Journaling prompts that never let you down (and never fail to give you something to write about)! Are there such things? Yep! They are open ended prompts. I wanted to give you a good set of “back up” journal prompts that seem to make writing easy for me. I’m suggesting these as back up prompts, because I like to write about the things that grab my attention. And, these might not be attention grabbing topics in my life.
What’s up right now?
The first category are the “What’s up right now” prompts. These prompts give you encouragement to write about what is happening at this moment. They are especially good for when you are sitting in a coffee shop or a library and need to zone out in your journal. I carry my journal everywhere because zoning out into a journal is so mentally helpful to me. The prompts go like this:
- Where am I right now and why I am here?
- What about this place do I like?
- What about this place do I not like?
- How am I feeling right now?
- Why am I feeling this right now?
Gratitude
The second category of writing prompts are gratitude prompts. These are the prompts you should use when you find your journaling is really dark (dark as in negative). Everyone has days or even weeks where every journal entry ends up dark and unhealthy. Part of journaling is to experience this and recognize that it is happening. Don’t shy away from this, it is healthy and mindful to work through it. I would encourage you to sprinkle these journal prompts throughout the day. You’ll be surprise at how they will pull you up from being so dark.
- I am grateful for <complete the sentence>
- I am grateful for this because <expand>
- Repeat these two a few times.
Sometimes you have to start with even the smallest things. Like: I am grateful for my journal, because of this cool book mark and I put stickers all over it. I love stickers. I am grateful for my pen because it clicks really loud. It is so annoying. I like to click it when the room is totally silent and hear it echo on the wall. And so on, give them a try, you will love how fast this can move you from a dark place into a happy place mentally.
Reflection
The third category of writing prompts are reflection prompts. These are good to use when you are working out something that has happened. And, you know you need to process it in an effective way. When you know you need to take the time and work out your feelings about how things have turned out.
- What positive things have happened today (or this week)?
- What negative things have happened today (or this week)?
- How did I handle the negative things?
- Could I have handled the negative things in a different way? How?
Making a decision
The last category of writing prompts are hopes and plans prompts. These are prompts to use when you are trying to make a decision, or when you have complicated plans. I’ve seen so many articles that say “never make a big decision without thinking it through”! But, if you don’t have a tool to help you think it through, how do you do it? These will help you sleep when you are losing sleep over a decision.
- What decision or plans must be made? And when?
- Where does this decision or plan need to happen?
- Why is this necessary?
- What are the pros and cons of this decision or plan?
- Who is affected by this decision or plan? And How?
- What is my role in this decision or plan?
- How can I improve the outcome of this decision or plan?
Please keep these handy so you can reference them. Especially when you are faced with a decision, or need to reflect on something that has happened, or you are in a dark place. Would you let me know if you’ve used these? How did it go? As always, I’m interested in your success.
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