For those of us who value creativity and personal expression, keeping an art journal might be a fun way to document your DBT skills and daily mindfulness practice.

While you don’t have to throw away your traditional diary card, creating an art journal (or even a monthly vision board) can be a tool to let your creative light shine as you document your recovery journey. You can even show off your work during your individual sessions with your DBT therapist.

You could use your journal to visually explore DBT-inspired topics like:

• Three different ways to use distress tolerance skills
• Encouraging statements using gorgeous hand-lettering
• Self-validation through valued action
• How you are using your GIVE skills
• The dialectic between acceptance and change
• How thoughts may not be facts
• Your biggest success in DBT
• Opposite action for shame
• How you honor your self-respect
• Your recovery goals as an exercise in mastery
• The goal of radical acceptance
• Finding hope and meaning in emotional pain
• Reasons for living
• Mindfulness of breath
• Your favorite way to self-soothe with scent
• How you are refusing to give up
• Ideas for dialectical abstinence
• Mindfulness of emotions
• Trusting others
• A balance of GIVE and FAST skills

You, of course, may have dozens of different ideas. What is most important to you?

I love this particularly pretty art journal (and this one is my second favorite) but if you have another favorite way to preserve or share your work, I’d love for you to let me know by writing me at amanda@hopeforbpd.com.

Daily DBT practice can change your life for the better. How are you keeping track of your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors today?

Interested in learning more about DBT skills, ideas, and strategies? Check out My Dialectical Life—a DBT self-help tool.