How To Start Journaling - How Journaling Can Change Your Life

Have you ever wondered how to start journaling, what to write in a journal, or whether journaling actually works? In this episode of Mind Your Own Beeswax, I'm sharing how journaling completely changed my life and why I believe it can change yours too.

In this episode, I share my personal journaling journey, from writing simple gratitude lists in 2018 to using journaling as a tool for self reflection, emotional processing, goal setting, and personal growth. I talk about how journaling helped me gain clarity during difficult situations, work through emotions, recognise patterns, and even look back on old journal entries to see how far I've come.

I also share the exact mindset shift that helped me build a journaling habit, inspired by Atomic Habits, and why making journaling easy and accessible is the key to consistency.

In this episode, I cover:

• How to start journaling as a complete beginner
• The benefits of journaling for self awareness and personal growth
• Why gratitude journaling was my gateway into journaling
• How journaling helped me process emotions and gain perspective
• Simple journaling ideas when you don't know what to write
• How to make journaling a habit using habit stacking
• Why you don't need a fancy journal or a perfect routine
• The power of looking back at old journal entries
• My favourite journaling prompts for beginners

My Favourite Journaling Starters:

• What am I grateful for today?
• How do I feel right now?
• What's been on my mind lately?
• What do I need to do today?

Whether you're curious about journaling for mental health, journaling for self discovery, or simply looking for a new way to organise your thoughts, this episode is your sign to pick up a pen, open your notes app, and just start.

Because from my experience, journaling isn't about being a good writer. It's about giving yourself space to think, reflect, process, and grow.

So if you've been waiting for a sign to start journaling, this is it.

Hit play and let's become the best versions of ourselves, one journal entry at a time.

Follow me for more on Instagram @mindyourownbeeswaxpodcast & TikTok: @mindyourownbeeswaxpod

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Mind your own beeswax. Hey, count out.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome back to

Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:09

another episode of Mind Your Own Beeswax. My name is Grace, and I hope you're having a great week just minding your own beeswax, living your best life. And we're here today to work on ourselves. That's what we're doing. We're minding our own beeswax and becoming the best version of ourselves. That's what this podcast is about. I'm here to give you my hot tips and my hot takes on how to live a rich, abundant, joyful life. We're out here living our best lives, and that's what I'm doing. It's 2026. I'm becoming a podcaster. I hope that the year is going well for you whenever you find this episode. I always have the intention that these episodes will find you at a time that you need it the most. So whether you're listening in real time, June 2026, or in the faraway future, I hope that you enjoy this episode and it changes your life. I wanted to bring you this episode today on how to journal. Now, if you found this episode, perhaps you have been researching how to journal, the benefits of journaling. Welcome. I'm so glad you're here. Or if you're just a regular follower of mine and you don't journal yet, let's have a go. Because let me tell you, journaling changed

How journaling changed my life

SPEAKER_00 1:29

my life and it's gonna change yours too. Now let me start off with saying journaling is not about writing, dear diary. Today I did this, blah blah blah. Mm-mm. That's not how I'm journaling, and that is not what I want you to be doing. Journaling is whatever you want it to be. Whether you write a sentence, whether you write a page, 10 pages, whatever you feel called to share with your journal is your journey, it's your message, and it's unique to you. So whatever you think of journaling so far, tip it out, put it in the bin. Let's start this episode with a fresh perspective on journaling. I first

When did I start journaling?

