One of the many exiting additions for my group, The Pencil Case, on The Mighty, is Pencil Case Prompts.
The goal of these prompts will be to to think, reflect, contemplate and share.
I will be sharing these prompts here on SparklyWarTanks with a link to the post on The Mighty!
Note: Pencil Case prompts are journaling prompts you can use for personal journaling or to answer in the comments for The Pencil Case Prompts posts. The prompt will always have two follow up question: What and Why to help us turn our thinking caps on!
Prompt 1
One thing that helps me to keep going is to remember random moments where I felt good. Some of those moments are moments where I accomplished/achieveved something and felt proud of myself or recalling my talents and things only I can do the way I do it.
Activity
What is an accomplishment, achievement or talent you are proud of?
What is the accomplishment, achievement, or talent?
Why is it important to you?
Note: There is nothing too big or too small to mention as an accomplishment, achievement, or talent.
Reflection
I know I mention this ALL THE TIME but I’m so proud of myself for 1. starting my brand and 2. expanding my brand to Motivation by SparklyWarTanks.
There was a point in my life where I didn’t think I would be anything or do anything worth mentioning. Being able to continuously work on something helps me in my darkest loneliest moments to remind myself that I CAN do what I SAY I can do.
Join this prompt’s conversation on The Mighty here.
“Because isolation can negatively impact our mental health, influence spirals of negative thoughts, negative self-talk, and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and loneliness; understanding power, control, productivity, and expectations can redefine and reshape how we approach each day. How can we recreate, readjust, and adapt to this new form of living? How can we prioritize our mental health?… Note:Self-care is personal and can change based on our day to day needs. Whatever we find is the best/most helpful way to cope can only be defined by us.”
Meditation and mindfulness are two complementary practices that can help enrich the relationship and connection we have with ourselves. Although different in subtle ways, meditation and mindfulness can teach self-compassion, self-awareness, peace, relaxation and calmness. When used together, meditation and mindfulness can also help to build and maintain a healthy relationship with the mind and body.
Meditationand Mindfulness
Meditation: Meditation is a practice and skill that welcomes calmness, stillness, focus, and concentration. By allowing the mind to focus and concentrate on the present moment, meditation helps to manage problems and consider solutions by developing the skills to navigate thoughts and ideas. With aiding in concentration, meditation also helps with calming internal turmoil and chatter. Meditation is a discipline and like any discipline takes practice and patience.
Mindfulness: Mindfulness is the skill, technique, and process of cultivating non-judgmental awareness of our thoughts, environment, and feelings. While it’s easy to over-analyze and overthink to gain control of our thoughts and feelings, mindfulness teaches us the power of noticing and observing. Without the urge to critique or change how we approach our thoughts, we are able to realize when and why those thoughts occur. To be mindful is to intentionally interact with our mind and body to welcome peace, relaxation, and rest. Like meditation, mindfulness seeks to draw attention to the present moment with awareness and intention.
Active Mindful Meditation Techniques
Note: Active mindful meditation combines the concentration and calmness of meditation with the non-judgemental awareness of mindfulness by accepting, noticing, and living through the sensations and experiences of the present moment.
Mindfulness Breathing
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist in The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation states “breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.” Relying on our breath gives us the choice to return our attention to the present moment. While mindful breathing can be practiced in the crossed-legged position sitting upright as traditional meditation persuades, it can also be done at any time and anywhere, especially when feeling stressed or overwhelmed.
Step 1: Focus your attention on your breathing.
Step 2: Practice a rhythm of breathing that works best for you (either with your eyes opened or closed). Some examples of rhythmic breathing include:
Counting (whether for three, five, or ten seconds) as you inhale slowly, then counting again for the same amount of seconds as you exhale.
Using the 6-3-6 technique by inhaling for six seconds, pausing for three seconds before exhaling, then exhaling for another six seconds.
Simply observing the natural sensation of breathing itself.
