Journaling Prompts For Juicy June

Juicy June has arrived and it’s hard to believe that almost half a year has whizzed by. And what a year!

My heart has cried so many times at the stories I have heard and read, I’m not quite sure how this year will be presented in the history books, but it has left me both loving and not loving the human race. I’ve shaken my head in wonder and then wondered — what can I do?

I only know how to be my best self and to always work towards being my best self. And I only know how to love.

Yes, of course, I have a lot to learn about being human and to navigate this human through life, but I would like to think that I have been and am choosing faith over fear and love over hate.

A few days ago I closed my May journal and started a new month fresh with ideas and anticipation. As I look back over my lockdown months I’m (sort of) amused at what has come up.

Certainly, some old patterns have needed addressing as I have felt occasionally trapped and triggered by the silliest of things. And then there has been the utter delight of solitude and isolation. As much as anyone can be with three furry ones.

I wonder sometimes just how contrary I can be. I know that lockdown is affecting us all in so many ways. Which is why my journal and writing is once again my saviour.

I ended last months monthly journaling prompts blog with a monthly mission and there are no surprises that there is another one for this month. I love monthly missions as they keep me focused on just one area to create change. Which of course naturally flows into other areas of my life.

It will come as no surprise that I have chosen love as our mission.

What do we know about June?

In Roman mythology Juno the wife of Jupiter is the Queen of gods, so a pretty important woman. She is the goddess of marriage, childbirth, and a champion of women.

So in the theme of Juno what would you like to marry this month? Perhaps creativity with inspiration or peace with harmony, love with kindness? And in doing so what would you like to birth?

For me, it’s a book and a course. I’m completing a new Writing To Heal book and course. I’d also like to explore creativity in art some more and marry together wire and wire mesh to see what I can make. My mind is buzzing with ideas and I have a large frame waiting for something to be created within its borders. Watch this space!

Talking about space and not the James T Kirk stuff, Juno also lent her name to NASA who launched her on Aug. 5, 2011, to go on an amazing adventure to Jupiter.

In this video, scientists talk about how citizen scientists (who knew there was such a thing) have contributed to the project. I am inspired and the start of this video certainly calls out to the artist in me.

My blog got delayed because once I arrived at the NASA site, I stayed to explore. Wow!

I don’t know about you, but I would adore exploring space. Aren’t we lucky that projects like this are available for us to discover more and to be able to traipse into the furthest reaches of the galaxy from our sofas?

June brings in…

June is the sixth month, and a month for me that signals that summer is here. The two birth signs are Gemini and Cancer. Gemini always makes me think about the two sides of things and is characterised by the Twins, Castor and Pollux.

Cancer is about home and family. My mum a Cancerian cares deeply about her family and is guided by her emotion and intuition. She often says that she is an artist and not of this world.

I have my moon in Cancer and I am utterly romantic which one of the reasons our June mission is about love.

Before we move on and as a complete aside, I am currently watching Orphan Black on Netflix — it’s my latest fix. In the series (without giving too much away) there are females who are clones of Leda (female) and males who are clones of Castor (male). In mythology, Leda is Castor’s mother. And one of the clones (and I won’t tell you why) keeps seeing swans and Leda was seduced by a god in the guise of a swan. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to discover the source of the writer’s inspiration — doh! Aside over…

June is a month for love

Your June mission is to bring more loving-kindness to your life.

One of the most beautiful meditations for love is the Metta Meditation. This will get your June started in a gorgeous way and enable you to focus on your heart space.

Metta Meditation

The loving-kindness or Metta meditation is a powerful and seemingly simple meditation that enables us to foster love, affection, appreciation and kindness towards ourselves, others and the world. It also helps us to practice forgiveness and to consider the boundaries that are needed to protect our kind hearts.

With this meditation, there are no expectations, it is a process to enjoy, where you let go, let love and let flow. We start with ourselves because if we cannot love ourselves, how can we love others? I am sure that you will find it healing and calming.

The way that I use it is to focus on me first. I start with me so that I reach a place of love and appreciation for me.

When I first started this practice, I was surprised that the husband I left after discovering his double life was easy to pass loving kindness on to. However, a previous partner was a little difficult and brought up some feelings of anger. I stuck at it and slowly and believe me it was slow, I eventually let go. When it came to people that I had a difficult time with, I chose to reframe. I didn’t need them in my life and go to lunch with them, but I could choose to see them through the lens of love and know that harbouring unkind feelings towards them was hurting me more. Sending love to the world is far more manageable. Although I did feel helpless because I couldn’t stop all of the cruelty and injustice that I was witness to. What I could do was to send my love out and release it to a higher power who would know where to send it.

Read through the meditation and practice in a way that works for you, always starting with you.

Get ready to Metta

Find a comfortable place to sit or lie. Close your eyes. Take some deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth, with a sigh. Become aware of your body from head to toe, of your weight, and of the heaviness of your limbs. Relax. Scan your body and simply notice. Become aware of any sensations or feelings, but do not judge.

I invite you to imagine that you have roots growing from your feet into Mother Earth. See them flow all the way into the centre of the Earth where there is a pot of grounding and healing energy. Drink this energy in through your roots and into your body. You are now securely anchored into the ground. Feel yourself becoming grounded.

Breathe up and into your heart. Breathe out. Do a few rounds of this.

Directed to yourself

You begin with yourself because without loving yourself, it is difficult to love others.

Repeat this as many times as you feel you need and then move on to the next step.

Directed to someone you like/ love

When you feel you have established some stronger sense of loving-kindness for yourself, you can then expand your meditation to include others. After focusing on yourself for five or ten minutes, choose a benefactor, someone in your life who has loved and genuinely cared for you. Picture this person and carefully recite the same phrases:

Repeat this as many times as you feel you need and then move on to the next step.

After this, you can include others: Spend some time wishing well to a wider circle of friends.

Directed to the world and globally

Then gradually extend your meditation to picture and include community members, neighbours, people everywhere, animals, all beings, the whole earth.

Repeat this as many times as you feel you need and then move on to the next step.

Directed to someone who challenges you

Finally, include the difficult people in your life, even your enemies, wishing that they too may be filled with loving-kindness and peace. This will take practice. But as your heart opens, first to loved ones and friends, you will find that in the end, you won’t want to close it anymore.

Repeat this as many times as you feel you need.

That’s it, one of the most powerful meditations I know and one which will I am sure will change your life as well.

Download and print this PDF, keep it by the side of your bed and near the mirror in the bathroom and chant it at least once a day for a month.

Journaling prompts for June

• Describe what love means to you?
• How do you know when you are in love?
• What makes you feel loved?
• Spell out LOVE and make each letter form a random word. Then write a short reflective piece including these words
• How can you connect to your inner wisdom on a more regular basis?
• Name a thing that you love about your body and then a thing you love about your personality
• What 5 acts of kindness will you do today?
• Ask your body and heart to talk to you. What does it want or need?
• How will I feel at the end of June when I have achieved all I desire for this month?

For more journaling prompts for the heart and creating a heart connection grab a copy of this journal on Amazon.

Love to journal? Join The Journaling Club — where you will get a monthly journaling book (PDF) and exercises to keep you motivated. This month is all about love.

Resources

https://mythopedia.com/roman-mythology/gods/juno/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castor_and_Pollux https://www.astrology-zodiac-signs.com/zodiac-signs/cancer/ https://www.astrology-zodiac-signs.com/zodiac-signs/gemini/

Originally published at https://daledarley.com on June 3, 2020.