How Journaling Builds Confidence — One Page at a Time

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Confidence doesn’t arrive with a spotlight; it grows in quiet moments we forget five minutes later. I’m sharing the simple journaling practice that helped me catch those wins in real time, calm my anxious brain, and build a stronger, kinder story about myself—one sentence at a time.

We start with the origin: a planner idea that evolved into a daily confidence journal after I realized what I really needed was reflection, not more scheduling. From there, I unpack what the research says about expressive writing—how even 15 minutes, three times a week can reduce stress and anxiety, and why naming emotions boosts mood regulation and can even nudge physical health markers. You’ll hear how journaling externalizes messy thoughts, creates distance for better choices, and rewires attention so your brain starts scanning for competence, not just flaws.

Then we get practical. I walk through prompts that work when you’re tired, rituals that make the habit stick, and a realistic take on handwriting versus your notes app. I share a personal example from motherhood—an area where I’ve felt insecure—and how tracking small, specific wins changed my outlook. You’ll leave with a 60-second exercise you can try right now: write “Today I felt confident when…” and see what shifts by tomorrow. If you want structure, I’m also announcing my rainbow collection of Daily Confidence Journals, designed to train your attention toward what’s working and help you revisit growth you might otherwise miss.

If this resonates, listen, try the prompt tonight, and tell me what you wrote. Subscribe for more confidence tools, share the episode with a friend who needs a gentle nudge, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
You're listening to Confidently Beautiful with
Sierra, a podcast to help youstay confidently beautiful
because we all have confidenceinside us.
We just need to bring it out,and I'm here to show you how.
Body image, dreams, parentingstyle, personality, and more.
Here we cover it all.
Get ready to stay confidentlybeautiful.

(00:25):
Welcome back to the podcast.
I am Sierra, your host, and I amso happy that you are here
tuning in.
I encourage you while you'relistening to this episode to do
something that will help you tofeel a little bit more confident
in an area of your life.
It could be something big, itcould be something simple, but
something that is going to makeyou feel a little bit more
confident in something that youhave been struggling with.

(00:45):
So for example, maybe this couldbe you are not feeling super
confident in your finances thesedays.
So maybe as you're listening,take some time.
Go through your subscriptionsthat you have.
See if there's anything that youwant to cancel.
Maybe you go through your bankaccount and you see exactly
where you are spending yourmoney and some areas you could
cut back on.
Maybe you are feeling like youare not being confident in your

(01:06):
friend life and you don't feellike a good friend lately.
Maybe send a quick text to afriend who you have been
thinking about and just say hiand see how they're doing.
So do something that is going tomake you walk away feeling a
little bit more confident inthat area of your life.
About two years ago, I startedon the journey of creating a
planner.
Now I do still have this dreamthat maybe this planner will

(01:26):
still be something that I do.
But as I was designing it and Iwas doing prototypes and I was
trying it out from my own lifeto see what I needed to tweak
and try, then I realized what Ireally need right now is I
needed a journal.
So it evolved from a plannerinto a journal and I started
journaling.
I started in my phone, just inthe notes app, and then

(01:48):
eventually I went to a notebook.
And I would just journal onesimple question.
Today I felt confident when, andthat small practice has changed
how I see myself.
In today's episode, I want totake you through how journaling
can actually help you grow yourconfidence.
I want to tell you what theresearch says, and I would love
to share some simple steps youcan start today if you are

(02:11):
interested in journaling.
Confidence is not just about bigmoments.
It is made from the small dailywins and how we perceive them,
how we see ourselves in thosemoments.
Journaling gives you a spacewhere you can see your internal
growth and you can notice theprogress you might have

(02:34):
otherwise overlooked.
It can be really easy to havethose small daily wins, but you
just don't see them becauseyou're just in the middle of
your day and you were just goingthrough the motions.
You were just trying to get tothe next thing.
You are maybe so discouragedthat you can't even see those
small wins that you had.
So taking the time to journalgives you that space where you

(02:55):
can step back and you can see,okay, this is where I actually
did win in this moment.
This is where I did shine.
This is where I was confident.
You can start to notice theprogress and it externalizes
your thoughts so they're notjust swirling around invisibly
in your mind going unnoticed.
Over time, it builds a narrativeof strength.

(03:17):
You can start to see the placeswhere you are growing.
You can start to see when youhave your doubts and when you
are shining.
And you can notice patterns inyour life of where you may be
feeling extra confident.
What does science say aboutthis?
What is the research aboutjournaling?
I don't want these episodes tojust be a bunch of mumbo jumbo

(03:39):
from my brain, but I want it tobe actual evidence-based
episodes where you can walk awayfeeling like, yes, this is
valuable.
This is something that is goingto help me in my life, and this
is why it is going to behelpful.
There were some randomizedcontrolled trials that they
found that journalinginterventions produced on
average a 5% greater improvementin psychological health compared

(04:04):
to the controlled groups.
The groups that were journalingwere greatly improving their
psychological health.
So one thing that I thought wasinteresting and that I can see
that is actually true based onmy experience is that people who
suffered from anxietyspecifically, if they were
journaling regularly, they had areduction of 9% in their

(04:28):
anxiety.
PTSD was a 6% reduction in thisstudy, and depression was a 2%
reduction.
So these are probably verymodest statistics, but I think
that just any slight reductionin any of these is going to be
an improvement.
And if it can improve yourhealth even just a little bit by
journaling, that is such an easyway to do it.

