It can be uplifting and a source of hope to have a dream vacation in mind. Whether is dreaming of the beach, the mountains, new places, or new experiences keeping these things in mind can add excitement to our lives. Todays prompt is all about reflecting on what a dream vacation looks like for you!
Journal Prompt
What is your dream vacation? What is it about this type of vacation that you enjoy?
Do you plan to go on this vacation? How can you work towards it?
If you went on this dream vacation what activities would you look forward to most?
The beginning of a new year is a great time to reflect! It’s an opportunity to reflect on the year that has past and to make plans for the new year to come. During this journal prompt we will do both of these things! This is going to be a great year!!
Journal Prompt
First we will reflect on our experiences in 2022. Reflection is a time to remember, ponder, and evaluate our experiences. Not all the things that we experienced over the last year were easy or enjoyable. There may have been more lessons or hard times over the last year then moments of laughter and joy. The purpose of this prompt isn’t to judge your experiences, but to simply reflect on how these experiences can help us create the best year in 2023. Consider these questions to help reflect on 2022:
What brought you the most joy in 2022?
What are three lessons from 2022 that you want to bring into the new year?
What goals did you work on during 2022?
Think back to how 2022 started for you and where you were in life…where are you in life now in comparison?
Now that we have reflected on 2022, let’s look ahead to our plans, goals, and hopes for 2023.
What are your top 3 goals that you want to work on in 2023?
What habits are you hoping to break or begin in 2023?
What 2 things are you looking forward to most this year?
Where do you want to be in life a year from now? What action steps can you take this year to accomplish this?
I hope you enjoyed this time of reflection! This is going to be a great year! We got this!
Often as we are living our day to day life we don’t realize how much we are growing and blossoming. Today is all about paying attention and reflecting on how we are growing!
Journal Prompt
What areas of life are you growing?
How are you striving to bloom and grow?
Describe a time lately when you have noticed how much you have grown.
I love journaling and have really enjoyed this prompt! There are three parts to this journal entry and each section can be as short or long as you prefer.
Write one or several things you are grateful for today.
Write whatever is happening in your life today or about whatever is one your mind.
Write three affirmations about yourself or your day.
Wanted to check in with you today to update you about my life and Blooming Resilient!!
So thankful for all the people who have supported me on the journey of starting this blog and who respond to or view the content I create. I am so thankful for you!! This has been the best month for views and likes in the last 6 months!!! 🤩🤩 thank you for all of your support!! Love being on this journey with you!
I will be starting to put more handmade items for sale on the Blooming Resilient Shop! So look out for that! I am also planning to start sending a regular email newsletter so head to the home page and subscribe!!
Evening Yoga
I have been doing an evening yoga series before bed. It has been so helpful to calm my mind and body. The book I’ve been using has short routines for different times of the day. I’ve been doing some of the ‘Restore’ section poses in the evening.
These are my favorite evening poses:
Easy Sitting Pose
Yoga meditation in siddhasana. Om meditation for body relax and spirit harmony. Engraved vector illustration isolated on white background
Legs up the Wall
Reclining Butterfly
Extended Child’s Pose
Relaxing yoga pose. Woman in balasana or extended childs pose. Sketch vector illustration
Time of Decluttering
I recently went to a workshop by Lori Firsdon, who has a business inspiring people to take control of their clutter and life.
I love her way of decluttering and it has been so inspiring. I’ve been decluttering in my home and at work. The part of her philosophy that was so helpful to me was defining the purpose for each room. If there are things in the room that don’t fit the purpose then you can decide to get rid of it, donate it, sell it, or move it to the right room. She also recommends decluttering from top to bottom and left to right. She had so many helpful tips and information that has helped me declutter and try to use my space more effectively. Here is her website if you want more information:
Lately, I have been really focusing on taking out things in my life that are causing extra stress, chaos, or anxiety in my life. Choosing things in my life that brings peace, fits my purpose, and is complimentary to the life I want to have. A few simple ways I am doing this is spending time with people who are like minded, journaling more, saying ‘no’, going to therapy, and doing things I enjoy no matter how small.
