Writing in your journal might bring back teenage memories of your secret journal but keeping a self-care version is slightly different. There are some amazing health benefits associated with keeping a journal and writing it in regularly.
Self-care is such an important topic and I wanted to discuss the benefits of keeping a self-care journal and the kind of things you can write about to improve yourself love.
Here is how you can improve your self care through journaling.
The Benefits of Self Care Journaling
Figure out your feelings:
We all go through highs and lows with our emotions and you may just put that down to having a bad day now and again. If you’re committing to keeping a journal and you make a point of writing it in when you’re experiencing negative emotions, you may find that there are actually patterns involved. These might not be obvious until you dig that little bit deeper.
Clear your mind:
A self-care journal is also a great opportunity to get all of your thoughts out there and clear your mind. There doesn’t need to be anything wrong for this to work well - just “dumping” everything in your mind on the page declutters your mind and frees up space for new thoughts.
Forgiving yourself:
If you tend to mentally beat yourself up for every mistake you make, writing about it in your self-care journal can bypass your negative inner critic. Think of it as a way to put some all-important distance between yourself and the situation. Looking at it from the outside in can give you a much more objective appreciation and help you to accept what happened. And if you can get to the acceptance point, you’re a lot more likely to forgive yourself.
Changing your perspective:
A lot of people use self-care journals to list some of the things that they’re grateful for. This can be very underrated from a self-care perspective as it switches your mindset and turns your attention from stressing about what you don’t have to appreciating what you do have. Gratitude lists are an easy way to train your mind into seeing the good parts of your life and glossing over the things that may seem important but don’t matter too much in the grand scheme of things.
Increasing your confidence:
If you’ve got low self-esteem, it’s likely that you dwell on the negatives and never remember the positive things that people have said to you. A self-care journal can include these positive moments as a long term reminder that you can refer back to when you need a self-esteem boost.
Keeping track of your health and wellness:
If you are starting out a new habit or working towards a new goal, a journal is the perfect place to record your feelings, stress points and achievements along the way. A journal can include a space to keep track of new habits you are creating, how food influences your mood and body, mantra’s or positive affirmations to keep you on track and planning meals or exercise routines.
Which Kind of Journal?
Bullet journals
If you’re already on board with the idea of using journals for to-do lists and writing notes, you might like the idea of a Bullet Journal. It’s essentially a paper journal but instead of blank pages, you have creative prompts. It started life as a productivity tool but has evolved into a self-care tool as well. A few examples of how people use it include to-do lists, books you want to read, logging patterns relating to your health and wellbeing, and keeping reminders of things you need to do that relate to your health, wellbeing and self-care. Everything you need to keep track of for self-care in one handy place.
Paper journals
Love the prospect of literally putting pen to paper? A traditional paper journal might be your best bet. (This is my favorite and I have a few different journals.)
5 Minute Journals
If you know you won’t have much time to keep up with a self care journal, you may prefer the idea of one that prompts you on what to write about. There are lots of self-care journals available that will ask you to answer key questions about the day, such as “Today I’m grateful for …” and “3 big wins that happened today…”. All you have to do is fill in the blanks!
What to Write in a Self Care Journal
A few of the things that you might want to include in your self care journal include:
• How you’re feeling
• Things that you’re grateful or thankful for - even the tiniest things count!
• Log the compliments you’ve received
• Your daily “wins”, which can be anything that has gone well that day
• Your goals (both short term and long term)
• Things that you have done that you didn’t imagine would be possible at the time
• A mini food journal to spot patterns between your thoughts and feelings and your eating habits, especially if you’re an emotional eater
• Quotes that really resonate with you, especially inspirational and motivational ones that relate to health, wellbeing and self-love
• You can also use these quotes as a starting point for your discussion in your journal and write about anything that springs to mind when you read the quote.
I hope this has given you some great ideas to start your own self-care journal. Let me know in the comments below if you already practice journaling or if you would like to start.
Getting started with journaling? Try the Nourish Nutrition And Wellness Journal.
You will begin to learn how to support your body with the four pillars of health. Each section covers one of the four pillars and you will find tips, trackers and journal prompts to help you make nutrition, exercise, sleep and mindset a priority in your life.
If you enjoyed this blog and would like to discover more tips and tricks about self-care or journalling check out the related reading below:
Food Journaling- And Why You Need To Try It
9 Ways to Break Free From Stress Without Meditating
50 Simple Ways to Start a Daily Self-Care Practice