Writing for Healing Prompts

Here are the prompts I wrote for the Live Art.fully Journaling Retreat. I hope they're helpful to you:

For Physical Healing:
The pain is like...
Being pain-free would be...
If I am never pain-free, I will...
Living with pain has altered me...
Being sick is...

For Emotional Healing:
I still can't believe it happened...
I am still bothered by...
Perhaps before I wasn't ready to deal with...
Today I am strong enough to say that...
I resolve that the person I am today can...
[Unsent Letter] I forgive you for...
[Unsent Letter] It hurt me deeply when you...

For Grief Healing:
I can't believe I lost my...
Living without [     ] is like...
Grief feels like...
I didn't think I'd have to say goodbye...
I remember feeling stunned when I heard the news...
There's a hole...
I can't let go...

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Prompts are original. Please do not claim them as your own.

4 more sleeps...

• The gifts are purchased & wrapped
• Hannah's school Christmas program is over
• Our contribution to our church Christmas vespers was a success -- Hannah made an adorable angel, along with 5 other little girls.
• I've made a significant dent in my "Christmas movies to watch" list
• The stockings are stuffed by the chimney
• 3 more work days (including today) and then we get Jonathan home for 4 days
• I wish it would be a white Christmas, but am thankful the roads will be better for my family who are traveling

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Are YOU ready for Christmas?


Journaling prompts: What was your favorite Christmas present as a child? Why was it special to you?

What's the most memorable Christmas of your past? Why?

Gratitude

In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought it would be fitting to talk about keeping a Gratitude Journal. Many journalers keep a separate book for recording things they are grateful for. I have done this in the past. Especially in hard times, making a point to search out what's good in your life and write it down can really boost your mood and give you courage. It works just as well to periodically make a list of things that make you happy, give you joy, bring you peace, or that you are grateful for in your regular journal. I make a point of doing an entry like this every Thanksgiving, and also at times when things seem bleak.

This week, sit down with a cup of hot apple cider, cocoa, coffee or tea, and write about the things in your life that you are thankful for. It can be an entry or just a quick list.

Feel free to share some of what you come up with.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Why keep a journal?"

I believe in journaling. There are numerous aspects of writing in a journal that are beneficial. It's wonderful for record-keeping, lowering your stress level, making goals and tracking your progress, reflecting on the day, remembering the best days of your life, and counter-intuitively, documenting those "worst days" too.

Another, deeper, aspect of journaling that I've found tremendously valuable is using it to work through tough stuff. Are you grieving? Are you a survivor of abuse? Have you been diagnosed with cancer or some other serious medical condition? Do you live with chronic pain? Write about it.

Research shows that unresolved issues can create physical disease. That is to say, your mind is not at ease, and left alone that can lead to real medical disease. Work through it. Write through it. Write it out.

Here are a few prompts to get you writing if any of this post resonated with you:

1. I am a survivor...
2. Living with pain is like...
3. What I don't want to remember is that...

Yes, it's hard. Yes, it hurts. No, it's not pretty. But sometimes the most important step we can take to start down the path of healing is to rip off the scab and bleed a little.

Goings On Around Here

It's fall now. Chilly temps, heater running, leaves sticking to the bottom of our shoes, rain...

I've been busy having out of town guests, keeping the laundry pile from surpassing me in height, dropping off and picking up Daughter 1 from school & keeping up with her school activities, supervising Daughter 2 in her many attempts at Climbing Things Not Meant to be Climbed and the art of coloring, restocking the pantry, working, checking out some new Fall TV shows, and baking. The other night the girls and I made dinner & dessert for their Daddy and enjoyed our cake with a tea party.

Yum.

What's keeping you busy? What's the best thing that's happened in the last month and the worst thing? Write about them.

Prompt: Growth

Using colored ink in your journal can help you theme entries into categories.


Green symbolizes so many things -- nature, growth, life, earth...
This week: Write in green ink about a time when you were growing. Maybe you were growing physically (growth spurts as a child, becoming a teenager, pregnancy, etc...), maybe you were growing emotionally. Maybe it was mental growth (school, classes, etc...) or spiritual growth.

Write about it. Growth. Life. New Beginnings.

Contentment (Prompt)

I read somewhere that it's often easier for people to write about hard times and sadness than it is to capture with words happiness and true contentment. Think back to the last time you felt perfectly happy. Write about that moment, day, or time in your life with as much description as possible. Were you happy because of external circumstances, or despite them?

Changing Seasons

When the weather begins to change, and one season morphs into the next, it is easy to think about other changes taking place around you and within you. The other morning I woke to a cold house. It felt like Fall. Today my daughter started Kindergarten, and the yellow school buses are busy with their pick-ups and drop-offs around town. It is a season for new crayons & pencils, sweaters, and new beginnings.

Make a list in your journal about the things you love about Fall. Lists are fun! They are easy, can be done quickly, you can use bullet points, or different colors of ink or fonts, whatever you like. Doodle a border around your list or use stickers or magazine pages to illustrate your page.

Here are a few of my fall favorites:
sweater weather
new jeans

fuzzy socks

hot drinks

the crisp smell in the air

the seasonal scents & flavors -- apple, caramel, pumpkin...
long evenings to savor
the crunch of brightly colored leaves beneath your feet
baking pumpkin bread & muffins

Prompt

Sometime in the next few days, do some writing using this phrase to start: "I used to believe..."

Prompt

Prompts work equally well for journaling or writing. Often, your writing will end up somewhere you didn't expect when you began writing from the prompt.

Try and set aside a few minutes sometime in the next week to write about a time you felt alone in a crowd.