10 things I’ve learned in quarantine so far:

1. How to perfect the top knot
2. I don’t really like sheet masks
3. Tostito’s chips are my quarantine snack of choice
4. Cut your buttermilk biscuits bigger otherwise you’ll end up with tiny baby biscuits (still good just sorta small!)
5. Meditation is actually cool if you do it often enough
6. Way more people have instant coffee on hand than I thought (@ everyone making whipped coffee right now & I’m jealous)
7. Boxed wine > bottles of wine
8. My apartment gets really nice morning sun
9. Anthropologie candles are the best candles & last FOREVER (this one is my fave)
10. Journaling actually keeps you sane. For real.

Number 10 isn’t really really a surprise to me–I’ve been a writer as long as I can remember. I have at least twelve volumes of childhood diaries, a handful of journals of poetry (High school Kasia was a poet–fun fact!), this blog (duh), and no less than 5 current journals that all have different purposes depending on what I’m writing. Writing is the #1 way I process emotions (my therapist can verify) and I 10/10 recommend it to anyone, ESPECIALLY during this weird/crazy time.

But I get that not everyone is a natural writer & staring at a blank page to be filled with your deepest emotions~ can be daunting. So I put together some of my favorite journal prompts (that are not cheesy or LAME) for non-journalers who may want to become one. Remember–no one’s going to see your journal except you so feel free to let it all out.

Journal Prompts

1. What have you previously taken for granted that you’re grateful for now?
2. What’s one way you can simplify your life & make it more enjoyable/light?
3. This week/month/year, I give myself permission to…
4. Today, what do you need physically, mentally, emotionally?
5. Pick an event/time & write a letter to that version of yourself. Be kind. (*Pst, this is my favorite one)
6. What do you need to hear most right now?
7. When do you feel like your most authentic, happy self?
8. What’s one piece of advice you’d give to your future self?
9. What’s draining your energy? What’s one small step you can take today to solve it?
10. How do you define success?
11. What are you passionate about?
12. Pick an emotion you’re feeling right now & listen to it. What is it trying to tell you?
13. Pick three people you’re grateful for. Write them a short note explaining why you’re thankful for them (& share if you want :))
14. What (small) habit would you like to start? Which habit do you want to break?
15. What’s something kind you can do for yourself today?

And if none of these speak to you–just write a stream of consciousness! Sometimes I make lists of things that are bothering me, or things that I’m thankful for & it just flows from there. There are no rules for journaling. Just do what feels right. &.

Side note–per request from my friend Kara, I’m sharing my lowest point of quarantine to date. It wasn’t funny at the time but now it’s pretty funny. Hope it makes you laugh!!

This past Monday, I desperately needed to go grocery shopping (I had made it 2.5 weeks–a record!) It was supposed to rain all day, but mid-morning it cleared up a bit so I decided to make the 4-block trek to my nearest Acme. I specifically made a list so I wouldn’t panic-buy and struggle to carry all my groceries home (which had happened the first time…)

Well, of course I get there and there’s paper towels in stock, that one type of ice cream I love & a bunch of other things I couldn’t get last time so I throw it all in my cart to only realize–as I’m checking out–there is NO way I can physically carry all of this home. Absolutely none. To top it off, as I’m pushing my cart towards the exit, I realize it’s down pouring.

An Acme worker approaches me, notices my very full cart and generously offers to help me load it into my car. No sir, I don’t have a car, I walked here because I live up the street. Would you mind if I just pushed this shopping cart up to my apartment to unload my groceries if I promise to bring it right back? He says that it’s not really allowed, but I think he felt bad for me, so he removed the lock from the cart to allow me to push a full shopping cart of groceries, in the rain, 4 blocks to my apartment, all the while the cart is making that awful metal clanging noise which is causing people to STARE but not offer help because ya know, social distancing.

But I did it–I walked the four blocks in the rain, cart clanging all the way on the uneven side walks, threw all my groceries inside, almost lost my cart as it rolled down the sidewalk towards the street, and then proceeded to push the empty (still very loud) shopping cart all the way back, eliciting stares from the same people who saw me the first time. And that friends, is probably the lowest I will get during this quarantine. (Don’t worry, I find it all hysterical now. I hope my ridiculousness made you smile!)