What does it look like to be resilient or to grow in resilience? Today we are going to focus in on growing resilience by mastering our sensations and utilizing our nervous system. Our body first experiences everything through our sensations. That is the primary language of our body and directly relates to how we experience stress, trauma, and calmness. Because of this it is very important to build resilience through our body’s natural language of sensations.
When I was first learning about sensations and resilience it was a foreign idea to me. It was strange to tune into my body and notice sensations I felt when stressed, relaxed, or triggered by a past trauma. But taking time to pay attention to our bodies and understand how it is communicating through internal sensations is essential to growing in resilience. For some of us it might be uncomfortable to pay attention to our body because of past traumas. So we have to be patient with ourselves. Healing takes time and is not a linear journey.
BEFRIENDING THE BODY
Trauma victims cannot recover until they become familiar with and befriend the sensations in their bodies. Being frightened means that you live in a body that is always on guard. Angry people live in angry bodies. The bodies of child-abuse victims are tense and defensive until they find a way to relax and feel safe. In order to change, people need to become aware of their sensations and the way that their bodies interact with the world around them. Physical self-awareness is the first step in releasing the tyranny of the past.
In my practice I begin the process by helping my patients to first notice and then describe the feelings in their bodies—not emotions such as anger or anxiety or fear but the physical sensations beneath the emotions: pressure, heat, muscular tension, tingling, caving in, feeling hollow, and so on. I also work on identifying the sensations associated with relaxation or pleasure. I help them become aware of their breath, their gestures and movements.
All too often, however, drugs such as Abilify, Zyprexa, and Seroquel, are prescribed instead of teaching people the skills to deal with such distressing physical reactions. Of course, medications only blunt sensations and do nothing to resolve them or transform them from toxic agents into allies.
The mind needs to be reeducated to feel physical sensations, and the body needs to be helped to tolerate and enjoy the comforts of touch. Individuals who lack emotional awareness are able, with practice, to connect their physical sensations to psychological events. Then they can slowly reconnect with themselves.”
Resilience, Coping with Stress and Crisis. Emotional and Psychological Ability Illustration Sign. Vector Design. by juliabatsheva
The ideal state for us to be in to grow in resilience is the resilient zone. This is a concept founded by Threshold Global Works. Being in this zone is important because it is where we can experience a natural eb and flow of stress and calm. This eb and flow allows us to experience stress but for it not to build up to unhealthy levels. When there is this type of rhythm our body is able to release the stress before it triggers us to be in survival modes.
This is a depiction of the resilient zone. When we are in the resilient zone we are balanced, adaptable, flexible, able to creative problem solve, and to respond instead of react. In this zone we function at our best. This is because we have full access to our brain and logical processing. When we are bumped out of our resilient zone, our brain signals to our body to release stress hormones, which limits our ability to logically process situations.
All of us have different capacities for how much stress we can manage. Author Matthew Bennett, gives a great visual in his books using cups. All of us have different size resilient zones like having different size cups that can hold certain amounts of stress (Bennett, 2017). When our cup is overflowing with stress we are out of our resilient zone.
Set with different types of coffee drinks on white background by New Africa
How can we grow in our resilience or grow the size of our cup? One of the tools to use is attention. Paying attention to how your body responds to stress and relaxation. We can practice this by tracking or noticing the sensations in our body when we are feeling overwhelmed or when we are joyful or in a situation that brings us feelings of peace. Another tool is grounding. When you are feeling stressed or even just as a daily practice it is nice to take a moment and just notice the support of the floor or your chair. Put all of your attention to that support and notice what sensations you feel in your body when you do that. Notice you breath, your muscle tension, and sensations. Consider taking time today or this week to notice the sensations in your body and practice grounding.
Grounding Activity
Social Resilience Model Grounding Script
-Daejanna
References:
Bennett, M. (2017). Connecting Paradigms A Trauma-Informed & Neurological Framework for Motivational Interviewing Implementation. Bennett Innovation Group, L3C.
Blooming Resilient 