Category: Journal Prompts

Journal Prompt: Goal Affirmations

We start the year thinking and planning goals we want to accomplish, but as the year goes on sometimes our motivation and inspiration fades. It can be so hard to keep working on our goals. Today’s journal prompt is all about writing out affirmations that can help keep our inspiration going! Affirmations are helpful because the more we repeat them to ourselves, the more our brain begins to process it as being true. What we think impacts what we say and what we do. So if we are continually saying or writing out positive affirmations about our goals it will become much easier to start doing things that support our goal.

Journal Prompt

Write out a goal you are working towards. Make sure to add detail as far as when you want to accomplish it and what specifically you are working towards.

Write out three positive affirmations for each prompt below:

  • Write an affirmation that describes yourself as having already completed the goal. For example “I am healthy and take care of my body and mind.”
  • Write an affirmation that describes steps you take to make your goal happen. For example “I feed my body foods that are healthy and nourishing.”
  • Write an affirmation that addresses your ability to accomplish your goal. For example “I am able to create space in my life for my health to thrive.”

Journal Prompt: Dream Vacation

It can be uplifting and a source of hope to have a dream vacation in mind. Whether is dreaming of the beach, the mountains, new places, or new experiences keeping these things in mind can add excitement to our lives. Todays prompt is all about reflecting on what a dream vacation looks like for you!

Journal Prompt

What is your dream vacation? What is it about this type of vacation that you enjoy?

Do you plan to go on this vacation? How can you work towards it?

If you went on this dream vacation what activities would you look forward to most?

Who would be with you on this vacation?

Journal Prompt: Life Lately

This is my favorite type of journal prompt! It is simply a check in to see how life is going, what we are learning, what’s happening, and how we are feeling.

This prompt is a series of questions and statements to get you thinking about your life in this current season.

Journal Prompt

Take a minute to write down anything that comes to mind about what has been going on in your life lately. This could be experiences you’ve had at work, home, the gym, church or anywhere else that comes to mind.

What has been on your mind lately? What have you been trying to figure out or thinking through? What emotions have you been trying to work through?

What have you been learning? What is something about yourself that you have discovered recently?

What are some things you are grateful for in this season?

To wrap up this journal prompt write one word that sums up your life lately!

30 Journaling Ideas

I love journaling! One of the great things about it is that you can write about anything and make it personal to your experience! This is a list of ideas to get you thinking of what to journal today!

  1. Write your favorite quotes.
  2. Write the lyrics of a song you have been enjoying.
  3. Write out your life story.
  4. Write three things you are grateful for today.
  5. Write out a goal you are working on right now and why it’s important to you.
  6. Write out your favorite childhood memory.
  7. Write a letter to someone you miss.
  8. Write three affirmations.
  9. Write out what you are planning to do this week.
  10. Write about something you are looking forward to.
  11. Write about your favorite movie or tv show.
  12. Rewrite the ending of a story you enjoy.
  13. Write a prayer.
  14. Write a letter to someone you admire.
  15. Write about your favorite season in life.
  16. Write about three things you have accomplished this month.
  17. Write out your favorite scripture.
  18. Write about a way you have grown lately.
  19. Draw a diagram of your family tree.
  20. Write about your favorite family tradition.
  21. Write out your bucket list or lifetime goals.
  22. Write about activities you enjoy doing.
  23. Write about your favorite memory from school.
  24. Write about your favorite team or sport.
  25. Write about a creative project you have done.
  26. Write a letter of encouragement to yourself.
  27. Write out 3 of your strengths.
  28. Write your thoughts and experiences from today.
  29. Write about what you enjoy about your work/job.
  30. Write a letter to a friend.

Journal Prompt: Finding Balance

Balance is one of the nebulous concepts that we all yearn for, but aren’t really sure what it looks like. I think that’s because it’s different for all of us. What balance looks like for me, won’t be what it looks like for you and vice versa. This is because our lives, roles, responsibilities, callings, passions, and journeys are different.

A myth about balance is that to experience balance all things need equal amounts of time. This is an impossible goal. I have found it easier to think of balance as proper distribution of time and energy to various activities in life. For example I know for me balance means I have to use a lot of time on resting. The amount of rest I require would throw someone else way off balance but for me it’s what my body needs. Just something to consider it when thinking through this prompt.

Today’s prompt is all about reflecting on what kind of balance you are yearning for in this season of your life and what action steps you can take to achieve it.

Journal Prompt

What does balance mean to you?

List out the areas, roles, responsibilities, and relationships that you are giving your time and energy to during this season.

What areas of your life do you feel are balanced already and which do you feel are not balanced?

When thinking about your ideal week in this season of life…what areas would it feel more balanced to spend the majority of time on and what areas need less of your time?

What 3 steps can you take this week to increase your time on the areas that you noted need more of you to feel balanced?

