journal prompts and practices I swear by

And before all of you guys skip this

part because everyone talks about doing

affirmations. I do affirmations very

very very very differently.

Hello everyone. I'm back with another

journaling episode. No, this channel is

not going to be solely on journaling,

but it is one of the very few things

that I will be very black and white

about and say that if you journal, it

will be good for you. As you know, I've

been journaling forever. I've been

journaling since I was eight years old.

Changed my style of journaling since I

was little. I used to use a diary with a

locket, invisible ink, bullet journal, I

scrapooked. I did all of it. And now I'm

a simple woman and I have pages like

this. It's honestly very satisfying for

me because there is not one page or

space that is not taken up by text. I

even write horizontally. Horizontal

writing. And for today's video, I'm

going to talk about practices and

prompts that I swear by. Starting with

the practices. This is my favorite thing

on the list. I'm just going to give it

to you straight up. The everything list.

If you're similar to me, I get really

overwhelmed when too many things are

changing or need my attention in my

life. Whether it is health, job,

YouTube, my passions. Sometimes it gets

a little crazy all at once and there's

highs and lows. When I'm going through a

period where a lot is changing, I will

create an everything list. So, I have

the regular weeks pages. And then

there's one page on the side where I can

write notes. And this is where I do my

everything list. Here's an example of

one. and it's a list of every single

thing that I need to do or remember

regardless of how important it is or

whether or not it's related to another

thing. So on this list here, I have book

flights, figure out hairy styles

tickets, post on Instagram, clean my

apartment. If I'm feeling overwhelmed, I

will create this list. Once it's on the

paper, I feel so much more relieved

because the problem was that I was

afraid that I would forget something. So

I'm constantly reminding myself to

remember to do something, let alone do

it. From there, I take a look at this

list. I will add a check mark on each

item.

And that check mark means that I had put

it into a day slashtime. So I know that

it will get taken care of because it has

an allotted time. It really helps me

with prioritizing and seeing what needs

to come first because I just dump

everything out onto the paper so I know

that nothing is forgotten. And then from

there I prioritize it by putting it on a

sooner date versus a later date. Another

practice that I really like to do is

affirmations. And before all of you guys

skip this part because everyone talks

about doing affirmations. I do

affirmations very very very differently.

I got this from the artist way book. So

this is not my idea, but it genuinely

helped me so much that it made me

confident in myself in ways that I

couldn't really justify. And so there

are times when you're trying to look for

reassurance in your life and it doesn't

really match what you're trying to do.

So, for example, if all your life all

you've been good at and all you've been

doing is pursuing a STEM career and then

all of a sudden you decide to go 180 and

do something completely different, it is

very difficult to justify or back

yourself up when you don't have that

evidence. And that goes for everybody

else too. A lot of people operate on

that same plane where they can't really

support you or they don't really know if

you will be successful because you

haven't done something similarly.

And so that's why I do this practice. So

instead of just writing my affirmations,

I am pretty or I am successful like

whatever it is for me it doesn't help. I

feel ridiculous. I also feel like I'm

trying to be one of those overly

optimistic people and I am not that

person. and I'm very much a cynical

person. This is the practice that helps

me. All right. So, I basically start off

by writing the same sentence 10 times.

While I'm writing the sentences 10

times, I'm focusing on what I'm saying.

But during that process, a lot of doubt

comes up. Sometimes questions or just

even disagreements with the statement.

Instead of just shoeing it away, which

is what everyone does, I write it down.

for example, and this is going to be so

cringe and vulnerable, but I don't care

because it has led me to where I am

today. Sometimes people really only care

that you made it successfully. They

don't actually wonder what happened in

between. And a lot of the times the in

between is cringey. It's a bunch of

trial and error that a lot of people

don't want to focus on or acknowledge is

part of the process. And I'm going to be

so real. this is what I needed to do in

order to commit and believe in myself

today. So I wrote I Annie [snorts]

am meant to be a successful YouTuber and

podcaster.

I wrote that 10 times. During that 10

times writing process, I would write a

dash connecting that statement if I ever

had a doubt. So some of my doubts were

what do you mean by success or how do

you know you're meant to be successful

at this? And so these are my questions

and these are the doubts. Sometimes it

comes up as not my own doubt but in

somebody else's voice. So for example,

my dad saying why haven't you made it

yet? Where's the proof? Once you do all

of that affirmation writing and then

writing all the doubts and the questions

that come up as you're doing it, then

you go back in and you address every

single doubt and every single question.

