{fill your cup} Allow
Weekly Journal Prompts
Refill your emotional cup before another busy week.
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You can take just 10 – 30 minutes on these prompts. Read through and respond to what strikes you, or simply take the journal topic and go in your own direction – this is about what you need.
We spend so much energy and so much time trying to control the world around us.
We follow the rules. We make the rules. We invent non-existent rules.
We spend a lot of time allowing or trying very hard not to allow things to happen.
I think about my daughter’s birth. She was born at home after an easy labor – really easy and really fast. The only wall I faced was mentally getting out of my own way and allowing it to happen. I almost wasn’t ready for it to be that easy – I had had two other babies before and was expecting labor to last much longer and be more painful. She was easy and I nearly couldn’t allow it.
After she was born I found myself waiting for the hard part – surely since the birth had been easy I was in for some sort of horrible after birth complication…? All of my beleifs told me that transitions in life must be terribly difficult, and yet here I was with a beautiful baby and a body that felt alright and two older kids who were excited to have her here. Was it allowed for a transition to be easy?
This week we’re thinking about the word allow – what we allow, what we don’t allow, and what we struggle with allowing.
- What can you let go of and allow it to be easier? Can you allow others to help you? Can you allow it to take the path of least resistance?
- What do we tell our children is not allowed, and yet our actions show them that actually we do allow it? Do we need to change how we reinforce the rule? Or change the rule?
- Who are you not allowed to be? Do you want that to change?
- What do you need to allow to take more time or more space in your life? What part of your life are you trying to force or push into something it isn’t at this point in time?
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RIght now “allow” for me is allowing the twins to do things for themselves. They are 2.5 and very eager to help and be independent, which of course takes longer, is more frustrating and causes more messes. We are all getting better at it though.
I’ve always tried hard to err on the side of “allow”–as in if there is no good reason to not let the kids do something than why not? It’s hard though. Also allowing me to be okay with failing is a little difficult but we are getting there : )
i have trouble allowing a little mess here and there, trying to work on that this week. this was a great word for the week, it came at the right time for me to take a step back and just allow myself the joy of being a stay at home mom. thank you!
Oh “allow” is a great one. What comes to mind for me is allowing myself NOT to be stressed all the time. Allowing myself not to push myself so hard or expect so much of myself, just to be and enjoy life sometimes instead of always working harder. Allowing myself to take breaks… to let go of guilt… to experience joy even if I don’t feel I “deserve” it.
Ahhh, that tricky “deserving” bit. That gets me too Chelsea. Somehow allowing oneself to relax a bit can be a frightening thing. I’m working on it – allowing more time and more joy 🙂
Allow is just the right word for me this week. I am really enjoying this series but with a 5 month old and 3 big kids and a spouse who is supper busy this fall I am realizing that I am not going to be carving out a whole lot of time to write. I am allowing myself the freedom to read these prompts and let them just be something I meditate on over the week. I would love to be journaling but its just not happening right now, one thing I have manged to do is to write just the word on a 4×6 index card and tack it to the wall which I am finding very inspiring. Thanks for another great prompt!
You’re welcome. I like having the journal prompt just “stewing” in my mind for the week too. It gives me a lens for the week to look at my experiences through, if that makes sense.
Allow is a wonderful word. I need to allow myself to be imperfect. The stress for me comes from expecting too much of myself and always falling short of my own expectations. It’s a nice reminder to live in the moment, be mindful of the things that are happening as they are happening, and enjoy each moment of each day without rushing through it to get to the next thing.
My big one is to allow others to help me. I constantly feel that I “should” be able to manage things on my own even when there are people ready and willing to step in. Allowing help is part of being kind to myself and that’s something I need to remember.
I too have trouble letting people help…or asking for help for that matter!
I wrote something. Short. But i did it :0
thanks
https://shortysmanyhats.blogspot.ca/2013/09/allow.html