How to journal: 6 exercises to transform your life

Do you have an interest in journalling but don’t know where to start? Maybe it was recommended to you as a powerful mental health tool, or perhaps you are looking for ways to identify possible changes. From journalling emotions to values to goals – here are 6 ideas on how to journal with prompts you can use yourself.

The exercises target a mixture of potential benefits: from emotional processing to increased gratitude to goal progression. Together, they provide a recipe for increased awareness, more alignment, and a fulfilled life.  

What is journalling and what are the benefits?

When I was little, I had a colourful secret diary. It was pink, glittery, and complete with a heart-shaped lock. I wrote about the people I liked and disliked, the times my siblings annoyed me, and my dreams for when I grew up.

When you first think of journalling, it may shake a childhood memory for you as well. But can this give any insights on unlocking how to journal as adults?

WebMD describes journalling “as the act of keeping a record of personal thoughts, feelings, insights, and more.” For many of us, prioritising our self-expression in this way doesn’t seem to be that popular, with just 23% of adults keeping a diary, as per Pen Heaven.

Yet there is evidence of the benefits of journalling for mental health and personal growth. It is a core tool for improving mental wellbeing and emotional management. Of course, one reason may be because of its use as an outlet for venting to create space from emotions. Naming your emotions can reduce stress and calm your emotional brain.

But we can also use journalling to create positive change in life, such as goal achievement, growth, and alignment with values. Even just initially writing down our goals increases our chances of achieving them.

So, how to journal? Starting with the more traditional approach, let’s explore some of the benefits of different exercises, how to start and when to do them.

How to journal feelings, challenges, and reactions: the daily log

This checking-in exercise is probably the most closely aligned with the classic view of what journalling is. It is mindfulness in action – paying attention to your thoughts and feelings. You might do this to aim for better emotional management by creating understanding to process emotions.  

By observing the emotions that we feel during the day, we are increasing our awareness and understanding of ourselves. You may see patterns, notice triggers, and recognise needs. You may start to recognise the impermanency of emotions, so they become easier to shift. Greater emotional awareness leads to better emotional regulation and ability to navigate situations.

With this new approach to dealing with emotions, you might find you become less sucked in and led by them, and instead start to apply curiosity. Now sitting slightly separated from your feelings, you can watch them without judgement. Creating this distance between ourselves and our feelings (and thoughts) leads to clarity and facilitates better problem-solving.

So journalling daily is a way of reducing emotional stress and therefore improving mental wellbeing. But sometimes it can be difficult to express ourselves in words when we are not used to doing so. If you don’t know where to start for journalling daily, use prompts. Questions like below help to pull out emotions and thoughts of situations so you can begin to make discoveries.

Prompts for this exercise

What were my challenges today?

How did they make me feel?

What actions did I take because of those feelings?

Could I have done anything differently?

How did my feelings change, and what contributed to this?

Has my perception changed now the emotions have dissolved?

How did specific people make me feel today?

What thoughts did I have about their actions?

Which activities added value to my day, and which drained me?

Frequency: daily

How to journal on big events: the purging letter

This really is an extension to the above exercise but allocating more time as and when significant things happen is very important. Life events can have a big impact so it’s vital to offload the energy and process those emotions.

This can be free writing or adjusting the above prompts. However, I often like to do this purging style of journalling as if I was planning an “all the things I would like to say” letter.  I capture thoughts as they come – post-it note style – collating them for the final piece.

When emotions are high and significant things have happened, we can often find ourselves churning over and over in our heads. If we do not find a way to break the cycle, our thoughts will continue to reinforce our feelings and we will find it difficult to cool off. Writing thoughts down as and when they pop up allows us to create space from our emotions.

Once we calm through this process and regain clarity, our understanding of events improves. Journalling this way can help with real-life communication and evaluating any action needed. Some parts of your letter you might find important to get across.  But a lot of the time you may realise it is all just part of emotional processing – as you let the thoughts out, you let them go.

Frequency: when needed

How to journal for wellness: the health tracker

Wellness tracking can be a useful daily task to add to monitoring your feelings and challenges. Of course, how we feel physically often drives how we feel mentally.  It might seem obvious that sleep, nutrition, and exercise are the fundamentals of good health. But do you know what exactly works for you?

