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We’re onto the last step. You’re almost finished. You’ve reached step 4 of your personal vision statement. It’s time to combine everything into a coherent statement. If you’ve done the first three steps thoughtfully and honestly, you should be able to come up with a moving and motivational personal vision statement for yourself.

Get out a new sheet of paper. Write down all the things you’ve already come up with that need to be included in your vision statement. That is, write down your most important goals, any strengths or skills you want to include, and your personal values. These together form the core of your vision statement.

You’ll create drafts of your vision statement by playing around with words. Start a sentence with any of the following phrases and write until you have incorporated everything you want to include. Your vision statement may be anywhere from one sentence to a short paragraph long.

Vision Statement Opening Words

• “I am…”
• “I want…”
• “My purpose/mission/vision is…”
• “My life will show…”
• “To…”
• “I will…”
• “I won’t…”

Don’t just try one set of these opening words. Try a few. Play around with them. Have a go at writing four or five draft vision statements. Use active, first-person verbs in all of them. That means you should write as “I [verb]” as much as you can.

Take some time with this. Add things in and take out other things. Use synonyms and antonyms. Try different lengths, sentence structures, pacing, and tones. Make drafts that sound as different as possible while still expressing the same core set of beliefs.

How will you know when you’re finished? When it resonates. When it feels right. Your personal vision statement should motivate you and feel true to your heart.

If you’re not quite there then set the task aside for a day or two, then come back and read your drafts again. Circle things that you really like. Mark out things you don’t. The bits and pieces that you like will form the core of your final draft.

Start making another set of drafts and this time use only the phrases you’ve circled from your first drafts. Then repeat the process until you’ve formed a personal vision statement that suits you.

I’ll wrap up this series in the next article by sharing some real life examples of personal vision statements.

You’re almost ready to write your personal vision statement. You’ve written down your goals and come up with a list of strengths and skills you need to work on. Step 3 in creating your personal vision statement is to decide what your most important values are.

As with steps 1 and 2, this step is going to yield different answers for everyone. There are no wrong answers so don’t get bogged down or stressed over this step. All you’re going to do is decide what’s most important to YOU, not what is important to anyone else or that you think should be important.

Once more, you’ll need your pen and paper. Write “My Values” across the top. What’s the most important thing in the world to you? Your top priority, the thing you work so hard for, the one rule you always follow, the one guideline you use to define everything else in your life.

It’s a hard task, isn’t it? It may require some thought. Or maybe you know right away what it is. If so, you’re one of the lucky ones. The rest of us have to think about it for a while!

The answer, when you come up with it, might be simple or it might be complex. It might be the Golden Rule. It could be taking care of your family. Making money is a top value for some people while making a difference is most important to others. Some write a single word, such as “love” or “caring.”

Again, there are no wrong answers. This is about you and no one else. Your answers are private and should reflect your innermost self, or your vision statement won’t be genuine. Being honest with yourself is the most important part of this process.

Once you have an answer, you’re going to write down your second and third most important values. These might take you a while as well. You might even discover you have two or three on the same level. That’s okay too.

If you want to, you can write down any other values you hold in high importance. Don’t write down too many; you don’t want to dilute the issue. You’re going to want to include your top value in your vision statement. Depending on your personality, you might want to do your second and third most important and maybe a few others as well.

When you finish with step 3, you’ll be ready to write down your personal vision statement. We’ll pull it all together in the next blogpost.

We’ve completed step 1. Step 2 in creating your personal vision statement is to make a list of your strengths and skills and decide how they relate to what you want to do with your life. It’s time to get out the handy pen and paper again.

What are your strengths as a person? Write down everything you can think of. This is another brainstorming session. Don’t judge yourself and don’t hold back because of uncertainty or insecurity.

Are you strong (physically or psychologically)? Persistent? Independent? Are you a freethinker? Good at helping people get along? Are you highly intelligent? Empathic? Incredibly organised? You have a list of strengths just like everyone else. Don’t stop with this list until you feel like you’ve covered them all.

Next, you’re going to do the same thing for your skills. List every skill you can think of that you have, in particular those that are related to the goals you identified in step one. What skills do you currently have that will help you get to those goals? How many of those are good to go and which need work?

Now, look back at the list of goals once again. What are the strengths a person who reaches each of those goals must possess? Go down the list and evaluate them one by one. Take your time with this; don’t rush this process. When you’re done, do it again and write down the list of skills needed to accomplish these goals.

You may have already guessed what the next step is going to be. You’re going to compare the two lists you’ve created -the one of strengths and skills you already have versus those that you need to accomplish all of these goals you want to achieve.

The differences between the two are your areas of weakness. These are things you will probably need to work on if you’re going to make all of your goals a reality. Circle all of these weaknesses.

