More Journaling Prompts
Your Heart’s Words
Write as your heart would say it. Write without worrying what it sounds like, without worrying what someone else would think reading this. Write as if just your feelings were talking and not your ego. Write without worrying if it sounds like a pity party, petty, righteous, boring, dumb, or any other concern that’s censoring you from being free with yourself. Right now, let’s just hear what your innermost and sensitive part has to say.
Write Letters You Don’t Send
Write everything you want to say, without pulling any punches. Say it all. Say it mean, or say it as kindly as possible, or say it in your native tongue, or contradict yourself. Write it. Then hold it. Don’t send it and reread it to yourself later. See how it feels. Write a new letter if you need to.
Consider writing a letter from the other’s person’s point of view to you. Empathize as much as you possible can with what they’ve told you they see from their viewpoint and their prior experiences and their temperament and their truths. Then hold it. Reread it to yourself later. See how it feels.
Freedom
Describe the life you want today- that is within your control- that is the highest ideal of your mind & heart.
Describe the life you want for your future- that is within your control- that is the highest ideal of your mind & heart.
Accountability + Mercy
Is there anything you are holding onto from your childhood, past, or present that you want to:
- Forgive of yourself?
- To be forgiven for?
- To hold another accountable?
- To forgive another?
Food for Thought
- Some positive things that I made happen are….
- Some positive things that happened to me (without my doing) were….
- Some positive self-talk I noticed was……
- Some things I did that got in the way of my progress were….
- Some difficult/confusing things that happened to mewere….
- Some negative self-talk I noticed was…..
Journaling Your Dreams
What’s most important is not deciphering the symbolic language (although it can be fun to Google) as much as tuning into how you feel relative to what’s going on in each dream scenario. Keeping a notebook by your bed and jotting down whatever comes to mind as the first thing you do when you wake can be helpful. Noting whether your subconscious is struggling or in alignment may help guide you in your waking life.
Worry Notebook
Carry a Worry Notebook to create a sense of containment for your worry. Also, try scheduling “worry times” (e.g. once a day or once a week) so that you are practicing some control around ruminating as well as carving out specific times to honor what your anxiety is trying to teach you with your full attention.
Failing Better
Jot down all the lessons you’ve learned through disappointments and how you’re more resilient as a result. Really think through ways you grew emotionally, how paradigms shifted, how veils were lifted, and skills were honed.
Internal Family Systems
[developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz]
Identify the different personalities or archetypes within you, just like if you had your own internal family of selves. Next, create a listening space for each self to be fully heard and respected. Then, have your different parts dialogue with one another to flesh out their competing concerns and discover new ways of relating to one another. The goal is to help them integrate their needs and gifts into one unified Self.
For instance, IFS theory identifies the following internal parts:
- The unified Self- is calm and wise; organized of all your other parts and working together in harmony
- The Exiled self/selves- is the hurt or traumatized part of yourself
- The Protector self/selves- is the part of yourself that tries to prevent any unwanted feelings from surfacing from the Exiled part
- The Firefighter self/selves- is the part of yourself that reacts once unwanted feelings have surfaced from the Exiled part