These are prompts from some other place besides a book that ask to examine certain aspects of yourself. I will not have created these prompts myself, so I want to pay respect that they came from somewhere.
This months’ prompts are going to be coming from this substack that I recently started following:
https://open.substack.com/pub/theebookclubx/p/31-journal-prompts-for-november-learning?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
November Prompts
- What part of yourself are you finally ready to understand?
- What does “peace” mean to you now and what used to disturb it?
- Write about a moment that changed how you see yourself.
- What habits or patterns do you want to leave in this year?
- Who in your life feels like warmth and why?
- Describe a version of yourself that you’re growing into.
- What would your younger self thank you for today?
- What does emotional maturity look like to you?
- Write about a time you chose peace over proving a point.
- How do you know when it’s time to let something end?
- What part of your healing still feels unfinished?
- What lesson did this year try to teach you, gently or otherwise?
- Write about a time you surprised yourself.
- How do you show up for others without losing yourself?
- What are you no longer apologizing for?
- Write a letter to someone you’ve outgrown, even if you never send it.
- What boundaries have made your life better?
- How do you comfort yourself when you don’t feel understood?
- Describe your relationship with stillness.
- What does authenticity mean to you right now?
- Write about something you’re proud of but rarely mention.
- What truth have you been avoiding?
- How does solitude make you feel? peaceful or lonely?
- Write about a time you felt seen without needing to explain yourself.
- What are you learning to forgive yourself for?
- How do you measure growth without comparing yourself to others?
- What does “home” mean beyond a place?
- What are you currently seeking, emotionally, spiritually, or mentally?
- Write about a moment of clarity you’ve had recently.
- How have you changed since January?
- What kind of person do you hope to be walking into the new year?
Write about a moment that changed how you see yourself:
I got on a bus twice in my life that changed my life in significant ways. These two times changed how I saw myself. I had seen myself as a weak individual that had little to no strength, but these stories showed me that I could do hard things. I was capable and the voices that had been there for years were not the ones that were going to win.
The first time I got on a bus was a sneak into the night situation. I had been raised by my grandmother. I saw that I was going to die unhappy. I was supposed to just be a factory worker if I followed the lines that were being drawn for me from others in my family. I would never discover who I am. I did something that I have never been proud of, but I stole my grandmother’s state quarters. It was enough to get me out to California. I remember my sister helping me. I remember my niece being in the middle seat when they dropped me off at the weird pharmacy that sold greyhound tickets and was a stop to be picked up at. My sister drove me on the night that my grandmother would go bowling. Bowling will probably come up again in another post at some point because it has played such a significant part of different moments in my life. The pharmacy had already closed their greyhound ticket kiosk, which I freaked out about. The clerk asked me point blank if I was running from the law and I told her the truth. I told her that I was escaping an abusive individual in my family. She opened the kiosk back up and sold me the ticket. I would take a 3 and a half long trip to California from Indiana. I remember seeing for the first time people that were from different walks of life that I had never been in contact with previously. I started to understand that I had opened up the world to myself. I had allowed myself to take control of my own life, instead of allowing others to take it over. This was the first time I grew as a person.
The second time I got on a bus was roughly 6 months from the first one. I had lived with a lesbian couple I had met online from a Big Brother game where you acted like you were in the house. I wrote a journal that they found and they got mad regarding some of the things that I wrote about one of them, but I was still trying to find my own voice regarding the world. I was still trying to figure things out. I didn’t recognize at that point but I was still in fight and flight mode. I was a person that was still hurting. I was still in such a state of pain. I ran shortly after the time they read my journal. I got on another bus from Yuba City to Sacramento. I then went from Sacramento to San Francisco. I got off this bus in a huge city that I had never been in. I thought there was no way I was going to survive. I was scared because I had nothing really. I had basically the clothes on my back and a cd player for the most part. I was homeless in San Francisco, but that moment of becoming homeless changed my path of life. It allowed me to start to find myself as a social worker. It allowed me to start to see worth in my own journey. It has always been a moment I appreciated when I got off at that Greyhound station in San Francisco and walked to Market Street hoping to find Larkin Street Youth Services. I did find it ultimately, but that first night it was a journey that took strength that I never knew that I had. It took willpower to push my voice forward. I survived the streets of San Francisco because I found myself there. I became stronger and more me because of this. A fundamental part of who I was changed forever in these two situations. I was no longer a scared child, but a human finding their own path. San Francisco helped me with that.
