Both of us went to the same high school, that’s where we met each other. There was a girl in that school, a friend of ours actually who was incredibly fit and athletic. She would participate in every sports competition there was and won almost all of them.
She also had a very good diet. Although she was not completely vegan, she didn’t consume meat for sure.
Everyone thought she was one of the healthiest people in the school. Since she was our friend, we knew that wasn’t the case.
She would skip private tuition classes in the evening most of the time because of one health problem or another. Most of the time she would have chronic pain somewhere in the body.
And almost all the time we would see her in the same hoodie and training shorts at home. We were part of the same group, and we would often talk about what was wrong with her. She seemed incredibly healthy, yet she was not. We were teenagers at that time and although we had an all-knowing attitude, little did we know.
Turns out she was not as healthy as everyone thought. Just a good diet and physical activity are not the only requirements to have good health.
You can even look at our example, we don’t have the perfect diet and routine, but it’s good considering we have 9-5 jobs. We ensure that we get around 7-8 hours of sleep daily, go to the gym 5 days a week, go swimming occasionally, and our diet is controlled and balanced.
We don’t go out to eat very often but even when we do, we make sure that it’s not fried, oily, or sugary. Even though Pooja has a sweet tooth, we keep it in check by replacing sugary treats with fruits.
Considering all this, I would say our daily routine has always been an eight out of ten.
Even then, Pooja was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. That was three years ago and we’ve been dealing with it since then.
Sometimes, we think we understand what’s happening with us and around us and we feel that everything is under control, but in reality, it is not.
We’ve been together for more than 13 years and married for 5 years and we’ve been following a healthy routine from before we got married. We still got diagnosed with a mental health problem that we had never heard before.
We just assumed that since we’re keeping all these parameters in check, everything should be fine. And everything should have been fine in an ideal world but the problem is we don’t live in an ideal world. We live in a practical world that is so hectic and fast-paced.
In this modern world, there is a strong need for each one of us to pay close attention to our bodies if we truly want to be healthy. Because there are so many factors at play that we tend to ignore or overlook. We generally think if we’re taking care of our physical bodies, we’ll stay healthy.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case. There are so many aspects of our existence and all of them need to be healthy and in harmony for us to stay healthy and function optimally.
Like we do for our physical health, we must take equal care of our overall health. We must regularly check in with ourselves to understand and examine what’s going on in all the dimensions of our being.
One of the best ways to do that is through journaling, a simple act of putting what’s in your mind on paper.
Welcome back to our journaling series where we’re learning all about journaling and its impact on the different aspects of our lives.
These are the previous blogs of this series and we invite you to read them after this one.
- What Is Journaling and What Are Its Benefits?
- What Are The Different Types of Journaling
- 5 Simple Steps to Start Journaling for Mental Health
- How and Why You Should Start a Gratitude Journal
- How to Journal for Personal Growth and Self-improvement
- What Is a Manifestation Journal and How to Journal for Manifestation?
In this blog, we’ll focus on the impact of journaling on our health and wellness. We’ll first understand the concept of health and wellness and then take a look at the different steps for starting a health and wellness journal.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
What is Health and Wellness?
Before we get into how can journaling improve your health, let’s first understand what is health and wellness.
So many of us think about health and well-being like this.
It’s not that we’re not aware of the other aspects of our existence, we just think that our physical health is the primary constituent and the rest of the dimensions don’t matter that much.
To help you understand what wellness truly looks like, let me borrow this image from one of our other blogs on understanding wellness and its different dimensions.
What we don’t understand is that wellness is a multifaceted concept where every dimension of our existence is interconnected with each other.
If our mental health is not good, it will have a direct impact on our physical health. If our professional life is not smooth and stress-free, our overall health will be impacted.
If there is any problem in any of these aspects, it will have a domino effect on all the other areas.
That friend of ours we were talking about, the reason behind her bad overall health was the toxic environment at home. To put things mildly, you can say her parents did not have the best relationship. That impacted her mental and emotional well-being which had a direct impact on her physical health.
