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When you begin using the regular practice of journaling in your life, you will reap many of the benefits right away, from increased mood, to lowered stress. But journaling also, surprisingly, has much more in store for you: helping build your self-confidence through reflection, working through your difficult emotions, outlining your goals, creating documentation of good and bad times which gives evidence of logical fallacies and positive outcomes, it can give a much needed boost to creativity, and evoke a sense of mindfulness, it can help you get a better night’s sleep, as well as strengthening emotional function and improving immune function! This is backed by research (see this blog for links.)
So today we’re going to look at some journal prompts to help you shift your mindset. If you’ve been in a place of lack, what we’re looking for here is abundance. By adding 15 to 20 minutes of journaling just a few times a week, you can achieve many of the above benefits.
1) Let’s start with Self-Reflection:
– Name an accomplishment of which you are most proud?
– Describe yourself as though you were a friend talking to someone who doesn’t know you.
– Work through the Values Finder and see which is most important to you.
– Do your current actions align with these values, how or how not? Are there changes you can make to live closer to your values?
– Name three things you love about your mindset, three things you love about your body, and three things your love about your spirit/soul?
– List some ways that you use to reset and recharge during your week?
2) How to help Manage Your Emotions:
– Write about how you are feeling right now in this moment.
– What emotions have come to the surface the most often lately?
– Are you holding on to any emotions that are no longer serving you? How can you let them go?
– Name some of your go-to coping strategies when you are working through your difficult emotions, which ones are helpful and which ones are harmful?
– List some of the boundaries you maintain in your life.
– Who do you look up to when you are feeling low?
3) Let’s look at Gratitude:
– Describe one good thing that happened to you today.
– What are some of the opportunities you’ve been grateful for recently?
– Name three of your strengths that you are grateful for.
– Are there any simple pleasures in your life that you take for granted? List them.
– What are some easy ways to show appreciation to others and yourself daily?
– Challenge yourself to start a daily gratitude journal, either before bed or first thing in the morning, write at least one thing you are grateful for every day. Evaluate your mood when you start and again in four weeks. Has it changed?
4) And Manifestation:
– These are ways I am cultivating more happiness in my life…
– List your short-term goals. List your long-term goals.
– How are your short-term goals helping you to achieve your long-term goals?
– Imagine you as your best self, what is different about that life from how you are currently living?
– What steps can you take to bring these two images closer to alignment?
– “I achieve abundance in my life by…”
5) For a Creative Outlet:
– Describe your happy place, is it real or in your mind, have you been there once or many times, how does it make you feel?
– Look at where you are in this exact moment, describe it in as much detail as possible, imagine you are describing it to someone who isn’t there and you want them to see it completely.
– How and why are you pursuing your passion projects? If you don’t have any, why not, and what would you like them to be?
– Write a letter to your future self, what would it be important to remember about the life you are living right now? What do you hope has changed by the time you get this letter?
– Share the most important lesson you’ve ever learned, did it come easy, and why has it stuck with you?
– Start drawing a doodle at the beginning of each journal entry, related to the topic, this can help get you into the other side of your brain!
6) Where do you stand Professionally:
– What do you love most about your current job? What do you like least?
– Are there ways your current job could offer you more fulfillment?
– Do your coworkers, supervisors, or colleagues see your strengths, abilities, and successes in the workplace? Are you celebrated?
– Do you have ambitions for your career beyond where you are now?
– What goals do you have in place to help you achieve those ambitions?
– Where do you see yourself in five years, from where you work, to where you live, to who you are spending time with and what you are doing in your off-time?
And the best way to get started with a regular practice of journaling is to.. start! Reach out if you’d like some help getting started. Once you do, I know you’ll wonder how you ever managed without the art of journaling as part of your toolkit!
Click here to download a PDF version of the Journal Prompt Infographic
Use the Values Finder to help discover your personal values.
And for EVEN MORE Journal Prompts to keep you going, see this resource.
