I recently spent 3 days at Solar Springs Health Retreat in Bundanoon for some ‘me time’ and to escape the daily grind of being a #mumboss. To find myself in the quite room, alone with only my thoughts was amazingly good for the soul. I always carry a journal or notebook with me (yes, I am obsessed with cool stationary especially notebooks) and found this a great time to unlock those emotions and free myself of the things which hold me back. This was a deep and meaningful with myself and, I must say, extremely liberating. With a hot cup of Peppermint tea and simply no distractions but a view of Kangaroo Valley and the sounds of the crackling fire, it didn’t take long for the pages to fill.

We all have those days when our emotions are heightened and you can’t help but want to understand why you’re feeling the way you do? You’re not alone. As we grow, we develop emotions that become hard to handle, very hard. They become misunderstood even by ourselves as we either analyse or ignore them. So, what’s the best way to understand them? Writing about them.

Trust me, here are some of the best reasons why keeping an emotional mood journal is good for you:

It can help you understand yourself better as an individual (like holding up a mirror)

Now that you’ve discovered that you feel something particular about a specific event or person, you can get to know yourself better including your like, dislikes, and neutrality when it comes to those things.

It can help you process your emotions better

Whether it’s positive or negative, keeping an emotional mood journal will let you figure out why you felt that emotion. If the feelings you had were negative, your emotional mood journal can help you map out what you don’t like about it and how you can better improve your reactions towards it on your next encounter.

It helps you weather the storm (and sometimes we just need to batten the hatches to get through it, but you will)

When you get to know your deepest emotions, you’ll understand how to control them better especially if they’re on the negative side. You’ll also learn to understand what triggers them so that when you encounter that specific trigger, you’ll know better and will avoid negative self-talk.

It helps you repair and reconnect your relationship with others

This greatly applies to the people who have had the hardest time understanding your emotions. This can be someone in your family, in your social circle or even your workplace. Keeping an emotional mood journal helps you determine what’s really important, therefore letting you see which moods you need to control and which ones you need to improve on.

It reminds you of all the times you overcame the negative emotions

Sure you’ll remember how bad it felt when you failed or were left out and had forgotten for a while. But you overcame those bad experiences and now that you’re facing them once more, you’ll know what to do to overcome there. You have a cheat sheet after all!

We’ll help you get started with your Emotional Mood Journal today!

Keeping an emotional mood journal as you grow older is a nice way to discover your potential and the emotions you’ve never felt nor addressed before. You may be able to gain understanding about your feelings without needing to talk to someone else about them. You know yourself the best after all.

To guide you in your quest to understand your emotional mood better, here is our own version of an emotional mood journal that can help you get started:

Sara Sheedy Emotional Mood Journal

Did this blog inspire you to keep an emotional mood journal? If it did, please feel free to share your thoughts in a comment below. For more empowerment tips and tricks, please visit my blog today.