If you like, you can add working on some, or all of these weaknesses, to your personal vision statement. You don’t have to do so, but if you don’t, you still need to keep the list handy because the chances are that you will have to work on these things if you want to reach your goals.

When you’ve finished step 2 of your personal vision statement, set the lists you made aside -but keep them handy for later. We’ll cover steps 3 and 4 very soon.

Step 1 in creating your personal vision statement is going to be writing down your goals for your life. What do you want? Do you want better health? A diet that works for your body, rather than against it? Do you want to work from home? What non-health goals do you have?

You need to create this list before you go any further. Start by brainstorming. It works better if you use pen and paper (not a computer, it’s so easy to get distracted). Write down every single thing you’d like to do in your life. Don’t hold back and don’t censor yourself. Write down everything that comes to mind.

If you have a hard time doing this at once, that’s okay. Take some time with it. Carry the list around with you for a few days and add to it whenever something crosses your mind. Keep going until you feel like it is complete.

Again, don’t worry about what anyone else’s list would look like. Everyone is an individual and unique. Every person has different goals. Your list of lifetime goals will be different from every person you know. That’s normal and to be expected.

Next, go down this list and think through every item you wrote down. Is this something that you really want in your heart of hearts? Or is it something you think you want? Or that you think you should want? Cross these latter items off at once.

What’s left is a list of things you do want to achieve in your life. Which ones do you most want to accomplish? Some of them are going to exert a stronger pull on you than others. Put a star beside these.

After you’ve done that, go back through the list and consider the compatibility of all of your goals. Are they contradictory? You may find it difficult to balance, getting enough sleep and getting up earlier to exercise, for example.

This is the hard part. It’s time to choose. You’re going to have to make some painful choices here – which goals do you want most? Which are you willing to sacrifice in order to get to the others? Cross off the ones that don’t make the cut. It will hurt, but you have to do it.

When you’re done, copy the remaining goals down onto a clean sheet of paper. This is the step 1 of developing your personal vision statement. We’ll cover steps 2-4 over the next three blogposts.

On Monday I suggested that a Personal Vision Statement might be a better jumping-off point than setting a New Year’s Resolution. I also went on to explain what one was. My guess is that you might be wondering whether it’s worth the bother? What’s in it for you? Will the benefits outweigh the time and effort? What are some benefits of creating a personal vision statement?

Everyone is an individual and so the benefits can vary greatly from one person to another. It would be difficult to cover all the benefits when talking so generally. Here though, are three that can apply to most of us.

It gives you a sense of direction

A personal vision statement will provide you with a feeling of direction, of knowing where you are right now and where you are trying to go. This motivates you and can help make your work feel meaningful. This is something most humans crave, especially in a world as chaotic as the modern one.

If you start to feel lost or rudderless, all you have to do is look at your vision statement to help you realise the truth. This is an important psychological benefit – don’t underestimate it!

It helps motivate you

Motivation isn’t something you feel all the time. It comes and it goes. Sometimes you’ll be more motivated than others. Sometimes you won’t want to work on your goals at all, either because you’re too busy or you’re frustrated at a lack of progress.

Lack of motivation is where discipline becomes important but getting your motivation back can make it easier to stay on track.

Personal vision statements have been shown to provide additional motivation when it’s lagging. It can provide you with that extra “oomph” you need to keep pushing and get yourself over the finish line when times are tough.

It provides a framework for decision making

Making decisions is part of being an adult and sometimes it becomes hard to make decisions that keep us moving forward towards where we want to be in life and that are aligned with our values.

A personal vision statement helps with decision-making by providing a framework you can use to evaluate options, especially for complex decisions. Are there options that will move you towards accomplishing your next goal? Which options will move you further away from it? Are there ones that will let you uphold your values? Would any require you to break your values?

You can use this yes/no framework to decide which options to evaluate further and which to eliminate. This takes the stress out of decision-making and lets you make decisions that will help you succeed.

I hope that these benefits have given you the incentive to consider creating a personal vision statement. I’ll be back soon with the specific steps.

Happy New Year! I know that many choose to use this time of year to set New Year’s resolutions. However the statistics for maintaining those resolutions don’t look good. Depending on which study you look at, as many as 80% of New Year’s resolutions will have been abandoned by February. So how about developing a Personal Vision Statement instead?

Personally, I do see the value in setting goals as opposed to making a resolution. Goals are more specific and action oriented than resolutions. Goal-setting can be done year round but the new year is always a good stepping off point. When used as part of your personal approach to goal setting, a personal vision statement is useful in helping you to identify which goals are most important to you and which opportunities you should pursue. So what exactly is a personal vision statement? Perhaps more importantly, how can you use it for self-improvement?

