Have you ever written in a diary? Diaries are great tools to explore and reevaluate your emotions and thoughts. Psychologists are starting to explore the influence of writing to improve your health. For instance Dr. James Pennebaker, one of my college professor and mentor at UT, has many publications on this topic. In one study he had students write about their emotional experiences in a journal for six weeks. The results indicated that the students had better moods and improvement in their health after writing.
Putting feelings down on paper may help prevent negative emotions (I can't do it) and decrease unhealthy behaviors. Let’s start a health diary. Go out and buy a small journal and carry it with you. Write whenever you can in your journal. Make the entries as long as you want them to be. To start off do it for a week and then add on as you go. Read what you wrote after the end of each week. In December, send me an email letting me know if the journal helped in your health journey.
First entry:
Dear Journal, My health journey began… my goals are…
Additional entries:
Write about your health past, present or future. Monitor how you feel on a daily basis. Daily eating habits. Physical activity. My motivation. My inspiration. My habits. Improvement to those habits. Goals reached. Etc...
Suggested books and tips from Dr. Pennebaker Link
Articles that discusses this topic more: Psychology Today, Livestrong, Health and Age
Keep up the great work!
-Coach ACT
P.S. Great to hear from you again Dr. Pennebaker.
1 comment:
"...we have had people write for 3-5 days for 15-30 minutes a day. In other words, people can actually get benefits from writing if they write for just a small amount of time..." Dr. Pennebaker
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