What 3 steps can you take to withdraw your time and energy from things that are causing you to feel imbalanced?

I hope you enjoyed this prompt! Comment with thoughts and reflections below!

Benefits of Journaling

I am a life-long journal-writer and it has been essential during many seasons of my life. There are so many great mental and emotional benefits to journaling. It is not only a great way to process your thoughts, it’s also great for writing out plans and progress towards your goals!

Below is a brief video I made about the benefits of journaling. You can find more videos like this on my YouTube Channel.

Journal Prompt: Your Tribe

As we go throughout our lives there are seasons when we feel connected to many people and seasons that we feel alone or connected with few people. I know for me there are times when there are people all around me but I still feel alone. Today’s prompt is all about reflecting on what having a tribe of support means to you, who your tribe is, and what keeps us from feeling connected.

Journal Prompt:

Below are some questions to reflect and consider about yourself tribe and your feelings of connection!

What does having a tribe to support you mean to you?

Who are the people you go to when you want to share about your life? Who do you share with when you are struggling?

Have you been feeling connected lately with the people who are most important to you? If not what keeps you from feeling connected?

What types of relationships are you longing to find in this season? How will you seek to start new relationships that are meaningful to you?

How are you showing up in the relationships you currently have? How are you showing up for yourself when feeling lonely or disconnected?

I hope this reflection has been helpful! Comment below with your thoughts!

Journal Prompt: Purpose

Purpose can seem so illusive and difficult to grasp. Yet having a sense of purpose allows us to live life more fully and increases our quality of life. When we feel we have purpose we can be more intentional to live out our purpose with our thoughts, words, and actions. Today’s journal prompt is all about reflecting on what purpose means to you!

Journal Prompt

To reflect on our purpose we will first answer questions about what is important to us and then reflect on what these answers mean for our purpose.

Reflections on our passions:

  • What do you enjoy doing most throughout the week?
  • What skills or talents do you use in your work or hobbies?
  • What do you do that contributes towards your community?
  • What are you passionate about?
  • What is something that people often come to you and ask you for help with?

Is there a pattern or theme in the answers you wrote about your passions? How do these patterns relate to your purpose?

Now take a moment to write about what purpose means to you.

Based on all that you have written and reflected on so far write out what you believe your purpose to be. How is this purpose reflected in you passions?

I hope you enjoyed this time or reflection! I hope this year is filled with passion and purpose for us!

Journal Prompt: New Year Reflections

The beginning of a new year is a great time to reflect! It’s an opportunity to reflect on the year that has past and to make plans for the new year to come. During this journal prompt we will do both of these things! This is going to be a great year!!

Journal Prompt

First we will reflect on our experiences in 2022. Reflection is a time to remember, ponder, and evaluate our experiences. Not all the things that we experienced over the last year were easy or enjoyable. There may have been more lessons or hard times over the last year then moments of laughter and joy. The purpose of this prompt isn’t to judge your experiences, but to simply reflect on how these experiences can help us create the best year in 2023. Consider these questions to help reflect on 2022:

  • What brought you the most joy in 2022?
  • What are three lessons from 2022 that you want to bring into the new year?
  • What goals did you work on during 2022?
  • Think back to how 2022 started for you and where you were in life…where are you in life now in comparison?

Now that we have reflected on 2022, let’s look ahead to our plans, goals, and hopes for 2023.

  • What are your top 3 goals that you want to work on in 2023?
  • What habits are you hoping to break or begin in 2023?
  • What 2 things are you looking forward to most this year?
  • Where do you want to be in life a year from now? What action steps can you take this year to accomplish this?

I hope you enjoyed this time of reflection! This is going to be a great year! We got this!

Journal Prompt: Winter Reflections

The seasons can bring so much inspiration and opportunity to reflect! Today’s journal prompt is all about Winter and reflecting on the lessons this season teaches us.

Journal Prompt

Winter is a season of rest. It is a season where nature has let go and is still before a time of growth and rebirth.

How can you choose to rest and be still during this season?

Nothing in nature blooms all year. How can you use this time to recharge and refocus in preparation for a time of growth?

This is a time to reflect on where you’ve been and we’re you are going. What growth have you experienced lately? How do you intend to keep pressing towards your goals in the next season of your life?

Check Out More Posts Below!

Gratitude & Journaling

Journal Prompt: Long Term Goals

Journal Prompt: Writing Your Story

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How to Reframe Your Thoughts with Gratitude

What We Think Matters

The quality and content of our thoughts impacts us on many levels. The way we think has an impact on our mental, emotional, and physical health. It can be easy to develop habits of negative thinking and self-talk. Like any habit we can change how we think and develop new thought patterns. Take a minute to reflect on these questions:

  • Do your thought patterns tend to be more positive or negative?
  • When thinking negatively how does it impact your day? How does it impact your actions and reactions?
  • Think of three things you are grateful for. How does it make you feel to practice gratitude? How does it change your perspective in this moment?