For us, the reason behind fibromyalgia was the stressful, uncertain, fearful, and isolated environment created by the lockdown during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Even though our diet, sleep, and exercise were in check, the impact on mental health due to this environment led to the development of this condition.
Why You Should Start a Health and Wellness Journal
If you’ve ever worked in a professional setting, or maybe you would have heard it somewhere else, they say that If you can clearly define and write down a problem on paper, you’ve already solved half of it.
This is because of the clarity that comes from putting thoughts into words. When we write down our problems, our thoughts become clearer, and we can see solutions more easily.
There are so many thoughts that go in our mind throughout the day consciously or unconsciously and most of them do more harm than good.
Take our case for example, the uncertain and fearful environment created by the lockdown triggered a flood of unwanted thoughts like, “What’s going to happen?”, “Will our families and loved ones be safe?”, and “How are we going to survive this?”
While these thoughts are natural, the influx of such thoughts continuously for a longer period along with the occasional sad news of someone we knew passing away led to fibromyalgia.
Journaling provides a safe space to release these thoughts so they don’t negatively impact our mental and emotional health. By writing them down, we can gain a clearer perspective and prevent them from overwhelming us.
What is a Health and Wellness Journal?
A health and wellness journal is a special type of journal designed and maintained to help you understand what’s happening with your body and improve your overall well-being.
It’s a tool that allows you to take care of every aspect of your health by tracking various parameters from the moment you wake up until you go to bed.
In this journal, you can record everything related to your health and wellness. It includes spaces to track your mood, sleep hours, diet, calorie intake, water intake, and any supplements or medicines you take.
You can also document your day-to-day activities, priorities, goals, finances, and how you feel about everything. It is a comprehensive tool that helps you ensure that you are taking care of all the dimensions of your existence.
You can then look back and see patterns in your lifestyle which will help you identify what went wrong and the areas of improvement.
For instance, if you notice that you often feel tired and realize that it coincides with days when your screen time is more than usual, you can take the necessary steps to address this issue.
The other benefit of a health and wellness journal is that you can take it along while visiting your doctor.
You must have experienced this or heard about it, that many times, doctors quickly prescribe medicines without thoroughly investigating the root cause of the problem.
While this journal can’t replace the doctor, it can definitely assist in diagnosing the problem by giving a clear picture of your lifestyle. It can help you make informed decisions about your lifestyle.
How to Start Journaling for Health and Wellness?
Hopefully, you now have a good understanding of what is a health and wellness journal and how it can benefit your overall well-being, let’s now take a look at how you can start a health and wellness journal.
1. Have the Right Expectations from Journaling
The first step in starting a health and wellness journal is to have realistic expectations. Improving your health and well-being is not something that happens overnight.
Just as you don’t become overweight from eating junk food once, you also won’t lose weight by eating one healthy meal.
The journey to better health is a continuous process that requires consistent effort and patience over a long period.
Journaling is one of the most powerful tools, only second to therapy when it comes to improving your overall health and becoming a better version of yourself, but it’s not a magic solution that will instantly make you healthier.
You must understand that progress takes time. It takes time for your body and mind to adjust to new habits and routines. You might not see immediate results, but that doesn’t mean your efforts aren’t paying off.
So, having the right expectations from journaling and from yourself is very important. Understand that it’s a gradual process.
Your body will improve, your mindset will change, and you will become better and healthier if you remain consistent for a longer period.
Stay committed to your journaling practice, and give yourself the grace to see progress over time. Remember, the key is persistence and dedication. With time, you’ll see the positive changes you’re striving for.
2. Choose a Journal
The next step in starting your health and wellness journaling journey is to choose the right journal.
There are no strict rules or guidelines here because journaling is a flexible practice that you can tailor to your needs and preferences.
First, you’ll have to decide on the type of journal you want to use. There are so many options available.
