Through this infertility journey I have learned how important the connection between the mind, body and spirit actually is. Taking the time to honour your emotions good or bad is so important for your overall health. The mind is a really powerful thing and no matter what, the feelings and thoughts we have will come to be.
When I tried my last frozen transfer I recall my nurse telling me to get a hobby or something to focus my energy on. A light went off and I remembered how much I loved journals and thought it would be a great way to log my adventures with my son but also a great way to work out my feelings through another embryo transfer. One sleepless night I came across bullet journal and took a dive right into the sea of websites and youtube videos. It was great and an amazing tool until my last loss. As I flip through it from the last year I see that every time I tried to work through my grief I was using it religiously but then when I started to go deep on my feelings and where I was at I would stop.
My conclusion is that as a tool for connecting your mind, body and spirit it works and that is why I am going to include it in my 360 health reboot. The Bullet journal helps you organize, remind, reflect and holds you accountable. The setup that I find works best for the month is:
- Month Calendar
- Mood tracker
- Habit checklist
- Daily pages
I will post examples if each page so you get an idea and maybe you will come up with something that works best for you. The idea is to keep it simple and avoid as many page flips as possible.
My month calendar is just a grid where I can see the month at a glance. I can use this as a quick reference when booking appointments or planning my daily pages.
The mood tracker has been a really honest way to see how my mood changes day-to-day without a long story or words. I make a grid with the days of the week and date along the top then an excited face, happy face, neutral face, sad face and angry face down the left hand side. Every night when I sit down to write my reflection on the day and make my daily page for the next day I just take a moment, close my eyes and the first emotion that pops in is the box I check for that day. I find doing this before I write in my journal will help with the honesty of the reflection period while writing.
My habit check list is all of the things I need to remember to do daily. Examples would be workout, meditation, my cleaning schedule, thyroid medication, vitamins etc. Basically it is anything I do regularly that wouldn’t need to go onto my daily pages. I have started to reward myself for every complete week. There is a new nail polish that I have had my eye on and it will be my ‘treat’ for completing my habit chart for the week. Who doesn’t love great nails and it is good to be spoiled once in a while.
When I first looked at bullet journals I was really overwhelmed by all of the different layouts. I tried so many and came up with this daily layout. I wanted to be sure to have a section to log daily tasks, track my food choices and water, a gratitude section and a journal area to process my day and feelings. I can not stress enough that keeping it simple and less repetitive is so important. If it takes you hours to reflect on your day and plan the next you will never do it. My bullet journal takes me around 20 min every night so instead of spending time checking Facebook before bed take time for yourself.
So now I have told you about my bullet journal ups and downs let me explain how it is going to help me in my 360 health reboot. I will use it to track my weight, goals, food choices, fitness and sort through my feelings and thoughts. Every night I will turn off all technology one hour before bedtime, have my detox bath and work on my bullet journal. I will fill out my mood tracker, journal my day, write 2 things I am grateful for, thoughts and feelings then plan my next day. Now there are a lot of important parts that need to be done before you sleep.. ok, ok all of it is important and I will break down each part in its own blog post but one of the things I have found that is really helpful is planning my food choices the night before. This eliminates any guess-work when moving through your day and also helps to free up your mind to heal and explore. If it isn’t on your daily log you don’t eat it. It is that simple. Keep your journal with you so you can use the habit tracker and check off tasks as you complete them; it really becomes your sidekick.
I would love to hear your bullet journal ideas and what has or has not worked for you. Feel free to comment below.