People often use planners and printables to track different parts of their health journey but don’t use actual journals often enough. Your journal is not just a diary where you write down your thoughts or feelings or how your day went. It can also be used to reflect, gain perspective, and set your health goals.
Here are some ways writing in a journal can help you with your physical health and well-being.
Identifying Your Health Goals
The first way journaling helps with your physical health is by allowing you to identify your health goals and why you have them. This is important because you will have some goals based on other people’s ideas and some unique to you.
Goals come and go, and only the ones you are truly inspired by, and serious about are the ones you will put all your focus into. And this is a good thing! It helps you figure out your priorities and then focus on the right things.
With your journal, you can reflect on your motivations and why you have these goals and create a plan of action for achieving them.
Tracking Your Habits and Other Priorities
Another way that people use a journal for their physical health is by using it to track different health habits. This is often done with either stream-of-consciousness journaling or writing about your day and what you did.
Start getting detailed in your journal, including what you do, like workouts and what you eat, and your emotional state. How do you feel? What inspired you to eat out instead of at home? Why are you feeling well or unwell today?
The more you write in your journal, the more you discover your health and habits. You might find that you are an emotional eater or that you tend to skip workouts when you are stressed. Understanding this will help you to figure out another way to reach your health goals.
Exploring Feelings Related to Your Health
Lastly, you will get a little more clarity as far as your health, in general, is concerned. You might not realize it, but you probably have preconceived notions about health and how it relates to you and your life. Health can be related to your life, but something so many people gloss over and don’t even think twice about. That is why journaling can be so valuable.