Mental Health Log

Reflective journaling to reinforce awareness and “manage the mind”

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
— Dr. Carl Jung

The Mental Health Log should be frequently used between therapy sessions to strengthen self-awareness, reinforce insight, and commit to effective and meaningful change in your actions. Overtime, your ability to engage with this level of awareness and commitment to your values becomes more and more automatic to the point you will not need to write or type these things out.

Part I: Self-Reflection & Self-Monitoring

This is the minimum for self-awareness and insight. These questions get you to slow down to make connections between what happened today, what you think about those things, and how that influences how you felt, what you did, or what you said today.

Part II: Reframe & Redo

This is essential for disrupting unhelpful thinking patterns, regulating how you feel, and identifying more meaningful and effective ways of responding to things in life.

It can be helpful to reflect with the model of self-examination presented in Understanding Patterns:

Part I:
Self-Reflection & Self-Monitoring

What did or did not happen today? When and where?

What thoughts did I have about this today?

How did this make me feel today? How strongly, 0-10?

Happy, content, joyful
Calm, peaceful, relaxed
Anxious, worried, nervous
Irritated, upset, angry
Guilt, regret, embarrassed
Not enough, worthless, shame
Sad, down, unhappy
Stuck, frustrated, hopeless

How did these thoughts & feelings influence my actions today? What did this serve and cost?

Part II:
Reframe & Redo

Examine the thoughts you noticed about today (from Part I above):

How is the mind negatively distorting or over-simplifying how things actually are?

- Negative filter - focus on negative, filter positive
- Magnification/minimization - exaggerate negative events, downplay positive/neutral ones
- Discounting the positive - your positive qualities/contributions don't count
- All-or-nothing thinking - seeing things binary, absolute; no room to acknowledge nuance, complexity, or shades of gray
- Over-generalization - assumptions based on limited evidence or single/few event(s)
- Pessimistic forecasting - jumping to conclusions, assuming we know what will happen in the future
- Mind reading - assuming what people think about us
- Personalization - taking excessive personal blame/responsibility for something without enough evidence
- Labeling - attaching global labels to self or others based on specific behaviors or events ("I am a failure" vs "I made a mistake)
- Emotional reasoning/assumption - feelings reflect reality ("I feel it so it must be")
- Should Statements - rigid expectations or rules on self, others, the world, life, the future ("should, must, ought, have to")

What are some different ways to understand these thoughts? THINK: “Are these thoughts…”

- True? Consider the presence and absence of evidence, multiple perspectives or alternative explanations (bigger picture), consultation with trusted people, past experiences/successes, behavioral experimentation/exposure
- Helpful? Set aside “literal” meaning of thoughts: what is the purpose/function of this thinking? What is the mind trying to do, help, or protect? Remember: “negative thoughts” are usually just over-protective and “positive thoughts” can detrimentally prolong denial/avoidance of needed change.
- Inspiring? Does it inspire, motivate, or lead me to doing and responding to things based on my values?
- Necessary? Even if true/helpful/inspiring… Do I need to dwell on it now? Is dwelling productively serving me or my values? Will this thought/problem matter tomorrow, in a week/year/decade, or at the end of my life?
- Kind? Since the over-protective mind won’t, validate/support/encourage yourself the way you would with people you love and care about (as if they were also having these thoughts or dealing with similar situation).

What could I do differently next time I think or feel this way? What else am I able and willing to do that moves me closer to my true values and needs?

  • • Check in with myself (use this Mental Health Log when I notice I feeling worse before it becomes difficult to manage)
    • Separate, externalize, or detach from my mind and recognize that I can observe my mind (and think about it as a companion that is sometimes not helpful even when it believes it is helpful). Notice thoughts and feelings with curiosity about why the mind feels this is meant to be helpful
    • Accepting and acknowledging what I cannot control (include my feelings and my automatic thoughts)
    • When I know what I can control, look toward my values, needs, and goals (and accept that sometimes this will not always be free of some negative thoughts or feelings but remind myself why it is worthwhile to experience some anxiety, discomfort, stress, exhaustion, etc)
    • Relaxation/calming breathing (breathing in for 5 seconds, holding for 7 seconds, and breathing out slower than inhale for 8 seconds)
    • Extend thoughts of kindness, compassion, and/or gratitude to ourselves, someone/thing we care about, and maybe even to someone/thing we are struggling with or has hurt us
    • Detach and be flexible about having rigid expectations or preferences of outcomes: focus on what you can control (your efforts, the process, your choice to notice your thoughts and feelings to respond differently)
    • Grounding myself by shifting focusing on my mind/feelings to my environment (describing 5 things you see, 4 things you feel, 3 things you hear, 2 things you smell, and 1 thing you taste (describe these things in descriptive detail based on your senses, avoiding personal opinions, evaluation, or judgment about them)
    • Grounding myself by shifting focusing on my mind/feelings to my body (e.g., body scanning can include slowly describing how specific parts of your body feels, often starting from the toes slowly to the top of your head; progressive muscle relaxation requires you to tense and hold muscles for several seconds and suddenly relax them, often starting from one point of the body to other (e.g., starting from curling toes at the bottom up to scrunching your eyes/forehead at the top)

    You can always choose any hobby, coping skills, or activity but always try to consider whether or not it is truly working and that it is based on what you really what in life. I strongly encourage people to not immediately jumping to these right away as this reinforces any type of behavior (healthy or unhealthy) to become a control/avoidance strategy in the face of difficulty feelings and thoughts. It is important to first acknowledge and understand how thoughts/feelings, sit with them to understand they are not things we need to suppress or escape from, and then redirect our focus in a meaningful and helpful direction.

