Lucy Turns Pages: Why You Should Start a Gratitude/Positivity Journal & How I Do Mine

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Hi everyone! So as most of you probably know, I am dealing with chronic physical symptoms, as well as mental health. One thing that I have found really helpful for tackling my mental health and the mental impact of being chronically physically ill, is to do a gratitude or positivity list daily. I want to chat through what I have been doing and I would love to hear if you've done this or would like to!

Gratitude/positivity list

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One method is to simply grab a notebook, piece of paper or a notes app on your phone and what I do is write the short date and then list everything I am grateful for; everything good in my life and good things that happened that day. So this could include people in your life, something you achieved or managed, small nice things that happened, maybe you had a slightly better afternoon than usual- anything really. Some of the things will be repeated and that's ok. The aim is to remind yourself, and your tricky brain that life is not as bad as your mind makes you feel it is and to start having a more positive view on things.

I know this might sound silly but if you repeat this over and over again, it can really help you to feel a bit better. If we only ever focus on our worries or things that make us feel bad, we will just feel bad but if we try to have a more positive approach to things, even when it's hard and you can't think of much, you can feel a bit better. This really helps me. I try to keep a daily log and also when I feel my mental health dipping I aim to write down some positive things that have happened in that day or recently or just good things in my life in general. Which brings me on to another method I use:

Positive things that happened today

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I have a beautiful planner with a to do list for each day. Within each day, I tend to have 3 headings: ideas for today, jobs and good things today. Ideas for today are things that I'd like to do, whether that's hobbies or blog-related or something else. I don't have to do all of them. Jobs are things I have to do so this could be your housework, phone calls etc. Good things today is where I list things like what I managed to do, for example, read some of my book or wrote a poem. I also list anything nice that happened, so, for example, if I had some kind messages from friends or I got a new Ko-Fi member.

I like to do this to remind myself that it doesn't matter how much I do in the day but that things are good regardless. I want to focus on how I felt and just positive things, instead of thinking 'oh I didn't do xyz' and feel bad.

Summary

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Try to create a gratitude list, good things in your life in general and nice things that have happened lately- it doesn't matter how small.

Make a positivity list in your daily to do list- try to focus on good things instead of productivity and feeling bad about what you did or didn't accomplish.

It isn't always easy but try to keep it up and I hope it helps you to feel a bit better!

I'd love to hear your thoughts and if you try this please do let me know!