Journaling – For Sanity and Self Growth

I have recently started practicing journaling and It has been a saving grace to my mental health, mindset, and personal growth. I am confident that journaling can do the same for you. Being a stay-at-home mother to a toddler, as well as an aspiring entrepreneur, is challenging (and therapists are expensive but journaling is free!) and we can use all the help we can get. Even better if it’s from ourselves.

Journaling is an age-old practice valued by esteemed scientists, leaders, and artists alike (and not to be confused with your high school diary that saw as little action as you did).

This is a potentially life-changing practice that you can implement today – no prior experience necessary. Start changing your life today.

What are the benefits of journaling?

It is impossible to mention all the ways that journaling can benefit your life. Scientists are becoming more intrigued by the number of mental and physical health benefits that have been reported. These are the main areas where you can expect to see improvement by using this extremely powerful life tool.

• You will experience a lift in your mood
• It will help you clarify your thoughts and feelings
• Journaling assists in stress management
• It helps to remove mental blocks
• Improves your problem-solving skills
• You will get to know yourself better
• Have a stronger immune system
• Improved breathing
• It can lead to lower blood pressure
• Improved sleep
• Offers you a record of your thoughts over time
• It’s a great form of self-care that happens to be free.

Is journaling good for mental health?

Journaling is potentially life-altering for anyone struggling with mental health issues – permanently or just temporarily. If you ask the right questions you could potentially unearth deep-rooted issues that can help you heal and improve your life.

How does journaling help personal growth?

Every great mind in history has journaled in one way or another. This is such an integral part of sharpening your mind and helping you get what you want and go where you need to go.

Journaling will help you focus on your goals and not get distracted by everything else.

By zooming into the areas where you want to see improvement or achieve mastery you will inadvertently pay less attention to things that are not helping you get there. You can easily achieve your goals once you are clear about what they are and what steps you need to implement to help you achieve them. This is exactly what journaling can help you do.

There are several vision exercises you can start with to help you clarify your REAL dreams and desires. Not the ones you think you should have.

More time spent on reflection can reveal where you’ve gone wrong which will help you learn from your mistakes.

The only way we can succeed at anything is through failure. We have to accept it as part of our journey and see the value in it. This is how we grow and learn. Journaling is the best way to explore this.

I recently did a reflection exercise where I looked at how my mindset has changed in the last five years and discovered things I had never recognized before. How much time would you have to spend taking with a therapist to unearth these findings? It took me less than 15 minutes of writing to learn something about myself that will inform all my future actions.

Journaling will help you keep track of your progress which can be a great form of motivation.

If you are on the journey to self-improvement you will realize that it can be a lonely road and you need all the motivation you can get. We are also more likely to stick to new habits and routines when we track our progress.

Mental health and toughness are vital for success.

If you want to be a successful entrepreneur/parent/partner – the state of your mental health is paramount. It is the foundation of any form of success. Journaling helps relieve anxiety and helps you keep a positive outlook on your life. Who doesn’t need this?

How do you start journaling?

Forget about any rules. Just start with putting words on paper. If you don’t know where to start, use some journal prompts to get the ball rolling. It might take a couple of days to get into it depending on your current state but eventually, you will find it easy and enjoyable. I look forward to it and I have never been someone who enjoyed writing about my feelings or keeping any type of diary.

Here are the steps I suggest you take if you are stuck.

1. Decide on your medium – Pen & paper or digital? I feel that there is something special and therapeutic about physically writing words on paper but you need to do what you enjoy otherwise you won’t form the habit.
2. Carve out some time in your day when you will be undisturbed for a couple of minutes and not rushed for time. I try to get in bed a couple of minutes earlier than I used to – it helps to journal when you are relaxed and it also helps to empty your brain at night. You could also do this in the morning if this is your calm time (probably unlikely if you are a parent) or during your child’s nap time. Whenever! Just decide when you are going to journal and keep to it.
3. Decide what your predominant goal is for journaling – is it for self-improvement, self-discovery, improved mental health, improved creativity, problem-solving, and stress management? Whatever you decide – there are some journal prompts that can help you start down the right road.
4. Print out some journal prompts and keep them in your journal.

Journal ideas & prompts

There are so many different reasons for journaling and there are a million different ways of journaling. If you are doing it for the sake of sanity and self-growth, like me, I would suggest starting with one of these exercises.

It is also worth mentioning that I recently completed the Artist’s Way course where I started writing Morning pages

The Weeding exercise

The purpose of the weeding exercise is to find a solution to an old problem.

1. You start by writing down a stubborn or re-occurring problem that you have. Write it down in one sentence (write it in an objective way)
2. Write about what the implications are in your life (subjective).
3. Now just write everything and anything that comes up when you start thinking about this topic. This might take several days or it might take a couple of minutes.