And you say to yourself, "This is wrong.

This doubt is wrong because of this.

This is the answer to the question." So,

for example, I said, "How do I know this

is something I've done ever since I was

little? before I was paid to do it, even

before I cared about having money. This

is what I did with my free time. And

this is what I did. Even when I had

other things to do that would give me

more money, that would give me more

stability. I still carved out time,

spend time away from friends and family,

things that were important to me to do

YouTube. by addressing and not pushing

your doubts to the side and fully

hashing out why you might be thinking

that and where is that doubt coming

from. You actually make yourself believe

the affirmation. You actually give

yourself a reason to believe the

affirmation. Because once you have no

doubts, once you have no hesitation,

then all that's left is the truth that

the affirmation is real and will happen.

That's what I do. I can't make myself

believe something I don't believe. And

this is how I make myself believe in an

affirmation is I counter all the

counters.

Next is the bad to good list. So, this

is something I'm trying out. It's not my

idea. I saw it on Tik Tok and I really

wish I had screenshotted it or written

down where I saw it, but I didn't. But

essentially, this list is something that

I add to the back of my planner and I

leave three lines. So the first line is

the bad thing, the disappointment or the

unfortunate event that happened. The

second line is what I learned from that

event. And the third line is a good

thing to come of it. So you don't have

to fill out the second or third line.

All you have to do is write down

everything that has disappointed you.

and then you leave space for the last

two and you come back to it if you

realize something that you've learned or

realize a good thing from that negative

event. And again, this comes from me

just not being a 100% positive

optimistic person. I don't believe that

all the bad events that have happened to

me are 100% good. But I do believe that

good can come out of the bad. And so I

remind myself by doing this new

practice. Also, another thing that I've

been doing is anytime that I'm having a

slow week in my planner. So a slow week

is essentially a week where I have very

little to say in each day and I don't

really have much going on in my life. So

I don't add anything to the planner. I

will fill up the day anyways with

something good that has happened that

day or someone or something I'm grateful

for for that day specifically. So, it's

very satisfying because I really like to

see the slots filled. It makes me feel

like I'm using the planner. And it also

makes me realize that I don't have to

feel bad about not having something to

write for each day or having a task to

do. Instead, I can turn into like, well,

this was a day I enjoyed and this is

something I was grateful for for today.

The last two things are more general

things because I've been journaling for

many, many years and I have over 30 or

so planners now. I have to keep track of

all my planners because I don't actually

know what's going on in them until I

open them. And so something that I've

been doing to keep track of them is on

the cover of every single planner, the

front cover will have the date that I

started it, so the month and the year I

started it. And then the back of the

cover, I will write the month and the

year I ended it. So in this case, this

one started December 2025, and I'm

literally on my last page of this one

journal. And so the back of it will say

February 2025 or 2026. And the last

practice that I swear by is bringing my

journal everywhere. I talked about how I

journal out of convenience. And so my

journal structure and everything about

journaling for me is out of convenience.

