After September 21st, most of my friends moved abroad. And that was one of the most difficult decisions of their lives, and one of the hardest days of 2022 for me. Nobody knew if we'd see each other again after saying our goodbyes at the bus station on September 26. It was really heartbreaking.
I miss them a lot. My blues-dancing, hippie, and Celtic friends, my swing kids—I miss them a lot.
And I could fall into a horrible, hopeless depression after those things. But life is going on. And I decided not to give up.
At the end of September, I spent a lot of time with my family, just to not feel so alone. And I decided to limit my doomscrolling routine. Life is going on.
At the beginning of October, I discovered an app on my phone that I had downloaded once but never opened. It was a gratitude journal. Well. "Why not?" I thought and started to write.
By the way, I'm a designer and love interfaces. That app called Presently has a good-looking, convenient, and enjoyable interface. It is a pleasure just to open the app.
So I started to write. First, I wrote every day. It wasn't a big deal. Open a journal and write one thing you appreciate today. And that tiny thing changed my way of thinking. It is surprisingly powerful. If you have never tried to write a gratitude journal, I highly recommend it!
Now I don't write it every day, but I started noticing positive things in my life automatically. And I am so happy to notice my own mental growth.
So if you feel unhappy, hopeless, and frustrated, maybe now is the time to try gratitude journaling.