Hello journal, my old friend. Who better to turn to for a broken heart to mend?
Bad days: we all have them. One day you’re doing fine, and the next day you’re on the bathroom floor crying your heart out.
Or maybe not to that extent. Maybe you’re just tired of everything and you feel like you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. Or it could be that everything was going well until something happened that turned your whole mood around.
And now you’re sitting there feeling a multitude of emotions and overthinking everything. In which case, grab your diary and prepare yourself for a good dive, which you’ll get out from feeling a lot lighter, promise.
Prompts to release suppressed emotions
1. How was my day? Was it productive, fun, or lazy?
I like to start every journaling session with a sort of daily check-in to analyze how I’ve been feeling throughout the day and how my actions affected my mood.
It could be that your day was exhausting and now you’re feeling a little less than ideal. There’s also a high chance that you were feeling lazy and too mentally tired to be productive in the first place. Or hopefully, your day was even just a bit fun.
Whatever it is, take the time to reflect on how it went.
2. How are things looking now? How have I been spending my days lately?
Now you can widen your view a bit and look at the bigger picture. How has life been as of late? Have you been spending your days the way you’d want to? Are things going how you want them to, or are you unsatisfied with your current circumstances?
3. How have I been feeling lately? Happy, sad, overwhelmed, or depressed?
Now shift the focus from your circumstances to your emotions. Have you been having happy days? Bad days? Have you been feeling sad, overwhelmed, angry, or depressed? Are these feelings consistent or have your emotions been all over the place?
4. What are the main problems that are bothering me?
You might have a lot of things on your mind, but certainly, there are a few issues that are bothering you the most, and which if could be solved, would make your life a lot better and your other problems a lot more bearable.
So what are the main issues behind your negative feelings? Write about them in detail, and about exactly how they make you feel.
5. Is there anything I can do to solve these problems? If yes, what’s stopping me?
Here’s the deal: some issues are in your control, while others are out of your control.
And since you probably can’t do much about the latter, might as well let go of them.
But for the problems that you can actually do a thing or two about, you gotta get to work. It’s super important to admit how and where you can take action toward a better and happier life.
And if you’re struggling in that journey, you need to sit down and ask yourself: what is it really that’s stopping me? Is it fear of the unknown? Is it the need to do things perfectly? Is it laziness? Or am I too mentally exhausted to do the work?
It’s crucial that you be completely honest with yourself here to find out the exact obstacle that you’re facing.
6. Do I have any subconscious negative beliefs that are holding me back in life?
Related to the last question, but a bit different. I want you to go deep within your mind and search for any limiting beliefs that could be holding you back.
These beliefs can be around yourself, others, or around the world as a whole, and they’re often subconscious as we acquire them throughout our lives from the day we are born.
It could be that you think that you’re not good enough to accomplish your goals, that you’re not strong enough to face your problems, or that you’re just unlucky and doomed for a life of misery.
Some limiting beliefs about others could be that you think people are untrustworthy, or that they’re all the same, which could be standing in the way of you building meaningful relationships in your life that you so deeply desire.
As for limiting beliefs around the world, you might think that it’s too dangerous so you keep playing it safe, that it’s unfair so you feel resentful toward others who have it better than you, or that its resources are scarce and there’s not enough to go around.
This is a deep and complex topic, and I’d advise you to take some time to think about some negative beliefs that you might be holding to, and how exactly they’re affecting your life.
7. Did something happen recently that has caused me to feel some sort of way?
We all go through not-so-pleasant experiences in our lives, and it’s important to take the time to reflect on these events.
Did anything happen in the past week or month (or year for that matter) that made you feel sad, angry, or hurt? If yes, what exactly happened? How exactly did it make you feel? Why do you think you felt that way? Is it still bothering you as strongly, or have you started to move on?
8. Is this a recurring feeling? Do I experience similar emotions often?
If there’s something I learned throughout my healing journey, it’s that the negative emotions we experience are often a result of deeper issues within us, and for that reason, they tend to be recurring in our lives.
So I want you to look back at the event you talked about in the previous prompt. You said that it made you feel some sort of way. Do you feel that way often? Have you had similar experiences in the past, that made you feel that exact emotion, or perhaps a similar one? Is this emotion unpleasant, and do you dislike feeling that way?
9. What can I learn from these emotions?
These small moments of discomfort that you were just writing about can be surprisingly eye-opening and helpful. They can offer you incredible insights into some deeper issues within you, that were probably acquired from your childhood.
So take a trip down memory lane and think about how these emotions are related to your earlier experiences.
How were you treated as a child? Was it with love, compassion, and support? Or was it with abuse, neglect, or judgment? Is that treatment related to the emotions you’re experiencing in any way?
One thing to keep in mind is that we tend to treat ourselves the way we were treated as children. If you were always being compared to your siblings, cousins, or peers, you might tend to keep comparing yourself to others as an adult.
If you were always judged harshly, you might exert that judgment on yourself for making mistakes, or for failing at something.
The list goes on and on, and it’s up to you to think about it deeply.
Prompts to feel better
Now that you’ve dived deep into your emotions and the deeper issues behind them, let’s move on to some prompts that will make you feel better, and hopefully get you out of the discomfort that you’re experiencing.
