A Guide to Using Pledge to Stay Well Journal

This how-to guide will show you exactly how to get the most out of your Pledge to Stay Well Journal. We've included a written guide along with video tutorials and plenty of examples to get you started.

Got a question we haven’t covered? We’d love to hear from you.

Jump to:

Prompt Cards
Core Values
Self-Care Checklist
Self-Talk Support
Affirmations, Quotes & Mantras
Lightbulb Moments

Prompt cards

For a guided journalling experience, refer to your prompt cards. The prompt cards provide the best of both worlds—guidance and flexibility. You can choose prompts that resonate with your current mood, journal at a comfortable pace and reuse prompts as often as you need, without the restriction of lines per prompt.

There are eight prompt cards featuring 86 prompts divided into five categories:

Alleviating Stress and Anxiety
Cultivating Self-Love and Self-Worth
Discovering Core Values and Beliefs
Setting Goals and Intentions
Monthly Reflection

You do not need to complete these in a particular order. Simply choose what you are called to journal about. Some days, you might prefer to write freely. Other days, you might want to engage in a deeper reflection. These prompts can pave the way for new insights and revelations.

Tips:

Store your cards in the back pocket of your journal for easy access.
Write what comes to mind, not what sounds good. It’s not about perfecting your response, it’s about being truly honest with yourself.

Core Values

Before you complete the Core Values exercise:

Adopt a beginner’s mindset.Let go of any preconceived ideas you might have and create space for new insights and revelations to take place.
Let go of what you should value. Be honest with yourself as you complete this exercise. Let go of the expectations imposed by society, work, family and friends. This is about your values, not anyone else’s. Living by someone else’s values will only spark internal conflict since you’re not being true to yourself.

The Core Values exercise:

Step 1

Complete the following set of journalling prompts: Discovering Core Values and Beliefs. Use the lined pages beginning on page 22 to write your responses. This process of self-reflection will help shine a light on your core values.

Step 2

Once completed, read over your responses without judgement and search for the deeper meaning. What does each response say about your values?

Use the brainstorming space on the next page to create a list of values. It might be helpful to complete this sentence for each response: “It’s clear that I value…”

Your responses might point to 1 value or 4 or more values. It’s perfectly fine if many of your responses point to the same value(s). Instead of repeatedly writing the same value, you might like to create a tally next to the value and take note of how many times it comes up in your responses. This just illustrates its significance, and it’ll make it easier for you to refine your list of values in the next step.

188 Values to Draw Inspiration From

Step 3

Once you have a list of values (extracted from your responses), group values that share a common theme and select a word that best represents each group. Use the template on page 9 to complete this step.

Eg. Values like learning, growth and personal development are related. Personal growth might work as a central theme for these values.

Step 4

Refine your list down to five core values and rank them in order of importance to you. These are the values that resonate with you on the deepest level. Use the template on page 10 to complete this step.

Two strategies for ranking and prioritising your core values:

For each value, ask yourself:

Why is this value important to me?
Does this value represent how I show up in the world?
Is this value something I consistently stand up for?
How would I feel if this value wasn’t present in my life?
How would I feel if I had to compromise on this value? Be mindful of strong emotional reactions to the thought of compromising on certain values. These are clues as to what matters most to you.

Compare the pair:

Take a minute or two to rank your values intuitively, without thinking about it too much. You might be starting with an initial list of ten values or you might be using this exercise to simply rank the five core values you’ve already identified.

Once you have a list, compare value #1 with value #2. If you had to choose between living by value #1 or value #2 for the rest of your life, which would you choose? For the purpose of this exercise, you can only choose one to live by.

If value #1 wins, compare it to value #3 on your list and ask yourself the same question. Which is more important to you if you could only choose one and had to compromise on the other? Value #1 or value #3?

Keep going down the list until something beats value #1. If value #4 is more important than value #1, then compare value #4 with the rest of the list. If it wins against all other values on your list, then it takes the #1 position on your list of values.

Repeat this process until you have an order for your values.

Step 5

In one sentence, describe what each core value means to you. What does living by this value look like?

Eg. Personal growth: building life skills that enhance my quality of life and challenging myself by taking voluntary steps outside of my comfort zone.

Resources:

Self-Care Checklist

The Self-Care Checklist is a personalised cheat sheet for managing difficult emotions. Completing this exercise is a classic example of proactive self-care.

Inside your journal, you’ll find six separate checklists—three with labels and three without.

To complete this section, reflect on the coping strategies you can rely on when feeling stressed, exhausted or sad.

For the purpose of this exercise, avoid adding activities you haven’t tried before. The purpose of these checklists is to equip you with the confidence to care for yourself when you are most vulnerable.

Think about activities and rituals that have worked well for you in the past and list them under the relevant checklist.

The remaining checklists are yours to label. Reserve them for feelings and emotions you find particularly challenging, and curate a list of mindful strategies.