When you go back and read your words your solution is usually somewhere in your writing.

The Anti-vision exercise

This might sound depressing, but it is in fact very motivating. Believe it or not, we are more motivated by loss than by gain. If I say you have to pay me $100 if you miss the gym you will be more likely to go than if I said I would pay you $100 to go to the gym. Thinking about what is at stake if you don’t follow your dreams hits hard and puts things into perspective.

Write down the worst vision of your life. The things you least want and are most afraid of becoming. Get very specific by painting a picture that makes you feel strong emotions.

When you are done going down the dark road of what could be, write down all the ways you can avoid that nightmare of a future. What actions can you take to help you avoid becoming that worst version of yourself?

Reflection and Intention exercise

This is also great for the end/beginning of the year or at the beginning of the month or week.

Start by reflecting on the past year/month/week.

• What did I enjoy about the last year/month/week?
• What did I achieve that I’m proud of?
• Where can I improve?
• What did I learn?

Then set your intentions for the next year/month/week.

• What do I want to see happen?
• How do I want to feel about myself, my finances, my family, my health, etc.?
• What is my intention for the next year/month/week in ONE word?

You can come up with your own questions that are more specific. These are just jumping-off points to help you understand the purpose of reflection/intention.

Journaling prompts for personal development & goal setting

I found that asking yourself interesting questions was the best way to start journaling. Here are a couple of questions you can ask yourself with different goals in mind. Start with a question or two at a time. You can even do these on a yearly basis.

Download all 67 questions here

1. What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?
2. What is your dream life?
3. What advice would you give to someone in your situation?
4. What has been your biggest lesson in the last year?
5. How can you achieve your 5-year plan in 5 months?
6. If you had all the time and money in the world, what would you do?
7. What’s your biggest problem? How can you solve it?
8. What change do you want to make?
9. What are you afraid of?
10. What three things are you most proud of?
11. What has been the biggest lesson you’ve learned in the past week?
12. What has been the biggest lesson you’ve learned in the past month?
13. What has been the biggest lesson you’ve learned in the past year?
14. What do you believe that no one else does?
15. What makes you most excited?
16. What does your dream day look like?
17. What one thing could you stop doing that would completely change your life?
18. What one thing could you start doing that would completely change your life?
19. How do your close friends view you?
20. How do you want them to view you?
21. Who are you comparing yourself to?
22. If nothing changed, what would your life look like in 10 years?
23. Are you happy with how that life looks?
24. What characteristics do you wish you had?
25. How can you get those characteristics?
26. In under 100 words, what is your purpose?
27. What was your best investment last month?
28. When do you feel most yourself?
29. When do you feel least yourself?
30. What makes you happy?
31. What are the 20% of tasks that give you 80% benefits?
32. How could you get paid to do what you love?
33. If you could only share one message with the world, what would it be?
34. What is something you’d love to learn?
35. If you achieved all of your life goals, how would you feel?
36. Where could I add more fun to my life?
37. Where do I need some help?
38. Where is fear holding me back?
39. Who are my role models?
40. What are the five or fewer things that I must do before I die?
41. What is stopping me from being completely satisfied with what I already have?
42. What is the purpose of my life?
43. What’s one thing you can do today that will make tomorrow easier
44. Write down all your goals for the next month, year, and 5 years.
45. How can you simplify your life?
46. How do you plan your days? Is it working for you?
47. What’s the biggest thing you’ve ever overcome, and what are some ways you dealt with it? Were they successful?
48. What do you look forward to most in the future?
49. Identify one area where you’d like to improve. Then, list three specific actions you can take to create that change.
50. How do you make time for yourself each day?
51. What do you most want to accomplish in life?
52. List three obstacles lying in the way of your contentment or happiness. Then, list two potential solutions to begin overcoming each obstacle.
53. What parts of life surprised you most? What turned out the way you expected it would?
54. How do you show yourself kindness and compassion each day?
55. Describe two or three things you do to relax.
56. What three ordinary things bring you the most joy?
57. What do you fear most? Have your fears changed throughout life?
58. What are three things that can instantly disrupt a good mood and bring you down? What strategies do you use to counter these effects?
59. What difficult thoughts or emotions come up most frequently for you?
60. What do you appreciate most about your personality? What aspects do you find harder to accept?
61. What do you know to be true today that I didn’t know a year ago?
62. What distractions are hindering your productivity? How can you reduce them?
63. Write down your top 10 goals to complete by the end of the year.
64. If today was your last day, what would you do?
65. How can you take better care of yourself?
66. What’s your dream job?
67. What do you need more of in your life?