How Keeping a Journal Influences Your Health

Journaling isn't just for teens anymore. Science has shown that keeping a daily log of your day has a lot more benefits to it than merely creating a place to dump your deepest thoughts in private.

You don’t need to be a writer or even want to become one to start journaling, but you might just want to run out and buy a cute notebook after you read these benefits journaling can have for you.

Beneficial reasons to start journaling, if you aren't already...

Boosts creativity

It’s one of the more obvious benefits, but you’ll find that you become more creative when you just let it flow in your journal. It’s a stream of consciousness process that allows you to go where your mind takes you, and much like dreams, that’s pretty exciting.

Restores mindfulness 

Happiness is directly linked to mindfulness. When you’re writing in your journal, your frustrations and anxieties ebb away, and you’re left to unite with your thoughts completely. Sometimes simply having a place to dump all of your feelings, disappointments and thoughts also gives you a way to let them out and walk away from them. This release helps you to feel your feelings, sort through them via pen and paper, and move along in a healthy manner. It's quite powerful.

Brings you closer to achieving goals

When we journal, we often write about the things we wish we could accomplish. That café we dream of opening or that dream vacation we've had on our minds for years. No matter what it is, writing it down helps your brain focus on those goals and find ways to bring it to fruition. Essentially, it means you’re more likely to achieve those goals if you simply write about them first.

Improved memory

Writing things down not only serves to prevent you from forgetting them but using a pen and paper forces your brain to engage with it cognitively. That means even when you’re not writing something down in the moment, like say at a social event when a new contact tells you their name, you won’t space out and forget it if you journal.

Better communication skills

Keeping a journal is a way to help vocalize your thoughts. Interestingly though, it also benefits the way you speak, since it naturally forces you to build your vocabulary and put your thoughts in order. You’ll find that when you’re out in the world engaging with others, your journaling will have served you well for this purpose.

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Non-Food Related Reasons Why You May Be Feeling Stuck

You've ditched the processed junk foods and started bringing healthy lunches to work. These are powerful first steps that sound simple but make a profound impact. You even saw some significant improvements in the beginning, but you've seemed to hit a plateau.

So, what's going on?

While eating clean is of utmost importance when paving a healthier path, there could be some non-food related reasons why you’re not seeing or feeling any improvements lately.

Here are a few non-food related reasons you may be feeling stuck...

Being too focused on the scale

When you feel like you’re doing all the right things, it can be frustrating not to see or feel any improvements --try not to get discouraged, though.

We tend to measure our success by the number staring back at us on our scale, which isn't an effective way to gauge our progress. With things like fluid fluctuations and building muscle, the scale can be deceptive. It is most practical and accurate to assess our growth by how we feel and how our clothes are fitting. Don't let the scale tell you how you're feeling; you are far more than that number.

Not exercising

If you're eating healthy and not prioritizing exercise of some sort, you will likely hit that plateau. 

While eating clean is a crucial piece of staying healthy, exercise is the other puzzle piece necessary to achieve the goals you've set for yourself. You don’t need to workout in the gym for an hour every day if you don’t want to but at the very least, walk briskly for 20 to 30 minutes each day. Find the exercise that fits into your schedule and that you enjoy the most.

Exercising too much

And yes, there’s a fine line to walk with exercise. If you don’t exercise enough, it's not ideal --but if you exercise too much it causes stress and impairs your adrenal hormone production. So if you’re working out too much in hopes to reach your goals faster, take a couple of days off and reevaluate your workout strategy for better results, like with yoga and weights instead.

Contrary to what you might think, weights are an important part of an exercise that will help you build a stronger body, even when your body is at rest.

You’re still drinking sugar

Sure, you eat salads and healthy meals all day long but your morning coffee is filled with cream and sugar, or you’re drinking fruit juices or diet soda. If this is a struggle, make it a goal this week to begin making some changes in this area. If your drink of choice is something other than water, begin trading water in for your beverage of choice until you crave water more than that sugary drink. It will happen, I assure you!

Try flavored sparkling water like LaCroix to satisfy the bubbly craving, and infuse your water with fruit to add some flavor.

One thing I’ve caught myself doing in my personal experience is pushing off my exercise. “I will get to it later!” However, later never comes…but the chocolate does. Hmmmm….

So when you feel like you're stuck in a rut, reevaluate the non-food related daily habits that may be hindering your progress.

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