How to make an emotions diary, step by step and with examples

Every day and every hour we feel emotions. Some positive, some negative, some intense, some milder, and their duration also varies.

There is no doubt that people feel emotions, but do we know how to identify them? Are we aware that we feel them? Emotion diaries can help us to be more aware of the feelings we experience throughout the day, in addition to recognizing what situations have triggered them and, also, they allow us to reflect on what do.

Next let's see some steps to learn how to make an emotions diary, in addition to commenting on some advantages of this type of records and how useful they are to develop our emotional intelligence and artistic abilities.

• Related article: "What is emotional intelligence?"

How to make a journal of emotions and benefit from it?

We can define as an emotional diary any type of record that we make in which we put how we are feeling each day or, also, noting only those days in which an emotion, positive or negative, has become very important because it is very intense.

These types of diaries are widely used in psychotherapy to make the patient acquire a better management of their feelings, that is, develop more emotional intelligence, although it is recommended for anyone.

People do not feel the same throughout the day. Our mood changes with the passing of the hours and days, with several factors that influence our emotions. The people with whom we interact, the situations with which we have to face and our own way of being make us manifest all kinds of emotions, all of them adaptive as long as they are within the healthy and do not suppose a level of alteration too high for our daily life.

Nevertheless, Living emotions is not the same as knowing how to detect and manage them. It is very difficult to “analyze” an emotion at the moment it is experienced, but it is possible to do it more objectively once we have calmed down and seen it with the broadest possible perspective, this being the main objective of emotion diaries. Being calm we can reflect on how we have felt, in what situation the emotion has appeared, what response we have done before the problematic situation and what we can do in the future to prevent it from being too intense or harmful.

Tips for keeping an emotional journal

An emotional journal can be done simply by writing down the emotions as we feel them on a piece of paper. It is enough to take a notebook and, in a schematic way, begin to manage our own emotions by writing them down. We can go about how we feel each day or, simply, do it in those in which the emotions have been very intense. The ideal is to aim each day, putting both the positive emotions, such as happiness, joy or euphoria, as well as the negative ones, such as sadness, anger, anxiety or anger.

The way in which we target our emotions is quite free and it is beneficial as long as we allow us to find some emotional pattern that repeats itself and what emotions situations provoke us concrete, promoting the development of emotional intelligence. There may be people who do well to point out how they have felt in a very free way, although it can be said that disorder can be a little chaotic and more than helping us manage our emotions and bring us well-being, what it can do is make us feel frustrated and overwhelmed.

To get the most out of our emotions diary, it is advisable to follow the following points.

1. Use a notebook

To make a diary of emotions, it is best to use a paper notebook before using the mobile notepad or using a word processor on our PC. Among the reasons why a notebook is preferable to any other format is that it is easy to carry around and write in it anytime we feel inspired.

Also, this diary is not just for writing, since On many occasions to clearly represent and explain how we feel we need to make drawings, diagrams, diagrams or even collages. A physical notebook is a very format that allows us to interact with total artistic freedom, something that is directly related to emotions.

2. Choose a fixed time to write

As we have mentioned, there are those who prefer to note how they have felt each day, while others prefer to do it only on those days when intense emotion has flooded them, both for good and for worse. Although writing in this diary is something that we can do at any time of the day, it is advisable to establish a fixed time each day to write down or, at least, review it.

A good idea is to write (or draw) in this journal at night, well right at the end of the day but not necessarily before going to sleep.. It is at that time when there is less chance that our mood will change, since little else is going to happen to us in the little that remains of the day. In addition, it is at night when we tend to be calmer, the night hours being the most appropriate time to reflect on how we have felt throughout the day.

3. Use a grid

While we can use any artistic device to express and describe our emotions, It is appropriate that within this freedom we use a minimum of order and using a grid is a good way to achieve it.. This grid made with rows and columns can help us to have a very precise diagram of the emotional events that we have experienced throughout the day.

We can put several categories in each column: situation, thought, emotion, answer and suggestions or alternatives to our answer, in addition to questions.

3.1. Situation

In "situation" we can what has happened to us during the day that has awakened a specific emotion. We must be as specific as possible, specifying all kinds of details and people involved in the situation. It can also be a future situation that, although it has not happened to us, still awakens both positive and negative emotions. Some examples could be:

"Tomorrow I have an exam in which I stake 60% of the grade for a subject that I have a hard time understanding."

"Today my colleague Caterina told me that I am totally useless to do group work."

"This summer I will go to Tenerife."

3.2. Thoughts

In the "thoughts" column We will put the ideas that happened to us (or are going through us) that are related to that situation. These thoughts, if they are anticipatory to a situation that has not yet occurred, can be exaggerated, both catastrophic and overly optimistic. It is by writing them in the journal that we can detect whether or not they are realistic and proportionate to the situation:

"I'm going to fail the exam because I barely understand the subject and, despite having studied a lot and gone to all the classes, I still don't understand anything."

