3 Techniques to Use Journaling for Greater Clarity, Peace and Success
Getting clutter out of your head and onto paper can create miracles.
I have personally kept a journal since I was a teenager. It started as a way for me to record my travels, when I left for a ten-month trip away, after finishing my A-levels. Over the years it has served many more purposes besides.
When I became desperately unhappy in a very confusing relationship, it served as my therapy. I wrote down everything I felt; my confusion, my sadness, and my simultaneous love and anger at my significant other.
By writing things down, I could also brainstorm what I could do to change the way things were, write lists of pros and cons, and gain a sense of possibilities opening up. My heart would start to lift with those possibilities.
Penning my thoughts in this way also enabled me to birth new ideas and inspiration. Sometimes those ideas flowed so fast I could barely keep up with them.
However, this wasn’t a constant until the last three years or so, when I really started to understand the power of daily journaling. I had grown tired of it on many occasions, dropped it, and picked it back up again, only to drop it again.
Sometimes I felt that I was writing so many sad thoughts that they were holding me back. Other times I just had nothing there to write. At times like this, it seemed futile and pointless — my soul felt empty and uninspired — and I ditched the writing for viable distractions.
Then, in late 2018, I committed to writing something every single day, no matter what. I started to research different ways to journal and discovered the incredible array of journaling techniques that people had used for themselves. This included using daily prompts as well as 5-minute systematic entries to keep people on track with their fitness, diet, or any other goals.
I played with all sorts of styles and prompts and found the techniques that worked best for me.
The biggest challenge was doing it every single day without fail, but since I knew the power of simply doing a little every day, I was determined to make it happen. As James Clear says in his book Atomic Habits:
“Improving by 1 percent isn’t particularly notable — sometimes it isn’t even noticeable — but it can be far more meaningful, especially in the long run. The difference a tiny improvement can make over time is astounding. Here’s how the math works it out: if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done. Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero. What starts as a small win or a minor setback accumulates into something much more.”
With that said, before we move onto the techniques, it’s important to get the foundations right:
Begin by preparing properly
- Choose a time. Before emerging on a journaling practice, my simplest piece of advice is to find a time of day that you can dedicate to journaling every single day, even if you only have five or ten minutes.
- Choose a space. It could be that you have a sacred space in your home, such as in front of an altar or ‘cosy corner’ filled with cushions or beanbags.
- Finally, get your journal and pen(s) ready. Choose a notebook that you will use only for journaling your personal entries. It can be as plain or elaborate as you like, but make sure that it is used only for this one purpose. And then, make sure that you have a good and comfortable pen to write with.
Once you have cleared that time and the place, put your journal and pen into your sacred space and leave it there, so it will always be available to write in. This will enable you to create a regular habit of journaling faster.
Now choose from one of the techniques explained below:
1. The Brain-Dump/Free-Writing Method
This is where you simply write down everything that is in your head. It could be that you are feeling especially peeved at something or someone — get it onto paper. Or you could be feeling excited about the day ahead of you — let it all out.
Perhaps it’s the smell of the flowers filling your mind, or your cat lying in the most ridiculous position and making you laugh. Just write — no need to think first.
Most people would probably see brain-dumping and free-writing as two separate techniques but I see them as one and the same. The purpose of both of these ideas is to ditch any procrastination over what will come out of your pen and let it all out. It’s the best way to dump and it’s the best way to allow flow.
Try this method and feel the weight lift from your mind and body.
2. The Dream-Life Journaling Method
This is a lovely technique that involves writing as if you are in the future, living your dream life. You can write daily journal entries, as if they are consecutive days of your life, or you could write it as one, long descriptive piece, where you really go into detail about your life as if it’s happening right now.
A nice way in which to frame a longer description is to write a letter from your future self to your present self. This was something I learned from the amazing Sarah Prout, who has used journaling as part of her journey to manifesting a seven-figure business from nothing.
3. Questions and prompts
This can work as a form of brainstorming, or can simply help to uncover your deepest desires and feelings. When you start to uncover these, it often becomes clearer to see the path forward, out of confusion or anxiety, and into a happier, more peaceful, and more successful existence.
The questions can take any kind of theme, be it business, romance, finance, or life goals.
For some ideas, check out these 20 journaling prompts.
Journaling has helped to change the course of my life
Writing down feelings, thoughts, reflections, ideas, and aspirations enabled me to get to know who I really am. It enabled me to make true friends with myself, see my own gifts and talents, and share them with others. It enabled me to love myself for all that I am.
It helped me to easily find ways to get motivated and to stay accountable, by showing me the power of daily achievable habits and rituals. It also helped me to track milestones in my life, such as income and fitness milestones.
By recording much of the above onto paper, it has also helped me to become less anxious about the future, and more at peace with where I am right now.
Life doesn’t always have to be a struggle. But it’s up to you to choose the path you prefer.
Thanks for reading my work!
The biggest challenge can be creating a regular habit of journaling, and this is something I love to help people with. If you would like to gain access to my next free journaling challenge, then I invite you to join my mailing list to get notified of when it’s happening.
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