You want to learn how to journal, but where do you start?

From scientists to celebrities to productivity gurus, everyone is proclaiming that journaling is a life-changer. Journaling has been proven to give you everything from improved mood to better immune function. You want to try it, but once you sit down with a notebook…

Well.

*crickets*

Why is it that with all the information that exists about the benefits, so few of us actually know how to journal?

It’s supposed to be simple, right? You just sit down and write every day.

And yet most of us have purchased a notebook, scribbled a few entries, and then left the rest of it blank – feeling a little guilty about it.  

But there is hope! There are lots of ways to journal. You just need to find the one that is right for you.

We’ve created the ultimate guide on how to journal with over 28 methods and a pdf with links to hundreds of resources so you never again have to sit at your desk, listening to the sounds of crickets chirping while you stare at a blank page.

Want to receive hundreds of resources in pdf format?  Subscribe to yourvisualjournal.com right here to download the How to Journal PDF.

How you journal should be driven by what you want to get out of it

The following is a list of 28 ways to journal, organized by the benefits each method provides. We’ve included details on how to journal in that method and the tools you will need.

Here’s how to use this list to get what you want out of journaling:

1. Decide which of these benefits you most want.

2. Click on it to skip down to learn about methods that best provide that benefit.

3. Pick a method, and test drive it for a few days.

4. If you love it….that’s great! Keep going.

5. But if you find you struggle with it, that’s okay.  Abandon that method and try something else on the list.  

There are tons of benefits to journaling, and how you journal will be driven by the benefit you want to receive. You can:

• Get to know yourself better by clarifying your thoughts and feelings.
• Release stored emotions to produce greater emotional health and happiness.
• Reduce anxiety.
• Relieve stress and get organized by working out problems on paper.
• Sharpen your memory by creating a record of your days.
• Increase your personal creativity.
• Manifest the life you want by focusing your desires.

Ready to get started? Here are 28 methods you can use to journal:

How to Journal for Self-Improvement: Get to know yourself better by clarifying your thoughts and feelings.

Self-Improvement Journaling – Method #1 – Reflective Journaling

Journaling for reflection is the simple act of letting your mind wander, and scribbling down whatever thoughts come to mind as you reflect on your day. You can do this in paragraphs or as bullets—capturing as much or as little detail as you like.

Most of the time, we move through our days so quickly that we have little time to absorb and process what happens to us. As we take time to write about different experiences and events, we can start to see larger connections. If it’s helpful, you can structure your entries by answering a series of questions:

• What happened?
• What was its impact on you?
• What did you learn?
• What are the implications?

Over time, themes will appear and you will learn what you think—and how you feel—about the events of your life.

Tools needed

A journal and a pen

Resource

• 301+ Journaling Prompts for Breathtaking Freedom and Powerful Insight

Self-Improvement Journaling – Method #2 – Goal Setting

Using a journal to record your goals can move you from intention to being where you most want to be. It helps you identify what you want, and create a written plan to get there. Identifying achievable steps and then monitoring your progress creates built-in accountability which can be wildly effective.

While you can definitely use a blank journal to set goals and break out the steps needed to reach them, there are a number of journaling systems designed exclusively to help you reach a goal in a defined time period—usually in ≈13-weeks or 100 days. Popular systems include:

• Self Journal
• The Freedom Journal
• Passion Planner
• Ignited Life Planner
• Desire Map Planner

Many of us have “bucket lists” that remain unfulfilled. But when we journal our goals and take action toward them, those lists will go from an ethereal someday to a whole lotta now.

Tools needed

A journal (pre-designed or blank) and a pen

Resources

• Why you may want to plan in a 13-week cycle
• How to journal for habit tracking
• Put a vision board in your journal

Self-Improvement Journaling – Method #3 – Write about what you learn

When we are focused on self-improvement, we consume a lot of information. Books, podcasts, courses… we are constantly learning. The challenge is that unless we take time to reflect on the knowledge we’re receiving, it can slip away without having the impact we desire.

