One thing that really helps to brighten my mood as well as unpack the ideas in my head is journalling. Not on a screen, on paper. It's why I carry around several notebooks everywhere and in a large part I credit writing with keeping me levelheaded. At least I think and hope it does. Today I thought I'd talk you through what I call my good vibes journal. Each day I try to write down a list of five positive things from the day. It could be something simple, like the way the sun shone down on the pavement as I walked to get my train, or a compliment someone paid me. I have been doing this on and off for years but more recently since the 15th of June, in the above Muji notebook you see. It is now just over three months since I started this so I thought I'd share with you a list of twenty things from those many days that are just positive anecdotes at their simplest. Idk if this is a lame post but I love reading these little life musings from people so maybe some of you will as well. Anyway, list incoming as well as the dates..

15/6: Reading Caitlin Moran's holiday tales at the carwash.

23/6: Winning tickets to see Tim Minchin! *Side note: This was amazing.

5/7: Learning effective new mindfulness techniques.

7/7: People saying lovely things.

14/7: Long chats with E. 

24/7: Feeling smiley at work.

2/8: Listening to Alexandra Shulman being interviewed by Richard E. Grant for Penguin & Jennifer Saunders on the Glamour podcast.

10/8: Engaging in fashion themed banter with L. 

20/8: Reading and underlining passages I connect with.

22/8: The song Younger Now x Miley Cyrus.

25/8: Exploring the Winter Gardens with Emma. 

29/8: Feeling confident rocking minimal makeup. *Side note: In honesty this confidence thing I'm struggling with a bit at the moment so it's definitely going to take time.

4/9: Vodka Daisies. *A drink at Bedford Soda Co. that I love.

9/9: Seeing Matilda at the Civic.

11/9: The twinkling lights out the train window at nighttime. 

15/9: Being honest.

16/9: Getting to vote.

3/7: Reading Frankie magazine during the power cut.

1/8: Lovely supportive blog comments and emails.

16/8: The in-depth article on feminism in Lula, Volume 16.

I'll be honest, I'd been a bit slack with keeping up with my positivity journaling but I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago and haven't looked back. So, here's another ten things that have made me happy recently...

1. Conversations with beautiful strangers in Lush. 

2. Licking the bowl after making chocolate brownie (shh). 

3. Winning a $250 Smith & Caughey voucher. *I actually ended up sharing this with someone else but I got myself this ring which I love.

4. Book chats on Twitter. 

5. Singing along to Fleetwood Mac's Rumors album. 

6. Endless Tumblr scrolling. 

7. Miranda Sings voices on phone conversations. 

8. Having a secret S Club 7 desk party session for one. 

9. Being indoors with rain beating against the windows. 

10.  Reading all the magazines.

-What's made you happy recently?

Happiness is so multifaceted and I'm sure that no two of us will have the same ideas of what happiness encompasses. For me it involves so many things, one that I feel at peace and at ease in whatever environment or situation I find myself. As I mentioned last week, I've started keeping a gratitude journal. Today I thought I'd share some of the things I've written down from the last couple of weeks that evoked happiness for me, no matter how big or small they were..

1. Watching Stephen Hawking interviews on YouTube.

2. Blog inspiration striking whilst I'm lost in random thought, i.e. daydreaming. 

3. Reading books in bed.

4. Listening to Florence and the Machine. 

5. Walks in the sunshine. *This has been repeated a few times.

6. Playing Cards Against Humanity.

7. Watching Boyhood and feeling inspired. 

8. Listening to Disney music.

9. Raspberry body butter.

10. Late morning showers. 

*What makes you happy?

Sometimes it's all too easy to get caught up in what is going wrong. Whether that be in our lives or someone else's. I have to admit, sometimes I get into a skeptical, pessimistic frame of mind and find it hard to shake. In an attempt to counteract that, last year I started a positivity journal. Each day I had to write one positive thought, whether it be about myself or something that happened to another person. I found it really effective and made me feel more uplifted. Perhaps it was a placebo effect, who knows. Well recently, I've been a bit down, stressed and a manner of other things so I decided to introduce a gratitude journal to my daily routine...

The journal in question is the botanical journal from Rifle Paper Co., a design they don't seem to make anymore. You can find similar styles here though. I'll be honest, this was a rather impulsive buy on a holiday last year. Basically I wanted every piece of Rifle Paper goodness I could find. It wasn't an essential by any means but I am glad I've found a use for it. If you don't want to splurge, look for a notebook among your collection or give a plain old exercise book a makeover. There's so many DIY's on Pinterest these days. 

In terms of filling it in I like to include a positive statement about the day. For instance, above I wrote "there is always something good in every day". Then I like to include a list of things from that day which made me happy. I usually end up with six+ things and it really reinforces that quote. More so if I thought I'd had a shitty day. Something like listening to Florence can make me happy. I then include some kind of visual below. It could be anything really-whatever you fancy! So far I've used the back of a lipstick packaging, photos, calendar excerpts and my own drawings. 

It's only been eight days so far but I'm finding this such a useful tool. Doing this at night leaves me in a better mood before I go to sleep and it reminds me, even if I'm in a bad mood, there's never days where it's entirely like that. I think gratitude journals are definitely something I'll be sticking to.

*Do you keep a gratitude journal?