journal page ideas for inner growth

January 23, 2020 Inge Nefdt

@ dreaming by dusk

I’ve always been interested in using my bullet journal for more than just tracking my day-to-day activities, and recently I found something that inspired me.

I was scrolling through some notes on my phone when I came across this thing I wrote to myself. It was a list of ideas for journal pages to help me in my personal journey for inner growth.

Something that matters to me right now. So much that I decided to make inner growth my theme for 2020.

A journal should be more than just a daily planner or a cathartic experience when you feel overwhelmed. A journal can also inspire your growth and be a powerful tool for self-discovery and self-love.

So, I thought it would be fun to share the list of journal page ideas I had and how to use them in your journal! Here are the 5 journal page ideas for inner growth. I hope you find these inspirational and helpful.

1. Self-reminders

One thing I’ve learned so far is that you must acknowledge your negative thoughts, but you cannot let them consume you. You have a choice about what thoughts you want to have in your head, and about what you feel in your heart. You may not be able to control what happens around you, but you get to choose how you respond to it.

This page inspires inner growth by making you remember the important things when you forget them. It helps you to bring balance to the negative by introducing positive messages and ideas. Such as recording a list of affirmations or quotes that speak to you.

This is a page in your journal you want to look back on when you feel overwhelmed and upset. It is a letter and a pep talk for yourself. We can be forgetful and sometimes we need a nudge in the right direction. A reminder to love yourself and be your biggest supporter!

An idea: Write about the negative thought that enters your mind. Read it. Understand it. Then write it again from a place of compassion, not criticism.

2. New discoveries

As a young woman in my early twenties, I see the same arguments being brought up again and again. The first is that I should have my life figured out right now, in every possible aspect. The second is that your twenties are a time to experiment and try everything; you’re younger so you’re able to take more risks. Obviously, I agree with the second one.

This page focuses on inner growth by keeping a record of all your fun experiences and adventures, big or small. Such as events you attended, places you discovered, food and drinks you’ve tried, things you created.

It’s not a race, but if you can, encourage yourself to experience new things. Break routine, go out of your comfort zone, learn something new about yourself and others.

An idea: Write about 5 new discoveries you made during the week (or month) and how you felt about them.

3. Happiness & positivity

Too often, I race through the day without stopping to ‘smell the roses’ or paying attention to what really matters. So, I’ve been trying to practise gratitude at least once a week. Because learning to be appreciative of what you have makes you happier to have it in your life.

This page encourages inner growth by helping you to get to the root of what really matters to you; what enriches your life and gives it meaning. Of course there are friends, family, fortune and material objects. I know I am grateful and happy to have every person and thing in my life.

But what about the things in our lives we’ve never considered before? And why do these things make us feel happy?

An idea: Write about the 5 senses and how each of them made you happy this week. Something you smelled, heard, saw, tasted and touched. Personally, these are the things I tend to overlook the most.

4. Lessons learned

Sometimes, I fail at something I worked hard on and then I feel bad about the result and myself. A new thing I want to do in 2020 is focus on what I can learn from my failures instead. This way, everything has a little bit of optimism in it.

This page inspires inner growth by challenging your flaws and faults, and how you can do better next time. Like self-reminders, you can learn from your failures in a constructive and compassionate way without feeling bad about yourself.

Create a habit of giving yourself good feedback. Don’t focus on what went wrong; rather why they went wrong and how to change it next time.

An idea: Write about something you failed at. Think about it more deeply, and then write about the lesson to be learned from that failure.

5. Manifestation

This is a new concept that I’m still learning about. Since I’ve always been the kind of person that enjoyed wishing on stars, blowing on dandelions and making wish lists on paper. From what I know so far, manifestation is the same but BETTER.

This page makes you think about inner growth by helping you to realize what you want in life and what you want to be. It is a place to be clear and specific, and to visualize your dreams. Of course, manifestation is only half of the work. You need to put in the hard work as much as the universe does.

Some tips I’ve learned are these. Always be specific about what you want (to be) and use the present tense. Behave, speak, and write as if you have gained the thing you want already. Then let it happen in it’s own time, on its own terms. In the meantime, focus on how you can do your part to make it true.

An idea: Use phrases such as “I am” and “I have” in your manifestation page. Keep a list of your manifestations of the week, month, or year. It might be 1 or it might be 10 on the list. Write it with intention and meaning.

These are 5 journal pages to introduce to your bullet journal to inspire inner growth, self-discovery and self-love. I’ve given some ideas of how you can incorporate these pages, but it is also entirely up to you and what you hope to gain from using them in your monthly spread. Hope these are helpful. Enjoy!

dreaming by dusk