I want you to write down everything you find beautiful about yourself. Small or big, significant or meaningless, jot it all down. It could be about your body, your intelligence, your personality... Maybe it's a beauty mark on your nose or the way your eyes catch the sunlight. Maybe it's your music taste and how you always have the perfect song recommendation for every situation. Maybe it's the way you greet every dog on your way or how you say "pspspsps" to cats when you see them. Your taste in books, your vivid imagination, the poetry you write or the paintings you spend hours on. Your voice, your words, your kindness, your open mindedness.... Anything you can think of, write it down.
Now, flip the page.
Write down every compliment you have ever received. Anything you remember. Maybe your friend told you how great you were at listing, or that you give amazing advice. Perhaps your teachers told you you were incredibly smart or a stranger said you had a stunning smile. Maybe someone complimented your style or your taste or your eyes or your hair or your voice or your laughter or your creativity or your determination or your laid back attitude. Anything and everything.
Flip the page again.
Write down everything you wish were true about you. Everything you want to manifest. Confidence, beauty, creativity, intelligence, wealth, relationships... Write it all down.
Now take a look at the first two pages, then come back to the last one. If everything on those pages were true, why can't this be ? Why is this so different? What makes this list harder to be than the other two? If you can see such beauty in yourself, and other people can see it too, hence the compliments, why can't you embody whatever it is you're manifesting?
It's not hard, you're just resisting it because you don't think you deserve it.
Shadow work prompts to help you understand your inner critic and quiet it:
What would my inner critic say if it were a scared child?
What do I believe would happen if I’m not perfect/don’t complete something perfectly?
What is my inner critic trying to protect me from?
Where did my inner critic learn its language from? Is there anyone else who has spoken to me like this, especially when I was young?
When was the first time I can remember failing at something? What happened? How did others react? How did I feel?
In what other ways can I measure success instead of by outcome? (Some ideas to get you started would be: connection, emotion, presence, etc. This one was hard for me so let me know if you want some more clarification or ideas if it’s hard for you too)
for all those empty journals you may have and don’t know what to do with.
ᯓ★ˎˊ˗ COMMONPLACE JOURNAL — a journal that travels with you wherever you go. it typically contains quotes, writings, research, thoughts, ideas, etc. this journal can help you spark your creativity, record important thoughts, and declutter your mind.
ᯓ★ˎˊ˗ MEDIA JOURNAL — a journal where you can keep track of and record your thoughts on media such as movies, shows, books, etc. this is great for delving more into media analysis and understanding what you consume.
ᯓ★ˎˊ˗ “BEST DAY EVER” JOURNAL — a journal used for writing down things that happen through your daily life that could make it the best day ever. this helps to shift your mindset and make you more receptive to positivity and gratitude.
ᯓ★ˎˊ˗ SHADOW WORK JOURNAL — a journal meant for answering shadow work and reflection prompts. shadow work is said to have many benefits for healing, growth, and self-acceptance.
ᯓ★ˎˊ˗ “ALL ABOUT ME” JOURNAL — a journal dedicated to you. you can keep track of everything and anything about yourself such as your likes and dislikes, fears and aspirations, things people may not know about you, etc. you can also take a variety of personality tests such as the mtbi and enneagram and record your results here. this can strengthen your sense of identity and grow self-love and acceptance.
ᯓ★ˎˊ˗ RESEARCH JOURNAL — a journal for you to delve further into anything that piques your curiosity. you can take notes, answer questions, and even write essays on whatever topic you’d like. this builds your knowledge and helps you explore new topics.
ᯓ★ˎˊ˗ GRATITUDE JOURNAL — a journal where you reflect on three to five things you’re grateful for every day. this helps you become more present and thankful for the things in your daily life and focus more on the positives.
ᯓ★ˎˊ˗ DAILY JOURNAL — otherwise known as a diary. you can use a daily journal to record and reflect on your day-to-day life and important memories. having journals from the years to look back on can be very nostalgic and eye-opening.
