What Practices Can You Do?
The practices I have performed have been daily positive affirmations (up to 5x week). I kept track of this on a Google Doc. My practices and activities targeted areas of weaknesses for me which helps with self-improvement and growth. I tried aligning my practices with my goals that I had at the beginning of the school year like improving on myself, becoming more creative and being able to control my emotions.
Practices and activities:
- Journaling - write down feelings, thoughts or experiences.
- Gratitude List - write down a list of things you are grateful for.
- Daily positive affirmations - say and write down affirmations. Say affirmations that you feel you need to work on.
- Drawing/coloring with non-dominant hand - color and draw with a non-dominant hand which helps you focus on trying, in the moment and try something new.
- Doodling - draw whatever comes to mind, doesn’t have to be perfect.
- Neurographic art - draw lines freely, with no specific pattern then connect and blend in where the lines meet.
- Painting - paint with a brush, paint on a piece of paper or canvas and be present. Feel the bristles against the paper or canvas and use five senses.
- Doing things outside of your comfort zone - be aware, be present in the moment when you are doing something new. Try something you have never done before and think about how you feel before, during and after.
Experience with positive affirmations
I did daily positive affirmations and wrote them down in my notebook, at least five times a week. Every week I wrote down new affirmations and each day, I would write them down in a different order. In my opinion, I felt like this helped because I was writing and saying the same ones, just out loud in a different order, which helped me accept them. I noticed that at first I didn’t see any difference but started noticing it as I started to practice the affirmations. I would catch myself doing things out of my comfort zone unconsciously and would realize this after. But this didn’t occur until the end. I have been making myself little notes at my office as my reminders to promote growth within myself. Something I wish I could’ve done differently for this was instead of just saying them outloud, instead say it in front of a mirror. I think this could be very helpful. Overall, I think this is an easy practice and comes naturally once it is practiced consistently. This is definitely one of my favorite practices. I did daily positive affirmations and wrote them down in my notebook, at least five times a week. Every week I wrote down new affirmations and each day, I would write them down in a different order. In my opinion, I felt like this helped because I was writing and saying the same ones, just out loud in a different order, which helped me accept them. I noticed that at first I didn’t see any difference but started noticing it as I started to practice the affirmations. I would catch myself doing things out of my comfort zone unconsciously and would realize this after. But this didn’t occur until the end. I have been making myself little notes at my office as my reminders to promote growth within myself. Something I wish I could’ve done differently for this was instead of just saying them outloud, instead say it in front of a mirror. I think this could be very helpful. Overall, I think this is an easy practice and comes naturally once it is practiced consistently. This is definitely one of my favorite practices.
Experience with art
Doing creative practices like art was very fun and definitely helped enhance my artistic side. This was an area that I wanted to improve on and I will say that I feel like I was able to fulfill it by doing the art activities. My least favorite one was the doodling piece since this wasn’t very easy for me to do since doodling has no structure or rules. I tend to thrive off of structure but this did help me do something I normally don’t do. I think this would be best to do when you may feel very emotional, since it can help you release those emotions by drawing random things. I also did try a lego set, which taught me patience (as other practices did too) and I did it all by myself, which I have never done before. I did like this activity and this is recommended for someone to do if they are not very artistic but like following rules. This has a bit of structure but also explores creativity and making mistakes along the way. I would rank this one as second. My first favorite activity was painting. I truly enjoyed it and this is something I did when I was younger, so I connected this with positive memories. I felt relaxed and didn’t even have to play music in the background due to the fact that I connected all my five senses while painting.
Experience with new experiences
I did do a few new things, out of my comfort zone and was mindful when I was doing them. I paid attention to how I felt before, during and after. I noticed how I felt during all these stages and noticed that for almost all of the experience, I was scared and hesitant. During it I felt a bit nervous but felt confident in myself and knew it was confidence showing through because I was able to believe in myself. I knew that I was doing it well and was even able to control my emotions during the experience. Afterwards, I noticed that I was stressing for no reason and realized that I could have done the experience a long time ago, since it was truly not bad. I then self reflected and realized that sometimes I should just go at it and know that it will be okay. I have also learned to realize that mistakes are part of the process and that is how we learn. In addition, converting the bad experiences into good ones in unique ways. This has helped me change my perspective and outlook in life. This would be third place.Experience with gratitude
I have also done a gratitude list, which I have also done a lot outside the project. I really do enjoy this and I think that this is best to do when you may feel down because it will definitely lift your mood up. This has helped me become more appreciative, savor the moment and be present when I am doing experiences that I love. This would rank in the middle (fourth) just because this is such a great practice but it isn’t something I did a lot for this specific project.Experience with journaling
Journaling can really help individuals get their emotions on paper, feeling, and thoughts. This can be done when someone is experiencing high emotions or to just reflect on themselves in the moment. I would say that I would rank this in last place (fifth) since this was mostly helpful when I felt very high emotions or when I wanted to do check-ins.Practice!
These practices do not require much time and many in 30 minutes, with some taking an hour. Setting time during the day to do these activities and practices can be beneficial as it can also teach discipline and leads to consistency. It is important to take time to do practices that foster growth and self-improvement since this is part of self-care.Action Item:
- Be intentional
- Stay consistent
- Keep track of progress (journal)
- Try variety of practices
- Find which practices you enjoy
- Do reflections and check-ins with yourself
- See the progress happening