"I think he made that comment because he doesn't like me, because my part of the work is well done and the teacher has given us a good grade anyway."

"Every day we are going to go to the beach in Tenerife, I am going to meet new people, I am going to go dark and it will be an unforgettable vacation."

3.3. Emotions

In the "emotions" part we put how we feel. It may seem like the easiest part, but it is strangely the hardest. It is easy to know how to identify our thoughts, but not so much our emotions. Specifying and labeling how we feel, explaining it in the best way with words is a real feat, moreover that we have to do considerable introspection and acknowledge emotions that perhaps we don't mean sorry:

“I am very nervous, I climb the walls. I can't concentrate because the idea that I'm going to fail goes through my head all the time and it overwhelms me even more ”.

“Even though I know that girl is wrong, she has made me feel very bad. I feel that I am worth absolutely nothing, that I cannot have good friends and that the few people with whom I interact are not capable of appreciating me as I am ”.

“I will have a really good time. I will be happier than ever. Nothing is going to go wrong. "

3.4. Physical sensations

We can put a category for physical sensations although, also, they can be described in the column of emotions as a result of them. We must specify if the sensations change or are permanent, if they make it impossible for us to do normal tasks or give us pleasure. Some of these sensations can be the following, all of them can be caused by both positive as well as negative emotions: tachycardia, sweating, rapid breathing, numbness, tremors ...

3.5. Answer

We can analyze the behavior or response we have made to the situation, also seeing if it is appropriate or not for the type of context and emotion that we have experienced:

"I am so overwhelmed that I am not able to study, which is wrong because only by studying will I have a minimal chance to pass."

"I have told her that she is totally useless for many other things, such as being able to read a paragraph aloud in class without getting distracted."

“I have started making plans to make sure everything is going well for the trip. I have found out if it is necessary for me to be vaccinated and if I cannot take according to what foods or vegetables to the island ”.

3.6. Suggestions

Finally, We can put what this emotion suggests to us or what alternative we can make to the answer we have already made.

“I should calm down. I may not pass the exam, but the best I can do is calm down now and try to see if the content fits. It is not worth being nervous in the exam because, if so, it is certain that less I will find out about the questions and I will not be able to remember what I have studied either ”.

“The best thing I can do about her comments is to ignore her. Surely she has a problem or she is on the edge of it because something has happened to her. Since I have done my part well, I have no rational reason to feel bad about what he tells me. It is true that I would like to please everyone, but that is simply not possible and, sometimes, there are people who mess with others just for the fun of it. "

“Although I am excited that I am going to travel to Tenerife, I should calm down a bit and be proactive. It is not putting yourself in the worst of situations, but it is being a bit realistic. It may be that if I go too happy and confident around the island they will end up robbing me seeing that I am not watching my belongings or that I do not watch how expensive restaurants, hotels and nightclubs are. I must have a good time, but with good reason ”.

Advantages of keeping an emotional journal

There are many advantages to keeping an emotion diary. When it comes to expressing how we have felt during the day, this type of journal allows us to being aware of those emotions, what situations have triggered them, how we have behaved, how we have anticipated that they would get better or worse and, in addition, it allows us to reflect and find ways to better manage those feelings. In other words, it helps us to develop our emotional intelligence and, consequently, they bring us greater well-being.

For example, this type of journal it is perfect for people who have many obsessive thoughts, thoughts that can be very limiting when doing work or studying. Through the emotion diary and writing down the days or in the moments and contexts in which they occur, we can see what the factors are triggers that cause us to have these kinds of thoughts and, thus, stop them by avoiding them or directly getting rid of them.

Emotions turned into art

Emotion diaries are not only a good tool to give emotional well-being to our lives, but are also an authentic exercise in self-knowledge and development of our skills artistic. As we have commented, There are those who prefer to explain their emotions through the written text, but this does not mean that we write in a dry and cold way how we feel. We can use metaphors, comparisons, say that emotions have colors and tones, or describe them by saying that they evoke a certain melody or song.

However, if we are more visual people, the journal of emotions can be very useful to put many painting skills into practice. We can paint, draw, make diagrams, represent with abstract figures how we feel... The emotions diary it can be a real artistic work, a work of art made with our own lives, experiences, emotions, thoughts and feelings. It is turning our emotions into art.

Bibliographic references:

• López E. and Arango T. (2002). Emotional Intelligence. Learning and growing together: Bogotá (Colombia). Editions Gamma S.A.
• Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence. Why it is more important than IQ: Barcelona (Spain). Editions B, S.A.
• Leahy, R. L. (2003) "Emotional Processing Techniques", chapter 8 of Cognitive Therapy Techniques. A practitioner's guide, New York, The Guilford Press.