Weekly prompts to help you think a little harder, write a little longer, and have a bit of fun in your journal. I provide the prompt and then a bit of discussion afterward to help you think beyond the prompt.
How To Use Weekly Prompts
Using a prompt can be as simple or as difficult as you would like. I do not use one everyday, and sometimes I use several from the weekly prompts list at one time. Over time, I have learned that too simple doesn’t work for me. I like to push the question around in my mind, look at it from a couple of different perspectives, and see what comes out.
Imagine, if you will, the prompt as a unique piece of artwork. Put that piece of artwork on a pedestal and then move around it. Look from side to side, high to low, and anything between. I want it to speak to me, give me thoughts, and guide my thoughts into a deeper understanding.
In all seriousness, I do study the question. I don’t spend hours on it and sometimes not even minutes. A few seconds and a few pointed questions after. Generally, those questions begin with why. Why did the prompt spark that response? Does that matter to me, and why? Why did I choose that answer/point? My meanings and questions can be vastly different from yours. That’s okay! They are supposed to spark YOUR thoughts and feelings.
Focus Quote
Keeping a journal will absolutely change your life in ways you’ve never imagined.
Oprah Winfrey
You will hear comments like journaling changes your life all over the place. I have even heard some say it absolutely will not change your life. If you were to gather up all of those opinions and balance them out, you would discover that more people believe it changes your life. At the end of the day, you will not know if it will change your life until you try.
I was a daily memory-type journaler for many years. I wrote about what had happened that day with very few thoughts about how it affected me or what I could learn from it. In some ways, I still journal that way. I do not go into depth about my feelings more often than not. I often breeze over the day’s events or what I think about something going on that day.
Making journaling a habit means going with the flow. Sometimes the flow says I want to dive into how I am feeling, sometimes not so much. And this is the joy of your journaling journey; you must go with the flow. In order to allow it to help you, it has to happen as your mind and heart need it to happen. If that means today you write over and over that, you do not want to be writing; that’s what you do.
Weekly Inspiration
Journaling
The written page is even more inspiring when it’s backed by the cliffs of Ireland.
Creative Journaling
Like me, the daily ‘bullet journal’ is included here along with regular journaling, doodles, and even a daily prompt!
Art Journaling
The use of color here really makes the flowers pop right off of the page. They appear so vibrant and appealing!
The images that I choose for inspiration are not about the links. They are solely about the images and what they represent. I love seeing other people’s journals. I love the inspiration that hits me to go write in my own. Sometimes, that inspiration leads me to try something I have seen on their pages. Mostly, it just inspires me to write!
Weekly Prompts
41.01 Are you an all-or-nothing person?
When faced with a task or challenge, do you dive in fully? Do you give it everything you have? Many fall in the middle, providing what is necessary for the job but no more. Most of the time, I am an all-in person. I get too involved and sometimes obsessed with a project. How about you?
41.02 Do you rationalize your mistakes and then keep making them?
We all make mistakes. Period, full stop. How do you handle those mistakes? Do you, even within the privacy of your thoughts, rationalize them and then repeat them? Do you look at that mistake and try to find all the ways you were at fault? Will changing your actions fix the problem, or do you hope it does? Do you internalize the fault and make it all your fault? Or are you good at accepting the mistake for what it is and moving on?
41.03 Do you give unsolicited advice?
My daughter will confirm I do this. I don’t do it with just anyone, but with my girls I do. I have even noticed that I don’t do this with the boys. Is there a point when you should only give advice when it’s asked for? Do you give the advice and then wish you hadn’t? What are your intentions behind the advice? My intention is usually to help based on my own experiences. I believe my advice will prevent my girls from taking some of the same steps I took that were a waste of time or hurtful.
41.04 How do you feel when someone lectures you?
Do you have anyone in your life who lectures you? Are they well-meaning? Are they condescending? We’ve all been lectured. How does it make you feel? Is your initial reaction to be angry and put off? Do you listen to the lecture, or do you stop listening? Does the meaning behind the lecture change how you react to the lecture internally? If it comes from someone with only your best interest at heart, do you show them the respect of listening even if you disagree?
41.05 Have you made peace with your past?
Do you have issues in your past that you are not happy with? It’s important not to fall off into the issues themselves; instead, look at them objectively. Have you made peace with those moments? Have you accepted them for what they are, parts of you that happened, can’t be changed, and made you who you are today? Can you? If there are many of those issues, start with one and make peace with it. It is what it is; it happened. You are where you are right at this moment because that thing happened to you. Period.
41.06 Do you believe that time heals almost everything?
The old line of time heals all wounds has been thrown around for eons. I’m pretty sure that line was somehow around before language was invented. It is a line that will make you angry when you are at the peak of your pain, and later, you will pull that line out and use it on someone else. Is it true? Does time heal most things? I don’t think it does; with time, we learn to deal with the issue at hand. Sometimes, we don’t deal with it at all, but the sharp edges of the pain dull and become more manageable.
41.07 Word of the week: Supercilious.
Look it up, write it down, and use it in a sentence or two. You may be familiar with a few supercilious type people these days. Honestly, I am sick of seeing so many of them on a daily basis on the news channels.
I hope these weekly prompts inspire you to think harder, dig deeper, and write a little longer this week. Looking for more prompts? Check out the Divergent Dialogues category to see more weekly prompts, 31+ Fun Journaling Prompts, or head on over to my Pinterest board!
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Happy Journaling!
Sarah G.