Positive thoughts and thoughts of gratitude can have many benefits to us. According the the Mayo Clinic these are just some of the benefits positive thoughts can have (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2022):

  1. Longer life span
  2. Lower rates of depression
  3. Decreased stress, distress, and pain
  4. Better overall well-being and quality of life
  5. Better coping skills and increased resilience

Paying Attention To Your Thoughts

It takes practice to pay attention to and change our thought patterns. Some of the ways we think are so ingrained in us that they come to mind subconsciously. These are called automatic thoughts and for a lot of us they tend to be negative (Hoshaw, 2020). The first step to changing these thoughts is to notice them. There are a couple of ways to do this including:

  • Write down all your thoughts in a journal throughout the day.
  • Simply pause and paying attention to your thoughts throughout the day.

Once you notice your thoughts you can then make efforts to change how you think.

Reframing Thoughts With Gratitude

You can change your thoughts by intentionally correcting negative thought patterns with positive thoughts. One way to do this is to reframe our thoughts with gratitude. Replacing our negative thoughts with grateful thoughts allows us to be present in the good things around us.

In the image below is an example of how you can do this.

This takes practice! You can practice by journaling your negative thought patterns and then writing a replacement thought of gratitude. Even simply confronting negative thoughts in our mind with grateful thoughts can make a huge impact to our thought life.

The more attention we put into having thoughts of gratitude, the easier it becomes to think grateful or positive thoughts naturally. To practice this now you can write out in your journal five negative thoughts you’ve had today and five reframed thoughts of gratitude.

References

Hoshaw, C. (2020). “Are You Kind to Yourself? Tracking Your Thoughts Might Surprise You” https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/are-you-kind-to-yourself-tracking-your-thoughts-might-surprise-you

Mayo Clinic Staff (2022). “Stress Management” https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/positive-thinking/art-20043950

Journal Prompt: Life In Bloom

Often as we are living our day to day life we don’t realize how much we are growing and blossoming. Today is all about paying attention and reflecting on how we are growing!

Journal Prompt

What areas of life are you growing?

How are you striving to bloom and grow?

Describe a time lately when you have noticed how much you have grown.

Check Our More Blog Posts Below

Journal Prompt: Six Word Story
Journal Prompt: Letter to a Mentor
Journal Prompt
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Journal Prompt: Joy

It is so easy to think of and focus on all the things that are not going well. Today we are going to focus on what is bringing us joy!

Journal Prompt

What is bringing you joy this week?

What activities have you done that spark joy in you?

How can you increase your joy today?

Check Out More Blog Posts Below

https://atomic-temporary-170538561.wpcomstaging.com/2022/09/19/journal-prompt-blooming/
https://atomic-temporary-170538561.wpcomstaging.com/2022/09/30/journal-prompt-writing-your-story/
https://atomic-temporary-170538561.wpcomstaging.com/2022/08/26/blooming-journal-prompt/
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Journal Prompt: Six Word Story

I have seen this idea on Facebook and several other websites! All you do is use six words to tell a story. An example might be “Rabbit quickly hopped, pellets went flying.” It’s all about telling a story or a scene with a few words.

Journal Prompt

Tell a six word story about your current season of life, a feeling you experienced recently, or a fun experience you had recently.

Write three separate six word stories.

Here are other journals prompts to check out!

Music Journal Prompt
Journal Prompt: Strength
Blooming Journal Prompt

Journal Prompt: Long Term Goals

Working towards long-term goals is essential to getting to where we want to be. Todays journal prompt is reflecting on the daily activities we are doing now to work toward our long term goals.

Journal Prompt

What is your long term goal?

Why is this goal important to you?

What daily activities can you do to support your long-term goals?

How will you implement these activities?

Journal Prompt: Letter to a Mentor

Journaling letters can be a great way to reflect on positive relationships or to find closure. Todays letter is to a mentor in your life.

Journal Prompt

This prompt is all about reflecting on a mentor in your life. Here is a list of possible things to mention in your letter. The purpose of this letter isn’t necessarily to send to the person, but simply a tool of reflection in your journal.

  • When was this mentor in your life and what stage of life were you in?
  • Why was this relationship significant?
  • How did this mentor impact you and what did they teach you?
  • What are you grateful for about this mentor?

Journal Prompt: Fall

Fall is a great time for reflection. There is so much that we learn from nature about change, letting go, and growth. The prompt today is about thinking about how all of these lessons relate to us in our current season of life.

Journal Prompt

Fall can teach us so much about life and the seasons. How do these lessons relate to your life?

Fall teaches us that letting go can be beautiful and essential for new growth. How has letting go been apart of this season in your life?

