It’s September … we are nearing the transition from summer to fall. While we’re still baking in heat (at least I am here in DC), we can start to look ahead and prepare ourselves for the seasonal transition.

As we turn inside as the weather cools as the days shorten, we get less sun. Our lives get busier as school starts or as work picks up following the end of summer vacations. This seasonal transition can affect our mental health (referred to as Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD). We can feel tired, drained, moody, depressed, down, anxious, stressed, irritated, withdrawn unmotivated. This can affect our sleep appetite, social interactions, balance, and routines. Here are some ways we can use journaling to support our mental health as we navigate seasonal blues.

Journal to Stay on Top of Your Feelings

Seasonal blues can sneak up on us. When we’re less in tune with our feelings, we often don’t notice we’re feeling down or drained or anxious until we feel REALLY down or drained or anxious. At that point, it’s harder to take a step back and say, “Oh, this is because of the season.”So even before those blues hit, we can build a routine of journaling our feelings. This helps us become more aware of our feelings from day to day, moment to moment. This way, we become more aware of how our mood changes with the seasons, which helps us be more prepared for those downtimes.

Journal to Develop Positive Mental Health Strategies

Journaling also helps us gain a deeper understanding of what positive things we can do for our mental health. After we express how we’re feeling, we can journal to come up with ideas for how we can support ourselves. This helps build our sense of ownership of our mental health journey, even during downtimes.

It’s ok if some of what we try doesn’t work. Journaling about it helps us continue with trial, error, and learning. Eventually, we find the ways of thinking and living that nurture our mental health.

So what’s next? Optimize Your Journal for Your  Mental Health

We know that your mental health journey is personal to you. We are all unique beings in different places in our lives. That’s why we created our Custom Wellness Journal, where YOU can actually choose the journaling prompts that go in your journal, so it’s customized to you.

How it works is on our website, we provide a menu of prompts based on mental health practices. You choose the prompts that speak to you, and we hand-make your custom journal with your prompts: www.ZenitJournals.com.

Here are some recommended prompts in our menu of prompts to help you navigate seasonal blues:

• What am I feeling?
• What’s driving my feelings?
• What serves me today?
• My wins, big or small — what gave me energy?
• What drained my energy?
• How am I honoring what I want?
• I feel stressed or down about… What do my heart and wisest self say about it?
• If these resonate, you can select these prompts when you customize your journal on our website. You can also add your favorite affirmation mantra or quote to the title page of your journal!