I do not know about you, but there are times that life throws so many curveballs at me that all I can do is swing the bat and hope to catch a break as the curveballs keep coming. I try to breathe and focus, but that can be difficult.
Journal your thoughts and what this brings to mind.
A JOURNALING PROMPT OR QUESTION:
Answer each of these questions as thoroughly as possible in your journal:
How have you handled the challenges in your life over the last week?
What could you improve?
What would you want to keep doing?
How would you best handle the challenges this week and in the weeks to come? What would that look like?
What do you do when it seems the challenges keep piling on top of you?
How do you handle these times?
Would you say you handle these times in the best way you can?
Or could you handle these times better?
How would you prefer to handle the times when life keeps throwing you curveballs of challenges?
A JOURNALING THOUGHT
Life is full of challenges. Every single day. Without fail.
It’s our ability to cope with them that tends to waiver. And part of this is determined by how we define the severity of each challenge.
Journal your thoughts and what this brings to mind.
JOURNAL KEEPER SD PERSONAL JOURNALING: A CURRENT TIME OF CHALLENGES ON TOP OF CHALLENGES.
I share my personal journaling from time to time in order to make a point and help you see what journaling can offer. This is an example:
Today, on August 24, 2020, Monday, I admit, I am struggling as the challenges in my life keep piling on top of my shoulders.
I am stressed.
I am heavy.
I am overwhelmed.
I am tired. So tired. And I actually have been sleeping well the past two nights, which isn’t like me. I normally do not sleep well.
I have no idea how to hold all the balls up in the air that I am juggling.
(Ugh. Do you know what I mean? Have you been there?)
To be honest, I have just a couple of challenges directly on my shoulders. It’s the really heavy things other people are dealing with that’s weighing on me. I keep hearing more and more storms that people around me, in my life, are facing. My family. My friends. People we know. The family and friends of people we know.
Life is tough.
I’m finding it difficult to focus.
I want to focus on praying for others and everything they are going through, but then I am tossed another curveball/challenge to try to add to the mix I am already trying to deal with so they do not deal with me. But, wow, I am having a hard time with all this.
I need a break. I want to escape all this craziness. I want to curl up with a book or just journal about other things. However, running from all of this, denying it, and/or trying to escape everything is never the way to handle the situation. After all, if we do not deal with our stuff and face our challenges, our stuff and challenges will deal with us.
What a year 2020 has been! There’s just so much suffering all around. I hate that. I wish I could grab a sword and slay everyone’s dragons. (But, I know that that’s God's job to do, not mine, so I try to be more mindful about praying. As I realize how I really need to pray a whole lot more and be in the Bible a whole lot more, too.)
Therefore, I need to face these challenges square on and try to come up with some way to handle all of this not just in a better way, but in the best manner possible.
So, how in the world am I supposed to do this?
First, I got a hug from my husband and best friend. That tends to make everything better and feeling the strength of his arms around me reminds me I am not alone. We are facing all of this together (as we stand together and link arms and hands through all the challenges life brings us).
Next, as I got that hug from my hubby, I realized that everything I journaled in the previous paragraph is how I am supposed to be with God. I need to curl up with the Lord and rest in Him. That is the Sunday school answer. But, it’s still true. So what does this look like in practice? I am to curl up with the Word of God, the Holy Bible. I am to read it and seek comfort. I know these things. But, how do I actually put them into practice when my mind is so mush that I cannot think clearly? I try to read the Bible and pray, but it’s like I am trying to think through wet cement. My thoughts are so thick and clouded that this is a challenge, the praying and reading the Bible thing.
I know that journaling is the key. But, what? What should I journal when I cannot think or pray or read the Bible?
Needless to say, I go through my rolodex of counseling techniques (because that’s my background) and all the possibilities of how to best cope. But, I am blank. That thinking through cement things continues.
And that’s when I remember the most obvious thing of all and the one I highly value. And since it did not come to mind immediately, that lets me know where I’ve gone off course. I see how I haven’t done something and when I change this, things will go so much better. It should have been my most obvious solution, but frankly, this never came to mind, I must admit as I shake my head with how I overlooked something so obvious.
If I were to stop and count the blessings in my life, in the lives of those around me, in the lives of my friends and family and acquaintances, then I would be in a much better place mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
If I were to focus on the blessings and count as many possible and as long as possible, and not focus on the challenges, then I would be able to see how the challenges are actually blessings.
So that’s what I am about to do. I am going to curl up with my journal and count all the blessings in my life, in the lives of my friends and family, in my neighborhood, in my city, in my state, in my county, in the US, in the church of the US, in the world, and in the Church overall.
~ Journal your thoughts and what this journal entry brings to mind.
A JOURNALING PROMPT OR QUESTION:
Answer each of these questions as thoroughly as possible in your journal:
Have you ever felt like the journal entry just shared? When? What happened? How did you handle it?
How has 2020 been for you? For those around you? For your family and friends?
What challenges are you facing?
What curveballs have you been given in 2020? This week?
Count as many blessings as you can. Take the rest of today doing this and dedicate this week to being a week of counting your blessings all day, moment by moment, all week long.
