The Feel-Good Mental Health Benefits of Digital Scrapbooking

In my 20+ years now as a memory-keeping guide, helping people by teaching them about preserving photos and videos and memories digitally and in print, I’ve learned a lot myself about why we do it.

It occurs to me that when photography was invented, life was pretty simple. It was still hard, but it wasn’t as fast-paced and overwhelming as it is in this age of keeping up on social media and news and self-care and email and doing more and more and more of whatever it is we do. My dad was a junior high school teacher, and when he came home, he was just home. Nobody was emailing him. Nobody was messaging him. He was just home. Grading papers sometimes, yes, but not inundated with students as if he were a 24/7 convenience store (like I get now as a teacher.)

I wonder, then, if we have so many photos and such easy access to photos now because the fast-paced world we live in makes us need them so much more!

I hope you’ll sit down with this article (sipping something warm) to give yourself a minute. I’m honestly so excited to share with you some of the incredible mental health benefits of digital scrapbooking. This applies to paper scrapbooking and using easy digital templates, too, of course.

I’ll also give you a great opportunity to USE the information I’m giving you during the month of January–with me!

Photos + Journaling = Good for the Heart and Soul

As I mentioned, in the past 20+ years of helping people with the how of preserving photos and memories, I’ve learned the why over and over. According to studies, and even the use of photos and journaling in therapy, when we sit down with our thoughts and the snapshots of our lives’ experiences, we get this host of mental and emotional health benefits:

• lower stress
• higher self-esteem (especially in children)
• a greater sense of belonging
• gratitude
• mood boost — you’re happier, even when compared to commonly-used mood boosts like listening to music and even eating chocolate!
• increased relaxation, by as much as 22%!
• improved memory
• better perspective
• an increased connection with others
• better coping skills in kids
• healing from grief

Wow. If those aren’t reasons to scrapbook, I don’t know what are.

And don’t feel (or be!) limited by the word “scrapbook”–it literally just means preserving photos, memories, and maybe mementoes. It’s been going on since before photos existed, as Marielen Christensen pointed out!

So if fast & easy digital templates are your thing, that’s perfect! If fancy digital scrapbooking is your thing, that’s perfect! If paper scrapbooking is your thing, that’s perfect! You get the idea.

It’s the Antidote to the Emotional Toll of Social Media

I don’t know about you, but I go through periods of just being DONE with social media. Interestingly, I’ve noticed that I don’t just take a break from it when people get negative or intense or political or whatever–I also need to take a break sometimes because it’s just too much information. It’s too much to think about. A friend celebrates her husband’s birthday, a friend goes to the lake, a friend voted. It’s all good–so good–but I just can’t know EVERYTHING. It’s too much sometimes.

Social media has its good points but brings with it a host of social ills–including lowered self-esteem, lack of human connection, increased depression, increased anxiety, and disturbance of memory. Yes, something meant to connect us can all too easily make us lonely, depressed, and sad.

In a 2019 conference on loneliness among young adults presented by Brigham Young University professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad and University of Delaware professor Dawn Fallik, so many young people registered that they had to add another session.  Imagine a whole room full of lonely youth. Twice.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has noticed that the list of social media ills is in direct contrast to the list of memory-keeping benefits. So if you haven’t been a scrapbooker before, this is a compelling new reason to start!

Start Fresh in the New Year – Yearbook Boot Camp

One of the reasons I love preserving my own photos and memories is that it allows me to focus on the good things that I have done and felt. It’s the perfect way to not dwell on the frustrations, the disappointments, and the sadnesses of life. As Angie Lucas said, it gives me perspective as I put my thoughts into words on paper, and joy when I put them together with a literal snapshot of that moment in time.

I personally “scrapbook” by creating a yearbook–a year’s worth of memories, photos, and even videos. (I’ve got a cool trick for that!) It’s easy for me to focus on just one year, one month at a time. It’s a great approach, both for someone who doesn’t know where to start and also for someone like me who is always “caught up” on scrapbooking (because I’m so addicted, seriously).

And, so, for the past I-don’t-know-how-many years, I have been teaching an online Yearbook Boot Camp once a year! Attendees learn some tips and tricks, choose a free easy-to-use template, gather favorite pictures from one year of their choosing, and come away with a gorgeous, top-quality book (and a free digital version of it also).

I do teach this class using the easy, pre-designed templates so that attendees basically just point and click, but using that fancy digital scrapbooking software I love is an option as well–I just tell people it will likely take you longer than the 4 weeks of the class if you’re doing the creative design work (which I love).

If you need some of those feel-good mental health benefits I mentioned before, reach out and let’s schedule a Yearbook Boot Camp (or another free class of your choosing) with you and some friends. Working with friends makes it even more fun!

Whatever you do with your photos and however you choose to do it, remember that photos are a powerful tool you already have for self-care and wellness. They’re incredibly good for your heart and soul.