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://substack.com/@theebookclubx/p-180404522
December journal prompts
1. What did this year teach me about myself that I didn’t know before?
2. Which version of me am I leaving behind in 2025?
3. What am I proud of myself for, even if no one else noticed?
4. Which disappointments from this year still live in my body, and what permission do I need to release them?
5. What boundaries did I learn to set or wish I had set sooner?
6. Write about one person who made your year a little softer.
7. What small, mundane moments brought me unexpected joy?
8. What blessings arrived quietly, without fanfare?
9. What did I survive that I didn’t think I would?
10. What parts of my life feel like answered prayers?
11. What did love (romantic or otherwise) teach me this year?
12. How did I show up for the people I care about, and how did they show up for me?
13. What is one relationship I want to nurture more intentionally in the new year?
14. Which connections drained me, and why did I hold onto them?
15. What does a healthy, gentle love look like for the version of me I am becoming?
16. What habits helped me grow and which ones quietly held me back?
17. What fear dominated my decision-making this year, and how can I release it?
18. What is one truth about myself I can no longer ignore?
19. What did I learn about trusting my intuition?
20. How did I show resilience even when I doubted myself?
21. What do I want December-me one year from now to thank me for?
22. What kind of energy do I want to carry into the new year?
23. What is something I want to try, even if I’m afraid or unprepared?
24. What word or theme do I want to guide me in 2026?
25. What would a gentle, ease-filled life look like and what is one step I can take toward it?
26. What is one thing I forgave myself for this year, even quietly?
27. What old dream am I ready to revisit with a wiser, gentler heart?
28. What did this year reveal about what I truly value , beyond status, speed, or success?
29. Where did I experience unexpected beauty this year, and what did it teach me about paying attention?
30. What is one soft promise I want to make to myself as the new year begins?
What small, mundane moments brought me unexpected joy?
This may sound like it was part of some bigger moment, but the moment itself was a small moment. I traveled to San Francisco in May for a week to just be out there in an area that I love by myself. Seeing sites by myself. Traveling and enjoying areas that I used to be in. I went to stores that I had loved, saw the old haunts when I had been homeless. I went back by myself as a different person. I recall sitting in my hotel room and one day it was just a couple hours of sitting looking out the window in the room. It was seeing the old San Francisco Chronicle building. Just sitting there was full of so much joy. It was pure happiness. I wasn’t running around San Francisco in that moment. It was just a small peaceful moment of sitting on a bed looking out a window and feeling such bliss.
It really has been the small, mundane moments that have brought me the most joy this year. These last few months, I started reading again. I lapsed again because of life. Sometimes life gets overwhelming and books seem to be the one enjoyment that I instantly put away when this occurs, but in the last few months I have been listening to audio books and reading. It used to be I would start reading a book and I would feel instant anxiety about it, but in these months I have not felt that. I just have felt such happiness that I was reading a book. I would sometimes roll my eyes at the book or even say aloud something silly to it like “Sure, you are not the murderer.” It was the best and is the best. I am finding that there is a stillness that my soul needs by allowing myself to read. I still watch things on TV, but I also make sure I spend a couple hours reading because it does more for my actual physical body in terms of stress relief.
I am still finding the best way for me to “stop and smell the roses”, but I think I am doing better in terms of allowing myself to actual not be pent up all the time. I believe I held so much stress in my body because of trauma and life that I just never relaxed truly, but now I feel like I am. The simple moments are where I am allowing myself to live in now, whereas before I would almost create chaos because it was the only time my body felt normal. This was truly a trauma response and now I am unraveling that from the web of life. I am choosing to allow myself to have that peace that I need. I know what my next step in life is, but getting there is going to be a challenge. To keep having peace in my life thought, I know that it is my next path in this life. Life keeps changing, but sometimes that is exactly what we need to be where we are supposed to be in life.
