Have you been feeling stressed and overwhelmed lately? When was the last time you did a mental health check-in? Mental illness is a silent killer. Depression, anxiety, OCD, panic attacks, eating disorders and other mental illnesses can be crippling.

Whether diagnosed or not, we all deal with some degree of mental health issue from time to time. Often, when we get too caught up with everything that has been happening in our lives, we easily tend to forget our needs and ignore the state of our mental health.

I get it – I’ve been in that place before, going on about my life on autopilot without realising that my mental health was deteriorating slowly. Please know that your mental health is a priority. Your mental health is vital to your overall well-being and happiness – that’s why from time to time we need to take a break and just ask ourselves how we are doing. Please listen to your emotions and feelings.

I find that one of the best ways to connect with myself and check-in with my mental state is through journaling. Journaling can be very therapeutic. It allows us a chance to pour out all our thoughts, worries, and anything that’s bothering us. It also lets us discover things about ourselves and allows us to connect with ourselves on a much deeper level.

I have gathered some of my favourite journal prompts to help you check-in with your mental state. Today I will be sharing with you 40 journal prompts for mental health.

Why journaling is good for mental health

Therapy can work wonders, but you probably can’t afford to see a professional therapist every day, right? Luckily you can grab a pen and a journal in between sessions. It’s accessible, easy, and low risk. Simply getting your thoughts down on paper can be a relief.

Journaling can help you identify hidden issues, suppressed thoughts, and work through your pain. But it’s tough to get started, right? A blank canvas can be terrifying.

So, we’ve put together forty mental health journal prompts to help you get started. You can start with number one and spend forty days with these. Or you can pick and choose. You can do some of these daily or weekly, although I would recommend daily for best results – it’s entirely up to you.

10 Therapeutic Journaling Benefits

1. Offers perspective
2. Allows you to track your moods
3. Gives you an outlet
4. Clears your mind
5. Helps practice mindfulness
6. Makes triggers more obvious
7. Get thoughts off your mind
8. Express emotions
9. Interrupt negative thought patterns
10. Distraction

These are only 10 of the amazing therapeutic benefits of keeping a journal. Journaling allows you to do some of the same things that you would practice in therapy. It allows you to express emotions, check in with yourself, work through difficult thoughts and events, and dig deep into self-discovery and self-awareness.

40 JOURNAL PROMPTS FOR MENTAL HEALTH – ULTIMATE GUIDE!

So, here are 40 journal prompts for mental health, and a great start and continuation for your journaling journey.

DEPRESSION

1. What are 5 things I achieved today?
2. What are 3-5 things I love about myself?
3. What is my greatest achievement so far?
4. What is something that always makes me laugh?
5. List a trigger and how I dealt with it.
6. List my current goals and how I can obtain them.
7. What made me happy today? Why?
8. When is the last time I did something nice for myself?
9. Make a list of what I am grateful for today.
10. What does my dream life look like?
11. What is causing me stress? How can I help remove this stress?
12. Dump all my worries for the day/week.
13. Who are my greatest supporters, and how have they supported me?
14. Write about something I am looking forward to in the next upcoming weeks/months/year.
15. What self-care activities help me? How do they help me?
16. What can I do today to make myself feel better tomorrow?
17. What would I like someone to tell me right now?
18. Write about a difficult time in my life and the lessons it has taught me.
19. How am I feeling today?
20. What brings a smile to my face?

ANXIETY

1. What is causing my anxiety right now? Why?
2. What evidence do I have to disprove my anxiety?
3. List some affirmations for my anxiety.
4. List times when your anxiety was proven wrong.
5. What strategies have I tried and work to help my anxiety?
6. Dump all my worries for the day/week.
7. When was the last time I overcame my anxiety?
8. When did I feel relaxed last?
9. Make a game plan for one anxiety trigger.
10. How can my physical health help my anxiety? Drink less coffee? Sleep more?
11. Why am I so hard on myself?
12. What makes me feel better about myself?
13. What would happen if I stopped worrying about ____?
14. What are my wins today?
15. How do I know I have anxiety? Physical, mental, and emotional symptoms.
16. How does my anxiety affect my day-to-day?
17. What bad habits are causing my anxiety to worsen?
18. Please list all of your coping strategies and rate them starting from the most helpful.
19. What self-care activities help my anxiety?
20. What can you do today to help your future anxiety?

40 JOURNAL PROMPTS FOR MENTAL HEALTH

I hope these 40 journal prompts can help your mental health. I have used these journal prompts for my own mental health evaluation, and it has helped greatly. And please remember that journaling isn’t a cure for depression or anxiety, and if things get worse, please seek professional help.

I would love to hear your thoughts on what you are doing to change your life in the coming days and years. If you have any questions please reach out to me via adam@adam-lawrence.org. I would love to hear from you

Adam

Hello! My name is Adam and welcome to my space on the internet. Here you can find me writing about subjects such as spiritual growth, self-discovery, wellbeing, addiction recovery and mental health. Please connect with me on my journey and join the community!