The Benefits of Journaling

In all of my coaching programs I ask my clients to journal. 

In The Coaching Corner monthly membership we journal about personal growth, what we envision our second half of life to look like, feel like, what priorities we have in this new season, boundaries, goals, and dreams that we want to keep alive. 

In my 6 Week Reboot they journal about the experience.  What’s working, what needs to be tweaked.  How they are feeling. Tracking their fitness progress, their nutrition, and their sleep. 

In the 30 Days to Improved Gut Health they track what's going on in the bathroom.  Really listening to their body.  Looking for signs, symptoms, and clues based on what they are eating, their stress levels, their sleep, and even how their fitness is affecting their issues with food sensitivities, bloat, constipation, and inflammation. 

In the 90 Days to Success program they are journaling their personal growth.  

Journaling provides so many benefits when it comes to health and wellness, from increasing our energy to decreasing our stress levels, to increase our results to decreasing our self-limiting beliefs.  

There is something so powerful about the written word, about self care through expressing your thoughts, fears, successes, and wins.   

Personally I feel like writing it down has a much bigger effect on the mind, body, and spirit, but if the idea of pulling out a notebook at the end of each day sounds like one more daunting task, there are so many other ways to journal. 

Key notes on your phone, iPad, or computer.  The best form for journaling is whatever you will stick with. 

If you’re on the fence about starting to journal, allow me to give you a few health benefits and encourage you to try it for 7 days: 

• Journaling can help you reduce stress and decrease anxiety by allowing you to gather your thoughts, organize them, express them, and address them, improving your overall mental health.  
• Journaling your emotions can help you name them and in turn deal with them and release them.  Allow your journal to be your safe space to express yourself - 100% raw and real, authentically you.  Give yourself the power to be open and honest without the fear of judgment or criticism.
• Journaling can be a great way to boost your mood.  It allows you to tune into YOU!  Giving yourself a set time for personal self care, self love, and making your a priority even if for only a few minutes each day.  It’s a great start! 
• Journaling allows you to get in touch with YOU!!  It gives you the opportunity to learn more about yourself, your wants, needs, strengths, and weaknesses.  Journaling teaches us to be self-aware.  Creating a space for happiness, love, boundaries, and friendships. 

>> Make journaling a daily routine as much as possible.  Journaling is a way of honoring your emotional and mental needs.  If you skip a day, no worries.  There is no right or wrong way to journal.  If you're not feeling it some days, no need to force it. 

One 2018 study even found that journaling as little as 15 minutes a day, three days a week can still help with anxiety and give your brain that positive boost.

 >> Add it to your daily morning or evening routine to create space and build consistency. 

>> Progress not perfection.  No need to worry about grammar, punctuation, spelling or complete sentences.  Bullet points, incomplete sentences, thought bubbles, doodles are all acceptable forms of journaling.  Again, there is no one right way to journal.  

>> Have fun with it - write yourself a letter, doodle, poetry, interview yourself . . . journaling is not just a “Dear Diary” type thing.  Do whatever feels comfortable for you and your personality. 

Have you ever tried journaling before?  Did you like it?  Did it help you work through things that you had to deal with in your life? Did you use to track progress toward a goal? Was it relaxing?  Why did you stop journaling?