Pleasure Journal

I have been battling depression since I was a child. It intensified in college, though I hid it well. On the outside I had it all together. But on the inside, my mind was a complete mess. (Luckily, we have a loving and faithful God who never abandoned me!) One way I helped myself feel better was to keep a pleasure journal. It was simply a running list of all the things that brought me joy. I read the list on my darkest days and remembered to smile. Here are some of the pleasures I listed in that journal:

~ Dancing with full abandon
~ Singing
~ True worship
~ Learning something new
~ Bubble baths
~ Smudges of color
~ Starbucks
~ Having my hair brushed
~ Getting an 11 out of a 10 on a presentation
~ French toast in bed
~ Love notes left on my windshield
~ Biggest Loser transformations
~ A clean room
~ Waking up without an alarm
~ Feeling like a grown up
~ Feeling like a kid
~ Laughing until your stomach feels like you’ve done 100 sit-ups
~ SARK books
~ Drum beats
~ Swinging
~ Running away to the beach
~ Roller coasters
~ Chocolate
~ My surgery results
~ Rock n Bowl
~ Babies
~ Puppies
~ Season tickets to the Hippodrome
~ Carving pumpkins
~ Warm chocolate chip cookies
~ Smelling, tasting, feeling, hearing the Ocean
~ 2 hour massages
~ White, straight teeth
~ The feeling after a good workout
~ Vision boards
~ Romantic movies
~ Old fashioned photo booths
~ Irish accents
~ Shooting stars
~ Inspiring women
~ The Earth’s infinite beauty
~ Seat warmers
~ Driving my Cabrio with the top down
~ Dangling earrings
~ Long walks
~ Seashells
~ The first sunburn of summer
~ Girls’ Days
~ Tea parties
~ Playing board games
~ Eating crabs
~ Listening to a powerful sermon