Journaling what you are learning is more than just recording ideas. There is valuable thinking that happens as you transcribe your notes—and that process helps with memory, understanding, and application. There are many ways to journal what you are learning:

• Write entries about the books you’ve read or podcasts you’ve listened to.
• Craft a daily recap of the big thoughts from your day.
• Instead of just highlighting text in your Kindle, transcribe the quote in your journal.
• Take sketchnotes at a lecture.
• Record the personal implications of what you’ve learned and how you plan to apply it.

Journaling your learning helps you absorb the content in order to achieve the change you want.

Tools needed

A journal and a pen (or colored pencils or markers if you are sketchnoting)

Resource

• How to Sketchnote

Self-Improvement Journaling – Method #4 – Ask yourself a question

Using self-inquiry as a journaling prompt provides the opportunity for thoughtful exploration, and can deepen your insight into your own sense of being.

You could structure your journal by answering the same question every day. For example:

• What was the best thing that happened to me today?
• Where did I experience love today?
• What am I grateful for?

Questions like this direct our focus—and what we focus on grows our self-awareness.

You could also choose a resource with journaling prompts, and answer different questions everyday. Using a variety of journaling prompts can help stretch us as we explore broader internal ground, and help us process our awareness of our own lives. Some of these prompts can include questions like:

• What matters most to me?
• What am I really scared of?
• What sparks my creativity?
• Where do I self-sabotage?
• What brings me joy?  

Tools needed

A journal, a pen, and journaling prompts for inspiration

Resource

• 301+ Journaling Prompts for Breathtaking Freedom and Powerful Insight

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How to Journal for Therapy: Release stored emotions to produce greater emotional health and happiness.

Therapy Journaling – Method #5 – Freewriting

Freewriting is a method where you write quickly, pouring thoughts onto a page. The goal is to keep your hand moving, writing down everything out that comes to mind. Don’t analyze, edit, or even worry about whether or not it makes sense. Simply give your mind a conduit to the paper with your pen.

Freewriting creates release, providing catharsis for our thoughts and emotions.

When freewriting, it is helpful to set a time limit or page goal—otherwise you will stop too soon. When your mission is to “write for 15 minutes,” you will be able to push through – even if you feel stuck – to tap into whatever thoughts or emotions need to be expressed on paper.

Tools needed

A pen that slides across the paper easily and blank pages

Resource

• How to journal every day even when you don’t have 5 minutes to yourself

Therapy Journaling – Method #6 – Journaling your emotions

We can more easily process our emotions when we write about them. One effective journaling method is to write about a time you experienced an emotion or state of being. You can do this by reviewing a list of emotions and choosing one that pops out at you:

Ambivalent Angry Annoyed Anxious Attractive Awe Boredom Carefree Compassion Courage Daring Delight Desire Despair Disgust

Elation Engagement Envy Exasperation Excitement Faith Fear Giddiness Grief Guilt Happy Hopeful Indignant Irreverent Joyful

Love Melancholy Nostalgia Panic Pleasure Rage Romantic Sadness Shame Suffering Surprise Tenderness Trust Value Wonder

In your journal, write about the very first time you remember experiencing that emotion. This doesn’t just have to be about the words. You can use embellishment and simple drawing techniques to fully explore the story.

This type of practice helps us connect events in our lives with how we feel about them. It also helps us process things that happened in our formative years.

Tools needed

A journal and a pen; brush markers or colored pencils (if you are adding visuals)

Therapy Journaling – Method #7 – Journaling the 5 Whys

The 5 Whys technique originates in manufacturing, and aims to help teams get to the root cause of a problem by asking why something happened, and then questioning that reason as well, until the original source is discovered.  While the method is popular in the corporate world, the technique also works on a personal level, when the questions are reframed: “why did I feel (or react) that way?”

In practice, the method could look something like this:

1. Why did Amy’s negative comments about her sister bother me?
   • It was discouraging to hear her bash her sister.
2. Why was it discouraging to me to hear her bash her sister?
   • Because I look up to Amy and I want her to be perfect.
3. Why do I want Amy to be perfect?
   • Because I follow her as a role model.
4. Why do I follow her as a role model?
   • Because I don’t trust that it’s okay just to be myself.
5. Why don’t I trust that it’s okay to be myself?
   • Because I’m afraid people will reject me.

