You’re here because journaling is important to you and you want a life more intimately entwined with the moon. During the New Moon phase, I am always digging into my subconscious discovering more about what makes me tick and how it applies to my dreams, goals, and intentions. This New Moon article is all about the Self Discovery Writing Prompt Exercises that have given me that understanding and How To Set Goals On The New Moon for the month.

What Do You Journal About On A New Moon?

The New Moon is the building phase of your Self Discovery Journaling Journey. It is a time to focus your energy and actions on building the foundation of your plan for this lunar cycle while journaling. New Moon Journaling Prompts encourage you to look inward to ask yourself “what do I need,” to uncover the deeper reasons as to why there is a “need” or “perceived lacking” in your life. 

The New Moon is a dark cloak of mysterious uncovered thoughts that beg us to pull back the curtain to uncover them so we can effectively plan and plant the seeds for our dreams, goals, and intentions this month.  This is the time of the month when you set goals and map out the plans that will come into fruition later in the month at the Full Moon.

Journaling and Goal Setting at the beginning of a New Moon is most effective when you apply the themes of the “New Moon phase,” like renewal and new beginnings to your life diving deeper into your mind to understand what makes you tick. 

Recording the beginnings of your dreams, goals, and intentions with New Moon Journal Prompts is a great way to plant the seeds of your intentions deep into your psyche. This helps your subconscious begin the process of helping you take actionable steps towards achieving your goals. During this moon phase, it’s really important for me to take the time to focus on planting the seeds of my intentions. Check out how here: Take Action & Cultivate The Seeds of Your Intentions

As each New Moon passes and each new Lunar Month begins you will have a record of your thoughts, what has helped you accomplish your goals, what failed, and what held you back that you’ll need to avoid in the future. 

As you journal, you will find similar themes popping up over and over again in your life. Even in the span of a month you will see a pattern of habits (positive and potentially even negative habits) that you can learn from to help you move forward in a major way. See “How To Start A Moon Journal” here.

What Is A New Moon?

If you’re new to journaling with the moon I’m sure that you’re wondering three things:

1. What Is Special About The New Moon?
2. Where Is The New Moon? 
3. Why Can’t I See The New Moon?

Once a month the New Moon is between the Earth and the Sun in a straight line, this is the exact opposite of a Full Moon. From our vantage point on the Earth, the moon is not visible, and is completely dark because of its position between Earth and the Sun. The New Moon rises at dawn and sets at sunset, but don’t expect to see it in the sky. This moon is known as the New Moon and the Dark Moon.

As the moon phases change, we can see the themes associated with each phase reflected back to us in nature. This also happens as the seasons change through the year, and even show us the cycle of changes in the span of 28 days (a lunar month) with each moon phase. 

Why You Should Set Goals On The New Moon

On every New Moon, I make the time, and more importantly, take the time, for this New Moon Journaling Practice. Creating space for my mind and my goals in this way allows me to slow down and provide myself the space to practice learning from my failures, build endurance, and implement actionable kindness towards myself. 

See Why People Fail To Reach Their Goals and what you can do about it to ensure YOU don’t fail here.

It’s hard for me most days to not feel guilty and allow myself to take time away from work or my daily & nightly schedule, for self care and personal growth practices like journaling under the New Moon. 

However… No matter how down, weird, or off I’m feeling, I always remind myself that…

Journaling in alignment with the moon phases is a powerful tool to understand the depths of our psyche and connect the dots to find answers that have previously evaded us. 

It can help us uncover why something is happening to our bodies (by tracking in our journals), understand hormonal shifts, our minds, spirit, effects on our mental health, and emotions during each moon phase. 

Journaling with each moon phase can also provide us a framework (much like goal setting scaffolding) and timeline of 28 days (a lunar month) to help us build out and plan the steps we need to take to accomplish our dreams, goals, and intentions. 

✦ Get the 28 day moon wheel tracker goal setting worksheet here. ✦ 

How To Journal During The New Moon

The New Moon is about planning and starting your goals for this lunar cycle. During the New Moon take the time to focus on new beginnings, rebirth, impulses, following your instincts, and raising your motivation, as aspects of your Self Discovery Journaling Journey.

If you look up to the sky, you won’t see the New Moon, just the vast darkness of the night sky. Use this dark sky as a fertile soil for you to plant the seeds of your intentions. Let each star inspire you to brainstorm all of the possible ways your dream will be accomplished by the end of the month. Each star can also offer up a new habit or potential actionable tactic that you haven’t yet thought of that is going to help you complete your goal. 

This is your time to plan. Each star in the dark empty sky is a tiny seed of inspiration in the garden bed of planning your goals. Not sure what to journal about or what goals you want to set? Reflect in your journal with the New Moon themes below to help you solidify what you want to achieve this month.

Themes To Journal About During The New Moon

How Do You Set New Moon Intentions?

Too often I have felt like I am never ever in a million years going to be able to accomplish my dreams, goals, and intentions. It can make me feel terrible about myself and really affects my mental and emotional health. I‘ve realized that when I am feeling this way, it’s a trigger and signal for me to stop, and reflect.