(04:50):
I know for me with my anxiety, Iam much more calm and at peace
when I am taking the time tojournal.
If you're thinking, right, Iwant to reduce my anxiety, I
want to reduce my depression,then what how exactly can I do
this?
In some studies, they said justeven 15 minutes, just three
times a week, those participantsreported less stress and fewer

(05:13):
depressive symptoms.
Journaling has been linked toimprove emotional awareness,
reduce stress, better your moodregulation, and also has
physical health benefits becauseit can lower your blood
pressure, because you're not sostressed, it can improve your
immune response, which I thinkis also because you are not
stressed and you are getting allof those toxic thoughts out of

(05:34):
your body.
For instance, writing aboutemotional experiences rather
than just superficial daily,like today I did this and this
and this, but writing aboutemotional experiences and what
you were feeling that has beenshown to reduce the number of
doctor visits in later monthsand to improve immunity markers
in some studies, which I thoughtwas very interesting.

(05:57):
So I think all of thosestatistics are very impressive,
and I will include all of thelinks to the studies if you are
very interested in reading them.
But that was just a briefoverview of the studies that I
found.
Just 15 minutes three times aweek can reduce your anxiety and
your other emotional responsesby a large amount, which I think

(06:17):
is so cool.
How exactly does journalingsupport our competence?
There's external reflection, itgives us a time to sit down, put
our thoughts and our feelingsonto paper, and it can help us
to observe it rather than tojust let it live inside us,
maybe let it be unnoticed insideus because we are taking some

(06:37):
time to create distance, toanalyze, to reframe, and to
question what is true.
Before you sit down to journal,your thoughts may be chaotic.
You may feel stressed, you mayfeel overwhelmed, you may feel
like there was nothing good inthe day.
But when you sit down andactually start to write it, your
chaotic thoughts can become morestructured.
It gives you a voice of whatyou're feeling inside.

(06:59):
It can help you to put a name tothe emotions that you are
feeling inside.
And over time, I love it whenyou re look back and reflect
because you can see patterns,you can see recurring limiting
beliefs, you can see how you areauthoring your inner story, and
then you can have a time torewrite that story, to change
those limiting beliefs, to maybenotice patterns where you are

(07:23):
not showing your best self.
But also on the flip side, youcan see the parts where maybe
you are overlooking where youare actually shining, where you
are actually being confident,where you are actually excelling
and doing really well.
When you journal, you narrowyour focus to what matters.
You can signal to your brain,hey, this is meaningful.
That strengthens, thatstrengthens your neural pathways

(07:46):
tied to noticing confidence.
So when you are writing thingsdown, you will notice like this
is something that is importantto me.
So if you're writing I feltconfident when, your brain is
going to start having thoseneural pathways looking for
those moments where you areconfident.
If you write I am grateful for,your neural pathways are going

(08:07):
to start noticing the thingsyou're grateful for.
If you're writing the thingsthat you are doing that are
helping you to grow and be abetter person, your brain is
going to start noticing thosethings.
When you write something, you'remore likely to remember it.
So retrieving and revisitingyour written reflections can
help strengthen your beliefs inyourself.
So if you're writing things downabout yourself that are positive

(08:30):
and then you go back and youlook at them, then you will be
reinforcing those beliefs.
When you write it down on paper,there is science that says you
will remember it more becauseyou are writing it on paper.
So you will remember thosepositive beliefs about yourself.
Your journaling is yourconfident confidant.
You can say things that youmaybe wouldn't say out loud.

(08:51):
It's where you can validateyourself and you can build
self-trust.
So maybe you wouldn't say outloud, I am a good mom.
Maybe you don't quite feel thatyet.
And so saying that out loud justfeels like a fraud.
It feels like something that isnot true.
But if you are taking time to goback and think about your
moments in your day where youactually had like a, hey, I

(09:13):
actually think I am a good mom,then you can write that because
maybe you don't have thestrength or the confidence to
say it out loud yet.
But writing it on paper can helpyou to validate it for yourself
and to build that self-trustwhere you can believe yourself
when you have those thoughtsthat you are a good mom or you
are confident in an area of yourlife.
So some practical tips.
How do like journaling is great?

(09:35):
This is all such goodinformation, but how do we
actually do it?
Start small.
Even just a quick 30-secondentry can have a huge benefit
and you can start noticing someshifts.
Use a simple prompt.
You can use a prompt like todayI felt confident when, or what
is one small win I had today, ortoday I am grateful for.

