MAY 2017 ~ Mental Health Awareness Month

Journaling and/or using your Diary

Good Evening all Blog Readers, Followers, and Visitors to our Blog Session.  If you are new to our Blog, please take a moment to get familiar with any of the past Blog Sessions that may interest you -- You'll find all past Blog Sessions in the right-hand column under "Blog Archive" -- click on any link you like, and dive in to find out what we've been discussing during the month of May, which is Mental Health Awareness Month.

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We were last here on the Blog discussing Journaling in our last Blog Session.  There were 44 items that were listed to give you some areas to think about when it comes to your mental health, or the mental health of those in your life.  (You may scroll down to get to the last Blog Session or click on the first link in the right hand column here on the Blog to see what we last talked about, or to refresh your memory).  If none of the 44 items resonated with you, then you were advised to write about something else that concerns you at this time.  It could be your marriage or divorce, or your children -- their health or education, your parents and their care, financial matters, loss of a job or home, or any number of issues that could be affecting you mentally or emotionally.  The point is that we all need to write in our Journals on a daily basis ideally.  If you have not been writing in a Journal in the past, or using a Diary, it is helpful for you to get started doing so now.

Your personal Journal 

The suggestion to use a decorated Journal helps to get you motivated to write inside your Journal because it should personally attract you if you chose the Journal or designed the decoration yourself.

Many of our friends here on the Blog use their computers or Tablets to Journal.  There are all sorts of Websites, Apps and programs that you can use to Journal or keep a Diary online.  You can also use your smartphone to Journal or keep a Diary.  If you are creative, you can find a way to make your own online Journal or Diary.  In our last Blog Session we suggested using your Microsoft Account to create an Online Mental Health Tracker Journal using One Note like so . . .

Online Mental Health Tracker Journal

Create your own using One Note

(Microsoft Account)

Now just to let everyone here know, I had never thought of using One Note before, but I thought I'd give it a try to see how it can be used for a Mental Health Tracker Journal.  And, it was fun creating the lay-out the way I wanted.  Try it, you may like it!

You may also be able to give us some suggestions that you've come up with here on the Blog in the Comments Section.  We'd love to learn from everyone this month about different ways to keep Journals, Diaries, Logs, or Notes about our mental health, so feel free to share your thoughts.

Remember, Journaling helps you to control any mental health symptoms that you may have and improve your mood by:

• Helping you prioritize problems, fears, and concerns;
• Track any symptoms day-to-day so that you can recognize triggers and learn ways to better control them; and
• Provides an opportunity for positive self-talk and helps you to identify negative thoughts and behaviors.

When you have a problem and you're stressed, keeping a journal can help you identify what’s causing that stress or anxiety.  Then, once you’ve identified your stressors, you can work on a plan to resolve the problems and, in turn, reduce stress.

If you started writing in your Journal or Diary using a Journal or Diary book or keeping your Journal or Diary online, then you are ready for our next step. . .

Behavior Patterns

Your patterns of behavior might include your morning cup of coffee, daily exercise, going to the gym, visiting the sick, going to certain community meetings, or any other number of persistent customary patterns of behavior.

In essence, a behavior pattern is a recurrent way of acting by an individual or group toward a given object or in a given situation.

What we need to do next is identify any situations in your life that are causing you to continually act in the same way and create a behavior pattern.

A behavior pattern can be either negative or positive.  What we will do next is write in our Journals about our behavior patterns.  For instance, some negative behavior patterns . . .

1)    Drinking Alcoholic beverages in excessive amounts daily;

2)    Smoking excessively;

3)    Getting into arguments with certain people consistently;

4)    Overeating with others or by yourself;

5)    Having issues with family members on a consistent

        basis;

6)    Over-spending;

7)    Shopping excessively;

8)    Doing drugs with certain people consistently;

9)    Continually being dramatic about certain issues in your

        life, and causing stress to yourself and/or others which

        you can feel in your body and which visibly upsets 

        others;

10) Persistent worrying or having anxiety about certain

        things going on in your life;

11)  Being defensive about certain topics;

12)  Having anger when in contact with certain people or 

         about certain circumstances in your life;

13)  Persistently being late for important appointments or 

        meetings;

14)  Procrastination about important things in your life;

15)  Not paying bills on time continually;

16)  Making bad decisions repeatedly that affect you and 

        possibly other people; and/or

17)  Being critical, negative, argumentative, defensive, mean-

         spirited, hateful, or hard to get along with.

Positive Behavior Patterns

1)    Helping the elderly on a regular basis;

2)    Taking care of children on a regular basis;

3)    Getting exercise daily;

4)    Going to Group Therapy;

5)    Taking Improvement Courses;

6)    Participating in Church functions;

7)     Enjoying a Hobby or Sport daily or weekly;

8)     Eating healthy meals or going to Weight Watchers;

9)     Quitting Smoking;

10)   Attending AA courses;

11)    Feeding the hungry;

12)   Providing support to those who need your assistance;

13)   Walking or driving kids to school;

14)    Attending Community or Block Club Meetings;

15)    Taking Yoga, Dance, Music or Singing Classes;

16)    Daily Meditation; and/or

17)    Keeping your business and financial matters organized. 

Take this time to make a list in your Journal of both your positive and negative behavior patterns.

After you have made your list, think for a moment about how long each of the behavior patterns you listed have been going on.  Has it been a week?  A month?  A year?  Years?

Then ask yourself how each of the behavior patterns that you listed are affecting your life?

Are any of the behavior patterns causing you to be stressed out?

Do any of the behavior patterns cause you to feel changes going on in your body in a negative way?  i.e., do you eat more, smoke more, drink more, feel sick, feel fretful, feel anxious, feel fearful, cry more, worry more?

Do you find any of your behavior patterns causing you to argue more, have more anger, feel rage?

Just stop and take time to really think about what is going on in your life, and write about those things in your Journal or Diary.  You can also use index cards if you think the index card method will help you to organize your thoughts.

Organize your thoughts & feelings on Index Cards

Next, just use one Journal page to write down all of your current problems, fears, and concerns.

Then take another Journal page and list all of your hopes, dreams, and wishes.

And last, take a moment to set aside one Journal page to list your Ideas that you feel will make your life better, more meaningful to you, and more relaxing.

Good!  Now we're off and running in our Journals, Diaries, Notepads and Index Cards.

Take time to relax after writing.  Between now and our next Blog Session, be sure to set aside at least a half an hour to meditate, listen to your favorite music, just sit still in quiet time, enjoy nature at the park, or have a Bible Study.

Set aside quiet time for yourself

We'll see you back here for our next exciting Blog Session about mental health, and don't forget to bring your Journal along ~

Peace, Love & Light,

 René

©Copyright - René Allen - MAY 2017 - All Rights Reserved