I like to think that, on a good day, my height is 5 foot 4 inches, but I am probably in denial as time marches on and we all gradually shrink as we 'mature'. This measurement of my own height came to mind recently when I came across a collection of journals that I have written in the past. I must have filled so many books in my life, that, were they to be placed one on top of the other, would probably reach at least eye level for me. 

It isn't the journals themselves that matter to me. It is the freedom to write authentically, without judgement from others. My safe space. When I write I can be honest, reflective, hopeful, delighted, despairing and anything in between. 

This compulsion to write and record my feelings helped me through a tricky adolescence and it became a habit that never left me. Sometimes I would be away from home, perhaps on holiday, and believed that I didn't need to bring my journal along, only to find myself seeking out places where I could buy a notebook, anything that I could write in. 

You may well do something similar. Do you use the opportunity to write, when you have recorded your Moodscope score? Do you ever re-read what you have written?

Sometimes I re-read my Moodscope 'journal' and my heart goes out to my previous self, struggling or rejoicing on that day, in whatever place I found myself at that time. 

I rarely re-read my own journals. The work of writing itself is both creative and cathartic, I find. So the act of writing is, in fact, the therapeutic balm that I am seeking. Does that make sense to you?

Helen

A Moodscope member