Journaling

Journaling is a great way to reduce stress and anxiety. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you might be feeling worried or even scared at some point in your day or week.  Those feelings can get overwhelming! Journaling can be a lifesaver to anyone who is struggling with stress. Here’s how to get started with journaling. 

Journal Writing for Stress Relief

One of the key benefits of journaling during times is that getting your thoughts out helps you to process and deal with them. If you struggle with anxiety, you know it usually starts off with racing thoughts and fears of some kind. This is because anxiety is generally something that is triggered by an outside source and that triggering is hardcore and fast.

Writing down your thoughts as they come to you can help you slow your mind down and get rid of the mental clutter while your nervous system comes down. It also helps to bring you back into the moment.

Don’t know where to start? Here’s three simple journaling prompts:

• Write about what you did today.
• Write about what’s making you anxious.
• Write about what decisions you need to make.

Writing About Emotions

When you journal during an times of stress and anxiety, you’re actually removing those negative thoughts from your mind. Yes, you are voicing them, but you would otherwise be doing that internally. By writing your emotions and thoughts down, you’re removing them from an internal space to a concrete, open space. Having it out on paper can help you sort out the issues and keep them from bottling up in you.

Like my other stress busting suggestions, journaling is something you can try out with what you have on hand then if it works for you, then start incorporating into your daily habits. 

 

How to Start Journaling for Therapy

It doesn’t matter if you go 20th century with a notebook and a pen, use a Word document on your computer, or even start your own blog. Just go with whatever medium works best for you right now. The only difference is the tools and mediums you use to collect and organize your thoughts.

Don’t make yourself crazy getting started. Journaling is simply about getting your thoughts on paper and in the process you’ll be able to work through your thoughts. Not only does journaling help you work through anything that’s happened during your busy day, it’s also very therapeutic and can help to reduce stress. And later on, it’s fun to go back through your journal later and see how far you’ve come.

Tips for Keeping a Journal

There many ways to journal. What style and medium you choose is entirely up to you. There’s no wrong way to do this. If you find it easier to be at a computer, then go for it.

What you’ll want to do is to find the journaling method that you most enjoy and feel that you can stick with for. It’s during those longer stretches of time when you’re journaling regularly that you’ll see and experience the full benefits of journaling when it comes to helping you relax and reduce stress.

Here’s a few ideas to started. Grab any old notebook you have laying around and a pen and start writing down one or two sentences about your day.

If you feel more motivated by a cute journal and a fun gel pen, go out and get them, by all means. If you find typing easier than handwriting, start on your computer. Or start a blog.

You can even use Instagram as a micro blogging platform and start with a picture followed by a few sentences about your day.

Online journaling options can always be can set to private so you don’t have to worry about just anyone online being able to read your posts if you don’t want to go public with it.

Figure Out Your Best Time for Journaling

You should figure out what time works best for you to make sure you journal regularly. Some people might prefer to do it first thing in the morning, others at night before bed. Anything in between works just as well. There’s no right or wrong time to journal.

But that being said  while you’re getting in the habit of journaling, it’s a good idea to stick to the same time each day until it’s an integral part of your daily routine. After that you can be a little more flexible.

How much or how little you write is also up to you. Start with short entries, or even give bullet journaling a try. You don’t want to set the bar so high in the beginning that the thought of having to sit down and write a 500 journal entry each day stresses you out.

Keep in mind, journaling is supposed to help you relax and reduce stress, not create more!

Do you keep a journal? How do you stay with it?

Using a paper planner may seem old school to some, but there’s so many benefits to using a paper planner, namely helping you to intentionally plan the life you want! The benefits of using a daily planner include being more organized in your personal and professional life and helping you keeping track of important events.  Using planners for health and wellness will help you to stay on track with all the complexities of managing your health needs.

Mental Health Daily Planners

Good health hygiene is far more than physical health, but also takes into account mental and emotional health as well. Planners offer lots of mental health benefits, from reducing stress to helping with anxiety. This is largely because as you become more organized and have a place for important information that you can easily reference, you’ll find more inner peace. Everything is scheduled and planned out, and you can have more time for a little selfcare.

How to Create A Planner for Health and Wellness

If you live with a chronic illness, you know that there’s never ending information to keep track of…including keeping track of your medications, symptoms appointments, and insurance calls. You might also need to track your symptoms and food intake. Using planners for health and wellness will help you to stay on track with all the complexities of managing your health needs.A planner is a great way to stay organized when life gets overwhelming, and is a safe place to look things up when brain fog is a problem.

Track Your Fitness Goals and Progress

Fitness and physical activity are essential for everyone. It’s so important to fit some intentional movement into your lifestyle, even on the bad days. Using a planner is a great tool for this, as you can track workouts in the calendar section and list your individual fitness goals and progress.

Keep Track of Weight and Measurements

For women who are trying to lose weight or even maintain current weight, a planner is a good tool for keeping track of weight and measurements. Of course it’s easy enough to find digital apps, but many find it helpful to have everything in one place, and being able to enter weight or measurements on a calendar. There’s power in putting pen to paper!

Planning Meals for the Week

You probably have some intentional health goals, like reducing sugar and caffeine, getting enough water in or eating more plant based foods. A planner can offer you the option to track what you eat, set nutrition goals, and even do some meal planning.

Use a Planner to Start a Daily Routine

Use your planner to check in each day, write down your to-do lists and check in on upcoming events and tasks. As you learn to use it to its full advantage, and you will be amazed by how much better you feel.

5 Different Types of Planners You Can Create

In the world of planners (this is actually a thing!) there seems to be an endless amount of information and tips. There’s lots of ways to pretty up your planner and it’s easy to get bogged down with this instead of actually using it for planner. Before you buy anything, set an intention for what you actually want to do with your planner! Having things in order will provide a big mental health boost and give you some peace of mind.

Traditional Daily Planner

The first type of planner is traditional, which is one that is for all your daily planning needs, with emphasis on personal. Most people use their daily planner for everything, including work and other areas of their life. Having one main planner keeps you from having planners all over the place, potentially causing even more disorganization. But you know yourself best. Determine what you need to track and you may find out that you do need more than one.

Home and Family Planner

If you’d rather use different planners, you might want a separate one just for home and planning family activities. This is good for keeping track of doctor and dentist appointments, scheduling important dates for the kids, planning date nights with your spouse, andeven doing some meal planning. With a busy home life, you can definitely fill up an
entire planner just for this purpose.

Finance and Budget Planner

For people who are working on saving money for a major purpose, trying to save for retirement, or just want better control of their finances, it’s a great idea to have a planner devoted to finances. Here’s some things you might want to track in a finance and budget planner:

*Money coming in and going out
*Bills and debt
*Regular expenses
*Savings for specific goals
*General savings
*Building your investment portfolio
*Setting a budget

The Bullet Journal

Bullet journals are hot and can certainly be used as planners. With a bullet journal, you are in full control of each page, whether you set it up yourself with pen and ruler, or you can get printable pages to add to a binder that is being used as your bullet journal.

Work Projects

If you’re a blogger or an entrepreneur, you might be in need of a planner to keep track of everything. This keeps everything organized and in one place, so that you don’t have computer files, notebooks, and journals everywhere that is filled with random notes.

How to Choose the Right Planner for You

Before you buy anything, consider what your needs and purpose are. Do you want to carry it with you or use it at home?

What’s the Best Planner Size?

Think about what you are going to use it for. This might be for your daily life and schedules, work and projects, home life, personal or a combination of all of these. This determines everything from the size to the type of pages included in your planner. It will also help you figure out if a store-bought planner works, or if you will get a binder and just use printable planner pages.

Also consider where you will be using the planner. There’s small, medium and large sizes to choose from. Consider where you’ll be using it. The larger ones are better for your desktop and you might want to have a smaller one to keep in your bag or car.

Planner Layout Considerations

I can’t emphasize this one strongly enough. I’ve had to get rid of a couple of planners because I didn’t think my daily needs through. Take a good long look at the layouts of the pages the planner it comes with and if you think you can live with it for the year. Consider what you’ll be tracking, if you need extra space for tracking and brain dumps or adding any other custom information.

And as you’re considering page layouts, look at the different types of pages as well. Some planners keep it very basic where it is primarily the monthly and weekly calendar pages, while others fit in a lot of extras, such as blank pages for journaling, to-do lists, ask lists, and much more.

How to Add Your Planner to Your Daily Routine

Now that you’ve purchased your planner, you need to set aside some time to actually use it. A daily routine is a great way to focus your mind on one thing, get more day, and set yourself up for a productive day.

Begin by figuring out your daily routine and how to add using your planner to that routine. Do you find that you sit at your kitchen table in the morning with a cup of coffee, and have a few minutes of quiet time? If so, this is a great time to start a daily routine where you write in the planner, and maybe your journal as well. For others, it might be
during their lunch break at work, or maybe in the evening before bed to mentally prepare for the next day. Some like to use Sunday evening to enter in goals and activities for the week.

Above all, make it a habit. This is why creating a daily routine with your planner is so vital. Just think of it like any other part of your routine, like taking a shower or cooking a meal. Write in your planner around the same time every day, and it will soon become a daily routine.

Keep Your Planner Simple

As I mentioned earlier, don’t let your planner become an expensive rabbit hole. Instagram and Pinterest can be a great source of ideas but if you find yourself getting overwhelmed, then say away until you feel more confident. Have 5-10 pages to start with, then when those pages fill up or you get new ideas, gradually add in more to your planner.

10 Planners for Health and Wellness Tracking

Happy Planner

After several years of planner mayhem, this is the one I finally settled with. I’m constantly forgetting when I took meds or when I had my last well woman visit! The vertical boxes work for me and I can keep it as simple as I want or if I’m feeling motivated enough, I’ll add some washi tape and stickers. You can also get refill pages, both lined and graph so that you can create your own bullet journal spreads as needed. At the moment I have two going – one for tracking health and wellness, and another for everything else.

Self Journal

With spaces for reflection, room for gratitude, and many other self-motivating habits, you
can make space for your entire life (not just work). Used by many top performers to keep all of their goals working in tandem, it’s an organizer in journal form. (Amazon Link)

Passion Planner

I used this one for a bit and while I didn’t stick with it, it is a great planner. It’s one place for your thoughts and a tool to help you break down your goals into manageable chunks. It also provides room to reflect on the past and consider where you’re going. And it’s fun to pretty up with colored pencils, stickers and washi tape if you’re so inclined. The site offers free downloadable PDFs so you can try before you buy!

Erin Condren

Erin Condren planners are hugely popular and have a bit of a cult following. Like the Happy Planners, they have vertical boxes which are a great help to organizing your to-do lists while keeping your planner pretty. They also offer planner accessories, notebooks, stationary and just about everything that an office supplies junkie might wish for.

Panda Planner

The Panda planner can definitely be used a journal, but it’s so much more than that. With the Panda planner, it begins with sections to use as a planner. There are spaces for your daily, weekly, and monthly calendars, allowing you to keep track of everything from daily appointments to weekly goals and monthly calendars.

You can easily track all your goals and to-do lists for the week or the month, and use the blank pages included in the Panda planner as your journal. There is a section that allows you to write what you are grateful for, which is really important for mental health and to help you relieve your stress.

Leuchtturm

The original journal for bullet journals, a Leuchtturm planner is a blank slate. You can design this one completely around your lifestyle and individual needs while letting your creativity flow.

Planners can be key to organizational peace for as well as a simple creative outlet that isn’t too taxing for moms with chronic illness.

Do you use a paper planner? What’s your favorite?

You probably already know that journaling is a  great tool to help you overcome emotional eating. Therapists and counselors have long encouraged people to journal to heal from stress and trauma.

Writing down your thoughts and triggers can help you to keep track of what you’re eating and moving forward in your recovery. But for many of us, finding the time and situation to sit down and actually write in the journal might be a little tricky.

For me, I’ve found that journaling tends to happen when I make it a part of my morning routine. Having a set morning routine allows you to set the intention for a healthy and productive day.

Using a food journal will allow you to express yourself and at the same time provides a a therapeutic tool that will help you to get through the day. And with a set morning routine, you get into the practice of writing in the journal every day without thinking about it too much, and you won’t need to worry about it for the rest of the day.

Create a Morning Routine That Works for You

You can also use your food journaling time as part of a full morning routine. Maybe it’s something you do after devotions, meditation and breakfast. The important thing is to set the intention and make it a habit, and you’ll find yourself keeping up with it without too much effort.

 

Have Your Food Journal Ready to Go

Set up a quiet area in your home to write in your journal. It should be a place where you feel comfortable and won’t get interrupted too much. It might be easier for you to stay in bed to write in your journal before you begin your day (and the house is quiet!)

You might keep it at  your kitchen table while drinking your morning coffee, or just relax on the couch for some writing time.

Whatever you do, try to pick an area of the home where you will enjoy sitting and writing, and you won’t have to worry about other people in your house bothering you during this time.

What Should You Write About in the Morning?

Using journaling as part of a morning routine has some definite advantages. Plan your day out in the morning by writing down a favorite scripture or affirmation, start a food log of what you plan to eat.

Journaling about your emotional eating triggers before your day even starts will help to give you a healthy mindset to get you through the day. And when those stress cravings come up, you’ll feel better equipped to handle them.

Remember that journaling for emotional eating doesn’t have any set rules. If writing in the morning doesn’t work for you, that’s okay. Find the time and place that works for you in order to get the most out of journaling.

How to Motivate Yourself to Keep Journaling

As rewarding as journaling can be, sometimes it’s hard to stay motivated with it. If you’re struggling with this, here’s some tips can help you keep that motivation and even perk up some changes to your journaling routine.

Create Daily Journaling Prompts

Creating daily prompts is a great way to keep you motivated. But the key here isn’t do this every day. Take some time on the weekend to create some journal prompts for the week.

Besides the obvious food log, you can write down affirming words that will help to keep you on track when the day starts to get busy.

 

Decorate Your Journal

Don’t be afraid to have fun and decorate your journal! It’s already yours on the inside, so make it pretty on the outside too.  Make it a journal that represents you. You can decorate the outside, the pages, and the flaps. Make sure that the journal is inviting to you and calls to you to write in it. You want something that is as welcoming as your home and that you’ll love to sit down with.

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Bullet journaling is a great way to organize and track the thousands of to do’s that are probably running throughout your mind during the day. It can also serve as a way to track pain symptoms, medications, as a food and fitness tracker…just about anything you can think of. It can even work as a memory keeper. Overwhelmed? Read on for a beginner’s guide to simple bullet journals.

What is a Bullet Journal?

First things first…a bullet journal is is an analog system. Many of us are so used to using apps to stay organized on our smart phones now so it may seem strange to use something as old school as a notebook and pen. But that’s the beauty of it…there’s something very peaceful and grounding about writing things down this way.

With bullet journaling, you are essentially combining all of your thoughts, finances, schedules, to-do lists, and miscellaneous life notes into a single journal. It is a way to organize all of those different things you try to keep up with on a daily basis. It is not only fun, but very helpful in reducing overall stress and anxiety.

Mental Health Benefits of Bullet Journals

Anyone can benefit aby starting a bullet journal. Remember there is really no right or wrong way to do it. It is supposed to make life easier for you, not more difficult, so don’t feel pressured to have it organized or look like others.

Everything is in one place. All of your various to-d0 lists, schedules, and notes are in a single journal. Many people do have journals or digital to-do lists with this type of information, but when things are spread out on sticky notebooks, various planners or elsewhere, it’s very easy to lose track of it all.

By having all of your schedules and appointments in one place, you aren’t constantly worried that you’re going to miss something. When you have a way to better plan for the future and track your expenses, it helps with any life stresses that you’re dealing with.

And that’s incredibly freeing!

 

Getting Started With Simple Bullet Journals

Here’s the traditional setup for a bullet journal with credit to Ryder Carroll from BulletJournal.  Think of it as starting point, get comfortable with the basic system and then change it from there.

You’ll need a notebook, a pen, and a little bit of time to get started. The type of notebook you use is up to you. The traditional style is grid or dotted paper, but I find even ruled or blank pages work just fine.

