Journal prompts & ideas for emotional release

Let’s face it, journalling is HARD

Journalling was (and still is) an enormous part of my TMS recovery story. The JournalSpeak method to be more precise led by Nicole Sachs LCSW. It's the one thing I needed to do most, but the one thing I resisted the hardest.

Some days I had a key emotional memory or a trigger that I knew I needed to address that gave me somewhere to start writing. Maybe someone had really pissed me off today and it’s fresh in my brain and I'm ready to let rip onto the page. But the regular day-to-day exercise of emotional excavation can be really tricky, especially when you need to write about the stuff that you know in your heart that really needs to be looked at. 

Resistance to journalling, or any emotional 'self-care' work that requires you to look within, is completely normal and expected (more about what to expect on this journey here). I've sat in this situation so many times and the frustration of it sometimes gets the better of me. So I decided to write a list of ideas and prompts that could help me come unstuck and get the ball rolling.

I hope they can help to nudge you to get writing, this work will change your life, it freed me from my repressed emotions and healed my years of suffering from chronic pain like a freaking magic miracle. You have the power within you to do the same, but it does require consistent and difficult work. 

For more information on the journaling exercise that brought me through chronic pain check out the JournalSpeak section.

Don't just tell the story, FEEL the feelings

As you write, notice how your body feels. Emotions will trigger sensations in your body that you may find hard to notice at first. These may show up as tightness, heaviness, a jittery vibrational feeling for example. The key with journalling is not to tell a story, but to access the feelings that haven't been allowed to be experienced in the body somatically. For a quick tutorial on how to FEEL your feelings, not THINK them - click here.

Emotional Embodiment is really important

Check out my Emotional Embodiment masterclass series for extra help with this! It's a 12 part guided somatic journaling course with writing exercises along with the appropriate movement, breath or meditation elements to allow emotional expression and processing to happen. Ideal for anyone looking to deepen their journaling practice or anyone lost on how to do it!

I also have an online course "Come Home to Yourself - mind-body evening rituals", which includes various new journal prompts and writing exercises, new TMS-themed meditations including a pre-journaling drop-in meditation, affirmations, restorative yoga, breathwork and much more, created to help you through your own recovery just like I did. Find out more about my course here.

If you need some help with ideas on what sort of subjects to write about, take a look at the Journaling Topics & Themes page.

If you are interested in meditation to follow your journaling practice, check out my mind-body mediations bundle for chronic recovery-specific topics and themes there.

Journal Prompts

1. I feel powerless when ____________________
2. If I could go back and whisper something to myself as a little one, it would be ___________
3. What feelings am I escaping or avoiding by focusing so much on others?
4. I wish I would have said _________________
5. I wish I felt confident enough to ________________
6. What would my life look like without my symptoms?
7. ______________ makes my blood boil
8. I feel so________
9. I need_________
10. I really want to forgive ____________
11. I release _____________
12. I no longer need/want to _______________
13. I daren't even admit this to myself, but ___________
14. I wish I could change ________________
15. I hate _____________________
16. The secrets about me that nobody knows are _________________
17. I don't even like admitting this to myself but ___________________
18. I feel angry, but underneath that feeling I can also feel _________________
19. They made me believe that _________________________
20. I still believe that I have to ______________ (eg: in order to be loved / accepted)
21. _____________ that triggers me today, reminds me of ________________ in the past
22. What needs of mine haven't been met?
23. I dont feel validated because ________________
24. What patterns in my adult life mirror my childhood?
25. What patterns in my adult life mirror my parents patterns?
26. I totally avoid feeling ________________________
27. _______ you really hurt me when you said _______ it made me feel ______________
28. I know I didnt react at the time but ______________ made me so angry
29. I wish I was brave enough to say this to your face _______________________
30. I’ve never felt so low before when _____________________
31. When you treat me like ________________ it makes me feel ________________
32. Because I dont have ________________ in my life I feel _____________________
33. I’m scared of ________________________ because it feels like it means ______________
34. When I was little I felt like __________________________ when I was told ____________
35. Honestly, what’s really making me sad right now is ____________________________
36. I cannot accept the fact that ____________________
37. I am embarrassed by _____________________
38. I feel at fault for ______________________
39. I wish I was brave enough to ___________________
40. I always feel tearful when i think about __________________
41. My biggest trigger right now is ______________________________
42. The words I wish I could hear from ____________________ are ________________________
43. If I’m completely honest, I have always felt _____________________
44. I am so ashamed that I ______________________________
45. I'm trying so hard to keep the peace about ___________________ when I would rather ___________________

Writing ideas

1. Write someone who hurt you a letter (eg: a parent, a friend, an ex-partner, a current partner) you will never send it and you can win every argument you like, let them have all your unfiltered emotion, don’t censor anything.
2. Imagine you’re sat in front of the person that hurt you, but they’re not able to respond, they can only listen to you (your writing or your voice if you want to do this out loud). Let them have it.
3. Write a list of things you wish others knew about you.
4. Write a list of your secrets.
5. Make a list of everything you’d like to say no to.
6. Make a list of everything you’d like to say yes to.
7. Make a list of things that you fear.

Try ending with love or appreciation

1. Think of myself as a baby version of me, hold that visualisation in my mind and list 5 things I will do today to show myself love and compassion.
2. What can I do today that I didn’t think I could do a year ago?
3. What is surprising to me about myself lately that I like?
4. What happened today that I appreciate?
5. Make a list of people that I appreciate.
6. What am I most grateful for today? List at least 5 things and write about how they make me feel, no matter how small.

Hold onto that grateful loving feeling, LET IT SOAK YOU TO YOUR SOUL!

If you would like more help with this subject, and would like to learn ways to feel emotions physically and effectively process and release them, check out my 12-part Masterclass series on Emotional Embodiment here, I can guide you through the process of accessing emotions, and processing them!

I regularly post new prompts and ideas on my social media feed for journalling. Make sure you're following along there - I'm on Facebook or Instagram. 

Find out more about my personal journey from years of chronic pain to complete healing using journalling Yoga and Meditation in my Recovery Journey Roadmap.