So the size of it, the structure of it,

literally I bound three different

planners and journals into one. I use

binder clips to clip them in and paper

clips to hold them together. And this

makes it easy for me because this size

specifically is perfect for the smallest

bag that I have. I can carry it with me

everywhere. And then on top of that,

every single one of my bags that I own

has a pen in it. I don't need to think

about bringing a pen with me. I just

have a pen in every single one of my

bags. And there was a time where I did

try to stick a pen holder into my

journal, but personally, I thought it

was ugly. So, the way I solved it was I

just have a pen in every bag. Okay, next

section. I realized that journaling is

really easy for me because I've done it

all my life and so it's easy for me to

talk about it like it's nothing. But I

realized that for a lot of people

starting this as a new habit or just

even starting it at all is overwhelming

because you're going to look at a page

and sometimes you don't know what to

say. You might be judgmental about what

you say or how you say things. And so

one of the best ways that I feel like

somebody can start off with journaling

without feeling too overwhelmed is

through prompt writing. A prompt is

basically third party guidance. It gives

you a task for the page. And I feel like

even I still use prompts. I don't use it

as much as I used to, but it does help

me a lot with the monotony of journaling

cuz sometimes I really can get into a

pattern of thinking the same way, doing

the same things with my journaling. And

that can only take me so far because I'm

limited to what I know and what I choose

to do. But then the prompts really take

me out of myself and make me think

beyond. And I saw these prompts from

We're Not Really Strangers. They are a

company that created the famous game

where you can learn about other people

through this card game. And then they

actually released a journal where each

page has a prompt. I happened to come by

on my Instagram and I was like, "These

are actually so good. I'm going to try

them." I just could not resist because I

was very curious about what I was going

to say for these prompts. And so some of

the prompts that I'm going to mention in

this next part are from that journal and

they are publicly posted, but I just

compiled them into this part of the

video. So you don't have to go through

all the Tik Toks to find them. And I've

already done like 15 of these. I really,

really like a lot of them. So, highly

recommend either buying the book or just

using what I'm about to say here. And

there's plenty online that you can look

up and just choose whatever you feel

like would be helpful or is interesting

to you. But before that, I will say

there are two different prompts that

I've been doing consistently for a very

long time. And one is seasonal check-in

prompts. I like to see what's going on

for me each season. When I make yearly

plans, it's very difficult for me to

stick with them because 1 year is a very

long time. It's hard for me to feel the

same that I felt in January as I do in

June maybe about the same goals. And

usually I'm not very motivated. I'm also

in a different mindset because it's

summer versus winter. And so with every

single season, I know that there's a big

change coming in my mood, in the way I

do things and my food and whatever. And

so I like to ask myself a bunch of

things in my prompts, what I'm

expecting, what I want to do better for

the season, what I want to have changed.

I will ask those questions with every

single quarter. And I don't really

follow a structure, but I just think to

myself what I want to talk about. I

create my own prompts that way. I also

really like to do a synchronicity prompt

situation. So synchronicity is also from

the artist way, which I know I talk so

much about, but I really love that book.

The synchronicity practice is

essentially noticing when there's

moments of coincidences that really

align with your passion or a calling. It

feels like the universe is lining up

with you and what you need and what

you're asking for. And so I'll write

these things down. I'll be like

synchronicity and then dash and then

I'll write what happened. It's really

not that deep. When I was quitting my

corporate job last year, I didn't tell

everybody the the real reason why I was

leaving the job. Instead, I made up a

reason that I got hired at another

company. But then somebody heard from a

different team that I was leaving the

company and she scheduled a meeting with

me. Somehow she had brought up how she

really wanted to go into this specific

field that was very different than

corporate because it really felt like a

calling and aligned with her values

better than what she's doing today. And

she said that she would eventually do

it. She really clocked why I was

actually leaving and the chances of her

bringing up something like that and she

had very similar values as I did and so

I really related to her. I found that as

a synchronous moment because it seemed

very coincidental and the timing was

very good. Also, there was a period last

year where I was really interested in

seamstressing

and learning how to sew. And all of a

sudden, I was meeting all these people

who were knitting their own clothes,

making their own clothes out of nowhere.

Like, I really have never met so many

people in my life or had opportunities

show up that related to that all of a

sudden. And I didn't tell anybody about

it. It was just all in my head. and I

wrote that down as a synchronicity.

Another one that I really like to write

and this is when I feel kind of meh and

I don't know what the hell is going on.

Sometimes I'll ask myself where do I

feel blocked in my life? What area of my

life feels kind of stagnant or strange

and I'll just start writing it even

though I don't have an answer. I'll just

kind of go off whatever comes up in my

head even though it doesn't really make

a lot of sense. I'll fill up as much as

the page until something comes up. I've

gotten better and better at doing this

since I expect the prompt. But from the

beginning, you just got to keep writing

until something comes up. And you just

got to stick with it. Even though what

you're putting down on the paper might

not really make sense or it might feel

like it's a lot of junk. And that's

because you have a lot of junk. You

haven't had a place to put all of that

stuff and [ __ ] besides keeping it in

your head. And so you have to get rid of

all of that before you can actually get

to the real meat of the matter.