By recording my thoughts, frustrations, dreams, goals, and intentions, I can look back and see the actual record of my progress and personal growth as an individual. I can see that I have made progress in the past, and that I am still making progress in the present, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

Take some time to focus on what is most important to YOU this New Moon and ask yourself some questions while you set and map out your goals for this lunar month. Don’t forget to download the 28 Day Moon Tracker to help you stay on track! The printable also contains moon phase journal prompts and plenty of space to journal. 

✦ Get your printable here: 28 Day Moon Wheel Tracker Goal Setting Worksheet inside the How To Write SMART Goals printable. ✦ 

New Moon Goal Setting Ritual: Setting Your New Moon Intentions

Now that the New Moon is upon you, it’s time to set your goals and begin! Let everything you have learned from your past attempts inspire you to make actionable changes and make this time different so that you can finally accomplish your goal. Now let’s get into How To Set Goals During The New Moon With New Moon Journaling Prompts:

1. Sit with yourself and think about your life experiences and lessons that have brought you to today. Let your hopes, dreams, and intentions come to you. What have you learned that can help support your intentions this lunar cycle?

2. Choose 1 to 2 journaling prompts from the list below: “18 Powerful Self Discovery Journaling Prompts To Ask Yourself On Each New Moon for New Beginnings,” and write in your journal.

3. Upon observing the dark empty night sky, remember you won’t be able to see the New Moon, first record your feelings and any emotions that come up while gazing up at the empty sky and contemplating the journey to achieving your dreams, goals, and intentions. 

4. Then think to yourself or say one of the three declarations about your goal out loud:

Say these affirmations to yourself out loud with confidence as if it has already come to pass and is solidified in your life.

5. Then record the goal and affirmation you chose in your journal along with everything from your past that has influenced your choices on how to accomplish your goal.

18 Powerful Self Discovery Journaling Prompts To Ask Yourself On Each New Moon for New Beginnings

1. What Do I Need?

2. What Do Others Need? It’s also just as important to think beyond your needs, to those of others, family, community, humanity, Earth, or a specific person or group of people.

3. What Do I Want To Have? What Is My End Goal?

4. What Will It Look Like When I Accomplish This Goal?

5. How Can I Break My Goal Down Into 8 Actionable Steps? (one for each moon phase as a milestones)

6. What Are The 8 Milestones Beginning With “#1 Planning,” That Will Ensure I Accomplish My Goal?

7. What Do I Want To Do?

8. Why Am I Setting This Goal? What Need Does It Fulfill?

9. What happened a month ago on the last New Moon? What did I experience? What was happening in my life? What had just begun 28 days ago?

10. Am I going through any of these themes again right now? Have I moved forward and grown from these experiences or am I stuck in a place of stasis, lacking the ability to transform and grow?

11. Take a hard look at your current situation and ask: Do I need to abandon my goals as I viewed accomplishing them in the past and try to come at it from a new angle? You might need to start over with a different point of view on the same situation, or with a completely different intention.

12. How has my journey since I first chose this dream, goal, or intention panned out? Where have my life experiences taken me?

13. What growth have I experienced in the last 28 days?

14. What growth have I experienced in the last quarter as it relates to my goal?

15. What growth have I experienced in the last year so far as it relates to my goal?

16. What do I want to accomplish before the next Full Moon in 14 days and before the next New Moon in 28 days?

17. What are 3 Actionable Steps I can take today to make my dreams, goals, and intentions come true?

18. Am I on the right path to achieve my dreams, goals, and intentions?

Related Topics, Questions, & Resources

How To Stay On Track To Accomplish Your Goals

Here is how you can adopt a positive action oriented mindset for your dreams, goals, intentions, so that by the end of your deadline, you are looking back and feeling excited about what you have accomplished. See how to adopt a positive action oriented mindset here: Take Action & Cultivate The Seeds of Your Intentions

Make This Journaling Practice Special

You can also make this New Moon Ritual more special, magical, and indulgent with the use of tarot cards, oracle decks, and even playing cards! Try using tarot cards to give you ideas on what you might want to focus on during the New Moon and for the rest of this lunar cycle. If you want to try tarot click here.

How To Start A Moon Journal

Wondering How To Start A Moon Journal? You can use this moon phase journaling method as a tool to keep yourself on track toward your goal. I have found that it’s easier to have a plan and a schedule on which to think and focus your intentions. This helps you know where you are in your journey, what to look for, and keeps you thinking about your end goal, which makes you take subconscious steps towards it without you even knowing. 

How To Write Better Goals with SMART Goals

Basically, it all boils down to keeping your goals top of mind and Writing better goals to manage stress & reduce anxiety to take control of your life (a.k.a.: S.M.A.R.T. Goals) so you keep going for them.

Tea Ritual & Scent Magic

In addition to these journal prompts for the New Moon, I also like to practice a bit of scent magic self care with a Full Moon Tea Ritual. This Full Moon tea ritual is one of my favorite passive rituals to perform for a bit of everyday magic (even when it’s not the Full Moon).

Guided Journaling Exercises for Each Phase of the Moon

Want To Dive Deeper Into Intentional Goal Setting & Personal Growth?

✦ Get your printable here: 28 Day Moon Wheel Tracker Goal Setting Worksheet inside the How To Write SMART Goals printable. ✦

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