Step 3: With each inhalation, focus on the inbreath and observe the sensation, warmth and coolness of breathing in. As you exhale, draw attention to your lungs, expanding diaphragm, and tip of your nose.
Step 4: Notice the thoughts that come up while you are breathing. As the thoughts appear imagine them drifting away with every breath.
Step5: Continue in this rhythm of mindful breathing as long as you feel it necessary.
Mindfulness Eating
Mindfulness eating builds awareness and improves the relationship we have with what foods we consume on a daily basis.
Step 1: Focus your attention on what you are eating. How hungry are you? Can you hold it in your hand? How does it feel? How does it smell? Is your mouth watering? Notice your thoughts as you begin to eat.
Step 2: Notice the food in your mouth, the temperature and texture of the food, and how you are chewing. Observe the sensations in your jaw as you are chewing and swallowing your food.
Note: Mindfulness helps with impulse eating by increasing your awareness to make choices concerning your eating habits. Why are you eating? Are you hungry? When was the last time you had a meal?
Mindfulness Walking
Mindfulness walking focuses awareness on both the body and environment.
Step 1: Choose your favorite place to take a walk whether it be a park, your backyard, a beach, garden or other desired place.
Step 2: Start by standing and evenly distributing your weight on both feet. Observe and feel your body balance on the solid ground. Before starting to walk, mentally scan each part of your body for pain, stress or tension.
Note: Body scanning is a mindfulness technique that allows you to navigate bodily sensations. You can practice body scanning at any time while doing multiple activities. Body scanning is increasing awareness of how your body feels at any given moment.
Step 3: Begin to walk! Notice and become mindful of how you are walking. Take note of how your feet are touching the ground as you walk forward. Slowly move your attention to each part of your body from your feet to your ankles all the way up to your hips. What are the sensations in your feet, ankles, shins, calves, joints, and hips?
Step 4: Notice the air blowing against your skin. What are you thinking? How do you feel?
Note: Active meditation and mindfulness increase your focus and awareness of your body movements and thoughts. There is no need to regulate or change how you would regularly perform these actions; simply notice and observe.
Understanding the Power of Making Mindful Choices
Some find meditation, in its traditional sense of restricted practical consciousness, stillness and focus to be difficult to practice especially when experiencing racing thoughts and stress. By utilizing active meditation techniques, it’s possible to not only incorporate meditation during our every day schedule, but also increase awareness and become mindful of our present self. By understanding our body and needs, we are able to appreciate the power of having and making choices on a moment by moment basis. To have choices reminds us of who we are and what we are capable of.
Reminder: Check out my certifications tab to see all I learned and the link to the mindfulness course I took!
“Self-acceptance is a process with no time limit or expectation. We are always growing, evolving, and learning. Once we’ve reflected and asked ourselves important questions to grow in self-awareness, we can now put our continuous acceptance into practice.”
“Reminder: Remember to be gentle with yourself and the expectations of your goals. Some goals can only be achieved during different seasons of your lifetime and that’s okay. It’s okay to not be able to achieve all you want to achieve when you want to achieve it. It’s also okay to make small goals as well. Take your time with your goals and give yourself time to achieve them. Not everyone’s life will turn out the same and no one has it all together, so no need to compare another person’s accomplishments to yours. Everyone is different and there is no timeline to success.”
Another event in 2 weeks! This one is extra special to me!
Description: SparklyWarTanks and NAMI NYC will be working together to host “All I Can Be is Me” as part of NAMI NYC’s expressive arts creative events! And, guess what?! I’m working with The Mighty for this event too! “All I Can Be is Me” is a creative confidence-building and goal setting event where we will reflect, build community and have fun! As we utilize positive character traits to affirm and manifest within ourselves, we will also set goals and plant a seed of power and motivation to continue to be the amazing people we are.
Details:
Date: February 29th, 2020
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Event Space: NAMI NYC Metro
Address: 505 8th Ave, New York, New York, 10018 Suite 1103
If you’re in New York and would like to attend let me know on the Facebook event page.
