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My current mental and emotional health. 

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My current mental and emotional health. 

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Right now, my mental and emotional health is not very stable. Most of the time, I feel happy because I have good friends who support and care about me. But sometimes I also feel stressed and tired because of some unhealthy relationships that I don’t want to have and they affect how I feel. As an international student, I face many challenges like studying, improving my English, working part-time, and especially missing my family and home. These things often make me feel very lonely. When I feel sad, I usually call my parents to talk and I’m very lucky because they always listen and support me when I’m feeling down. Their advice helps me feel stronger and more positive. My friends are also very important. Talking to them or spending time together helps me relax and feel better. To manage my stress, I often go out with friends or eat something nice instead of staying alone with negative thoughts. This really works for me because after hanging out or having fun, I feel more positive and calm.

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To improve my mental and emotional health, I have decided to set a personal goal of writing a journal every two days for about 15–20 minutes each time, over the course of three weeks. I believe this goal will help me pay more attention to my own thoughts and reflect on my inner feelings through daily events and experiences. I hope that after this journey, I will achieve a more stable and positive mental and emotional state.

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This is my action plan. I decide to use the Notepad application to quickly write my thoughts when I am on my laptop.

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I was walking around my home.

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After finishing the first week, I notice that I pay more attention to my feelings because I never really think about myself like this before. I write every two days for about 15 –20 minutes. I think about what happens in the day, how I feel, how do things affect my mood, how people treated me, and at the end of the day how my feelings have been changed from the morning. I usually write around 8:30 pm or when I have free time and also choose a quite place to focus on my process. Most of activities in my weeks are studying, working, and hanging out with friends. But through this journal, I realised that even simple daily tasks can have a significant impact on my emotions.

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This week, one challenge I have faced is sometimes I feel too tired or lazy to write my diary, especially after a long day at school or work. Sometimes I just want to rest or use my phone, so it is hard to focus on writing. One thing that works well this week is I can follow my plan most of the time. Writing every two days is not too much for me although I feel tired some days, so it is possible to keep doing it. Writing helps me notice my feelings more and also helps me feel calm after I write what I think in my diary.

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I see that when I spend time with my friends, my mental and emotional health get better so now I know the way to improve my negative thoughts, feelings to positive.

Rate mood: 4/5

--> something happens beyond my expectations but I think those things will improve in the future.

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This week I experienced both challenges and relaxing moments. Balancing between schoolwork, part-time jobs and personal time was not easy, but I focused on studying and finished the assignments I needed. I also felt more comfortable when talking with my parents, because it gave me emotional support whenever I felt stressed. Another positive change is that I walked and listened to music. This activity not only helped me release energy but also improved my mood and physical health.

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I am quite proud of my plan since the beginning to set an alarm reminder, because it was really useful on Saturday when I almost missed one day of writing the journal. This week had both happy days and also very stressful ones, so I hope next week things can get better. I will try to complete my school tasks to have more time for family and friends, so I can support myself in the journey of having stable mental and emotional health.

Rate mood: 3/5

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This week is the last week of my journaling goal and I am really lucky because many great things happened. I still feel a little worried about school, especially with the math test, but I did very well. Other things also went smoothly, like hanging out with friends, doing makeup for a friend, and getting positive feedback. There was a small problem when I came home late from hanging out and forgot to write my journal, but I wrote it the next day, so it did not affect my progress.

Rate mood: 5/5

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After 3 weeks, I notice big changes that I didn’t have time to write in my journal. Compared to week one and week two, even though week three had many positive experiences, the important thing is that in the first two weeks I focused on my personal feelings every day, but my thoughts were a little serious and maybe made me misunderstand some things in life as negative. This week, I feel more open and relaxed, and I don’t write about any negative things in my journal. This is a clear improvement compared to the previous two weeks.

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Over the 3 weeks of doing my journaling goal, I notice clear changes in my feelings, thoughts, and the way I see myself. At first, I never really take time to watch and reflect about my feelings, so sometimes negative thoughts in my head make me misunderstand the problems in life as serious or bad, lead to effect other experiences by that negative mood. However, because I chose the goal to write a diary every two days, I start to pay attention to my feelings, realise how I react to situations in my head to understand if my perspective is right or not and also see the positive or negative effects from daily activities. My relationships get better when I manage my deep inner thoughts, so I can share positivity with people, and they treat me with love as well. Family and friends are really important in my life because they help me get out of the dark side of my thoughts.

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My mental and emotional health improves because of the actions I take. For example, I feel happy and excited when I hang out with friends, go to the library to study and have fun, or do makeup for a friend and get positive feedback. These activities help me release stress, improve my mood, and feel more confident. Journaling also plays an important tool that helps me notice negative thoughts or pressure from study and work, and then I find ways to handle it, like going for a walk, listening to music, or talking with my parents.

During this process, both personal and environmental factors affect my wellbeing. Personally, things that affect me negatively are schoolwork and work pressure. Socially and environmentally, support from family and friends and fun activities like eating out, karaoke, or taking photobooth photos help me have relaxing and enjoyable moments. Using my phone and social media is also one of the main ways I relax when I have free time alone.

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During the 3 weeks of doing my journaling goal, I feel like I have achieved most of my SMART goal. I wrote in my journal regularly every 2 days, about 15–20 minutes each time, recording my feelings, the events of the day, and why I felt that way. The evidence of my progress is that I noticed many emotions and thoughts that I didn’t pay attention to before, and I understood why I used to think negatively about everything even when it wasn’t really serious. I also saw positive changes in how I manage my emotions. For example, when I feel stressed because of school or work, I go for a walk, listen to music, talk to my parents, or hang out with friends instead of letting negative feelings control my whole day.

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The strategies and supports I used were quite effective. Setting an alarm to remind myself to write my journal helped me avoid forgetting once, and spending time with family and friends to talk and share feelings helped me release stress a lot, which was the most helpful strategy for me. Walking, listening to music, and relaxing also had a good effect on my mood.

I feel quite satisfied with this journaling journey because it really helped me improve my perspective on life. But if I were to do it again, I might try writing quick notes about my feelings right when events happen instead of only writing in the evening, so I don’t forget my immediate emotions.

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Through this process, I learned that mental and emotional health and having the right mindset are extremely important in daily life. If I keep negative feelings, I will spread bad energy into my life and to people around me, which attracts more low-energy events and leads to more bad experiences. I don’t want negativity to affect the beautiful life I have and the lives of others. Life would be really wasted if we don’t live positively and spread love to the world.