A bullet journal can offer mental health benefits by allowing you to keep a record of all your emotions, daily tasks and challenges.
With a bullet journal, you can note your thoughts, track energy levels and moods, stay on top of medication schedules and take notes in therapy sessions. Oh and practice cool bullet journal fonts.
This process gives you the opportunity to detect patterns in your overall emotional well-being and ultimately create a more effective plan of action.
While long form journaling has major mental health benefits, the bullet journal model requires much less writing.
As a result, it captures main points that reveal patterns and themes in daily experiences.
This pared down version of journaling can often make it easier to do the following with your personal data:
When setting up a few spreads for your mental health those are some of my favorite supplies. Make sure you check them out!
Discovering what triggers any mental health issues and anxiety in particular, sometimes requires a little detective work.
Although the triggering feeling may be obvious, figuring out what your specific triggers are can be more difficult to identify.
Solving the puzzle requires developing a capacity to seek to know ourselves better.
Tracing backward chronologically, we can begin to locate exact triggering events, experiences and sensations.
Focusing on the present and positives in your daily life is a great way to increase overall happiness and using a gratitude log will help you do just that!
What you choose to be thankful for is completely up to you.
Remember it doesn’t need to be a large sweeping statement; something as simple as a quiet moment or a great cup of coffee will do it.
Encouraging yourself to create a positive mindset will benefit all aspects of your life, allowing you to approach possible anxious situations in a completely different way.
Writing down what you are thankful for every day (or at least a few times a week) is a great way to reduce anxiety.
One of the best parts about a gratitude log (and a bullet journal in general) is that it’s stores memories.
So over time, you will be able to look back on your journey and see how far you have progressed.
Most importantly, this will also help gain perspective during times of crisis or when life doesn’t seem to be going quite right.
Self care isn’t selfish, it is necessary for survival.
Adding self care ideas to your Bullet Journal will help you prioritize your well-being.
You can use it to organize what you need to function positively and effectively on a daily basis into your schedule.
Remember, self care looks different for everyone.
Begin by asking yourself: What makes me feel happy, relaxed, and complete?
Create categories and fill in the answer to that question under each of the categories.
Every day ensure you check off at least one item under each category. Here are some ideas to get you started:
Categories for Self Care:
Therapy is an important part of coping and healing if you are dealing with any type of mental illness.
A therapist can help you develop strategies to get through difficult times and enable better understand your thoughts and feelings.
If you are seeing a therapist, your bullet journal can be a great way to help you remember what you addressed in a session and highlight any difficulties.
This will enable you to document things you would like to touch on for your next session.
A rant box is exactly what it sounds like, kind of. We all have those moments when we just need to, well… rant. So pick a page, make a grid and let yourself go!
Write, draw, color, list – do whatever you need to do when you just can’t anymore!
Start each week with a positive or inspiring quote to keep your spirits lifted.
Quotes can be motivating or comforting and it is a fun way to add creativity to your journal.
A coping page can be a quick reference you can check to remind you what works best when you are feeling stressed or anxious.
Your coping page can be laid out as a list, mind map, graph or whatever works for you.
However, you must first figure out what it is that works best for you when times get difficult.
Firstly, write out a list of actions – physical and emotional – that have helped you in the past.
What relieves the pressure?
Perhaps it is talking to a friend, or listening to a podcast, or just sitting with your eyes closed for 5 minutes.
Figure out what has helped you cope in the past and organize them into categories based upon the type of action.
The way you start the day sets the tone for success, so why not use your bullet journal to record your ideal morning routine.
It may be getting up before the rest of your family in order to have some quiet time alone or simply take a walk.
When you think about creating a morning routine, remember what you do the night before has a huge impact on your ability to follow your morning routine.
Drinking water is one of the most important and most difficult ways you can feel better.
Of course it isn’t really difficult to drink water, however it is a habit that does require a good deal of effort to maintain.
The benefits of being properly hydrated are numerous and include detoxing your body and beautiful skin.
Taking a moment to make sure you are drinking enough water and tracking it – will force you to take a few moments for yourself (self care) and develop a new, healthy habit.
Most habits we have are things we do subconsciously and we need to make an effort to take notice of them.
Therefore, by adding a habit tracker page to your #BuJo you are taking the first steps towards changing, beginning, or expanding upon a habit.
The basic elements of a habit tracker are – the habits you want to track and how long you want to track them.
Taking note of your feelings or emotions surrounding that habit can be an element that may help you understand the habit more.
Habit trackers help us to stay on track to meet goals.
The act of filling in your completed habits daily helps to motivate you to accomplish tasks and as a result, build healthy habits.
As stated earlier, comparing your BuJo (or anything really) to anyone else’s is a no-no!
Some Bullet Journals are colorful and full of sparkles and glitter, others are minimalistic.
Some are filled with trackers, while others are more free form.
There are no mistakes, because your Bullet Journal is as unique as you are and as you grow and change – so will your journal.
Did you manage to start your Bullet Journal? If not, then look no further.
There’s a LOT of information on the internet about bullet journaling, but Brainbook breaks down the core elements of what you need to know in a way that’s easy to understand and relevant to your life…all in one convenient place.
With this comprehensive bullet journaling roadmap by your side, you’ll know exactly how to set up your journal for success from start to finish!