12345 (Junk) Journal Club
5 journal prompts, 4 recommendations, 3 habits, 2 bucket list items, and 1 theme to muse on for the week
Welcome back after summer break! I hope the first month of your summer let you put some things down, get outside, and get out of your head a bit.
Over the past month, I’ve been finishing my resident in adult psychiatry and starting my fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry. The past year has been a time where I had more elective time, and thus more freedom to start two creative projects: this newsletter and co-hosting a mental health podcast, which is now in season 2! The last month has been full of bittersweet emotion, as well as now nerves and excitement to begin a new chapter in training where I am once again a small fish in a big pond—though still in Boston.
Over the last month, I’ve had some time as well to reconnect with creativity or bad art just for the hell of it in posting again on TikTok, and sitting here, writing to you all is something I feel rejuvenated to do again. Since making more and writing more in short form over the past few weeks, it struck me how easy it is for me to fall down the trap of wanting to quickly formalize what my Substack is like, and to not allow myself time and trust to try out different formats for articles, newsletters, or challenges. First and foremost, social media and writing is about consistency and fun at this point in my life, and it can be easy for me to lose sight of that, or to somehow always feel the urge to formulate something into a big, coherent project. I don’t write that way on TikTok, and writing in short form again reminded me that play and experimentation with themes is allowed here, too.
Here’s a form I’m trying out today: the 1-2-3-4-5 method for my newsletter. You’ve probably seen people doing weekly R.E.P.O.R.T., and I love that format. This format is for the first full week of July. Here’s what each stands for this week:
1 Theme: Some piece of media, pop culture, and/or art that is resonating with me this week or month, and how I'm trying to live by it (and you could, too).
2 bucket list items: These can be seasonal, yearly, or lifetime. Mine are usually seasonal and can be anything from going to a vacation in a different country to watching a summer sunset on the Charles. Most are little, which makes them doable.
3 habits: The habits I’m working on this month, why, how they are going, and a little about sticking to your own habit change from my background as a therapist.
4 recommendations: This is one I get to have fun with and dive into broader lifestyle and discoveries with you all. It can be an idea, an item, an experience, a movie—anything I’m loving lately, old, new, free, or not.
5 journal prompts for your week: because this is where I started, and is one of my favorite ways to explore all the other habits, bucket list items, and the theme each week. Pick and choose ones you enjoy!
Alright, let’s get this going for this week, aka July 6th-12th!