The Key

The first page of your bullet journal will include your key. This will record the shorthand you use for your bullet entries. Here’s the traditional codes used. Feel free to add to it, or leave out things that don’t work for you. Make it yours.

The Index

Your next two to four pages will be set aside for indexing. This will allow you to quickly find any collection, or get to a particular month. Title each page as an index page and move on to the next section.

The Future Log

With the original bullet journal setup this is a two page spread that records the coming 6 months. Many bullet journalers find it helpful to use a more traditional yearly calendar instead. This is a great place to record birthdays, anniversaries, or block out vacation time. Add or note the page number and record your future log in your index.

Monthly Logs

Start each month with a monthly log. Here you’ll record appointments and due dates. You can use a grid layout, or use one line for each day of the month. While this isn’t where you’ll track most of your tasks, the monthly log will come in handy for those times when you have a full schedule of chauffeuring the kids, tracking doctor and therapy appointments.

Daily Logs

The daily log is where you’ll spend most of your time in your bullet journal. Start a new section each day and record anything important for the day. Make your list of tasks and cross them off as you get them finished. Make notes of anything important you need to remember throughout the day as well as appointments as they pop up. Everything gets logged in the daily log for speed and ease. From there you can move it as needed to the monthly or future log, or migrate it to a different day.

There are a multitude of ways to do this. Look up the #bulletjournal and #bujo tags to find a layout that works best for you.

Migrating Tasks

At the end  of the day, or even first thing the next morning make some time to review your tasks and then cross out and migrate anything that isn’t checked off. For example, if you didn’t get around to doing (or finishing!) laundry today, draw an arrow through it and add the task to today’s daily task list.

If you noted an appointment that came up yesterday, move it to your monthly list and draw an arrow through it in yesterday’s list. If something no longer applies then cross it out. Your goal is to deal with each entry from your daily list by completing it, migrating it, or crossing it out.

What to Put In Your Bullet Journal

The list is endless. Here’s a few possibilities to help support your mental health.

The Anxiety Journal. Anxiety journals might also be called ranting journals. When we feel anxiety we usually feel a rush of emotions all at once. Some of the thoughts are chaotic while might be strangely calm. The fact is though, the thoughts and emotions are fast moving and can be overwhelming if there is no outlet.

Some people find that the very idea of anxiety and thoughts can be worse than the actual onset of anxiety itself. For this reason, there is no real set-up of anxiety pages. It is simply a space in your journal that allows you to put in your thoughts as they come to you and get them out.

Emotional Eating Triggers. Create a section for what you are eating, the date, the time, and then an area to let you write out what may have lead you to the emotional eating incident. You may not think the foods you’re  eating are important, but some people have found that certain foods are more comforting and that the memory of those foods is connected to the trigger of the emotional eating.

For example, you may find that eating grilled cheese sandwiches are
comforting during an emotional eating binge. Once you start journaling, you may find that the reason they are is because someone was verbally abusive in your past and that verbal abuse was always followed by a grilled cheese to make you feel better.

Mindful Journaling. A mindfulness journal strongly resembles what some might call a devotional journal. In many cases, people use some prose or a quote to reflect on. As you use your journal you will be reflecting on the quote and giving your thoughts on that quote and how it applies to you. Many mindfulness journals are prompt based to get your mind thinking and focusing on you and your feelings about your day or stress in your life.

The Gratitude Journal. A gratitude journal can help you remove negative energy from your life, reduce stress, and reduce depression by finding the good in your world. You may start off with just one or two entries. As you move on with a daily journaling practice, you may find that you are finding less bad and much more good in your day. This is what you’re going to write down, and will lead you to mindfulness and peace in your daily life and a new way to look at things. A gratitude journal can be as simple as a few lines or just one line.

Collections are simply thematical lists you make that aren’t date related. Some examples are your bucket lists, lists of books you want to read, movies you want to watch on Netflix, specialty grocery ingredients….just about anything.

I hope this inspires you to find a journaling system that works for you. There’s no right way to do this. Just stick with it and you’ll reap many positive benefits.

 

 

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