Wellness Journaling: How to Journal for Wellness

Keeping a wellness journal allows us to monitor our health in a way that’s both freeing and healing. Traditionally, journaling is a way to keep a written record of our daily lives—our thoughts and experiences. Journaling as a wellness practice can incorporate some of that, but it is a mode of journaling with a more mindful purpose.

When you develop a daily journaling habit as a wellness practice, it is often done with the hope of improving a specific aspect of your life or your overall health. This article explores how to journal for wellness, with tips, strategies, and insights from personal experience. But first, what is a wellness journal?

What is a Wellness Journal?

 A wellness journal is a special type of journal focused on monitoring your overall wellbeing or a specific aspect of your health. Unlike traditional journaling, which typically involves writing about your thoughts and daily experiences, wellness journals are specifically created to help you track goals or develop intentions related to your health and wellness.

 A wellness journal is a special type of journal focused on monitoring your overall wellbeing or a specific aspect of your health. 

Wellness journaling can serve many purposes and take varied forms. I’ll discuss several of those in this article. One may start a wellness journal as a means for tracking habits that lead to achieving a larger goal. These habits and goals can be something concrete, like improving your physical wellbeing through daily movement, mediation and nutrition. However, wellness journals can also be used to track more artistic or philosophical endeavors, like developing a daily habit of reflection and gratitude.
 
While developing a daily wellness journaling routine may sound like a trivial matter, research has shown there are tremendous health benefits, both physically and mentally, that comes with intentioned journaling. For writers, wellness journaling can provide a means of connection to mind and body, which can lead to surprising creative breakthroughs. 

Types of Wellness Journals

 There is no one size fits all version of a wellness journal. Wellness journals are as unique as the health, wellness and goals of the journaler. There’s no secret formula or specific way your wellness journal must look. You decide what your needs and intentions are and develop the process that works for you. However, if you’d like a bit of guidance to get started, I’m here to help. Here are some examples of different types of wellness journals, with links out to each:

• Gratitude Journal – Start each day by writing down three things you are thankful for. Focus on the both the macro and micro areas of your life that you feel most grateful for—from the relationships you have with family or friends to the barista who remembers your coffee order. Routinely focusing on the positive aspects of your life can be a powerful tool against battling negative thoughts.
• Mood Tracking – Tracking your moods throughout the day and reflecting on them at night can help you better manage them in order to improve your mindset more quickly. It will also allow you to see patterns and identify triggers. Being more aware of your moods can improve your ability to manage lifestyle choices, make informed health decisions, and work towards a better quality of life.
• Stream of Consciousness & Brain Dumps – At the start of every day, write continuously for a set period of time or a certain number of pages without worrying about grammar, structure or content—just let your thoughts flow. This is a great wellness practice for morning journalers. This type of journaling has been shown to clear your headspace first thing in the morning, which sets you up for a more productive day. If you’ve ever written Morning Pages, inspired by Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, they would fall under this category.
• Personal Growth and Reflective Journal – Documenting your journey of personal growth allows you to reflect on the valuable lessons you’ve learned along the way. Take the time to write about your experiences, noting both the challenges and triumphs. Embrace setbacks as opportunities for growth, viewing them as chances to build resilience and strength. By acknowledging and learning from these moments, you can continually improve and move forward with greater confidence and wisdom.
• Nutrition and Fitness – Tracking your nutrition and daily physical activities can help you to develop a comprehensive approach to maintaining and improving your health. This does not have to be about weight loss or changing your appearance. While those things may happen, keeping this kind of wellness journal is meant to support and encourage you to be consistent, track your progress toward your health goals, and lead to a better overall well-being.
• Goal Oriented – Setting big goals can often feel overwhelming, which can lead to discouragement and lack of motivation. It can help to break down your goals into smaller, more manageable steps to alleviate pressure and overwhelm. Write about your goals and why they’re important to you. Break your goal up into the steps you need to achieve them, and track your progress. Remember to celebrate whenever you complete each mini step!
• Visualization and Manifestation – Use your journal to engage in visualization exercises to help bring your dreams and goals to life. Spend time each day picturing yourself achieving success, focusing on the details and the steps you took to get there. Allow yourself to fully immerse in the emotions of accomplishment, feeling the pride, joy, and satisfaction as if you’ve already reached your goals. This practice can boost your motivation and confidence, making your aspirations feel more attainable. By regularly visualizing your success, you reinforce your commitment and create a positive mindset that drives you toward achieving your dreams.

