I thought I would start a new series of posts on my
blog, talking about some of the little things that I’ve found can help with my
mental health. Whilst it’s important to seek professional help for mental
health problems and access treatments like medication and therapy, sometimes
it’s the little day-to-day actions that can get us through the hard times. So I
wanted to start by talking to you about something I’ve been doing for quite a few
years now, which I find really helps with my depression and anxiety. A Good
Things Jar!
I originally got the idea to make one of these from
browsing on Pinterest and have been using it ever since. You might see it called a few different
things – a Good Things Jar, a Happy Jar or a Jar of Gratitude, but they’re all
pretty much the same idea, so you can call it whatever you fancy. All you need to
make it is a glass jar (or any kind of tub – whatever suits you best), some
paper and a pen. It’s as easy as that! I started off by decorating my jar to
make it look a bit more pretty and also so that I could immediately tell what
it was whenever I looked at it. I found the ‘Good Things’ label again, on
Pinterest and just stuck it onto my jar with a bit of invisible tape. You can
find all sorts of printable labels to choose from, or if you’d rather make your
own that would work just as well. I also decided to tie a bit of ribbon around
the neck of the jar, just because I thought it made it look pretty, but you can
decorate your jar in whatever way you fancy.
When you’re struggling with your mental health (or
even if you don’t have a mental health condition but are prone to feeling a bit
glum) it can often be difficult to see the good things in life. I know when I’m
going through a down patch with my mental health, my brain automatically
focuses on the negatives – it’s been such a bad day, I haven’t got any friends,
I’m such a failure for getting a bad mark on my work… it goes on and on. But
actually, even if it has been a bad day, more often than not there will still
be something positive to come out of a negative situation. For example, I may
have received a bad mark on my essay, but I also received a nice text from my
best friend that really made me smile. Or it’s been a really crappy day because
I’ve been in hospital having an operation, but actually, that cup of tea I had
after surgery was the best cup of tea I’ve had in a while! But it’s these good
things that will often go straight over our head, and get forgotten in the
space of a few minutes. For some reason, it always seems to be the bad things
that we remember and focus on. If I look back at the last week, I can probably
tell you everything that went wrong, every time I felt more unwell and
everything that I regret doing/not doing. But off the top of my head, I’m
struggling to think of anything particularly good that happened. And that’s
where your Good Things Jar comes in.
Any time anything good happens, you simply write it
down on a piece of paper, fold it up and pop it in your jar. I like to use
rainbow coloured paper – a different colour for each month – to make my jar
look particularly happy. But you can choose whatever you want. Some people even
put other bits and pieces in their jar – cinema tickets, a note from a friend,
or a train ticket from your day out. The main thing with this is that it
doesn’t have to be big events (although you can put those in there too!) – it’s
the little events that you would normally forget that really need to go in your
jar. Something as simple as feeling the sun on your face, seeing some beautiful
daffodils starting to bloom or enjoying a bubble bath after a stressful day.
Then, at the end of the year, you can empty out your jar and remind yourself of
all the good things that have happened throughout the year. I’m still trying to
decide what to do with all my bits of paper after the year is over, so if you
have any ideas please let me know! It’s also a lovely thing to look at during
the year whenever you’re feeling down – simply glancing over at my jar helps me
to realise that however bad things are in that moment, I know that there is
always light in the darkness.
There’s been a lot of scientific research into the
power of gratitude and it’s amazing how simply being thankful for the good
things can have such a positive impact on our lives. It’s been found to improve
our physical health, improve our psychological health, help us to sleep better,
improve our self-esteem and increase our overall mental strength. Just by being
thankful for what we do have and noticing the good things in our lives! And the
great thing is, anyone can do it! I particularly like the idea of a Good Things
Jar because I’m quite a visual person and like to be able to have a physical
representation of my gratitude. But other people prefer to use a gratitude
journal instead, and write three things they are grateful for before going to
bed each night. However you decide to notice the good things, the most
important thing is that you keep doing it. This quote from Harry Potter is one
of my favourites, and I think it really fits with the idea of looking for
positives amongst the negatives:
“Happiness can
be found even in the darkest of places, if one only remembers to turn on the
light.”
Albus
Dumbledore
Do you have a Good Things Jar or Gratitude
Journal? Or is it something you might do after reading this post? What other
little things help you to manage your mental health that I might be able to
blog about?
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