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Do you feel you could use some soothing exercise or practice to work through your inner struggles? Keep reading and you’ll learn about my favorite journaling prompts for healing that help TREMENDOUSLY when going through hardships. Tried and true!
First of all, I am sorry if you are going through a difficult period in your life.
I wish it never happened to you, or I should say, I wish at least it wouldn’t be this hard.
You should know that at least one person on this planet has gone through the same thing. And someone is going through it right now as well. You are not alone.
Sometimes I wish I could be a wizard to be able to take bad things away from people and make them happy.
At this moment I am not one (has been waiting for my letter from Hogwarts for a while now), but I still hope to at least make you feel a little better.
Just give you a little mood boost. A little uplift.
Recently I myself went through some deeply unpleasant realizations and I ended up journaling a lot during that time.
Through trial and error, I figured out five powerful journaling prompts for healing that I’ve actually never heard of. They kind of came naturally to me.
Each of them makes me feel so much more faith and hope every time upon finishing.
I instantly feel more confident, calm, and strong. I feel like I am on the right path. So I can say without exaggeration that these journaling prompts for emotional healing are some of the best journaling prompts for mental health out there.
Hopefully, they will help you as well.
And to be completely honest, I’m still not fully done with the struggles I mentioned so it’s safe to say that we’ll be doing this together.
I am providing examples for each journaling prompt I am listing — straight from my own journal.
Let’s dive right in!
This post is all about journaling prompts for healing.
🌿 Journal prompts for mental health — what is it?
Journal prompts for mental health are guided questions that make you self-reflect on a specific topic and encourage self-discovery, healing, and deep inner work to help you achieve the goals that you set for yourself.
📝 Journaling prompts lists
Depending on what you want to work on, you can find different journaling prompts to self-coach yourself.
So far I created two journaling prompts lists that are proven to be efficient:
Some other prompts you might want to look up:
- Journal prompts for anxiety
- Journal prompts for self-discovery
- Journal prompts for overthinking
- Journal prompts for healing heartbreak
- Journal prompts for healing the inner child
- Journal prompts for triggers
- Journal prompts for healing trauma
✨ How journaling helps healing
So can journaling heal you?
Even if I wouldn’t rely solely on journaling when it comes to emotional healing, it considerably facilitates and speeds up the process.
The truth is that on top of helping with self-discovery and self-reflection, journaling also improves our mood drastically, bringing relief and helping to switch to positive thinking patterns. It happens through releasing all the worries and bothersome thoughts on the paper and leaving a feeling of liberation.
It also slowly but surely re-wires our minds towards beneficial mindsets.
On top of that, we often discover surprising thoughts and feelings we didn’t know we had while journaling.
I would recommend seeking professional help (therapy) to heal from trauma effectively, but if it is impossible at the moment journaling might become a great alternative.
RELATED POST: 11 Smart Ways To Make Life Easier (As A Creative)
🗒 How do I start a healing journal?
This is the best part because it’s the easiest one as well — just find and print out worksheets that you like!
I believe that the key to getting into a journaling habit relies a lot on whether you enjoy the process or not.
I’ve discovered one proven method to enjoy journaling: using pretty and practical tools that look and feel good.
That way you will want to actually pick them up and take action.
And I got you covered! 🙂
I created a free printable workbook (PDF) with journaling prompts for healing from this post.
Click on the image below to download and print it out!
You can buy a binder and collect all your printables and journaling prompts there.
I tried my best to make it pretty but practical, so check it out and let me know in the comments below how you like it!
To start journaling, you also need your vulnerability unwrapped and ready — for you to fully open up.
Now, it might sound intimidating but being absolutely honest about your worries and feelings is the key.
You don’t need to be a writer, you don’t need to know how to write beautifully. Journaling is not for showing off your writing skills. It’s all about the result — and not in the form of a piece of good writing, but in the form of new discoveries about yourself.
So before you start following the prompts and digging deep down your mind, set an intention.
