Toxicity Toolkit 4 – Week 0 – Taking Inventory

Week Zero

Taking Inventory

Audio version

Week Zero: Journal

Congratulations! You’re ready to get started. You’ve decided to take on detoxifying your home (or other group environment). You’ve got journals for everyone, and everyone agrees that they want better, healthier, happier relationships. I’m so excited for you!

Next week you’ll start working together as a group, but before you get started (It can be 15 minutes before you do the exercise for Week One, so it doesn’t necessarily need a whole week of it’s own) you should open up your journal and do your first journaling exercise.

This week, reflect on your home environment. How do you feel at home? How do you feel about other people in your home? Which relationships do you feel good about? Which relationships do you really want to work on? Which relationships do you have negative feelings about?

How do you feel about detoxifying your home? What are you looking forward to? What are you afraid of?

Think about your own behaviors for a moment. There will be countless opportunities to focus on the behaviors of others, but for right now, look inside yourself. Which behaviors do you perform which add to the toxicity of the home? How do these behaviors affect other people? How do they affect you? Why do you think you perform toxic behaviors?

If you can’t think of any toxic behaviors of your own, don’t be surprised if it’s because you’re not being honest with yourself about your behaviors. In the weeks to come, your family members will be encouraged to engage with toxic behaviors, and you may find more than you anticipated.

It’s ok if you miss behaviors in your assessment. It’s very easy to overlook our own toxic behaviors, and much easier to point out what is toxic in others. As the weeks go by, add to this entry. As your behaviors are revealed to you, write them down, and review these questions again.

For kiddos who are too young to journal, or for members who for any reason can’t journal on their own, please conduct an interview using the questions above.

You could also use an audio or video log instead of a written journal if that makes the activities more accessible.

It’s ok if they aren’t comfortable answering out loud, but it’s also ok if they share it.

Whether or not this journal entry is shared should be up to the individuals. This is a space for being honest, not being held accountable; that will come later.

For more tips on journaling view this post.