SPEAKER_00 2:14

started journaling probably back in 2018, and this was around the time that I first discovered the secret, I first discovered the law of attraction, gratitude. And so I just started by having the intention of writing a gratitude list. And this was something specifically I was doing at work. So at the time I had a shitty job, and this person at my job was pissing me off, and I just thought I'm gonna write gratitude for this because if I can be grateful for this situation, a new situation will come my way. So I would write these gratitude lists about this person and my jobs. I'd be like, I'm so grateful to have a job, I'm so grateful to earn money, I'm so grateful that this has made me resilient, and I would just do it every single day. Sometimes I would do it at my desk, sometimes I would do it at home at night. This is sort of how I started journaling, just writing down things that I was grateful for. And eventually, spoiler, I did get a new job. And so that really resonated to me that practicing that gratitude and writing it down, it got me somewhere. It got me a result. And that's where the ball started rolling. Probably for a few years after this, my journaling wasn't really journaling, I guess. It was just writing down things I was grateful for. And if that's what journaling is for you, that's totally fine. It doesn't have to be in an actual journal as well. If you want to write it in the notes on your phone, a random sticky note on your desk, in an actual beautiful journal, doesn't matter as long as you're writing it down. I then wanted to kind of journal a little bit further. So I read the book Atomic Habits, where it talks about habit stacking. And I thought, okay, if I want to journal more, let's habit stack this. And not even really habit stacking, but I just put the journal by my bed because at night I liked getting into bed and reading a book. And I was like, well, if the journal is there on my bedside table next to the book that I'm already gonna read, that's kind of habit stacking. Like it's making it on top of the habit reading that I'm already doing, but it's also in Atomic Habits, it talks about making things easy. So it's easy, it's convenient, it's something that I'm already doing. So I would just pick up my journal at night because it was there, and I would just write something. It could be anything. It could be today I had a nice day. Sometimes I might just put a sticker there, like if I'd got a sticker from the office, I might write a whole page. I just kind of like played around with it and just sort of like wrote something there for the sake of it being a habit. And then eventually, after doing it regularly, it did become a habit. So I would get into bed at night and I would journal most nights. After doing this for a while, I really didn't have like a consistent journaling practice. Like it would just be random things that I would enter. Some days would be a gratitude list, some days would be like kind of building on that, like, oh, I'm so grateful I did this incredible thing today. It was so fun. I'm thankful for my friends that did it with me. Or I would just write, had a shit day at work, this person pissed me off, like just kind of something.

Using journaling to look back

SPEAKER_00 5:23

And I remember when I got a new job. I found an old journal from like a year ago, and I'd written down, I wish I could get a new job, I want to earn this much money. And I read that from Past Grace, and I was like, fucking hell. I wrote that shit down in my journal, like really not even thinking, but just saying I hated my job and I wished I earned this money. Future me has got a new job and is earning that amount of money. And I had this real aha moment. I was like, god damn, like I love that this has happened for me, but I also really loved like having that record of like how I was feeling in that moment. And Future Grace was able to be like, wow, like I feel so grateful that I documented that. And because I acknowledge how I was feeling, perhaps that's what helped get me out of this situation. So it really made me go, journaling works. One, I love acknowledging how I was feeling and it helped me move forward, but I actually also really loved looking back and seeing how far I had come. So that really again sort of like propelled me further forward in journaling. And so I

