![]() ![]() Using a journal to work through your thoughts and feelings can help you construct a new self-narrative. ![]() An important task during the grieving process is to figure out what your new life looks like after experiencing loss. Journaling can help with meaning-making during the grief process. Grief is a pretty universal experience, but everyone reacts in their own way to grief. This kind of grief can be the result of losing someone after a long illness, worrying about loss as someone ages, or even after anticipating the kind of loss and destruction that a global pandemic can bring. As a matter of fact, the definition of grief is not only the reaction to loss, but it can also encompass “the conflicting feelings caused by the end of or change in a familiar pattern of behavior.” You can also experience anticipatory grief, which is grief caused by the anticipation of a loss. While most folks are familiar with the grief associated with loss or death, there are many kinds of grief out there - you can grieve after a divorce, career change, loss of a pet, or even after a move, and that’s not a complete list. It’s also important to remember that grief can be a response to all kinds of things, not just losing someone. Grief is something that we all experience from time to time, but it’s a hard thing to talk about. Journaling can be a fantastic, active way to engage with our emotions without letting them overpower us, especially complex emotions like grief that we don’t always have a ton of experience with. It can take whatever form you want it to, whether it’s exploring and releasing the emotions you’re feeling, coming up with ways to cope, or tracking the things that are making you anxious. Your journal, however you decide to keep it, is just a private space for you to write down what you’re feeling. There are also no rules on the actual how of journaling: you can journal by hand, via an app, in a note on your phone, or wherever works for you. You can start a journal that’s specific to your feelings of grief, or you can keep a general journal for all of your thoughts. And I, for one, wholeheartedly trust that process.įorbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders.Journaling can be a very valuable practice, and best of all it’s a pretty cheap way to process your feelings. Reflection is not a singular event, it’s a process. The benefits of reflection then become woven into the ethos of your organization, which is a win for everyone. Newly gained perspective and sharper wisdom can be passed on to your team members, too. Not only do you learn from your mistakes and successes, but it creates the space for fresh ideas to flourish. Gifting yourself the time and space for regular reflection is an express pass to greater self-awareness. What actions can I take to do 2% better next week? What does my business/team need that I’m not giving?ĥ. Notice how your answers change and see where this practice leads you. ![]() You can start by choosing a day of the week to ask yourself the same questions. ![]() Regular reflection practice can help you gain deeper insight into your decisions, past, present and future. I’m also living into the values I believe in when it comes to work-life integration. Rather than blindly accepting some societal definition of “enough,” I now know that I’m doing what’s possible for me. I also need to sleep, recharge and possess enough time and energy to be (really be) with my loved ones. However, there are only so many hours in the day. The conclusion? Of course, I could have sent more emails, had more meetings and recorded more podcast episodes. I wrote down a list of every single thing I had done over the period of a week. For example, lately, I’ve been fighting with myself over one question: Have I done enough? With this guilt-tinged curiosity hanging in the back of my mind, I did a self-check-in to see if this worry had any legs to stand on. Reflection works best for me when I do it on a smaller scale. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |