Five mindful journaling prompts to tackle anxiety
Rhianon Potter, Sussex Mindfulness Centre placement student and volunteer, reflects on mindfulness and mindful journaling to help tackle uncomfortable feelings of anxiety. She goes on to offer five mindfulness journaling prompts to respond to anxiety.
Do you sometimes feel the impending doom that comes with anxiety?
It can be incredibly difficult to come out of an anxious spiral and to ground ourselves, but mindfulness can help with this. It has been a big part in my journey to accepting my anxiety. I have always struggled with feelings of anxiety and would find myself worrying about everything past and future. Spending hours in an anxious spiral panicking about most things happening in my life was a daily occurrence until I completed six weeks of a well-established mindfulness-based intervention, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, through my university. During my time in therapy, I learnt how to use mindfulness (in particular mindful journaling and self-compassion) to sit with anxious thoughts. I learnt how I can intervene before the spiralling begins. Being in the present moment when I write stops me worrying about the past and the future.
An open-mind enabled me to get the most out of journaling
Initially, I struggled to get started with mindful journaling. I wasn’t sure how to start and the thought of writing about my anxious thoughts felt very intense. At this point, I also did not know much about mindfulness and had never considered making it a part of my life.
Once I broke through the barrier and started to accept my anxiety , I believe the thing that helped most was approaching this new skill with an open-mind. Throughout the eighteen months since, the most beneficial practices for me have been gratitude, letting go of difficult emotions and mindful journaling. Having trialling various techniques and journaling prompts, I found some to be particularly helpful.
Five journaling prompts to try
Whether you’re a beginner in mindfulness or have been practising for decades, trying new practices and reflecting in a new way can always help us learn more about ourselves. Here are just some of my favourite mindful journaling prompts to inspire you whether you’re journaling for the first time or whether it’s already a daily habit:
“I think that…” / “I feel like…”
This prompt is my favourite and comes not only with journaling but mindfulness-based thought practices too. Being able to separate yourself from your emotions and thoughts (i.e “I feel like I have messed up” instead of “I have messed up”) reminds us that our thoughts are just thoughts and are not factual, and certainly do not define us. I also find this helpful for being able to step back and observe my thoughts and emotions as events, rather than falling into an anxious spiral.
“One positive part of my day is…”
Anxiety often makes us focus on the negative parts of the day and it’s important to also recognise and reflect on the good parts too.
“Right now, I feel like I need…”
It’s easy to forget about what you need in times of struggle, and this is something I often have difficulties with too. Identifying what we need is the most powerful tool for moving past anxiety. It’s sometimes difficult to think about what you need as opposed to other people, but using this prompt has allowed me to become more aware of what works for me when I am overwhelmed (spending time with my dog!) and has encouraged me to take more breaks.
“I can be kinder to myself by…”
Similar to the last prompt, this helped me to move past anxiety instead of feeling stuck in my thoughts. It’s always important to practise self-compassion, and mindfulness makes us more able to be kinder to ourselves. This has helped me to bring more compassion to myself and see my mistakes simply as errors that everyone makes, as opposed to ruminating and blaming myself.
“I felt stressed/anxious today because…and I was able to overcome this by…”
This prompt enables us to acknowledge and respond to moments of distress but also to recognise that we can move past these moments and overcome them. Keeping a note of how I was able to overcome previous struggles helps to reassure me that I can get through future struggles too.
Why not consider picking up a journal and pen to record your mindful reflections? If some of these prompts don’t work for you can always adjust them until they do, or simply leave them out.
Top photo: Jess Bailey Designs by Pexels.com