Journaling for Self-love : Tips & Prompts

Journaling for self-love does work – I’m the living proof. In this article I’m giving away my best tips to start journaling as well as journaling prompts for self-love

What is journaling?

Journaling is a practice for self-help and personal growth. It will help you to know yourself better, have more compassion with yourself and reflect on your actions.

I like to see journaling as a date with yourself – just like you’d have an afternoon with your best friend to talk about life and be held & comforted. With journaling, you can do all of this for yourself as well.

The beautiful thing about journaling is that there’s no actual rules. You can write whatever, whenever and however feels good to you.

If you’re a beginner or want to know specifically how to journal for self-love, more on that later. I’ll give tips to start and a few prompts to guide you!

Benefits of journaling for self-love and self-esteem

Writing is like having a conversation with yourself. And just like when you have conversations with a new friend, you’ll get to understand who you are, have a better relationship with yourself and learn to rely on yourself.

Eventually, you’ll start to know yourself, more and more. You’ll be able to forgive yourself, have more confidence, compassion and kindness towards yourself.

And isn’t it what we all want?

But self-love is not the only benefit of journaling.

Beyond its positive impact on the mind and soul, journaling could also have a positive impact on physical health and immunity, if we believe this study.

How? Writing and reflecting on our thoughts and feelings is a way to free ourselves from our issues and low self-esteem. It helps us relieve the stress and anxiety invading our bodies – sometimes without even noticing it!

By freeing yourself from stress, you’ll be able to relax, sleep better, and recharge your energy. As a reminder, sleeping well (and enough) is essential to be healthy; it helps to balance hormones and produce immunity cells.

So if your body and mind are stress, worried and anxious, your rest time will be compromised and some hormones (such as adrenaline) will prevent your body from producing the actual cells that fight pathogens.

Kind of magic right? Well, that’s why I like to consider health as a whole.

Our body, mind and soul are, without any doubt, connected.

How often to journal for self-love?

If journaling is not part of your habits yet, I highly recommend you make it so. Just like if you want to see the results of going to the gym, you’ll have to go at least 1x per week. If you want to see how your self-esteem improves with journaling, you’ll have to do it regularly too.

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to journal every day to see results. Sometimes, less is more. Be realistic with yourself and start small.

Do you already journal?

• If yes, is it helping you? Do you feel like writing more could help you? How much? Do you have time for that? Where can you allocate time for it?
• If not, how much time do you have left in your week for journaling? How often can you journal?

Just like any new habit, I highly recommend you to associate journaling with another habit that you do every day or every week.

For example : journaling 5 minutes while your oatmeal is cooking or journaling just after walking the dog.

This is a clever way to make it easy for your brain and for yourself. And it’s way more efficient than telling yourself “I’ll do it later” – we all know how it eventually ends up lol.

This tip is actually from the book Atomic Habits which is spectacular – highly highly recommend it.

Last thing : journaling doesn’t have to last 40 minutes if that’s overwhelming. You neither have to write 3 pages every day. 5 minutes are enough. 1 page is perfect. Do what works for you and what you can keep up with, you can always increase the frequency and duration later!

What to write when journaling for self-love?

As I told you in the beginning, journaling has no rule. But since we’re specifically talking about self-love and you might be a beginner, let me helps you a few tips and journal prompts.

How comfortable do you feel with yourself?

Even if journaling “only” consists on writing, it isn’t easy for everyone since it will require you to go deeper into yourself.

If you’re new to this and can’t easily describe your emotions from the beginning, start writing about your day, the week’s events, or the key points of the past months/years

• What did you do ?
• Where did you go ?
• Who did you met ?
• What did you eat ?
• What did you watch, eat, drink ?

When you feel comfortable writing about random stuff happening in your life, you can start diving deeper into yourself.

Starting with brainstorming positive traits about yourself.

• What do you like about yourself ?
• What do people compliment you on ?
• What are people asking you help for ?
• What are you the most proud of ?
• What are your biggest accomplishments ?
• What do you want to improve ?
• What actions can you take to become better?

The next level would be about considering your feelings and emotions.

• How do you feel ?
• Since when did you feel this way ?
• Why do you feel like that ?
• What would you tell a friend that was going through the same situation ?
• How did you talk to yourself today ?
• How was it different from yesterday / last week / last month ?
• What are you not so proud of ?
• What can you do to improve ?

You get it – start with what feels the most comfortable to you and keep going deeper.

It might feel scary at times, but the deeper you go the better you’ll understand yourself and the easier it will be to love yourself.

Journal prompts for self-love

As promised, here are a few prompts that will guide you when journaling for self-love.

1. What do I love about my body ?
2. What do I love about my mind ?
3. What do I love about my personality ?
4. What compliments have I received lately ? Did I believed them ?
5. What are people asking me help for ?
6. What makes me unique ?
7. What do I dislike about myself ? How can I be grateful for it ?
8. What do I like to do ?
9. What are my talents ? What do I do easily ?
10. What am I proud of myself for ?
11. What challenges have I overcome ?
12. What does make me feel good ? How can I include more of it daily ?
13. What would I tell me 10-year-old self ?
14. How would I behave if I loved myself more ? How can I act more like this person ?
15. How can I thank every part of my body ?

Journaling essentials

Let’s be clear : you don’t need any fancy equipment or stationary to journal. Printer paper and the pen they gifted you at your favorite coffee shop works bomb.

But if you like aesthetics (like me) and know that a beautiful journal and pen will actually make you journal more – let me share a few brands and items I love.

Leuchtturm 1917 for simple and high-quality journals

The german brand is probably one of the leaders in terms of stationery, especially notebooks – and I love them. They are very simple but have everything you need for a great journal : beautiful cover and paper, page markers, detachable sheets, stickers for labelling and an elastic enclosure band.

Plus, you can choose between soft and hard covers as well as plain, dotted or ruled paper. They also have several sizes and colors, like this beaaaautiful lilac I’m dying for.

Juniqe for original journals (Europe only)

This one brand will only be available to you if you live in Europe. They have wonderful notebooks that make perfect journal and they have so many designs – there’s no chance you won’t find something that match your personality.

Pilot Frixion Gel Pens

I feel like pens are so personal and you have to test a few of them before finding the one you feel comfortable with. For me, I’ve always liked the Pilot Frixion Pens since they’re erasable and the ink (which is gel) slides smoothly on paper.

I hope this article has helped and encouraged you to start journaling for self-love. Let me know in the comments below if you liked it and if you have any questions!