Stress and anxiety have the uncanny ability to make thoughts swarm to your head! And when thoughts swarm in your head, anxiety builds even more…until now. A game changing step to stop stress and cure anxiety naturally…
Do you ever have “those moments?” You know: Moments when thoughts or ideas or anxiety wash over you or blindside you seemingly from out of nowhere?
I get those a lot!
Thoughts like:
“I need to pick up the dry cleaning.”
“Call Mary back.”
“I need to add that to my to-do list.”
“What a great idea for my book…”
“Don’t forget to look up information on new healthcare plans…”
“Blog about that topic!”
“Make an appointment for my eyebrow wax.”
“Dear Lord, I pray for….”
Totally random thoughts!
Especially when I am in the shower, in the gym or driving around town.
And often times all these thoughts happen when I am away from my desk and computer.
And when the thoughts come, what do I do?
One of two things:
a.) Become REALLY stressed and overwhelmed, or
b.) Write them down! Get them out on paper.
I have to write them down (lest I forget and continue to allow stress and anxiety build in my head).
The WORST scenario?
When I don’t have paper or a pen to write them down!
When I can’t get my thoughts out of my head, two other things often happen:
a.) I forget about the great epiphany I thought in the first place
b.) I continue to feel completely overwhelmed (“So much to do! So little time!”)
Even if I do have the Notes app pulled up in my iPhone—it is still NOT the same as an old fashioned pen and paper to write things down.
Enter: Breath Journaling
A journaling style I’ve created over the years for getting thoughts out on paper!
Similar to breathing–the journaling exercise really takes no time at all, but in the same breath (no pun intended), it helps you collect your thoughts and bring stillness to the madness.
The methodology is SUPER simple, and helps me keep up with the swarm and randomness of everything going on in that little cabeza (head) of mine.
You have 4 categories in your Daily Breath Journal:
- Daily To-Dos: Top 3 I need to do today (i.e. “At the end of the day, I will feel accomplished if I was able to do these tasks)
- Gratitudes: 3 Cool Things That Happened Today (or I am grateful for)
- Reflections: 3 Cool things I Learned Today
- Prayers: 3 SPECIFIC things I pray for today
I also have space where I can jot down any extra thoughts or bullets that come to my mind, as well as space to remind me of my BIGGER visions and goals in whatever season of life I am in (like my Thrive Center in Austin, Texas at the moment).
Bonus Section:
Vision: The top visions, goals or things most on my mind today (the things I want or feel passionate about wanting in my life right now–these will play a role into your daily “to dos”)
Randomness: Ideas, Notes & Thoughts
I call this “Breath Journaling” because…it helps you just breathe…
Simplify your mind (or clutter in your mind) into the power of 3’s—cutting your daily swarm of thoughts and limiting items in each category to 3 things—allowing you to keep focused on the things that matter most.
If there’s ONE thing I’ve learned over the years it is this:
When I write things down and I keep FOCUSED:
1.) MORE gets done
2.) I feel more at peace
3.) I stay connected to my inner rudder—the captain (my soul) leading my ship.
Over the years, I’ve been inspired by other styles of journals—like Passion Planner (more of a calendar) and Bullet Journaling…
But at the same time, these journals leave things a little too loose for me.
For instance, as simple as “Bullet Journaling” was created to be…I still struggle with the complexities of trying to remember what each type of bullet point means!
Things like:
A single bullet or dot “.” means “task.”
An asterisk “*” means “priority.”
And a semi-colon “;” means “explore.”
Lots of codes to keep up with and overwhelming to me!
And I LOVE Passion Planning…but it doesn’t leave much room to actually just write—or word vomit—all the thoughts swarming in my head.
You have to find what works for YOU, but to me, there is nothing like the power of the pen (and taking a deep breath) to get the overwhelming random clutter out of my head and keep my focus—through and through.