I’ve been journaling for six years, with 1,500+ journal entry's, but I’ve only been growing from journaling for three.

For the first half of my journaling life, I didn’t realize there were four levels to journaling—I was stuck at level one, simply recapping my day.

Back in high school, I was a self-improvement-obsessed, insecure junior trying to find stability in a life full of imposter syndrome, comparison, and calorie counting. Journaling seemed like a lifeline. And at first, it was.

Every night at my cherry-wood desk, I wrote about my day. Clickity-clack, feelings in, stress out. Slowly, patterns emerged: comparison, toxic productivity, fear. Awareness seeped in like sunrise over a sleepy town.

But when freshman year at Cornell hit, everything collapsed. The workload slammed me like alcohol at your first frat party. Between studying, friendships, and content creation, journaling felt like a distraction. And when I did sit down to write, the old way didn’t work anymore. Level-one journaling couldn’t keep up with level-five chaos.

One night I stared at my empty entry for an hour. Nothing came. Part of it was I didn't know what to write about, and part of it was the fear of what would come if I did write. I sensed a deeper question underneath the silence:

Is there more to journaling than this?

Three years later and I've:

• Created 1,000+ more journal entry's
• Made 600+ YouTube videos, podcasts, and newsletters
• Taught 500+ students journaling, notetaking and outdoor ed through six courses
• Talked to 50+ freshman about their relationship to journaling in college
• Worked with the world’s leading gamification consultancy, The Octalysis Group, to learn more about human motivation

I don't want you to fall for the same mistake. If done deeply, journaling can be a profound routine for building your emotional centeredness, self-understanding, and purpose. But to get the most out of it, you have to be journaling at all four levels.

Let's walk through each level, with meta-questions you can ask at each.

Level 1: Daily Journaling

Daily journaling is the level most students journal at. You sit down, pen and pad or keyboard in hand, and write about your day. This is a great start! If you've never journaled before you can get a lot of growth just describing your emotions, thoughts, and experiences.

But it's mistaking the telescope for space...

Imagine you wanted to embark on an astral adventure. Like me, you were awestruck by the cosmos as a child. Every night you'd lay on your bed, staring out the window at the stars speckling the night sky like pearls in black sand. You dreamed of one day exiting our little rock, and dancing from solar system to solar system.

Unfortunately, like many childhood dreams, they were crushed by capitalisms hammer. So instead, you got a telescope and looked at space from afar. Replace space with your self, and the telescope with daily journaling and you've got an accurate representation of the problem of level one journaling.

You're looking at the light, but not at the lens through which you see the light.

You're focused only on writing about your day and what emotions, thoughts, and behavior came up, but not how they're affecting you, why they're affecting you that way, and where they're coming from.

That's where level two journaling comes, and a HUGE boost to your journaling growth.

Level 2: Reflective Journaling (Reader Warning)

The insights in the rest of this article can be de-stabalizing and easily misinterpreted. We're getting very deep here. This is also what makes them so powerful. If you're in a difficult mental state or have a psychological disorder, I'm sorry. I recommend coming back to this when you're feeling better.

Sounds fair? Great, then let's explore some deep insights!

In reflective journaling you stop simply writing about your day and start asking what, how, why, and where questions to unveil the frames you come to college with.

What is a frame?

A frame is the lens through which you as an individual or a culture relates to reality. It's an invisible array of glass built from:

• Sensations
• Perceptions
• Emotions
• Thoughts
• Desires
• Motivations
• Behavior
• Values
• Identities
• Models
• Relationships

And so much more...

Every second, of every hour, of every day, you're living with frames. You can't not. Frames are the fundamental building block of navigating college.

You're framing this article right now.

As you're reading, emotions and thoughts are coming up (hopefully good ones) in reaction to the words. Since I'm breaking your frame of what journaling is, I'm betting insight is one of the emotions you're experiencing. Or maybe you're thinking, man this guy has a strange writing style and says strange things.

You're framing college.

You might see college as a means of securing a profitable career. Perhaps a means of exploring who you are. Or a path to learning and growth. Maybe it's a combination of all three.

Internal Framing Grounds Our External World

In our space analogy, reflective journaling is the act of escaping our friendly rock and exiting into space with a spaceship while following some recommended path from pro NASA experts. No longer do you look at the cosmos through a telescope. You gaze at nebulas, star clusters, and far away galaxies through the protective glass of your scientific metal box.

But unlike in level one journaling, you're aware that you're looking at space through glass; not only that, you're aware, YOU, a human being, is looking through that glass.

So at level two journaling you radically shift priorities: You spend just as much time reflecting on your self, and the glass you see space through, than space.

