Journaling is an activity that has been engaged in by the humans of this world for centuries. There is something powerful that a person taps into when they let words flow onto paper (or a computer screen). Manifestation journaling has become popular recently, and for good reason. This post will cover a few ways that you can use the power of journaling to manifest your desires into physical reality.
The scientific benefits of journaling
The effects of journaling have been studied for many years. In research, psychologists have found that journaling provides multiple benefits to the writer. The simple act of putting one’s thoughts on paper can promote happiness, physical health, and the attainment of goals.
Gratitude journaling has been shown to improve a person’s overall mood. Psychologists have also found that expressive journaling, which involves writing your innermost emotions regarding a negative event in your life, can increase the body’s ability to physically heal itself. The power of journaling is no joke!
How does journaling aid in manifesting?
The act of writing is a direct connection to your subconscious mind. When you sit down to write, your deepest emotions, hidden beliefs, and inspirations will come flowing out onto the paper. You will surprise yourself, and sometimes not even realize that you felt that way, or was bothered by that, or it will seem that some force other than you wrote the words.
The fact that writing connects you to your powerful subconscious mind, is the perfect opportunity to impress it with your dreams and desires. Whatever you successfully impress on your subconscious mind, will be brought forth into your reality.
“Writing is a lot like making soup. My subconscious cooks the idea, but I have to sit down at the computer to pour it out.”
~ Robin Wells
Why you need to impress your subconscious
Your subconscious controls 90% of what you do every day. Habits, beliefs, fears, habitual thoughts, memories and your interpretations of them, as well as your automatic bodily functions, are all controlled by your subconscious mind.
If you are broke, unhealthy, stressed, or overall unhappy with your current life situation, your subconscious is playing a large part in this. Change your subconscious, and you will see changes in your life. Simple as that!
The following journaling methods will aid you in doing just that. Tap into your creative writing power and manifest the life you desire!
Manifestation Journaling Methods
#1: Gratitude Journal
Gratitude journals are used in positive psychology as an evidence-based technique employed by therapists to promote well-being in their patients. This journaling technique can improve a person’s mood and outlook on life.
The reason this type of journaling is used in manifesting, is because it gets you into the state of receiving, which is essential in attracting your desires. The Law of Attraction works to bring you whatever you are a vibrational match to. If you are expressing gratitude for the things in your life, your vibration will be raised to one of receiving what you love, and this will cause more of what you love to come to you.
Gratitude journaling is the first manifestation technique I ever used, and I still engage in this practice every morning without fail. Because it works! I manifested big changes in my life, the biggest being freedom from depression and anxiety, of which I had been unable to find relief for years.
How to use a gratitude journal:
- Express appreciation for people, things, and situations in your life.
- Find the positive aspects in people and situations that you are struggling with.
- Express gratitude for your accomplishments, no matter how “small.”
- Remember the positive moments from the day before and appreciate them.
- Point out the ways that people and situations are helping you achieve your dreams.
Consistency is key! Even if you only write 3 things to be grateful for, just do it. Every day is best. You will see amazing results in your manifesting.
#2: Affirmations
Affirmations are a well-known, powerful way to influence your subconscious mind and manifest the reality that you desire. When you affirm that something is true now, your subconscious will take you at your word, especially if you include feeling. But even without much feeling, the consistent repetition will impress your subconscious and make it so.
Many famous people have used affirmations to produce success in their lives. Oprah Winfrey started using them as a child and has become immensely influential in her success; Jim Carey, before he had any evidence that his dreams would come true, used affirmations to affirm that he was a great actor, and it worked; Lady Gaga affirmed that she was famous, telling herself this “lie”, until one day it was a reality.
Affirmations must be powerful statements to yourself, repeated daily until these statements become so ingrained that they are habitual thoughts, which then affect your self-identity, and eventually change your entire reality.
There are a few ways to write out your affirmations. Writing in the first-person present-tense is best. “I am”, followed by your desired identity.
Such as:
- I am confident and successful
- I am abundant
- I am radiantly healthy
You can also write from the situational state you desire:
- I do what I love every day
- I experience harmony in all my interactions
- I have more than enough money
You can also write longform affirmations, which can help bring you into a stronger belief of your statements. When you write a longform affirmation, make sure it is believable to you right now, so you feel that it is true.
- I allow my higher self to bring me into a wealth consciousness more so every day
- Every day I feel more and more free to be my ideal self
Read your affirmations daily, re-write them such as in the 369 method (writing down your affirmation 3 times in the morning, 6 times in the afternoon, and 9 times before bed), and write new ones as needed. You’ll be hooked when you start to see your affirmations manifest. This method absolutely works if you stick with it.
“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
~ Steve Jobs
#3: Write your goals
Psychological studies have shown that setting goals (goal-setting theory) has a positive effect on success. These studies investigated goal setting in business, sports, and education, and all showed improvement in performance and outcomes. The actual reason for this is “unknown.”
