Well-being journal for teachers and teens

Well-being should be a top priority for teachers and students. I was trying to explain to a non-teacher friend of mine recently, how the school environment is very pressured in this day and age. Everyone is feeling it, both staff and students. Not to mention the number of teachers fleeing from the profession and the number of students dealing with mental health issues as a result of stress, are also on the rise. Something has to be done. If you are a regular reader of this blog, follow me on Instagram or listen to my podcast, you'll know it is my mission to support the well-being of students and staff every day. So, in time for a brand new year I have designed a well-being journal!

It's all too easy for us and our students to allow our own self-care go on the back burner, therefore it's crucial that we take care of our well-being as it affects the way we feel and think, the way we cope with life's challenges and how we can make the most of our potential.

If we neglect to make an effort to take care of our well-being we can find ourselves stressed, jaded, unfulfilled or feeling trapped.

It can be hard to find the time or know what to do to look after our well-being, so what I have created is a
​well-being journal ideal for teachers and teenagers! We need to set and track positive habits to ensure we’re being intentional and consistent, reflect on our day and show gratitude for the good things we have in our lives.

After getting overwhelmed with life as a teacher, I started to set and track my progress in habits I wanted to create, as well as journaling. It has been essential in helping me form good habits and take care of my emotional state too. By recording my journey, I have been able to spot patterns in my mood over the course of a year and I’m now able to plan ahead, manage my life effectively and look after my well-being. With this journal, you and your students can have that same control and emotional freedom!

As I wanted to share what I have discovered with you, I created a unique mindfulness colouring well-being journal for you as I want to help you and your students de-stress, achieve positive habits and nurture your well-being!

Firstly let's look at all you get with your journal:
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• 70 pages
• Every page is hand rendered in zentangle style for mindful colouring
• Monthly journal pages for brief journaling
• Weekly journal pages for brief journaling
• Daily journal pages, both with prompts and plain for more detailed journaling
• Prompts encourage you to focus on achievement, self-care and future thoughts
• Daily tracker with 4 point system to monitor and review well-being each day
• Monthly gratitude jar keepsake to record daily joys
• 12 different zentangle themes for each month to add variety
• 4 different types of trackers: mood, sleep, exercise and one for your own habits​

Writing engages both the left and right side of the brain, enhancing problem solving capabilities. When you journal, you're writing down your thoughts and feelings to help understand them more clearly. This can be really helpful if you find you or your students are struggling with stress, depression or anxiety as journaling helps you gain control of emotions and improve mental health. 

This gratitude jar is one of my favourite pages! You can print of 12 pages of these, one for every month, and you can record something you're grateful for each day of that month or even a great memory that you want to treasure! We all know how quickly we forget the little joys that happen on a daily basis, but by recording them in this unique and simple way, we can continue to relive them over and over again, thus experiencing the same joy! Hello well-being!

If you want to read more about the benefits of gratitude and how we can support our students more with this process, then check out these posts on 5 reasons we should be teaching gratitude in school and 5 ways to teach gratitude in the classroom. I've also got something special for us teachers on this topic too, so check out the
​Teach On, Teach Strong Podcast episode called gratitude turns what you already have into enough!

The next important step in self-care is getting into good habits; your habits will determine your success after all! I recorded a podcast episode on this too that will really help you out with this, so be sure to listen to habits for a healthier teacher life for more free tips! These visually appealing trackers will really help keep you focused and ensure you're taking the right steps to move you forward to a healthier and happier life!

I'm also really passionate about this mood tracker! It's an excellent starting point for you or your students to begin focusing on your well-being. The mood tracker is really simple to use and incredibly effective! Simply shade in your mood on each day throughout the year and gain a powerful overview of how you often feel and identify whether there are any common patterns.

This mood tracker accompanies the written aspect of the complete well-being journal brilliantly, as you can explain and reflect on specific days while still gaining an overview of the year and start recording patterns over time enabling you to plan for common difficult periods. You can download this for free here!

This well-being journal can support you in every area of your life. The idea is that when you put your self-care first, you're not being selfish, you're trying to be a better person to enable you to serve others better and make the world a better place. You can't pour from an empty cup after all!

Here are some of the key benefits you will gain from this journal:

• It’s so easy to get caught up in day to day life that your well-being falls by the wayside but having somewhere to record your thoughts, feelings, memories and emotions puts these in the forefront of your mind ensuring you focus on them.
• Journaling has been proven to reduce physical disease symptoms and anxiety, enhance self-esteem and increase self-awareness.
• It can improve your self love and help you become really in tune with your own thoughts and emotions.
• Writing engages both the left and right side of the brain, enhancing problem solving capabilities.
• When you journal, you can go back and identify patterns to help you in the future as well as identify areas of personal growth to help you celebrate your successes.
• Overall, promotes well-being by allowing you to monitor your mental, physical and emotional wellness.

Click here to download the well-being journal from TpT ($) and click here to download it from this site (£).

So make this your best year ever and focus on you for a change with this well-being journal for students and teachers!