5 Types of Journaling That Will Change Your Life!

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August 14, 2026

Keeping a journal is a great way to get to know yourself better. I have said this a few times now… I love journaling. There is nothing like a brand new notebook or beautifully covered journal that makes me want to put my pen to it’s pages to catalog my thoughts, feelings, doodles, and goals.

In my opinion, getting all my thoughts out on paper somehow transitions them from thoughts to tangible ideas. Some ideas are worth pursuing and others might not get past the paper they are written on. There are also times when my mind is cluttered and I need to get everything out.

Emotions are tricky and sometimes all consuming. As a child, I remember we didn’t talk about how we felt as much as people do nowadays. I think we went from emotions being suppressed to emotional everything, in both instances emotional dysregulation was the norm. To become emotionally intelligent or emotionally healthy, we need to process our emotions and not suppress or dwell on them.

We cannot live in our emotional self for so long that everything becomes emotional. This is how we take things personally. Emotions come and go like friends in passing. They come and visit, then they go. Sometimes emotions become like relatives that come to visit but overstay their welcome. Journaling is a great way to work through our emotions and regulate how we feel. Maybe journaling will help you to regulate and become unstuck from the emotional cyclone you sometimes or always find yourself in.

Gratitude Journaling: Writing down the points of the day that you are grateful for is a great way to start or end the day. It doesn’t have to be eloquent or elaborate. Just a thank you for the high points and even the low points that pointed to a positive outcome. Collecting these in a journal or notebook makes it handy for us to look back and remember that particular day. I firmly believe that the more we are grateful, the more opportunities we will have to be grateful. If you only have a few minutes in the morning and need a gratitude journal this one is a one page per day journal that not only guides your gratitude but helps you to move toward your dreams.

Self Discovery Journaling: For this type of journaling you would answer thought provoking questions that encourage you to to dive deep into yourself. There are specific journals, like this one. If you choose to do your own, there are many, many lists of questions to prompt your journaling on Pinterest. We have a board dedicated to journaling. If you don’t follow us already please click here to view our boards.

Self Awareness Journaling: This type of journing is my favorite to work through my problems and the emotions associated to them. The best part is that you only need a plain lined notebook. At the top of the page write the date. On the next line write, 3 things bothering me and number the page to three. Skip the next line. Then write 3 things I’m grateful for, number the page under this to 3. Of course you can write more than 3 things in this category. Lastly, label the next section Feelings/Thoughts/Action Plan. Working through this type of journal brings your awareness to the parts of your life that are causing distress. This way also helps you to write out your emotions and construct a plan to move forward out of your place of suffering. See the example below.

Art Journaling: Artistic journaling is something now used for mindfulness practice and for processing deep emotions. This practice is to express your emotions and work them out in an artistic way. Using adult coloring books to express yourself through coloring and drawing extra patterns on the pages. Some people have the ability to create on the fly in their drawing book or with paint on a canvas. For those of us who need inspiration there are prompted art journals, like this Smash and Stash journal. You may just discover that you are very artistic and creative.

Brain dump Journaling: This type of journaling has no method other than just writing. It is basically word vomit of the mind. It is quite exactly a brain dump. Tasks that need to get done, reminders, project ideas, recipes to try, and so on. Writing everything in your mind down on paper to purge your everything out to organize it later. For some of us, the organizing later never comes. For others the organization happens to varying degrees. These can be transferred to your planner or calendar in the morning or when you have a free moment.

Bonus: The Journal that combines all the Journals, Planner, and then some, all in the same place.

Bullet Journaling: If you are already following the bullet journal movement, we lovingly call it Bujo for short. This great journaling experience is creative, artistic, growth oriented, and functional. You can find so many ideas for bullet journaling on Pinterest, we have a dedicated board for Bullet Journaling if you want to take a look. In a nutshell Bujos are planner journals that you make yourself with either a dot grid journal or with a regular notebook. You could also use a planner that is extendable like a digital planner that you can print your or a Happy Planner.

You can include whatever you want to make your bujo as personalized as possible, you can have a weekly layout with trackers, lists, and goals. You can add your gratitude journal. You can have self discovery journaling prompts. You can draw or doodle in it. There are doodle, writing, and reading challenges on pinterest and Instagram, that you could add. You can keep track of your business goals and achievements or your meal planning. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

No matter the journaling type you choose or use, they are very helpful to our well being and growth. Learning new things about ourselves and expressing our emotions helps us to see our beautiful depth and helps us to create a stronger bond with ourselves. Most importantly you should enjoy and have fun with it.

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