A health and wellness journal can be as simple as a plain notebook, where you have complete freedom to write and track whatever you like.
On the other hand, you can also go for a journal specifically designed for health and wellness that has structured pages, spaces, and prompts to help you track and improve your health more systematically.
Feel free to choose any journal that suits your needs, preferences, and style.
If you enjoy the freedom of a blank canvas and have a clear idea of what you want to track, a simple notebook might be perfect for you.
However, if the thought of starting with a blank page feels overwhelming, you might want to go for a guided journal.
A guided journal has prompts and sections dedicated to tracking various aspects of health, such as diet, exercise, sleep, and mental well-being.
Find a journal that you feel comfortable with and excited to use.
Take some time to browse online or visit your local store to explore different options. Look for a journal that resonates with you, one that you can see yourself returning to daily.
3. Create a Routine and Stick to It
Creating a routine is very important when you’re starting a new habit, and the same goes for starting a health and wellness journal. You can only benefit from this practice if you’re consistent, so you need to figure out the best time for you to journal and stick to it.
Fortunately, there are no hard and fast rules here, it’s all about what works best for you.
You don’t need to set aside a lot of time to journal. Start with just 10-15 minutes a day.
Some people prefer to journal in the morning, using that quiet time to reflect on their goals, write down affirmations, and set a positive tone for the day.
Others find it more beneficial to journal in the evening as they reflect on their day, track their activities, and unwind before bed.
You can also do it twice a day because there are some things you need to track, such as diet and exercise, that can only be tracked in the evening. So your morning entries can focus on your mood, gratitude, and intentions for the day.
The important thing is to make time for journaling every day. Being irregular in your practice won’t give you the benefits you’re looking for.
Create a routine around it, like sitting by the window every morning and journaling while your morning herbal tea. Similarly, journaling while having your evening green tea or any other healthy beverage of your choice.
Having such an enjoyable routine will help you stick with your journaling practice and make the whole process more enjoyable and satisfying.
4. Identify the Things You Want to Track
The main reason behind health and wellness journaling is to improve our overall well-being. The short-term goals might be different like losing a certain amount of weight or reducing stress from our job, but the larger goal is to improve our overall well-being.
So, you must track everything that impacts the different dimensions of your health. This would include the factors that impact all these different aspects or dimensions of our existence.
Having said that, You don’t need separate pages for all these aspects, as many factors overlap.
For example, if you track your mood in the morning and evening, and notice increased stress in the evening, you can write down the reason behind that stress.
This might be related to your professional health if you had a challenging day at work, or to your social health if you had a disagreement with a friend or loved one.
Keeping all this in mind, the following are some of the things you can track as part of your health and wellness journaling. This is not an exhaustive list but this will give you a starting point, you can add/remove any factors from this list.
- Mood (AM and PM)
- Sleep quality and duration
- Diet and calorie intake
- Water intake
- Physical activity
- Screen time
- Stress levels
- Energy levels
- Supplements and medications
- Daily activities and priorities
5. Practice Mindfulness and Gratitude
A very important component of health and wellness journaling is to incorporate mindfulness and gratitude into your daily routine.
Mindfulness means being fully present in the moment and paying full attention to your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings without judgment.
It is a practice that will significantly help with your mental and emotional well-being.
We’ve written a few blogs on mindfulness that are linked below so if you’re interested in learning about this practice in detail and how it can benefit you, we encourage you to give them a read.
- What Is Mindfulness And Why Mindfulness Is A Superpower
- What Is Mindful Living And How To Live Mindfully
- What Is Mindfulness Meditation And How To Do It
- How To Practice Mindfulness In Your Daily Life
Another powerful practice when it comes to improving your mental and emotional health is practicing gratitude. It shifts your focus from what’s lacking in your life to appreciating what you have.
With time, this positive focus improves your mood, builds resilience, and improves your overall outlook on life.
A few blogs on gratitude to help you learn more about this practice and its benefits.
- What Is Gratitude And Why Is It So Important?
