Taking the time to analyze how you feel and assess your progress every week allows you to gain perspective and maintain calm and confidence when feeling stuck or under pressure.

In this article, we’ve put together a set of three practices for you to carry out weekly for developing self-awareness and staying more present and focused. 

Here they are:

#1. Journal to stay in touch with your core

Journaling helps you stay in touch with your values, goals, and intentions.

If daily journaling sounds like too big of a thing right now, start with weekly reflection sessions, which will help you acknowledge your progress and hold on to your intentions.

By analyzing and motivating your choices, your time spent doing certain activities over others, you can get a better idea of how well you did, what is of real importance to you, and hold yourselves accountable for your time investment.

You could do it at the beginning of the week and at the end of it, the first for setting intentions and priorities, the second for assessing and driving conclusions.

Grab a journal and put down the following questions.

(It doesn’t have to be pretty. It doesn’t even have to be a journal—any piece of paper works.
Of course, investing in a quality, stylish notebook can motivate you even more 😊.)

• What’s going well?
• What’s not working?
• What gave me joy?
• What action steps do I have to take?

And if you’d love to do this in a more suitable environment at a different time of the day, here’s a template for takeaway.

Come back to it whenever you feel ready.

Looking forward to improving your self-awareness. Further food for thought to write down:

• Where do I see myself in 6 months? What can I do this week to get closer to that image?
• Think about new things you could enjoy, something you could do this week as well as something to be explored in the imminent future. Imagine what you’ll do and how you’ll feel like.
• What new opportunities can I take this week, and how will they help me grow?

#2. Chart your emotions and mood changes during the week

Charting your moods allows you to see patterns in your life: what causes them, how long they stay with you, what makes them change and fluctuate.

When you can see patterns, you can prepare a battle plan for when negative emotions arise or even come up with ways to prevent this from happening at all.

Learn to name and recognize your emotions, learn their cues, and then work with them. For example, starting a Weekly Mood Log can help you identify your triggers, noting the events that impact you emotionally.

Charting can be as simple as putting down your emotions in a notebook sheet or as high-tech as using a phone app that puts all the data together for you. It doesn’t take much, and the benefits are many.

#3. Breathe to stay present and grounded 

Deep breathing is the most accessible way to calm down and connect with your body more deeply.

By now, you probably know that your body is such a rich source of information. Just listen to it.

Create the circumstances for it to tell its truths. Create a weekly mindfulness ritual, where you get to breathe, go through a body scan, and meditate. 

Use this ritual to return to yourself every time you feel lost or threatened. Remind yourself of the amazing things your body and your mind can do. Be grateful for them to yourself. 

Self-reflection is the practice of delving deeper into our experiences and looking for answers to the questions that matter to us, eventually leading to authenticity and self-awareness.

We’re looking at developing and nudging essential EI skills like self-awareness and authenticity in our program Applied EI.

Check it out, and remember to take some time to connect with your core from time to time. It’s important.