“Every human being is the author of his own health or disease. ~Buddha
Starting and sticking to a daily pen to page Journaling Practice helps us work our way to physical health and wellness. It takes healthcare responsibility out of the hands of the traditional medical profession and big Pharma and returns it to its rightful owner: YOU!
I started Journaling for purely physical therapy reasons: to teach myself how to write with my left hand when I lost feeling and function on the right side of my body due to a Multiple Sclerosis (MS) flare-up. By using Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages method (3 pages of stream of consciousness handwriting first thing every morning), I began reconnecting my body to my brain and started creating an intimate, long-term relationship with my somatic Self. Yes, I no longer kept my body at arm’s length.
If we choose to get healthy and stay that way, we have to spend a lot of time exploring, questioning and understanding our repressed feelings and out-of-date hypercritical thoughts and release them. The simplest ways to do this is through daily journal writing therapy. It’s free! and it’s available to us 24 hours a day. The most challenging part is getting started. The last thing we think of when we have bodily pain and agony is our journal because we are so experienced in habitually berating our body for letting us down yet again, and automatically reaching for the pill bottle and/or our doctor’s telephone number. But with daily “exercising our writes”, we can change that and move further down the road to optimal health.
Here are 3 easy ways to start reclaiming ownership of your body. Start a new personal journal and label it HEALTH, then:
1. Have a daily conversation with your body through the pages of your journal. Ask it lots and lots of questions and write down its responses. Starting with your head and going down to your toes, check in with individual parts of your body. Identify any sensations as specifically as possible.
Now ask, what improvement would you like to see in your body’s health today?
If you could sum up what your body is trying to tell you right now in one sentence, what would it be?
2. Continue this conversation with your body every day for a week. Then read over your journal. On a fresh page, consider the following:
Are there physical patterns you notice in your conversations?
Are you consistently hearing the same message(s) from your body?
What are the emotional patterns to your conversations?
If you could sum up what your body has been saying to you over the past week in one sentence, what would that sentence be?
What improvement would you like to see in your body’s health in the upcoming week? Set goals, make an action plan.
3. Use your Journal to keep track of bodily messages. It will help you decide when you need an outside health resource. You can summarize your experiences and take your Journal with you when you meet with your healthcare partners.
After awhile, you will look back on your experience with great awe and respect, knowing that by getting up close and personal with your body, you are well on your way to becoming your own primary care provider.
Thanks to my Journal’s guidance and adult supervision, I’ve become my own primary care provider. I’ve been off prescription drugs for over 8 years, over-the-counter drugs for over a year, and off gluten and dairy for almost 4 years. (The dairy free part has helped my singing soar!). I’m continually discovering new healthcare partners: Chiropractor, Reiki master, Rolfing/Massage Therapist, holistic MDs….
Best of all, I’m saving almost $10,000+ a year since my Personal Journal helped me determine that currently available health insurance programs are not a good investment for me, my heath and I.
WriteON!
Here’s how you start a Journal for the Health of It™
Join our Start Journaling and Change Your Life in 7 Days Challenge that begins next Monday, June 4!
Leave Comment