In journaling terms this realization means appreciating our internal framing effects our external world. Therefore it’s often more powerful to navigate our internal frames than change the external world.

This doesn't mean we never work on changing the external world. It means whenever we do change externally, we do so rooted in our internal frames.

Here's some examples of external problems coming from internal frames:

• Struggle Figuring Out Major
  • External Problem: We need to take more classes so we can find ourselves.
  • Internal Frame: We’re scared of committing and therefore are “leaving things open."
• Club Busyness
  • External Problem: We're too busy from being a part of so many clubs and classes—once that's over it will get better.
  • Internal Frame: We’re overcompensating in how much we do from comparing ourselves to abnormally successful students.
• Friends Always Coming To Us For Emotional Support
  • External Problem: We never have time to focus on ourselves because we’re always being asked for help.
  • Internal Frame: We crave the need from our friends because we aren’t loved unconditionally by our parents.

As you start doing this, you'll discover navigating your internal frames is like trying to write poetry as a chem major. It's almost as if your self doesn't want you to uncover everything.

There's a deep reason for this.

You're Surviving Your self, And You Might Not Even Be Conscious Of It

Our self, the finite character which attaches to forms in consciousness—essentially attaches to frames—is not here to find Truth.

It's here to help us survive.

And of course it is! If it didn't, you would be dead. I don't mean you'd be dead on a physical level, though that's possible. But in an elite college setting, that's unlikely to happen unless you happen to jaywalk without having had your morning coffee.

I mean dying on a psychological level, the idea of you dying.

Ultimately, psychological death is primordial to physical death. Think about it. If I snapped my fingers and suddenly you had entirely different emotions, thoughts, beliefs, values, and goals, would you be the same person? No! And your self knows that. It, like everything else, is trying to survive. Because if it didn't, well, you wouldn't be reading this now would you?

Here's some examples of the self surviving the self:

• Individual:
  • Arguing about science—surviving your identity of being scientific.
  • Debating in Debate—surviving your identity of being rational.
  • Getting a gift for your friends—surviving identity of being a good friend.
  • Going to church on Sunday—surviving identity of being Christian.
  • Studying for class—surviving identity of being a good student.
• Collective:
  • Friend group surviving procrastination identity together by procrastinating.
  • College surviving elitist culture by only accepting small amount of people.
  • Political club surviving critical thinking paradigm by accepting a mix of liberals and conservatives.

I don't want you to think the self is some big bad Disney villain out to ruin your life.

It's highly practical. Your self has developed the way it has in response to the environment its been put in. It wants to help you, in its own way. You should come at it with compassion and love, not annoyance or anger.

Think how it's helping you in the examples from before:

• Keeps you procrastinating in friend group because it wants to help you keep friends, and being relaxed helps that.
• Keeps you studying for class because it wants you to have a profitable career so you don’t get stuck in poverty.
• Keeps you arguing about science because it doesn’t want you to fall into the historical traps of religious dogma.

The problem comes when we survive our self unconsciously.

That's when we can hurt our closest relationships without realizing, go down the wrong career, choose the wrong clubs, etc. Clearly understanding the self is pretty important. Here's some reflective journaling meta-questions you can ask to help you uncover how you might be surviving your self.

Reflective Journaling Meta-Questions

• What frames are you experiencing right now?
• How are those frames affecting you and making you relate to the world?
• Why are they doing that?
• Where are they coming from?
• Where might they lead to?
• Who am I when I am not operating inside these frames?
• How might a friend interpret these?
• How do my individual frames feed into the collective?
• Have I consciously created my own frames or am I following someone else's?
• What frames am I using to do this reflection?
• Where might my reflection process itself lead? Does that scare me?

If you resonated with the questions above, you should check out my Free College Freshman Cosmic Journaling Kit, a gamified journaling system that helps you grow your your emotional centeredness, self-understanding, and purpose with 1,000+ journaling questions and 5+ journaling templates in 15 minutes a day.

Venturing into reflective journaling through the questions above will give you a MASSIVE leap forward in your journaling growth. But if you stay at reflective journaling, you're not making big picture decisions with that growth. Worse, you might be acting from conformity without realizing it.

That's where level three journaling comes in.

Level 3: Decision Journaling

At decision journaling, you journal so you can make authentic selfless decisions rooted in non-conformity.

Going back to our space metaphor, you're no longer just listening to NASAs directions on where to go, you're charting your own course with their guidance. Ironically, this might still mean following what they say. But now, you're doing so authentically rather than from conformity.

Bringing this analogy to real life, decision journaling is where we begin charting our own course through the college cosmos. Reflective journaling got us to unveil and navigate the frames we already come to college with. Decision journaling evaluates those frames, compares them to each other, and ultimately changes them out to make better decisions.

