Journaling For Mental Health

Introduction: Journaling For Mental Health

This last week has been something of a struggle. I had big ideas on how I was going to get from Journaling Tips to To-Do lists. I landed up pre-occupied with journaling for mental health instead

I had a framework in my head about how I was going to use Trello to organise things a bit better. But I just could not get the motivation really going. So I stepped back to the Journaling PLR and found this article on Journaling for  Mental Health – rather I got distracted to following the thread BUT it was part of the flow from the week before.

My Journaling For Mental Health Journey

Why did I do that?

Ever since my separation after a marriage of 25 years and a failed relationship after that, I have been struggling with depression. Add to that what the psychologists call a low frustration threshold, I really struggle when things don’t quite work out. The triggers are when things happen that I cannot control – examples from last week, Donald Trump tweets knocks markets; drone attack on Saudi oilfields OR hack attack on my website OR low response rates from emails bought through solo ads.

Of course, there is a lot I can control BUT my mind goes off the rails when stuff is out of my control.

It took me quite some time to work out what was going on when this first hit in 2008/9. I had a psychology counsellor for a while. I read a couple of really good books around cognitive behaviour and books of stories from depression sufferers and guides to a calmer mind; my doctor helped me with relaxation techniques; I use exercise and the bush a lot to relax my mind.

The Power of Small Wins

I now have a fairly good grasp of my story – pains in my chest; lack of motivation; rising headaches; endless scrolling on Facebook and Twitter; distraction into trivial tasks or unimportant tasks, procrastination. It took quite some time. Even though I know exactly when I slide into the black hole, I cannot always get myself out. I have taken to doing small tasks to get a sense of achievement going.

I did exactly that last week. I had put together an outline Trello Board for the main activities I need to do for Internet Profits business. I thought about spending time to get the ideas I shared in Journaling Tips working. What I have learned is that when I am in a depressed state, it is not smart to start big initiatives – keep it small and get some successes going. I did exactly that – I picked off some tasks that are on those boards and I did them.

• Set up a new solo ad campaign. I reviewed an existing source which offers cheap leads – but they have proved to be not that responsive. So I went back to TrafficForMe.com and set up a new campaign working to my new lead magnet landing pages (half each). Got 597 unique clicks (500 contracted) and 268 opt-ins (45%). Happy with that and I committed to a monthly run
• Completed some of the homework for upcoming co-branded book launch with Dean Holland (including sitting through the weekly coaching call). The book launch is coming soon – watch this space. One of the pieces of homework is to create a list of offers to make
• Launched a product offer from my friend, Adam Payne. I met Adam in Tokyo – he is a video marketing whizz. He has a video marketing membership site, called Video Marketing Insider. He is running a promotion as he is about to turn off monthly subscriptions as an option. I used that as a forcing device.
  • Get approval to act as affiliate.
  • Set up tracking links.
  • Send out some emails to my lists on the offer.
  • I pushed it further when Adam shared a walkthrough video of the site and embedded his video into a landing page with my affiliate links there. I used Convertri for that – it worked a treat.
• Got distracted when the Journaling PLR lady sent me a link on how to Use PLR. I should have consigned that to Shiny Object Syndrome bucket. BUT I know I have bought a lot of PLR and not really used it (apart from Yoga PLR). 90% of PLR is never used is what I learned. It did push me into using the Copywriting PLR I have. I started integrating that into my autoresponder series for two of my lists.
• I added two solo ads at Guaranteed Solo Mails, one on Bullet Proof Ads and one on Video Marketing Insider. Between them they have garnered 266 clicks though conversion rates are low. I use this as a forcing device to write emails which I can then add into the autoresponder series or broadcasts. I am learning to change up these solos as the target membership is quite small – they get tired of seeing the same stuff.

The net result is my business did make progress in the week. I did start to feel better about myself even though I had not written a single line in a journal (apart from the blog post from the week before and one email about mental health).

I know from my past experience what is going on – I am depressed – the technical term is acute stress based depression. I know also how to fix it:

• Avoid the sources of stress (in this case = lack of progress and stock markets)
• Get some wins on the table – they can be small
• Kill the distractions
• Avoid big decisions and initiatives
• Get back to a routine of doing stuff
• Get some exercise – I went riding and bush walking looking for orchids.

