Journal Power: How Strong is Your Faith?

This series of blogs is titled Journal Power because it’s about how journaling can increase your Personal Power. When you keep a regular, pen-to-page journal writing practice, you’re likely to experience new personal strength, confidence, and success.

No matter how much self-improvement I gain, though, there’s another side to Journal Power. Journaling is for personal growth and betterment, sure; but on the other hand it’s also about making room for mystery, unanswerable questions, and those parts of life that I can never control.

Lately I find that in becoming more open to the mysteries, the question of Faith is looming large.

Many of you are full of faith, and believe in one or many things with all your heart. Others might say that faith plays no role in your life. Wherever you fall on that spectrum, you may enjoy journaling around the concept. Spending time with your faith – however large or small it may be – will bring new self-understanding and a deeper appreciation for the inner coaching your journal can do.

• What is faith? I believe the sun will rise tomorrow, though I do not know for certain. That’s faith, on one level. Everyday life depends enormously on things we take on faith. Make a list in your journal of some ways faith operates for you (I trust the alarm to go off in the morning, I know my outfit is going to wow everyone, the food I just bought will not poison me.)
• Now take it to the opposite extreme. What’s your faith on the cosmic or spiritual level? Journal about what you believe in terms of higher power, heaven, and where everything originated in the first place.
• Consider the influence of faith in your thoughts and actions. Is faith a major or minor presence for you? If you’d like to increase your faith, what steps could you take towards that?

For that last question, let’s look at a few possibilities. You may wish to strengthen your faith in something that you can name; or you may wish to increase the presence of faith in your life, without naming its object.

1. Journal about your urge to grow your faith. Where does it come from, where do you feel it in your body, what do you hope the outcome will be?
2. Describe a few people who seem to have strong faith. What traits do these people have in common? How would it feel if you imitated their behavior?
3. Describe how you will look, act, and feel when your faith is stronger.
4. Set an intention before you go to sleep: something like, “I want to dream about faith tonight.” Keep trying if you come up empty at first, and journal the dream images when they appear.
5. Devise a simple ritual for growing your faith: saying a prayer, lighting a candle, doing some yoga, or any activity that you can do every day. At the end of each session, journal a line or two, letting your awareness manifest on the page.

Increased faith is something no one can get too much of. What other suggestions should we add to this list?

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Our brand new Whole Health Journaling Challenge is coming up! The 24 Day Challenge starts June 1 and it’s all about empowering you to take ownership of your health every day: getting back in touch with your body, mind and spirit and paying attention to what they tell you. Details here!