Reflecting on Your Life with a Journal

Reflecting on your life with a journal can help you gain more clarity. Use the following questions to help guide you for self-reflection.

Dig Deep – Where have you been holding back?

Are you holding back in your journaling? To start with, think about where in your life you are holding back. What do you avoid writing about? What crosses your mind that you instantly want to hide or bury deep within you?

What are you keeping to yourself, hiding your feelings, or not being transparent either with other people in your life, or with yourself when writing in your journal?

As Joseph Campbell said, “the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek”. Facing our fears by writing about them in our journals is where we find the gold, and begin to truly know ourselves.

Years ago, I was avoiding aspects of myself I did not want to write about. Unresolved trauma memories were trying to surface and I tried to bury them even further.

Then, when I read Joseph Campbell’s quote, I knew it was time to face what had happened to me. Since then, I have discovered that ‘gold’—and so much more of me that I would never have had I not faced my fears. I know myself now and have come to a peace with my life.

 

“To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom”

~ ~ ~ Socrates

What brings you the most joy?

Reflect on the good things in your life. People, pets, things, or moments that bring a smile to your face and let you feel the intense happiness and joy that makes you excited and so grateful to have in your life.

Think of those times when you feel so much joy that you feel like your heart is going to burst—what usually causes these emotions?

The best time of my life was when I homeschooled my kids and we homesteaded. I loved teaching them how to care for the goats, milking and feeding, and caring for the babies. They learned where our food comes from and had a hand in everything from planting seeds in the garden to harvesting the animals that we processed for the freezer.

We hiked everyday and they learned how to walk the land, knowing where to watch for snakes and how to respect them. We put packs on the goats and they went with us on our hikes, carrying our breakfast that we would cook over a small fire and then carrying back wild plums we picked in the creek beds. It was a very special time for all of us.

What brings you the most pain?

Reflecting on what is causing pain in your life can also bring healing, whether in acceptance, stumbling on a remedy to fix or relieve the pain, or coming to a peace with it.

This can be any kind of pain, including physical or emotional. An accident that left you with multiple surgeries, the loss of a family member or pet, or a misunderstanding between you and someone else. Journaling will help you explore that pain and come to a resolution, even if it takes longer than you would like. Sometimes I’ve found answers or resolutions within a few journaling sessions. Other times, I’ve had to journal through the pain for several years, to uncover all the layers.

What can’t you live without?

Make a list of anything in your life you don’t think you could ever live without, then reflect on that. It can be the people in your life, experiences or moments, something you want to explore, or personal possessions you feel are sacred to you.

What do you feel like you could never live without? This tells a lot about who you are and what your main priorities are in life.

Who has impacted your life the most?

Think about the people in your life who have changed it or impacted it the most. This can be a good or bad change. Who has come into your life or left your life, and left the biggest mark?

This could even include people you’ve never met. For some, it could be an author who wrote a book that inspired you, or a poet who wrote a poem that affected you deeply.

What is one thing you would take back if you could?

Do you have any regrets? We have all said things we don’t mean to someone at some point in our lives or what we said was misunderstood. You can journal through these regrets and write out what you would say now if you could change it or say it a different way so that it would be understood better. Then you can decide what you need to do with that. Your intuition will tell you through your journaling.

You don’t need to spend too much time thinking about moments you wish you could take back, but it is good when you are working on self-reflection.

Reflecting on your life with a journal can help you gain more clarity with these questions, help you face your fears, find that gold, and ultimately, know yourself better. Happy journaling!