If you ever wonder what you think, or how you feel. If you’re ever lost, confused, unsure at what action to take next, or which path will best lead you to your goals by way of your values. If you ever wonder what your values even are. If you’re ever weighed down by the pressure of too many thoughts, or too many decisions. If you ever wonder who you are, where you came from, where you’re going, wonder who are the people around you and how your lives harmonize. Journaling is the answer.

Journaling can be a creative practice, a meditative practice, an intellectual practice. Journaling can be a lighthearted pastime spurred on by your own curiosity and pursuit of ideas, or it can be a revolutionary mental health aid.

For those new to journaling, it can be intimidating. Like sitting down with a person you’re seriously interested to talk to, but having no clue where to start the conversation, either from fear and timidness, or freezing in the face of too many threads to follow. You know there are untold depths to explore, and you’re excited for the journey, but where do you begin?

That’s where journaling prompts come in.

Journaling prompts are ice breakers to life-changing conversations with yourself. Journaling prompts are keys to doors with unexplored universes behind them. Journaling prompts are sparks to fire your thinking. They are methods to unravel and analyze your thoughts and form new ideas. Journaling prompts can be ways to discover what you think, to learn who you are, and reveal your greatest strengths or maybe even your fatal flaws. Journaling prompts can be simply a means to get your pen moving and to establish a writing habit. These prompts contain all of these potentials and more.

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• Write three words that encapsulate your values. Now, write a few paragraphs about your choices of words.

• Who was your childhood hero? List all the ways you are now like that hero.

• Free write for twenty minutes as soon as you wake up in the morning on whatever topic comes out of your head.

• “I am grateful for…” List as many things as you can, don’t stop writing for ten minutes.

• What are ten things your life would be better off without and why.

• If you had one day, with no responsibilities, how would you spend it? Describe the whole twenty-four hours.

• Retell the story of your favorite book from childhood. Why has this story stuck with you?

• What does ideal love feel like?

• Free write about everything you can sense right now–sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste.

• Write about a time when you felt ashamed.

• Write a letter to your fifteen-year-old self.

• Write a letter to your ninety-five-year-old self.

• Write a letter to your kids for when they are adults.

• What is one thing you imagine would improve the world, achieving the greatest good for the lowest effort?

• Write about an event that has made you cry from something other than sadness.

• Imagine you are your best friend. Write a letter of advice to yourself, as you would advise a best friend.

• If you could change one thing about your past, what would it be? How would that alter your present?

• If money wasn’t an issue, write about what your ideal self-care day would look like.

• What were you interested in as a pre-teen?

• Write about a gift you received as a child.

• Write a letter to someone who frustrates you.

• Write about a time when your plans failed. What positive things have come from that?

• What do you hope to achieve by the end of this year?

• Make a list of activities you have always wanted to try.

• If you had no restrictions on money, time, responsibilities, etc., where in the world would you like to spend a week alone?

• Draw a random tarot card and free write about your intuitive associations with that card. If you don’t have a tarot deck, go to www.randomtarotcard.com.

• Free write for fifteen minutes about something you believe in.

• What do you hope to have achieved in three years?

• What does control look like for you?

• Imagine your ideal house. What’s inside? What’s outside? What would it take for you to make that fantasy a reality?

• Recall a dream you had in the past.

• I am craving… (don’t write about food).

• My three best non-physical qualities are…

• Write about what makes you feel most like yourself.

• When is a time you have felt enlivened?

• If you were gifted $50,000 (no strings attached) what would you do?

• Write about something you once enjoyed learning about.

• Personify your inner critic and write a letter to them.

• Describe a time you were about to begin an adventure.

• List what you see as the three biggest obstacles to you achieving your dream life. Now, free write for fifteen minutes about how you could remove those obstacles.

• You can spend a day in the life of one person. Who is it? What is their ideal day?

• Think of that person you would like to live as for a day (prompt 41). What does a bad day look like for them?

• Write about a time you felt proud of yourself.

• What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to you?

• Write about a recent opportunity you’re grateful for.

• At the end of the day, reflect on one thing you loved about the last twenty-four hours, one thing you didn’t enjoy, and one thing you’re looking forward to tomorrow.

• What is your most simple pleasure?

• Write about one thing you desire in precise detail.

• Free write for twenty minutes about the ways you have ever cheated yourself.

• List ten things you take for granted.

• Write about something you appreciate about your mother.

• Write about something that happened recently that prevented you from getting what you desired.

• What do you appreciate most about yourself?

• You’ve invited three famous people (living or dead) to dinner. Who are they? Why did you invite them? How do you think the conversation will go? Will there be any arguments?

