Photo of journal sitting on wooden dock — Topics to inspire your journaling practice

Journaling for Emotional Wellness

Whether you’re just starting to journal or you’re already an avid journal writer, sometimes a little topical inspiration can help. There are many ways to use journaling to help you stay emotionally well, and I’m eager to share a few topics for journaling that I personally use to help with emotional healing and emotional wellness. (P.S. If you’re just getting started with journaling, you might want to consider what your goals for journaling are before checking out the topics for journaling below. You can take the quiz, What Type of Journal Should I Keep? if you’d like some help exploring your goals for journaling.)

Topics for Journaling

Here are ten of my favorite topics for journaling!

Journaling Topic #1 - Journaling about topics you want to work on

If there are specific topics you know you want to work on for your self-development, journaling about those topics can be a great tool on your emotional wellness journey. You can use journal prompts or guided journals on the topic that interests you, or you can just sit down and write about the aspect of yourself you want to work on and record whatever comes into your mind. Here are a few sets of topical guided journal prompts to help you get started with this kind of journaling.

Journaling Topic #2 - Journaling about memories

Memory journaling is an often-overlooked method of journaling for emotional wellness in my opinion. Our memories influence who we are and how we respond to situations in the present day, so thoughtful reflection on our memories can help us better understand ourselves and chart the path forward. Memory journaling can also help us see patterns in our lives, understand what moments are most meaningful to us, and explore how the moments in our lives create our life story.

Here are a couple of resources to help you get started with journaling about memories.

Journaling Topic #3 - Free word association journaling

Free word association journaling is a really fun and easy way to connect with yourself and have some fun while you’re journaling. Here’s how it works. Start with a random word and write down the next word that comes to mind. Try to feel the next word instead of thinking it. Continue until you’re at the bottom of the page. Re-read the page and circle the most surprising connection you made. Write about why you think you made this connection.

You might surprise yourself if you try this journaling exercise! Visit the free printables page to get a free association journal prompt to give it a try. This journaling technique is great for connecting with yourself because it teaches you to allow information to flow freely without the need for explicit connecting logic, and this is often how inner guidance arrives.

Journaling Topic #4 - Journaling with daily journal prompts

Using daily journal prompts is a fun way to journal on a wide variety of topics. Daily journal prompts are also a great way to get started journaling because they can help you develop and keep the habit of journaling. You can get an entire year of free daily journal prompts here.

Journaling Topic #5 - Shadow work journaling

Your shadow contains things about you that you don’t know, often because it feels too scary to see these things. Your shadow could contain desires you don’t think you should have, emotions you don’t think you should have, and needs you don’t think you should have. These aren’t necessarily all bad things, but they are things that somewhere along the way you came to believe were undesirable. Shadow work is the process of learning about these things and accepting them as part of who you are. You can learn more about shadow work here.

I’ve found that shadow work yields huge benefits for my emotional wellness, and shadow work journaling is a great way to get started with shadow work. Here are a few shadow work journaling exercises to get you started.

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Journaling Topic #6 - Quote journaling

When a passage in a book, a line in a poem, or words in a movie or television show strike a chord with you, write the quote down alongside the date in a quote journal. Reflect on why the quote appeals to you. Quote journals are an easy way to start connecting with yourself through journaling, and once you’ve kept a quote journal for long enough, they’re also a great way to see various themes that have arisen at different times in your life.

My quote journal is my longest running journal and one thing I love about it is that unlike a lot of other types of journals it’s quick and easy to re-read later. As I flip through my quote journal, which now spans over a decade, I’m always amazed to see the recurring themes and ideas showing up in the quotes. In recent years, I have also noticed that quotes I recorded over a decade ago spoke to deep-seated emotional hurt that was in need of healing and my attention. Through the quotes I recorded from the books I read and movies I watched, I could see that even before I was consciously aware of what needed healing, the quotes that appealed to me were directing me to what I needed to work on.

Journaling Topic #7 - Lyrics journaling

A lyrics journal is a type of music journal that’s designed to help you connect with your intuition. A lyrics journal is also a great choice if you don’t have a lot of time to commit to journaling. To keep a lyrics journal, whenever the lyrics from a song pop into your mind, jot the lyrics down in your journal next to the date. When a song lyrics pop into your mind, this is your subconscious talking to you! Writing it down will tell your subconscious, “Hey, I’m listening!” Think about why the lyrics might have come into your mind. Do the lyrics relate to something you’re going through or something you’re processing? You can write about why you think the lyrics came into your mind in your lyrics journal, or you can just write down the lyrics.

At first the connection the lyrics have to your life might not be clear at all, but eventually if you keep up your journaling habit you will recognize patterns that explain why some songs pop into your head. This type of journaling also teaches you to pause and pay attention to what is going on internally with you, so it’s a quick and fun way to get into the practice of connecting with yourself throughout the day. Want to give this type of journaling a test run? Download this free lyrics journaling printable!

Journaling Topic #8 - Dream journaling

Starting a dream journal might seem a little scary and overwhelming, but journaling about your dreams is extremely rewarding in my experience. Before I began dream journaling, I had no idea how much my dreams were trying to tell me about myself and my life. Now I can’t imagine going through life without paying attention to my dreams. If you want to give dream journaling a try, here are a few resources to help you get started:

A Real Life Dream Journal Example Entry Illustrating The 7 Key Elements Of A Dream Journal Entry
How To Keep A Dream Journal
Tips For Describing Dreams In Your Dream Journal To Enhance Your Dream Interpretations
How To Use The 5 Dream Types To Understand Your Dreams (This is a great resource for getting something out your dream journal even when the symbols in your dreams aren’t making sense.)
What Does A Water Dream Mean?

Journaling Topic #9 - Travel journaling

In a travel journal you can write about your travel experiences as they’re happening, or you can reflect on previous travel experiences in your life. When we travel, we’re always a little bit outside of our everyday existence and sometimes that’s just what it takes for us to see ourselves and the world around a little bit differently. You can get started with travel journaling using these Travel Writing Prompts.

Journaling Topic #10 - Stream of consciousness journaling

Sometimes nothing beats just sitting down with your journal and pen and writing whatever comes to mind. Maybe you don’t want to do this kind of journaling everyday, but I would encourage you try this at least a few times. Talking about your day is great, but I find it really helpful to just write whatever pops into my mind even if it doesn’t make sense to me right away. Getting into the mind space to do this sometimes takes a little bit of warm up, but the main point is to try to prevent censoring yourself. Write about what made you happy, what ticked you off, how you’re feeling, what your experiences that day made you think and feel, and what’s on your heart to get started and then just let the words flow!

Photos for this article were created with Adobe Firefly.