I have never been one to keep a diary or journal. I have a few random diaries from when I was in early elementary school where I ranted about the huge ordeal of not getting chosen to be the class helper, but that is about the extend of my journaling experience.

I have always admired those who are diligent in writing in a notebook/journal. Their ability to write neatly in hand writing in a notebook with an aesthetically pleasing cover is something I have never been capable of doing. Any journal I have written in has always started in a leftover notebook that I found laying in my room from the last time I attempted to journal. Still, despite not doing it constantly, I found myself coming back to it.

For this week’s method of dealing with mental health, I decided to journal for a week straight. Again, I didn’t have a “pretty” journal to write it so I ended up just writing in a leftover English notebook, but what works-works right?

Each night before bed I would sit down with a cup of tea and write a little reflection. I decided to focus my reflection on how I was feeling on each day. I wrote about what happened through the day and how each event made me feel. I wrote about what things caused me to feel more anxious, what things I enjoyed, and what things I needed to work on. At the end of the week I made a little recap of my week and made a list of some of the habits I wanted to carry into this week as well as what are some of the things that bothered me a lot that I needed to work on.

Photo by Justin Morgan on Unsplash
Photo by lilartsy on Unsplash

Although this coming week I will be working on a new method, I have decided to continue journaling for the meantime. I am okay if I miss a day or too (almost guarantee I will) but I found this practice really helpful in connecting me with my emotions and thoughts and allowed me to reflect on my own mental health. This is something that I think is also a good practice to include in a classroom. Self-reflection allows students to reflect on what things worked well, as well as what didn’t so that they can make adjustments the next week. This can be a private thing that students do on their own, or something that they can hand into the teacher if they would like them to be aware of anything.

I encourage any of you who don’t regular journal to try it out. It doesn’t have to be fancy or a certain length, but just practice self-reflecting when you have the chance. It’s a really good habit to connect further with yourself as well as your surroundings, benefiting your own mental health.