Episode Transcript
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Cathy (00:00):
The goal of journaling is
actually to write to yourself,
to let your conscious self knowand understand what you've been
trying to avoid in life on anunconscious level.
In today's episode you'll learnseven types of journaling to
help you get unstuck.
Why journaling is essential toyour health and flowing with
life and how to know what typeof journaling to use and when.
(01:23):
Hey friends.
Welcome back to the show.
This is episode 81 of thehealth, harmony, and happiness
with Kathy podcast.
I hope that you are all enjoyingyour summer.
I know that I am, and I can'tbelieve it's already nearly the
middle of July.
It's about this time of yearthat you might start to realize
(01:43):
that even though you might bespending time, Doing things
physically and being outside andbeing active and engaging with
others and maybe playing withyour kids a bit more, going on
walks or bike rides, doingthings that keep your body
physically active.
You might start to realize thatyou have forgotten to connect so
(02:04):
much with.
Your inner self.
This is a common thing this timeof year, at least.
I notice it almost every yearwhen I get into this place of
doing and thriving, which isquite honestly the energy of
summer, the energy of summer isall about putting yourself out
there and connecting, remember.
So it's about being active andactually blooming and thriving
(02:25):
in your element.
And for most of us, I think thatmeans that we are doing, at
least if you're anything likeme, it means that you're being
active.
And that is absolutely great.
It's wonderful.
And it's needed because it's inalignment with the season.
That we are in.
But it also means that we forgetto be introspective and we
(02:47):
forget to actually tune into ourinner self.
And what it's needing the most.
You might even forget to checkin with your feelings and
emotions and for some of you.
That may be something that youdon't ever do.
And that's okay.
That's absolutely.
Okay.
But if you stay on this journeylong enough with me, it's
(03:07):
something that you mightactually start doing.
In fact, my husband and Irecently started using a great
app and I am not receiving anysort of financial kickback for
this or anything.
It's just a wonderful app that.
Um, we found actually, becauseone of my clients told me about
it and we had been using adifferent app.
But she came across this app andit is absolutely wonderful.
(03:29):
So you know who you are outthere.
Thank you so much for sharingthis one with us.
I will put a link to it in theshow notes, but the app is
called how we feel and you canset prompts so that it prompts
you to check in throughout theday with how you're feeling.
And then you can also sharethose feelings with someone else
or with your friends, becauseyou can connect on the app and,
(03:52):
and create friends.
Now you don't have to do thatpart of it, but what it has
allowed my husband and I to dois to make sure that we are
pausing throughout the day.
To check in with our feelingsand emotions, share them with
the other person.
And then it gives us some sortof, um, way to connect, even if
we're not connecting verballythroughout the course of our
(04:13):
day, while we're at work.
But it also gives us someinsight into what each of us is
experiencing so that when we doour daily connection, when we
get home from work at the end ofthe day, We have something to
talk about or we can bring thosefeelings up if it's something
that maybe someone would want totalk about.
So it's a beautiful nudge toturn inward and I will, once
(04:35):
again, I'll put that link in.
In the episode so that you cango out and check it out if you
want it as well.
Totally free and you can get iton apple or Android, which is
the beautiful thing, becauseit's, it's from like a nonprofit
that puts it out there andthey've got education tools on.
Learning about your emotions andfeelings and that kind of stuff
in with it as well.
(04:55):
So it is a very great resource.
Like I said, I'm not getting anysort of financial kickback or
anything from it.
It's just a great app.
I love it.
And I want to share it with yousince we are talking about
pausing and checking in withourselves today in this time,
when it's a bunch of outwardenergy as summer is, and it
should be because that is theenergy of summer.
(05:17):
We often forget to tune inwardand sometimes that can leave us
feeling stuck.
And not in the flow or maybethat you're flowing so much
outwardly you forget to tune inand actually ask your inner
guidance, what it is she'sneeding, what it is he's
needing.
And.
How to move forward, connectingboth your inner and your outer
(05:40):
world, your masculine and yourfeminine side.
So this episode is all aboutdoing just that.
It is about journaling and usingjournaling to flow.
Now, for some of you, you mightthink, ah, I hate journaling.
I'm shutting this podcastepisode off right now.
I don't want to listen to it.
(06:01):
But stop.
