Wellness Arts Psychology

Fotini Koklas (Psychologist, 51).

“I’m using the guided journal to create bigger intentions, and it’s helping me move through those intentions to create the life I want. It’s accountability and keeping me on track. Looking back at March, we are in May now, and these things are cemented and anchored in me. These things are already true already happening.

The monthly reflections help my organised brain. I look at the structured calendar, and the reflections force me to do learning and reflections consistently for that month’s goals.

Really liked the reflection because I just went crazy. I liked having a spot where it all happened. As I was doing it, I think I was leaving things behind, leaving the last year behind and all the challenges that came with it.

I liked clearing the decks. That is something that I tell myself when I want to get organised. Let’s look at the unhelpful thoughts and behaviours I want to leave behind. The brain dump was like, ‘Okay, done. I don’t have to think about these things and obsess about these things.’

Gratitude was my favourite part. I often come back to this to lift me up. 

Planning the journey ahead. I liked nurturing the soul and nourishing the heart. Helped me think practically about what it will look like to look after myself better. I keep coming back to that. I use the 30-day self-care challenge to like a menu when I need it. I like that it reminds me to move and not just be in my head.

I loved making my vision board. It makes me feel so connected to what my soul really wants. It’s all about me.  It makes me feel like it’s bringing things out from the deep. It has therapeutic value. It really helped me shift. 

It’s my special time nobody else is allowed in it. It’s when I get to tune into myself. I love doing the end-of-month reflection. It’s like my little date with myself. My calendar is day-to-day stuff, and this is like my juicy time when I do my daily creations. 

I think the people who would benefit from this are heart-centred business people, clinical practitioners as part of their self-care young people, and mums. 

I definitely would keep doing it year by year because it’s really important to be intentional about your life, and this is a really great tool to connect with yourself, your soul.“

Popi Iatrou (Psychologist, 50)

I have done this guided journalling process for the past ten years, and I am always surprised by how much of what I have written in the guided journal has manifested into my reality.

I created this guided journal to help the people I love and care about to create a life they truly love. I use it regularly with my counselling clients as a tool for therapy and change. Clients complete parts of the journal at home as homework, and then we review it and go deeper into the therapy session. It is a fantastic tool for helping clients clarify their core values and goals and change their beliefs and behaviour patterns. It is an excellent tool for coaches and other change-makers to use with clients.

In the past, I have always completed the journal on my own at the end of each year. I create sacred time and space to reflect on the year that was and to dream up the adventures for the coming year. It is one of my favourite annual rituals.

I completed the journal with my partner this time, and I was blown away by how much more depth and clarity I could elicit when we put our heads together.

I love this process so much, and I hope you will uncover the treasures hidden deep within you for a rich and fulfilling life.”

Johanna (Community mental health worker, 28)

“My favourite parts were the letter from my future self, picturing myself and feeling how it feels to be in my future self, and becoming aware of the negative self-talk in the reflections. It’s aesthetically pleasing.“

Margie McCall (Year 6 teacher, Wellness co-ordinator)

“I use this journal with my Year 6 kids. Every Monday morning, we do a reflective journal. I give them choices to reflect on the weekend. I use a PMI chart (plus, minus, interesting). I also use the guided journal because there are good prompts in there. It’s great. They like the analogy to the ocean because they live near the beach and many surf. The prompts are good conversation starters. I ask them to go within and maybe look at things from different perspectives. We do 15 minutes of uninterrupted writing time, free-flowing. Then they have the option to do partner discussions or whole class discussions. It would be amazing for teachers to do as well as kids. Staff well-being is on the agenda at the moment.“

Tina Cunningham (Administrative manager, 61)

“I use the journal when I have a lot of thoughts and read the guiding words to get me from a negative to a positive mental state.

Particularly at this time when my life is changing with work and moving home, I am facing unchartered waters and uncertainty. The journal assists me in processing my thoughts and questions if I am doing the right thing.

Most importantly, I can refer back to those thoughts and use the tools to allow me to sleep better, stop ruminating and change my frame of mind. It lowers the feelings of anxiety.

When I go off the beaten path, it helps me to focus on what I need to change and manifest the right course of action and find smoother waters.”

Kerwin Bougaard (Business owner, 55)

“I’m quite time-poor, so I just looked at the journal and thought it would be time-consuming. I felt some resistance because it seemed like a fair bit of work would be done. I also have my system for goal setting, planning, mindset change and productivity.

This journal helped me to clarify things very well. Opposite to mine, even though mine has a yearly planner, it doesn’t lay it out as well as this does. The whole year’s planning is well laid out.

I found it helpful to use it as a couple. It was good to do together and think about how we can do some of our goals together. It draws out clarity with the questions, even though I have done much self-development. I found it quite enjoyable when I was doing it with someone; we helped guide each other. “

Jessica Aboukalam.” (Law graduate, Entrepraneur 31)

“The guided journal has really helped me clarify my goals and my values and work through some deep things I probably wouldn’t have worked through. Without even realising, because I’ve written it down I am achieving the goals I set out for myself. I find that I am having better relationships with my friends, and my family, even with my work and my business. Everything is more clear and I am able to be who I really need to be.

When you write down your guiding words and draw a symbol that matches that word allows you to remember and come back to it. They continue to guide you iont e path that you want to go on.

The reflection part of the journal, I think is probably the most important part. We are so busy in our daily lives that it allows us to sit down and really think about the last 12 months and then moving forward, what do we want to achieve in the next 12 months. To sit down and think about my limiting beliefs helped me put perspective on myself and my behaviours and get better every month.

I would recommend the guided journal because we don’t always get to sit down and write things out the way we want to, and this gives a great level of structure and has some great thinking points to reflect on and guiding questions to understand where we want to go. I think the problem we face today is maybe we don’t always have the right direction, so having the guided journal allows us to get that direction and really get to know ourselves and what we want to do”