Tools needed

A pen, journal, and a willingness to be honest with yourself

Therapy Journaling – Method # 8 – Keep a Dream Journal

Keeping a dream journal is about recording your dreams on a regular basis. Dreams speak in a language of pictures, emotions, and symbols. Tracking these over time can provide insight into your most important concerns and relationships.

Kelly Bulkeley Ph.D, shares in an article for Psychology Today, “You can start a journal at any time by making some retroactive entries. For example, write out the earliest dream you ever remember, even if it was just a tiny fragment or wispy image. There it is, the beginning of a dream journal!”

Candace Pert, author of Molecules of Emotion, advises, “Capturing that dream and re-experiencing the emotions can be very healing, as you either integrate the information for growth or decide to take actions toward forgiveness and letting go…Your dreams relate not just to your mind, but to your body as well. Dreams can be your own early-warning system, letting you know if a medical condition is developing and helping to bring your attention to the problem area. The body may be discussing this condition with the mind, and you can get in on the conversation by consciously recalling the dream…once you make the decision to pay attention to your dreams, they will start to speak to you, and you will understand them with ever-greater fluency over time, with practice.”

Tools needed

A pen and a journal you keep beside the bed

Therapy Journaling – Method #9 – Rewrite the Script

Sometimes the runaway train of thoughts in our head is just us rehashing a repetitive script.  We revisit conversations in our mind, imagining ourselves saying what we wish we had said, revising what we did say, or projecting what we would say over…and over…and over. Journaling gives us a path to get this conversation out of our heads and onto paper, so we can process it.

The best part? We don’t have to be bound by what the other person actually said. We can rewrite the script in exactly the way we wish it had happened, giving our brain the freedom to stop the replay, because now we’ve captured it in print—even if we’ve taken creative license by giving it a Hollywood ending.

This works for our internal monologues, too – whether it’s discovering and rewriting the limiting beliefs, or recognizing a tendency to judge ourselves harshly and replacing those thoughts with greater kindness and compassion towards ourselves.

Tools needed

A pen and a journal

Therapy Journaling – Method #10 – Write the letter you won’t send

We all have—or have had—people in our lives who are toxic. You know, the people we are never going to get to have a normal conversation with, because they either can’t understand or won’t  own responsibility for what they’ve done to hurt us, even when we try to explain it to them.

One cathartic journaling technique for resolving our emotions towards these people is to write them a letter. Knowing we are never going to send it gives us the freedom to be radically honest. We can write without fear of their reaction. We don’t have to mince words in trying to make them understand what they’ve done and how it makes us feel.

Writing these types of letters can be deeply healing for us. They help us clarify our thoughts and emotions about difficult relationships—whether past or present. It’s a way of getting closure, even if the person has died or is no longer a part of our lives; it’s also a way of both venting emotional pressure and helping ourselves identify healthy boundaries, which can be very helpful if the person is someone with whom we are required to interact.

Tools needed

A pen and stationery

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How to Journal to Reduce Anxiety

Journal to Reduce Anxiety – Method #11 – Write to acknowledge your concerns

Many times anxiety is non-specific: we just feel a sense of apprehension, rather than experiencing a concrete train of thought. Journaling is a great way to tap into what is concerning you. This may take the form of freewriting (where you simply spill out words, keeping your hand moving across the paper, without analytical regard for what you are actually writing) or it may be a more thoughtful exercise, as you ask yourself, “what is worrying me right now?”

Giving voice to our fears—acknowledging them—helps our brain stop pinging us (in the form of non-specific feelings of anxiety), because we’ve taken the time to process what it is trying to tell us. After all, part of our brain’s job is to keep us alive. If we are too busy to notice our own need for survival, our brain will keep reminding us to pay attention until we pause long enough to listen.

Tools needed

A pen and journal

Resources

• Nine ways a humble pencil can silence brain chatter
• 301+ Journaling Prompts for Breathtaking Freedom and Powerful Insight (This has 6 powerful prompts to dispel anxiety)

Journal to Reduce Anxiety – Method #12 – Gratitude journaling

Sometimes the best antidote to anxiety is focusing on proof of good in the world. It’s harder to be worried when we are immersed in all of the beautiful things that make us feel safe and cared for.

