We often recommend journaling to everyone as a way to express yourself and learn more about your own emotions, but it can also be used to improve your health. The main way it does this is by helping you create a daily, healthy morning journal routine.
Here are some ways using a journal can help you create a healthy routine in your life.
Start Your Morning With a Release of Thoughts
If you have been looking for a way to create a healthy morning routine, but aren’t sure what to do first, journaling is a great place to start. When you write in your journal early in the morning before doing anything else, it is often called morning pages. This concept was originally written about by Julia Cameron in the book The Artist’s Way, and many people continue using it.
The idea is that in the morning before you check your phone or do your workout, or read a book or watch the news, you write in your journal. It only needs to be a few pages in your journal, but it is a type of stream of consciousness writing, where you write anything that comes to mind. During this time, you have no distractions and only write what is on your mind.
It helps you to right unencumbered, but also to get all those thoughts and worries out of your head before your day begins. This can help tremendously when writing for your health, as it helps you to create a new healthy habit.
Add to Any Part of Your Daily Journal Routine
The great thing about journaling is that it is really versatile, and can be done at any time. This makes it easy to add to any of your healthy daily routines, not just the morning. Maybe you already have a morning routine that works well for you, where you wake up and do yoga, drink a green smoothie, or make a healthy breakfast, then get ready for work. That’s great!
But perhaps there is another time during your day when you tend to fall behind on your healthy habits and are in need of a new routine. Journaling can fit here as well. It can be done anywhere, from your office to sitting in your car during carpool to pick your kids up from school. It can be done in the evening after dinner or before bed.
Ending Your Day With Self-Reflection
Journaling can also be beneficial if you do it at night, as a way to end your nighttime routine and release those emotions and thoughts before you go to sleep. In fact, that is a really great time for some self-reflection.
Writing in a journal at night does tend to be a little different than in the morning because you have an entirely different perspective on your life at this time. You reflect on your day, what went right and what went wrong and make plans for the next day. It is a great practice to add to your routine.