Vision statements are tools used by businesses and other organizations to convey their mission, values, and goals succinctly to employees, shareholders, and other parties.

The goal of a vision statement is to help the people involved in decision-making to make decisions that align with it and the overall purpose of the group. They have proven to be valuable tools that help a company reach its goals without forgetting its values or purpose.

A personal vision statement is nearly identical to one used for a business. The difference is that it is directed towards a single individual and his or her life. It encompasses one’s values, goals, and purpose in life. It might even include a statement of the lifetime impact you wish to have on the world.

The overwhelming majority of research on organizational business statements shows that they are effective in helping keep an organization on track and aligned with its values. Less research has been done on personal vision statements, but so far it looks like they have the same effect on individuals when created and used properly.

Personal vision statements can encompass both personal and professional goals. They also tend to include a list of some deeply held personal values. They tend to be short and can be either kept private or made public.

Some of the most successful and famous people in the world have or had personal vision statements. Sir Richard Branson, Maya Angelou, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Amanda Steinberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Mahatma Gandhi are just a few examples. Each of these people used or use their personal vision statements to guide their lives.

You don’t have to be famous, a hero, or a CEO to create and use your own personal vision statement. Many people do it. Millions of people around the world, from students to farmers to artists, have a vision statement they use in their daily lives.

It takes some work to create your own personal vision statement, but it’s not hard to do. You don’t need any special help or expertise. All you need is commitment and a willingness to do the work to craft it. After it’s finished, all you need is a determination to use it to guide your life.

During the rest of January I’ll be exploring the benefits of personal vision statements and sharing a few tips about how to construct your own.

Choosing the right journaling technique depends on your lifestyle and how you like to express yourself. Some people are more comfortable with artistic forms of expression, while others need different means and techniques. Do you know how you express yourself best? If not, try a one of these seven journaling techniques until something feels right to you. You know it’s right when you feel comforted, relaxed, and joyful after completing your daily journaling or looking at your past journals.

Here are seven journaling techniques that will make journaling more effective: lists, morning pages, bullet journaling, gratitude journaling, prompt journaling, voice journaling, and art journaling.

1. Lists: A great way to get started with journaling is simply making lists of things on your mind. This can be a list of things you need to do, things you’re grateful for, things that are stressing you out, or anything else on your mind. Getting these thoughts down on paper can help you to organize your thoughts and get a better handle on what’s going on in your life.

2. Morning pages: Morning pages are a journaling technique made popular by author Julia Cameron. The idea is to write three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing first thing in the morning. This helps you get your thoughts and feelings out on paper so you can start your day with a clean slate.

3. Bullet journaling: Bullet journaling is a type of journaling that uses short, concise sentences or bullet points to capture thoughts and ideas. This method allows you to track your thoughts and ideas without getting bogged down in too much detail.

4. Gratitude journaling: Another great way to use your journal is to focus on gratitude. Every day, write down a few things that you’re grateful for. This lets you shift your focus to the positive things in your life and is a fabulous and joy-filled way to start your day on a positive note.

5. Prompt journaling: If you’re struggling to come up with things to write about, prompt journaling can be a great solution. A popular method is to choose a word or phrase and then write about it for five minutes. The prompt helps you get your creative juices flowing and gives you a great starting point for your journaling session.

6. Voice journaling: Another effective journaling technique is voice journaling. This involves recording yourself talking about your thoughts and feelings on a recorder or smartphone. You can then listen to these recordings and transcribe them into your journal. This way to capture your thoughts and feelings more naturally works for people who dislike writing and don’t want to use other hands-on methods.

7. Art journaling: If you’re looking for a more creative outlet for your journaling, art journaling may be proper for you. This involves using your journal as a blank canvas and filling it with drawings, paintings, or collages. This can be a great way to express your creative side and therapeutic activity.

Any of these journaling techniques can work for you. It’s up to you to choose the type of journaling that will work best for your lifestyle and personal needs. Think about how you like to express yourself and choose a method that works with your lifestyle. Consider trying something new, too; you never know what will work until you try.

South Scarborough Acupuncture would like to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2023!

The clinic is now closed from today, Friday 23 December and will reopen on Tuesday 3 January.

Some of our clients have only recently started or are in the middle of treatment and we will be opening exceptionally to these people, to keep their treatment on track over the holidays. No further new clients will be accepted to the clinic now until the new year.

Please note that our online booking system can only currently be used to cancel appointments. Any new appointment bookings or changes to existing appointments should be done by phone, text or email (call direct or text on 07865 593972 or email  sara@southscarboroughacupuncture.co.uk). Please contact us to discuss your particular situation.

Messages and emails will be checked regularly over the holiday. Please note however, that we are trying to set a good example to clients and take a much needed break too and so responses may take longer than usual. We will aim to reply within 48hrs as a maximum.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas.

