When we journal we might not immediately know what we want to write about. This is why in our RISE coaching programs we provide a guided journal to our members. It contains prompts and ideas for writing and makes journaling easy and effective.

If you’re looking to get started with journaling or need some ideas to refresh your journaling habit, here are some tips and topics from the Berkeley Wellbeing Institute to get you going.

Daily Journaling Ideas

Freewrite
Perhaps the most common journaling technique is called freewriting. When you freewrite, you just write about whatever comes to your mind. Try to keep writing even when your mind wanders off, and don't worry about grammar, spelling, or a storyline. Freewriting may be a good technique to use when doing a daily journal, at least to get the thoughts flowing and overcome the inertia of the blank page.

Write down affirmations
More relatively easy things to write in your journal are daily affirmations. Affirmations are positive...

The American Psychological Association defines mindfulness as awareness of one’s internal states and surroundings. Mindfulness can help people avoid destructive or automatic habits and responses by learning to observe their thoughts, emotions, and other present-moment experiences without judging or reacting to them.

One of the ways to practice mindfulness is by journaling. Aside from being easy to implement, it has many benefits to our health. Positivepsychology.com cites the following reasons:

1. Journaling for Anxiety
Journaling has proven popular and effective for treating clients experiencing anxiety, possibly because of an improved acceptance of negative emotions and a more helpful emotional response to stress.

2. Journaling for Depression
Research suggests that expressive writing and gratitude journaling can reduce symptoms of depression, providing an effective intervention for clients receiving treatment in therapy.

3. Journaling for Stress Management
Journaling can...

The past two weeks we shared an article series about habits that will help you live a better and happier life. We’re wrapping it up with a list of habits that you can do on a regular basis. Let’s begin. 

Give back
If you find that giving daily compliments provides a needed boost to your mood, consider making a monthly routine of giving back on a larger scale. Maybe that’s helping out at a food bank on the third weekend of every month or offering to watch your friend’s kids one night per month.

Take yourself out
No one to go out with? Well, what rule says you can’t go out alone? Consider going to your favorite restaurant, taking in a movie, or going on that trip you’ve always dreamed of. Even if you’re a social butterfly, spending some deliberate time alone can help you reconnect with the activities that truly make you happy.

Create a thought list
You arrive for an appointment with 10 minutes to spare. What do you do with that...

Here’s part two of the article on habits to help you live a happier life. Part one talked about daily habits you can start working on. You can read it here.

Declutter
Decluttering sounds like a big project, but setting aside just 20 minutes a week can have a big impact. What can you do in 20 minutes? Lots.

Set a timer on your phone and take 15 minutes to tidy up a specific area of one room — say, your closet or that out-of-control junk drawer. Put everything in its place and toss or give away any extra clutter that’s not serving you anymore. Keep a designated box for giveaways to make things a little easier (and avoid creating more clutter). Use the remaining 5 minutes to do a quick walk through your living space, putting away whatever stray items end up in your path. You can do this trick once a week, once a day, or anytime you feel like your space is getting out of control.

See friends
Humans are largely considered social beings, and while the research is mixed on...

When it comes to losing weight and creating better health, what you eat matters. So, too, does when you eat.

We’ve talked about how meal timing can impact weight loss. But another critical piece of weight loss that sometimes gets overlooked is mindset.

By mindset, we’re focusing on your mental attitude about health, being aware of your eating habits, and paying attention to bad habits that can sabotage your health goals.

With these 7 simple and effective strategies from Nutrition and Fitness Expert JJ Virgin, you can retrain your brain to develop a healthy mental mindset and find your healthy weight.

Even if you currently go on autopilot when you’re eating, you can retrain your brain to cultivate healthy habits and be present during meals and other activities throughout your day.

As a nice “bonus,” being mindful can help you lose weight. In one review, researchers discovered significant weight loss in 13 of 19 studies among participants who practiced...

We’ve been obsessed over the past years to learn everything we can about the science of behavior change. From all our work with the Daniel Plan and in the Corporate arena, it’s been a central focus. Why? We want to soak up the wisdom, and then impart those life-giving learnings with YOU!

Bottom line, when we find important keys to lasting change it’s a treasure to be able to share those…

...in fact it’s one of our greatest joys!

So this week we wanted to feature an excerpt from the bestselling book Atomic Habits by James Clear, as it is one of the best texts on how to transform our lives one simple step at a time. It’s been transformative for us and we know it can be for you as well.

"We all want to become better people — stronger and healthier, more creative and more skilled, a better friend or family member.

But even if we get really inspired and start doing things better, it's tough to actually stick to new behaviors. It's more...