50 Journal Prompts for self discovery

Okay Let’s be clear right away, I have an obsession with journals and it’s probably not healthy. Just kidding. About the “not healthy” part, the obsession is real.

I have more journals than I know and at this point my husband is kind of annoyed because he is the one who keeps finding space to store them.

And I am not stopping any time soon. Because the things is, Journalling is something that has been very comforting and healing for me. And my journals have been a place where I have always poured my heart out, no matter how ugly and messy the situations have been.

When I was younger, I used to journal a lot as well. And reading back through some of those journal entries make me so sad because I was not really confident back then. I had no clue what my purpose is and that I was supposed to do with life. But then, journalling is something that has helped me understand these things about myself.

And that’s why I continue to do so even now. I am a firm believer that all the answers that we seek are within us. And Journalling acts as a great tool to get to the roots. It allows you to basically understand where your feelings, emotions and fears stem from.

And if you have been wanting to try to journal for self discovery too but just have no idea what questions you should be answering, here are journal prompts to help you:

Journal prompts for self discovery:

1. What does your dream life look like? Describe in detail. What kind of a life do you want for yourself if there was nothing holding you back?
2. In your dream life, create an avatar for yourself. Write down how the future you reacts in difficult situations, how you interact with people and how you work. Then understand where is the gap between the avatar that you created and your current state.
3. If you couldn’t fail, what would you do in life?
4. What does your ideal daily routine look like?
5. How can I improve my daily routine?
6. What is the one things that brings you joy everyday? And how can you do more of that in your time?
7. What do you need less of in your life?
8. How do you spend your Sundays? Is there anything that you can do to make your coming week better?
9. Write down 10 goals that you want to achieve in the next 1 year?
10. What distracts you from working towards your goals? And how can you avoid it?
11. What limiting beliefs keeps you from achieving your goals in life?
12. Write 5 positive affirmations for yourself.
13. What qualities do you love about yourself and why?
14. What qualities or habits do you want to change?
15. Who do you look upto in life and why?
16. Right in this moment, what are the three things you are grateful for?
17. What qualities do you value most in people around you?
18. What is your favourite memory and why?
19. What do you fear the most and why?
20. In what moment did you feel most alive and how can you include more of such moments in your life?
21. What made you feel like you are at your lowest and why?
22. How did you get out of a really bad situation and what got you through?
23. What is the one toxic habit you should quit or one person that you need to cut out of your life?
24. How can you take care of yourself in a better way?
25. How can I love myself more on a daily basis?
26. What’s on your mind right now?
27. If my friends had to describe me to someone, what would they say?
28. If you had to describe yourself to a person, without talking about any physical traits, how would you describe yourself?
29. If you had to describe yourself in one word, what word would you choose to describe yourself?
30. What type of a person do you want to be known as?
31. When am I the happiest version of me?
32. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
33. What are my goals for next month?
34. What are the top 3 priorities in my life right now?
35. How can I adopt more positive habits and which ones should I try to adopt?
36. How can I show more love and compassion to others everyday?
37. If I could re-live a moment, what moment would it be and why?
38. What makes me upset?
39. What do I need to forgive myself for?
40. What would you want to leave in the past?
41. What do you want to take with me going into the future?
42. Right now, what area of your life makes you feel good? And what area makes you feel bad and why?
43. What do you regret not doing?
44. What is your favourite book/movie or song and why?
45. What are you most proud of?
46. How do you relax?
47. When was the last time you did something you were afraid of?
48. What did you want to be when you were younger?
49. What would you tell your younger self?
50. When was the last time you laughed until you cried?

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How it helps:

Once you finish writing the answers to these questions, re-read what you wrote. You could also go back to these after a few months and see how your thought patterns change overtime.

Re-reading your answers help you to understand yourself better. You realise what are some of the things that matter the most to you. And you can better understand how you can have a better, more wholesome life.

Journals are a great way to understand yourself better and to be more mindful of the choices you make. I also love doing a mid year review in my journal because it helps me refocus my energy. It also helps me align my goals and actions in a better way. Check out this post for 20 mid year review journal prompts that will help you smash your goals.