10. What can I learn from these experiences?
Just as our emotions can offer great insight into what issues lie deep within us, the experiences can also be incredibly helpful in teaching us some good life lessons.
How will you act in a similar situation in the future?
Maybe that experience taught you that you should not judge yourself or others that quickly. Maybe it taught you to be patient with yourself, and that failure is part of success.
It could be that you trusted someone too easily, and now you learned to take a bit more time to get to know people properly.
Be careful though: you don’t want that experience to cause you even more issues. Set your feelings aside and look at it from a logical perspective; even the worst of experiences can turn into some life lessons that might turn out to be extremely valuable in the future.
11. How can I deal with these emotions in a healthy way?
Often when we experience something unpleasant that triggers some kind of negative emotion within us, we tend to want to get rid of these emotions in any way possible.
We get so taken up by sadness, hurt, anger, or whatever it is, that we can’t think straight anymore.
We might lash out, say something we shouldn’t, or revert to some unhealthy coping mechanisms to numb our feelings.
And while that’s kinda understandable, it’s not exactly the way to go.
So what are some healthy coping mechanisms that you can turn to whenever you experience similar emotions? Is it exercise, journaling, talking to a friend maybe?
What is something that brings you relief and makes you forget about your problems? Can you make it a habit to practice that activity whenever you’re not feeling your best?
12. Is there anything I can do now to make my problems a little bit less severe?
Your problems might seem huge to you on the large scale, but there’s certainly at least one thing you can do now to start solving these problems.
Have you been putting off something that’s not that hard to do but could potentially make the process a lot easier? Sometimes all you need is to take one simple action, to just get started.
Is your issue related to a relationship or a friendship? Maybe all you need is to grab the phone, call that person and try to fix things. Or maybe what you need is to delete the photos and conversations so that you finally start to move on.
Is there a project that you could work on that would have a positive impact on your life maybe? Just do the first task, lay down the first idea.
Whatever your problem is, I want you to think and be honest with yourself: what can you do about it now?
13. What are three things I can do today to feel better?
Now let’s leave our problems aside for a small moment. What do your body and soul need now?
Name three things that if you did today, would make you feel better afterward even if for just a small bit.
Would cleaning your room/house improve your mood? Or would going out for a walk in nature have that effect? Or maybe what you need is some comfort food and a good movie. It’s up to you to decide what will truly make you feel good.
14. Is there something I need to forgive myself for?
I don’t know about you guys, but I often beat myself up over past mistakes I’ve done.
But another thing I learned on my healing journey is that there’s no point in doing that. It’s most likely that you’ve done what you’ve done because you simply didn’t know any better. The fact that you recognize your mistake and feel regret over your actions is enough sign that you deserve forgiveness.
So is there anything you did (or didn’t do, for that matter) that you’ve been beating yourself over? If yes, how can you forgive yourself? Have you learned from that mistake, or do you still need to explore it further to understand your motive behind it?
The judgments we exert on ourselves can be the harshest sometimes, but what we need to do is to treat ourselves how we would treat the people we love. Would you blame someone you loved in such a harsh way?
15. What are three things that bring me joy?
Can you think of at least three things that make you happy?
It could be one of your friends that make you laugh; it could be getting lost in a good book, having your favorite meal, going to a place that’s special to you, spending time with your kids…
You could be feeling so miserable at the moment that you forget about the people or the things that truly bring you joy, and reminding yourself of them will certainly make you forget about your problems.
16. What are five things that I’m grateful for?
Next to the things that bring you joy, name five things that you’re grateful for.
No matter how miserable you’re feeling, or how bad your situation is, I assure you: there are always things to be grateful for.
You don’t even have to be grateful for your life as a whole, per se.
But you can still be grateful for sunshine, for the sounds of birds, for the taste of fresh coffee in the morning, for the feel of freshly washed sheets, for the warmness of winter socks.
There, I gave you five of the things that I am grateful for. You can use those, if you care for them like I do, or you can think of five yourself.
Do not skip that part; I’m telling you, it will make a world of difference in how you’re feeling.
17. What is the one thing I accomplished that made me proud of myself?
Now you might be thinking: I haven’t done much of importance in my lifetime. But again, that’s probably not true.
Can you think of something you worked hard for and accomplished, or a decision you made that required courage for example? Are you proud of yourself for having done that? Does it make you content when you think about it? How can you keep that sense of pride in the future?
18. What are three traits I love about myself?
It could be physical or personality traits.
Do you love your hair maybe? Your eyes? Do you like your witty personality, or your calmness? Are you funny perhaps, and you make people laugh? Are you a good listener, do you love helping people?
Just list three things that you love about yourself. And If you have more write them as well. The more the merrier.
This will bring you awareness to yourself, and remind you of your beauty, whether it be external or internal, when whatever happened could have made you doubt yourself.
If you’ve made it this far, then congrats are in order.
Hopefully, that session didn’t take you over a whole day, which yes, it does for me sometimes. But that would be a sign that you really needed it, and I’d bet it was worth it.
If that was the case, feel free to share that in the comments down below. Don’t be afraid to get personal too; it might be of help to someone feeling the same way.
