10 Self-Love Journal Prompts To Use For Reflection And Self Care
Happy New Year! Naturally, we’ve stumbled upon a time of self reflection. Instead of letting that reflection allow you to be harder on yourself, consider crafting your reflections in the direction of coming out the other end loving yourself more. Journaling for self love is something so intimate yet powerful. It is important to be softer, kinder, and more understanding of yourself, like you would others. Journaling is a great way to tap a little deeper than the surface and do a little healing from the inside out. Whether you’re trying to journal more in the new year or not, anyone can check into these 10 self-love journal prompts for self love whenever they feel like it. There’s no bad time for a little reflection and setting aside the opportunity to consciously be kind to yourself. So, grab your notebook and pen (or open up your favorite journaling program) and get reflecting!
1. Write about a time when you were proud of yourself recently.
Pride is one of those feelings that can make all the stress and strife worth it. Pride shouldn’t be a feeling you experience every so often. Consider doing a little writing about when you feel full of pride, perhaps that will bring the emotion a little more in reach. Once the feeling comes back up, find a way to hold onto it– maintain your pride. You deserve to be proud of yourself more than during the few life events others choose to congratulate you on. Congratulate yourself. There is so much more that you do that others don’t see. But if they did, they’d be proud of you too. So, do your soul a favor and be proud of yourself too! Find that pride and feel it– carry it around with you.
2. Describe yourself when you are most confident.
Like pride, confidence is one of those things that can make you feel like you’re soaring. Also like pride, you ought to be confident a lot more than you likely are. If you struggle when it comes to feeling confident and being sure of yourself, you’re definitely not alone, but you probably find yourself wanting to be that person you are when you are confident a lot more. Well, newsflash: that person is you. Describe yourself when you are feeling like a confident, badass, king/queen. Now, just apply those characteristics to yourself at all times. Make them your mantra.
3. When do you feel the most free? Describe it.
Sometimes it takes a lot to remind ourselves that we’re free. Despite consequences weighing in, you are free. You can, theoretically, do whatever the f**k you want. What makes you feel most free, most alive? Describe it and reflect on that feeling. What is stopping you from feeling that all the time? Even if you’re new to journaling, you’re probably at least picking up this trend by now; you have to do a lot of the heavy lifting for yourself. These prompts are here to point you in the right direction and give you something to reflect about. Like all the other ones, it’s up to you to do the reflecting.
4. What do you see beauty in that others don’t usually notice?
Beauty is one of the things that makes life worth living. I also think one’s ability to appreciate beauty is, well, beautiful. Only you carry your unique suitcase of what you find beautiful. While we all probably share sunsets and flowers, there are some things that only you notice. Recognizing these things about yourself can be a practice of self love. Trust me, you’ll feel kinder, softer, and more “in love” with yourself after reflecting on what you find beautiful. Also, bringing these beautiful things into the forefront of your consciousness, you’ll also be more likely to notice them around for a little while.
5. How do you relate to your favorite song, book, movie, etc?
Art is awesome, especially when we can find a little bit of ourselves in something. Chances are you relate to your favorite artist (or work of art) in some way, shape, or form. Finding connection to art is also something that feels like it makes life worthwhile to me. Additionally, it just enhances the feeling of connection to other humans which is so, so meaningful. So, dive into your favorite song, book, sculpture, movie, etc. How do you relate to it? Is that why it’s your favorite? Get thinking about how you connect with what you love.
6. In what ways does your inner child come out to play? How can you honor them?
Recognizing when and where your inner child comes out from buried down deep can be so important. Oftentimes, as we make our way into adulthood, we become more serious and careful and suppress our more child-like qualities like imagination, goofiness, being carefree, playfulness, curiosity, etc. These qualities are so, so great! Why hide them? There is always a natural balance, so why hide your goofiness, curiosity, or imagination when you can find ways to make them appropriate in adulthood? If you find yourself often feeling like a 14-year-old tasked with living out an adult’s life, maybe you’re not realizing that there’s no reason to honor more childlike qualities in ourselves as adults. Reflecting on this can be really healing and honestly, pretty fun.
7. How can you love yourself like you love your friends?
Are you the kind of person who is always doing things for those you love but never necessarily doing all those kind things for yourself? I’m sure a lot of us can relate. Well, sometimes the key to self care is doing all of those things and making yourself the recipient for once, then, well, frequently. People often report feeling selfish when baking cookies, buying flowers, spending quality time, etc. only for themselves, but it is important to understand that we must give ourselves just as much if not more love than we give to others. Your cup must be full in order to go and pour water into everyone else’s cup. So, reflect on how you can water yourself, babe.
8. What are you deeply passionate about and why do you love it?
One of my favorite things to do is talk to people about what they are passionate about. You know, what makes their eyes light up and they talk a mile a minute, pulling up cute photos in their camera roll. And yes, you do it too and it’s adorable. What’s your thing? Why do you love it? Use this journal entry as a space to gush about your passion. Then go back and read it. You’ll see it, how beautiful and pure your love for your obsession is. I feel like this is a surefire way to send some self-love into your soul.
9. If you were to treat yourself how you wanted to be taken care of, what would your daily routine look like?
How do you love to receive love? Maybe it’s how you picture your dream partner treating you in your day to day lives together. While that might be sweet to think about, it’s not up to our existing or imaginary partners to make us happy and take care of all of our little specific needs. Instead of yearning for someone else to do “the little things” for yourself, consider what it would be like if you took care of yourself exactly how you wanted to be loved and taken care of. Consider your daily routine, which might shift a lot, but in a way, I think you’ll love whatever changes you conjure up. Maybe try implementing them, you know, just for sh*ts and giggles… Whatever tricks you into being kind to yourself.
10. What parts about yourself would the younger you be most proud of?
Back to a little inner child reflection because it can be oh-so powerful! It can be great to know how you’re proud of yourself now (like the first journal prompt suggests you reflect on). However, there are different things that younger you valued. They might not give two hoots about getting that promotion at work or how you made pasta from scratch last week. What would younger you care about? How would they be proud of you? Write about this and see what comes up. What parts of you would little you appreciate the heck out of? In what ways can you work to make younger you even more proud?
Which of these self-love journal prompts are you most inclined to try out? Feel free to share journal entries in the comments below!