Completed Example

Part I: Self-Reflection & Self-Monitoring

What did or did not happen today? When and where?

- Woke up late for work this morning after staying up last night until 2 AM scrolling on phone.

- I did not finish all of my work today.

- When I got home, I got into a fight with my partner.

What thoughts did I have about this today?

- “I cannot do anything right. All I do is ruin things for myself and others.”

- “I should better by now. I will always be like this. I can’t change, I’m doomed. Today proves that.”

How did this make me feel today? How strongly, 0-10?

Happy, calm, peaceful: 0
Anxious, worried: 7
Angry, upset: 7
Guilt, regret: 8
Not enough, worthless, shame: 9
Sad, down, unhappy: 7
Stuck, frustrated, hopeless: 7

How did these thoughts & feelings influence my actions today? What did this help and cost?

Spent a total of 7 hours on social media today:

+ Help: relief from bad day at work and at home, funny, entertaining, low effort (easy to access, “free”), time flies by quicker
- Cost: got nothing done, got further behind (increased stress > poorer coping), feel awful about the time I lost and not finishing my work, barely present for family, neck and eyes hurt, phone use is getting excessive and out of control, increasingly more anxious when I don’t have it on me or I am not using it

I did not take a walk in the morning or at work again (these are goals I set for myself this week in therapy)

+ Help: relief by staying in warm cozy bed, got a little extra sleep, got more time on social media, avoidance is easy and low effort
- Cost: another week of failing to follow through with my goals, back pain, lack of sunlight or being outside, energy is always low, body getting weaker

Ate a large pizza, a large container of potato chips, and several beers for dinner

+ Help: instantly made me feel better after constantly feeling bad all day, tasted good, care-free
- Cost: felt horrible for the rest of the evening, affected my sleep and energy, hurting my health goals, waste of money when I already had food at home

Part II: Reframe & Redo

Examine the thoughts you noticed about today (from Part I above):

  1. How is the mind negatively distorting or over-simplifying how things actually are?

  2. What are some different ways to understand these thoughts? THINK: “Are these thoughts…”

“I cannot do anything right. All I do is ruin things for myself and others.”

  1. Negative filter, magnification, discounting positives, all-or-nothing thinking, over-generalization, personalization.

  2. True? 40%. I can do a few things well. I have some great relationships in my life. I do make things harder for myself by procrastinating and being on my phone so much. That does affect my work pretty badly.
    - Helpful? Not literally, but I can see that my mind is pushing me to do better and try to be better for others. This thinking is trying to be extra loud to get my attention to tell me I have not been making great choices lately. So this is helpful, even if painful to realize.
    - Inspiring? Yes, to work on letting go of unhelpful habits and being more active and engaged again.
    - Necesssary? Kinda, if I don’t change things now, it will get really bad later.
    - Kind? I’m going through a hard time right now, I have been trying my best but must try to do something different. No one is perfect, I can only keep trying which I have been slowly making progress.

“I should better by now. I will always be like this. I can’t change, I’m doomed. Today proves that.”

  1. Should statement, jumping to conclusions, pessimistic forecasting, discounting positives, all-or-nothing thinking, over-generalization

  2. True? 30%. I have been trying to be better about these things but I keep going consistently with no plan.
    - Helpful? Not literally, but I can see that my mind has expectations of me, is attempting to protect me from future disappointment and telling me how things are going to be.
    - Inspiring? Yes, I think I need to make a stronger commitment to letting go of unhelpful and be more conscious about living.
    - Necessary? Yes, before it got worse like it did in the past.
    - Kind? I’m going through a lot right now, which is leading to a lot of really painful thoughts and feelings. It’s hard to feel like you are failing everybody and yourself, but I know it’s painful because I care and my body is trying to move me to fix this problem (while my mind is telling me to go toward pleasure!)

What could I do differently next time I think or feel this way? What else am I able and willing to do that moves me closer to my true values and needs?

  • Drop an anchor sooner so I can be more frequently grounded throughout the day. I was mindless and reacting to my emotions, letting them build up unnecessarily. I took no control over the things I could because I was not aware of how I was thinking or feeling. I will start to drop an anchor in the morning, during each break at work, at least once in the evening, and before going to sleep.

  • Do a quick 20-second breath to calm my body and slow my mind, especially when I am having a hard time and struggling to get out of my head.

  • Regularly manage my thoughts. I realize I am not making a real effort. I cannot even recall what the skills are or how to use them, how can I expect to feel better when I am not doing the work outside of therapy? I cannot keep waiting to get to a low point to start: this is required for mental health like walking is for physical health. I will review “THINK” every day while I am journaling or completing the Mental Health Log.

  • Start journaling or logging my mental health every night this week (tracking mood, behaviors, thoughts). I know that means I will need to work through the urge to put it off (especially when I am feeling better or life is ok) and that I will need to lose some minutes away from social media to do this.

  • I could communicate clearly how I am doing when I am really struggling, instead of assuming people know what my needs are. I am willing to work through the fear that I am letting people down or disappointing them because I am having a hard time right now so I can work toward becoming someone who has honest, supportive relationships and communication.

  • Message or call a friend, let them know how I am doing while also checking in with them too.

  • Delete social media for a week. I know this means I will feel a lot of resistance and boredom, I will probably feel like I’m missing out, but I am willing to sit with those urges until they pass so I can keep focusing on becoming someone who has a healthier relationship to technology, someone who dedicates more time and energy into things like family, health, or actual life goals and interests.

After we have collected enough information through the Mental Health Log, we can apply it toward self-examination to understand why we think, feel, and act the way we do.