Practicing Mindfulness
One of our favorite new practices we picked up in 2020 is mindfulness. It was an especially helpful way for us to feel more present and in control during a really uncertain year. There are a lot of great ways to use your Golden Coil planner to support mindful habits, so we wanted to share some of our favorite tips!
FEATURES TO USE
We created three of our extra pages with mental health in mind. Our Mood Tracker page is an excellent way to get a visual picture of your daily mental health. You’ll be able to spot any patterns or persistent moods that are troubling or need addressing. Plus, it’s a really satisfying page to color! :)
Our Reflections page is also a great resource for mindfulness. It gives you a space to jot down a quote, paste in a photo, or write a prompt. Then you can use the “Application” section to make connections to your life and the “Thoughts” section to write more.
We also love using the Wellness page to keep tabs on our mental health. This helpful page gives you space to track habits and make notes about how you’re feeling. You can also use the extra spaces to keep a record of other self-care items you’d like to be doing daily. We’ve found that prioritizing and tracking mindful habits with this page really helps us stay grounded and balanced.
In addition to these extra pages, you could also add our Self-Care Challenges to your planner! These will show up in your weekly spread and are a fun and helpful way to prioritize self-care.
WAYS TO JOURNAL
Journaling was one of the most effective mindful habits for us last year. When there’s a lot going on, it means there’s a lot for you to process and journaling can be a really helpful way to get those thoughts out instead of feeling overwhelmed by them swirling around your mind. The habit of journaling can also be a bit intimidating, which is why we’ve created a lot of approachable ways to journal in your planner. It’s a habit we really believe in, so we wanted to make the barrier to entry as simple as possible!
If you want to do a simple, weekly journal, there are a lot of great options in our layouts. For example, our Horizontal Half 4 Weekly Layout has a sticky note spot that can also be an excellent space to write some thoughts or paste in a photo. The layout also includes a space to write a gratitude list and an untitled list that can be used for meal planning or jotting down a journal note from each day. If you want more journal space in each weekly spread, a layout like Horizontal Half 3 Weekly can give you a lot of space for a weekly journal entry with a photo. Simply combine the lines from the lists to give yourself a full page for writing.
We also love using the Month-at-a-Glance extra page as a weekly/monthly journal. You just have to write one line a day and then there’s space on the right page for a few more in-depth entries. See our blog post here for more details on this!
And of course, if you want a lot of pages for journaling, you can add blank, lined, or grid pages to your planner to create whatever kind of journal you need. The perks of a custom planner or notebook! :)
SUPPORTING MINDFUL HABITS
There are a few extra ways you can customize your planner to support your mindful habits. Before printing your planner, you could create a custom calendar full of reminders or prompts to help you remember to journal, meditate, exercise, etc. and then upload that calendar to be printed into your planner. (See our tutorial here.)
You can also use one of the habit trackers found in our layouts to keep tabs on meditation, water intake, exercise or other mindful habits you want to improve on. Be sure to schedule these into your weekly layout so that you ensure they happen!
We’ve also found it helpful to use extra space in our planners to jot down helpful reminders or prompts. For example, if you’ve chosen a word to focus on for the year, you could start your week by writing that word at the top margin of your page so that you’re reminded of it each day. You can also do this same thing with an affirmation you want to internalize. You could also use extra space or an untitled list in your layout to jot down a highlight or observation from the day, helping you to be more present and aware.
How do you use your Golden Coil planner to support your mindful practices? Share with us in the comments!