When I lost my dad in high school, I completely shut down. Not for days, or weeks, or months, but for years. I couldn’t feel any emotions for years of my life. I was just going through the motions, playing the part of a human being the best I could.
Fast forward a few years after a lot of soul searching and self development stuff (and also professional therapy), and my feelings starting coming back. The thing is, now I feel EVERYTHING. My highs are high and my lows are low. So, I’m always looking for strategies that help me get at least a bit more control over my mood. In my search for such tools, I came across something really cool: The Mood Booster Journal [sp]. You might have come across it already in my Gift Guide for Go-Getters!
When something triggers me or I’m having a rough day, the negative emotions are so very quick to take over. Those unfavorable thoughts can get so loud that I can’t always tap into my positive thoughts (or mental coping skills) to put what’s going on in my head on a different track. The Mood Booster Journal has become one of my essential mood management tools because it’s forced me to put the good things into something tangible and physical.
It’s even helped me build better habits. Whenever I go to 7 am classes at The Barre Code, I feel on top of the world. Working out makes me feel great and when I get up that early to go, I still have so much of my day left and I get a TON accomplished. However, getting up at 6 am to get myself together and leave in time is the hard part. One day, I wrote in my Mood Booster Journal how awesome I felt after getting up and going, and ever since then, it’s gotten a little bit easier to get myself up and going. I think it was physically writing it out that allowed me to realize just how much of a mood booster these early morning workouts really are!
The Mood Booster Journal is created by Camilla Woolgar, who has a history of anxiety herself (read more of her story here). It began in her childhood and hit her hard again in her thirties. This time, however, it was more constant and exhausting. She shared with me, “I knew I had to get better very soon as I had two young children. In an attempt to feel better I found myself trying to write down little notes, reminding myself of anything which had great and deep meaning to me, and recall happy memories and positive experiences in my life. I wanted that to take focus in my life. It was eventually this experience which led me to create The Mood Booster Journal.”
Camilla designed every page in the journal, and not only are they helpful, but they are also visually clean and calming to look at. When you open up The Mood Booster Journal, there’s about 80 pages of prompts and questions that make you really think about both the little and big things in life. One of my favorites is the “Authenticiy” page that prompts you to write, “examples of times where I have opened up and shared personal struggles…” and also the “Problems Reframed” page which reads, “problems reframed into opportunities. How problems in the past have made me stronger…”. The journal also encourages you to think of scents, music, values, priorities, and other elements of yourself and your fulfillment.
After the prompt pages, the journal turns into a “Year of Happiness” section that lists each day so that you can jot down what happened that you want to remember (it has the months written out, but then you fill in the year). I haven’t done quite as good of a job with keeping up with this section, but I am making it a goal in 2018 to write at least one thing in it each day. So often it feels like we have strings of days, weeks, or months where things might not be going our way, but when make it a priority to note the good, we realize all that we do have. Plus, on The Mood Booster Journal website, there’s a “Tips” page for using your journal and a “Plan Yourself Happy” FREE weekly printable planner!
I also asked Camilla what she wishes more people knew about mental health, and she said, “We can all end up in situations where our mental health is at a risk. Physical illness and loss can for instance make mentally healthy people suffer. It’s not just a certain type of people who might suffer, we’re all at risk, and that’s the reason why it’s so important we look after ourselves. It’s also one of the reasons I created The Mood Booster Journal as I wished I had kept a journal noting all the good things in my life before I ended up suffering from severe anxiety and depression.”
My favorite question to ask people is “in what ways has this struggle made you a stronger person?” and I think we can all take away something from Camilla’s answer: “Anxiety means I have to push my own boundaries, and I have to accept the uncomfortable feeling of anxiety, try and be objective about it, and tell myself it’s just a feeling and not the truth. I think pushing those boundaries has made me and is continually making me a stronger person. I’ve accepted the uncomfortable feeling will be there, but it won’t last and it won’t hold me back (or at least not for long). As an entrepreneur I’m constantly learning and have to push myself, but on the other side it’s rewarding on a personal level and makes me stronger.”
Overall, there’s just something about collecting all of my mood boosters in one place that makes it easier to implement them more regularly throughout life! Better yet, this journal gives me a physical reminder of the small things I can do to take myself towards “okay” from “not okay” when I’m having a challenging day. Grab yourself one here. You won’t regret it!
Photos by Kate Stutz and Shaun Novak
**This post may contain affiliate (which means I make a small commission when you shop from them) and sponsored links (gift items are indicated with a [c/o] and sponsored links with a [sp]) because we all have to pay our bills, and I’ rather keep creating awesome content for you than get a real job. All opinions are my own.**