Lucky diary

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A happiness diary (also called joy diary ) describes an exercise in psychotherapy .

method

The patient is encouraged to record happy experiences or happy moments in a diary every day. The purpose of the measure can vary, the most common goal is to achieve a positive outlook and strengthen positive feelings by actively keeping a happiness diary. By entering exclusively positive things, the mind should be stimulated to actively remember positive events. Especially in depressed patients, this can have the effect of reducing or completely preventing the denial of positive experiences towards oneself. Furthermore, the writing down of the experiences often serves the autobiographical self-reflection and can thus advance the joint work of therapist and patient.

The concept can be found under varying names with different focuses, for example as a gratitude diary .

effectiveness

So far there have been two pilot studies from German-speaking countries , carried out over a week with 21 participants and over two weeks with 80 participants. They consistently found that happiness diaries “contribute to positive effects in the area of ​​well-being and happiness and to a medium-sized reduction in depressive mood”. Clinical studies have not yet been carried out.

Others

Luck diaries or variants thereof are also recommended more often by lifestyle advisors for a happier lifestyle. Pre-printed books are available in stores that describe how they work in a brief introduction or that are sold together with a guide.

Gala Darling presented the principle "Radical Self Love" at the TEDx CMU 2012, which is aimed primarily at women. She also advises keeping a diary, which should only contain positive thoughts. Not only are your own thoughts and experiences noted, but also every compliment that was received and every good feeling that was felt. Darling claims to have significantly improved her low self-esteem with this system.

literature

  • Rüdiger Krause: Palpation - Perception - Healing. An exercise book. Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8304-9178-1 .
  • Luise Reddemann , Cornelia Dehner-Rau: Trauma: recognizing consequences, overcoming them and growing through them; an exercise book for body and soul. Trias, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8304-3423-5 .
  • A. Rausch, K. Koegler, A.-R. Laireiter (Ed.): Diary procedure for process- related data collection in field studies - design parameters and application recommendations . (= Empirical pedagogy. Volume 26.2). Special issue, 2012, ISBN 978-3-941320-78-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Luise Reddemann, Cornelia Dehner-Rau: Trauma: Recognize consequences, overcome them and grow with them; an exercise book for body and soul. Trias, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8304-3423-5 , p. 152 f.
  2. ↑ Anton Rupert Laireiter, Catherine goatee and Leonie Raabe: happiness diaries as methods of psychological health intervention - Two pilot studies ( Memento of 10 January 2014 Internet Archive ), Empirical Education - journal on the theory and practice of educational research
  3. ↑ Exemplary: Eckart von Hirschhausen : Hirschhausen's new GLÜCKSBOX: Reading. Listen. Write. Be! Lardon Media, 2012, ISBN 978-3-89769-204-6 .
  4. ↑ Radical Self Love: Gala Darling at TEDxCMU 2012