Planner Squad loves to have our Squadettes share how they are using their planners. It can be extremely helpful to discover how other planner girls creatively use their planners for function and fun.
Mayghan shares how her Happy Planner has helped her deal with some mental health and physical concerns. Discover how she is using her planner to journal for therapy. We greatly appreciate her willingness to allow us a sneak peek at her life and how planning has been a tremendous benefit to her overall well-being.
I have to preface this post by saying that I have never done a blog post, but I shall do my best. I apologize for how personal this post may be compared to the ones that you normally read about all things planner related. But, this journal template came about due to a personal situation, so I thought it best to give it it’s due.
Due to some crazy life experiences, I attended some therapy sessions this past summer. I’ve lived in Fort McMurray, Alberta since 2012, and was evacuated with 88,000 other people this summer during “The Beast” of a wildfire that swept through our city. The company I work for encouraged every Fort McMurray employee to go to therapy if they needed it, and they would cover 4 sessions.
I still didn’t know if my home was standing or not (it turned out to be fine, there wasn’t even any smoke damage). Also, I’ve had a chronic pain issue (pelvic floor injury) for 9 years and residual issues from an unprovoked bi-lateral Pulmonary Embolism on Christmas of 2014. I figured it would be a good time to “check under the hood” so to speak.
Using My Happy Planner to Journal for Therapy
The first thing the therapist wanted me to do was to begin keeping a journal. She wanted to track my:
- Emotional State
- Mental State
- Physical Activity
- Pain Levels
I love the IDEA of journaling l for therapy but have never been able to make the habit stick.
I went back to my boss’s house (where I was staying during the evacuation) and sat down and thought. I had just recently purchased my first Mambi Happy Planner and was loving it, and I had seen templates online. But, nothing seemed to fit what I was looking for.
So, I decided to make one for myself. I turned it into a nice little 8-page booklet using 2 8 ½” x 11” pieces of paper, printed them on both sides, and folded them in half. I even made a cover page, so I could keep track of which week it belonged to. And after I used my Mambi hole punch, it easily slipped into place in my planner.
I think I really surprised the therapist the next week when I returned. But, she loved it and encouraged me to continue the way that I was going.
My goal is that once I have several months worth of entries, I will take each category and put it into a spreadsheet to see the pattern. (If there is any interest in learning more about how to do this, let us know in the comments below!)
My activity and stress levels always increase my pain, so it will be interesting to see how that correlates on a graph. It will also be interesting to see how my emotional state corresponds with it.
For the first time in my life, I’m actually consistently using a journal. I don’t feel pressure to write paragraph upon paragraph anymore. Just a few quick sentences and I’m good until the next day!
Click on the Image Below to Download Your FREE Printable Journal Insert!
How would you benefit from using a journal for therapy?
Mayghan Poirier
Latest posts by Mayghan Poirier (see all)
- How To Use a Happy Planner to Journal for Therapy - May 3, 2017
Wendy says
I love this idea – I’m recovering from a back injury and just now able to start training on my bike again. I’m slowly adding miles (only doing 30 miles at a time right now), and this will help me to see my recovery and strength gain.
However….I can’t find the image to be able to download the file?
Thanks in advance!!
Kemmy M McCoy says
I love this idea, I too deal with chronic pain along with PTSD & Major Depression. I’d love to achieve something this nice. I will be having to have another back surgery & I’m dreading it. I’ll be 50 in Oct. I’m just so tired of trying to deal & cope with this pain. I worked in the medical field. I had an obese patient that weighed over 800lbs. This injury occurred in 2002. Had back surgery. Now it being 2017, I can’t stand long enough to wash dishes. Scale 1 to 10 I’m @ a 10 constantly. I’m all cried out. I have no more tears to shed. Just wanted you to know, I love this idea you’ve created. Tfs
Dorian Goodyk says
I’m trying to figure out how to save it as an editable document. When I download it, it’s a jpg file. Could you help?
Vicky says
what a great idea. I can empathize with you Mayghan, I have 2 chronic illnesses, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Fibromyalgia and suffer from PTSD after the death of my partner. I have been looking for a way to track my illnesses, pain levels, and mental health for a long time but nothing has really worked for me. I tried journalling but I never kept it up. I never thought to use my happy planner to keep track.
Thak you for sharing your story and for sharing your wonderful idea.
Sarah says
I love this idea and went right away to DL the printable but the only file in the zip is a jpg? The PDF in the zip talks about the copyright but there is no PDF or word file for the printable. And try as I may, I wasn’t able to do a single thing with the JPG that made it work for my classic HP.
Kimi says
I’m using the correct password and it will not let me download the journal page
Michelle says
Love this idea 🙂
Have downloaded the files but can’t open in word or as a PDF as its been saved as a JPG file
Joanna says
I have tried several times to sign up, and I have still not received anything with a password to download the therapy tool. I was wondering if I was doing something wrong, or if you could send it to me, (password or printable – looking at the therapy one) because seeing it and not being able to access it is very frusterating.
TIA
Amy Milcic says
Hey Joanna! So sorry-just seeing this! We are working on getting the printables to you. Sorry for the frustration!
www.facebook.com says
Hi, Thanks a lots for posting the material and actually maintaining the
website. I simply wish to add that I used it and also it
helped me so much. Also, I would like to point out that your tips motivating to me and motivate me to make the next step.
http://www.facebook.com recently posted…http://www.facebook.com
Peggy says
This idea is great and I like your insert. I struggle with severe pain due to a fused spine (scoliosis diagnosed at 12 yrs and spinal fusion of the thoracic and lumbar regions) and complications after a car accident (fused spine not related to accident.), I also, struggle with (diagnosed) major depression & dysthymia, along with a few other health issues, including severe migraines and headaches. I know I should write down my pain levels, where the pain is, my stress levels, and my emotional levels, yet it has always seemed to time consuming. With your inserts, I should be able to write a quick sentence and circle a number and be down within a few minutes. Thank You!
Auto injury treatment says
This is great ideas,Thank you for this ideas with sharing us.
Melissa Gorman says
I am very happy to have seen this. I struggle with Bipolar Disorder and my doctor suggested a similar idea. The printable was so helpful. Thank you.
Caitlyn Butterfield says
I saw back in 2017 that you were getting downloadable pages for us. And I haven’t been able to find them anywhere. I am not able to print it or save it as it’s a jpeg.