Creating a Healthy Routine with Your Journal
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It’s spring! Time for new beginnings.
Everyone enjoys starting new things during the spring: new exercise routines, spring cleaning, new diets. How about a new start with your journaling practice?
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 routine where journaling is a big part of that routine. I have published a post previously about journaling routines which focused on the benefits of a routine for your writing. However, this post looks at ways to set up your routines/schedules.
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 discussed by Julia Cameron in the book The Artist’s Way, and many people continue using it.
The idea is, before you check your phone or workout, or read or watch the news, you write in your journal. It should only be a few pages, 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 write 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 Routine with Journaling
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 Maybe you wake up and do yoga, you drink a green smoothie, or make a healthy breakfast, then get ready for work. That’s great!
But perhaps there is another time when you fall behind on your healthy habits and need 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. 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 from in the morning. Generally, you have an entirely different perspective on your life after going through your day. 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.
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