Journaling For
Personal Growth

How does journaling help
with personal growth?

Writing things down helps to crystalise your thoughts and shed light on things. Simply journaling your thoughts can help you to understand what you're feeling and why. You'll find that keeping a journal helps you to get to know yourself better and encourages personal growth.

Why Journaling For Personal Growth Works

When you write, your mind slows down. Writing your thoughts in a journal helps you to become more aware of what you’re thinking and what's important to you.

Journaling can help to change your perspective. When you read and summarise what you’ve written, it helps you to step back and look at things differently.

Keeping a journal leads to self discovery. It helps you to identify beliefs that hold you back and talents and gifts that you’ve done little with as yet.

Your journal is a safe place to express your thoughts, feelings, anxieties, ideas and questions about life. It’s somewhere you can be totally honest. If you are honest with yourself your journal will help you to get to know yourself better.

Journaling is an effective, powerful way of venting your feelings. Once the words are out of your head and on paper you’ll be able to see what you’re thinking more easily. Expressing your thoughts gives them shape and meaning and helps you to see what you have to work with.

Journaling helps you to make sense of your life. Writing things down sometimes brings immediate clarity because it helps you to stop and notice what’s happening.

As time goes by you’ll begin to see patterns emerging and start to see the bigger picture.

Write Your Journal For Yourself

Your journal is your journal. Write your journal for you. Be honest with yourself and your journal will become a useful tool on your journey towards personal growth.

"When I write down my thoughts, they do not escape me. This action makes me remember my strength … I educate myself proportionately to my captured thought." Isidore Ducasse

Tips For Using Your Journal For
Personal and Spiritual Growth

• Keep it simple You don’t have to buy a special journal unless you want to. You could use an inexpensive notebook or file. There is no right or wrong way to keep a journal. Feel free to use your journal your way; it doesn't have to be perfect or done in a particular way.

  I use an online journal for much of my journaling, you can get a free trial here Free journaling software trial

• Don't edit as you write Allow your thoughts to flow freely onto the paper. Just write whatever comes to mind.
• Focus on your thoughts and feelings

If you're struggling to get started, ask yourself questions such as

• How do I feel?
• What do I want?
• What can I learn from this?
• How does God see this?
• What would Jesus do?
• How did I make a difference today?

Alternatively you could list what's happening in your life right now and start writing about the thing that triggered the biggest response as you wrote it down.

Review And Summarise
Your Journal Entries

Reading and reflecting on what you've written will help you to see things from a different perspective. Summarising your journal entries will bring new insights and help you to reach helpful conclusions. As you begin to see patterns in your thinking and beliefs, ask yourself how you can use what you're learning about yourself to improve your life.

You Can Use A Journal For Things Other Than Personal Growth

You could keep a

• Spiritual journal to record your journey with God.
• Conversations with God Journal where you write down what God says to you and your replies to Him
• Gratitude journal where you write things that you’re thankful for each day
• Success journal to record all your successes both great and small and note the compliments paid to you
• Dream journal where you record your dreams and insights as God shows you what He’s saying through your dreams

There are many possibilities. My friend Joseph R Peck has a comprehensive guide to Journaling For Breakthroughs it will help you find wisdom, understanding, and revelation for every area of your life.

A Journaling Exercise

• What does the big picture look like?
• What would you do if you could do absolutely anything?
• Take time to think about this
• Tune into the deep longings of your heart
• Now, decide what you’re going to do about it

Decide now to do something every day to bring your dream closer to reality.

What will be your first steps?

Click on the link to see an article on spiritual journaling You could use your journal to record your meditations

If you've never kept a journal before, I encourage to begin today.

Take a look at who you are in Christ Meditate on the Scriptures in build your faith Use your journal to reflect on the power of your words

Explore the free resources and coaching tools 

Return to Christian life coaching homepage Return to the top of journaling for personal growth