You may know this already, but journaling has done wonders for my mental health, physical health, and overall happiness. I haven’t always been consistent with journaling (I may have missed a few years), but I always tend to come back to it, especially when I feel like I need to collect my thoughts.
What I love most about journaling is that there is no pressure. When you talk to someone about how you’re feeling, you may choose your words carefully or not say something at all out of fear of how they may react. That’s totally human and you are not wrong for doing that.
However, with a journal. You can say as much as you, the way that you want. and there is no one there to tell you that what you’re feeling is wrong, or bad, or that you shouldn’t feel the way that you do. This can especially come into play when you’re talking about your mental health.
But, journaling doesn’t always come easy, so I’ve created these journaling prompts for mental health to give you a jumpstart.
- When you think about your mental health, what struggles are you facing?
- How do you feel about therapy?
- What people in your life have a positive effect on your mental health?
- What people in your life have a negative effect on your mental health?
- How do you know that you may be spiraling into a mental health crisis?
- What opportunities has your mental health given to you?
- How has your mental health hindered the things that you’ve wanted for yourself?
- What are your go-to coping skills?
- Who can you reach out to when you need support?
- Write down 15 things that you are grateful for?
- What are you doing that negatively impacts your mental health?
- What are you doing that positively impacts your mental health?
- What advice would you give to other people who are struggling with their mental health?
- Draw what anxiety feels like for you.
- Draw what depression feels like for you?
- What does your ideal mental health look like?
- My mental health makes me……..
- What do you need to forgive yourself for?
- Write down 10 songs that make you feel happy or inspired.
- What are you worried about right now?
- What have you learned from having a mental illness?
- What about your mental health makes you afraid?
- What can you do right now to positively affect your mental health?
- Describe a situation where you catastrophized that situation, but it turned out well.
If you’re looking for even more support with coping with mental health issues, check out my workbook, I’ve Got This! It’s a mini-workbook on coping with mental health issues and includes multiple worksheets to help you with taking steps forward in your mental health journey. Check out the I’ve Got This!, here!
- In what ways have you triumphed over mental illness?
- Write a thank you letter to your brain.
- What do you wish people knew about your mental health or mental illness?
- What would your life be like if you had your optimal mental health?
- List 10 things that you like about yourself
- What makes you really happy?
- Write 10 affirmations about your mental health
- Describe a time when you successfully navigated through a mental health crisis.
- If there was no stigma around mental health, what would you tell the world?
- How could everyone better support people with mental illness?
- How could a friend or family member better support your mental health?
- How could you support a friend or family member’s mental health?
- What does self-care mean to you?
- How does your environment impact your mental health?
- How does your mental health impact your physical health?
- What inspires you when you’re feeling down?
I hope this journal writing prompts for mental health and that they help you get a deeper understanding of yourself. If there is a particular prompt that you enjoyed, let me know in the comments. If you’re interested in creating your own mental health journal or want other ideas of what you can fill a notebook with, check out this post.
Briana Hollis is a licensed social worker and self-care coach. She earned her Master of Science in Social Administration from Case Western Reserve University in 2014 and her Master of Education from Tiffin University in 2019. She has spent the last 5 years working in crisis intervention. Her passion for serving others is the heart of this site. She started Learning To Be Free to assist others in bringing freedom to their lives.
Briana is also the author of The Self-Care Journal for Young Adults.
Wow, great prompts! I can see how each of them could be incredibly beneficial. I really need to get back into journaling. It has been tremendously helpful for me in the past and I find I’m missing it lately.
Thank you for reading Sherry!
Love the idea! I always find hard to stick with journaling despite the benefits. I think this will change me.
Journaling is a great way to help us cope with our mental health struggles. I just wrote a post on how journaling has changed my life. I love these journal prompts. They help us identify where we stand with our mental health and how we can improve it. I love the prompts “write down 10 songs that make you feel happy or inspired.” and “What people in your life have a negative effect on your mental health?” The first prompt can help us identify a way to make us smile more often (listening to songs we love!) and the second helps us realize who we may need to remove from our lives to improve our health. Thanks for this post!