ᯓ★ˎˊ˗ “JUNK” JOURNAL — a journal that helps you create artistic pieces using everyday items such as receipts, stickers, labels, and other finds. it can help boost creativity and allows you to make art of keepsakes and memories.
ᯓ★ˎˊ˗ MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL — a journal for you to record your thoughts and experiences with mental health. it can also be used to vent and write out your feelings unabashedly. this can help regulate your emotions, understand patterns and triggers, and is great to have if you have a therapist you can share it with.
ᯓ★ˎˊ˗ EVERYTHING JOURNAL — similar to a commonplace journal, this is a journal that can be used as a collection of anything and everything. some examples are recipes, lists, quotes, thoughts, research, etc. if you tend to save a lot of posts on social media, you can also go through those posts and write down anything that inspired you to save them. this can help keep you organized and clear your mind.
ᯓ★ˎˊ˗ BOOK JOURNAL — a media journal but specifically for books. this journal can help you keep track of the books you have read as well as your ratings and reviews. you can also keep track of the genres, amount of pages, and authors you read. additionally, you can partake in reading challenges such as the alphabet challenge, where you read a books with titles that start with every letter of the alphabet. this adds a creative touch to reading and helps you better understand the books you read.
★ˎˊ˗ “ME IN DIFFERENT UNIVERSES” JOURNAL — this journal focuses more on creative writing. after watching a new movie or show or reading a new book, you can use this journal to write about what you’d be like in its universe. this can help strengthen your imagination and writing as well as better grasp the media you consume.
★ˎˊ˗ DREAM JOURNAL — a journal where you record as much detail of your dreams as you can. this is said to help grow your awareness in your dreams.
★ˎˊ˗ MANIFESTATION JOURNAL — a journal to record all of your manifestations. this helps you to align your mindset with your desires.
★ˎˊ˗ VOCABULARY JOURNAL — a journal where you can keep track of new words you come across in daily life or from media and their definitions. this allows you to grow your vocabulary.
★ˎˊ˗ WRITING JOURNAL — a journal for any form of writing such as poems, short stories, and essays. this is perfect for those who enjoy writing or want to practice their writing skills.
★ˎˊ˗ MUSIC JOURNAL — for those who love music, this journal can be used to record the songs that you enjoy. you can also write about what you think the song or its lyrics mean or how it may relate to you. this is great for analyzing music and understanding yourself more through it.
★ˎˊ˗ COMPLIMENT JOURNAL — a journal for you to write down all of the meaningful compliments you receive. being able to look back on them over time and reread them may help to increase confidence.
give them a variety of exes. give them relationships that shaped who they are but did not last. give them people they tried very hard to love but it didn't work out. give them situationships that taught them things. give them something deep that was real but could not endure. things that hurt. things that ended amicably. people with whom hot passion cooled to warm affection and became undying friendship.
no more first and only. give me the context of what made them know the next or one after was final and right.
y’all want a prompt to journal to? Fill in the parts that have — in ‘em. You can change the way this is organised too btw, no need to keep it all coherent together, that’s why there are dots. Expand as much as you want. Make it as poetic as you want.
“I feel __. In a __ world. I want to __. I am __. I’m here in __. I hear __. I desire/crave __. I taste __. As my mind __. Understand that __. I will __. I can’t __. I won’t __. When I’ll __. Here where __. Singing a melody __. Go __. Just __. Don’t you __. Call me __. Wrap me in __. Allow me __. Make me __. Hear me __. See me __. My soul is __. My heart is __. As my mind __.”
Birthday tradition idea: Fill out a questionnaire about yourself every year like your favourite color, your favourite show, the song that's currently playing in your head, how much a loaf of bread costs, your comfort characters, best achievement, etc.
I've been doing it since I was 8, and next week I'm turning 18. If you're into journaling, it's honestly so worth it <3
