I enjoy journaling. It helps me to get out the thoughts stuck on repeat in my head and helps me to calm and relax myself. I’ve been journaling and writing short stories and poetry since I was a kid. While I haven’t written any poetry in a long time, I do still journal. When I am stressed or overwhelmed, journaling is one of the first methods of coping that truly works for me. During COVID, I was working from home as a customer service agent. That job is not for the weak. I dealt with loud, abusive, and angry people nearly every day for almost a year. I was so stressed out from it that my hair started thinning and I lost weight from not eating. I suffered from depression and anxiety. I dreaded going to work every day.
I stumbled across bullet journaling (or Bujo for short) while looking for ways to journal to support mental health. The Bullet Journal Method was created by Ryder Carroll to help him keep up with tasks and projects while managing his ADHD. It quickly took the internet by storm and suddenly everyone was doing it, putting their own spin on it by creating spreads that included trackers for reading, water intake, meds, exercise, and so much more. I decided to do the same, creating themed spreads for water intake, gaming, symptom tracking, journaling, and writing. I enjoy crafts so I would use stickers and stamps and stencils to make my spreads pretty and inviting. I was proud of my work and it helped me to identify patterns in my health in relation to work and hydration and sickle cell symptoms.
Recently, I’ve been having trouble using my hands as they have become swollen and achy. I’m not able to do all the crafting I enjoy to make a physical bujo anymore so I decided to go digital. YouTube has a plethora of videos of people making digital bullet journals and it is just so fascinating and cool. I need to save up to buy an iPad and iPad pencil as I determined that would be the best option for me. Going digital would be the easiest to manage as I won’t need to hold scissors or other crafting supplies and be in pain at the same time.
Digital bullet journaling is good for me as I can remove, erase, move, cut, copy, paste, etc. with the tip of my finger or pen. I can create and download stickers and graphics using Canva which has been kind of fun. I have been trying to build new habits where I use my bullet journal everyday to track my moods, doctors appointments, sickle cell symptoms, this blog, exercise, gaming, reading, and more. They say it takes 28 days to form a new habit and I am hoping I can form this habit during the month of May. I am using my laptop now until I get an iPad since it has a touch screen but it’s not ideal. Soon, I plan to start a podcast to discuss my experiences with chronic illness, mental health, exercise, and much more.
What would you use a bullet journal for? Feel free to share your thoughts and comments.
P.S. Have a condition that you want to share about? Or are you a caregiver? Follow my link to see if you qualify for clinical studies with Rare Patient Voice: https://www.rarepatientvoice.com/rp/ChaunceyWatson
The Chauncey Life 