For the person who wants to journal more but keeps writing “I don’t know what to write” and closing the notebook.
Journaling is one of those practices that sounds simple until you’re actually sitting in front of a blank page with a pen in your hand and absolutely nothing written down. You know you have stuff to say, you know it would probably help to get that stuff on paper, but when the page is empty and the prompt is just “write about your feelings”, your brain tends to get just as empty.
That’s not a problem with you, or with journaling as a whole, that’s a problem with the prompt – or lack thereof. A good prompt gives your buzzing thoughts somewhere to land. It asks a specific enough question that your brain actually has something to work around, rather than staring at a blank page and hoping for the best.
The fifty prompts below are organized by theme so you can find what you need depending on where you are or what you’re working through. You don’t have to do them in order, you don’t have to do all of them, just the ones that speak to you. Find one that jumps out and start there.
On who you are right now
- Describe yourself as you actually are today, not who you’re trying to become or who you used to be.
- What three words would the people who know you best use to describe you? Are these the words you would have chosen yourself?
- What have you always just believed about yourself but never actually questioned?
- What part of your personality do you tend to hide from people you’ve just met?
- When do you feel most like yourself?
- What does a genuinely good day look like for you? Describe it in detail.
- What are you pretending not to want?
- What would you do differently if you stopped caring what others thought?
- What’s a quality you have that you never really give yourself enough credit for?
- What are you most afraid people will find out about you?
On your past and where you’ve come from
- What’s something you’ve been through that you’re proud of surviving?
- What’s a belief you held five years ago that you no longer hold? What changed it?
- Who were you before the world started telling you who to be?
- What’s the kindest thing anyone has done for you?
- What’s something from your childhood that still shows up in how you move through the world as an adult?
- What did you most need to hear at the hardest point of your life?
- What’s a mistake you made that turned out to be important?
- What version of yourself are you most grateful you grew out of?
- What story do you keep telling yourself that might not be true anymore?
- Who has shaped you the most, and in what way?
On what you want and where you’re going
- If you knew you couldn’t fail, what would you try?
- What does your life look like in five years if everything goes according to plan?
- What does your life look like in five years if nothing changes?
- What are you waiting for permission to do?
- What would you regret most not having tried?
- What’s a goal you keep putting off that you actually care deeply about?
- What does success look like to you, separate from what you think it’s supposed to look like?
- What kind of person do you want to be?
- What are you tolerating in your life right now that you don’t have to?
- What’s one small thing you could do this week that your future self would thank you for?
On your relationships and how you connect
- Who in your life makes you feel the most seen? What do they say or do that creates that feeling?
- What kind of friend are you? What kind of friend do you want to be?
- Where in your relationships do you find yourself shrinking?
- Is there a relationship in your life that you’ve been avoiding thinking about?
- What do you need from the people close to you that you’ve never directly asked for?
- What boundaries do you wish you had in place?
- Who are you most yourself around, and why?
- What relationships in your life are genuinely nourishing you right now?
- What would you say to someone you’ve never properly forgiven?
- What do you wish people understood about you without you having to explain it?
On your creative life and what lights you up
- When did you last feel genuinely completely absorbed in something? What was it?
- What creative project have you been talking yourself out of? What’s the real reason?
- What did you love doing as a child that you’ve since decided is not “serious” enough to pursue?
- What does your most creatively alive self look like?
- What would you make if you knew nobody would ever see it?
- Where in your life are you playing it safe where you could be taking a creative risk?
- What are you curious about right now that you haven’t made time to explore?
- What kind of art, in the broadest sense of the word, makes you feel most alive?
- What does your creative voice sound like when you’re not second-guessing it?
- What would you create if you gave yourself six months and full permission?
A few notes on actually using these
You don’t need to answer every question in full. Sometimes a prompt just opens something up and you write for three pages about something that’s only tangentially related – that’s the whole point! Let the prompt be a door, not a box.
If a prompt makes you uncomfortable or brings up something you’d rather not look at, that’s usually a sign it’s something to sit with, even for a little while. You don’t have to go deep immediately, just notice the resistance and come back to it.
And if you’re new to journaling and the idea of writing by hand for any length of time feels daunting, you can just start small: one prompt, five minutes, no pressure to put out anything polished or profound. The value is in the process, not the output.
The page is a safe space to be honest, so use it! 🌸
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