Random Musings of One Tired Momma

I’ve journaled for a good many years….since I was a teenager. However, through my journaling experiences, I have been sporadic in what I journal about. Basically, I’ve journaled about a specific event in my day or about my feelings or about something big that happened in my life, allowing the words to just flow onto the journal pages. In this way, the subject never stayed on task and one thing led to another.

As I’ve gotten older, memories surface so I journal about those while I still journal about events in my day, thoughts, feelings, etcetera. However, with the busyness of my life (family, all kinds of schedules, daily living, marriage, religious community, friends…..you know, all the things…) my thoughts tend to stay a bit more scrambled than in my youth. Also, as I’ve gotten older, I want my journal entries to reflect more contemplation, more of the lessons I’ve learned, and how I’ve applied this to my life; therefore, such entries require more focus. To aid in this, I started searching for journal prompts to help my entries retain more focus. However, I do tend to still journal sporadic thoughts here and there. I have learned that I have a hard time staying focused on one subject. I do enjoy the freedom of my sporadic thought process.

But, sometimes, more focus is necessary. Anyway, if you are a journaling person and begin to feel ‘stuck’ in your thoughts, I have put together a list of prompts that may help you in your journaling endeavor. I find journaling to be a relief…..it just gives my mind a break. Please use these prompts to know and understand yourself, to contemplate the reasons or the lessons you learn along the way, and maybe to build a relationship with God (if you’re not a religious person and a deeper relationship if you are a religious person).

So, here we go…….

Sundays are for Worship

• Create a list of what your grateful for this week
• Discuss some self-care, pampering ideas
• Share a personal story or self-reflection
• Write a letter to God
• Journal about a recent book you’ve read
• Reflect on a motivational quote
• Tell yourself why this day is so special to you
• Write about your plans this week
• Write about your most recent dream that you can remember and how it made you feel
• Share how you can show gratitude and positivity the coming week

Mundane Monday

• Reflect on your weekend highlights and lessons learned
• Share how social media is affecting your life
• Tell about what is motivating you this week
• Mondays tend throw us off balance. Write about something that can or did ruin your day
• Mondays can be difficult. Tell about what would make your Monday easier
• Make a plan to accomplish one big task and take the first step
• Write about where/how you can be more intentional in your day to day
• If you notice unhappiness in life, write about how you can change one small thing in your life to make yourself happier
• Reflect on a significant life hurdle and how it changed you
• Tell about the most influential person in your life

Trying Tuesday

• Tell about a traumatic experience in your past that helped shape you
• Record any one of your favorite memories
• Describe your dreamiest vacation
• Write about a favorite place you’ve visited, lived or would like to visit
• Tell about a song that you connect with and how you connect with it
• Write about your relationship with your parents
• Tell about your first broken heart
• Write about the most trusted person in your life
• Write a letter to your younger self
• Tell about what you value most in a relationship

Half-Way Wednesday

• Tell about one memory in which you showed compassion to another…..how you showed it, how it was received
• Express your gratitude to a loved one in a letter
• Write a letter to your parents about some way that may have hurt you
• Describe your strengths
• Describe your weaknesses
• Describe yourself using the first 10 words that come to mind
• Tell about a time you wronged another and how you ‘fixed’ it
• Finish this sentence: “My life would be incomplete without …”
• List three personal beliefs and explain how you are willing, if willing, to reconsider the beliefs
• Explain what brings you down the most and discern whether you can change how it affects you

Tired Thursday

• Write about your favorite hobby
• It’s tired thursday…..write about something uplifting that happened this week
• Write about something that you’ve always, frequently or even small considered adding to your life, but have yet to add it
• Remember the birth of your first child, tell about it in detail
• Write about a lesson learned
• Write about a lesson you taught
• Write about one guilty pleasure you have
• Change happens more than we like. Write about one change you were unhappy with.
• Write about one change that made you happy
• Describe how change has made your life better or worse

Finally Friday

• It’s friday! Write about your favorite Friday relaxer (bubble bath, movie, dinner date, snuggling in your bed for an extra hour, etc)
• Describe what you like most about yourself
• Tell about your ‘first crush’ experience
• Read your horoscope for today, discern and write what you think it means
• Write your favorite Bible verse, read it, and discern its’ meaning
• Describe in detail your favorite season
• Describe your favorite weather (rain, sunshine, snow, windy, stormy, etc)
• Describe your idea of a relaxing spot in your home (if you could have it any way you want it)
• Write about your biggest fear or more than one if you like
• Create a bucket list – a bucket list is a list of things you’d like to try, places you’d like to visit, people you’d like to meet, etc before you die)

Saturday Magic

• Write about how you waste your time (waste as in I should be doing (this), but for no good reason, I am not)
• Describe something that drives you crazy (if more than one, include as many as you’d like)
• Describe your worst travel experience
• Describe your best travel experience
• Write about a time when something didn’t go as planned but ended hilariously instead
• Write about your favorite game as a child, be as detailed as possible to include people, places, things
• Tell about one aspect of your health that you are most grateful for
• Describe a heart-to-heart moment with your mom/dad
• Describe your favorite family tradition
• Describe the legacy you’d like to leave your kids, describe what’s most important to you that they have gotten from you

Journaling can be healing, can be expressive, and it can be used for reflection. One of my favorite movies is The Bridges of Madison County. My mom, and one of my sisters even took a short vacation to Iowa to visit all the bridges one year. A beautiful experience in which we enjoyed the sights, enjoyed our time together, but we also discovered some unresolved conflict that we were able to work through. My mom and my sister didn’t take quite as much away from the experience as I did…at least that’s how I understood it according to their description of our journey. I could be wrong and if I am, I do apologize. However, I am quite thankful for that short trip! Anyway, my favorite scene/s in Bridges of Madison County are when the kids find their mother’s journals and learn more about her from those journals than what they knew.

Some day, I hope to do the same for my children, actually my whole family. I am currently working on an autobiography. I am not sure if it will ever be published for sale, but I do plan to self-publish and distribute a copy to each of my family members. It’s kind of exciting to think about their reactions to what they discover about me!