Have you ever heard of bullet journaling? Bullet journaling can be a great therapeutic tool, especially if you aren't one for using a traditional journal or don't have the time to invest in regular journaling during the day.
Bullet Journaling was actually started as a new system for organizing thoughts by a designer in New York. The original form had ways for you to document your past, present and future needs, plans or wants. It simplified and shortened the traditional lists people would make.
In therapy, I use bullet journaling in various forms, but one of my favorites is in tracking moods. A mood log has also been around for a while. Combining the bullet journal creativity and the traditional mood log into one exercise, I have found this worksheet is very helpful. (See bottom of page)
How do you use it? Well, it's basically an image of a mason jar with marbles in it! I describe it to clients as a marble a day for your emotions. Marbles can be a variety of colors and often are two or three toned inside. To start, you simply color the key in the bottom corner with one color per emotion listed. I encourage clients to add additional emotions they may experience to the key as well. At the end of each day you simply reflect on how you felt that day. Just like a multi-colored marble, we may have experienced more than one key emotion each day. That's okay and perfectly normal. So take your marble and give it a color variation as well. Focus on the main emotions from the day. By doing this every day, we can track your moods throughout the month. I encourage clients to be creative with this. Use your favorite gel pens, markers or highlighters. It becomes more of an art activity then a homework assignment. I also encourage clients to use the back of the page to write any additional information you may want to record. Perhaps you had some very difficult days during the month. You can identify those on the back and write out why. This is very helpful for us to go back and explore in our therapy time as well. I have found this works well for all ages, children and adults.
Are you interested? Why not give it a try and see how it works for you. If you are interested in more bullet journaling techniques, try reading up on that. It's a great way to organize your thoughts, plan out your week and plan for your future. You can find notebooks at Target, Office Depot and Amazon that are specifically created for this type of journaling. They are usually laid out in the dot pattern instead of traditional lined pages. Bullet journaling at its core uses an index, rapid log, collection and migration as tools. All of this can be adaptable to however best fits your needs.
