It’s Thoughtful Thursday again, which means it’s time to pull out our notebooks and journal for just a few minutes about whatever’s on our mind. Journaling is a very low-risk way to reap many health benefits, including decreased depression and anxiety and increased self-awareness. (Seriously, it’s been studied.) So, whenever you have five minutes free today, jot down the loudest thoughts in your head. How much you write is up to you, and you don’t have to share it with anyone.
To get you started, here’s a journal entry I wrote last night. It’s not award-winning literature, but it was helpful to put the thoughts on paper. Happy writing!
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November 11, 2020
One of depression’s deadliest tools is its ability to keep you inside your own head. The things outside of you start to fall by the wayside. Places you go, people you talk to, hobbies you get lost in – anything that distracts you from what’s going on behind your eyes, depression eradicates it piece by piece. You’re left with nothing but yourself. Consciousness turns in on itself. You have nothing to think about except your own thoughts, and then you think about thinking about your thoughts. It’s recursive. Eventually, all that remains is your mind, unaffected by external input from the world around you. Your life is dominated by what depression wants you to experience. It controls how you feel, what you notice, who you believe. You cannot defeat it from the inside. It has domain over everything that exists within the confines of your skull.
The only escape is from the outside. Expand your world. Push the boundaries of what you do and who you know until they include forces that are stronger than you. Friends, allies, doctors. Take yourself back from the outside. It’s the only way.
Miss Misery 
Thanks for the reminder! It’s been a heck of a week so, yeah, I definitely need the break of journal writing.
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