Wellness Journaling: My Story

Being a writer and keeping a journal may sound customary and expected, but, for many years, I wasn’t that kind of writer. I had been an avid diary writer as a child, but as I got older and life got busy, I gave up the habit of recording my experiences and thoughts on paper. By my mid-twenties, life was so hectic, I let the idea of dedicating any time to writing that was just for me as a waste. I barely had time to write a few thousand words a week. How would I ever finish my first novel if I gave up precious free time to journaling?

A Writer Loses Her Words

The words never flowed easily, but I did go on to write a novel or three. I was a determined writer, focused on a specific publishing path. I kept on moving down that road, until, about seven years ago, I hit one too many bumps, took a few wrong turns, and found myself lost. I had become jaded by the publishing world, and had lost my desire to write. For the first time in my life, I stopped writing. For a couple of years, I produced next to nothing. I took it hard. I grieved my lost words. I often stared at a blank page just willing myself to write anything, even if it was terrible. How had I ever written hundreds of pages when the idea of writing just one now seemed impossible?
 
In her book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, Elizabeth Gilbert discusses the concept of ideas. Specifically, where they come from and what happens when you don’t utilize them. To summarize, Gilbert believes ideas are everywhere, and when a great one comes to you, you only have a limited amount of time to use it or lose it. If you sit on a good idea for too long, the idea may decide you’re a terrible host, and move along to someone else more deserving, who will actually use it.

When I first read Big Magic, this concept both intrigued and terrified me. I loved the thought that my characters and stories had chosen me as the writer who would bring them to life, but I was appalled at the idea that, if I wasn’t quick enough, they could just up and leave me. I tucked this controversial theory away in my mind, and didn’t think about it again, until my well of words dried up. Was Gilbert right? Had I dillied and dallied too long? Had I wasted so much time that all of my good ideas ran away to find someone new?
 
I tried not to be dramatic or lose hope. I gave myself a bit of grace, and offered my stories space and my words time, hoping they’d return. They did not. The word abandonment enveloped me like an itchy sweater I’d been sentenced to wear for eternity. It stole my focus and drove me mad, constantly scratching my mind. My words had ditched me, and I was bereft. At my lowest point, I gave in and gave up. I stopped calling myself a writer. I stopped trying to write.

Wellness Journaling and a Creative Breakthrough

Around the same time that I was in the midst of a creative breakdown, I was living abroad in Italy, and began traveling to different countries for five to six month each year. Wanting to have written memories to accompany all of the pretty pictures I was taking, I returned to journaling for the first time in over a decade. On each journey, I packed at least one beautifully bound book of lined, yet blank, pages with the intentions of writing down my travel reflections each day.
 
It never worked. I’d either never unpack my travel journal while I was away or I’d write a few pages each morning for the first few days, and then miss a day or two or five. My intention with travel journaling was to chronicle my adventures each day. When I missed several days, I felt obligated to rewind to where I’d last left off and recount all of the time I’d missed. When I would neglect my journal for more than a few days in a row, this task became daunting. I felt guilty about falling behind, and the idea of catching up felt like a chore. Worse, it felt like homework. Who wants to do homework while visiting some of the most stunning places on earth? Not me. Eventually, I took the pressure off by continuing to pack a journal for each trip, but without any expectations that I would ever write in it—and I rarely did.

Fast forward a few years later, it was late 2019, and I had just moved to California. I assumed I’d still be traveling often. Then, 2020 and Covid-19 arrived, and my travel life ended. I hadn’t had time to make new friends in my new state before it shutdown. I was stuck in the house most days with my just cat and a growing desire to start writing again. However, I could desire all I wanted. The words were still not flowing. I believe in the idea that “if nothing changes, nothing changes” (Courtney C. Stevens, The Lies About Truth). I couldn’t keep doing the same things and hoping for different results. If I wanted to start writing again, I needed to make a change.

I tried various tactics throughout 2020 that didn’t work, so I’ll spare you the lackluster details. As 2021 approached, I decided to commit to journaling each morning. I hoped that writing some—any–words each day would eventually lead to more inspired words, and that someday a novel idea might choose me again.

I committed to the endeavor, but I didn’t hold a lot of faith that it would actually work. I also knew that journaling hadn’t worked for me in the past, so this attempt would have to be something different than just writing a few random pages each day. I needed a system, a purpose, a reason. To be successful in showing up to journal each day, I needed to be intentional. This is how I developed my practice of wellness journaling—even if I didn’t know that’s what I was doing at the time.

Wellness Journaling and the Benefits of Mantras

Around the same time, I was gifted the book Find Your Happy Daily Mantras: 365 of Motivation for a Happy, Peaceful and Fulfilling Life, by Shannon Kaiser. As promised, the book contained one to two sentence daily mantras to guide readers through an entire year. Each entry also included a short paragraph reflecting on the mantra, and ended with a question. I still wasn’t sure if I believed Elizabeth Gilbert’s theory of ideas finding you, but I surely believed that books often come to you exactly when you need them. This seemed like a perfect match. I decided to use Find Your Happy Daily Mantras as the foundation for my wellness journal journey.

Each day, I would read a mantra, the accompanying paragraph, and then use the daily question as a journal prompt. I committed to doing this every single day—even on days when I didn’t feel like it, especially on days when it felt inconvenient. Occasionally, I did miss a day, which helped me to make a needed mindset change. If missing a day equaled failure, I knew I would just give up. Therefore, instead of berating myself for an occasional missed day and trying to play catch up, I simply accepted it, showed up the next day and continued on. Shame is not a good motivator for me, so I removed it from my wellness journal equation.

Shame is not a good motivator for me, so I removed it from my wellness journal equation.

If I’m honest, I didn’t put a lot of weight or hope that this new wellness journaling habit would help me recover my creativity or change my life in any way. When the changes did start to happen, I tried to deny them at first. I would brush them off as coincidence, because I couldn’t possibly attribute them to this simple daily habit. Try as I might to deny the benefits of wellness journaling, eventually I accepted and relished in them.

After only a few weeks of daily journaling, my morning journaling sessions became my favorite part of the day. I grew protective of this me time, and began feel proud of my dedication to myself and personal growth. I added things to my routine, like meditating for ten to twenty minutes before I wrote and listening to classical music during my sessions. I noticed a shift in the words that filled my notebook pages. I was more open and connected to my emotional struggles and past experiences. What I wrote often surprised me. Even though I was writing about challenging topics, my daily moods were greatly improved. I was sleeping better, being more consistent with my yoga practice, and my mental focus overall was noticeably better.

After a few months of daily journaling, the barriers between me and my creativity began to lower themselves. It didn’t happen all at once, and it wasn’t a linear process. My progress was mixed with setbacks, but I did progress. The shifts were subtle. At first, I felt the desire to read more, to reconnect with my longtime critique partner, and to take my first online writing course in several years. By the end of the year, I started drafting a new novel, and had written my first personal essays. I had found my words again.

The Power of Developing Journaling as a Wellness Practice

Can I attribute all of this to wellness journaling? Maybe, maybe not, but, does it matter? Change, like habits, often have a snowball or butterfly effect. One small change leads to the next. One tiny habit shifts all habits. The impacts can be small, but noticeable. They can also be huge and life altering. What I know for sure is that I made a conscious and concrete change, and it brought about more change. I was changed. 

Journaling can be a powerful wellness practice with numerous benefits for mental, emotional, and even physical health. This practice can take many forms, including free writing, structured prompts, or guided journaling techniques. Here are some ways to use journaling as a wellness practice: 

• Stress Reduction – Regular journaling can help manage stress by allowing you to process challenging events and identify healthy coping mechanisms. Putting your thoughts on paper can help you clear your mind, making you feel less overwhelmed. With a clearer headspace, you can more easily organize your thoughts, brainstorm new ideas and find solutions to problems or creative blocks.
• Emotional Release and Processing – Write it down, and let it out. Venting your feelings on paper can be a safe outlet to release and process intense emotions. Journaling can help in identifying recurring patterns in your thoughts and behaviors, allowing you to address underlying issues. The simple act of writing down what you feel nervous or anxious about may help you explore those emotions and release the physical and mental tensions associated with them.
• Improved Mental Health – Consistent and intentional journaling can lead to an improved mental state. Journaling can be a form of mindfulness, helping you stay present and aware of your thoughts and feelings. Over time, you’ll grow to know yourself in new ways, and can better identify the positive thoughts that serve you and the negative ones that do not.
• Physical Health Benefits – Some studies suggest that expressive writing can improve immune function, lower blood pressure and heart rates due to a reduction in stress levels. You may also find that clearing your mind through journaling, especially before bed, can improve the quality of your sleep.
• Creativity and Expression – Writing regularly can spark new ideas and creative breakthroughs. Journaling provides a judgement free outlet for expressing your thoughts and experimenting with ideas. Your journal is the ultimate safe space. You’re less likely to make progress on ideas you only allow to ruminate inside your mind. Writing down things you’ve been longing to write or create can be a first step to a making it happen.

Five Key Tips for Effective Wellness Journaling

 Here are five tips to help you make the most of your wellness journaling journey: 

1. Set Clear Intentions – Begin your journaling practice by setting clear intentions. Determine what you want to achieve, whether it’s being more creative, tracking your health goals, or fostering gratitude. By having a specific focus, you’ll find it easier to stay committed and measure your progress.
2. Create a Consistent Routine – Establish a regular journaling routine that fits your lifestyle. Whether you choose to write in the morning to set a positive tone for the day or in the evening to reflect and unwind, consistency is key. Aim to journal at the same time each day to build a habit that becomes a natural part of your daily life.
3. Embrace Honesty and Vulnerability – Your journal is a safe space for your thoughts and feelings, so embrace honesty and vulnerability. Write openly about your experiences, emotions, and challenges. This authentic self-expression can lead to profound self-discovery and emotional release, fostering a deeper connection with yourself.
4. Find a Comfortable Space and Use a Dedicated Journal – Choose a comfortable, quiet space for your journaling practice and use a journal dedicated solely to your wellness journey. This creates a special environment and tool that signals to your mind it’s time to focus on your wellbeing, enhancing the effectiveness of your practice.
5. Be Patient – Be patient with yourself and your journaling process. Personal growth and well-being are continuous journeys that take time. Allow yourself to progress at your own pace, celebrating small victories and learning from challenges without judgment. You won’t transform overnight, but change will come. As time goes on, acknowledge the positive changes that wellness journaling has brought to your life.

Wellness Journaling Prompts

For me, selecting a new journal to record my journey in is part of the fun. For your wellness journal, you can decide to purchase a journal designed around a particular type of wellness path, which typically include guided pages filled with prompts. I’ve linked to several versions of these in the Types of Wellness Journals section of this article. You can also use any blank journal or notebook to design your own wellness journal specific to your own needs. If you decide upon the later, here are a list of wellness journal prompts to get you started or to inspire you to write your own:

1. Gratitude and Reflection – Write about three things you’re grateful for today and how they positively impact your life.
2. Daily Intentions – What are your intentions for today? How do you plan to achieve them?
3. Self-Care Inventory – List five self-care activities you enjoy and describe how each one benefits your well-being. Plan how you can regularly integrate each one into your life.
4. Emotional Check-In – How are you feeling right now? What emotions are you experiencing, and why? You can perform these check-ins at scheduled intervals throughout the day.
5. Mindfulness Moment – Describe a recent moment when you felt truly present and mindful. What were you doing, and how did it feel?
6. Personal Growth – Reflect on a recent challenge you faced. Journal about how you handled the situation. What did you do well? What can you improve upon?
7. Health Goals – Write about a health goal you want to achieve. What steps will you take to reach this goal, and why is it important to you?
8. Positive Affirmations – List ten positive affirmations that resonate with you. How can you incorporate these affirmations into your daily routine?
9. Stress Relief – What activities or practices help you manage stress effectively? Brainstorm way you can employ these practices the next time you feel overwhelmed.
10. Sleep Quality – Track your sleep patterns over a week. Each morning record how many hours you slept and how well rested you feel. What changes can you make to improve your sleep quality and overall restfulness?
11. Relationship Health – Think about a relationship that positively impacts your well-being. What makes this relationship special, and how can you nurture it further?
12. Environmental Influence – Reflect on how your environment affects your well-being. What changes can you make to create a more positive and supportive space?
13. Emotional Resilience – Describe a time when you bounced back from a difficult situation. What strengths and resources helped you, and how can you build on them?
14. Self-Compassion – Make a list of five things you like about yourself. Strategize how can you practice more self-compassion in your daily life?
15. Mind-Body Connection – Reflect on how your physical state affects your mental and emotional well-being. What activities help you feel more connected and balanced in both body and mind?

Is Wellness Journaling Right for You?

Only you can decide that. I can’t say that everyone needs a wellness journal. However, it worked so well for me, I’m inclined to say that everyone could benefit from developing journaling as wellness practice, even if not everyone necessarily needs one.

Surely, some will disagree. I can respect that not everything is for everyone—even if it might be, if they actually gave it a shot. If you’re still of the mindset that it’s not for you, but haven’t actually tried wellness journaling, then how can you know for sure? Many of us are wired to dismiss things we assume won’t work and/or have never worked for us. However, the truth is, we do this most often before we’ve ever tried, or when we’ve only tried them briefly and never truly committed. Our doubts are really just assumptions, and our assumptions are typically rooted in fears or arrogance. Remember, if you want to change, then you have to change. If you knock down every possible solution before you even try, then your assumptions will always be correct, and you’ll be unlikely to see any changes.
 
If you’re busy, it can seem overwhelming to add another thing to your list of to-dos, but something has to give. By giving wellness journaling a chance, you might be surprised to find that you are actually less stressed and more calm, have better focus and motivation, and are more likely to make progress on your other goals—creative or not.
 
If you’ve read this far or did a Google search to find this article, then I have a good assumption that you’re looking for something to help you with a need you’re feeling or a desire you have. If that’s the case, then a wellness journal might be just what you need.
 
Thank you for reading! I hope you found this article helpful. I’d love to hear your comments or answer any questions below. 

For more advice on journaling, read our article here: 

How to Start Journaling: Practical Advice on How to Journal Daily

Journaling Courses at Writers.com

Want to hone your wellness journal alongside other writers? Writers.com can help! Take a look at our courses for keepers of journals and diaries:

• Creating the Visual Journal
• From the Source: Journaling for Self-Knowledge and Creativity
• These Fragments: From Journal Pages to Personal Essays
• Where the Diary Ends and the Essay Begins
• Using Bullet Journaling to Achieve Writing Goals