Can Scrapbooking Really Make You Happy?

“You Make Me” by Meghan Mullens

Sometimes, it seems I am bombarded from several different directions with a similar message.  When this happens, I try to pay attention. A person will mention something to me and the next day, I might get an email, or read something online about the same topic.  Within a day or so, once again, someone else mentions another bit of information on the same topic and it all resonates with me.  Lately, it seems I am seeing and hearing a lot about how journaling actually increases happiness.  One source I came across even said that journaling has shown to increase happiness more than antidepressants…that’s a pretty powerful statement.

Did you know that studies show recalling happy times from the past help increase happiness now?  Scrapbooking is a GREAT way to do that! I loved this video by Gretchen Rubin from “The Happiness Project” about making the most of your photos:

No wonder I always feel happy after spending time digital scrapbooking! As I’ve been bombarded with the message that happiness is increased by journaling, I wanted to find some ways for the non-scrapbooking members of my family to do this.  I do a lot of journaling through my scrapbooking, but I know I have also loved referring back to my writings for layouts from active periods of journaling in my life. I found a couple of doable ideas I really like and want to try:

1. A one sentence journal – Gretchen talks about her non-journal, which is a fun idea.
2. A Gratitude journal is a list type journal and has proven to increase gratitude.
3. 1000awesomethings.com is another form of journaling that I love to read (be sure to check out my Album of Awesome workshop if you are interested in this for yourself).
4. ohlife is free service you can sign up for and they will send you a daily email asking you about your day.  You reply to the email and they save it for you, securely, on their site.  Be sure to export once in a while, just in case.

Some of these ideas seem super easy and very doable.  It just might be worth giving journaling a try and putting it to the happiness test.

P.S. Find out how you can enter to win a spot in my “Album of Awesome” workshop at the end of this post.