In her book, The Gratitude Diaries, How a Year Looking on the Bright Side Can Transform Your Life, Janice Kaplan writes: “In my gratitude journal, I didn’t need balance or complaints or shades of gray. It was okay to look at only one side of the story. Nobody was keeping score.”

The best thing about keeping a gratitude journal is that it doesn’t have to be complex. We simply focus our attention on the things we are glad we have in our life and say thank you. Over time, the practice shapes the way we think about things.

Tony Robbins shares, “I believe the ultimate path to enlightenment is the cultivation of gratitude. When you’re grateful, fear disappears. When you’re grateful, lack disappears. You feel a sense that life is uniquely blessed, but at the same time, you feel like you’re part of everything that exists and you know that you are not the source of it. In that state, you show up differently for the people around you.”

Tools needed

A pen and journal; optional: brush markers or pencils to embellish it

Resources

• 301+ Journaling Prompts for Breathtaking Freedom and Powerful Insight (With over 50 prompts for gratitude)
• A Skeptic’s Guide to Gratitude Journaling
• How Gratitude Works, and How to Master It With a Gratitude Journal (Silvia Bastos, via JournalSmarter)

Journal to Reduce Anxiety – Method #13 – Journal the worst that could happen

When journaling to reduce anxiety, sometimes it is helpful to let our thoughts their course to a worst-case scenario. For example, if we are worried about money we might write:

I am not going to be able to pay the electricity bill.

And then our power will get cut off and my phone will run out of juice.

And then I won’t wake up for work and I will get fired from my job.

And then I’ll lose my home and I’ll be sleeping on the street.

And if I’m living on the street, none of my friends will talk to me any more.

And if I’m friendless, then I’ll get hit by a bus and die.

Many times when we write out the fear, we can see that the projected future (even when it feels that dire) is unlikely . More importantly, we can also notice that getting to that future isn’t immediate. There are steps in the progression towards that future where we can exercise agency to intervene. In the case of the above example, we can ask our friends or family for help. We can try to negotiate a raise,  or look for a better job. We can moonlight for awhile, and revamp our budget to see where we can save.

Looking at our actual fears in print can make them seem less scary, because now we can process them with our eyes and with logic, rather than allowing them to haunt our thoughts and emotions.

Tools needed

A pen and journal

Resource

301+ Journaling Prompts for Breathtaking Freedom and Powerful Insight (This has 6 powerful prompts to dispel anxiety)

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How to Journal for Organization: Relieve stress by thinking on paper

Journal for Organization – Method #14 – Bullet journaling

When designer Ryder Carroll created a website to share the method he had crafted to organize his life, little did he know that it would become a world-wide phenomenon. The Bullet Journal Method (or BuJo for short) has been adopted by millions.

The method is simple, fast, and easily adaptable. The cornerstone of the method is rapid logging and migrating tasks from one collection to the next. (The lists used in bullet journaling are called collections.)

Bullet journaling is about more than simple day-planning. Goal setting—and deciding what you are not going to do—also happen naturally in the process. The method also incorporates review and reflection.

Tools needed

A pen and journal

(Note that you can purchase the official Bullet Journal to get some handy pre-printed information. Many have also adapted their bullet journaling method to include visual elements—leveraging brush markers or colored pencils stickers, and washi tape.)

Resources

• Bullet Journal Ideas
• 5 Ways Your Bullet Journal Can Support You When Plans Keep Changing
• The Bullet Journal Method, by Ryder Carroll –  (The book offers a deeper dive with insight into the impact it has had in a variety of people’s lives.)

Journal for Organization – Method #15 – Mindmapping

Sometimes, when we are trying to solve a complex problem or pull multiple streams of thought into cohesion, it can be difficult to find clarity, and structure can elude us.

Spilling ideas “popcorn-style” onto paper, and then drawing connections between related items is called mind-mapping.  This form of planning can be especially helpful when your brain is overwhelmed with ideas. Drawing lines between related ideas creates structure, and frequently creates flashes of insight.

