Keeping A Journal For Mental Health

Introduction

A mental health journal is a journal that one keeps so as to track their mental health progress from day to day. This is especially important if one is undergoing therapy as this can help the therapist to keep track of one’s progress. In this book you write your private thoughts, emotions, experiences and desires. The emotional and psychological stresses of life are different in everyone and it is impossible to standardize how a mental health journal should be written, so make one that you are comfortable with and that is easy for you to keep.

Step 1

When keeping a mental health journal try and write as often as you can. It may be impossible to write every time you get a mood or emotion and once a day will prove sufficient. It would be nice to write from a specific place as this establishes a haven for you, a place where you find it easy to let go from.

Step 2

Do not hold back or distort information when filling out your mental health journal. Be absolutely honest as this will be helpful for your therapy and it will also help you off load a great burden from your mind. Do not write what you think your therapist will want to hear or what you want someone else to think of you but open up and let it all out. You will be surprised how good that feels.

Step 3

In your mental health journal, include other things around you even if they seem mundane. Talk about the weather and your environment in general. This may prove useful as they may enable you to establish the relationship between changes in your moods and changes in your surroundings. If you make any changes in your routine, your diet or any aspect of your life, note it in the mental health journal and make comparisons after some time.

Step 4

Make your mental health journal interesting and personal. You can stick cut outs of things that you like flowers, butterflies, artists or destinations. This will uplift your mood as soon as you open your journal and will also make it a familiar place for you to visit. Writing a play list of your favorite songs and how they make you feel is also encouraged.

Step 5

Always write a list of gratitude in your mental health journal. This is a list of things that you are grateful for, opportunities and experiences that made you feel appreciated and awarded and all the successful things that you achieved through out the day. They may be as simple as talking to someone you have wanted to for long or having received flowers. Bad experiences and issues disturbing you should be written in the third person so as to help you distance yourself from the negative emotion and heal from it. Note down the lessons that the experience has taught you to guide you in the future.

Tips

A mental health journal has been known to be a great tool in self healing and its benefits immense.

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