All right, so the last part of the

prompt section is what I had mentioned

earlier, which are prompts that I found

on We're Not Really Strangers, but also

just general prompts based off of

categories. And these categories are

things or areas in your life that you

might want to

make better or better understand or

undo. And some of these categories are

if you're somebody who might be more

insecure or compare yourself to other

people. maybe somebody who maybe self-

sabotages often or you might be

borderline narcissistic, which is okay

because that's just the nature of the

Western culture where you think a lot

about yourself and not so much about

community and maybe you do want to think

more about other people and having other

people be a more integrated part of your

life.

Maybe you don't really understand

yourself that well and you are afraid of

being alone. There's prompts for all of

these things. And so I would just look

up what you're trying to figure out

online and then add prompt afterwards if

there aren't prompts that suit you well

that I mentioned in this part of the

video. So starting with the first

category, if you only know yourself at

the surface level and you want to get to

know yourself better. So, one prompt is

a gut feeling you might have ignored,

a secret that you've kept even from

yourself,

something you didn't understand at the

time, what feelings are you too familiar

with, and admit something to yourself.

Another category is insecurity or

comparison. And this is for anybody who

might feel more insecure at some point

or you feel like you're really comparing

yourself to a lot of people. The first

prompt is the last time you felt jealous

and why. A small unique detail that you

wish someone would notice about you.

When you are comparing yourself or

you're insecure, you're usually thinking

about yourself relative to other people

as opposed to seeing yourself as

something that cannot be compared with

or to. And so if you can come up with

something that's very unique about

yourself that makes you stand out, it

really stands as its own thing and it

will get rid of the need or the ability

to compare. Another prompt is what your

younger self would be proud of seeing

today. The next category is for somebody

who self-sabotages.

Something you said or did that didn't

feel like you. Something you said that

wasn't exactly true and why you might

have said it. A lie you've told yourself

for a long time. The next section is a

set of prompts for people who feel like

they're focusing too much on themselves

versus the community. One way you're

contributing to the problem. Sometimes

you got to humble yourself. That's

really what this prompt is. One thing

that matters so much that you're scared

to ruin it. Who you owe a thank you to.

A person that shocked you or maybe

scared you for being the way that they

were. Sometimes I think that the focus

on yourself comes from a fear of other

people, which is why this prompt is

relevant. It might be just that you're

really trying to protect yourself and

people have hurt you in the past and so

you're just thinking to yourself, if

people are going to hurt me, why would I

bother with being around people or

things that hurt me? And so you avoid

them, which is so fair and common sense.

But if you're trying to be a part of a

community, you have to have that give

and take where in order to get the

benefits of it, you have to realize

there are cons and inefficiencies and

annoyances that you have to deal with

when it comes to interacting with other

people. The next section for prompts is

for people who might feel like they're

ticking bomb, which is you're holding a

lot of stuff on your shoulders. You're

keeping a lot of feelings to yourself

right now and you're not really sharing

them and so you feel like you're going

to explode at any moment. These are

prompts for you. Things that you

downplay.