Journalling can reveal the details of what boosts you, as well as what brings you down. Doing this alongside journalling emotions, you might uncover some interesting links and patterns. This awareness gets the ball rolling for change and action.

For example, journalling helped me uncover a relationship between drinking alcohol at a specific time in my menstrual cycle and my moods on the following days. Equally, you could recognise when you have needs requiring extra support from fundamental factors and take action.

Frequency: daily – I like to do it morning and night!

How to journal for gratitude: the exercise for joy

It’s no secret that gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions and catalysts for good mental wellbeing, supporting happiness and health, and reducing stress. Yet gratitude journalling takes such little time and effort. How to journal for gratitude? You just need to jot down 3 things you a grateful for at the end of the day.

I like to have a little look back at items I have noted, and this always brings me joy. Mine range from “my nieces being good” to “cheese”, from “my heated blanket” to “my connection with my sister”.  

This exercise allows you to become aware of the smaller things in life and shift your narrative away from the daily stresses. Consistently focusing on the brighter moments boosts positivity. In fact, practising gratitude creates brain changes. You’ll notice those smaller moments more easily. You’ll see more beauty in everyday life, potentially significantly changing your outlook on life.

Don’t be afraid to throw in things you are proud of – it doesn’t always have to be external things or things that have happened to you. Note how grateful you are for your actions or contributions.

Frequency: daily

How to journal for value alignment: the life review

In a perfect world, we want to make all our decisions based on our values.

Life can often be about trying to balance different roles, responsibilities, and expectations. We might also find ourselves constantly reacting because of stress and emotions. We can’t always control everything in life so it’s not unusual to find ourselves drifting further from a life that is closely aligned with our values.

It’s healthy to pick up on opportunities that come up and try different things. We cannot shut ourselves off from new relationships, or not try a new job because we are not certain where it will take us. We have to let life happen to us rather than miss out because we are trying to carve everything out to be perfectly how we would want it to be.

I don’t think that many decisions can be wrong or bad – particularly if you are doing your best to be logical. Often, we are trying to do our best with the information we have in the moment.

But accumulations of decisions, or things happening to us, quickly shape our lives. That’s why a periodic check-in to review how things developed over those periods, as well as looking at our current positions, can be very useful.

So, how to journal for alignment?

To start, it is important to know what it is you value in life and what kind of person you want to be. Then at different points, you could use this as a benchmark. From this, you can learn which areas of your life may need some work or active change for better alignment with those values.

Sometimes it’s tricky to change your path immediately, but the higher level of awareness will allow you to make tweaks here and there until you can find solutions.

Frequency: 6 monthly or yearly

How to journal for goal reflection: the progress capture

Of course, journalling around measurable, quantitative goals is beneficial to solidify your intent and track progress. Think Bridget Jones’ weight loss tracker and days without smoking – it’s simple and intuitive and reminds you quickly how far you have come.

But how to journal for setting goals and tracking progress when you’re not actually sure how to get there? We don’t want to shy away from the bigger life ambitions because it’s impossible to have it all planned out. Don’t be afraid to still have intentions even if there is some subjectivity about the destination and what we need to do to arrive.

The key is taking small steps that help you discover which direction to head in next. Sure, the path won’t always be linear, but with each step, you grow, and this is what helps you transform towards your intentions.

Journalling can massively help contextualise your path and encourage different steps. Check-ins will allow for the flexibility needed, as well as refresh your motivation. Because humans tend to adapt and revert to a baseline level of happiness despite events, reflection is important to reinforce progression. You can continually monitor how things are going and set new ideas for growth.

After setting a broad intention, use these prompts to understand your progress and further shape your goals:

Prompts for this exercise

What research have I done and what I have learned?

What actions have I taken?

Which actions led to something, what didn’t?

Did I have any new experiences?

What changes have I made?

Are there any actions I have taken that I can adapt?

Did I deal with anything particularly well?

How does my progress compare to the last period?

How have my intentions developed?

Did I overcome any limiting beliefs?

What will I focus on/what will my next steps be?

Frequency: dependent on intention! Can be monthly, 6 monthly, yearly..

Take what works for you

These 6 approaches stretch across a variety of potential benefits, but you don’t need to try each one. Identify what you think could work well for you and give it a go.

Remember that a lot of these will require some commitment – and it’s keeping it up which will help you see progress. The key is often in consistency.

Save this post for later in case you want to try another in the future!