Star Jar for Self Care

2026 · 05 · 19

So I have this rare disease called “depression” that makes me really hate myself sometimes. Which like fine, I’m allowed, but it doesn’t help me do the things I want to do. So I’m trying to fix this, and it’s going about as well as you’d imagine. I’ve tried things like gratitude journals before, but I often found myself just looking at the things I wrote and dismissing them. Like even something simple as “I am kind” I’d look at that and go, “Well actually no, because xyz” and then I just feel bad again. I wanted to try something else.

So I like making these origami paper stars. You make them by taking a strip of paper, first folding it into a knot. Then you wrap the ends around the shape until you’re left with a pentagon, then you press the sides in to make it star shaped. Once you get the hang of it they’re really easy to make, which is kind of a problem for me since I typically make way too many and have no idea what to do with them lol. Maybe we can solve one problem with another?

What I’ve been doing is taking a strip of paper (I got special printed paper strips for this just for fun), writing something I like about myself in the moment, folding it up into a star, and then placing it into a jar labeled “things I like about myself”. If I want to look and see what I wrote, I can just unfold the piece of paper to check.

I think this works for a few reasons:

• Each entry is easy to make, but harder to refute. If I wanted to check to see if they’re all true, I’d have to go unfold and vet them all one by one. That would suck, I’m not doing that. The jar itself is also a physical object I can look at as “proof” that I generally like myself, but not one that I can really argue with, because the aggregate is what makes it substantial.
• The only requirement for each thought is that it’s true in the moment that I’m writing it. The stars represent moments that I liked myself, not necessarily things that will always be true. This takes some of the pressure off when actually writing them.
• Whenever I’m feeling sad and genuinely want to read nice things about myself I can just take one at random and read it. If it’s a thought that I disagree with for whatever reason then I can just find another. And so on, in theory.

I’ve been doing this for a little while, so I can confidently say I like myself at least 1/4th of a cup. Making them stars doesn‘t make coming up with them any easier lol, but the point is in the aggregate, so it’s alright.

Also, you don’t really have to do it exactly like this. You could fold other shapes, make some other representation of your gratitudes, whatever. I just wanted an excuse to make little paper stars lol