I want to nudge you to keeplistening, because there are
simple ways that you can invitejournaling into your life.
That will actually help youbegin to flow and get the stuck
out of you so that you can, um,feel like you're in flow.
Journaling was one of the firsttools that I think I ever used
(06:25):
growing up to begin to flow andI didn't even realize that was
what was happening.
It was just a way for me tobegin to process my feelings and
emotions, even if at that timein my life, I likely wasn't
naming my feelings, maybe I wasa little bit.
But.
It was a way that I couldprocess the day.
And so I would generally tend tojournal in the evening.
(06:48):
Now, speaking of flow.
Journaling could also be one ofthe things, one of the
disciplines that for those ofyou who might be pretty rigid,
whenever you start a disciplineor a habit, it could be one of
the things that you need toremember to encourage yourself
to flow with instead of makingit become a task that has to be
(07:10):
done every single day because itabsolutely doesn't have to be a
task that's done every day.
That's when you have to tuneinto your inner guidance and
then go from there.
Decide am I needing to journaltoday?
Or am I not?
In the beginning, you mightactually have to make yourself
sit down and journal, but onceyou start and once you begin to
(07:34):
cultivate that habit, It's oneof those things where you could
get trapped in feeling like ithas to be done every day.
And I want to invite you torelease that need.
Release that mindset.
Because it absolutely isn't,perhaps there's a day where it's
just not in the cards for you tojournal and that's okay.
(07:54):
That's absolutely.
Okay.
So it's about finding thatbalance between the flow and the
rigidity of habits or ofdisciplines.
In allowing journaling to inviteflow versus allowing it to
become just another task oranother thing on your to-do
list.
It's something that you want tocome to freely and naturally.
(08:16):
And sitting down with an emptynotebook and a pen might not
actually feel like it couldinvite flow, but rest assured,
I'm going to share with you afew ways today that you might be
able to simply invite journalinginto your life.
There are a lot of other typesof journaling out there.
These are just the types that Ihave used and have found great
(08:38):
success in.
And I actually didn't evenrealize that they were types of
journaling until I sat down andstarted thinking about it and
naming them.
They're the ones I've realizedto help me get unstuck and tune
back into myself so that I canunderstand myself a little bit
more and can continue to flowwith my time, energy and focus.
(09:01):
And I hope they will help youunderstand yourself a little bit
more as well.
That being said, if another typeof journaling works well for
you.
Awesome.
And if it does maybe even shareit in the comments of this
podcast.
In the book, the body keeps thescore by Bessel van der Kolk.
He wrote.
When you write to yourself, youdon't have to worry about other
(09:24):
people's judgment.
You just listen to your ownthoughts and let their flow
takeover.
Later when you reread what youwrote, you often discover
surprising truths.
I couldn't agree more.
And that is exactly why I wantedto share my journal techniques
with you so that you can maybeexperience this as well.
(09:48):
Once I started researchingjournaling a bit more, science
actually showed me why I felt sogood after I did journal as a
kid from a young age, and thenanytime I did pick up my journal
and pen and begin writing as Ihave to this day.
Journaling actually hasscientific benefits to your
health.
(10:08):
Which is a very cool thing.
And there's been one guy who'sdone quite a lot of research on
journaling and his name is Dr.
James Pennebaker.
He is the one who did a lot ofthis research and he actually
did it with.
Um, trauma victims.
So a lot of the stuff that's outthere on journaling research,
which, who geeks out on that,apparently I do.
(10:32):
Um, Is based on people who havehad traumatic events in their
life, or maybe who have sufferedfrom PTSD.
We all have traumas in our life,whether they are the little
daily traumas or the little Ttraumas as I call them, or the
big T traumas, like the bigevents that maybe shifted the
whole way that we exist in thisworld.
(10:55):
No matter if you think ofyourself as having trauma in
your life, it's likely that youprobably do, even if it's in
small ways.
So the journaling research thatcame out of the work that he did
is.
No different.
It is absolutely just asbeneficial to you as a human.
So one of the first things Iwant to point out.
(11:16):
When considering research onjournaling is how it helps the
mental health.
It allows you to release thingsfrom your past and actually gain
clarity.
By journaling, you can resolvepast experiences.
You can identify and placeemotions with past or present
moment experiences.
