Something Else: Bullet Journaling for Self Care

NOTE: Some of the pages I’m sharing have journal entries in them. Please refrain from commenting on the content of those entries.

Bullet journals are a highly customizeable form of planner that are incredibly popular on tumblr right now. Here is the official website by the creator of the method. The usual idea is to be incredibly simplistic and shorthanded in order to become more efficient, but many people (including me) have customized the journal to be about creativity. My bullet journal is a hybrid planner, journal, health tracker, and art project. As a person who experiences chronic pain, food sensitivity, and depression, my bullet journal helps me to be proactive and self aware so that I can practice self care on a daily basis. Self care means a lot of things; for me it mainly means doing two things: paying attention to my body and what it needs, and making sure to take time to enjoy my life and love myself.

Some self care actions I need my bullet journal to help me with are basic healthy habits like taking medication, eating, excercising and showering. Fatigue and pain often make those tasks seem impossible. I also monitor and record how I feel each day to find patterns (exercise = less muscle spasms), which also makes it easier for me to remember my symptoms when visiting the doctor. As you can see below:

I also use my bullet journal to keep track of my day and what needs to be done, but I’ve noticed something great that has come of it. When I can look back and see, in writing, the things that I’ve accomplished in a day, it makes me feel so much better about myself. There is proof that I can read about all the things I’ve accomplished. When I have days where all of the bullets I’ve written are filled in as completed, I feel so wonderful. Here’s a spread with two days of fully accomplished events and tasks:

And for the new year I’m trying out a habit tracker along with my long term goals page:

But my favorite part of my bullet journal is the work of creating it. I use a small moleskine gridded notebook, which is completely blank when I start. I can spend as much or as little time as I want decorating and creating. I like to cut things out of magazines, and I have a huge collection of washi tape thanks to an Office Max closing near my house that had them for 49 cents each. Working on my journal is kind of meditative and soothing, a lot like the adult coloring books that have gotten so popular. I forgot how much I love creating things. A few of my favorite pages:

Feel free to incorporate elements of my bullet journal into your own. If I inspired you and you want to share, I’d love to see it!