(09:58):
Just pick one prompt, and evenif you repeat that prompt every
single day, it will get you inthe habit of journaling.
Be kind, you don't need to beperfect, and it doesn't have to
look like the perfect, beautifuljourney journal entry.
It doesn't have to be eloquent,it doesn't have to be flowy, it
doesn't have to be what youmaybe think a journal entry

(10:18):
should be, even if it's just abullet point list.
If it's something super simplethat you're just writing down a
few words, journaling somethingis going to be helpful.
Revisit your past entries everyfew weeks and you can start
noticing your growth.
You can start seeing yourpatterns.
Be consistent.
It doesn't need to be daily, butjust try your best.
If it is daily, that's awesome.

(10:39):
But just try your best to bejournaling as often as you can,
even if it's just one line, evenif it's just something very
simple.
And create a ritual, a time anda space and an atmosphere that
will make you want to journal.
So maybe you are a morningjournal person.
Maybe you want to maybe set yourjournal by your mug in the
morning so you can have a warmdrink while you're writing in

(11:02):
your journal.
Maybe you want to journal atnight before bed.
So keep your journal and a cutepen right at your bedside.
And every night you can turn onthe light, you can get cozy in a
blanket, and you can take someminutes to journal before you go
to sleep.
Maybe some days they'll bebullet list, some days will just
be free write.
And maybe some days it will justbe one line.

(11:23):
Just let it adapt to whateveryou need for that day.
I've been talking a lot aboutjournaling with a pen.
Is journaling with a pen betterthan using your notes app on
your phone?
Like how I very first startedjournaling.
I don't think that one is betterthan the other, but I think
there are benefits from both.
There's neuroscience behind whyhandwriting might feel deeper
than typing.

(11:44):
Forming letters by hand lightsup more brain region
connectivity than simplypressing a key on a keyboard.
That means your brain is doingmuch more rich work.
There's more sensory and motorand visual circuits that are all
firing and they're all engaged.
So this is going to justactivate your brain a lot more

(12:05):
when you are actually writingpen to paper.
In some studies, there wereparticipants that reported or
more positive mood when theywere handwriting versus when
they were typing.
So one reason why this mightmatter when you are journaling
something like confidence orgratitude is when you are
writing today, I felt confidentwhen, or I am grateful for.

(13:14):
So motherhood right now is notan easy thing for me.
I am feeling like I am veryinsecure in my motherhood and
I'm lacking in a lot ofdifferent areas.
But when I take the time towrite today, I felt confident
when it has helped me to startnoticing moments in my
motherhood where I actually amshining.
Moments in my motherhood where Iactually am really confident and

(13:37):
doing really, really well.
So rather than focusing on theareas where I'm feeling like I'm
lacking, I can focus on theareas that I am doing really
well and then I am shining.
So if you're listening to thisepisode and you're in a place
where you have a journal next toyou, or a notebook, or a piece
of paper, or maybe you just haveyour phone and you can open up
your notes app, I want you totake a minute and just open up a

(13:57):
page and write one sentence.
Today I felt confident when, andwrite what you felt confident
today doing.
Later, go back and read this.
Reflect later how the smallsentence that you wrote maybe
shifted your perspective in thisarea of your life.
Did it affect your day?
Did it change the way that youacted the next day?

(14:19):
Did you feel a little bit betterin that area?
And then repeat this over andover and see if you notice a
shift in your confidence.
Growth is incremental.
Journaling isn't some magicthing that is going to fix all
of our confidence problems, butit is a powerful tool that I
have found that has reallyhelped my confidence.

(14:39):
So I like to keep it in myconfidence toolkit and I like to
journal as often as I can.
And speaking of journaling, ifyou enjoyed this episode, you
are going to want to be on thelist for my new rainbow
collection of my dailyconfidence journals.
They launch on October 15th, andI am so excited because it is

(14:59):
all about confidence.
It's all about growing thatmuscle that is going to train
your brain to recognize themoments in your life where you
are being confident, where youare succeeding.
Make sure you join the emaillist.
I will include a link in theshow notes, but the journals
will be launching onconfidentexpression.com on

(15:21):
October 15th, and you are goingto want to check out this really
cute collection.
It's bright and colorful andhappy, and I am so excited for
it.
So begin journaling today.
Even if you think I don't havethe time, just open up your
notes app, grab a piece ofpaper.
Even if it's not something thatyou are going to keep, just
write it down and get in thepractice of writing it pen to

(15:44):
paper where you can startthinking and noticing those
patterns in your day where youare feeling confident.
You think of a sentence of Itoday I felt confident when, I
would love it if you would shareit with me.
Post a picture on your Instagramstory with your sentence and
make sure you tag me so that Ican see all of your today I felt

(16:04):
confident when moments.

(16:39):
Stay confidently beautiful.