One of the unique cultures in Arts & Crafts is the planner community. What is that you may ask? It is the old school pen to paper planner and calendar practice. To see a taste of it then check out the hashtag #planneraddict on Instagram. This community uses a traditional non-digital approach to thinking through your thoughts and getting ideas and things down on paper. In one way it is like documentation and in another way it is mental health from digital overload.
One of the beautiful concepts that have birthed from the planner community is a company 100% dedicated to achieving better mental health through thoughtful, goal-oriented and gratitude-oriented work through printable worksheets and a physical product called the Happiness Planner. The Happiness Planner brand takes mental health as something you are working toward and planning to achieve. Plan to reach to the best version of you!
I believe this particular product is more relevant now in 2020 than ever for a couple reasons. First, social media culture has become increasing hostile and demoralizing. Every bit of news coming through the digital pipelines has been particularly negative this year. Politics, racism, fear, hate speech and a myriad of dark material has been thrown into the center stage through toxic Twitter battles and has been spotlight for way too long (probably really ramping up for the past 10 years). The overall vibe is not hopeful or inspiring and if one is struggling with depression then.. oy! Second, 2020 the year of massive waves of fear and anxiety, job loss, riots and protests, and an election year that might cause more of the hostility. Again, if one is struggling with addiction or mental issues then this year is like a triggering nightmare.
The Coronavirus pandemic is creating the conditions to exhaust and elevate mental health problems by creating the job loss, fear, isolation, etc. See Journal of the American Medical Association article’s claim to an increase in suicide in the past two decades. This negative trending is also parallel with increased use of social media and algorithms that work to place click-bait articles of fear into a person’s feed. This is concerning. One way I personally have began to combat against this trend is to disengage with social media and give myself purposeful breaks. If I am online I listen to (free) mediative tracks on Youtube rather than see what the latest twitter war has broken out.
So ..
What I believe the Happiness Journal does three things:
1.) It has created beautifully designed journals and products bringing beauty into one’s life.
2.) It works on the mental and inner game that helps individuals remind themselves of their inner Light.
3.) And finally, it encourages a private non-digital approach to healing.
Beauty + Inner Light + Break from the Online = Improved Mental Health!