(11:36):
Because you can work throughthose experiences and gain a
bigger understanding of whatthey are.
It helps you almost zoom out andlook at them through a different
lens.
It helps you understand whymaybe you feel a certain way
because you begin to process onpaper what's being hidden in
your unconscious mind, or what'smaybe even being hidden in your
conscious mind you just don'twant to actually admit it.
(11:59):
But when you put it out onpaper, no one else has to read
it.
It's to no one else's eyes orjudgment.
Absolutely no one else'sjudgment and only for someone
else's eyes.
If you choose to share it withthem.
But journaling.
Helps you sort out the eventsand confront and understand
experiences that you've had sothat you can organize and
(12:20):
process your thoughts aroundthem without judgment, as I
said.
In terms of mental health.
It also helps you have a morepositive outlook because it is
getting the stuff out of yourbrain and helping you process
it.
So that you can begin to thinkmore clearly.
And have a positive outlook andit's just shown that those were,
(12:40):
some of the outcomes or some ofthe, um, byproducts of
journaling.
In a physical sense.
Journaling actually helps thephysical body too, which is a
very cool thing.
Uh, it can strengthen yourimmune system because you are
processing the stress of life.
When you actually sit down andjournal.
If you're journaling aboutthings that are stressful or
(13:02):
traumatic.
And it even has these subtlephysiological changes in your
body.
Dr.
Pennebaker discovered they, theytracked blood pressure, heart
rate, muscle tension, bodytemperature.
And all of these things hadsignificant positive changes in
both the immediate andlong-term, which is pretty cool.
(13:26):
So it can lower blood pressurejust by beginning to process
your thoughts on paper.
So it's a super good reason tosit down and put a pen to paper.
Journaling helps you get intouch with those deeper places
inside your brain so that youcan process the information.
(13:46):
And.
When I say it gets in touch withthose deeper places, it might
actually be that it brings youback to being the person or at
least being in the mental andemotional state that you were
in.
In the moment of the instancethat you might be journaling
about.
So if you're processing astressful event, it might bring
(14:07):
you back in your body mightactually start to have those
physiological changes where yourheart rate starts to increase.
You might start crying.
You might feel tension somewherein your body.
All of those things begin tohappen when you do some self
inquiry and tune into a specificstressful event or traumatic
event that you might be.
(14:28):
Experiencing.
So.
Any time, you start to processsomething on paper.
You have the tendency to bringyourself back to that moment in
time.
And what that does is itcommunicates with your body when
your brain can see it going outon the paper, it communicates
with your brain and your bodythat it's leaving your presence.
It's leaving your energeticawareness and your state because
(14:51):
it's going down on paper.
And something about that justmakes your brain process things
a little bit differently.
I've talked to you guys aboutthat in the, um, list taking.
List-making episode that I did afew episodes back.
If you haven't listened to thatone yet.
Head back and check that one outwhen this one's over, but
something about putting pen topaper.
(15:13):
Allows your brain to process ita little bit differently.
I mentioned that it helps youget in touch with these deeper
places inside your brain.
You can also.
Access those deeper places inyour brain by using your
nondominant hand to journal.
Versus your dominant hand.
And we'll talk about that alittle bit more in a moment, but
(15:36):
that's one way that you can getin touch with kind of this inner
child or inner self that mightbe in you, which is pretty,
pretty cool.
Onto the seven types ofjournaling that help you get
unstuck.
The first type of journalingthat I'm going to tell you about
is probably my favorite type ofjournaling.
And it is what I call stream ofconsciousness, journaling.
(15:58):
This is where you set a timerfor 15 to 30 minutes, or you can
go longer if you want.
I just tend to find that 30minutes is, um, is, is a fair
amount to get, to get enough outof your brain.
Now sometimes.
If you're really on a roll that30 minutes goes by really
quickly and you end up writingfor longer.
So again, there's an opportunityto invite flow and not rigidity.
(16:21):
Unless of course you are on atime schedule and you have other
things to do, then stick withyour.
Stick with your timer and, andtrust that whatever came out
onto the paper is what wassupposed to come out.
But back to stream ofconsciousness, journaling.
You basically write whatevercomes to mind.
Now, sitting down with a blanknotebook and a pen.
