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 did I survive that I didn’t think I would?
I survived the ending of a romantic relationship of ten years. I did not think I had the strength within me. I look back and recognize it should have ended a LOT sooner, but I held on to hope that it would get better. I wanted to be in love so badly with someone that I kept gravitating to the wrong person over and over again. I am truly a ride or die type of person, but the reality is there are people that you shouldn’t be with romantically. I had to learn this within this year. I thought when I came to the conclusion that the relationship needed to be over that I would surely crumble or go to old patterns of trying to hunt down a new relationship with someone else, but so far months later I have not done that. I have simply allowed myself to have space and healing. I have created boundaries with this individual as well to not allow problematic behavior. We are still friends, but now I am less in their business because I do not want to be nor is it healthy for my body to be in their concerns. They are a chaos field to me and not being in it allows me to have peace in my body. Due to their chaos, I thought there was no way I was going to survive the ending of the relationship, but I have proven to myself since May that I can and will thrive without being in a romantic relationship with anyone at this point. I feel healthier. I feel a lot of toxicity has been released from my body. I survived what I thought I couldn’t and I know I will continue to thrive in this world.
I have also survived almost another year in the job that I have been in. I have survived through a lot of trauma conversations, a lot of horribleness in the world, and just being still adjusting to the fact that I work in a library. A library as a social worker is a unique thing and there are days that my brain says there is no way to survive in this type of system as a social worker, but I have proven to myself every single day that I can. Even though there have been break down moments and moments that I have not been my best version, I keep pushing forward. I keep trying to adjust forward and I have survived.
