How to Create a Self-Care Journal in 3 Steps

Among the tumbling chaos that is taking over our lives, it's essential to remember to pay attention to ourselves. One of the most enjoyable and beneficial ways to do so is to have a self-care journal. It helps us self-reflect on our lives and keeps us in check.

And while some people believe that self-care doesn't require a journal and settle with a few self-care tips, you'd be surprised at how much it makes a difference.

That said, we'll tell you how to create a self-care journal and its benefits. All you have to do is read on!

Self-Care: Why Do It?

For starters, you should know how important self-care is for your overall health and happiness. The increased productivity demand in companies and different fields has led many people to burn out and exhaust themselves. To avoid getting this tired, you should get used to giving yourself breaks every once in a while.

Self-care gives you this much-needed break from your buzzing life. It relieves your bottled stress and pressure and gets you prepared for more work. However, if you go on with working without giving yourself a little time in between, you may be more prone to mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and anger.

In addition, self-care helps boost your confidence and self-esteem, increase your creativity, and improve your personal development as a whole. Not to mention, it makes you a happier person overall.

But how to properly care for yourself? Well, you should start by creating a self-care planner to keep track of your progress and remind you to stick to your self-care schedule. This is as essential as keeping a daily planner.

How to Create a Self-Care Journal

We'll break down the process of creating a journal into three main steps. Those three steps contain the three significant benefits of this type of journal, which are caring for your body, mind, and soul.

Create the “Body Self-Care” Part

To start off, you should specify a part in your journal for body self-care. This is the part associated with any aspect of your overall physical health. Accordingly, you'll write about activities that you should do to benefit your body. For example, you can write a detailed skin-care routine to do in your free time.

Moreover, you can list yoga movements, different exercises, and healthy diet plans as an alternative. Just begin by asking yourself what your body needs right now, and write down your ideas on paper. Next, break those ideas into small steps so that you won't feel overwhelmed.

And you shouldn't feel that way because self-care can be as simple as taking a walk in fresh air or soaking in the sun for a couple of hours. It doesn't have to be a complicated routine that's too hard to follow. You can also put a relaxing massage or a bubble bath in your self-care schedule.

When you feel tired and overwhelmed with work, you can open your journal and read the many activities you listed there. That'll remind you of what you should do to keep your body calm and healthy. Over time, you'll feel more relaxed and active as your body gets the breaks it needs.

Create the “Mind Self-Care” Part

After caring for your physical health, it's time to show some care for your mental health. If you've read any self-care books before, you probably know how beneficial it is for your mind. This is especially important if you have a stressful job or often feel pressured. Consequently, it'd be best if you listed mind relaxing activities in this part.

To figure out precisely what you need, you should sit with yourself first and assess your mind’s needs. Then, try to find out whether there's something that's upsetting or stressing you these days. Next, you should think about what helps you relax and relieve this stress.

For instance, if you're a bookworm, you should think about reading. On the other hand, if you're a nature enthusiast, you should think about camping or spending a relaxing time in the wild. When you do this, you'll know what self-care activities to write in your journal.

Create the “Soul Self-Care” Part

We all need a spiritual mindset sometimes. It's essential to keep us humble and in touch with our emotions. However, many people neglect this part as they don't understand its importance. But, it can benefit both your physical and mental health.

To create this part, you should think about self-compassion, gratitude, and relationships. For example, to be self-compassionate, you should forgive yourself for your mistakes, let go of your inner negativity, and practice kindness. To do so, you should write activities in your journal that include self-reflection and spending time with your family, for example.

As for gratitude, it's one of the most important feelings in the world. It can shift your mindset to an entirely positive one, and it can make you a happier person overall. That's why many people advise that you keep a gratitude journal. In addition, this part can be used as a family activity; you don't have to do it on your own.

Accordingly, the activities you'll write in this part should include writing the daily updates in your gratitude journal, being kinder to people, and spending time doing what you love. Finally, kindly remember that people's needs differ from each other, so if you find that you need different activities from the ones we've mentioned here, include them in your journal.

Additional Parts to Create in Your Self-Care Journal

After following the three main steps we've talked about, you can focus on more specific details. We'll give you a brief roundup of what else you can include in your journal.

