If you read ‘ideas for journaling’ you might be thinking of that time in 5th grade when you kept a diary.
Journaling as an adult is slightly different than it was back when we were children, dreaming and growing ourselves through a Lisa Frank diary.
Now, as adults we don’t have to keep a cheap lock securely attached to keep prying brother’s eyes out. Also, we can really use this process to help ourselves grow and evolve into being the best version of ourselves.
Start One of These Ideas For Journaling… Today!!
Journaling as a kid was more helpful than you may have even realized. It gave you time to reflect, get your thoughts and feelings out of your mind so you could begin to process them. You know, the boy you had a crush on or how it felt getting left out of the school talent show (didn’t that happen to everyone?).
As an adult, or to be more specific through motherhood, I have found the process of journaling to be the missing piece of the puzzle. I started with prayer journaling but have continued to grow into other types of journaling and understanding the power reflection can have in all aspects of my life.
As a result, here are a few journaling ideas for beginners to help get you started!
4 Ideas For Journaling
Gratitude Journaling
If you could use a mindset shift, I highly suggest you start gratitude journaling right away. Every day I want you to write out a list of 3-5 things you are grateful for from that day specifically. It is really easy to express gratitude in the general sense- “I’m thankful for my health, a house, my marriage”.
But I want to challenge you to express gratitude every day, specific to that day. And before you tell me you don’t think you can come up with something every day, just stop. That is a perfect example of why the first sentence of this section I mentioned you should start doing this exercise everyday 😊
Keep it simple and keep it honest. Even if that day you are thankful because you remembered your umbrella that is totally fine! Celebrate it, write it down and better yet take gratitude journaling to the dinner table or the school drop off line. Once you get the hang of expressing gratitude, bring it to your household and include them in this process each day, sharing one gratitude with each other.
This is the simplest type of all the journaling ideas for beginners that I’ll share with you today. Which means you can get started with it right away!
You can choose to gratitude journal by itself or pair it up with another one of my ideas for journaling I’ve list below!
Overwhelmed (or Stressed) Journaling
If you find you are in a season of life with a lot going on or feel more stressed than you would like to be, then of all the ideas for journaling that I’m covering today, this one is designed specifically for you!
As I mentioned above, journaling is a great process because it gives us time to reflect. Unfortunately, reflection is not something many of us take the time to do anymore. Between work, marriage, kids, life etc., any downtime in your day is often spent in front of the TV or scrolling through social media.
Instead, I want you to grab your journal (or any blank piece of paper will help get you started) and you have two options to get started:
Option 1: Just start writing and let it all out.
Option 2: Think through these questions to help guide your writing
-How am I feeling right now?
-Do I know why I am feeling like this? Am I really being honest with why I am feeling this way?
Time for action: After you have written, you need to take some sort of action to remove yourself from the stresses that you just laid out on the paper. Here are 3 actions I highly suggest after you journal about stress or overwhelm
- Get up and move. Go for a walk, chase your kids or take an extra trip upstairs to empty the laundry-doesn’t matter what it is as long as you are moving!
- Express gratitude. No better way to transition away from your stress and overwhelm than to focus on what you are grateful for!
- Listen to music!
Goal Journaling
If you have goals or better yet, if don’t this is a great process to help you make some, goal journaling can help you get to your goals even faster!
I suggest grounding yourself in your goals each day by writing them out in the morning. At the end of the day, I like to pull the list out and spend a few minutes reflecting. You may write your reflection or just process but it is important to assess if you are still on the right track.
Depending on the size of your goal it may be hard to see progress every day and that can feel frustrating or like a waste of time but trust me when I say you need to stick with it. Assessing your process each day is what will help you achieve those goals!
Goal Journaling Example
For instance, if your goal is to drink more water reminding yourself of this goal in the morning will help you be set up for success like remember to grab your water bottle or grab an extra cup before you even leave for work. In the evening, you can reflect back through your journal process and see if you accomplished your goals. If you didn’t use this time to ask yourself why not?
Now water intake might feel silly but I’m just going to throw this out there, it is a lot harder than you think. And, success is built in these small everyday decisions so if you struggle with setting goals and following through, take increasing your water consumption as your first goal and write that at the top of your journal page today.
Never underestimate the fact that “success breeds success”. Best way to finally achieve your goal for climbing that mountain? Start with daily, achievable goals and show yourself how capable you are at conquering the goals you set.
Prayer Journaling
Prayer journaling was the window that opened up this entire world of journaling, reflecting and personal development for me! I picked up an empty journal shortly after having my second child and haven’t stopped. Talk about a period of overwhelm; chasing a toddler and a newborn around all day!
Through this journey, prayer journaling became a way that I could spend a few minutes of quite time, collect my thoughts and connect with God. You can learn more about how to start a prayer journal over on my post prayer journaling ideas for beginners.
Pick a verse, grab a daily devotion book to follow along, pick lyrics from a hymn or just turn to a blank page and start writing to God. It is pretty incredible what comes out and how you can turn your entire day back into the right direction after investing a few minutes doing this.
Time To Get Started With 1 of These Ideas For Journaling!
To be honest, the journaling ideas for beginners that I’ve shared with you today have all started to bleed into one another for me. However, it all started with prayer journaling, then I added my daily gratitude’s’ and before I knew it, I was setting new goals for myself. Having new goals pushed me outside of my comfort zone so naturally that led me to writing out a few daily affirmations on my journal page.
I don’t want you to bite off more than you can chew so you want to start with 1 of the above ideas for journaling first. You can pair it with gratitude journaling, but otherwise I encourage you to not bring in another one of these ideas for journaling until after you feel like you have a solid, and consistent, routine with your daily journaling.
Consistency is the key to this whole thing and if you need help finding time in your day for journaling, learn how you can find “me time” each day, despite having two small kids and a busy career, and you can too!
For even more helpful tips on how to make your life that much better, make sure and join myweekly email, Someday Sunday: Steps to making your someday become your life of today!