How journaling can fix any problem

SPEAKER_00 6:34

have this one night that like sticks in my mind, and I actually cannot remember the situation. But I got into bed and I was saying to my partner, like, I was just ranting, I was really upset about this situation, I was frustrated, like I was just like, oh, like really, really pissed off. And I journaled on it and I wrote a whole page and I wrote down the situation. And then as I was writing, I was like, oh, I think it's because I feel this and this person feels like this way, and like I really unpacked it and I wrote a whole page. I closed my diary and I turned to my partner. I was like, oh, actually I'm fine now, like I've figured it out. And he was like, um, are you actually a bit fucked in the head? Like, are you okay? Like you two seconds ago were really worked up about this, and now you're fine. And I was like, Well, yeah, I just like journaled about it, and then I really got perspective on the situation, um, and I'm all good now. And I just like I remember that night, and I'm like, that was the power of journaling, that I felt so worked up about a situation that one, I wrote it down, and that probably was very healing in a way, but two, by writing it down, I gained perspective on the situation, both my perspective and potentially like the other side of the perspective, that I was over it. And I just like was like, great, I love journaling. There ain't nothing that me and my journal cannot solve. And since then, I have been a journal girly. Like, I write things down when I'm feeling good, I write things down when I'm feeling bad, it helps me appreciate the good times, it helps me work through the bad times. I feel like over the years now, I think I've got like six or so journals. Like, I just love picking it up and seeing what was I doing in March 2019 and having a look and being like, damn, I've come a long way, or thinking about good memories, or just having that gratitude for how far I've come. I love, love, love journaling. At this point, can I call myself a professional journaler? Maybe yes, maybe no. But what journaling looks like for me now as someone who has been doing it for say six or seven years really solidly, and I've genuinely got some incredible results out of it, I do not journal every single day. And I am not telling you that you have to journal every single day. I journal when I feel like it. Probably I don't know, some weeks I do do it every day, then maybe I don't journal for a whole week, maybe I journal every second day. Quite often, um, when I do a tarot reading, usually like on a Monday or a Sunday night, I'll do myself a tarot reading, I'll kind of like just journal out what the cards mean. Maybe I have an idea and I journal it. I also have a notes document in my phone and it's called Downloads from the Universe. Sometimes when I'm on the go, I'll just like write down a quote or write how I'm feeling, like something very brief, but I probably use that notes file as a type of journal as well. And things that I'm writing in my actual journal, sometimes I'm writing like massive pages. I'm like, oh, I did this tarot reading and I'm feeling really inspired, and I want to go after this goal, and this makes me feel this way, and I'm so thankful for this, and I'm writing these really deep, insightful things. Other times I will be writing, like, oh, I got my period today, I feel like shit, and that's it. Maybe I'll write down, I'm so grateful that I got my new floors. I love the floors in my house. There is no theme, there is no template, there is nothing consistent about my journaling. It's messy. I honestly think like if you picked up my journal, you probably could not read it because I'm just writing it in a state of flow. I'm just like scribble, scribble, scribble, close it up, move on. It doesn't need to be perfect. So if you're listening to this and you're ready to start journaling,

My top tips to start journaling

SPEAKER_00 10:27

here is my advice for you. Number one, just start. It doesn't matter how much you write, how often you write, just start. And maybe after listening to this episode, you just have a go. Whether it's a piece of paper, whether it's a document in your phone, write it down and just have a go. Have a brain dump of how you feel right now. And you could start with saying, right now I feel blah blah blah. Right now I'm thinking about this. Maybe you just journal what's on your mind. So today I'm thinking about doing all these things. Maybe you just write down a to-do list for the day and think about how do you feel about that to-do list? Just make a start. My second tip would be inspired by atomic habits, make it easy to journal and make it a habit. So can you stack journaling with something you're already doing? So can you put your journal by your bedside table next to the book you read every night? Could you put your journal on the breakfast bar where you eat your brecki every morning and journal while you have breckie or have your cup of coffee? Could you put your journal on your desk at work? So when you start the day, you've got your journal there. Can you make it easy and can you stack it with a habit that you already have? If you want to actually physically write in a journal, buy yourself a nice journal. I actually have the same journal. It's like a beautiful beige journal. It's actually nothing fancy, but it's just beige and it's got a gold letter G on it. And I've had that same one. I just re-buy it every time. I love it. It's so nice, it's so cute. Get yourself a cute journal, get yourself a nice pen. It's a bit more incentive to write if it is something nice. Or if you don't want to have a physical journal, just take the pressure off yourself and do it in your phone. Start a notes thread and just write down notes. Maybe you set up a notification in your phone for like, you know, at night or in the morning, whenever feels good to you. Set up a notification that says write a journal entry. And you just open that note in your phone, you write the date and just say, vibes are good today. Or write down what you did for the day. It doesn't have to be anything crazy, it doesn't have to be anything special, but just start putting it out there. So whether you put it in a journal, put it in your phone notes, it doesn't matter. Take the pressure off yourself if you feel like journaling has to be this very specific thing. It doesn't. You just have to write something down. And my final tip is that you've got to stick with it because when you can look back, and that's what I did, looked back, that's where the magic is because you can be like, damn, Grace a year ago, six months ago, a month ago is so different to who she is now. And it kind of shows you like the results, the transformation. I'm very guilty that I like to see the results of my work, and I think that motivates me. So if you're like that, journaling is a great way to track that. And if you're looking for a couple of thought starters on what to journal, gratitude is always a great place to start. Can you just write down five things that you're grateful for right now? And if you find that hard, just look around. Are you at home? Are you on the couch? Are you watching TV? Are you listening to this on your phone? Those are all things that you can write down and be grateful for. Another great thought starter is I feel this. I feel happy. I feel frustrated. And then why? I feel happy because I had a great day at work and I came home and I had a really nice night with my family. That's it. You're writing something down, you're acknowledging how you feel. That's it. Maybe you write down, I feel angry. Why? Well, maybe I don't really know why I'm feeling angry. I'm angry that I don't know why I'm angry. I think I'm angry in traffic today. I yelled at that person for cutting me off. I got angry at my partner because they triggered me. Oh, I didn't actually sleep very well last night. Maybe I'm not angry. I'm actually just overtired. See how you can like unpack that emotion and it gives you perspective. That's what journaling does for me, honestly, is like you write down all these things and it really helps you unpack those emotions. And by putting them on paper or in your phone, I think it's different to thinking those thoughts in your head. Because when you're thinking, you've got like a million, well, at least I do, I've got a million things going on at once. I'm like, chatter chatter, chatter, the inside chatter within my brain is crazy. But when you've got to write it down, it really allows you to like channel all those thoughts, and you've kind of got to put all those thoughts down into one sentence. And it can really help give you clarity. Like maybe you didn't actually realize that you were feeling angry, you were feeling tired, but it's not until you like write it down and you've got to like summarize it that you get that perspective. That's why I love journaling, because you can unpack things that you probably didn't even understand about yourself. And that's why I love journaling,