There are many mind-mapping programs that allow you to do this digitally, but using a pen and paper can often be more effective in silencing the brain—even if the finished product doesn’t look as neat.

Tools needed

A pen, large blank pages, highlighters or markers

Resource

• 10 Reasons You Should Trade Your Dayplanner for a Sketchbook

Journal for Organization – Method #16 – Rapidwriting to get from overwhelmed to organized

Sometimes, our brains are so congested that it’s like a busy airport where air traffic control is so overworked that they are about to go on strike.  

In her book, Write it Down, Make it Happen, Henriette Anne Klauser, shares: “I encourage a form of getting ideas out which I call rapidwriting. It means to write fast without stopping to consider, to edit, to rearrange, or critique. Use rapidwriting when you cover the page, ploughing through objections, mowing down the inner voice that criticizes your every word. Write whatever is on your mind. Tell the truth. It’s okay to burn up your rapidwriting pages ranting and raving.”

The important thing about rapidwriting is that you cannot use a filter. Normally, when we write things down, we pause to think and compose in our head. Skip that step. Go straight from brain to paper. Once you’ve had the chance to clear the runways, it is much easier to get to full-fledged project planning or a simple to-do list.

Tools needed

A pen and journal

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How to Journal for Memory: Sharpen your memory by creating a record of your days

Journal for Memory – Method #17 – Write an end-of-day recap

Journaling an end-of-day recap is as easy as it sounds. Reserve 10-15 minutes at the end of each day to sit and write about the day’s events. This isn’t about capturing every movement; write about the one or two significant things that happened that day.

How you craft your end-of-day recap is up to you. You can write a quippy diary with a lot of humor—something you think others might read someday—or you can go deep with your emotions, with raw and honest writing about your life.

Taking time to review your entries periodically is an important part of the process. As you do, you will begin to see correlations and develop insight.

Tools needed

A pen and a journal

Journal for Memory – Method #18 – Anecdotal notes

Anecdotal notes is another type of recap, in which you write out stories from your life. The process is simple:

1. Sit down with your journal and let your mind wander, reflecting on your day (or week).
2. Think about the events, conversations, and interactions you’ve had. Consider whatever pops into your mind to be significant.
3. Write these memories down as if you were telling a friend about them.

Anecdotal notes capture your life in a narrative format, creating a series of scenes that, when read, tell your stories. The stories can be as detailed (or not) as you like. One big benefit to writing anecdotal notes is that over time, you will develop your own personal style as a writer. Re-reading your journal periodically will also show you correlations and trends that you may not have otherwise noticed.

Tools needed

A pen and a journal

Journal for Memory – Method #19 – Photo journaling

Journals don’t have to be written. There are many people who journal by taking a photo a day.  Photo journaling is the simple practice of taking daily photos and logging them somewhere you can see them sequentially. The key to making photography an effective journaling practice is to capture something specific,  enabling you to see changes over time. For example, simple living blogger Tammy Stroebel has a practice of capturing her morning view each day.  Noah Kalina takes a photo of himself each day. Others participate in a “photo a day” challenge.

No matter what you decide to capture each day, apps like Instagram, Tumblr, and Day One are great platforms for posting  daily photos. Or, if you prefer an analog journal, simply save the images on your device and have a photobook printed monthly or annually. You can also get creative with photo stickers; the HP Sprocket is a handheld printer that creates 3” x 2” stickers of photos from your phone.

Tools needed

A digital platform (such as Instagram, Tumblr, Day One, Photo 365, Moment Diary, or Journey), or a journal to hold your photo stickers

Journal for Memory – Method #20 – Minimalist journaling

You don’t have to journal paragraphs of prose to capture your days. If you need a fast and easy journaling method, then minimalist journaling might be right for you.

Simply purchase a small journal and keep it by your bedside.  At the end of each day, write down your most important thought of the day.  Consider recording one thought per page, and keeping it to a single sentence.

The rationale for only writing one thought per page is that all the white space keeps the journal feeling simple. And while initially boiling your entire day down into one sentence may not feel simple, once you get in the rhythm, it becomes a powerful practice for capturing and recalling your most important thoughts.

