4 min read Mindfulness

Journaling Prompts for Learning your own Minimalism Ideals

Journaling Prompts for Learning your own Minimalism Ideals

We firmly believe there is a minimalist in all of us. All it takes is a few too many items laying around, dedicated reflection time, and a handful of journal prompts to find your way. This blog will identify a few journal prompts for new and experienced minimalists to evaluate their own minimalist ideals. With these prompts, you will:

  • Determine what is and what is not important to you
  • Find reasons for gratitude where you wouldn't previously have looked
  • Train your mind for high stress situations
  • Notice ways your lifestyle can become more sustainable
  • Reflect on your relationship with money

We believe that minimalism exists on a spectrum: minimalism as a lifestyle can subsist as small daily habits that compound over time or it can live as large, intentional practices that support many parts of life. Whatever fits within your lifestyle is where you will find the minimalist practices that work for you. Minimalism expert and Author Joshua Becker says:

Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it.

Nowhere in this definition are there set rules or guidelines. There is no definition of the word "things". What we value and what distracts us is independent to the individual. You see? Minimalism can be whatever you want it to be, and our hope is that these handful of prompts help you find where minimalism should exist in your life.

💾 80/20 Life Audit

This first prompt comes from writer Dickie Bush. The Pareto Principle states that for many events, roughly 80% of outcome come from 20% of inputs. For example,

  • 80% of your relationships come from 20% of your total network
  • 80% of your stress comes from 20% of your burdens
  • 80% of your fundraising comes from 20% of your donors

Bush calls the following exercise the 80/20 Life Audit:

  1. Create two columns (like a pros and cons list) separating your page. One column should be titled, "Where am I feeling satisfied?" and the other column titled, "Where am I feeling dissatisfied?"
  2. Brain dump anything and everything into the two columns - health, finances, relationships, career, spirituality, etc.
  3. Analyze each list for themes, new ideas, common areas.
  4. Identify the 20% of places, habits, people, beliefs that are leading to 80% of the positive and negative results.
  5. Double down on everything leading to your good results and ruthlessly remove everything leading to your negative results.

🙏🏻 The Gratitude Letter

After determining the important things, it's necessary to practice gratitude for them. This activity will help you remain connected with the best parts of your life so you can continue having them around with confidence. We call this exercise The Gratitude Letter:

  1. In your journal entry, address a new letter to yourself: Dear [Your Name]
  2. Take any singular "thing" (person, place, job, activity, habit, belief, etc) from your "satisfied" column and write a letter about it.
  3. Write to yourself why you're feeling grateful for the "thing"
  4. Write 3 reasons why you value this "thing" in your current life
  5. Write 3 ways you see it being import for your future
  6. Write any other reasons your grateful for it in your life
  7. Save the letter and read it later

👂Busy Senses

In this journal exercise, we move away from prioritization and gratitude, and instead, focus on awareness and being present. This exercise is opposite of what you might anticipate a journaling prompt to be - we encourage you to complete this journal prompt in busy locations, instead of your home. For this exercise, select a location, the busier the better (a mall, library, coffee shop, etc.), and journal about your senses.

The goal of this prompt is for you to train your ability to be present in busy situations - to be mindful even when there is a lot going on. The hope is that this awareness translates to stressful or highly social parts of your life. Specifically:

  1. Journal 5 things you see
  2. Journal 5 things you hear
  3. Journal 5 things you smell
  4. Journal 5 things you feel (touch)
  5. Journal 5 things you feel (emotions)

🌎 Thank you, Earth

Minimalism has natural sustainability benefits, but without being mindful about how our lifestyle affects the earth, we may be missing out on additional ways to live with sustainable best practices. Consider these handful of prompts to think intentionally about sustainability and the environment:

  1. We are lucky the Earth provides us with ______ because ______.
  2. I believe in helping the Earth because ______.
  3. I am actively helping the Earth by ______ and ______.
  4. I see the effects of pollution when ______.
  5. We must preserve nature because ______.
  6. In my lifestyle, I can improve my own sustainability efforts by ______.
  7. Today, I will ______ which will benefit the Earth because ______.

💵 When have you felt at your richest?

The last prompt is just as you see above - simple, straight forward but also insightful. When have you felt at your richest? How can you get back to that feeling? What impact did money have on that point in your life?

In this exercise, consider your relationship with money. Consider why money is important for your livelihood, but also at what point does money have diminishing returns. Take this prompt and run with it.

🎬 Conclusion

For minimalists, journaling helps us remain in touch with why and how we make lifestyle choices under the minimalism ethos. Try taking each of the prompts above at face value - after completing one, review it with a minimalist's lens and see where that leads you.

Thanks for reading and let us know what you think!

🕺 The Quaint Team