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number of days in the month,<br />
and check off each day whenever<br />
you do something you want to<br />
encourage yourself to do. For<br />
example, drink eight glasses of<br />
water, get some exercise, eat a<br />
healthy lunch, call a friend, etc.<br />
You can find lots of inspiration<br />
for ways to monitor your mental<br />
health with a bullet journal on<br />
Pinterest and YouTube as well.<br />
Junk journal<br />
Clutter can be a major trigger for<br />
anxiety, but it can be helpfully<br />
stored away with a notebook. Find<br />
those small bits and pieces that<br />
you’re keeping stashed around<br />
your home – such as cinema<br />
tickets, receipts, photos, labels, and<br />
other mementoes – and glue or<br />
Sellotape them into a junk journal.<br />
Alternatively, if an item is doublesided<br />
or something that you might<br />
want to pull out one day, glue an<br />
envelope into your junk journal<br />
and place the item inside the<br />
envelope for safe-keeping. Now<br />
you don’t have to throw away<br />
any good memories, but you<br />
won’t have clutter piling up all<br />
over the place either.<br />
Vision book<br />
You may have heard of vision<br />
boards, but have you ever heard<br />
of a vision book? Our dreams and<br />
desires can change throughout<br />
our lives, and sometimes we have<br />
more than one vision at one time.<br />
I, for one, know that whenever<br />
I’m feeling down I often end up<br />
thinking about the things I haven’t<br />
achieved in my life. So, to help<br />
with this I create a vision page in<br />
my vision book. Not only is it a<br />
The simple act<br />
of writing down<br />
our thoughts<br />
and feelings can<br />
help us prioritise<br />
our problems<br />
helpful creative outlet, which is<br />
a great mood elevator, it’s also a<br />
great way to feel proactive at my<br />
lowest moments. To create your<br />
own vision book, find an A4 or A5<br />
notebook and start writing down<br />
your dreams. Cut out pictures or<br />
headlines from newspapers or<br />
magazines and stick them into<br />
the notebook to create a collage of<br />
inspiring images for you to look at<br />
whenever you feel like you need to<br />
be grounded.<br />
Gratitude journal<br />
A gratitude journal can be a great<br />
way to maintain your mental<br />
health, particularly when you’re<br />
really struggling with low mood or<br />
anxiety. To start with, find an empty<br />
notebook and write down one thing<br />
that happened during your day<br />
that you’re grateful for. It can be as<br />
small as having a bacon sandwich<br />
for breakfast, or not arriving late<br />
for work! But it can also be as big<br />
as a relationship with a loved one,<br />
or having a breakthrough in<br />
therapy. The reason for having a<br />
gratitude journal is to encourage<br />
you to write down a daily note<br />
expressing positivity, putting<br />
any intrusive, negative thoughts<br />
to one side.<br />
There are many ways to use a<br />
notebook to maintain your mental<br />
health, you just have to find the<br />
way that works for you. From<br />
writing lists to doodling, keeping a<br />
daily journal, to summarising your<br />
month in bullet points, the next<br />
time you come across an empty<br />
notebook, pick it up and dive in<br />
– you might be surprised at what<br />
you discover about yourself.<br />
<strong>October</strong> <strong>2020</strong> • happiful.com • 67
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