“Have you ever wanted to be taller? Or maybe felt less than because your grades weren’t the best in the class? Ever felt yourself changing in ways that weren’t really like you to fit into a crowd? Comparing ourselves to others and stunting our sense of self-worth to be more like the people around us harms our views of who we are. The more we compare and strive to be what we are not, the more we lose what we are and who we want to become.
How do we shift comparing ourselves to others to accepting and growing in self-love?”
“A gratitude list is a list of things, places, people, situations, or traits about ourselves that we are grateful for. Creating a gratitude list helps us to reflect and think through what’s good about our experiences and life overall. Building a habit of gratitude increases our awareness, knowledge, and point of contact when we find ourselves comparing our lives with others.”
A boundary is a limit or rule we set for ourselves to honor our inner and outer well-being. Whether that boundary is to protect ourselves, to reserve energy, resources and money, to stop ourselves from the urge to continuously give or “save” another, or simply to respect our personal goals and self-worth, it’s essential to build and maintain personal boundaries.
Personal boundaries are what separate us from giving too much of ourselves to things, people, and situations that do not serve our growth and progress. While it may appear ideal to be able to do everything and anything without limits, we cannot and should not exhaust ourselves of our personal needs. We are responsible for what we allow. Whether in relationships (familial or romantic), with friends, at work, or anywhere where we are interacting with others, practicing boundaries helps us to be in tune with ourselves and our values.
Something to Remember: We are not perfect and cannot do everything or please everyone at the expense of our mental, physical, or emotional well-being.
How can we, therefore, set boundaries that will help us prioritize our needs?
Self-Awareness and Boundary Setting
Increasing self-awareness is an important step when building and maintaining personal boundaries. The more we know who we are and what we are okay with, the more we can establish and sustain boundaries that serve us best. Understanding the balance between too much, too little, and the right amount of energy and effort can push us in the right direction in creating healthy boundaries.
Here are some questions you can ask yourself that will help you reflect and understand whether you need to set stricter boundaries:
How do I feel?
How would I rather feel?
Should I say no?
Do I have time to spare?
Does this make me feel uncomfortable?
Is this benefiting me?
Am I overexerting myself?
Do I need to do this?
Do I want to do this?
Can I do this?
Do I need time for myself?
What is okay/not okay for me to do/say?
When do I speak up?
Does something need to end?
What can I change?
What do I have control over?
Getting into the habit of asking questions is not only a good idea for self-awareness, but also for increasing confidence. Becoming reflective in understanding what we deserve and in what we will tolerate will also aid in a better understanding of self-worth.
How Boundaries Help Strengthen our Mental Health
Boundaries allow us to build a stronger connection with ourselves. Understanding who we are will help us to become more centered and mindful of what is happening around us and to us. Stern boundaries will also help us to prioritize self-care, become more direct and open as well as vocal about our needs, beliefs and values. Being able to say no and express how we feel will give us the autonomy we need to improve our sense of self-worth. We will feel more comfortable expressing ideas and thoughts without shame, embarrassment, or hesitation.
Healthy boundaries can look like saying no when necessary, balancing self-care with work, cutting ties with toxic people and situations, speaking up without feeling like a burden, putting your needs before anyone else’s unapologetically, accepting that you cannot change or save anyone and not trying to, and giving yourself permission to feel and reflect without the opinion of others.
Affirmations to help Maintain and Sustain Positive Personal Boundaries:
I set standards for myself and will stick to them.
I know who I am and what is good for me.
I understand my personal boundaries.
I honor myself and my boundaries.
I have a right to my feelings.
I can firmly state my boundaries.
I am confident in my ability to set boundaries with others.
I will say no when necessary.
I am safe.
I am in control of my life.
Next Steps and Final Thoughts
As we move into a space of self-acceptance and self-awareness remember to honor your boundaries and give yourself permission to grow and reflect on your needs. Continuously grow in your boundaries in love and compassion for yourself.
SparklyWarTanks 