Last month in the Ask Yourself exercises you worked on increasing your understanding of yourself. This month, you will deepen your understanding of your romantic relationship.
Aurelia Psychology’s Ask Yourself series
For those of you who are new to Ask Yourself, you will get questions each month to help you increase your self-awareness and self-acceptance. These questions are similar to those that therapists ask their clients during sessions.
How to journal mindfully
For this month, we will share with you a series of questions to help you reflect on your love life. You will need a quiet, private and comfortable space, a notebook and pen/pencil, about 15 minutes of uninterrupted time.
Go through each question on the day we share them with you. Then write down all that comes to your mind about that question/topic. Allow your mind to roam free. Then, write down what you feel and this about each question.
You are not trying to solve any problems. You are simply an observer of your own self. No feeling or through is bad or wrong. Cultivate acceptance instead of judgement or self-censorship. See if you can find the courage to go deep into yourself.
When your time to reflect is up, leave your feelings, thoughts and words in the notebook.
The next day, repeat the process. However, do not look at what you have written previously. Reserve just one day of the week for revisiting what you have written during the week.
Reflecting on your romantic relationship
If during this month of journaling about your relationship you come to realize that things could be better, do remember that a lot can be done to improve relationship quality. Just as with any healthy habit, small things done often, consistently and well, bring results in due course. Have a look at our 10 day challenge to get ideas on what those small things could be.
Matleena Vanhanen is a licensed Counselling Psychologist with over 20 years of experience working in Europe and the Middle East. She has a practice of couples and individual therapy at the MapleTree Center in Dubai.
