Your morning journal is the tool that changes your day and sets the tone. You can choose to combine it with meditation or practice them separately.

It is said that when you win the morning, you win the day. Make sure you install healthy habits in your morning and journaling should definitely be one of them.

The discipline and consistency of your morning routine will show in your results throughout your day, the opportunities you start seeing and the quality of your relationships. Your life will thrive because your day will thrive.

I’ll share with you the 5 simple steps of the morning journal ritual that I have been practicing for over two years. And it can take less than 10 minutes but the results are seen for the next 24 hours (scroll down to the bottom of the page for the video version).

1. Meditation

Every morning, my meditation practice ranges from minimum 7 minutes up to 20 minutes. It’s never less than that and mostly around 10 minutes, but when I do feel the need to sit longer, I either wake up earlier or I schedule my day to start a bit later. I’ve discovered that guided meditation works best for me. In the morning it is usually about gratitude and intention, as well as breathing exercises.

2. Channeling

Sometimes, I ask a question during my meditation and wait for clarity. If I receive an answer or experience a certain state I immediately feel the urge to write it down. That’s why I always keep my journal next to me when I meditate. This first stage is optional and usually for advanced journal practitioners who channel the answers from deep within through divine guidance and translate it into words on paper through free writing.

3. Gratitude

You have already heard me talking about gratitude in various contexts and I’m sure you have heard many others mention it. Gratitude is so powerful in creating your reality and boosting your confidence. You feel grateful and therefore you feel good and your reality becomes better too. You start seeing the silver lining.

Writing about the things, situations and persons that you are grateful for sets the tone for the day. You can go for big blessings or small gestures. Connect with the emotion and feel your heart getting warm.

This can be as quick as 3 things or half a page or you can go for as many bullet points or pages as you wish.

4. Intention

When you have a clear intention of how you want your day to look and feel like, then you are more probable to achieve it. Having an end goal in mind will keep you focused. Even if it is about having fun, if you choose to focus on fun, you will see the opportunities of entertainment throughout your day. As you know, where attention goes, energy flows.

I like to write about my intention for the day in the form of a paragraph where I express how I want to feel at the end of the day and what is the main thing I want to accomplish.

You can go anywhere from one sentence stating your emotion for the day or you can scribble down your plan for the day and the activities you have in mind.

5. Mantra

Personally I always end my morning journal session with “Thank you. I love you.” This is my mantra and affirmation that I say to myself the moment I wake up, before I even open my eyes. I have trained my brain for a long time to connect to these words when I hear my alarm go off and now it just triggers this feeling of love and gratitude. This is why I use the same formula when I end my journaling.

Find your own formula or mantra that resonates with you. It needs to be pure and aligned and it needs to give you a positive feeling instantly. Try more than one, try affirmations, see what sticks with you and explore how you feel when you say it or write it down.