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?
What part of your healing still feels unfinished?
This question feels the most profound of all the questions and probably will result in the most real answer of all of them. It may also come off as negative, but not all truth is wrapped up in a pretty golden box with beautiful ribbon. Sometimes it is a huge big pile of poo. That is what this question feels like for me. The main reason for this feeling bad is because there is a part of me that hates me. Hates all aspects of who I am. It looks at myself in the mirror and says nasty things about my face, my weight, my hair, my smile, and hell just about everything. I need to heal the part of me that still believes all these horrible voices that I have heard over the last 40+ years. The ones that told me I wasn’t this or that. I was never supposed to be those things, but my brain doesn’t recognize that. It just hurts and makes me hurt. It remembers that trauma and keeps it going to make me feel a certain way internally.
Going back to the mirror, I can look at myself in the mirror and see the pain of the past sitting within my entire body. I have stopped socializing. I have stopped moving for the most part. I don’t exercise any more, this was even before the fractured ankle related issues. I stopped listening to music for enjoyment and it turned into noise that I just put on sometimes. I stopped dancing around to music. I stopped doing all the wonderful things that actually makes me who I am as a human being. I need to heal that pain that makes me feel like I am not worthy of existing on this planet. That deep rooted pain of not just childhood traumas, but the ones that I allowed to continue into adulthood. The truth is that I need to step back and reset my life in an astronomical amount of ways to be happy, but in this moment I want to remind myself that the journey starts with a single step towards happiness. It may feel overwhelming right now, but the truth is one step at a time will help make progress. 1% is progress. .5% is progress. It is all progress if it moves you forward. I need to keep reminding my brain of this as I start towards actual healing, not fake healing that I feel like I sometimes lean into to make other people feel better about where I am at in life. While in many areas of my life I am authentic, I don’t think I have been on where I am in my healing journey of self. If I want to be honest, I have to be vulnerable, like I am with this blog. I am in therapy and this week, I was asked by my therapist about why I would put my thoughts like this on display. I said that I needed it to be released into the world. It feels like it is actually out of me where I put it on this blog because it is released to the world. There is no ability to hide behind my inner thoughts when it is out there on here. When I would write it down in a notebook, it was still in my head because it was locked in a book. This feels like an actual release. So far it is helping, but healing takes time, especially when it has been years upon years. I recognize and give respect that this healing is going to take time, but that healing can only happen with truth, light, happiness, hope, and belief that things can change. I am ready for this journey.
