At the beginning of March, I decided to experiment and create a multisensory tool to keep track of my thoughts, feelings, and sensations as I recorded my activities.

Ideas for Journaling

For years, I would buy an oversized teacher’s planner to use as a written agenda and journal. It was inexpensive and provided room to scribble and jot down notes. This year, I sampled the Passion Planner free PDFs and then purchased my own undated Passion Planner. It provided space for mind maps, drawings, and written notes. The company had a Facebook group and videos on Youtube to help users experiment and create their own solutions.

I color coded my schedule using a system of four or five colors, which symbolized tasks that I enjoyed, those which stretched me to learn, tasks I would prefer to avoid, and those that I had to force myself to do.

Many people use their planner as a scrapbook. Stickers are popular additions.

After looking at the choices, I decided to use a variety of photos that symbolized parts of me that pulled me in a variety of directions. I identified some inner critics, including a guy who did not miss a chance to find fault with me, an angry parent, and girls who criticized me in pairs or small groups. I found an image of a firefighter to symbolize the part of me that pushed me to watch a whole tv series in two days. Looking in my photo collections, I found a few pictures of myself as a child to symbolize parts of me that were in exile. I used a recent picture of myself to symbolize my Wise Self. To facilitate a conversation between my Self and my Defenders, I created a graphic organizer with prompts and room to jot responses.

Several years ago, I took three eight week courses in mindfulness at Insightla.

I continue to practice formally and informally every day. I have a subscription to Stop Breathe Think, which includes a check-in for sensations and feelings. Stop Breathe Think has meditations for kids called Breathe Kids which I use sometimes with young children. For young children who have difficulty self-regulating, Zones of Regulation is an affordable resource for parents and professionals.

I use Evernote on my iPad to keep a dream journal. I love that I can type in bed and when I’m fully awake find my notes saved on the Cloud.

The Innovator’s Compass is a Design Thinking tool that I use for problem-solving, communication, and collaboration. It is particularly useful when we forget what matters and when we need a non-judgmental structure to experiment.

Infographics and structures for journaling

These might be used as prompts or graphic organizers:

Observations

We are now practicing social distancing for over two months. Some of us are overwhelmed and exhausted while we juggle children, home, and work. Some of us are desperately lonely. Many of us have lost our jobs or have failing businesses. No one has any idea how long this will last and what the long term effect will be.

Regardless of your circumstances, why not take a minute or two to notice and document your experiences with awareness, kindness, and compassion?

This post was published on 05/22/2020. It is now the beginning of February 2021. COVID restrictions will probably continue until the Fall of 2021. We did not expect the world to take this long to recover from this scourge. Many loved ones have passed away from COVID, and many have long-term health problems that linger on. On the positive side, many families are closer and medical science is advancing at a rapid pace to bring solutions.

Journaling and mindfulness continue to be valuable tools to survive these difficult times.

It’s not too late to start!