Write a letter forgiving somebody,

a conversation that is overdue,

something that hurt that you didn't let

yourself feel, and a feeling you wish

there was a word for. So, those are my

prompts categories. Hopefully, some of

them are helpful or maybe a bunch of

them from multiple categories will be

helpful for you. Okay, next part is Hyo

Buffalo, which is what I do in every

[music] episode. It's a life update in a

Hyo Buffalo format. The good, the bad,

the weird. So, starting with the high,

which is the good thing that has

happened. Just a bunch of random

interactions with strangers. I was

carrying flowers from the supermarket

because I was bringing flowers for my

friend. And on the way to her apartment,

this USPS guy was just walking in the

opposite direction towards me and he saw

me holding the flowers and he was so so

funny and he was like, "Oh my gosh,

you're so nice. Like, thanks for the

flowers. You shouldn't have." And I

thought that was a really sweet

interaction. I also was walking the

other day and the bus that was trying to

cross the intersection got stuck behind

another car and so I had to like weave

between cars as you do in New York and I

passed by this school bus and there was

a bunch of kids inside and I just kept

hearing knocking at the window and then

I looked up obviously and there was

these little girls that were waving from

the window and it was so stinking cute

and and I waved at them and they were

just they were so sweet. And also random

stranger interaction. I was in Dallas,

Texas a few weeks ago and I was at the

museum and I was doing my own thing with

my friend. We were drawing actually at

the end of me and my friend drawing. One

of these girls in the room came over and

tapped me on the shoulder and she said

that she watches my videos and it was so

so so sweet. It was so random because I

was obviously in Dallas. If you guys

ever catch me out in the streets like,

"Please say hi." A lot of the times

people don't say hi to me because they

can't tell if I'm, you know, every other

Asian girl. But then usually if I take

off my sweater or if I'm wearing a tank

top, people will recognize me because I

have my full sleeve of red tattoos and

that usually tells everybody who I am.

Um, so yeah, if you ever see that, feel

free to say hi. Um, okay. Next is my

low, which is the bad thing that has

happened. I have been trying to read

more. As you guys know, I talked about

this in my New Year's video. I really

want to be that person who's reading as

a personality.

And I've actually been doing pretty

good. I'm really proud of myself. I

finished one really chunky book.

Actually, it's this one right here. The

book on nightwoman. It's like 450 pages.

Finished that in 1 month. Now, I'm

reading another book and I really had to

switch it up because that one was very

depressing and very emotional. Uh, so

I'm doing a political essay on art by

Bel Hooks, Art on My Mind. Also really

like stunning book and very happily less

than I think 300 pages. Is it 200 pages

only? And I just want to read something

that isn't so heavy. But I'm very

excited. I have to say this is my low

though because I don't know how these

people read so quickly.

Maybe it's because I'm pretty busy

outside of reading and so I don't

actually have a lot of time to read, but

I also know that I read very slowly. I

feel like I'm on one page forever. I

love Kindle. I'm not just like a regular

book reader. I also carry a Kindle

around. But that's like my biggest thing

about carrying a Kindle is that when I

read, I cannot tell my progress because

when I'm reading a physical book, I can

see where I am on the page and also

where I am in relation to the whole

book. But in a Kindle, I really cannot

tell either of those things. I know

there's a percentage, but it really

doesn't help me. I'm really frustrated

because some books really feel like

they're never ending and I wish I could

read faster. And I know that's not the

point, but I do want to be able to get

through more books. There's so many

books I have. Like half of these books

just here alone, physical books, are

books that I need to read. That's not

even including the books I haven't

bought yet that are on my good readads.

And there's books being published every

single day. And there's other stuff I

need to do in my life. And so I'm just

like, if I'm not a speedreader, I don't

know how I'm going to get through

everything I want to read. And that is

my low. That is so frustrating to me.

Next is my Buffalo, which is the weird

thing that has happened. I am actually

on a dance team. Um, it's not

competitive. It's just a seasonal dance

team and we just do a performance at the

end of the season. And this was my first

time being a part of dance team since I

was in college. It is such a different

experience than taking an individual

class and I completely forgot about it.

One of the most annoying things about

taking an individual class is for some

reason, and this is the weird thing, I

cannot learn coro fast enough in an

individual class. I feel like my brain

knows that I'm not going to need to

remember this long term, and so it

doesn't remember it at all. And so I'm

struggling every class to remember the

past five minutes that I just learned

coro. It drives me insane. It makes me

feel very insecure. I feel very let down

every class cuz I'm not picking it up

fast enough. But then when I started

joining this dance team, I am learning

the same amount of coro if not even

more. And I managed to remember it. I'm

like shocked. And I think it genuinely

is because I know it's a long-term

thing, but it's surprising to me and

very strange to me that it makes such a

big difference when it's all just a

bunch of classes that I'm taking. I

actually really like doing this and

yeah, that's my buffalo. Anyways, let me

know what's going on in your life in a

hyo buffalo format as well. Also, if you

guys have really good prompts that you

guys love using or have used in the

past, please put it down below because I

love saving good prompts and adding them

to the page. I mean, if I can even show

you guys like how I've been setting up

the prompts in between my pages. I

basically just circle the prompt on the

top and then I answer it at the bottom.

And that's how I know it's a prompt

section of my journal. And so I would

love to get more from you guys if you

have more under your toe belt. And don't

forget to like, comment, and subscribe.

And I'll see you guys very soon. Bye.

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