I have been in the habit of writing Morning Pages, inspired by Julia Cameron’s book The Artist Way. Sometimes I get out of the daily practice and when I think of doing it again, I think about how a question prompt could help me start.
So here are some questions to help us start our journaling:
- What is nourishing you now? What is depleting you now?
- What is one thing you'd like to learn and why? What do you want to explore? List things you are curious about.
- What does [fill in your core value] mean to you now and how are you integrating it into your life?
- What do you want to let go of or pivot from? What needs pruning? If you let go of that thing, what would it make room for?
- How are you listening to your body? How are you breathing? Where are you holding tension? What would your body like right now?
- What information are your emotions offering?
- What lens(es) are you looking through? What are your biases? How does your perspective limit you?
- What makes you feel most like yourself?
- How can you recharge the most today? What does rest look like for you now?
- What habit would you like to try on? What habit brings you the most joy? Is this habit building a good life? What is your most life-giving habit?
- What’s on your back burner, something you’ve wanted to do for a long time? Do you still want to do it? What is one thing you could do to get started? Could you block off time to do it?
- How could you make today easier? What can you do know that will be helpful later?
- What if curiosity was a spectrum? How could you turn up the dial? What will you feed your curiosity today?
- Do you feel balanced this week? in the past 6 months? What do you want to tilt toward? (Based on this post about How to Live a Balanced Life by Brooke McAlary)
- What are you looking forward to celebrating? How are you planning to celebrate?
- What tiny step can you take today to make that thing happen? What would you like to block off time to finish? What will your future self thank you for? What would “success” look like to you?
- How could you turn up the volume on your inner advocate? Who are your best cheerleaders?
- What makes you feel grounded? In what ways do you feel “present” in your days? How are you connected to the earth?
- What would you like to grow?
- List the food would you like to grow. How much space would you need to grow all your own food? Describe what it feels like to eat food immediately after harvesting it.
- Describe one of your favourite outdoor spaces.
- Who could use extra kindness today? How could you “fill someone’s bucket” today (maybe yourself)?
- How does what you’re doing help marginalized people? Make a list of ways you could help people experiencing disability, homelessness, or other disadvantages. Are the places you go designed for all people to feel welcome?
- What can you change to become more sustainable? What is one way you can adapt to take better care of the earth? What things would you like to buy less often (or not at all)? How could you limit the garbage you produce?
- What advice would you give a friend? How could you be kind to yourself today? If you were advocating for yourself, what would you say?
- What do you like to do for fun or play? Make a list.
- Who will you be when this is over?
- How do you want to feel today?
- The story I tell myself is that...
- The advice I would give a friend would be to...
- One of my favourite days was when I/we…
- The next step is to...
- Right now, I feel…
- Let's choose to...
- One thing I’d like to try is…
- In this home, I/we...
- One thing I like to collect is…
- A few of my favourite things...
- I am so...
- One thing I remember about growing up was…
- I am not...
- I anticipate...
What other questions have you found help for journaling?