The biggest thing keeping us from doing this is conformity: adopting other people's or societies frames unconsciously.

Like with the self, conformity isn't inherently bad. It's probably helping you in a lot of ways right now. The problem is when we conform unconsciously. Selfless steering starts when you stop surviving. Stop surviving your individual self, and your collective self.

So, how do we navigate conformity?

To Navigate Conformity, You Must Differentiate Content And Structure

Conformity is a sneaky creature. We can think we're being unconformist when we're actually still being conformist. To tell the difference, we need to look at the structure of what we're doing rather than the content.

Content is the face value of what we do.

For example:

• Following 10 commandments of Christianity
• Writing a love poem
• Using unique pronouns
• Getting angry at cheating
• Following science

Structure is the way we relate to those face value things.

The examples from earlier would be conformist if the structure we come to the content was like this:

• Following 10 commandments because God said so and all other Christians are doing it
• Writing love poem because we've seen other people do that for their lovers
• Taking unique pronouns in the LGBTQ+ community because we want to fit in
• Expectation you shouldn't cheat in a relationship because everyone else hates it
• Operating from a rational, scientific, materialist paradigm without questioning the paradigm

This whole conformity thing is WAY deeper than students might realize. Understanding is one thing. Most students understand to some degree how conformity is affecting them. Appreciating though, that is an entire other galaxy.

Appreciating conformity is so hard because, well, it's everywhere.

It's literally the space we swim in. It's affecting us not only when we interact in classes, with friends, or with information, but inside of our minds because our minds are affected by the conformity! Heck, even when you question conformity it could be from conformity because all the information sources you consume push critical thinking.

Here's some decision journaling meta-questions to help you navigate conformity.

Decision Journaling Meta-Questions

There are three different forms of decision journaling questions: Evaluative, comparing, and changing journaling questions. What connects them is they all ask the same meta-question: So what? How do the frames we've unveiled from reflective journaling stack up under a decision we must make?

Evaluative Journaling Questions

Evaluative journaling questions are all about judging a frame using some value/principle/goal/purpose. This evaluation ensures we are using a good frame to make a decision.

Meta-evaluative journaling questions include:

• What value/principle/goal/purpose can I judge this frame off of?
• How does this frame stack up to chosen value/goal/purpose?
• What frame am I using to evaluate this frame, and is that frame valid?
• How does this frame pragmatically help me?
• What might this frame be missing?
• How selfish is this frame?
• How conformist is this frame?

Here's some concrete examples of evaluative journaling questions:

• How do my friendships meet my value of self-growth?
• Does my comparison and imposter syndrome ever help me towards my goals?
• When do my negative emotions help me instead of hinder me?
• How selfish is my value of kindness?
• Do I truly value grades or is it coming from conformity?

Comparison Journaling Questions

Comparison journaling questions are where we start going multi-frame (although it's possible to go multi-frame earlier too). These questions are all about comparing frames to each other to judge which one we should be using and when.

Meta-comparison journaling questions include:

• How does this frame reinforce, diminish, or contradict this frame?
• How is this frame similar and dissimilar to this frame?
• Which of your frames tends to dominate the others?
• Is this frame better or worse at meeting this standard than this other frame?
• What might both of these frames be missing?
• What frame am I using to compare these frames and is that valid?
• What is the difference in selfishness between these frames?
• What is the difference in conformity between these frames?

Here's some concrete examples of comparison journaling questions:

• How does my valuing of pragmatism reinforce the beliefs I have toward college majors?
• How are my scientific thoughts similar/dissimilar to fundamentalist religious thoughts?
• Which of my emotions tend to dominate the others?
• What might my liberal political view be missing?
• What's the difference in conformity between the frames I have in this club versus this club?

Change Journaling Questions

Finally, change journaling questions are what you probably think of when you think decision journaling.

For example:

• What different frame can I adopt that might help me with chosen value/principle/goal/purpose better?
• What evidence or experiences suggest this new frame might be more effective?
• Which individual or collective frames might resist this change?
• How can I change to that frame effectively?
• How can I redesign or reframe this old frame?
• What signals will tell me the new frame is “taking root”?
• How can I communicate this new frame to others clearly and empathetically?
• How can I change to this frame rooted more in selflessness and authenticity?

Here's some concrete examples of change journaling questions:

• Should I change my college major and if so to what?
• Should I switch from valuing grades to valuing learning more?
• How can I put myself in situations that question my liberal beliefs instead of following them blindly?
• How can I implement a journaling habit that helps me understand myself better?
• How can I communicate being in a career season over relationship season clearly and empathetically to my friends?

