How to Journal: The 5 Best Journaling Practices

Are you ready to start a journaling practice? Maybe you’ve been considering journaling for a while but you haven’t put that pen to paper yet. Or maybe you’re a seasoned journaling pro and are just looking for tips to get back in the swing of things. In this blog post, you will not only receive a guide on how to journal you will also receive the 5 best journaling practices and handy tips for making journaling a regular habit of yours.

Start your journaling practice now!

The benefits of journaling can certainly entice you to incorporate the practice of journaling into your life. You don’t have to journal daily to reap the said benefits of journaling. But, remaining consistent with your journaling practice throughout the years of your life is 👌🏼👌🏼.

Why Journaling is good for you:

• Alleviates your stress levels
• A way to take care of yourself
• Helps you organise your brain/thoughts
• A tool for self-discovery
• Helps you manifest your dream life
• Improves your mental health
• It helps you feel more organised and prepared which can make you more successful

Are you ready to start your journaling practice but wondering how to journal?

Journaling is intended to be private and a comforting and supportive practice to write how you feel, what you are thinking and your biggest desires and wildest dreams! A journaling practice is one of the most incredible ways to get to know yourself more.

Lastly, your journaling practice can be unguided or in guided journals. Both are great tools!

The Best Tips for How to Journal:

• Buy a journal
• Set your atmosphere. Romanticize your room with candles, incense and anything that makes you feel those comforting vibes
• Put your pen to paper. Start writing. You don’t have to think about how long to journal for or how your journaling practice will turn out. Just start writing what you feel most inspired to write about
• Be the observer of your thoughts as you write in your journal
• Let journaling help you and be there for you

The practice of journaling has truly supported me in gaining clarity on what I want out of my life and the action I need to take to make it happen.

Sometimes, it takes time to figure out what you want. It sure took me a few years to figure out what I wanted out of my life. It’s also beautiful because what you want now might not be all that you want in a couple of years from now. But, some things that you want and know will come true are for certain./ sure.

Overall, a consistent journaling practice can be one of the perfect tools to help you discover and decide what you want.

Dream life journaling prompts to get you started:

• What would I like to have more time, energy and resources to do? 
• What are my core values?
• What have I always wanted to do?
• What limiting beliefs am I not taking forward with me in this next chapter of my life?
• If the answer was yes and I had all the money & resources to do what I wanted to do, what would I do?

👩🏼‍💻 Read more Journaling Prompts For Intentionally Creating Your Dream Life

Practicing gratitude is a fabulous way to practice journaling.

You can combine practising gratitude in your journal with other journaling practices. Why not do a mixture of these five journaling practices in your journaling session?

Start by writing down what you are grateful for. By focusing on all that’s already in your life and the good, this can allow you to attract more of the good & abundance.

For example, if you write in your journal, “I am grateful for all the overflowing money in my life.” This will allow you to focus on all the money you already have and it allows you to attract more money from a place of overflow & abundance rather than not enough and the energy of lack.

Gratitude Journaling practice:

• What are you grateful for?
• Write down all the things that are going great in your life
• Practice gratitude for all the things you don’t yet have in your life but you want. Start feeling grateful for them now. Write in your journal as if your dream and goal has already been fulfilled.

One of the most typical ways to practice journaling is to write down your thoughts. This is how my journaling practice began.

My journaling practice helped me not only create my dream life, but work through my limiting beliefs, self-sabotage and obstacles so I could get to where I want to be. And, of course, I am still using this practice today, as another layer

Practising the journaling habit of writing down your thoughts and feelings can help you work through your fears and break through old stories that don’t serve your dreams.

Journaling your thoughts and feelings can help you:

• Realise and overcome your limiting beliefs. From here, choose differently and take new actions that are in alignment with your dreams & the life you want to have
• Create breakthroughs in your life!
• Think through your life. Organise your brain. and thus organise your life and feel more organise & prepared
• Discover yourself. Use your journaling practice as a tool for self-reflection and to go within. Get to know yourself- your thoughts, your feelings, what you like and what you don’t like, discover your Ikigai and what you want out of your life!

Lastly, when you are using this journaling practice, please allow yourself to express yourself without judgement, constraints and limitations.

How to journal can be as simple as setting your goals and building an action plan to make them come true.

I’m mostly a pen-to-paper girl. I love the feeling of satisfaction I get when I’m writing my goals in my journal or planner.

Use this journaling practice to write down your goals for each quarter and for the whole year. You will be surprised about how much can change in one year if you stick to your goals and see them through.

Creating goals and an action plan to achieve your goals journaling practice:

• Dream up your biggest and your most “woah, it really happened year.” Think big for your year. Set your goals for this year and break them down into quarterly goals. Now that you’ve set your yearly goals, envision into your future and see where you would like to be in 3,5, 6 and 10 years from now. What do you want in your life and to have achieved?
• Set goals that are in alignment with your highest self, your values and the kind of life that YOU want to live.
• Work backwards to accomplish your goals. What are all the steps to take to get you from point A ( where you are right now) to achieving your goal- point B = your action plan. 🎊

⭐️ Read How to Achieve Your Goals

Are you on your personal development journey and ready to uplevel your confidence, self worth and feel more empowered to live your life the way you want to?

Use this journaling practice of affirming positive affirmations in your journal. Positive affirmations don’t only make you feel better, but they can help you shape your beliefs and feelings about yourself and your life into reality.

Have you ever heard the saying act as if?

When we start telling ourselves and feeling something about ourselves for long enough, we start to believe it and then transform our reality to mirror that belief. It goes for a disempowering belief or an empowering belief.

What would you like to believe about life and experience?

To sum it up, affirm positive affirmations about yourself and life that help you be your higher self and become the version of yourself that you want to be.

Live in alignment with your positive affirmations by taking aligned action that supports this belief.

Positive affirmations to pop in your journal to get you started:

• I am enough
• I can have what I want
• I believe in myself
• There is plenty for us all to go around
• I love and accept myself

You know how to journal. Now, let’s help you make journaling a regular habit that sticks.

The best tips to form a consistent journaling practice:

• At the start, journal at a specific time. For example in the mornings or in the evenings before you go to sleep
• Fit in journaling wherever you can. On the plane, during your public transport commute and even during your break from work
• Make journaling an enjoyable practice. Set your scene with music, vibes, an intention, burn incense and candles
• Keep it simple
• Use a guided journal
• Let yourself write with no pressure

This guide has taught you how to journal! I truly hope that this blog post has inspired you to form a journaling practice to eleveate and support you in being and bevoming the absolute best version of yourself and to live a more happy and fulfilling life your way each day!

If you have any questions, blog post requests or kind comments please comment them below. Additionally, you can contact me via my email.   

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Author: Lana

Welcome! Lana is the founder of Living Her Way. She's passionate about all things Travel and Self-Empowerment. Lana's mission is to inspire you to live a more happy and fulfilling life your way each day.