Tools needed

A small, thick journal (5.5” x 3.5” or 4” x 2.4”) and a pen to keep by your bed

Resource

• Minimalist Journaling: A Fun and Effective Tool for Tremendous Habit Change (Michal Korzonek, via Better Humans on Medium)

Journal for Memory – Method #21 – Keep a travel journal

When planning a trip, consider setting up a  travel journal in advance of the trip, noting your itinerary and identifying any points of interest that you would like to see while on the road. Then capture your experiences while traveling—either in prose, bullet points, sketches, pasted ticket stubs, or a combination of all of these things.

When we find ourselves in different environments from our day-to-day lives, our thought patterns tend to change. We become more aware of our surroundings. We notice things. Having a way to capture those observations is powerful.

Tools needed

A journal that is easy to carry with you and a pen

Resources

• Travel Journal Ideas (Stop dreaming and start planning so you can go)
• Everything you need to know to use a travelers notebook
• COURSE | Alicia Aradilla’s Watercolor Travel Journal Course on Domestika
• Project Untethered – Special thanks to Mitch Glass for sharing a photo from his real travel journal

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How to Journal for Creativity: Increase your personal creativity through journaling

Journal for Creativity – Method #22 – Morning pages

Artist Julia Cameron has a practice of unloading the mind first thing every morning which has become wildly popular with creatives. In her book, The Artist’s Way, Cameron writes: “In order to retrieve your creativity, you need to find it. I ask you to do this by an apparently pointless process I call the morning pages…the morning pages are three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness.”

Morning pages are neither intended to be writing nor art.  Instead, they are a kinesthetic exercise that helps your brain clear itself, so you can be more focused and creative in the rest of your day.

Tools needed

A pen that slides easily across the paper and a blank journal or stack of 8.5 x 11 pages

Journal for Creativity – Method #23 – Art Journaling

Art journaling is a mixed media exercise that blends written words with paint, sketches, stickers, washi tape, or any other art supplies/methods you choose that bring creativity to the page.

If you “used to be creative,” this is an effective practice for bringing artistic experiments back into your life. For one thing, your journal isn’t something you’ll typically show other people. It’s a place for you to try things and explore. This private space for self-expression can increase your personal creativity in powerful ways over time. It can help you reconnect with your inner muse. (Not only that, but the practice is fun!)

Tools needed

A journal with thick pages, artist pens in a variety of sizes (we suggest Faber-Castell’s PITT brand, as the ink doesn’t smear), brush markers (we suggest Tombow), watercolors, stickers, pencils, ink and stamps, and whatever other mediums you might want to experiment with.

Resources

• The Ultimate Guide for Learning to Art Journal
• 12 Beautifully Easy Artistic Fonts for your Journal
• COURSE | Artistic Watercolor Sketching by Felix Scheinberger

Journal for Creativity – Method # 24 – Sketchnoting

Sketchnoting is a combination of words and images which creates a visual map of the information you are capturing. Arrows, bubbles, stick people, doodles, and call out boxes give shape to the thoughts on a page. This method of visual note-taking is less about artistic skill and more about thinking on paper. You have permission to use “bad drawings.”

Sketchnotes allow you to process information visually. It makes information pop off the page and improves recall. The best part about sketchnoting is that everyone has their own style; to learn yours, just start doing it. Your skill will build over time.

Tools needed

A journal, a pen, a way to add color to your pages (markers, colored pencils, or crayons)

Resources

• The Simple Guide to Visual Journaling (Even If You Are Not An Artist) by Cathy Hutchison
• COURSE | How to Start and Keep a Visual Journal

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How to Journal for The Law of Attraction: Journal to manifest the life you want

Journal for the Law of Attraction – Method #25 – Journal to uncover limiting beliefs

Limiting beliefs are beliefs which keep us from becoming who we want to be. They result in self-sabotage, and keep us stuck. The problem with limiting beliefs is that we normally don’t realize we have them.;hey often stay hidden under the surface unless we dig them up.

Journaling to uncover limiting beliefs starts with selecting an affirmation—a positive statement about yourself. It can be personal, such as “I am beautiful and everybody loves me,” or it can be a statement about a way you want your life to be: “I am in a happy, healthy relationship and enjoying great love in my life.”