Self-Care Vision Board

To fully visualize their dreams, some people need a materialistic map of their goals and how to achieve them instead of keeping their hopes imprisoned in their minds. Luckily, you can create a self-care vision board in your journal.

To do so, you can put photos of the body goals you want to achieve, the exercises you want to try, the books you want to read, and many more. This is a little bit like creating a self-care checklist, where you get motivated to work on each step.

Doing this will motivate you further, as you'll see your board every time you open your journal. As a result, you'll be compelled to achieve your set goals so that you can put new ones on a new page.

Artistic Page

If you like doodling and drawing, you can specify a part in your self-care journal to do so. This acts as an outlet for your negative emotions, stress, and fear. As a result, it'll have a positive effect on your mental health. Not to mention, you'll create visually pleasing art pieces that’ll boost your mood whenever you look at them.

In addition, drawing every once in a while in your journal can resemble a meditation exercise. This is because you get to only focus on the task at hand and forget about anything else that's bothering you.

Happy Page

When you're feeling down, you're often desperate for any flicker of happiness that can shift your mood. Well, you can create a happy page in your self-care journal for this reason.

Then, afterward, only write on it things that make you smile. For example, you can write nice words that someone said to you the other day, or you can write the name of a song that makes you dance. Whenever you open this page, you'll be compelled to smile. As a result, your mood will lift a little bit.

Gratitude Log

If you don’t want to include gratitude in the soul part of the journal, you can create a different log for it. You can even make it a weekly habit to list the things you're grateful for. For example, you can write a good grade that you got on an exam, or write about meeting an old friend by coincidence.

Writing those details down will help cement them in your mind. Moreover, if you're feeling down, you'll get enlightened with the fact that there are things to be grateful for in life. As a result, you'll train your mind to focus on the positives before the negatives.

However, we also recommend that you keep a separate gratitude journal. It'll give you more space to sense this positive emotion, and you won't be distracted by other parts within the journal.

Self-Forgiveness Page

If you often have a hard time forgiving yourself, you should specify a page for self-forgiveness in your journal. You can collect many acceptance quotes and statements, along with positive affirmations, and list them on this page. Then, you can read those and self-reflect on your behaviours and mistakes whenever you go through a challenging situation.

In addition, you can list the mistakes you've made so that you'll remember and try to avoid them the next time. This will give you a reality check and keep you in touch with your emotions and, therefore, will improve your self-honesty.

Mood Tracker

While this part benefits many people, it's essential for those who suffer from mental health issues. Some psychiatrists even recommend that their patients keep a mood tracker journal. However, if you want to make it a part of your self-care journal, we'll tell you what to do.

For starters, you can list the days of the month on your pages. Next, you can add a key for each mood you want to track, whether it's a color or a shape. For example, if you're using colors, you can specify red for anger and blue for calm. Afterward, fill in your mood on each day of the month.

Brain Declutter

Since we always have so much on our minds, it never harms to declutter our brains every once in a while. The right way to do this is to empty all of your thoughts on paper, whether they're negative or positive. Some people keep a separate brain dump journal, but it's also efficient to keep a brain dump part in your self-care journal.

This activity will help clear your mind so that you can focus on the important aspects of life instead of fretting over small details. You'll be surprised at how much writing heals the mind and keeps it focused and clear.

Exercise Tracker

If you want to maintain a healthy lifestyle by exercising, you can create an exercise tracker in your self-care journal. This will benefit both your body and mind, and writing the details down will help you keep track of your progress. Moreover, the tracker will motivate you to commit to your workouts and healthy habits.

You can also add a part regarding your diet, where you write different recipes and meal ideas. Over time, you'll notice that you have a regular self-care routine, and believe us, you'll see the difference!

To Wrap Up

Among the many self-care ideas that people have come up with, self-care journals are one of the best. They help both your physical and mental health, and they help you keep track of your daily progress in different life fields. To create a self-care journal, you should first self-reflect and determine what your body, mind, and soul need.

You can also create additional parts in your journal like a vision board, a gratitude log, or a mood tracker to further enhance your experience. 

Now that you know enough about creating self-care journals, you can go ahead and see for yourself!