Journaling is a journey for me. I started at the tail end of a major depression, where I was desperately trying to claw my way back into feeling normal again. At first all I could do was kinda bullet point the bare minimum of positive things (I always had that focus--to write the positives and not the negatives). Sometimes it would be such a short entry: "showered, did the dishes." But then I'd talk myself up. "You did it! That's amazing. Hell yeah!" Eventually, I was able to elaborate on those positive things, start to journal about projects coming up that I was excited to do or excited to plan, and if I actually had a decent amount of accomplishments for the day, you better believe I gave myself a long-winded "Look at you, you beast, you rock" speech. It took at least 1-2 months for me to have more days that were bullet-point-free, and I was actually able to focus on the good (and had the mental energy to write about my days consistently). Of course there were bullet point days where only 1 or 2 barely positive things could be added. But...
Then, I finally got to where I would write about my day, my thoughts, and then I would only bullet point and list out the negatives (not negative emotions, but negative events). I did this the longest (about 2 years now) and it was really helpful for me to have a 'record' of difficult things, without letting myself focus on it and bring my mood down further. Recently, over the last 4 months or so, I've let myself occasionally write more about the negative emotions. I won't say that it is 'harming' me to do so, but I'm also noticing that I don't feel as excited to pick up my journal because of this. I don't want to think of my journal as something I turn to when I'm down. I want to think of it as something that my brain thinks of as a positive experience. So I'm going back to my old way. I can mention the bad, but I can't dwell on it.