If the current set-up, in which you are free to journal about whatever is on your mind on any given day, is working for you, great! Feel free to continue journaling as you have been over the past month. If, however, you would like more structure or would like to experiment more in your journal writing, choose a prompt from the list below, and respond to it in your journal. You can try different prompts each time, return to the same prompt more than one, or mix-and-match between free-form journaling and these more structured prompts.
- Write a letter to someone who is on your mind today. This could be someone you know, or it could be a stranger. What do you want to tell him/her?
- Count your blessings. What do you have to appreciate today? What keeps you going in these uncertain times?
- Make a playlist for your life. What songs would you pick to represent the various stages of your life? Why?
- Describe the landscape of your “quarantine” space. Imagine you are writing a travel guide to your room or to your home.
- Go to the window. What do you see? What is happening out there?
- What keeps you up at night? Use this journal entry as “brain dump” to get all your worst worries and fears out onto the page.
- Write a thank-you letter to yourself. What do you want to acknowledge and appreciate about yourself today?
- Instead of a “To Do” list, write a “Not To Do” list. What are all the things you are NOT going to do today? What would it mean to let go of the idea of accomplishment as a yardstick for our days?
- Write a letter to your future self. Tell him/her all about what you’ve done to get where he/she is in the future.
- Reflect on a time you really struggled. What was the struggle? How did you get through it?
- What do people NOT see about you? How have you been misunderstood – even by those closest to you?
- Write about a time when you misjudged or misunderstood someone else. What happened?
- What muscles are you developing or stretching during this crazy time? What invisible changes are taking place inside you right now?
- What do you know about the world today that you didn’t know five years ago?
- What do you know about yourself today that you didn’t know five years ago?
- If you had to come up with a motto – a saying or slogan – to live by right now, what would it be? Why?
- What are some of the tiny things that are bringing your pleasure these days? Describe ten tiny pleasures.
- Write a thank-you letter to someone who helped you in some way. This could be someone you know, or it could be a stranger. It could be someone who helped you deliberately, or it could be someone who doesn’t even know how he/she helped you.
- Imagine you had a meeting with the mayor or the governor or the president. What would you want them to know about you and your community?
- Describe an experience or encounter that transformed you in some way. (It could even be what you are going through right now!) How did it change you?