I know this because I have been there and found a way to get out of the black hole. You will notice a theme in what works for me. These are not coping mechanisms. They are action mechanisms  – get up and do something about it mechanisms.

Specific Ideas for Journaling for Mental Health

Now you may be feeling the same sort of challenges. Here are the main threads from the Journaling PLR that had me distracted down this path. But they might just help you.

Keeping any type of journal will help with pinning down and improving most mental health issues. You might need to choose a specific type of journal depending on what you think the drivers are – always pays to look for the drivers.

Journaling might just help in these ways – some might surprise you:

• Improve your Mood. A gratitude journal helps with moods. Just write down each day what your are grateful for. For me: getting some wins does the same thing
• Increase Your Sense of Well-Being. Writing stuff down helps you to start seeing issues in a more detached way – because you are thinking about it. Almost like a 3rd person.
• Reduce Symptoms of Depression. Depression is not the same as sadness. Writing it all down can make it seem less bad so that you can feel better. Writing it down also helps to identify if and when you need help from a counsellor. If the feeling does not go away as you reflect on it – find a counsellor. I did.
• Reduce Anxiety. Anxiety is designed to help us get away from danger – the “fight or flight” response. So it is a very important. Out of control it is a disaster. If each time you have that anxious feeling, you choose to write in your journal how you are feeling and why, you’ll start to understand it better. From understanding there is a chance to learn to control the way you respond.
• Lower Avoidance Behaviours. I use avoidance all the time = stay away from people, for example. When you write it out, it helps you get the feelings out, isolate them and then do the thing you were avoiding anyway. Scrolling Facebook is a classic avoidance behaviour
• Sleep Better. Pouring your heart out into a journal is a great way to get things off your chest. Write down what you’re thankful for before bedtime and go to sleep thinking of that. It works.
• Be a Kinder Person. Letting go of self judgement improves your thoughts for others also. It is a lot easier to be kind when you do not judge.
• Improve Your Memory. This is pretty obvious. Writing it down forces your brain to store stuff differently = easier to remember later.

I wrote some journaling tips the other day. These are the key ones to remember today – apply them like rules

• do it every day to create a habit,
• keep it private unless you decide to let your therapist see it or you decide to use it to help others. This is for you and only you for the most part.

How I Will Use Trello To Structure My Work

Now one thing I want to come back to. I did get back to the Trello Boards and Marc Andreessen ideas. I constructed 5 lists

• Routine – Daily
• Routine – Periodic
• New Projects
• New Ideas to Think About
• Maintenance (ad hoc)

On each List I have set up cards for specific activity that fits into the list. Those cards can contain a lot of detail – activity; checklists; attachments; team members. I have not gone too deeply into using any of that. The cards can be dragged around from list to list. What I like is the whole thing is very visual. So much so that I dumped the 5th list and shoved the cards into other lists – 4 cards fits one one screen.

• I can start the day and decide what needs to be done for the day.
• When a new project is progressed enough to be routine, I can move it to routine list
• When I get a new idea I can put it on the appropriate list. For example, one of my Internet Profits partners, Lee Coppin, shared a blog post about a tool he uses to get engagement on Twitter. I use Twitter a lot. I started doing what he suggested straight away = a distraction. I stepped back and stopped doing it and found a place for it on the lists – NEW IDEAS to THINK ABOUT.
• When I decide a new idea is a priority I can move it to a New Project List.
• And one can construct lists from individual tasks for an outsourcer or team member. That is one of the challenges for me in my new projects list.

I summarised it all in the short video, including an example of how one can build a list of tasks for a day.

Resources

Project Management: I use a project management tool to document all my work steps. That will provide a toolbox for managing projects and also for managing an outsourcer down the line. My tool of choice is Trello.com – try it for free

Journaling Tips Grab your copy of the journaling PLR here – it’s a free resource.

Solo Ads: Traffic For Me is a traffic brokerage service that finds the best solo ad providers. They do all the work to get clean leads to your specification. Explore Traffic For Me – it works.

Video Marketing: My friend, Adam Payne runs an excellent video marketing membership site. It has heaps of training, software tools and an active Facebook community. See my Convertri built landing page for his video tour of the site here

Page Builder Convertri is a page builder first and foremost. Its strongest selling points are the load time for pages and, the easy to use editor for desktop and mobile pages. It works for me and the price point is lower than the main competitors. There is a free trial period – you will not be disappointed.

Credits

To Do List Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay