As part of Men’s Health Awareness month and the difficulties we are all facing, we thought it would be useful to have a look at journaling. Journaling is a tool that we utilised a lot throughout the pandemic, and is now a tool we have carried on to our daily life.

Giving time and space to reflect on your day and feel your emotions can be a game changer. It can help you make better decisions by regularly reviewing what has worked well for you, as well as what hasn’t. This can help guide future decisions to live a better life. Journaling has been shown to help people sleep better at night, think more positively, improve productivity and reduce stress. 

With all these benefits, how should you start?

There are many different kinds of journaling.  Some bullet point how their day went, others start the day with what they are grateful for, some express what they are feeling in that moment. All these different ways are worth trying. We will share some prompts which may help you in this process. Depending on the time of day, we will focus on slightly different things. In the morning, we tend to be drawn towards what we need to get done. 

Morning Prompts:

• A great way to start things off, is writing something you are grateful for. This will allow you to move into a positive mind state before anything else. 

• After this, write down the one thing you can get done, which will have the most impact on your day. Anything else, can be a bonus! Pro tip – write a bonus list, not a to do list! It feels good to tick off a few bonuses, whereas a growing to do list often fills us with anxiety).

• Next, write down what you want to feel. We often get stuck trying to do things, forgetting that they are meant to serve a feeling. Writing down what you want to feel at the start of the day can make big changes. 

Evening Prompts: 

• What is one thing I did well today? It’s easy to find the negatives. Often, we need to work on seeing what we have done well. One thing is enough.

• What is one thing I can improve tomorrow? Looking for improvement and what is wrong carry different meaning. There’s no need to beat yourself up for things that were out of your control. Looking for something we can improve, one day at a time, is achievable and can make a big difference compounded over time.

• What do I want to feel as I go to sleep? Try an emotion, such as happiness, joy, gratitude, peace. You may find that intentionally trying to create a positive emotion helps with your sleep. 

There is no right or wrong way to journal. We hope these prompts can help you find your way. 

Heal > Adapt > Evolve