Ask yourself:
What am I trying to accomplish? (Ex., To heal and support myself emotionally)
What do I want to learn about myself? (Ex., How things affected me and what are my own ways to get over them)
How do I want to feel after this practice? (Ex., Strong, optimistic, calm)
How this will help me achieve my goal? (Ex., It will give me the energy to stay strong and persist, improving myself along the way)
💡 Healing journal ideas
Another idea is to get a blank notebook for journaling.
I love my journals — I have two — and I enjoy using them every time.
I like the way they look: I prefer them minimalistic so nothing distracts me from how I am feeling and so I can personalize them exactly the way I want.
I like my journals thick and pages plain: that way I have better freedom and more space. I like the idea of filling them with my thoughts and having them look like million-paged novels full of mysteries and adventures (lol).
I prefer them high-quality — I want to enjoy holding and touching them.
If you are like me and you like your journals minimalistic and well-made, check out my favorite notebooks for journaling:
Hardcover Moleskine with 400 plain pages — This is my main journal. I prefer plain pages for better freedom.
Sketchbook-like notebook with 412 plain thick pages — This is my manifestation journal that I use regularly for scripting.
Refillable black gel PILOT pens with extra fine point — These are my favorite pens for handwriting, I’ve been using them since high school and never found anything better.
If you are using a blank journal like me, you can look up journaling prompts for emotional healing and alternate them with tracking how you feel on a day-to-day basis.
✍🏼 Journaling prompts for healing
So here are my advanced journaling prompts for trauma healing:
🔮 Letter from your future self to your current self
I’ve heard before about a letter to your future self and a letter to your past self.
Those are great and have their benefits, but I found that the most groundbreaking and satisfying for me was… the letter FROM my future self to my CURRENT self!
I never thought of that until I did it accidentally after a scripting session. It just kind of poured out of my head before I realized it… and I constantly felt SO confident and inspired.
I just instantly knew that I got this.
Whatever is happening in my life right now — I got this.
I have proof from my happy and fulfilled future self!
I’m not sure if I’m doing everything right, but she — my future self — knows. And she wants me to stop pushing myself too hard and just keep showing up.
THE EXPECTED RESULT
Instant relief and feeling of encouragement, like if you just talked to your best friend.
HOW TO WRITE A LETTER FROM YOUR FUTURE SELF TO YOUR CURRENT SELF
Imagine you are three or five years from now and you’ve accomplished all the things you are working hard on at the moment. You are over all the struggles that you are going through right now. You are in a place of peace and happiness.
What would you want to say to your past self? How would you reassure, encourage, and support them?
FROM MY JOURNAL…
“Everything will be amazing.
I am writing this for you, future Sasha.
I want you to look back at this two-three years from now and remember how hard it was, and how scary too.
I want you to look at this and think how proud you are of yourself.
For showing up. For pushing no matter what. For digging, learning, discovering, researching, trying. For not giving up on yourself. For working so hard on yourself and your goals.
You deserve all the best things in this world. And you’ll get everything you want.
It’s coming. It’s on the way.
The Universe got your back.”
RELATED POST: How to Deal With Inner Critic: Quick Soothing Technique
😨 Write down your fears and/or limiting beliefs
You might have heard about this one before… It’s popular and effective because knowledge is power!
When you know what you have to be working on — it’s very often something that is slowing you down in your progress — your task becomes twice easier.
If you have fears or negative beliefs that took over the driver’s seat in your life, you need to be able to identify them, catch them, and eventually put them where they belong — in the trunk.
You can then go ahead and implement another awesome practice (next level!) — replace your limiting beliefs and fears with the opposite positive statements. You might want to repeat them to yourself daily to re-wire your mind to think in a different way that is beneficial to your well-being and happiness.
I talk more about it in this post:
5 Daily Self Love Habits To Start In 2022 (+ Action Plan)
THE EXPECTED RESULT
Being aware of your mindset, being able to analyze how it’s affecting your behavior, and being able to catch it when it happens. Knowing what’s happening is half the battle!
HOW TO WRITE DOWN YOUR FEARS AND/OR LIMITING BELIEFS
The hardest part is to acknowledge that you have them.
