How to do sentence completion
Congratulations on signing up to 12 Weeks to Self-Knowledge. You've made a valuable commitment to yourself and I hope you find the next three months enjoyable and insightful.
Perhaps you've done sentence completion before, or perhaps this is the first time you've heard of it. Here's a little background information to get you started:
Sentence completion is a tool that can help develop your self-awareness around particular issues. The exercise comes with very few 'rules', the most important one being that it's important not to over-think your answers. The whole point of sentence completion is to use the first answer that comes into your head for a particular stem. You complete each stem six times and then move on. This is a quick process and each set of sentences should take around 10 to 20 minutes to complete.
The best time for me to complete these sentences is first thing in the morning, but try experimenting with different times of day to find out what works for you. The reason I like doing my practice early is because I can focus on the sentences with a fresh mind, before I get involved in the day's tasks and that freshness becomes cluttered with to-dos and the outside world.
You can do sentence completion by hand or digitally. Again, try experimenting to find out what works best for you. I prefer writing by hand as it feels more organic and more 'me', but some people find that method too slow and prefer being able to complete their stems as quickly as possible.
Starting tomorrow, you will receive a set of stems every day for six days a week. The seventh day is a chance to reflect on what you have written, and the stems change weekly. Once a week, you will also receive an email like this covering different questions or concerns that might come up during the course.
This sentence completion course is challenging. The experience will be different for every person but some of the weeks will be hard. Certain stems might be difficult to answer, or leave you with thoughts and feelings that don't sit comfortably. At times like these, you might find it helpful to have a support structure. This can be someone you call when you need to, someone who is also doing the sentence completion course or a group you can meet with and talk to about your experiences.
Good luck!
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Here are today’s sentences. Write each sentence stem out at least once and complete six endings. When finished, you should have 36 completed sentences in total.
1. When I think about sticking to this exercise for 12 weeks, I feel..... x6
2. Something that might stop me from dedicating this time to myself is.... x6
3. Something I'd like to achieve from this is... x6
4. I might find it difficult to... x6
5. When I think of what difference this could make, I feel…x6
6. Aspects of my life I hope this course will influence include…x6