Write the affirmation you’ve chosen in longhand, over and over. Anytime you feel resistance to it, pause and give that resistance a voice. What are you feeling/thinking?

This might look something like this:

I am beautiful and everybody loves me.

I am beautiful and everybody loves me.

I am beautiful and—who do you think you are? You are NOT beautiful.

I am beautiful and everybody loves me.

I am beautiful and everybody loves me. You are so ugly. That kid in elementary school told you so.

I am beautiful and everybody loves me.

I am beautiful and everybody loves me. This is a stupid exercise. How could anybody love you?

Affirmations are a quick way to tap into the resisting beliefs that keep us from experiencing the promise of them. If we really believe we are unworthy of love, then we will (sometimes subconsciously) sabotage love in order to prove ourselves right.

By giving a voice to the resistance, you unmask it—and that exposure can allow you to work with the lies you believe about yourself – helping you get to the root cause of them, and eventually to rewrite the script.

Tools needed

A journal and a pen (maybe a straight edge to draw a line to divide the page)

Journal for the Law of Attraction – Method #26 – Count your blessings

Journaling what we are thankful for has been scientifically proven to provide psychological, physical, and interpersonal benefits. Systematically counting our blessings can be as simple as starting each morning or ending each evening by listing 10 things we are thankful for, writing in our journals about why we are grateful for a person or an event, or even just taking a minimalist approach and recording one thing we are grateful for each day.

Capturing gratitude – and periodically reviewing what we’ve captured – creates change in us over time and puts us in a space where we are able to receive more. Bob Proctor shares, “Expressing gratitude instantly shifts your energy. It puts you in harmony with your source of supply so that the good in everything moves toward you.”

Tools needed

A pen and a journal

Resources

• Some of the richest people have gratitude practices. Should you?
• 301+ Journaling Prompts for Breathtaking Freedom and Powerful Insight (With over 50 prompts for gratitude)
• A Skeptic’s Guide to Gratitude Journaling

Journal for the Law of Attraction – Method #27 – Start an imaginary correspondence

In her book, Write it Down, Make it Happen, Henriette Anne Klauser, shares the story of a woman who began writing letters to her future soul mate. The book details how the letters resulted in her meeting the love of her life.

Napoleon Hill—author of Think and Grow Rich—says “No one is ready for a thing until he believes he can acquire it.  The state of mind must be belief, not mere hope or wish.”

The process of writing letters to a soulmate, or a new job, or a new house, makes it more real to us. This journaling method is powerful because over time it creates belief.

Tools needed

A pen and a journal (or stationary and envelopes)

Journal for the Law of Attraction – Method #28 – Vision boarding

A vision board is a tool for communicating your dreams and goals to yourself in visual format. The premise is that the subconscious communicates visually, and the vision board creates a daily reminder of what you most want. The idea is to not only engage your thinking brain in your dreams, but your subconscious mind and heart as well. Think of the vision board as a cue card for your subconscious to take you in the direction you want to go.

When you capture your aspirations and put them in your daily line of sight, the reminder impacts your daily decisions. Your vision board can either be a physical board or a spread in the front of your journal. Reviewing the board daily as you envision yourself living your dreams.

Tools needed

blank spread in your journal or a large poster board, pens, markers, magazines (or ephemera) and a glue stick

Resource

• 8 Ways to Vision Board without Cutting Up a Single Magazine

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Now that you’ve found a journaling practice that is right for you, you can get started!

Once you’ve test-driven a few methods and found the one best suited to you and the goals you hope to accomplish, the next step is to start the practice, and begin reaping the benefits. Journaling is most effective when it is consistent.

With this ultimate guide on how to journal in hand, one thing is certain: you will never again have to worry about sitting in front of a blank page, listening to crickets, with no idea what to do!

Want to receive our journaling pdf that has the 28 methods plus hundreds of resources?  Subscribe to yourvisualjournal.com right here to download the How to Journal PDF.

Additional Resource: Take an online visual journaling course

Learn how to start and keep a visual journal to reclaim your time, boost your personal creativity, easily achieve your goals, and successfully live a more intentional life. Learn more here!