Start with fears. Do a brain dump: write down all the fears that you have that you can come up with. Spend as much time as you need: sometimes the most “harmful” fears are hiding in the back of your mind, so you might have to really dig deep.
Now, think of some limiting beliefs that you suspect you might have. Think of all the things your parents would tell you when you were little. Self-reflect on whether you tend to belittle or beat yourself up for certain things, or not allow yourself to do things that you want? Some mindsets that hinder your progress?
For both fears and limiting beliefs, use this list of aspects of life and think thoroughly about each of them:
- Money
- Career
- Personal growth
- Health
- Friends
- Love relationship
- Fun
- Family
FROM MY JOURNAL…
“Fears:
I am scared not to be perfect.
I am scared not to be the best.
I am scared that people will judge me.
I am scared to get trapped in some image (how people see me) and not be able to move on if I want to.
I am scared that if I fail, people will laugh at me.
I am scared to be alone when everyone is against me.
I am scared that I won’t be special or interesting anymore.
Limiting beliefs:
I am not good enough.
I must not make a mistake.
People don’t take my art seriously.
I am way behind — I should have figured this out by now.
My worth is defined by how much I’ve accomplished.
Good things never last long.
Everything I want to say was already said before me so there is no point in trying.
My success is conditioned mostly by coincidences and luck, and not my skills and talents.”
RELATED POST: How to Stop Worrying About Others and Focus on Yourself
💯 Write the One and Only letter to yourself
You are going to write a letter to yourself explaining that you are actually the only person you truly have.
Now, I know it sounds tough.
But just think about it… Who is the only person that will never abandon you? Like, never ever?
Your life partner, your mom, your sister, a best friend might come to your mind…
We are used to thinking that our dearest people are and will be always there for us. But life is quite unpredictable, and you never know what awaits for you tomorrow.
There is only one person who has always been and will always be by your side.
It’s you. And you only.
It’s not something you want to hear, and it seems to be an awful thing… But it depends on how you look at it.
With all the unexpectedness that we, human beings, have to deal with, there is one thing that you can 100% be certain about. At least we have that, right?
So might as well respect, love, and cherish that person that we have on our team from day one until the last day.
In this exercise, we are going to work on that.
THE EXPECTED RESULT
Feeling a lot of love and acceptance towards yourself, appreciating yourself more, and feeling encouraged to take better care of yourself.
HOW TO WRITE THE ONE AND ONLY LETTER TO YOURSELF
Start with being grateful for yourself: list the things that you are proud of yourself for.
Then confess your love to yourself. Admit that it’s an overwhelming feeling, but at the end of the day, you are the only person who is always going to be with you.
Acknowledge the importance of you.
Write as many sentences as you’d like — the more, the better. At the end of this exercise you might find yourself writing about something else that is connected to the topic. Do it: you are discovering new things right now.
RELATED POST: 3 Negative Effects Of Self Love (You’ll Be Surprised)
FROM MY JOURNAL…
“I am grateful for having myself as myself. For having myself as my first, closest, best friend forever and ever.
I will never abandon myself, I will never leave myself, and I will never betray myself.
I will always have myself, no matter what.
That’s the relationship that must be my priority number one. Over anything.
Me. Myself. I. These are number one to work on.
I am becoming a better friend to myself every day. I am getting closer and closer to myself. I am accepting and embracing all my strong sides and flaws every day more and more.
I am something that no one can ever take away from me.
This journal entry is all about me. There will be no one else here.
I deserve all the attention. I deserve all the good things. I deserve all the best things. I am my favorite person. And I am also truly the only person who is guaranteed to never abandon me.
Even if it’s a little overwhelming to realize that anyone, literally anyone I have in my life can walk away, it’s also very refreshing to acknowledge that at least one will stay with me forever. And it’s me.
And that is who I should always think about first.”
RELATED POST: Revealed: Self Discipline is Self Love
🧩 Play the Why game
This is one of my FAVORITE TOOLS EVER to use when I am trying to pull myself out of a slump and figure out the next action steps.
I have been playing this game since I was a kid without realizing it, and was shocked when I learned that it’s an actual journaling practice.
