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A self-reflection journal created during the Erasmus+ youth exchange “Holistic Health Empowerment.” It guides young people to track emotions, energy, gratitude, and triggers, helping them build awareness and emotional resilience.

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The Mentoring under Construction Community is open for everyone who is interested in raising the quality in mentoring within European Solidarity Corps programme (and beyond): mentors, project managers/organisers, coordinators of volunteers, facilitators of learning, authors and trainers, and members of National Agencies and SALTO Resource Centres.

Join us on Facebook, Howspace or Instagram! (linktree)

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Add new resources and tools below this line...

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Add new resources and tools below this line...

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Setting an intention can be a powerful way to start the day, e.g.

What is one thing I can do today to bring more energy to …,

Today, I am showing up with … (three adjectives),

What is one small, intentional step I can take today to align my actions with the vision I want for my volunteering journey?

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Setting boundaries is often mentioned when we ask about challenges of mentoring. What do you need to know as a mentor about boundaries? How can you set boundaries as a mentor? And hHow can you develop setting boundaries as a mentor? are questions to ponder, if you want to manage this challenge.

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Purpose:

To help volunteers explore where they are now, where they want to be in a chosen time frame, and what actions can bridge the gap.

How it works:

1. Current state – Invite the volunteer to express “Where I am today” in a creative way: write words or draw images on sticky notes, cards, or a flipchart.

2. Desired state – Create a second set of notes showing “Where I want to be in X time” (e.g., confident, skilled, connected).

3. The gap & action – Physically move from the first set to the second, pausing in the middle to identify the steps needed to cross the gap. The act of standing or moving represents the decision to take action.

Why it works:

This playful, visual method helps volunteers:

• Recognize feelings and strengths.

• Clarify aspirations.

• See the transition from present to future as something they can influence.

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Source: ARTE EGO Foundation in Poland and GrenzKultur / Cabuwazi in Germany

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The aim of "The colours of feelings and needs" is to support people in acquiring and developing the ability to identify, express, interpret and reflect upon their own feelings and needs.

We equip practitioners: as educators, trainers and youth workers - with an innovative tool in the form of illustrated cards of feelings and needs.

By offering the set of cards which consists of 4 different painting styles we offer the tool which may reach a much wider public, each painting style is a different language of communication.
Everyone can find their own card.

The first part of the project - research, consisted of collecting visual expressions of feelings coming from different cultural backgrounds and minority groups of young people. We have analysed literature, social media and made workshops.

Based on the research outcomes 5 different artists with different art styles created a set of 160 illustrations representing 40 feelings in 4 different painting styles. And 96 illustrations of needs in digital design.

Cards were tested during several workshops in Poland and Germany.

The project was co-financed by Erasmus+ Program and hosted by ARTE EGO Foundation in Poland and GrenzKultur / Cabuwazi in Germany.

My paintings are abstract, however, are based on reality.
I give great importance to the form and aesthetics of my work.
I paint according to classic definitions of beauty where I am looking for visual balance.

The peace will not be boring, that dynamism will not become Chaos, the rhythm will not change into monotony.

These paintings are just surfaces covered with colourful blots with different textures. The surface is somewhere divided more, somewhere less, something emerges from the darkness, something dies in the light.

My name is Paweł Hulpowski Szulz, and I am the artist living currently in Lublin, Poland.

Through the social campaign, I have asked 40 different people to make selfies expressing one of 40 feelings.

Selfie captures face as a reflection in a mirror, this makes the portrait of a feeling more a feeling than a person. Out of these selfies, I painted 40 oil portraits on wood.

Behind those portraits are real feelings of real people. Each of them is a different journey. I was surprised by the process of painting.

My name is Dagna Gmitrowicz, and I am the artist fascinated by the nature and beauty of people, currently living in Berlin. www.dagna.space

Those 40 big format acrylic paintings on paper are the metaphors of feelings. Nature in a context of civilization.

In my work animals are the actors representing feelings. Additionally, there is an allegory of the poker deck, we can´t always control the intensity or timing of our feelings but we can decide how to play them...
I have chosen 8 specials playing card: 4 AceFeelings and 4 JokerFeelings.

I used mix-media, the ideal way to explain Feelings, where Feeling is not a solid piece. I can see each of them like a big mosaic integrated from many small pieces. I have used a highly glossy pepper on wich inks, acryls, oil pastel and all pieces of old paper are exposed to more immediate ageing and deterioration, thereby showing the vulnerable and delicate face of feelings.

I'm Hector, I come from Gijón, Asturias (North-West Spain).

https://hectorgrafiko.wixsite.com/caricaturist/

The biggest discovery turned out to be a whole range of feelings - their weight, gradation, warmth and cold, brightness and darkness.
The feelings that are an invisible part of our lives. They are so obvious that we completely stopped seeing them, hearing, feeling.

Will my interpretation correspond with someone on the other side of the table?
Senses and feelings are intertwined. The perception of the world by a man with feelings is like a meadow overgrown with dozens or hundreds of species of grass essay and flowers. Sensitive to the gentlest breeze, hot sun, the first drops of rain carrying a saving relief. Or a violent summer storm, and a downpour that all rife into a dry thread carrying a cleansing. And in winter, feelings hide under a thick layer of snow or deep underground. They flow with the current of the river, some fight and force themselves to flow against it.

My name is Piotr Borzęcki, I am the painter and pottery artist, currently living in small-town Srtyków in Poland.

For the representation of these 96 needs, made with a graphic tablet, I had to study the importance of colours and shapes. It is like a game of colours and shapes, lights and shadows, fullness and emptiness.

The representations are mostly figurative, there is a lot of inspiration of human being, there is a reference to nature, plants, flowers and branches.

