How Journaling Has Changed My Life as a Mom

Just the simple act of journaling daily has been a tiny discipline that has yielded BIG results in my life.

Not the “Dear diary” kind of journaling, and not the kind where you document your entire life, and it does not require daily prompts or lots of supplies. Although there is nothing wrong with those methods of journaling, the journaling techniques I want to share with you today is absolutely transformational.

Journaling has so many benefits. It has helped me think clearer, battle back depression, process grief, and settle ADHD tendencies. It has transformed my life as a mom.

I have stacks and stacks of journals full of my thoughts and prayers.

In this post, I will be sharing the “why” of journaling, as well as how it works, tips to do it better, common mistakes I see people making when journaling, and how journaling can seriously unlock the next best version of yourself.

Here is how journaling has changed my life as a mom:

HOW IT WORKS

A friend recommended a book, The Artist Way, that talks about “morning pages”. Disclaimer: this book is a little New Age-y, and I do not necessarily agree with everything in the book, but there are some good nuggets to be gleaned from it.

I do not follow exactly what the author recommends for “morning pages” but I grabbed a few tips from it that has upleveled my journaling and I want to share my process with you.

Here is the gist.

When we journal, it helps us understand what we think.

John Piper said, “I write so I know what I think”.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes, my brain feels like a very cluttered space. It feels like I have random sticky notes all over my brain, and my thoughts do not feel linear.

Journaling helps battle back confusion. It helps me see what is really going on in life more clearly.
Sometimes my feelings feel like a reality, but when I journal, I see things for what they are.
Journaling helps me step back and evaluate a situation for what it truly is.

All these things help me be a better version of myself as a woman and a mother.

WHAT I DO

I write three pages every single morning. As soon as I wake up, I start writing.

Here is the key:

I cannot judge myself.

When I am journaling, I will write the most horrendous things. I am brutally honest.

My husband and I know that each others’ journals are off limits. Mine is honestly probably garbage anyways. I doubt my kids will have any interest in reading them either.

It is simply a practice for me.

My journal is my place to get everything out. The good, the bad, the confusing, I can just get it out of my head and onto paper.

Journaling gets my inner critic out of the way

Imagine that we have a voice in our heads saying “You can do this, don’t give up” and “You can be a great mom”. And then there is the other voice in our minds saying “Who do you think you are? Why do you think that you can raise great children?” and “Why do you think you could step into a better version of yourself? You always let yourself down anyways”.

But what journaling does for me, is it gets the voice out of my head.

For me, it is a spiritual practice.

As a Christian, my journaling starts to become prayer.

As an example, the other morning, I was journaling about some big questions in our life right now. While I journaled, I could quickly tell the specific things that were bothering me, but then I asked the Lord for wisdom.

I do believe that I get perspective from the Lord when I journal.

Journal to clear your head

I always journal in the morning, but if something crazy happens in the middle of the day, or if I just need to process my thoughts, I will break it out.

Also, if I feel like I am going to sleep with a lot of thoughts, I will pull out my journal and write so that I can iron out my thoughts and rest easily and unburdened by a raging mind.

JOURNALING TIPS

When I was in college, I freeflowed.

I would draw all over the page, make patterns, and copy Bible verses I wanted to memorize. I preferred journals without lines so I could do whatever I wanted on the pages.

Now, I use journals with lines and have a stream of conscious thoughts for 3 straight pages. It’s not glamorous. Honestly, it’s a lot of complaining. But hey that’s helped me complain a lot less to other people.

Get a journal you are actually excited about!

This is my TOP TIP! Getting a journal you are excited about is a game changer.

When I was in college, I would go to Barnes and Noble and pick out a journal that was “calling my name” haha. Other times, I would just use whatever journal I was gifted. One journal was zebra with hot pink… not my style. I wrote in those gifted journals far less because I just wasn’t excited about them.

Here is the one I am currently writing in and here is one I have been eyeing for when I run out of pages. I really like this one too, there are so many options to find one you love!

Other ways I use my journal:

I also like to take my journal to church and conferences to take notes because I actually do refer back to the notes when I am journaling. Keeping one journal at a time it helpful because I am less likely to write in them if I have multiple little journals all over the place.

I love to write my takeaways from my time in the Word down along with any questions I am thinking about. I find it very helpful to disentangle my thoughts and it brings the things I am learning deeper and helps it stick.

Woman journaling with a pen, Bible, and mug of coffee

COMMON MISTAKES WHEN JOURNALING

Writing on lots of different papers and small journals

TIP: Keeping my Bible, journal, and pen in one place so that each morning when I go to write, it is in the same place and I don’t have to go looking for it.

Judging ourself or criticizing ourselves

If we are striving for perfection, we are never going to be happy because we will never be perfect. I often have to apologize to my kids and my husband for something I did.

TIP: So being brutally honest with myself in my journal is exactly what I need in order to level up. I am not trying to justify any bad behavior or criticize myself. I let my journal be my safe place where I can let my guard down.

This practice allows me to untangle thoughts and ask the Lord for wisdom. I cannot do that if I am not being honest or wasting time judging myself.

Trying to Write Well

TIP: Know the genre. The genre is freeflow! Have the run-on sentence – it doesn’t matter. The goal here is to get your thoughts on paper, get perspective, think more clearly, and ask for wisdom.

Perfectionism

Trying to be perfect in writing will likely keep us from being honest.

TIP: Give yourself permission to let your journal be your space to let loose and let your guard down.

“Thoughts disentangle themselves when they pass over the lips and through the fingertips.”

Writing is such a rejuvenating practice. In today’s world, we are constantly consuming content and other people’s thoughts, but we rarely get quiet to figure out what we think.

I do not want to speak things that other people have said just because they said it. I want to think about things and speak from things I truly believe and thought through.

For me, journaling is a place where I talk to the Lord. This is where I cry out to the Lord and tell Him the true state of my heart. When I pair journaling with my time in the Word, I believe He gives me perspective and helps me understand what He wants to say to me through His Word more clearly.

If you feel like your head is a scary place, if you are feeling anxious or depressed, I hope you will consider writing 3 pages in the morning. I cannot tell you how transformational this has been in my life over the past 15+ years.

woman journaling at a table with coffee mug

64 Books That Have Changed My Life as a Mom

I compiled a list of 64 books that have changed my life as a mom and as a wife. You are clearly a learner, so make sure to grab this resource!

Leaders are readers and readers and leaders.

Pairing journaling with reading is such a powerful practice!