This is a journaling prompt that might come in handy if you are feeling lost, are not able to identify a reason for something, or find an answer to a complicated question.
It gives you a clear picture of how one mindset, event, idea or action can be connected with something that seemingly has nothing to do with it.
All you have to do is ask yourself a question that is bothering you, and then just keep asking yourself WHY.
You’ll get a better idea once you look at my own journal entry below.
THE EXPECTED RESULT
Finding the core reason for a situation, issue, or stuck point, and being able to find a solution and move on. A feeling of clarity and confidence.
HOW TO PLAY THE WHY GAME
All you have to do is keep asking yourself WHY.
Start with the main issue that you are trying to find and answer to, and then just keep asking WHY to each of the next statements you write down. Sooner or later, you’ll get to the core reason of your problem.
FROM MY JOURNAL…
“So why do I procrastinate so much?
I procrastinate because I am scared that I am going to spend a lot of time on that thing, and will end with crappy result or no result at all.
Why am I scared of that?
Because it feels like I am already behind and I have no time to be creating things that are not great. Also because creating OK things feels like waste of time.
Why so?
I feel like I am behind because I keep comparing myself to other people who are successful, and I feel the pressure of time passing. I only want to create great things because it feels like if I don’t, then I am not interesting and not talented, therefore not worthy of attention or love.
Why do I compare myself to other people and feel the pressure of time passing? Why do I think I am not worthy if I am not creating perfect pieces of art?
I compare myself to other people and feel the pressure of time passing because I have always had this vision in my head that I am supposed to be the best. I’m supposed to be better than other people and be different or extraordinary by having better results.
And if I am not, then I am average and I don’t deserve extraordinary love. If I am not, all I can have is that mediocre love where people have secrets from each other, betray, cheat and disrespect each other.
I am just scared of being hurt. And most likely it took this extreme form because I’m a highly sensitive person (HSP), so when it comes to being hurt by the people I love, I take it particularly hard. My childhood experiences played their role as well.
So, weirdly enough… I procrastinate so much because I am trying to avoid getting hurt by any means.”
👥 Do the Transformation experiment
This exercise requires a little more than just inner work.
We are going to challenge ourselves to upgrade or modify our physical appearance and make notes on how it affects the way we feel.
Apparently, the way we feel has a lot to do with how we feel about our appearance.
And it’s not only about feeling confident and attractive. It’s also about the energy that’s either matching our current emotional state or not. That’s why various makeover tv-shows are so popular.
And sometimes all we need to feel more like our true selves is a little change.
In my case, it happened out of the blue.
Some time ago I was feeling kind of empty and uncomfortable and it felt like I am not being myself at that given moment.
And then I found myself cutting my bangs at 2AM after watching Jeanne Damas and Caroline de Maigret do the same thing on Youtube.
And that was the best decision ever!! The last time I had bangs was probably when I was five.
I made a conclusion that my hairstyle had been working for me for a long time, but then I slowly changed and it just didn’t match how I felt anymore.
It’s very interesting to document how you feel after the transformation is done. I literally felt like a new person.
THE EXPECTED RESULT
The feeling of freshness, novelty and inspiration. Feeling light and flexible, and able to move mountains.
HOW TO DO THE TRANSFORMATION EXPERIMENT
So here is the task: change something about yourself and write down how you feel in your journal.
It can be a new haircut or haircolor, a new tattoo or piercing (or the first ever — even better!), a completely new style in clothes… The more drastic it is, the better! (Be careful though, and don’t make any reckless decisions.)
Think of something you’ve been wanting to change but couldn’t make up your mind. It’s time!
FROM MY JOURNAL…
“Yesterday I cut my bangs!
First time in years I changed something about my hairstyle.
It feels so good!
I feel so French and so playful!
I don’t even want to care about anything — it feels like whatever I do will work out.
Time to enjoy life!”
This post was all about journaling prompts for healing.
OTHER POSTS YOU MAY LIKE:
Balancing Masculine and Feminine Energy to Connect With Your True Self
The Only List of Spiritual Practices for a Happier Life You Need (Beginner-Friendly)
