How to Make an Emotions Diary Step by Step

Today we want to share with you a special post:

Why You Should Make an Emotions Diary

Every day and every hour we feel emotions. Some positive, some negative, some intense, some milder, and their duration also varies.

There is no doubt that people feel emotions, but do we know how to identify them? Are we aware that we feel them? Emotion journals can help us become more aware of the feelings we experience throughout the day, as well as recognize what triggered them, and also allow us to reflect on what to do.

Today we want to share some steps to show you how to keep an emotional journal.

How to make an emotional diary and take advantage of it?

We can define an emotional diary as any type of record that we make in which we record how we are feeling every day or, also, writing down only those days in which an emotion, positive or negative, has become very important because it is very intense.

These types of diaries are widely used in psychotherapy for the patient to acquire better management of their feelings, that is, to develop more emotional intelligence, although it is recommended for anyone.

People don't feel the same throughout the day. Our mood changes throughout the hours and days, with different factors influencing our emotions.

The people we interact with, the situations we face, and our own way of making ourselves manifest all kinds of emotions, all of them adaptive as long as they are within health and do not imply a very high level of alteration for our day-to-day.

However, experiencing emotions is not the same as knowing how to detect and manage them. It is very difficult to "analyze" the emotion at the moment it is experienced, but it is possible to do it more objectively after calming down and seeing it with the widest possible perspective, which is the main objective of emotion journals.

We can calmly reflect on how we felt, in what situation the emotion arose, what response we gave to the problematic situation, and what we can do in the future to prevent it from being too intense or harmful.

3 Tips for keeping an emotional journal

An emotional journal can be made by simply writing down your emotions on any piece of paper as you feel them. It is enough to take a notebook and, schematically, begin to manage our own emotions by writing them in it.

We can write down how we feel each day or simply do it on those in which the emotions were very intense.

The idea is to write down each day, putting both positive emotions, such as happiness, joy, and negative ones, such as sadness, anger, anxiety, or anger.

The way in which we direct our emotions is quite free and beneficial as long as it allows us to find some emotional pattern that is repeated and what emotions certain situations provoke in us, favoring the development of emotional intelligence.

1. Use a notebook

To keep an emotional journal, it is better to use a paper notebook instead of using a mobile notepad or using a word processor on our PC.

One of the reasons why a notebook is preferable to any other format is that it is easy to carry and write when you feel inspired.

Also, this diary is not just for writing, since on many occasions it clearly represents and explains how we feel that we need to make drawings, diagrams, diagrams, or even collages.

2. Choose a fixed time to write

As we mentioned, there are those who prefer to write down how they felt every day, while others prefer to do it only on those days when intense emotions flooded them, both for better and for worse.

Although writing in this diary is something we can do at any time of the day, it is advisable to establish a fixed time each day to write it down or at least review it.

A good idea is to write (or draw) in this journal at night, right at the end of the day, but not necessarily before bed. It is at this time that our moods are least likely to change since little else will happen to us in the short time that remains of the day.

In addition, the night is the time when we tend to be calmer, the night hours being the most appropriate time to reflect on how we feel throughout the day.

3. Use a grid

Although we can use any artistic resource to express and describe our emotions, it is convenient that within that freedom we use a minimum order, and using a grid is a good way to achieve it.

This grid made up of lines and columns can help us to have a very precise outline of the emotional events that we experience throughout the day.

We can put several categories in each column: situation, thought, emotion, response, suggestions or alternatives to our response, as well as questions.

Enjoy This Video Tutorial About How journaling can save you

Source: The School of Life

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