Listed here are questions/ideas which are my favorite prompts for journaling. I periodically print this out and keep it next to my Morning Pages to break through if I get stuck. Another trick which I do about once a month is to print this out and use it as stand alone journaling exercise. Just fill in a couple sentences for each question on the page.
Prompts from the ZEN frame:
What area(s) of my life could use more attention and mastery? Relationships? Work? Health? Spirituality?
If I really tell the truth about what I can work on today, I would say….
How do I want to BE in the world?
What do I want life to feel like? Work? Relationships? Health?
How do I want others to experience me?
Judgments that often come up are….
Self:
Others:
A core disempowering / restrictive story I tell myself or that I FEEL is….
What is a challenging theme of your life story that keeps repeating itself?
If I were to choose to engage with the world and in my relationships differently, I would be more / less…
What are my top 5 skills or personal traits?
PROMPTS from the STOIC frame:
What am I lacking in attaining freedom from attachment?
What for tranquility?
What am I not?
Who am I not?
What / who then?
What then is demanded of me today?
How did I steer away from tranquility?
What did I do yesterday that was unfriendly, unsocial, or uncaring?
What is a judgment that I have on my mind right now?
What specific emotions (using the emotion list) do I feel around that judgment?
Review yesterday:
What bad habit did I curb?
How am I better?
Were my actions just or were they unjust?
How can I improve on my decisions yesterday going forward?