(16:41):
Seems a little bit.
Intimidating to you.
Here's my tip.
Just begin to write the firstthing that you are thinking and
let it lead to whatever comesnext.
So that first sentence mightsimply be.
"I don't really know what towrite.
I'm sitting here with a blankpiece of paper in front of me,
(17:03):
and now I have to write whatevercomes to mind.
Oh, I hear the dog barkingoutside.
I wonder what I'm going to havefor breakfast.
I wonder how this morning isgoing to go.
What do I need to do today?".
That jumble of thoughts thatjust came out of my mind is what
stream of consciousnessjournaling is all about.
(17:23):
What stream of consciousnessjournaling does, is it invites
your mind to play freely.
And we know that play isimportant.
We know that's an extremelyimportant part of life.
And the energetic rhythms isthat we rest and play because it
invites not only creativity, butit allows your mind to flow
instead of get stuck in therigidity or wormhole of only
(17:46):
going in one direction.
It gives your mind freedom andflexibility instead And 10 out
of 10 times, if I sit down andhave an issue.
And I do stream of consciousnessjournaling, or I have something
that I'm trying to work through.
I come up with either a solutionor a list of potential solutions
(18:06):
or options or ways that I canmove through it.
So many of my projects,worksheets, podcast episodes
have been birthed through streamof consciousness, journaling,
and that's I guess why it's myfavorite.
Because once you allow your mindto just go, wherever it goes,
You can tap into the higherstate of who you are and
(18:29):
brilliant things will come outon paper.
You just have to be able to notlimit yourself.
And begin to, to judge what youput on paper.
When you do stream ofconsciousness, journaling, it's
important that you don't crossanything out or erase anything
that you've started writing,because it's just your brain's
way of.
Actually putting things out onpaper, it's like, kind of like
(18:51):
when you mix words around byaccident.
If you.
Put a word on the paper that youdon't think was supposed to come
out.
Just trust that it was supposedto come out.
It needed to come out in thatorder, even if it didn't make
any sense.
That stream of consciousness,journaling, and quite honestly,
Oftentimes my stream ofconsciousness, journaling turns
(19:11):
into a conversation with Godwhere I am.
Talking.
And.
Expressing my frustrationsexpressing my needs.
My wants.
All of those things.
And then listening for thatresponse.
So this leads into the secondtype of journaling, which is
journaling with God orjournaling with the universe.
(19:35):
It's just basically having aconversation with God, having a
conversation with the universeand it's kind of the back and
forth.
This might feel like it's aconversation with yourself.
But really it's thatconversation of that, that inner
light and that inner guidanceinside of you, which I like to
think of as the voice of God.
So the second type of journalingis journaling with God.
(19:58):
The third type of journaling,because it's very similar to
that.
Second type is prayerjournaling.
this is what differentiates thisfrom journaling with God, is
that you're making a specificrequest or asking for direction
or guidance and, or praying overa specific person.
And then you're trusting thatGod will answer it.
(20:19):
You're releasing control overit, releasing attachment to it.
And trusting that it will beanswered.
No, it might not always beanswered in the way that you
want.
Uh, or the way that you'rehoping, but just putting it out
there.
And then letting go of it.
Kind of an offset of.
(20:39):
Prayer journaling is.
Praying in color.
Or doodle.
Journaling.
Which I think these are bothworth mentioning.
And so I'll just mention themhere.
I've done instances in my lifewhere I have.
Um, Use different coloredmarkers or colored pens or
(20:59):
colored pencils and just kind ofdoodled and prayed.
And so I've, I've written words,phrases, and then I've colored
around them or written aroundthem.
And this is probably one that,um, I could invite more of into
my life because I used to be avery creative, artsy person.
And I've kind of shut that sideof me down in a sense of.
(21:25):
Creating art or creating artpieces or scrapbooking or
anything like that.
Those are all things that I'vedone in my past.
And I really enjoyed them, but Ihaven't done them so much in my
adult life.
Now I do sit down and color withmy kids, which is great, but
it's not just freestyle drawing.
And that opens up a wholedifferent side of the brain, but
you can do that with prayerjournaling.
(21:47):
And it's called praying incolor.
You're simply making your prayerrequests by writing them and by
drawing about them.
On a piece of paper.
