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 lesson did this year try to teach you, gently or otherwise?
The lesson this year tried to teach me was that I have to matter, even when I do not feel like I do that I have to believe within my own spirit that I do deserve happiness. My obligation in life is not to make everyone else around me to feel better in their own existence, but to also feel good within my own existence on this planet. This has been a rough lesson for me because I have always existed in some realm of protective mode for other people. I am and have always been stuck in save other people mode, but never in save myself. Never look at myself and try to be okay for me. This has hit me very hard in this last year that I have consistently tried to make sure other people are okay. When I was younger, it was my biological sister and the other two kids I was raised with (biologically my cousins, but adopted by grandma so aunt and uncle). When I entered into adulthood, it was all these relationships I went into and various other people that I always put ahead of my own wants and needs. Sometimes this was so I could have a friend, but often times it was just that my brain said that I had to protect them. I have a protector mode that is not good for me and this year has been about really accepting and learning that I don’t have to save everyone, except the minor people at work that I can provide resources to. I should not have to take care of everyone in my life, that drains a soul greatly. That is this year’s lesson. I would say that it has not been subtle with this because my medical related issues started spiking throughout the year and I am starting to believe that it is mainly related to not caring for myself. I am starting to believe that I became such a vessel for other people that I lost the bucket at the well that was for me. I gave all the water towards other people.
It is funny, I look back at my career in social work and how often I would tell other people things like the analogy about the water in the well going to others and not for you, but I never contributed it to myself. I avoided looking at that truth when it came to my own life. This year through so many different interactions, thought processes, and such I started realizing how unhappy life had become for me. I was truly living for everyone else. It isn’t selfish to want to be happy and to live for yourself as well. I was saying and doing things that were not in alignment with me because I cared so much about everyone else. The autism diagnosis really jarred me back into awareness of this, but it happened even further when I saw how I interacted with the world when I was in San Francisco. I was friendly and kind to other people, but in a social way that I was not able to be in Indiana. I came back and everyone at work said that my spirit seemed different. I could tell I felt lighter. I felt happier. It wasn’t just that I was on vacation, it was that I felt at peace within my soul. I had went home in a sense and it enveloped every pore of me. It was permeating from me that I was alive again. I knew that life had to change and my brain started processing the overwhelming amount of care that I have poured into everyone else except myself. I am still working on coming out of that, as it wasn’t a depressive state. It was more of an existence state. I didn’t matter, most of all to myself. Now I at least say to myself daily that I matter, even if I haven’t learned exactly what to do with that. I am allowed to be in the relationship that I want to be in, but that first starts being in the positive relationship with myself that I need to be in. I can’t be happy with someone or anyone else, if I truly look in a mirror and hate myself for almost no reason. Darkness is not evil, so I won’t say that I need to step out of the darkness. What I need to do is learn to be happy. I had lost all forms of hope. Hope is such a vital part of human existence and I had given it away. Now I am finding it around the corner looking at me hoping that I will find it again. I am coming. It just is going to be a bit longer. I am heading there and I know that I can embrace dreams and hopes again. It just means making hard choices that may impact all aspects of my life, but change often is hard. I know it is worth it though to get to where I need to be for my next chapter in life.
