Woman’s hand holding tan journal, with a pen. She is wearing a tan sweater and slacks.

Do you skip journaling because you don’t know where to start? If the thought of journaling feels overwhelming, or you’re scared by blank pages I created this guide to help you. Using guided journals makes starting a new journaling habit, or returning to one, much more approachable.

What Is A Guided Journal?

Guided journals help you write about your inner self—the true “you”—by providing structured questions, prompts, or themed writing exercises. These journals are typically organized into sections to help you explore your thoughts, and emotions.

How Guided Journal Prompts Can Transform Your Life

Journaling can be a practical tool for self-discover and personal growth. When you use intentional journal prompts, it inspires changes in your lifestyle choices. Change is what creates transformation, and transformation is how you create a life you love.

The Benefits Of Journaling Prompts

Journalling prompts can help you follow a system for reflecting on different areas of your life. Those answers can provide a better understanding of your choices, behaviors and reactions. From there, you can do more journaling to gain clarity on your belief systems, passions and priorities.

By answering structured journal prompts you can:

  • Build self-awareness and better understand your strengths and challenges

  • Explore your emotions in a safe and non-judgmental space that is for your eyes only

  • Process and begin to heal difficult emotions like grief, anger, or anxiety

  • Identify patterns and themes in your life, gaining a broader perspective on your experiences

  • Set goals and make plans for achieving your personal and professional dreams

  • Practice gratitude

  • Deepen the connection with your life’s purpose

  • Skip the “I don’t know what to write” part, which helps you establish a good journaling habit.

How To Start Keeping A Journal

Whether you use a guided journal or blank notebook style journal, there’s a few best practices to help you create a successful, consistent journaling practice.

Step 1. Choose Your Journal Based On Your Needs.

When selecting a journal or notebook, consider your writing style and preferences. If you prefer freestyle writing, without prompts or questions to guide you, opt for a blank page journal. Also, think about the size that suits your needs—a pocket-sized journal for easy portability or a larger size for more extensive writing sessions.

If you prefer a more structured approach and enjoy answering questions or exploring specific themes, a guided journal with prompted questions and topics might be a better fit. 

Step 2: Choose a Comfortable Writing Space

Consider comfort and environment during your writing sessions. Sitting in your bed, or at your desk works great for knocking out a few sentences. However, if you need a distraction free zone or want visual inspiration, think about using your local library or coffee shop for creative stimulation.

Step 3: Start With Small Goals

The most effective way to form a habit is by setting aside time for it in your schedule. By writing it down on your calendar you’re making a commitment, and increase your chances of establishing a journaling habit. 

Step 4: Decide What To Write About

Many guided journals provide themes or topics to write about while blank journals let you choose your prompts. Focusing on your purpose for journaling will help you choose the right journal for your needs. If you’re anything like me, you may have a few journals for different 

Step 5: Know Your Why

Why do you want to journal?  The answer can unlock a richer, more rewarding practice. Is it to unleash your creativity, untangle a challenging situation, or simply record the events of your day? Maybe you're looking to map out your goals or find an emotional release. Whatever your reason, understanding your motivation will help you get the most out of journaling."

Infographic of 5 steps to help you start journaling.

Styles Of Journaling

Here are some common types of journaling:

Art Journals: Creative journaling includes writing poetry, short stories, creating characters, making illustrations or painting and using mixed media and applying them directly to the pages. The focus is on letting your creativity flow without judgment.

Personal Development Journals: Personal development journals are designed to guide you through self-discovery with specific questions and exercises. This guided approach helps you uncover your strengths, weaknesses, and values, ultimately leading to a deeper understanding of yourself and your personal growth path

Travel Journals: Travel journaling is a great way to capture and reflect on your trips or vacations. From capturing details like the meals you enjoyed (or didn’t), dreamy locations and secret discoveries off the beaten path, ...a travel journal allows you to relive your adventures and preserve your memories long after you've returned home.

Gratitude Journaling: A gratitude journal lets you express appreciation for specific events, memories or even people or places. Plus, showing your appreciation can offer health benefits. According to the article, “The Science of Gratitude”, on News-Medical.net, people who practice being grateful, “...can hope to sleep better, have an improved mood and have a boosted immune system.”

Reflective Journaling: Reflective journaling is designed to help you understand yourself better, spot patterns in your life, and come up with ways to handle challenges. It encourages you to be curious, honest, and compassionate (for yourself or others), ultimately giving you greater self-awareness.

Bullet Journal: This highly customizable journaling system combines elements of a planner, to-do list, and diary. Often using symbols and shorthand for rapid logging.

Morning Pages Journal: The technique that requires writing three pages of whatever comes to mind, first thing in the morning without editing your thoughts.

One-Sentence Journal: A simple, supportive process that encourages journalers to write only one sentence summarizing the best part of their day.

Shadow Work Journal: Exploring the hidden, dark side of one’s personality and acknowledging how those emotions affect your mindset, beliefs and behavior.

