Journaling for Self Discovery
Dear Diary…
How are you? My day was fine. I had a sandwich for lunch and did my homework. More tomorrow! xoxo
Love, Young Pluckbuddy
It’s safe to assume everyone has attempted keeping a diary in their tween and teenage years, and remembers the entries looking something like this. There were maybe a few days of this, then the little notebook went into a drawer and was never seen again until it was being thrown away.
But you’re older now. Wiser, with a better vocabulary. And maybe your days don’t look so different -- the kids love PB&J -- but your thoughts and feelings are different. And as we get older, as we experience more in the world and go through more of life’s ups and downs, these thoughts and emotions can get overwhelming, confusing, or disorienting. Maybe all three. You could try all the newer or avant-garde coping methods, like cold plunges, mindfulness apps or astrology. Or you could return to your roots, because Teenage You was on to something. You could make your return to journaling.
Other than providing juicy reading material for your future self, there are proven benefits to writing in a journal. It provides an outlet to release emotions rather than ignoring them or stifling them. This process can help with working through difficult feelings and trauma and with creating solutions.
Writing in a journal also provides a new perspective on our experiences because it entails organizing them into a coherent story, which in turn forces us to look at cause and effect of situations in new ways.
Self reflection and self discovery are heavy endeavors, and it’s fair to be apprehensive. Who knows what you’ll uncover as you start to dig up things buried in your subconscious mind. Maybe you don’t want to know, and that’s holding you back. Or maybe you’re super eager to begin the process, and the hardest part is just putting pen to paper.
To alleviate at least one of these obstacles for you, we’ve put together a few journaling prompts to make getting started a little easier.
- Describe yourself using the first 10 words that come to mind. Then, list 10 words that you’d like to use to describe yourself. List a few ways to transform those descriptions into reality.
- What do you appreciate most about your personality? What aspects do you find harder to accept?
- Describe one or two significant life events that helped shape you into who you are today.
- What three things would you most like others (loved ones, potential friends and partners, professional acquaintances, etc.) to know about you?
- What three changes can you make to live according to your personal values?
- What difficult thoughts or emotions come up most frequently for you?
- What are three self-defeating thoughts that show up in your self-talk? How can you reframe them to encourage yourself instead?
- How do you prioritize self-care?
- How do you show yourself kindness and compassion each day?
- List three obstacles lying in the way of your contentment or happiness. Then, list two potential solutions to begin overcoming each obstacle.
Hopefully these journal prompts are a helpful starting point for your authorial journey. Staring at a blank page can be intimidating, and we’re here to make self care as easy as possible for you. Whether it’s because you don’t know what to write about, you have conflicting thoughts to sort through, or even need help narrowing your focus, these are prompts that are straightforward yet thorough in your self-discovery scribbling. You’re not writing about homework and sandwiches anymore, but hopefully these prompts help journaling feel that simple.
See you next Sunday <3
Leave a comment