As a busy mom, I often walk around with to-do lists, feelings, dreams and goals swirling around in my head. As a result of “mom brain” often many of the things swirling around fall through the cracks when I fail to write them down or journal and capture them on paper. I find without intentional time to slow down and process I can go weeks (or months) at times without fully realizing the emotions that have been shoved down inside of me. When someone asks how I’m doing I mumble a quick “good” and then go about my day without ever really considering how I’m actually doing. Once, when I gave a friend my classic answer of “good” she lovingly looked in my eyes and asked me to tell her about that. “What’s good?” she asked. Then, once prompted, I took the time to really think about it and ended up getting in touch with all sorts of emotions I had stuffed down, finding myself in tears, confessing that I wasn’t actually good, but that just happened to be the mindless answer I was used to responding.
Whether or not we’re talking through every emotion we have with others, it can be pivotal to our mental health and self-understanding to really dive deep and check in with ourselves regularly.
As a lover of all things reflective, I tend to process best through writing so I have been avid journaler throughout my adult life. Out of my passion for journaling I even created The Intentional Daily Journal to help myself and others keep track of our priorities and goals while staying focused on a daily basis. I whole-heartedly believe that a healthy, thriving mom will raise healthy, thriving kids and yet I know the tension of how spending an abundance of time focusing on the small humans I’m raising often causes me to inadvertently end up neglecting myself.
Recently, amidst all the changes of a move, I’ve found myself more emotional than normal and needing extra space to process and get in touch with my feelings. I’ve found the following journal prompts handy as I process and wanted to share them in case they could benefit you also, mama.
Regardless of how busy you are I hope you can take a few moments to check in with yourself on a somewhat regular basis. Your mental health is worth it! No one will make your mental health a priority if you don’t. When your kids see you acknowledging your limits and boundaries and pursuing your own mental health you’ll not only build respect for you within them, but you’ll model this important journey of self-care for them as well. You could even have them journal on their own while you journal, perhaps with a guided journal such as the Big Life Journal.
Whether you’re a long-time journaler, or a journaling newbie, know there are no right or wrong ways to journal. The important thing is to have some space to truly get in touch with yourself and give yourself an opportunity to process and feel anything you were hiding below the surface. Answer as many or as few of the questions as you’d like, there are no rules here, this is to serve you. Try not to make judgments about the things you are feeling and to honestly write them down without assessing them as good, bad, right, wrong, etc, try to simply notice and record your thoughts and feelings and then get curious about where they are coming from. If a question speaks to you, answer it, if not, move on.
20 Journal Prompts
- Right now I hear…, I see…, I smell…, I’m feeling…
- I’m excited about or looking forward to…
- I’m nervous/angry/afraid/stressed because…
- Recent changes in my life include…
- Some things I ‘d like to accomplish or experience are…
- I’m grateful for…
- A relationship in my life I’d like to improve is…
- I feel most relaxed when…
- I feel most stressed when…
- I feel most like myself when…
- My superpower or something I’m good at is…
- Some things I’m passionate about are…
- A normal day for me right now consists of…
- Something I’ve learned in this season is…
- Something that’s been draining in this season is…
- Something that’s been giving me life in this season is…
- My favorite recent moment was…
- Right now I most need… (play, solitude, connection…) How can I bring more of it into my life?
- Where did I find goodness today?
- What good can I bring into the world today?