Fall teaches us that change can be full of beauty. What beauty have you seen from change in your life during this season?

Journal Prompt: Writing Your Story

Your story is so important!! It’s one of the many unique things about you that makes you special. But it’s also true that all of our stories have things about it that are difficult and hard to face. I once did this journal prompt for my story and it allowed me to see myself and my story differently.

Journal Prompt

Today’s journal prompt is all about writing your narrative with a spin. Write your story as a narrative of someone else’s story. When I did the prompt I told the story of a girl name Anna and I wrote about her story and adventures, but of course it was my story. Below are some things to consider to help get started.

What part of your story are you wanting to write about?

What is the character’s name in the story?

What type of narrative is this? For example, my story was a story of overcoming an obstacle.

After you write your story reflect on how it made you feel. How did it changed how you see your story?

Journal Prompt: Favorite Halloween Memory

There are so many Fall memories that bring us joy! Today’s journal prompt is all about what memories from Halloween brought us joy!

Journal Prompt

Today is all about looking back and remembering the good times during Halloween! Below are a list of questions to bring up positive memories!

What has been your favorite Halloween costume?

What candy do you enjoy on Halloween?

What is your favorite Halloween activity?

Journal Prompt: Gratitude

Gratitude is so important for our wellness!! It allows us to focus on positive things and has the power the change our perspective and therefore our actions.

Journal Prompt

Write 5 things you are grateful for today?

What about each of these things is important to you?

How can you express your gratitude to the people around you?

Journal Prompt: Blooming

Blooming and thriving looks different in each of our lives. This journal prompt is all about reflecting on what it looks like in your life!

Journal Prompt

What does it mean to you to thrive and bloom in life?

What has blooming looked like in your life?

Have there been seasons in life where you felt like you were thriving more then in others? What was different in that season?

What areas are you blooming and thriving in life right now?

Journal Prompt

Life is made of a variety of seasons and chapters! Today’s journal prompt is all about reflecting on your current season.

Seasons Prompt

If you could name your current season in life what would you call it?

How would you describe this season?

What does this season mean to you in your overall journey?

How have you been growing in this season?

Journal Prompt: Affirmations

Affirmations can be life changing! The more we tell ourselves affirmations, even if we don’t believe them at first, the more we convince ourselves that they are true. Todays journal prompt is about choosing affirmations for a goal we are working towards.

Journal Prompt

What goal are you currently working on?

Write three positive affirmations for yourself regarding this goal. After you write them repeat them to yourself several times.

Where can you put the affirmation where you will see it regularly while working on your goal?

Journal Prompt: Empowerment

It’s great to think and reflect on what makes us feel empowered. When we do this regularly our brain will more likely bring these things to mind when we are feeling down or going through a hard time.

Journal Prompt

What does empowerment mean to you?

What makes you feel empowered?

How does feeling empowered change your day or week?

Journal Prompt: 2022 Summer Favorites

It can be so easy to forget about the good things that happen during the different seasons in our lives. The journal prompt today is all about what your favorite memories were during this summer!

Journal Prompt

What was your favorite memory from the summer season in 2022? Who was with you and where did you experience it?

What was your favorite meal during the summer?

What was your favorite way to relax?

What was your favorite movie or TV show during the summer?

Journal Prompt: Strength

One of my favorite types of journal prompts are ones that involve telling my story. Today’s promote is all about retelling a story when you felt strong. There are many circumstances in life that can make us feel less then or not strong enough. But today we are going to remember a time when we felt as strong as we actually are.

Journal Prompt

Think of a time when you felt strong. Strength can be in whatever way you define it. Write out what happened and what made you feel strong.

How did you look at yourself differently after this experience?

How do you still carry this same strength in your life today?

Music Journal Prompt

Music plays a huge role in our life, culture, and often our coping. If you are like me then you probably have a song that you resonate with more during certain seasons or times in your life. Todays journal prompt is all about that song or songs that are resonating with you during your current season!

Music Prompt

What song or songs do you relate to right now?

Write out some of the lyrics that mean the most.

What about this song and lyrics relates to you during this season of your life? How does this song make you feel?

Goal Planning Journal Prompt

It’s almost the beginning of a new month!! This means it’s a great time to consider new goals we want to work on! This journal prompt is all about reflecting and making plans to meet our monthly goals!

What are three goals I want to work on during the next month?

Why are these goals important to me?

What actions steps will I take to accomplish each goal?

How will I track my progress throughout the month?

Blooming Journal Prompt

I love journaling and have really enjoyed this prompt! There are three parts to this journal entry and each section can be as short or long as you prefer.

  1. Write one or several things you are grateful for today.
  2. Write whatever is happening in your life today or about whatever is one your mind.
  3. Write three affirmations about yourself or your day.

Happy journaling to you!