Life Coaching Journal

By Dr. Dawn Levitan

Life Coaching Journal is a workbook designed to teach you effective
ways to use affirmations, goal setting, journaling, and increase your
understanding life lessons that can impact your overall happiness.
By using cognitive behavioral techniques combined with journaling
prompts you may recover parts of yourself that you may
have forgotten. I hope you find this workbook helpful addition to
your personal journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dr. Dawn Levitan
• Release date: May 22, 2020

Dr. Dawn Levitan

Dr. Dawn R. Levitan is a cognitive behavioral therapist who earned a Bachelors of Science in Chemistry & Psychology from Barat College, Masters of Social Science from the University of Chicago, and a Doctorate of Education from Northern Illinois University. Dr. Dawn has over 30 years of experience in providing mental health services in hospital, outpatient settings, private practice and conducting workshops. She is a Certified Canfield Success Principles Trainer and Life Coach who can help you or your organization find focus, identity goals, release barriers, develop new patterns of behavior and achieve a better life.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1:

Affirmation Coaching

Retraining Your Brain

Positive affirmations are supportive self talk that can help influence our personal belief system and can change the mistaken belief systems that we acquired over our lifetime. We all talk to ourselves in our head and sometimes it is very critical and negative. As yourself this question: If you talk to others the way you talk to yourself in your head, how many friends would you have?

We all talk to ourselves and sometimes it is not very nice. Affirmations are the words and sentences that we say to ourselves in our head or out loud. When our self talk is positive it can help us feel better about who we are and what we are doing at this point in our life. If that self talk is negative, it just keeps us stuck in old negative patterns of behavior as we continue to beat ourselves up emotionally. We can use positive affirmations to reframe our self-perception, improve our self esteem and self confidence.

You are the only one who can challenge and change the chatter of the negative self-talk in your head. Positive affirmations are designed to help us actively focus on goals, traits or other things that will improve our quality of life. There are some simple rules for writing affirmations. These rules make it more effective in helping you reframe how you think about yourself, achieve goals, and become more effective in your daily life.

Guidelines for Creating Affirmations

1. Start with I am or I now have.

2. Always write in the present tense as if you already have accomplished or attained your goal.

3. Use only positive words and phrases leaving out negative words like not, or can’t.

4. State specifically what you want to do or be or have.

5. Keep it short and sweet. About 5-7 words in length.

6. Use action words ending in ing such as enjoying, loving, achieving."

7. Use adverbs to describe the affirmation: calmly, happily, restfully, energetically.

Write, Edit, Review

The more time you spend refining your affirmations and making them real for you, the better you will begin to feel about your life. When you think differently, you act differently and you will begin to feel better! Refresh your mind by reviewing your affirmations everyday. Write new affirmations daily because every day is a new beginning.

Write your affirmations for you and only you.

Review your affirmations at least once daily. Attach pictures around your mirror, at home or work that are inspiring to you.

Record and play them using your own voice daily. Review your affirmations at least 3 to 5 times a day at the minimum. Keep them with you and review them throughout the day.

Keep track of the how many times you review your affirmations daily.

Use Emotionally Charged Words

Emotionally charged words are words that evoke strong feelings for us. They help transport our mind and spirit to a positive, productive and peaceful place. Some examples of emotionally charged words are: happily, smoothly, calmly, proudly, joyfully, lovingly, celebrating, delightfully, relaxing, easily, effortlessly, allowing, creating, valuing, safely, appreciating, quickly, acknowledging, forgiving, creatively, powerfully, confidently, mindfully, securely, effectively, accepting and passionately, etc.

Write down a few words that hold some emotional charge for you.

Cut some emotionally charged words out of magazines, paste them, and decorate this page so that they have more impact for you.

Using Your Senses

We have five main senses. Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting provide us with information about ourselves and our environment. These senses help us recall memories from our past and can be used for visual imaging. When you write and reread your affirmations, go quietly within yourself and bring back the memories and visual pictures using as many of your senses as you can.

1. Create the statements using visually charged words, hearing the sounds you would hear, smelling the smells, feeling the strong feelings once you achieve your goal.

2. Find emotionally charged words that best describe the affirmation or goal you are focusing on.

3. Remember you are writing the affirmation as if it is something that is already occurring in your life.

4. When you write and reread your affirmations, go quietly within yourself and bring back the memories using all of your senses.

You have to write it, see it, and believe it, to achieve it!

Mindfulness

Mindfulness helps us stay in the