Health & Genes: Encourage Health-Related Discussions
What health-related experiences or advice may help your family? Health is often shared between family members through genes or similar lifestyles, making your experiences particularly relevant to younger generations.
Explore these health and genetics ideas to encourage your family to discuss health challenges and share best practices for a balanced life.
Health Advice
What advice would you offer someone with health concerns?
- What health setbacks have you experienced and what did you learn?
- Have you made any changes to your lifestyle or habits to improve your health?
- Are there are treatments or therapies that you would recommend?
- Some people are reluctant to recognise symptoms and go to the doctor. Do you have any advice or have you regretted this yourself in the past?
Health & Fitness Evolution
How has your fitness or health progressed over the years?
- How healthy and fit were you in your youth?
- When did you reach your physical peak and what activities were you doing then?
- How has getting older affected your health and fitness?
Inheritable Illnesses
In your family, are there any inheritable illnesses of note?
Health Symptoms
Are there health symptoms that future generations should look out for?
- What symptoms have you experienced that others may one day?
- If you don’t wish to talk about inheritable illnesses, highlighting health symptoms to get checked out is a good alternative.
Health Setbacks
What health-related setbacks have you faced?
- What have been your greatest health challenges?
- Did you learn anything from the experience?
- Were there symptoms prior to the onset?
- How did you recover?
- Has it had any lasting impact on you physically or on your health habits?
- What recommendations would you make for someone with the same health issue?
Who Takes After Who
Who takes after who in your family?
- Perhaps a physical trait, like their eyes, ears or height.
- Perhaps it’s in their passions and interests.
- Perhaps it’s their outlook on life.
Showcase Similarities
Do you have photos of different family members, clearly showing their similarities?
- Do you have old photos of ancestors at the age of current family members?
- Do you see any similarities?
- Showing the youth in your family that they look similar to their ancestors can be quite an impactful experience.
Fitness Benchmarks
How would you benchmark your fitness today, for future comparison?
- What does a workout look like for you today?
- How often do you work out?
- By tracking what you can do today, you can see how your performance changes over time.
- By sharing your workouts with family, they can benchmark themselves against you. Imagine having a rough idea of your ancestor’s health at your age – you can offer this to future family.
Health Lessons
What health lessons have you learned?
- What tips and tricks have you learned?
- Have you learned by making health-related mistakes?
- If you could go back in time and give yourself health advice, what would it be?
Wellbeing Advice
What advice do you have for being mentally healthy?
- How do you try to keep a positive and healthy mindset?
- Have you had any mental health setbacks in the past?
- What caused them and how did you overcome them?
Health Challenge
Is there a health-related challenge you would like to set your family?
- Is there a health-related challenge that you could set for your family? Perhaps everyone, or just a select few.
- Can your family commit to a weekly walk or trip to the swimming pool?
- Will your family try meat-free Mondays or try out some other change in their weekly diet?
- Perhaps the famous 100 pushup challenge?
- Or the 30-day plank challenge?
- Can you inspire everyone to walk 1,000 miles in a year?
View the Ultimate Guide with 70 journal questions that will bring back a flood of family stories and memories!
Your family’s past, present & future—woven together in Simirity
Health and Genes Journal Ideas FAQ’s
What is ‘health and genes’ referring to?
‘Health and genes’ refers to the connection between genetics and your overall well-being. It is important to comprehend how your genetic composition impacts your health and vulnerability to various diseases and conditions. Your genes play a crucial role in deciding traits such as susceptibility to particular diseases, metabolism, physical characteristics, and reactions to medications. Talking about these topics with your parents can help you through your own health experiences and ensure you lead a full and healthy life.
What are ‘journal ideas’ about?
Sometimes it can be hard to get started writing a story. ‘Journal ideas’ help by providing creative ideas as inspiration. Simirity’s journal ideas have been designed to ignite discussions in your family and inspire you to ask questions about your family’s past.
How can I use journal ideas with my family?
These journal ideas work in multiple ways to bring your family closer together:
- For individual reflection: Use them as personal writing prompts to capture your own memories and thoughts.
- For family conversations: Share journal ideas during family dinners, car rides, or video calls. Ask “How would you answer this one?” to spark meaningful discussions that go beyond daily small talk.
- For preserving family stories: When an idea resonates with a family member, encourage them to share their response in a way that captures it permanently.
The Simirity family journal app includes 100’s of journal ideas with features designed to make family storytelling simple and meaningful. Our Story Requests feature lets you easily share specific prompts with family members, while voice recordings and photo narrations help capture responses in the most natural way possible. Explore our demo account to see how families are transforming everyday moments into lasting memories.
