Weekly Wellness Word: Ruminate

Life happens. Time comes and goes. I live out my days. So why is it that so much of what happens in my life goes by unnoticed, ignored or even avoided by me? There are days when I sit in those last few moments before lying down to sleep absolutely dumbfounded. Where did the day go? What did I even do today? It's all in a fog and I strain to remember it.

Sometimes I find it helpful to write life down. Usually nothing lengthy, just a few words, phrases, bullet list or maybe a quote I read somewhere. It's just to remind myself that the day actually happened, that I was engaged in the process of my life and not muddling through like a zombie. You would not believe how many times I later flip back through the pages looking for a specific word, phrase, quote, thought, or idea that I need to pull from now, in the present moment, to remind myself of the message of hope or love or sanity that it gave me back then.

Next Step

This week experiment with documenting your life in some way. If you like to write, journaling may be a good way to do this. If writing is not your forte, try capturing something from the day in short hand. What are the one, two or three things that you want to remember about this day? Notice the moment when you were at your best and the instance when you wish you'd done better. Allow yourself to bask in the joys you experienced and to lament the moments of suffering. Life is good, AND life is hard. Pay attention to how you are balancing that tension. At the end of the week take an inventory of whether anything has shifted for you because you took time to notice your life. Do you notice any change in your thought life, your feelings about yourself, others or your life situation? Then, you guessed it, write those thoughts down. Again.

For Further Information

For a deeper dive on the 8 benefits of journaling, check out this article from A Place for Mom.

https://www.aplaceformom.com/blog/2-26-15-journaling-for-caregivers/