I'm Ester Vescovi, an Italian artist residing in Bergamo (Italy).

https://www.instagram.com/vescoviester/

The goals of this project were accomplished in several stages of research. First, we delineated the 40 most common/known feelings. We wanted a universal view of the most familiar feelings, which is why we distributed a questionnaire online to anyone willing to participate, though we prioritized replies from youth. We received over 200 responses from participants from a wide range of countries.

Next, we organized a set of workshops for young people from Poland and Germany who belong to different social and cultural backgrounds. The workshops were run by our trainers who created a safe and supportive environment to help participants connect with their feelings and express them visually.
To ensure our research results had a more international and universal aspect, we organized an open social media call for anyone who wanted to join us in visually expressing their feelings and publishing it online on our social media pages. Simultaneously, we did a detailed literature analysis of the most current resources on the topic of the project. We consulted projects and magazines, as well as online resources where people published their own representations of targeted feelings and those of famous artists, which were all free to use by the public.
Finally, the final results of our research, i.e. the images we collected from the workshops, social media call and literature review, were used by the artists to create a set of 160 cards visually depicting the 40 most common emotions called "The Colors of Feelings and Needs".

How do you feel?"
"How would you express it with colours?"
Choose a pencil, grab a pastel, dip the pinsel.
Draw your inner world, follow the strokes of your emotions.
With this invitation, I approached people all around Europe collecting visual expressions of feelings for the research phase of this project.
I talked and painted with people from various backgrounds, in different contexts, from pop-up stations in public spaces to smoky empty bars, during an ecological demonstration or individual sessions on Skype.
The result is a huge collection of pictures that shows the diversity of our emotional vocabularies as well as the common threads of our visual imagination.
My name is Lorena Terzi, I am a youth worker based in Berlin, where I mix circus, art and storytelling to foster personal development and community building.

My name is Magdalena Malinowska. I am a CNVC Certified Trainer sharing Nonviolent Communication through trainings for non-governmental organisations, companies and individuals interested in creating peaceful relations (personal and professional). I live in Sweden and Poland. www.empathiceurope.com

My name is Marta Brzezińska-Hubert and I'm a trainer and a sociologist linking research with practice, based in Warsaw. I am passionate for intercultural education, personal growth and innovative learning approaches. As I believe that the ability to recognise and express own feelings and needs is a key for empowerment and successful communication, I was happy to be part of this project and to invite young people to connect with their emotions and visualise them.

Tatjana Glogovac is a strong believer in the power of humanistic education and approaching every person she works with as a special and unique human being. She has a BA and MA in English Language and Literature Teaching and another MA in Humanistic Sciences in Philology (Erasmus Mundus scholarship), where she wrote her thesis about cognitive biases in education.

She has been an English teacher for over 8 years and a writer for over 6, writing mainly educational articles about personal and professional self-development. https://tatjanaglogovac.com/

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We share with you 256 cards illustrating feelings and needs referring to Marshal Rosenberg list. Cards are painted in 5 different styles: abstract, portraits, fantasy, illustration and digital art. Project co-financed by Erasmus + Youth managed by Arte Ego Foundation & Grenz Kultur CABUWAZI.

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Giving volunteers questions to ponder and to reflect about inbetween the meetings.

Example

In a four week process on self-confidence, volunteers try out several things inbetween the mentoring meetings, e.g. one time they get a reflection question that helps them to become more aware of their strengths (Observe and write down, what are you good at)

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Practising self-mentoring using the GROW model

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Practising self-mentoring using the GROW model

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A great way to practice using the GROW model is to address your own issues and challenges. You can practice on your own, get yourself “unstuck” and learn how to ask the most helpful questions.

Choose an issue or challenge that you are facing.

Go through the GROW framework step by step.

Try out different questions from the worksheet above and take notes of your answers.

Reflection

How did you experience this process?

Which questions worked best for you?

Finally, create a list of questions you would like to use in each step of the GROW framework.

Source: Growing with GROW

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More details about the method and the specific steps

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Rivers of life: a method to access and communicate personal experiences

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Listen to this episode from Mentoring under Construction on Spotify. In this episode we share a great method, Rivers of Life, that uses river drawings to help participants reflect on and share personal experiences. It builds trust, identifies challenges, and generates group dialogue.

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Quite often i use dixit cards for reflection - put cards on the table and let volunteers or participants to choose what card represents you today

Here is an Padlet Example

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Google forms

Blob Tree

Meeting the volunteers in non-formal situations (walking, doing sport, etc)

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Ideas for reflection questions after a mentoring meeting

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Ideas for reflection questions after a mentoring meeting

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Ideas for reflection questions after a mentoring meeting

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Checklists

Reflection questions & journal prompts

Questionnaires

Self-assessment tools

Guidelines

Journals & Diaries

and more...

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Reflection questions for the end of the day:

1. What are you grateful for?

2. What made you smile/happy?

3. What did you do/manage well?

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Mid-term reflection tool regarding mentoring

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Mid-term reflection tool regarding mentoring

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Mid-term reflection tool regarding mentoring

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Tools for volunteers to enhance the mentoring process

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Tools for volunteers to enhance the mentoring process

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Preparing the first meeting with your mentor - A checklist for volunteers

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Preparing the first meeting with your mentor - A checklist for volunteers

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Beautiful designed notebook for journaling and reflections on various topics by Dagna Gmitrowicz

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This toolbox includes resources and tools that empower volunteers to take ownership of their learning and growth. 

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This toolbox includes resources and tools that empower volunteers to take ownership of their learning and growth. 

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Source: co-created by Mentoring under Construction Community members, September 2025