Even at level three journaling, we're still rooted more in practicality. Navigating the collective and individual self is framed around making better decisions. We haven't gotten to the ultimate root of journaling, where the most power is held.

That comes at level four.

Level 4: Spiritual Journaling

In spiritual journaling, you journal about how you're constructing your entire sense of reality. Every. Single. Thing.

Returning to our space analogy, you're no longer focused just on reflecting on the glass or self you're looking at space through, or how to chart your course authentically, but how you're constructing all of it—yourself, the glass, space, everything.

You don't find the Universe: The Universe finds itself through you.

The fundamental mistake you make is believing there is a human separate from the Universe in the first place. Uni-verse. Uni, One.

I'm not blaming you. We all start out life doing this. It's the only way we can survive. If you didn't see yourself as some degree separate from the Universe, there would be no reason for you to live on. Living requires a relative valuation of you as more important than the Universe around you.

Infinity can only know itself through imagining itself as finite.

But that doesn't mean you're not doing it. How are you constructing the Universe?

• What your taking from this article
• How you view college
• How you perceive your friends
• The language you use to label things
• Your memories

Most importantly, you're constructing your self. Moment to moment you're surviving your emotions, thoughts, values, beliefs—your frames—to give you a concrete sense of reality. There's nothing in the Universe that objectively says reality needs to be that way—only your projected meaning on to it.

You might be thinking: Why in goodness gracious would this realization be a good thing?

I won't lie. The first time you realize this, I mean truly realize it, to the depth of your being, it can be very scary. You might even become depressed for a bit. But then it becomes the most beautiful thing ever.

Firstly, it's beautiful pragmatically.

All the challenges you've ever had are self-created. Nothing written in the Universe ever said those things needed to be challenges. You made them challenges so you could survive yourself.

With this realization comes a profound appreciation you will never be fulfilled by solving any challenge. There was never anything to solve. This doesn't mean you don't work towards solving challenges. But your attitude toward solving shifts.

You let your ship take into space, and go where the Universe wills you. You begin to glide through college with an ease you never thought possible. The playfulness and wonder you had towards life as a child is the air surrounding your very being. You stop taking things so seriously.

Secondly, it's beautiful spiritually.

The most powerful form of love you can experience is not a feeling, it's not being understood by another human, it's the deep meta-physical love for reality that comes when you realize you are reality. Most of us never experience this love because we're so clouded by selfishness. It's through daily journaling, reflective journaling, and decision journaling that we begin to navigate the selfishness keeping us clouded.

We watch the setting sun dip over the horizon and know, we are the sun. We smell flowers blooming and realize, we are the smell. We hear the sound of our best friend calling from the other end of the hall and realize, we are our best friend.

Here's some Spiritual journaling meta-questions.

Spiritual Journaling Meta-Questions

• How am I constructing my self?
• How am I constructing reality?
• How can I root more into being?
• How am I separating my self from reality?
• Why am I constructing things that way?
• What purpose, values, relationships, contexts can I create that will allow me to be in a more Spiritual way?

What I Never Expected Journaling Would Help Me Realize

I got into journaling to feel calmer, understand myself more, and have a memory bank to look back upon. And for a while, it did. But Freshman year stopped my journaling growth in its tracks.

It was only after learning moving through the four levels of journaling that it started to grow me again.

I started prioritizing journaling and more generally reflection above everything else in the college cosmos. I understood journaling is only one drop in the reflective mindset critical to living a profound college life. So I started reflecting throughout my day. And I learned to follow my intuition for what I should journal on and when.

I ascended the four levels of journaling from daily journaling, reflective journaling, decision journaling, to meta-journaling. My college life had never been more profound once journaling helped me realize how I was constructing my very sense of reality and surviving my identity.

And so journaling stopped being something I did at night and became something I was throughout the day. A quiet listening beneath lectures. A soft noticing inside conversations. A gentle curiosity woven into moments that once rushed past me unnoticed.

If there’s one thing I hope you take from all of this, it’s not that you should journal more—but that you should journal deeper. Not every day needs to be cosmic. Not every entry needs to shatter reality.

But if you keep returning—curious, compassionate, and just a little braver than last time—you’ll notice something miraculous happening.

The words start writing you. The questions begin living in your bones. And one quiet afternoon, maybe while the sun spills through a window you didn’t know you loved, you’ll realize you’re no longer using journaling to survive college. You’re using college as the sacred playground where reality learns how to be you.

If you resonated with this article, you should check out my Free College Freshman Cosmic Journaling Kit, a gamified journaling system that helps you grow your your emotional centeredness, self-understanding, and purpose with 1,000+ journaling questions and 5+ journaling templates in 15 minutes a day.