So that's a great one.
That's worth mentioning.
It's not one that I do all thetime.
Um, but prayer journaling isdefinitely one, but the, the
praying in color or the doodlejournaling it's just kind of an
offset of that.
(22:08):
With prayer, journaling andjournaling with God.
Whatever way you do it, there'snot a right or wrong, and you
don't have to be specific in theway that you do it.
And those two types might blendinto each other and they might
even blend into that stream ofconsciousness.
Journaling.
But either way, you're simplyinviting God to be a part of
what comes to your mind.
And you're inviting.
(22:30):
God's presence to be in whateveryou are doing.
And I think that's just abeautiful reminder and way to be
intentional about journaling.
The next type of journalingwould be using journal prompts.
Journal prompts can be selfinquiry.
So questions that you havespecifically that you're seeking
(22:52):
answers to from your unconsciousmind or from your inner child.
They could be a Bible verse thatyou are journaling around or
writing about and yourreflections on it.
It could be an affirmation thatyou are taking deeper or going a
little bit deeper with andexploring what that actually
means to you.
Journal prompts are a wonderfulway to get started with
(23:15):
journaling.
Also, if you feel like sittingdown with a blank piece of paper
is a little bit toointimidating.
If you've got a prompt to helpyou begin to explore it makes it
a little bit easier sometimes.
And that then turns into streamof consciousness, journaling,
which is also a beautiful thing.
And you know, all of thesejournaling types, they kind of
bleed into each other, which is.
(23:36):
A beautiful, beautiful thing.
But if you start with theintention of doing one and it
turns into something else,that's okay.
Some examples of journalprompts, which I will include in
the handout for this episode.
Could be things like whatpositive thing is trying to come
from this?
Or what is my physical bodytelling me about this problem or
issue?
(23:56):
What do I really want?
What do I most need right now?"Those are all questions that I
regularly use to get theconversation going in my mind
between whether it's my innerchild and my adult self or my
inner protector and my innerguidance.
It's just all things to get yourmind going.
(24:18):
One of the things that journalprompts is also really helpful
for is getting in touch withyour inner child, as I
mentioned.
And the way to do this is to usenondominant hand journaling.
So you would write the questionin your dominant hand, that's
kind of your adult self hand.
But then with your non-dominanthand, you write the response as
(24:38):
sloppy and as messy as it is.
It's almost like it's yourmind's way of letting your inner
child be the one who isresponding and eventually with
time, believe it or not, yournon-dominant handwriting does
improve.
And it begins to kind of growup, which is kind of a cool
thing.
Journal prompts are a great wayto simply get started with
(25:00):
journaling and to begin to getunstuck.
I mentioned affirmations when Iwas talking about journal
prompts.
And this is another type ofjournaling that I use pretty
regularly.
It's affirmation journaling.
A couple of ways of doing this.
The first and simplest way wouldbe to just.
(25:21):
Take the affirmations thatyou're working with, whatever
they may be.
And if you need ideas on those,check out my Instagram page.
Scroll back quite a bit.
I used to post them weekly.
And just begin working withthose affirmations by writing
them down line after line.
Repeatedly.
Something about writing themrepeatedly.
(25:42):
It's kind of like in the old,old days, whatever, if somebody
was got doing something inschool and they had to go up and
write it on the board so manytimes it's kind of the same
thought process behind that.
But.
Just a reminder, the affirmationis a positive statement of what
you want to be embodying in yourlife or living in your life at
(26:02):
that moment.
So it's stated in the presentmoment, not in the future.
Not as I hope this will happen.
It is stated right now in thepresent moment.
So one that you could use is"Iam calm and relaxed.
My mind is at peace." And youwould write that over and over
time and time again.
(26:23):
Just allowing it to soak intoyour mind.
You might also take that sameaffirmation.
And as I said, a moment ago injournal prompts, you might begin
to break that affirmation downand kind of disassemble it and
consider what that actuallymeans to you and what that might
look like in your life.
(26:44):
What it might look like, what itmight sound like, what it might
feel like in your life.
Affirmation journaling is asimple way to begin journaling
because you're literally justtaking a sentence and writing it
over and over again.
And affirmation of somethingthat you want to be living in
your life.