• Write about a time you felt confused.

• Write about a time you experienced pure joy.

• What did your parents tell you about money?

• Write a letter to someone you admire. You don’t need to know them personally. Explain the impact they have on your daily life.

• List all the ways you think you are creative in your day-to-day life.

• Are there places in your life where you feel undervalued? Do you undervalue yourself, or does it come from others?

• What’s your why? You can answer this for specific areas of your life, or consider a more blanket statement of your daily motivations.

• Brainstorm at least fifty fun and interesting things you can do either alone or with your family or friends in the next month.

• Write a short portrait about a person you love deeply, describing their strengths. Now, do the same in describing yourself.

• Are you hopeful or pessimistic about your future? If you are both, how much on each side?

• What’s your favorite thing to do in your downtime? Why do you love it so much? How can you bring that same enjoyment into other areas of your life?

• Paint a word portrait of the house you live in without describing the physical things.

• Write a letter to someone you know well telling them about a time you solved a complicated problem.

• Forest? Mountain? Ocean? What’s your choice? Why? What insight do you think this gives to your personality?

• Go to an online random word generator (or use a physical dictionary). Choose three words. Use those words as prompts to free write for twenty minutes about anything in your life.

• What does judgement mean to you?

• Describe a time you were innocent?

• Strength. Compassion. Think about the relationship of these words to one another. Free write for twenty minutes about how they apply to your life.

• Do you have a secret? Write about it in close detail for three pages.

• Imagine you are standing in a field at dawn. Better yet, go out and actually stand in a field, or something similar, at dawn. What are you feeling? Thinking? How do you feel about the coming day?

• Do you make your decisions with intuition or intellect? Write about a time you used intuition to decide something. Then write about another time intellect motivated your decisions. Describe the differences in each process and how they made you feel.

• Select an object close to you. Write about as many unusual uses for that object you can think of.

• Are you facing a decision in life right now? Imagine two separate hypothetical outcomes: one if you solved the problem with intellect, and one if you solved the problem with intuition.

• Free write for three pages about the recurrent themes in your life. Interpret this however you like.

• Longing. Free write for fifteen minutes about what this word means to you on a deeply personal level.

• If you could time travel, where in history would you like to spend a week? Would you go alone or with friends or family? Why?

• What do you know a lot about? Think about ways you could teach that to someone else. What would you get out of the teaching?

• Write about a tradition in your family, no matter how insignificant it might seem. Why do you have that tradition? What does it mean to you?

• Write about something in your

• life you wish more people knew about. Why did you choose to write about this thing? What is stopping you from telling more people about it?

• Write about a tradition you would like to start in your family. What draws you to this desire?

• Make a general list of the way you do things in your day-to-day life. Everything from starting the day, getting ready, working, taking breaks, chatting, commuting, shopping, eating, going to bed. Why do you do these things this way? Write about ways you could do each thing differently to the same effect.

• List three things about yourself you consider flaws. Now write about each of these things and they ways they are assets to you and those around you.

• Nurture. What does this mean to you? Where in your life are you nurtured? By whom? When do you act as the nurturer?

• Imagine the worst potential outcome to a problem you’re currently facing. Write about it in detail. Now, write about how that potential negative outcome will bring a positive change to your life.

• Sunrise or moonrise? If you had to define yourself by one of these, which would it be. Why?

• Write about a time you had an assumption challenged. Was it a false assumption?

• Conviction. What does this word mean to you? Free write about your personal convictions for twenty minutes.

• Take up a classic novel and open it to a random page. Choose a random sentence. Write it at the top of your journal page. Free write for twenty minutes about how that sentence applies to your life.

• Write about a grudge, either one you currently hold or one you have held in the past. Why do you still hold this? If you do not have any grudges, write about why that is.

• On a blank page, draw a random set of lines with your eyes closed. Now, open your eyes and form those lines into a picture. What did you draw? Write about how this exercise made you feel and what you think your drawing says about you.

• If you could change one non-physical thing about yourself, what would it be? Why? How do you think your life would be different with this change?

• Write a love letter to something in your life (not a person) that has improved you.

• I am most anxious when…

• Go online and find a quote from someone you admire. Write it down in your journal. Now free write for twenty minutes about why that quote resonates with you.

• What’s your favorite scent? Why?

• What’s the weather like where you are right now? Describe it in high sensory detail. How is the weather impacting on your day so far? Is there anything you would like to change about the weather? Think about any negative positions you hold about the current weather. Turn those into positives.

• Write a To Do list of every single thing in your life you feel needs doing. Cross off at least twenty percent of items and write a letter to yourself explaining why you don’t need to do them.