Journaling 

Journaling allows you to self-reflect on the events in your life, relieve stress, and manage anxiety. If you have not tried journaling before, don't be afraid to start! Find any piece of paper and begin to write. 

Don't know where to start? Here are some writing prompts to get you started! 

1. We can “practice kindness” and “practice meanness” toward ourselves. In fact, meanness is practiced quite a lot. Most often, we aim it at ourselves and we usually don’t fully recognize how mean we are to ourselves.

Let’s think of some ways that we practice meanness and practice kindness toward ourselves. On a sheet of paper, write two columns: “Ways I take care of myself” and “Ways I don’t take care of myself”. You should include behaviors, feelings, and thoughts. Some examples: 

“Ways I take care of myself” 

• Behaviors – getting enough sleep

• Feelings – feeling pride for my accomplishments 

• Thoughts – thinking about my own strengths accurately

“Ways I don’t take care of myself” 

• Behaviors – not sleeping enough 

• Feelings – feeling inadequate 

• Thoughts – thinking about myself as a loser 

Look at what you wrote. Do you ever do, feel, or think these things unconsciously, or without thinking? 

Go through your “ways I don’t take care of myself list”, crossing out each item on the list and replacing it with a kinder practice. 

The good news is that we can train our brains to be kinder to ourselves. If we are able to recognize the ways we are mean to ourselves, we can take the steps to practice a kinder way instead. See if you can practice catching these mean acts, thoughts, or feelings as they come, and take a kinder approach instead. 

2. For this journaling prompt, you will need a piece of paper and an envelope. On your sheet of paper, answer the following questions: 

What do you wish for yourself? 

What things in your life might you wish to change? 

If you don’t make changes in your life, how might you feel? 

How will you make these changes? 

Fold up your paper and place it in the envelope. Address the envelope to yourself, and put a date on the front for when you would like to open it and re-read the note you wrote for yourself. You should make the date far enough out so you have a chance to start practicing some of the changes you wrote down, but not too far out that you’ll forget about it. Consider between two weeks to six months. 

When you reopen your letter to yourself, reflect on whether or not you were able to make the changes you wanted for yourself. Look at how far you’ve come! Were you able to make the changes necessary to achieve what you wished for yourself? What might you have done differently? What will you do going forward?

3. Select something in your life for which you are grateful. It could be a person, object, activity, memory, and so on. 

Write in your journal your responses to the following questions: 

• Why am I grateful for this? 

• How does it enrich my life (make my life better)? 

• How would I feel if I lost it? 

• How could I show my gratitude for this? 

4. At the end of the day, take a moment to reflect on your day by writing about a rose, thorn, and bud: 

• Rose = a highlight, success, small win, or something positive that happened

• Thorn = a challenge you experienced or something you can use more support with 

• Bud = something you are looking forward to, new ideas that have blossomed, or something you are looking forward to knowing more about or experiencing. 

Need more ideas? Check out the ones below:

1. Three little things about today that mean a lot...

2. Today, one thing that occupied your time, mind, and heart...

3. Three things you can do to make the corner of your world a better place...

4. What is my purpose...

5. I recognize that I don't need to have all the answers right now. Today I give myself permission not to know...

6. Choose one thing that triggers your anxiety and depression, and write a few ways that you can combat this trigger.

7. 5 years from now I will be a...

8. What is the best compliment you ever received?

9. Write about your anxieties and worries.

10. If you could describe yourself as a color, what color would you choose?

11. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?

12. List 10 things that make you smile.

13. When things get tough, I want to remember...

14. What do you think life would look like if you didn't have anxiety, depression, (or something else)?

15. Write the words that you need to hear.

16. Dear inner critic: you always focus on everything I'm doing wrong, but I know I'm doing a lot right, including...

17. What is one fun fact about yourself?

18. One goal I want to set for myself this month is...

19. What am I afraid of? Why?

20. What does success look like to you?

21. Build a list of 15 songs that can help change your mood.

22. Write about three of your best talents.

23. What would you like to be remembered for?

24. Who is someone you consider a real-life hero? Why?

25. If you could travel back in time and visit your younger self, what advice would you give yourself?

26. If you could add, change, or cancel one rule in school/work what would it be?

27. The words I'd like to live by are...

28. What can you learn from your biggest mistakes?

29. Write a list of questions in which you urgently need answers to.

30. When I look in the mirror, what do I see?

31. Dear Future me...

32. Dear Past me...

33. Write a letter to your anxious thoughts.

34. In what ways do I impact others around me each day?

35. How can I better take care of myself?

36. Who inspires you? Why?

37. Are you living to your full potential? If not why?

38. Write a thank you letter to your biggest supporter.

39. What are three things you had to learn the hard way?

40. Today I choose to let go of things I can't control, including...

Brain Dump