The Ingenious Way To Journal

Hello there red robins,

As the air turns crisp and the leaves fall gracefully, a great amount of us tend to plummet into the winter blues. While a persistent suggestion is to simply 'write everything down' and 'release your feelings onto a page'; quite often it is just too much effort. It is something we frequently aspire to do, successfully manage the first few days, then give up because writing a page of the same endless thoughts feels pointless. Sound familiar?
Restraining our emotions on a daily basis only results in, quite frankly, an explosion. So conclusively, unleashing everything on your mind makes a great deal of sense. Speaking from my experience as a full-time recluse, nothing is worse than being alone with your self-destructive thoughts.
After countless years of diving in and out of the world of the journal, I believe I have finally discovered something of a solution. You've probably caught a glimpse of this marvelous creation in places such as Waterstones or Urban Outfitters, but it is only now which I realize just how useful it can be.
I'm talking about 'One Line A Day- A five year memory book' by Chronicle Books. It is described as a condensed, comparative record for five years, for recording events most worthy of remembrance. Essentially, the title itself tells it all. Throughout the book, each page contains a calendar date from January through to December; only each date has five sections.
A very simplistic (and perfect) concept, all that is required is to write one sentence every day, summarizing that day's events or accomplishments, basically whatever suits you best. You fill the top section on every page to begin with, marking the year in the provided box. Then when it comes to the following year, you simply repeat the exact same process, only on the section below, and so on. That way, once the book is completed, you are able to look bad and browse though for example, what happened on every July 5th through five years. You can see how far you've come, and what battles you've whisked by.
Personally, what I'm finding most helpful is to use the designated 'one-liner' to write an accomplishment for that day. Whether it be big or small, it enables you to see the positive in every day, despite feeling like the glass was half-empty.
Since I have ridiculously minuscule handwriting which replicates that of a nimble door-mouse; I managed to fit a little more than a sentence. I'll let you into a wee' glimpse of my life; on October 4th, I wrote:

(I mean seriously, the pages are golden. It's like a fairy farted all over it in pure excitement.)

       'I hit 1,000 total views on my blog! So mum bought me this book as a congratulations. We also purchased multi-vitamins for the first time, I'm terrified... I'm also loving the autumn leaves, so red!'

As you can tell, I may not have the most exciting life and have tried far too hard to be desperately enthusiastic, but thank goodness I can now pick out the positives. In all honesty, it is so much less daunting than thinking 'ugh, I can't be bothered writing in a diary every night', in reality this approach is a lot more beneficial and genuinely takes less than a minute. I certainly recommend this, not only if you're struggling with your mental health, but also for the simple sake of your sanity and enjoyment in life. I think it will be an absolutely jolly thrill to flick though this after the five years. Memories are precious, don't just record them on your Facebook timeline.

Anyway, I'm off to rock back and forth with my hot water-bottle,

Love,

B x

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