Journaling prompts are ideas that help you better focus your attention on what to write, while also giving you some guideline and inspiration. Common prompts for journaling are usually in the form of questions, such as:
What am I feeling today?
How do I want to feel instead?
Other prompts that are not in the form of questions could be:
List three things you appreciate about yourself.
Reflect on a moment of abundance in your life.
There are hundreds of prompts, you can also make up your own. There isn't any rule or specific prompts that should be used, they are just meant to help guide you and give you better focus on what to write.
I personally have some trouble trusting apps with such personal information about myself. It's one thing to put in your email and phone number, or even credit card, but it's entirely different to put in all of your most private thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
You never know what the apps company does with this information. I can understand the positives and benefits of journaling with an app, especially if they can sort of analyze the journal entries and show you information such as things that trigger you or things that cause you stress, or other insightful things, but even with this, I still could not feel comfortable with it.
Journaling for me is probably the most private thing I can do, it's the most private time of my life that I do not share with anyone, nor do I want to. So having all of the things I write, on my phone, in an app, on the internet, is just not something I would even consider. Even if it's not on the internet, the fact that it is on a phone, or digital device that is hackable, is just not something I would be comfortable with.
That is something that motivates me and that helps me through those worse times. The understanding that there will also be better times where I will be able to make a difference.
At times, I would desperately look for the path and try to find my way to achieve my goals. At other times, I would be exhausted and have no motivation, I would wait for the path to find me. And then there were times when I was just open to what ever happens.
Neither have gotten me far. Neither have helped me reach the path to my goals, to what I desire. It is as if nothing I do actually alters where I am. Even when big changes occur, I somehow get back to the same place I have always been in. Far from the path I desire to be on, and farther from the destination.
Thinking about this, letting it sink in and coming to yet another realization that this is how my life is, still is, as it has been for so many years, demotivates me to the point where it is difficult to even think about doing anything to change my life.
The lack of motivation is addicting. It causes me to sink into more and more, making it more difficult to find my way out.
I know that this should not stop me, but it does slow me down. The only thing I can do is to think of constants, and to try and gain motivation from that thought. To understand what thing I want to have in my life, regardless of where I am in it and if things continue to be the same. To fight through the lack of motivation, and from within it. To continue moving forward, even while being pulled back.
What are the things I want in life that I can achieve? Things that I want regardless of what ever may happen later on.
These are the constants that I am defining. These are the things that, even if my life continues the same as it has been until now, or even if it gets worse, I will have those things that bring me joy, happiness, and eventually motivation.
These are the constants that, no matter where I am, I want to have.
I try to journal as often as I feel I need to. There are times when I journal almost every night, right before bed, and there are times when I barely journal at all.
I am sure journaling is still very much alive. Even just by going to online communities and reading about peoples journaling experience and how it has helped them, you can clearly see that people still journal.
Whether people use actual journals or notebooks vs computers and phones is another matter. I personally do not like journaling on my phone or on my computer, I prefer the old pen and paper.
