It is my deeply held conviction that journaling is a sacred practice.
Journaling is an altar for sacred creative ideas, a palace for holy epiphanies, a temple of deep feelings, and a shrine for mystical reflections.
In essence, journaling is innately spiritual:
It is a practice that helps to mirror the mind, open the heart, and reconnect us with the Soul.
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Therefore, to begin a spiritual journal is a sacred undertaking – and there are endless ways to do it, many of which are surprising!
Table of contents
What is Spiritual Journaling?
Put simply, spiritual journaling is the sacred practice of keeping a journal that explores one’s inner landscape.
Regular journaling tends to focus only on surface-level thoughts and feelings whereas spiritual journaling tends to dive deep into one’s core fears, hopes, dreams, discoveries, and inspirations.
In other words, spiritual journaling is a path of Soul Work (or Inner Work) that helps to awaken, expand, empower, and illuminate the hidden recesses of our inner selves.
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The Power of Spiritual Journaling
The result of committing to a regular spiritual journaling practice is usually:
- Discovering one’s higher purpose
- Feeling empowered at a core level
- Finding a sense of belonging within oneself and life
- Increased Self-Love and acceptance
- Accessing one’s inner Creator
- Deeper Self-Awareness and understanding
- Healed relationships with others
- Enhanced intuition
- Spiritual clarity and integration
- Ability to access more peace, love, and joy (even in the darkest times)
- Profound growth on every level
At the core of spiritual journaling is the drive to reconnect to something deeper and higher than ourselves. Some refer to this force as one’s Inner Guide, True Nature, Authentic Self, Higher Self, Daimon, Christ Consciousness, or Buddha Nature – but we refer to this force as the Soul.
Spiritual Journaling and the Soul
Soul Work is at the very center of our practice of spiritual journaling.
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By being intentional, putting a pen to the page, and letting our inner thoughts, feelings, and discoveries flow, we are accessing our Soul’s wisdom and guidance. What we’re experiencing is a form of Ensoulment.
Ensoulment means to live from and within the Soul. We live within the Soul by letting it guide, direct, and inspire our lives – and this helps us to live from the Soul, creating luminous ripples of change around and inside us.
Journaling supports our reconnection with the Soul by making a mindful ritual out of this inner journey of awakening. Depending on what technique or prompt we decide to use, we enter a sacred spiral path of inner illumination, healing, and expansion!
What Do I Write About?
Anything and everything!
Keeping a spiritual journal is all about the mindful intention and purpose you give it – so if your purpose is to learn, grow, and evolve as a spiritual being, anything is relevant!
For example, you might write about:
- How you feel
- Patterns you’ve notice emerging in your life
- Synchronicities, signs, and omens
- Anything that inspires you
- Insecurities, fears, and shadowy parts
- Mystical experiences you’ve had
- Thoughts you’ve been having recently
- Dreams (both conscious and unconscious)
- Oracle and tarot card readings
- Sudden epiphanies
- Poetry
- Meaningful goals and plans
- Introspective deep dives
- Art – yes, you can draw in your journal! (Why not?!)
- Found objects like leaves, newspaper clippings, artwork, feathers, etc. that inspire you (yes, by all means stick them into your journal if it calls to you!)
Obviously, there’s a lot more you can include, but the above is just to give you an exciting idea of the possibilities!
How to Begin a Spiritual Journal
There are two sides to beginning a spiritual journal:
the external and internal side.
We’ll start with the external side:
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Spiritual Journal Ideas (What to Buy!)
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Externally you’ll need to find yourself a nice journal and a pen that flows nicely – that’s it!
(Of course, if you prefer to exclusively journal on your phone, tablet, or computer, this part won’t be relevant to you, so feel free to skip to the next section.)
There are so many types of journals out there – here are some of my picks under the vintage, rustic, whimsical, modern, and minimalist categories. Ultimately, find what excites you and go for it!
