7 Metaphysical & Spiritual Benefits Of Journaling
Journaling is one the easiest — and arguably one of the most important — practices for supporting your personal development. It can be extremely therapeutic to document day-to-day events, and if you think about it, your Book of Shadows is a specialized journal of your magickal knowledge and practices.
But you don’t have to have anything as formal as a fancy book or handmade journal to reap the metaphysical benefits of journaling. You can simply journal from your phone if that’s easiest! The important thing about journaling is that it works best if it becomes a part of your routine. To help you get started, we’ve outlined seven benefits to journaling that you may not have considered.
Document Your Story
Journaling creates a record of yourself, for yourself, and for your descendants. Not only can you use your journal to record magickal experiences, but you can also document the more mundane day-to-day challenges, obstacles, and events. Years later, you’ll be able to see how far you’ve come. Your children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews can also look back on these records, after you’re gone, to get in touch with you. Who knows? They might use those journals to try and contact you on the other side!
Record the Blessings in Your Life
Abundance creates more abundance — that’s why gratitude is such an effective spiritual practice. Use your journal to record the things you’re grateful for in your life and watch more things to be grateful for show up! Record the good news you receive from family and friends. List your blessings out on paper. Document happy memories that you want to recall later. Then, if you go through a darker period, you can look back on those thoughts. Chances are, they’ll make you feel better.
Connect to Your Spirit Guides
Automatic writing is a type of divination that some people use to channel messages from Spirit, angels, or their spirit guides. It’s a great way to use your journal. To practice automatic writing, sometimes called spirit writing, start by meditating and visualize a communication link between yourself and the source you’d like to connect to. That source could be a deity, an ancestor, or your higher self. Then, begin by writing a question that you don’t know the answer to — and push yourself to ask questions that don’t have a simple yes or no answer.
Write as many questions as you’d like, then concentrate on each question individually. Write the first thing that comes to your mind. Don’t try to analyze the answers just yet. Finish answering each question in a flow of writing if you can, and then read through the answers to gain insight. Record any personal thoughts in your journal alongside your automatic writing practice.
Improve Your Spell Writing
Want to work some magick but feeling uninspired? You wouldn’t be the first person to wish their spells sounded like something the Charmed Ones would chant. Instead of diving right into your spell writing, try journaling about it first. When we journal, thoughts and emotions from the subconscious start to appear on paper. Using those thoughts as a springboard for your spell writing can create even better, more creative results. This also works for writing intentions!
Work Through Your Fears
You’ve probably heard the term “limiting beliefs,” but what you might not have heard anyone say is that limiting beliefs are basically just fears. They’re the fear of not being good enough, the fear of success, the fear of rejection, the fear of outshining others, and so on. Working through those fears in writing can help you process them better than simply thinking about them does. Write as if no one were ever going to read it — you can always burn your journal or select pages if you want them to remain private forever. As you work through these beliefs, you can release them and move forward.
Journaling Assists in Dream Recall and Lucid Dreaming
One of the first steps to lucid dreaming is journaling your dreams. But even if you don’t want to practice lucid dreaming, documenting your dreams can help you see patterns in your subconscious. Keeping a record of your dreams can also help you remember them even better. Since your dream state helps you work through issues and offer inspiration for your waking hours, being more in-tune with them helps you gain clarity and balance spiritually.
Boost Your Intuition
Writing in your journal about your dreams, physical and emotional responses to events, and thoughts can help you learn how to pay more attention to your inner self. Anytime you have a “gut feeling” about a circumstance or person, write it down in your journal. You now have documentation of that gut feeling. Later, if things turn out like you thought they would, go back to your journal and jot down the experience. Start taking note of when these hunches are accurate and when they were a fleeting thought. You should quickly notice a pattern.
Remember, there’s no right or wrong way to journal. Pick a medium that works for you — pen and paper or electronic — and set aside a few minutes each day to write to yourself, for yourself.
~ Megan Winkler
