I use a steno pad for my journal for several reasons. The steno pad lays flat so I don’t have to fight the binding of the journal. Also it is two-sided so I keep my life lessons on one side and, on the other, I keep my gratitude lists, future plans for my writing/research, financial updates, and home projects. I call it my life book. It is my brain dump. If I have thought of something more than once, it belongs in my journal somewhere.
The journal prompts I use is from 25 Prompts to Have in Your Shadow Work Arsenal:
- What are the first indicators that your mental health is in decline?
- Do you often overthink? What usually triggers this? How does it make you feel?
- What were your parents’/guardians’ core values? Do you with these values? How do you feel they shaped you?
- Which of your parents/guardians traits growing up do you see in yourself now? How do you feel about this?
- What are your parents’/guardians’ toxic traits? Do you also possess these traits?
- Which of your qualities are you most ashamed of? How does this quality manifest in daily life? Do you project it onto others?
- What would you say are your core values and priorities?
- What do you feel you don’t get enough credit for?
- In what circumstances are you hardest on yourself? Why? Where do you think this stems from?
- What is your relationship with forgiveness? Do you find it easier to forgive others or yourself?
- What is your relationship with anger? Do you allow yourself to feel angry? How do you act (or react) when angered? How do other people respond to this behavior?
- How do you perceive failure? What did your parents/guardians teach you about failure? How does it make you feel, and why?
- What makes you feel like you’re not good enough? Write about a time you felt this way, what led up to it, and how it affected you.
- What would you like to improve or change about yourself? Why?
- How do you feel about who you are right now?
- Write about a time you made a major mistake. Did you come clean about it? Were you forgiven?
- What is your relationship with honesty? Do you value it? Did your parents/guardians?
- What’s the worst lie you’ve been told? When did you realize it was a lie?
- What’s the worst lie you’ve told? Did anyone ever find out? Why did you lie about it in the first place?
- What is the biggest lie you consistently tell yourself? Why?
- Do you form obsessive or unhealthy attachments easily? Why do you think this is?
- What negative emotions do you avoid? Why?
- What negative emotions are you comfortable sitting with? Why?
- How do you carry the weight of your past trauma? How has it affected you?
- How do you enforce or hold boundaries? How do you respond when people overstep them?
Emotional Sobriety Means Healing Mind, Body, and Soul 