If you prefer a handmade journal (which has something extra special about it, but not all of us have that time), follow your instincts and make one. Here’s an inspiring and instructional video that may help you to do that:
Next comes the pen.
Sure, you can go grab that old grubby pen you got for free somewhere, but does it write nicely? You wouldn’t think it makes much of a difference how a pen flows on the paper, but it does (believe me!).
A scratchy, heavy, lethargic pen will do nothing but weigh you down and make your spiritual journaling practice feel like a drag (quite literally!).
Instead, consider mindfully investing in a good quality pen made for writing long-form.
In this case, the best types of pens are rollerball, fountain, or gel pens (on the other hand, ballpoint pens kind of suck, sorry but it’s true!).
Some good options I’ve hand-picked include Pilot FriXion gel pens, Waterman Graduate Allure Fountain Pen, and Writech Liquid Ink Rollerball Pens.
Internal Side of Spiritual Journaling
The most crucial internal part of spiritual journaling is our intention.
An intention, quite simply, is the aim or purpose we give to our journaling.
Keep in mind that there’s a BIG difference between directionless ranting-and-raving journaling and journaling with a higher purpose (which is the intention we carry).
One of the biggest struggles many people have when they journal is that it can lead to spirals of self-pity, anger, and feeling like a victim. Note that this only happens when your journaling lacks a higher purpose!
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Here’s how to make your spiritual journal intentional:
- Give a name to your journal (yes, a name!) as it may help you to feel closer to this practice. Examples could be “Journal of Insight,” “Ethereal Reflections,” “Mirror of the Soul,” or even a name of someone you admire like a mentor or best friend such as Plato, Devi, Mary, Merlin, Rumi, Anna, etc.
- On the very first page, write a dedication (to your past/present/future self, to Life/Divine/Source, or to someone you love if that resonates)
- Whenever journaling, try to always dig deeper and ask “Why?” or “What does this mean?”
- If you find yourself spiralling into a dark place while journaling, ask, “What is this person, feeling or situation teaching me?”
- At the beginning of the journal, list some topics you’d like to explore more deeply (examples could be mistaken beliefs, childhood experiences, unhealthy patterns, recurring dreams, a magical insight you’ve recently had, etc.)
- Make a daily habit out of writing in your spiritual journal. Even just a couple of minutes to jot down something meaningful to you can make a world of difference.
Where to Go From Here?
If starting a spiritual journal excites or inspires you, stay connected with us! This whole website is about going deeper on your spiritual awakening journey – and journaling is one of our favorite practices!
Feel free to:
1. Take the advice in this article and put it into practice.
2. Learn more about journaling in our following free guides:
- How to Journal: 19 Beginner Tips For Modern Mystics
- 18 Benefits of Journaling (+ Tips For “Bad” Writers!)
- 100+ Journaling Ideas For Deep Mental & Spiritual Healing
- 30+ Mindfulness Journal Prompts to Find Calm in the Storm (+PDF)
3. Explore our collection of premium guided journals that can help to start your spiritual journaling practice, especially if you’re feeling a little lost or want to focus specifically on one of these topics:
- Shadow Work Journal (best seller)
- Self-Love Journal
- Inner Child Journal
- Dark Night of the Soul Journal
- Inner Work Journal Bundle (contains all our journals)
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The very fact that you’ve read this far (even if you skimmed most of it!) is a wonderful sign that it’s time for you to go deeper.
The Soul within you yearns to unfurl, blossom, and flourish, and what better way to facilitate that than through the ancient art of journaling!
Tell me, do you have a spiritual journal? What is your unique approach to this type of journaling? Also, feel free to let me know if this article helped you at all in the comments.
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2. Shadow & Light Membership: Want weekly intuitive guidance to support you on your awakening path? This affordable membership can help you to befriend your dark side, rediscover more self-love, and reclaim inner wholeness.
3. Spiritual Awakening Bundle: Looking for a collection of all our essential transformative resources? You get five enlightening ebooks, seven in-depth journals, plus two empowering bonuses to help you soul search, heal, and awaken.
