Getting to Good: A Guided Journal

Dr. Welsh brings her years as a licensed clinical psychotherapist to this wonderful thought guiding journal. I made a point to photograph and share a handful of images with you from the journal to give you a taste of the varied layout used to enrich this journal without sharing so many as to impinge on her Intellectual Property.

Some parts start with an inspiring thought, prompting for positivity and inviting us to write out on a lined page of the journal.

Other pages are more like a beautiful tag cloud of positive attributes. We can both circle them and I would add writing some out onto post it notes in fun colors and shapes to put in the journal or bring the journal out into my physical life by posting a few on the bathroom mirror as unconscious mind shaping and conscious mind reminders for goodness, happiness, and positivity.

Some pages invite us to write out affirmations. Personally, I’ll need way more pages on that topic! I think with the layout, I could easily tuck in loose sheets of lined notebook paper to do that.

Some pages are specific prompts for a particular reflection or action which instills a positive outlook perspective on the user and reader of the journal.

The colors are likely to appeal a bit more to women their being pretty pastels.

I like the inclusion of the minimalist illustrations sprinkled throughout this guided journal: a beautiful picture facing an inspiring quotation, a shiny picture of a sun. The images are almost childlike in their appearance, inviting us to attempt a few scribbles and doodles as well which are another way to be happy and positive as well as creative in our lives.

The layout and format subtly invite us to flip through the pages and actually fill it out at whim by what moves for the day, not necessarily in a linear manner starting from the left and going right page by page only. Open it up to where it opens and let the pages you discover inspire and delight your day to greater thoughts and feelings of happiness and positivity.

Welsh certain demonstrates making CBT Cognitive Behavioral Therapy practical in that a core tenet of CBT to paraphrase Dr. Maxie Maulsby, RBT, “If you want to feel better, think better.” By helping to shape our daily thoughts in the direction of seeing the positive, the beautiful, the miraculous, and the inspiring, we, indeed, will feel Good more and greater Positivity.

Highly recommend.

I received an advance pre-publish date copy of from the Publishers for an honest review.

The book for review is “ getting to good: A Guided Journal” by Elena Welsh, PhD. This falls in the genre of self-help.

Life is challenging with family, work and self just to name a few things. Bad days will occur. We will also become negative with things that come up in general or with ourselves.

This book will try to rewrite those bad days into good days.

You will need a writing instrument to do the exercises throughout the book. There are quotes sprinkled through this book that to me were great and perfect for the material that was being discussed.

So how do you go about turning a bad day into a good day?

This journal has nicely placed quotes before each section. Afterward you will have exercises such as:

-write down 10 things you are grateful for right now

-These are a few of my favorite things

-What I love about my life

-What I love about myself

-Write about something that made you laugh this week

Through this book, and a great portion of this book, you will find topics like this and then empty space below for you to write about the topic or question on hand.

This is basically the book as a whole. It is a chance for you to write about the good things in your life, things that are good about yourself and your life.

The questions are to the point which will make you think for a moment how to reply.

This is a really lovely little journal that one can use to start as the title of the book says “getting to good” in hope there are more good days ahead than bad. I truly enjoyed reading it.

I received this book for free from Callisto Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not normally a big fan of guided journals and I will admit, I'm only a few days into this one, but so far I'm really impressed! Author, Elena Welsh, is a psychologist who has worked with those suffering from trauma, depression, and anxiety. She's put together some of her best practices and writing prompts in this gorgeous little journal that readers can fill in their thoughts and fears and work on "getting to good." I'm not depressed or suffering from trauma, I am however, a very anxious person who suffers from fomo (fear of missing out) and over scheduling. Getting to Good is about finding your happy place and learning to "rewrite bad days into good ones." The journal includes:prompts, gorgeous illustrations, motivational quotes, and strategies that can be easily implemented into the readers life. A solid investment and one that I look forward to finishing!

This book is a combination of a journal and a workbook that includes inspiring prompts, full-color drawings and images, and plenty of space to write out your goals and thoughts. What I like best about the book is the overall design and especially that the author has chosen words on many pages to emphasize with larger type--words such as grateful, laugh, happiness, positive change, and dream.

I first read this book cover to cover and then started completing one page at a time as the author suggests. If you want to start getting inspired and "getting to good" this book is highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I bought this journal to start off 2020 and I love it so far!! It is beautiful colors and graphics. The prompts are thought provoking and insightful which is nice. Highly recommend you purchase for anyone wanting to bring a little self happiness into their life 👍