60 Journal Prompts for Beginners to Start Your Journaling Adventure

Ready to start journaling? Welcome! There is so much space for you here to start exploring more about your inner self. I’ve written some journal prompts for beginners to help you start slow without feeling overwhelmed.

Before I get to the prompts, let’s talk a bit about journaling. It’s nothing new! Writing about our thoughts and musings have been happening since ancient times. We have so many historical examples of written diaries, logs, and letters.

So, journaling is not a new concept to say the least.

If you’re interested in more journal prompts, check out these morning, weekly and monthly prompts. You can also find evening ones too!

Benefits of journaling

Journaling can actually help in so many ways. It’s been shown to reduce stress and anxiety, help you process your emotions, boost mood, and improve wellbeing.

Gratitude journaling was found by University of California researchers to cause physical changes to the body. Physical changes from gratitude blows my mind! The changes they found were lower inflammation and better parasympathetic activity (aka rest and digest mode).

So, journaling can be a great tool for promoting better quality of life.

start your journey: journal prompts for beginners

Rules shmules!

There aren’t any rules when it comes to journaling. No right way or wrong way.

You can write answers to deep questions and journal prompts, you can draw, scribble and doodle on the pages, and you can add stickers and cut outs to create a collage.

It doesn’t matter what you do or how neat it is! All that matters is you expressing yourself, your creativity and feeling safe in using a new outlet to work through what you’re struggling with.

You also don’t need to journal everyday! It doesn’t have to be weekly either. Whenever you feel the need to write, whenever you think venting on paper would help, that’s when journaling is most useful. And if you want to abandon it for months, that’s very much okay too!

Paper journals are also optional. You can use the notes app on your phone as a way to journal. Apps like Notion or even Google Docs are good too. It’s all your choice.

If I had to make a list of guidelines for starting a journal, it’ll look like this:

give yourself grace during your self expression
be raw and authentic
don’t filter out the negative feelings – they’re just as important as all the others
embrace an imperfect journal – write, smudge, scratch, tear – accept it all as part of the beautiful journey

Journal prompts for beginners

Okay it’s time to get to those journal prompts for beginners. They’ll be light and airy fairy in the beginning but will get progressively deeper.

I hope they help you on your writing journey.

Fun things

What are your favorite colors?
Do you have any favorite textures?
How do you feel when you think about these textures?
What song has you hooked right now?
What show or movie makes you so excited?

Joyful things

What happened recently that made you smile?
Which person in your life always makes you happy?
When was the last time someone surprised you with kindness?
When was the last time you surprised someone?
How did that make you feel?

journal prompts for beginners infographic with favorites, smiles, doodle and goals

Feelings

Describe your mood right now in one word.
Okay how about more words – how are you feeling right now?
Is there something you can do now to make your day even better?
How about reaching out to someone to say hi? Who would you message?
Can you plan something to meet up with them? What would you do?

Food

What’s your must-have comfort food? Junk food?
What’s your latest food obsession?
Which restaurant has the best food ever?
Growing up, what was your favorite thing to eat? Who made it for you?
Which snacks and drinks make your nostalgic?

Shop journals

Dotted journal kit

Lined journal notebook

Travels

If you could have a chill, lazy day, what would you do?
Where would you spend the day?
Where is your favorite place in the world?
If you could go anywhere in the universe, where would you go?
Talk about how you’d feel when you get there.

Socials

Who is your favorite influencer? Why?
What’s your favorite social app?
How many hours would you say you spend on it? (no judgement from me! my numbers are high)
What is your relationship like with social media?
Have you ever done or felt like you needed to do a digital detox?

Beginner journal prompts for harder topics

Life!

Spill the tea! What’s the latest OMG news or gossip you heard recently?
How did it make you feel?
Can you do anything to help the situation?
Should you stay out of it?
What life lessons can you take away from that situation?

Frenemies?

Who makes your blood boil?
If you had to describe them as a cartoon or comic villain, who would they be?
Doodle something that depicts them.
Is there anything about them that you respect?
What has to change for you to feel comfortable with them?

Gratitude

List 3 things you are grateful for.
Draw how they make you feel (sunshine, rainbows, emojis?)
Who are you grateful for?
When was the last time you laughed hard (til you peed a little lol)?
What do you do if you need a laugh?

Creativity

Which hobbies do you love that always makes you feel joyful?
Do you have any fun activities or hobbies you haven’t done in a while?
What would you do to change that? Book an appointment, join a class, pull out some art supplies?
Is there anything you wanted to try but haven’t gotten around to it? Something that speaks to your soul?
What can you do to start that journey?

journal prompts for beginners infographic with self image, motivation, soothing, comfort zone and support

Personal growth

How would you describe yourself to a stranger?
Is that how your friends would describe you?
If you had to create a motto or phrase for yourself, what would it be?
If you had to motivate yourself, what would you do?
What’s your favorite hype song?
When you’re upset, how do you soothe yourself?
Who do you turn to for support?
What habits do you do when you’re angry and upset? Are they healthy?
For the less than healthy ways, have you ever tried different habits?
Which of the different habits stuck? Is there anything else you can try that would be better?

Those are my journal prompts for beginners. Hopefully you can find some inspiration with them.

Don’t forget to give yourself grace, be kind to yourself (sweet kind life heh!) and take baby steps. If you aren’t enjoying journaling and gave it enough time then maybe you can try different strategies that work better for you. That’s completely okay!

I have much more content like this. Check out these fun journal prompts and even ones for venting.

Have a beautiful rest of your day!

60 Journal Prompts for Beginners to Start Your Journaling Adventure

Benefits of journaling

Rules shmules!