How to use mindset journaling to immediately boost your mood and live a better life

In average, a person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those, 95% are repetitive thoughts. If we repeat those negative thoughts, we think negative way more than we think positive thoughts. This means the way we experience life is manly negative in nature. Our thoughts affect not only the way we experience life but also the way we feel and the way we act. If 80% are of our thoughts are negative and discouraging we will most likely not act upon our goals, we feel sad, frustrated and upset which translates to all areas of our lives and affects our relationships negatively. This is why it is important to number 1) change the thoughts we already have into more positive ones, and number 2) engage in building new thoughts that are of positive nature too. One way to do both is mindset journaling and I will show you today how to use this method.

What is mindset journaling?

Mindset journaling is basically a practice that uses journaling to change your mindset. It is based on the fact that we can influence our thoughts by the east we direct our attentional focus. So if we are using journaling as a tool to get everything of our chest while at the same time direct our attentional focus towards a more positive ground it can have a great impact on our mindset. It’s hard sometimes to change our thoughts by simply thinking differently. Sometimes we’re in a spiral that it is hard to get out of. Our thoughts keep being negative even if we constantly try to change them to the positive but as soon as we stop repeating our affirmations we go back to the way thoughts were before. Now if we got all those negative thoughts out of our head while at the same time planting new thoughts through writing all of this down we not only focus more intensely on what we think but we have three ways actually that impact the brain in this moment: thinking, writing and reading. This way the positive thoughts are 100 times stronger.

How does mindset journaling work?

Mindset journaling is pretty simple. You just write down what you’re thinking in this particular moment and one by one turn those thoughts in to more positive brighter thoughts. You can even pretend like having a small pep talk with yourself. You can do mindset journaling either every time you feel a negative thought or emotional state approaching and tackle it right then by addressing the thought or feeling instead of letting it take over your consciousness. Or you can use it more as a habitual practice by integrating it in your routine. I for example like to do it every morning just to set a good start to the day. Or every evening to make sure I release every negativity before I go to sleep so I am able to wake up without worries.

Btw. did you know that the mindset we go to bed with does have a great impact on the way the next day will go. So making sure you release all negativity and tune into a positive state of mind before you fall asleep can help greatly to have an amazing day the next day.

Mindset journaling example

Today I am feeling very discouraged. I hate the way I look and I am upset with myself for not being able to follow through with my diet goals. I also feel super lonely because I haven’t seen my friends in ages and my job sucks because I only get work to do that I hate, where I am not challenged and don’t learn anything. I am feeling super tired and exhausted and really wonder how I got into all of this. My life is supposed to be exciting and full of joy but it isn’t and I wonder what I am doing wrong. Why is everyone around me having so much luck and I don’t?!

But maybe I am not that unlucky. Maybe I have given my best with my diet today and it is okay to fall of track. Maybe I am just having a tough time and it is normal to not be able to give 1000% everywhere. I forgive myself for having screwed up with my diet. It will try better tomorrow. I also know that my job sucks and that I am exhausted but I trust that I can push through this it is only a bit more and I can go on vacation. Also there is still some amazing things I can take from the work. At least I know now what I don’t want and I can start to look into a job that is more aligned with my values. In fact, I will start looking right away tomorrow. Also all of this shows me just how much I need to lower my expectations that I am putting on myself. My life is great, I have a lot of joyful things like my family and my passion projects so I might as well focus on those instead of letting work and other circumstances take the joy away from those too. Things will change again and life will look better for me again too. Until then I just give my best and trust that I will be stronger after this.

Obviously, you could go much more into detail in both the negative and the positive part of mindset journaling, however I think I made the point and gave you a better understanding how it works.

Also, there is no right or wrong with mindset journaling. As long as you follow the basic principle and start with the negative and then go to the positive you can write anything.

Mindset journaling prompts

How do I feel right now?

What causes my feelings at this moment?

What frustrates me right now?

What is the reason I am feeling how I am feeling?

What causes me the most frustration right now?

What makes me unhappy?

What is the reason I am unhappy?

What don’t I like about my life right now?

How can I change this?

What is amazing about my life?

What am I grateful for?

What can I learn from this?

How does this help me in the future?

What can I do to feel better?

How can I change the way I think about this.