We’ve considered different styles of journaling and how some of these lend themselves better to certain times of the day. For example, goal setting journaling probably works best done earlier in the day. Bedtime journaling on the other hand can be a way to manage stress.

Stress is all around. Fretting about work, family, and obligations can become overwhelming. Running everything through your mind without an outlet for stress can make it hard to sleep. When you need to rest, your mind gets hyper focused on stressful things making it hard to fall asleep. During the day it can be easy to push worries down and think about other things. It’s much harder to distract ourselves when we are lying in bed trying to get a good night’s sleep ready to start all over again.

There are a lot of ways to relieve stress and rid our minds of worries, one of the most effective is journaling. Journaling works because it

• Focuses your thoughts
• Is a creative outlet
• Gets thoughts out of your head
• Creates an opportunity for problem solving

Journaling before bed can help reduce stress and make it easier to fall asleep.

Here’s how it helps more specifically:

Journaling helps you get a handle on your thoughts- Journaling helps you focus your thoughts and get them out on paper. Instead of overthinking issues (and depleting our Spleen Qi), journaling helps organise thoughts and process them. It makes it easier to better understand the roots of your stress and focus your thoughts rather than continuously running them over in your mind.

Journaling uses a different part of the brain- The act of writing and journaling uses the creative side or your brain. This in itself can help ease stress. Depending on the type of journaling you do, it may help raise the dopamine in your brain chemistry reducing stress. Journaling doesn’t have to be limited to writing. It can be as creative as you’d like including, but not limited to, colouring, doodling, writing poetry, or any other form of expression.

Journaling removes thoughts from your head- Writing things down tricks your brain into dumping them and leaving them on the page. Journaling can help get thoughts out of your head so your mind can wander on to something else. Psychologically, your brain believes that the thoughts are categorised on the page. It then doesn’t need as much intense focus anymore, so your mind can begin to relax.

Journaling triggers problem solving- In the same way clearing your mind in the shower leads to those “eureka moments”, journaling can trigger problem solving. Worrying about stress in your mind clutters it with negative thoughts and anxiety. The process of journaling triggers our natural problem-solving skills and makes it easier to find solutions.

Bedtime journaling can help you to manage stress and leave your psyche feeling calmer. This can help your mind shut down easily and drift into REM sleep. REM sleep is where the mind and body can repair and heal. Practice journaling before bedtime to help your mind release the worries of the day and prepare for a great night’s rest.    

You’ve probably not even started journaling yet and so you may be a bit bemused by the heading of this article. Please bear with me. Having an idea of how to use your completed journals in the future may give you the incentive to start journaling in the first place.

If you follow my advice and journal consistently, you may end up with a stack of journals eventually that you don’t know what to do with. Of course, you don’t have to do anything with them if you don’t want to.

You can keep them, save them, or trash them – it’s up to you. Here though, are several ideas to get your creative juices flowing, about what to do with your completed journals.

Keep As a Record of Your Life and Progress

You can always keep your completed journals as a record of your life and progress. Keeping this record of your life allows you to monitor your growth and see how far you’ve come. In addition, they will make a good reference point in the future, should you ever need to look back on something.

Review and Reflect on Your Entries

Another option is to review and reflect on your entries after you’ve finished the journal. This can be a great way to learn from your past experiences and see what worked well for you and didn’t. In addition, it enables you to identify patterns in your behaviour or thoughts.

Use as a Prompt for Future Journals

You may also use your completed journals as a stimulus for future writings. This might be an excellent method to sustain the writing habit and provide you with fresh ideas and themes to write about.

Give them to Someone Else

You may give your completed journal to a friend or family member. This can be an excellent method to share your stories with someone and assist them on their path. Do think long and hard about this one though, your journals may include a lot of private information.

Destroy or Discard

You may also choose to erase or trash your diary after you’ve finished using it. This is an acceptable option if you don’t want anyone else reading it or don’t want to keep it. Just ensure you’re doing it for the right reasons and not out of embarrassment or guilt. If you do discard a physical journal, then burning it (safely) not only solves the issue of security but can also be a cathartic process.

Use Them to Help You Write a Memoir

If you’re particularly reflective, you may want to use your journals to help you write a memoir. Memoirs allow you to share your story with others and leave a lasting legacy. You are able to sort and sift the level and degree of personal information you’re happy to share before you start writing.

Expand On Different Parts of Them

If there are specific entries in your journal that you find particularly interesting or insightful, you may want to expand on them in a separate writing project. This could be a great way to explore your thoughts and feelings in greater depth.

As you decide what to do with your completed journals, consider all the factors. At the end of the day you should choose what will work best for you.