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 would a gentle, ease-filled life look like and what is one step I can take toward it?
I do not believe that a gentle, ease-filled life is what I would want since social work does not really fit into that complete. I believe, however, that there are ways to lean into my own truths and if I am living in my own truths and where I belong in life it will feel easier and it will be gentler than trying to go against where life is telling me where to go. When we work against where life is trying to take us, it feels like a steel scrub brush going over the skin, very painful. That is where I have been in the last couple of years, working against life. Life became really focused for me in May when I visited San Francisco. I saw that I was responding to the world around me differently, I was responding to people like they were human beings again. I was truly feeling more at ease. I believe the step that I have to take is changing my spending habits, so that I can be less in debt. We live in a debt filled society and once we are in it, the world around us is happier because we live in a commercialized society. Stay where you are and if you are unhappy, well just too bad. Stay there and be a part of this machine that we tell you to be in. I am recognizing now that to have a gentler life, I have to be taking steps to get out of the rat race that isn’t where I belong. I have to make so big changes, which I keep mentioning. I keep mentioning the changes that I have to make to get there. The first step though is changing my spending habits. I have to stop buying so much food on grubhub. I have to stop going out to stores to buy things that do not make me happy at all. I have to get rid of some other things that help me keep going, like streaming services, because ultimately getting rid of them will help me to save to get to the next chapter. It is time for me to do this for me. I deserve to be happy and it means it is time to do things. Scary things. Big things. Things that make sense for my life as well. If I am going to live a gentler, easier life, I have to do these things. I keep reminding myself though that it takes one step forward. One small step, I do not have to look at the whole picture yet. I can look at the corner of the puzzle and just accomplish that so that I can start forming the rest of the puzzle piece by piece.
