Many people believe health is solely focused on fitness and nutrition, but these aren’t the only ways to be healthy. Your relationships, career, physical activity, environment and more, play a huge role in getting you where you want to be. To fulfill your goals, your mind needs to be in the right place, and journaling can help!
Here are some of the MANY benefits of journaling, and how they can work towards improving your health:
Increase Mindfulness
We often go through the motions each day without giving them much thought. Writing about thoughts, feelings, and situations that occurred, good and bad, allow you to become aware of certain areas to improve or show gratitude towards.
For example, if a situation occurred at work, highlight the good and bad of it. You can use this to reassess how you would handle it differently if something similar comes up. Then, be sure to write about what you did well, as any achievement is something to keep track of and expand on in the future.
You may also uncover thought habits you didn’t even realize were taking place. Having an increased mindfulness gives you a better understanding of yourself and clarity on what is important to you in life.
Once you have solid entries, you can go back and reflect on things that seemed mundane, but were really a part of your transformative journey.
Release Stress
When you allow yourself to write freely, you’re allowing your mind to release the stress and tension. Oftentimes, we worry ourselves sick with a situation or things that didn’t even happen yet.
It’s been said that journaling can help lower blood pressure by letting you manage stressful experiences in a positive way. You can put whatever you want in your journal, no judgements.
By doing so, you’ll also boost your mood. You can reflect on things, help unload something that’s giving you a ton of anxiety, or even practice understanding gratitude.
It’s a great morning exercise or even before bed to help you unwind from your day.
Track and Fulfill Goals
If your goal this year is to communicate better with loved ones or get a walk in 3 times a week, write it down! There is nothing better than writing down your goal and putting together some sort of actionable plan.
Keeping S.M.A.R.T. goals helps you get specific and target what you’re working towards. This means goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
Therefore, if you’re trying to walk 3 times a week to increase your physical activity by spring and plan on taking lunch break walks; this would be a S.M.A.R.T. goal. It also helps you track your progress to hold yourself accountable for the deadline you set for yourself.
By doing this, you’ll actually get to know yourself better. You’ll start to see what is making you happier and more confident, especially when you’re celebrating your successes while achieving your goals.
Boost Your Creativity
How many times have you had amazing ideas, but they slipped your mind because you didn’t take note? Through journaling, you can put down one idea to keep for later or expand off into many directions.
You open the door to let your thoughts flow freely. This not only improves your creativity, but is a way for you to express yourself with no pressure!
Starting a journal may feel tough at first, but there are no rules. Write messy, in bullets or through drawings. The journal is about you. Express yourself how you feel best. And remember, have fun!
The Takeaway
There is a lot that goes into our daily lives and sometimes we lose sight of why or what we’re doing. We start thinking about what we need to do and forget what we want from life.
By journaling to focus deeper on these areas in life, we can get to know ourselves on a whole new level. There are a ton of benefits of journaling, but increased mindfulness, writing down goals, and getting creative with it are all great for your mental health.
Has journaling helped you? Please share below in the comments!