Posted by Noa on August 19, 2000, at 12:17:41
In reply to Re: Keeping a Journal (long)Short Now » Nibor, posted by Rhainy on August 17, 2000, at 12:54:56
Nibor, thanks for the material on keeping a mood journal.
Rhainny, I used to keep a journal fairly consistently, and it really helped me. It wasn't a mood journal so much as a place to express myself, especially at a time when expressing myself orally was difficult. I could do it better in writing.
For a few years, I had a journal going that was very helpful. It involved identifying my goals for the year, and then choosing small do-able objectives from the array of possible goals, to write about and try to accomplish each month. It really worked. I made sure to keep the goals and objectives manageable and simple, and only chose one or two each month to work on. By the end of the year, I had accomplished quite a lot. I guess it was really a journal about focusing on what was important to me, staying in touch with how I wanted to live my life. It helped keep me from getting bogged down in the unimportant stuff that happens all the time.
In the past few years, I have had a much worse depression, with accompanying health problems making it a huge messy tangle of ill health and mood that has been hard to treat. I am at a point now where I am beginning to untangle the mess and figure out how to improve my well being, but a lot of damage has been done to my health, my lifestyle and my relationships in the meantime. During this time, once the depression was pretty bad, I stopped writing, but have been thinking about going back to it.
I suppose what I write on PB has been something of a substitute for journaling, but I really want to start up a journal again. And I think I would like to include a bit of mood and health status tracking, including, actually, my reproductive cycles, too, because they have been so irregular. I think that regular entries in a journal might help to reestablish a rhythm to my life, which has felt mostly irregular and chaotic in many ways.
Thanks for bringing it up. BTW, I didn't know there was such a thing as a journal software program. Part of me likes writing by hand in a nice book, but the truth is, I write faster and more effeciently on the computer. Can you tell me what are some options for journal programs? I suppose I can simply start a document, but it sounds like you have a program that allows you to track your mood, etc, too.
Robin, I will take a look at the material at your website, too, thanks.
poster:Noa
thread:30
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20000813/msgs/78.html