- 5 Simple Ways To Practice Gratitude Everyday
- Finding Silver Linings in Challenging Situations Through Gratitude
Your health and wellness journal should have sections dedicated to mindfulness and gratitude.
These sections and prompts could be as simple as “Today I am grateful for”, “Positive Affirmation for Today”, “Things That Made Me Happy Today”, “Today was..”, etc.
6. Reflect and Review
A very important part of maintaining your health and wellness journal is taking the time to reflect and review your entries regularly.
At the end of each week, month, and year, set aside some time to look back on your journey. Reflect on the progress you’ve made toward the goals you set for yourself for that time period and identify any areas that need improvement.
If you haven’t reached your goals, try to pinpoint the reasons behind it. Was there a specific obstacle that got in the way? Did you face any unexpected challenges?
Understanding why you didn’t meet your goals is the first step to making sure it doesn’t happen again. Make a plan for the following week or month to compensate for any shortfalls and adjust your strategies as needed.
In your monthly and yearly reflections, try to identify any patterns and insights. See if certain problems coincide with certain actions or factors.
For example, you might notice that every time you have a hectic day at work, you tend to stress eat, consume a lot of calories, and your stress levels are high. And see how was your mood the next day.
There are so many things you can learn about yourself and how your body reacts to certain factors and circumstances.
See if the medicine or supplement you’re taking has any impact on your health or not. See how any change in diet or exercise schedule impacts your health and well-being.
Please understand that the goal of this exercise is not to make you feel bad about any setbacks or missed goals but to learn and grow from them.
There will be times when you don’t make any progress or even regress, and that’s perfectly normal. We are all human beings and making mistakes and occasionally falling off the wagon is in our nature. But learning from those mistakes and getting back on track is also in our nature.
It takes a lot of courage and effort to identify the shortcomings on our part and accept our failures.
The good thing is that you’re not doing it for anyone else, and no one else is watching. This is your private journal and you are the judge and jury.
So don’t feel embarrassed or discouraged whenever you’ve fallen off the track. Be honest in your entries. Just acknowledge it and get back on track as soon as you can.
The idea is not to decorate this journal with fake achievements but to plan your goals, track your progress, and identify areas of improvement so you can become better every day.
Health and Wellness Journal PDF and Template
If you’ve been following us on our blogs, you would know we’ve also started with this practice very recently and we’ve created our own digital journal. It is basically a tracker and planner.
We’ve tried to make this journal as exhaustive as possible so it can be a single place to practice mindfulness and gratitude, track your health and wellness, plan your yearly and monthly goals, and organize your days, weeks, and months.
We’ve thoughtfully designed it over the past few months so that it caters to all these areas. While nothing beats the feeling of pen and paper, a digital journal is more convenient and eco-friendly.
Again, it’s a personal choice but if you’re looking for a digital journal for yourself, we invite you to check out our mindful living digital journal.
Wrapping Up – How to Create a Health and Wellness Journal?
If you’re really serious about taking control of your life and improving your health and wellness, there is no better tool than journaling and we’re saying this from our own experience.
The lightness you feel, that sense of unburdening when you put everything on your mind onto paper, there is no better feeling than that for your mental and emotional well-being.
It must happen with you as well, the urge to tell your best friend or your partner about any instance from your day, a stressful incident, or if someone said something to you.
And the relief you get once you’ve talked about it. A private journal is that best friend to whom you can tell everything without the fear of judgment.
It is that therapist to whom you vent out all your thoughts and feelings, and the cherry on top, it’s completely free so you save tons of money. What can be better than that?
On top of mental and emotional well-being, it is a tool to improve all aspects of your life. You can track your physical health, your occupational health, and your financial health.
It is a safe place where you can be honest with yourself and watch yourself become better every day.
So choose a journal of your choice and start journaling. Let us know about your experiences and anything you want to share that might benefit us and others. Happy Journaling! Namaste.
Leave a Reply