Why I love journaling

SPEAKER_00 15:37

because you can see the transformation of yourself over the years and months. You can unpack emotions that I really don't believe you can do it in your head. You've got to write it down. And it helps you see how good your life actually is. When you can write down things that you're grateful for, you can really realize how abundant you are and how many good things you have in your life. So try it now. Have a go, pick up your phone, pick up a notebook, and just write down one thing. And then if you enjoy that, put that journal somewhere that you can access easily and keep doing it every single day. And if you figure out that you love journaling, message me or leave a comment and say, Grace, this worked. I loved it. I would love to hear from you. Because I promise that if you have a go at journaling, it's gonna be like your little therapist. You can just have these little debriefs and unpack life. It's so, so good. I really, really, I really love journaling. If you couldn't tell by my enthusiasm, I fucking love journaling. Whatever it looks like for you, let that be. I actually know someone that journals and they like tear the page out and throw it in the bin, which I don't stand for. But if that's what works for you, go off, sis, throw it in the bin. But put it on paper and get it out there. Whatever works for you, have a go. Don't let anybody tell you journaling has to be this. I actually hate those journals you buy that have like pre-written prompts in them because I'm like, no, I just want to waffle. I don't want to have to be like, what am I thinking about today? What am I thinking about tomorrow? Like, I don't like those. I just want an empty book that I can I can just waffle. I can tell it all my secrets and write all my shit down. Just go for it. I actually said to my partner recently, I was like, have you ever read my journal? Like, would you ever read it? And he's like, God no, Grace, I do not want to know what's going on in that brain of yours. I hear enough bullshit from you already, I ain't want to read it. And I was like, well, respect, man. Like, thanks for your honesty. You obviously know that I'm crazy and you don't want to know more of my crazy, but it made me laugh. So let this episode be your sign to start journaling. And if you're trying to start your journey, just take the first step. And as I always say, I hope that this episode finds you at a time that you need it the most. And maybe this is your sign that you need to start journaling and that it is going to change your life. So, as always, thank you so much for hitting play on this episode. Love you, bye.