A Complete Guide (+ Prompts)

Are you looking for a guide to help you start a practical, fun, and useful manifestation journal? Do you want some prompts to get your mind activated and the words flowing? Or, would it be useful to have some strategies for setting effective goals? Well, we have all that for you in this article. If you’re just starting a manifestation journal (or continuing an existing manifestation journal), you’ll have the tools and structure to use this journal to reach your dreams.

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A manifestation journal is a journal or notebook where you write down your thoughts, dreams, goals, and/or plans—all the things you want to manifest. In a manifestation journal, you might also use other science-based techniques to help you stick to your goals and manifest your dreams. Ideally, a manifestation journal helps you gain self-awareness, clarity about your life direction, and the insights you need to start moving toward your goals effectively.

To use this manifestation method and start a journal for manifestation, all you need is a notebook or journal and an idea of what you want to manifest. Once you get started, you may want to implement some other techniques and strategies to help you begin working towards your dreams. In the steps below, we’ll walk you through some techniques and steps that can help you create a high-impact manifestation journal.

One common journaling technique is freewriting. When we freewrite, we just let whatever comes to our heads flow onto the page. Freewriting can be a great way to get started with manifestation journaling because it can help you overcome the inertia of the blank page. Freewriting can also help you gain more awareness of things you may not have been aware of. For example, maybe you discover with freewriting that you have a goal that you weren’t aware of or a passion that has been kept buried for too long.

​While freewriting in your manifestation journal it may be beneficial to share emotions and disclose private things that you haven’t told anyone. Research suggests that doing so may help release  inhibited thoughts and emotions and improve well-being (Pennebaker, 1997). Perhaps it is this clearing of emotions like fear and regret that can make it easier for us to let go of the past and move forward with our goals and dreams.

‘Manifestation’ is a controversial topic in the field of psychology because it is often paired with ideas from “The Law of Attraction” that are not scientifically based. The idea from the law of attraction is that we can simply focus on our goals and that is what manifests them. Although there is research supporting the idea that optimism and positive expectations can help us manifest our goals, there is more to it than that. We can make a lot more progress by using science-based approaches and goal-setting techniques.

To start our manifestation journal, we can get clearer on what we really want and what our goals are. One method for doing this involves the SMART system (Lawlor, 2012). By making sure each of your goals is ‘SMART’ you increase your chances of reaching those goals. So, in your manifestation journal, consider writing out each of your goals and noting down whether it has the following features.

S – Specific
M – Meaningful
A – Achievable
R – Realistic
T – Trackable

Once you have your goals clear, you might want to spend a little more time writing about your ‘why’. Ask yourself:

• Why is this goal meaningful to you?
• What will achieving this goal give you? 
• How will you feel once you’ve achieved this goal? Will those feelings last?
• Will achieving this goal help you achieve other important goals?

Try to reflect on whether this goal is truly meaningful to you or if it needs modification. It’s the truly meaningful goals that we are more likely to stick to.

Often times what gets in the way of us achieving our goals is a negative mindset or the failure to believe in ourselves. By developing a positive mindset about ourselves, our capabilities, and our future, we give ourselves a better chance to reach our goals. Other people and things may still stand in our way but at least we are not standing in our own way.

To start, we can work on developing a growth mindset—or the belief that our most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work (Dweck, 2015). When we have a growth mindset, we put in more effort to improve our skills because we believe those efforts are worthwhile.

To build this skill, write in your manifestation journal about times when you did learn new things or build new skills. Write about how it went, the challenges you overcame, and how you eventually learned the new thing. This can help remind your brain that you are indeed capable of growing and learning things and that you can manifest what you want.

One of the keys to successful manifestation journaling is checking in on your progress and making sure that the efforts you’ve been putting in are actually getting you to where you want to go. For example, let’s say you want to build stronger, more supportive connections with your friends and family. Maybe you’ve decided that to reach this goal you’ll have more social events at your home. But when you check in on your progress you realize that even though you’re spending more time with these people, you don’t feel closer to them. This might lead you to shift the way you approach your goals. Maybe you’ll now instead try to spend some one-on-one time with each person.

Regardless of your goals, finding ways to track progress is key. I like to use spreadsheets, but you could create a little chart in your manifestation journal too. Check off when you do the actions that help you reach your goal. Then, note down if you actually think these actions are leading to your goal. This self-reflection can help you modify your goals and actions over time when you notice things aren’t going quite to plan. This will help ensure you stay focused and on track.

As you continue to do manifestation journaling alongside manifesting something in your real life, you’ll likely come across different experiences. Reflecting on these experiences and mapping a manifestation path forward can be helpful. Here are some questions you may ask yourself along the way:

Questions about manifesting your goals

• What are your short-term goals?
• What are your long-term goals?
• How will these short-term goals help you reach your long-term goals?
• What good habits would you like to build in the next 5 years?

Questions about changing goals

• Do you still want to manifest the same goals you used to want?
• How have you changed?
• How can you reflect these changes in your current goals?
• How can you set new goals that support the person you are becoming?

Questions about your lifestyle goals

• What would you like to have accomplished by the end of your life?
• How do you imaging the last years of your life?
• Where are you then?
• What are you doing then?
• What can you do now to make sure you get there?

In addition to reflecting on questions that come up, you might find that you want to reflect more on yourself and your experiences to gain more clarity about what you really want, what you need, and what will really make you happy. Here are some manifestation journal prompts that may help you gain more clarity:

• I am happiest when I…
• The positive changes I want to make in the world are…
• I am successful at reaching goals when I…
• I struggle with my goals when I…
• I can overcome challenges by…
• I believe in myself because I…
• If I feel I am losing faith in my own abilities I will…
• If I’m feeling stressed on my journey I will…
• If I need support to help me manifest my dreams, I will…
• When I need a friend, I will reach out to…

Still want some more ideas for your manifestation journal? Here are some more journaling ideas that can help you keep diving a bit deeper.

“I am” manifestation journaling ideas
The “I am” journaling method uses positive affirmations to strengthen confidence and mindset. You explore your skills, strengths, and positive qualities. For example, you might write, “I am successful,” or “I am powerful”. Create a list of your positive attributes using “I am” before each one.

Gratitude manifestation journaling ideas
Gratitude journals can be a great way to boost happiness and well-being. When using gratitude for manifestation, you might want to focus your gratitude on the things related to your goals and dreams. For example, if you seek to manifest love, you could express gratitude for the opportunity to meet a few new people, even if only to know that they aren’t ‘your person’.

​If you’re seeking to start a business, you could express gratitude for your first sale. Or, if you’re manifesting better friendships in your life, you could note gratitude for a kind thing your friend said to you. In your manifestation journal, note down all the good things that are happening related to your goals.

Hopefully, you’ve figured out what you want to write about in your manifestation journal. The next step is to use strategies that help you stick to journaling so that you can keep moving towards your goals. One way to do that is to get a journal and supplies that you really like. That way you’re more likely to look forward to journaling. Here are some of my favorite journals and supplies to check out.

Some of the best manifestation journals:

Some fun manifestation journaling supplies:

Here are some other practices that you might want to include in your manifestation journal. You can do the activities in your journal to build key skills that can help you be more successful in many areas of your life.

Want to keep learning about manifestation journaling? Check out these articles:

• ​​​​Lawlor, K. B. (2012). Smart goals: How the application of smart goals can contribute to achievement of student learning outcomes. In Developments in business simulation and experiential learning: Proceedings of the annual ABSEL conference (Vol. 39).
• Pennebaker, J. W. (1997). Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process. Psychological science, 8(3), 162-166.​​