If I had a pound for every time I’ve been asked how to journal, I would be a millionaire already for shizzle.  But as it keeps coming up here’s my personal guide.  Are there more ways than one to approach this life changing activity?  For sure, but this is what works for me.  Before I go into what, let’s start with why.

Forget the three Rs you learnt at school, here are the new three Rs for adulthood: Results, Records and Resolve.

Here are the three reasons why journaling is so important.

• Results.  Journaling will help you create the life of your dreams much more quickly than dreaming, wishing or hoping things into existence.  Do you need to do it to make shit happen?  Absolutely not, but as I have already said, there are many ways to get an awesome result, this just happens to be the way a shit load of extremely successful people likes to make shit happen.
• Records.  We forget shit, a lot of it.  Keeping a journal, having a record of your desires, why they were important to you and evidence of how you were asking for things is great for absolute clarity.  It stops your mind and well-meaning non-believers trying to kid you into believing your past successes have just been luck.
• Resolve.  Daily journaling on your desires sharpens your resolve and makes it far more likely you are going to take the specific inspired action required to let the Universe know that you are ready, willing and open to receiving.

I’m sure there are a whole load more reasons I can tell you why journaling is important, but for this particular post, three reasons feel great.  So now onto the how.  How do you do this ‘properly’?

I use inverted commas because you really can’t do this wrong, but no matter how many times I say this, people don’t believe me, so here is the ‘magic formula’ you’ve been looking for.

Step 1 – Identifying

Identify what it is you want.

I like to focus on immediate, mid and long-term goals.

I may choose to write about my monthly, yearly or 10 year financial goals.

Who I want to be – kind, generous, caring, patient, that type of thing.

How I want to show up as a wife, sister, mother, friend.

Professional goals like the bestselling author, international speaker.

Health goals – to feel fit, healthy and strong, to drink a smoothie daily.

And so on, and so on.

Sometimes this is half a page sometimes it’s six, depending on how much time I have allowed myself.  I normally spend about 30 minutes outlining my desires.  When I am doing this really well, I will repeat back my sentences and feel into the achieved desire.  I write out all of my desires as present tense affirmations.

Of course, this provides me with a great daily prompt on who I need to be and how I need to be acting NOW in order to manifest my dreams and desires quickly.  The less frequently I do this, the more ‘off’ I find myself being as I sit in a space of reactivity, rather than being intentional.

Oops, slipped in another ‘why’ there – writing out your desires on a daily basis makes you more intentional.

Step 2 – Gratitude

Your journal is a great place for your gratitude lists.  I have experimented with this and have gone from writing as few as three to as many as 50 things to be grateful for each day.  I personally find the more I find to appreciate and actively write down, the more great things I have to be grateful for.  Cultivating writing down and capturing my attitude of gratitude creates more abundance.

And there’s another reason why journaling is badass….

Step 3 – Problem Solving

When you have shit that’s bothering you, you can find yourself stuck in procrastination. Or you’re just not doing what you know you should be doing.  Putting pen to paper to ask yourself WTF is really going on is bloody magical.  Seriously.  I have coached myself through all manner of negative situations right there in my journal.  Some of the prompts I use to help me work thing through are:

• What is it I’m feeling?
• Why do I feel that way?
• What am I making it mean?
• Is it true?
• And then for the most beautiful question….How is it that I want to feel?

If you are anything like me and deep down believe that you are responsible for how you are feeling at any given moment, when you allow yourself to move into a space of expansion as you think about the positive ways you want to feel (if you get stuck with that just revisit your daily desires as a starting point), then the very act of writing out your new perspective helps you to let go of the old and move into where and more importantly WHO you want to be.

It brings you back to your power.

So lovely, of course, you can do a lot more with your journaling, but this is a brilliant start.  If you’re not doing it and you’re not exactly where you want to be in life right now, daily journaling is THE place to begin your journey to intentional manifesting, abundance and an easier, less stressful existence.

What more could you want?

Love

Suzy