Ive kept a special journal that serves as what u describe in the article as a Spiritual Journal.
But the only reason i had it was because i was a stickler for recording stuff, almost like OCD.
Im not sure if thats healthy, but that’s what happened.
Nothing wrong with recording lots of stuff – it may not be specifically spiritual journaling per se, but it’s still a valuable practice. :)
I only keep dream journal. I started Journaling my dreams since 2016.
Personally, I’ve been writing a spiritual journal for several years already. And when it comes to journaling in general, I’ve been doing so since I was a little kid, and oddly enough, I never stopped. I’ve looked through hundreds of resources online and dozens of books on the topic by this point, and it’s difficult to find specifically resources on spiritual (and not necessarily religious) journal resources, but some terms/phrases you can search online might lead to interesting results if you don’t know what to write on a blank page. 1. Spiritual journal prompts (Duh) 2. Philosophy journal prompts 3. Philosophy questions 4. Questions for deep conversations 5. Thought provoking questions 6. Hypothetical questions 7. Thought experiments (Then write your thoughts on them) 8. Spiritual art (If you want some art inspiration for any creatives here) 9. Spiritual poetry (Same reason, but verbal art rather than visual art) 10. Spiritual quotes (Search quotes to write your thoughts on). Hope that helps some people.
I’m just about to properly start my journalling experience
Let us know how you go Sharleen 😊
I must be honest, I started Journaling approximately 2yrs ago and it truly worked well for me than I just went through the roughest time in my life and somehow I felt like I was empty and I just couldn’t find words to express how I felt so eventually I stopped and I haven’t done any Journaling in approximately 6 months, how do I find the strength to get back on the horse?
Don’t force yourself. Give yourself a break if you need it. I’ve never been a real diary writer, since a dark period in my life last year I started a positivity diary. Every night writing down 5 things that went well and that I was happy or grateful for. Maybe that’s a simple idea, or a pre-written journal. Last week I found the 6 minutes a day journal. That goes beyond writing down 5 positive things. But it is accessible, you only have to answer the questions. Nowadays I look forward to sitting down and writing in the evenings, I also see the benefits of it, that helps with the motivation. Good luck!
Well my journal is like an old mongrel bitch. Born from many sections of life and Spiritual experimentation. And yes! its put together with a horrid old ball point pen with much scratching out and replacements of words misspelt, phrases miss placed and grammar awaiting Grammarly online. This is journal one, a prelim journal catching all the dream action at 4am in the Morning in which anything goes. As I never quite know where to begin and upon which visual timeline works best…..I just let it pour out of me like a proverbial fountain. In this state it is rough as old pine bark and full of nonsense and scribble, but this let it out approach gives much dust mud and slush along with the little gems, like gold dust. These can then be expanded as one feels, corrects and lets the beggar out.
After this it gets left to wallow in the dust of my desk, until retrieved the nest day, re read and re purposed into something that speaks from the joy of the heart and Soul into a new creation, new growth.
So yes Luna and Sol I am ready!. Out of the throw it all together phase and in need to be more selective, higher in purpose and to work on particular sections of the Spiritual experience …. More neat and tidy multiple journals.
Namaste
Hi John,
I think you highlight something important about the journaling process: there are many different types and styles, and all are as equally valid as the other. Like you, I’ve had many rough and messy journals, and I still do. One of my journals is so bizarre that it alternates between to-do lists, tea stains, scribbled out timetables, personal reflections, and more – it’s my ‘indefinable’ journal. So having a place to blurt out all of our mental chattering is not only healthy, but essential (in my experience) for a more clear mind. Spiritual journaling is just one type of journaling, not better or worse than any other types. But it can be just as accessible, just as messy in a way, as any other type of journaling, because journaling is rarely ever clear-cut. We go through a long process, typically, to get to the ‘golden nuggets.’ So hopefully this article has helped with knowing *how* to access those golden nuggets more readily, through the power of intention. :)