Journaling Ideas: Topics, Tips, and IdeasAre you stuck staring at the blank page? Here are a bunch of ideas for your daily journal—some creative, some visual, some for gratitude, and some for your mental health.
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So, you want to journal but you are having a hard time coming up with ideas? No worries. There are lots of things you can write about, many of them with evidence suggesting that they're good for your well-being. So in this article, we'll give you some journaling ideas to help you better understand yourself, reach your goals, and improve your life.
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Journaling Prompt & Question Ideas
One way to get over the hump of figuring out what to write about is to use journaling prompts. These are questions or phrases that get your mind thinking and get your pen writing. Here are some prompts to try out:
Journaling prompt ideas
Journaling question ideas
Journaling prompt ideas
- I feel angry when...
- I feel sad when...
- I feel anxious when...
- I feel excited when...
- I feel relaxed when...
- I feel connected to others when...
- I struggle when...
- I feel ashamed when...
- I feel awesome when...
- I feel the most energized and happy when...
Journaling question ideas
- How might you be more forgiving?
- What did you do to get through the hardest times in your life?
- What was something positive you experienced recently?
- What are things in your life that give your life meaning?
- What makes you an awesome person?
- What are your core values?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- What are your long-term goals?
- What big dreams do you want to manifest?
Travel Journaling Ideas
Are you taking your journal on vacation? Then why not incorporate your travel into your journal. Here are a few ideas you may want to try out:
- Incorporate tickets or maps. Write about your experience in each place (or going from place to place). Be sure to note down what you learned, your reflections, your thoughts, and your emotions.
- Write about memorable foods. Note down foods you enjoyed and foods that didn't feel so good. Might you want to incorporate new foods into your routine or avoid certain foods in the future?
- Use travel journal prompts. You're probably busy on the road, so sticking to writing about one or two prompts can save you some time. Each day, you might ask yourself, "What's the highlight for the day?" or "What am I looking forward to today (or tomorrow)?"
Health & Weight Loss Journaling Ideas
If you want to use your journal to improve your health and well-being, you may want to create a 'tracker'. For example, mood trackers can help you identify which thoughts or behaviors contribute to a more positive or negative mood (Ayobi, Sonne, Marshall, & Cox, 2018). In fact, I tracked my mood and a series of experiences for 10 days once and discovered that the thing that most contributed to my positive mood was not exercise, diet, or socializing—it was creativity. I never would have guessed that.
'Food and mood' trackers can also be a helpful tool if you're trying to identify how different foods make you feel. If you start to pay attention you may notice that eating certain foods makes you feel better than eating other foods. I did this exercise when I was dealing with some health issues and discovered that eating cantaloupe melon makes me feel really good. That was pretty random and not something I would have expected.
Weight loss journaling ideas
If you're working on losing weight, tracking can be really helpful. Of course, you probably want to cut calories but you also want to make sure that you're not cutting calories too severely (that's not healthy!) So creating a little chart with your specific goals for diet, calories, and exercise may be helpful.
Here are some weight loss journaling ideas from Pinterest:
'Food and mood' trackers can also be a helpful tool if you're trying to identify how different foods make you feel. If you start to pay attention you may notice that eating certain foods makes you feel better than eating other foods. I did this exercise when I was dealing with some health issues and discovered that eating cantaloupe melon makes me feel really good. That was pretty random and not something I would have expected.
Weight loss journaling ideas
If you're working on losing weight, tracking can be really helpful. Of course, you probably want to cut calories but you also want to make sure that you're not cutting calories too severely (that's not healthy!) So creating a little chart with your specific goals for diet, calories, and exercise may be helpful.
Here are some weight loss journaling ideas from Pinterest:
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A Few More Things For Your Journal
More Articles on Journaling
Want to keep reading about journaling? Here are few more articles to explore:
- Daily Journaling: Prompts, Ideas, Questions, and Topics
- Gratitude Journal: Journal Examples, Ideas, and Strategies to Boost Gratitude
- Manifestation Journaling: A Complete Guide (+ Prompts)
- Journal Prompts: For Mental Health, Gratitude, Anxiety, & More
- Bullet Journal Ideas: For Trackers, Mental Health, & More
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References
- Ayobi, A., Sonne, T., Marshall, P., & Cox, A. L. (2018, April). Flexible and mindful self-tracking: Design implications from paper bullet journals. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-14).
- Catalino, L. I., Algoe, S. B., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2014). Prioritizing positivity: An effective approach to pursuing happiness? Emotion, 14(6), 1155.
- Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377-389.
- Hubbs, D. L., & Brand, C. F. (2005). The paper mirror: Understanding reflective journaling. Journal of Experiential Education, 28(1), 60-71.
- Kaczmarek, L. D., Kashdan, T. B., Drążkowski, D., Enko, J., Kosakowski, M., Szäefer, A., & Bujacz, A. (2015). Why do people prefer gratitude journaling over gratitude letters? The influence of individual differences in motivation and personality on web-based interventions. Personality and Individual Differences, 75, 1-6.
- Koo, M., Algoe, S. B., Wilson, T. D., & Gilbert, D. T. (2008). It's a wonderful life: Mentally subtracting positive events improves people's affective states, contrary to their affective forecasts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(5), 1217-1224.
- Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2006). New directions in goal-setting theory. Current directions in psychological science, 15(5), 265-268.
- Paulhus, D. L., & COUÉ, E. (1993). Bypassing the will: The automatization of affirmations. JMS, 4, 1.
- Pennebaker, J. W. (1997). Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process. Psychological science, 8(3), 162-166.
- Rajasingam, U., & Couns, M. (2017). Creative journaling to process issues in midlife: a multiple case study. MOJPC: Malaysia Online Journal of Psychology & Counselling, 2(2).
- Schunk, D. H., & Pajares, F. (2009). Self-efficacy theory. Handbook of motivation at school, 35-53.
- Seligman, M. E., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410.
- Shapira, L. B., & Mongrain, M. (2010). The benefits of self-compassion and optimism exercises for individuals vulnerable to depression. Journal of Positive Psychology, 5, 377-389.
- Tholander, J., & Normark, M. (2020, April). Crafting Personal Information-Resistance, Imperfection, and Self-Creation in Bullet Journaling. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-13).
- Travagin, G., Margola, D., & Revenson, T. A. (2015). How effective are expressive writing interventions for adolescents? A meta-analytic review. Clinical psychology review, 36, 42-55.
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