And believing in your life andit might be more than one
(27:05):
sentence and those sentencesmight shift and morph as you
journal with them.
Allow that flow to take place.
And the last two types ofjournaling that I'm going to
mention are both types ofjournaling, that invite
reflection.
The first one is gratitudejournaling or keeping a
blessings journal.
(27:26):
This is something I started todo long ago.
And it's really pretty simple atthe end of the day or at the
beginning, if you choose.
You reflect back on whatblessings you notice throughout
your day.
These could be simple things, orthese could be big complex
things.
Remember that anything in lifecan be.
A blessing.
(27:46):
I recommend choosing one tothree things and simply listing
them out in the beginning.
If you feel called to journaldeeper on what one of those
bullet points.
Or blessings is then you havethat opportunity to do that.
It invites your mind to godeeper with any of the blessings
that you might recall or writedown.
(28:10):
I keep a completely separateblessings journal and no other
writing goes in that journal,except my blessings.
Then I can easily look back frompast years and see and recall
what my blessings are because Ikeep them pretty short.
Sometimes, like I said, Ijournal further on them, but
still it's not pages upon pagesof what that blessing is about.
(28:35):
It's just little reminders ofthis actually happened.
And this is why this is ablessing for me today.
And then finally the last typeof journaling that I find
helpful in getting unstuck isreflection journaling.
This is where you sit down andreflect on what's gone well or
(28:55):
what you need guidance on, whatprayers you have.
Uh, it's the reflection on lifestuff, your challenges, your
successes, or what needs tochange.
This type of journaling is goodto do.
Not only at the end of the yearbefore you start a new year.
But it's also great to do at theend of each project that you do
(29:16):
or event that you host.
I try to do this type ofjournaling after I host events,
workshops classes.
Um, because it just allows mymind to bring some closure to an
event.
And that's kind of the samething with blessings or
gratitude journaling as well.
It brings closure in your mindto something.
When I do blessings journalingat the end of the day, it brings
(29:38):
closure to the end of the dayand helps me to give thanks for
those blessings in my life.
Reflection journaling is muchthe same.
You could do it at the end ofthe day.
You could do it at the end ofthe month.
You can do it at the end of thequarter, whatever it may be.
It's just allowing yourself tobring closure to something.
So that you can set intentionsfor the upcoming cycle.
(30:01):
Reflections are typically donein the fourth phase of the
energetic rhythm cycle or thelife cycle of anything.
It's kind of the way that we endthings.
We celebrate.
We harvest, we draw in, wereflect.
So that the very next phase ofthe cycle, you can begin to set
intentions.
Those are the seven types ofjournaling.
(30:22):
Check out the handout that Ihave created and included in
this episode so that you can useit if you need a little help
with getting started withjournaling.
Sometimes we don't always knowwhat to write about as I've
mentioned.
And if you have a handout thattells you, oh, you could do this
type of journaling or this typeof journaling, it might just
(30:46):
give you some inspiration andget your mind going with how
that could be helpful.
Following a journaling session,you might feel lighter or more
free, or you might have a dip inmood for a short time after,
depending on what you werejournaling about.
Either way, it usually helpsrelieve some strain or stuck
(31:06):
feelings or energy that may havebeen living inside of you so
that you can indeed see thebigger picture.
If you're journaling aboutsomething that you want to let
go of, it might be helpful toburn, throw out or shred,
whatever it is you wrote, givingit more, a sense of finality and
release from yourself.
And this is something that Ialways encourage clients to do
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when they're doing a, theirmonthly releasing ritual or
considering what they want tolet go of.
To write it on a little piece ofpaper and then burn it and get
rid of it.
Something about that processjust helps release it from your
energy.
Here's some things to rememberas we wrap up today.
It doesn't matter what you writeabout.
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No one else is going to bereading or judging it.
Start with something simple,like keeping a blessings journal
or writing out affirmations orusing one or two journal prompts
to get your mind going.
And then watch the flow begin toreturn to your life.
As you naturally invite apositive outlook to happen from
giving your brain a chance toprocess, whatever may be causing
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stress in your mind.
I'm Cathy Struecker, and you'vebeen listening to health,
harmony, and happiness withCathy, helping you find and use
the rhythms around you in allyou do.
Cheers to cultivating your ownversion of health harmony and
happiness in your life