When you write, you influence your subconscious. Therefore, if you write out in great detail what you intend to create, this makes your desire real to your subconscious mind, which starts the movement of energy in that direction.
Download Goal Sheet PDF here.
You don’t always need to know every step you need to take to make it to your dreams, but knowing where you want to end up is very important. After you have detailed what you desire, the first step, and each subsequent step will be revealed as you move forward with faith (yes, it takes faith to manifest!).
You can set short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. Short-term goals can be helpful in generating momentum to remain motivated for your long-term goals. Keep track of your successes along the way, and you will be encouraged and excited to continue on.
Some people have found deadlines for their goals to be helpful. It creates a sense of urgency and could spur you to movement. However, if your dream doesn’t manifest by the appointed time, you could allow yourself to be discouraged.
Realize that every dream is like a seed that is planted, and needs a certain amount of time to germinate and grow. Trusting the process is key, as well as keeping your eye on the goal, while being fully present on the task right in front of you. You are guaranteed to see results if you don’t give up and listen to your intuition.
#4: Scripting
Scripting is a fun way to get into the feeling of your dream as being reality now. Many experts on manifesting will attest to the power of emotion. Abraham/Hicks asserts that emotions are your higher self communicating with you, and when you feel bad, this is because you have a belief that is not in alignment with who you really are, which results in lower vibrations. Neville Goddard has a book called Feeling is the Secret, where he explains that anything we imagine with intense feeling will be brought into physical reality.
The method of scripting includes visualization, feeling, and writing. This combination produces a powerful force to aid you in manifesting your dreams. This can be a helpful method for those who struggle to stay focused during visualization, or simply connect more deeply with written words than internal dialogue.
To use scripting, you will want some quiet time to sit with yourself and write out an imaginary scene. This scene will depict in full detail what you would experience if your dream were to be manifested. You can write as much or as little as you want. Just be sure to write enough to feel immersed in your story, as though you are there. You want to feel it.
Here are some prompts for your scripting:
- Write in the first person.
- Write as though it is happening now. “My friend gazes lovingly into my eyes, and tears are forming as they exclaim, “You did it!””
- Include as many sensory elements as possible, such as aromas, details in your surroundings, feeling of the sun on your skin or breeze through your hair, etc.
- Focus on emotional adjectives. How would you feel if you really achieved your goal? What would conversations with others feel like? How would you feel living with your dreams as reality now?
Your scene could involve you doing what you would be doing if you had your dreams. You could also write yourself having conversations with others that you would have after manifesting what you want. The details are truly subjective and depend on what you are manifesting. You will know what feels right. And you can keep playing with this one until you find the most representative scene for you.
After writing your script, you can either re-read it to yourself often, speak it out loud, hang it on your wall or vision board, or just know that it is done and move on. Either way, you have impressed your subconscious and your desired reality is on its way!
#5: Reflect and reframe
You will find on your journey to creating your dreams that past beliefs will be brought to the surface of your awareness, and this will usually result in negative reactions and emotions. These are opportunities for you to release past programming and replace them with the new beliefs that reflect your vision.
Buddhist teachings talk about emotions that have not been released as becoming latent (lodged) in our bodies, sometimes stifling our energy flow. We might forget about the experience or thought that generated the emotion, but it’s still there, and will rear its ugly head when we least expect it. Unless the block gets released, we could experience all types of negative results, such as health issues, as well as resistance to manifesting our desires.
A great way to release old beliefs and encourage new ones, is by journaling. When negative reactions to situations or people come up during your day, take mental note of them to journal about later.
When you write about your reactions, try to get to the belief behind the actions and feelings. If you got angry and snapped at a co-worker because you were annoyed that they didn’t seem to be pulling their weight, what belief was behind that? Do you believe you always have to do everything? Do you believe others are lazy? Do you believe that if you don’t step in and do what’s needed that everything will fall apart? Whatever you believe is what you will experience in your life.
When you write down the beliefs, go through each one and decide which belief you would like to manifest instead. Do you want to release your need to do it all? Do you want to experience harmony at work, where you do your part and others do theirs? Do you want relief from needing to control? Write down beliefs to facilitate this:
- I do my part and allow others to do theirs.
- People are capable of doing their jobs well.
- I work in harmony with others.
- I release control and allow things to work out perfectly.
Watch how your reframed beliefs will begin to play out in your life. As you release old beliefs, you will free up your energy to manifest your dreams. Don’t skip this important step! House cleaning is essential to allow you to vibrate at the frequency of all you desire.
Journal your way to your dreams!
I hope you utilize some of the methods mentioned here. There are many more than these, but you can’t go wrong with a daily journaling practice.
Journaling will help you get to know yourself better, clear out the beliefs that don’t serve you, and allow you to direct your energy how you want. You will feel the difference and see the results play out in your reality.
Have fun, and happy manifesting!