Health and Wellness Journals: From mental and physical health, to nutrition and self-care, these journals help you track and measure all aspects of your lifestyle so you can make choices and adjustments for your wellbeing.

Dream Journals: Supports the understanding of the meanings behind your dreams with space to capture details and prompts for figuring out hidden symbols.

Spiritual Journals: Notebooks that encourage a daily practice of connecting to one’s faith, beliefs, and spiritual purpose.

Pregnancy Journals: Allows expectant mothers to document their pregnancy journey, including physical and emotional changes, appointments, and hopes for their child.

Habit Trackers: These workbooks are designed to help you keep track of positive habits and goals, often through daily check-ins or progress checklists.

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15 Guided Journals To Transform Your Life:

1. Greenlights: Your Journal, Your Journey: Drawing upon three decades of journaling practice by Academy Award winning actor Matthew McConaughey, this journal is filled with quotes, advice, and prompts to get you reflecting and writing.

2. Wreck This Journal Now In Color: Full of prompts to paint, rip, tear, or poke holes into pages there’s plenty of ways to be creative. There are so many activities in this notebook that it’s like one big experiment in expressing your ideas and emotions in an artistic and playful way.

3. Start Where You Are: A Journal for Self-Exploration: A creative journal filled with colorful artwork as well as prompts that evoke the feelings of creative assignments. Get inspired by watercolor illustrations as you discover your passions in your life.

4. The Happiness Project One-Sentence Journal For Mothers: This unique journal is based on capturing 5 years worth of your thoughts. There’s a page for every day of the year so you can start at any point. This journal is designed for jotting down one sentence that reflects the best part of your day. While primarily designed for new mothers, the book's straightforward and simple concept makes it a valuable resource for individuals in any stage of life seeking practical guidance and support.

5. The Self-Love Workbook: Written by Dr. Shainna, a mental health counselor, this interactive workbook is centered on learning about self-love. Through relatable and realistic examples that depict how individuals respond to life's obstacles, the prompts aim to guide you in understanding the significance of cherishing your self-worth.

6. The Artist's Way Morning Pages Journal: In her book The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron proposes that individuals can overcome obstacles that hinder their creativity by engaging in a morning ritual of writing three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness prose. The Morning Pages journal leads you into this practice, intended to unlock your true creative potential and foster personal growth.

7. Prayer Journal for Women: 52 Week Scripture, Devotional & Guided Prayer Journal: This journal is structured to support a year-long journey of spiritual growth. With weekly scripture passages, devotional readings, and guided prayer prompts you’ve got a step guide to deepen your faith and connect with your spirituality.

8. The Bullet Journal Method: As explained by BulletJournal.com, the Bullet Journal technique serves as both a productivity system and a mindfulness practice.With a focus on the “what” and the “why” of your actions, this journaling system will help you create your life instead of participating as a bystander. For example, to maximize the benefits of “Bujo”, or bullet journaling, mastering the technique of rapid logging is essential because it utilizes symbols for recording information in quick, short-hand notes. 

9. The Shadow Work Journal: A Guide to Integrate and Transcend Your Shadows: Author Keila Shaheen crafted this workbook to help people uncover and heal their subconscious mind. From fundamental concepts to complex discoveries, this journal takes you through a self-evaluation in order to get you thinking, writing and eventually on the path to healing.

10. Clever Fox Daily Planner – Undated Planning Notebook with Hourly Schedule & To-Do List: The planner is great if you like to write everything out. From goals, to gratitude, spaces for mini-vision boards and items you want to focus on, the Clever Fox notebook helps you keep track of it all in one place.

11. Intelligent Change The 5 Minute Journal: With enough pages for 6 months of gratitude journaling, this undated notebook has sections divided into morning and evening, inspiring quotes, daily writing prompts, and weekly challenges to maintain your commitment to journaling. 

12. KUNITSA CO. Travel Journal - Guided Notebook for Travelers: In this guided travel journal there are prompts for planning, things to do and see as well documenting your trip highlights. Other sections include a packing checklist, and travel bucket list. Plus, you can rate your trip, noting whether or not you would return to a location. 

13. The Mindfulness Journal: Daily Practices, Writing Prompts, and Reflections for Living in the Present Moment: With 365 prompts you’ll never run out of things to write. There’s plenty of room to reflect because each prompt has its own page. The prompts are easy to follow and a great for beginners just starting journaling, 

14. Let That Sh*t Go: A Journal for Leaving Your Bullsh*t Behind and Creating a Happy Life: This is an explicit journal with language and themes to match, without censorship of any kind. If you prefer a journal to purge your negative thoughts, write down big, audacious goals you can do it with this one. Themes like “Do What You Can To Make Life Not Suck” and “Underachievement” may help you release emotions while focusing on what makes you tick.

15. The First-Time Mom's Pregnancy Journal: Monthly Checklists, Activities, & Journal Prompts: Designed for expectant mothers, this journal combines monthly checklists and prenatal appointments. First-time moms can add photos, document their unique pregnancy experiences, track important milestones, and reflect on the emotional and physical changes of one’s body. 

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Xoxo,

Nicole

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