10 Journal Prompts to Relieve Anxiety

10 Journal Prompts to Relieve Anxiety Introduction 

10 journal prompts to relieve anxiety is something I created to help others who suffer from anxiety. What is anxiety? It is a persistent and excessive worry that interferes with daily activities. 

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Why is it important to journal about your anxiety? It will help you face your anxious thoughts and even embrace them. By writing them down, you can face your vulnerabilities and that can reduce your stress. Journaling is a powerful way to process difficult emotions and situations, and also to gain control over your emotions. It is also an effective way to release those emotions so that you can start to identify and process them in a much more healthy way. 

Are you struggling with anxiety? If you aren’t sure, here are some symptoms of anxiety. 

Symptoms of Anxiety 

• Feeling nervous, tense, or restless 
• Having a sense of impending danger, panic, or doom 
• Having an increased heart rate 
• Breathing rapidly or hyperventilating 
• Sweating 
• Trembling 
• Feeling weak or tired 
• Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry 
• Having trouble sleeping 
• Experiencing gastrointestinal (GI) problems 
• Having difficulty controlling worry 
• Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety 

Risk Factors for Anxiety 

These factors may increase your risk of developing anxiety or an anxiety disorder. 

• Trauma. Both children and adults who have experienced/witnessed a traumatic event or have been abused are at a higher risk of developing an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. 
• Stress due to an illness. Having a health condition or serious illness can cause significant worry about that, the treatment you’ll go through, and even your future. 
• Stress buildup. A big event or life situation may trigger excessive anxiety. This can include (but are not limited to) things like a death in the family, work stress/job loss/a new job, financial stress, the loss of a relationship like a breakup or a divorce. 
• Personality. People with certain personality types are more prone to anxiety disorders than others. 
• Other mental health disorders. People with other mental health issues or disorders such as depression are often prone to anxiety. 
• Having blood relatives with an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorder can run in the family. 
• Drugs or alcohol. Drug and alcohol use (or misuse) or withdrawal can cause or worsen anxiety. 

10 Journal Prompts to Relieve Anxiety 

• What am I most worried about right now? How long have I been worried about this? 
• How are these worries affecting my daily life? How do they impact the quality of my life? 
• If my worries prove true, how will that change my life? 
• Where do these worries come from? Am I basing them off past experience or future expectations? 
• What do these worries say about me? What need/want am I afraid won’t be met? 
• What other ways can I meet these needs? Where do I invest my time and attention? 
• What would happen if I stopped worrying about these things? How would my life be different? 
• What actions can I take to begin releasing my concerns? 
• How will I track my progress? What would progress look and feel like? 

How to Start a Journal 

Are you struggling with how to start journaling? That’s okay! Here are my best recommendations. 

Find a journal that you like. Here is my favorite one. If you like your journal, you have more incentive to use it every day. Take the time to find one that you really like. 

Be consistent. Journaling daily can really help you get a better handle on life and stay on track toward better health, both mental and physical. Find a quiet place and time that you do go to and journal daily. You don’t need to spend forever doing it. Taking however much time feels good to you, if need be, set a timer for practice so you don’t spend more time than necessary journaling. If you’re a beginner at journaling, try setting a timer for just 15 minutes. 

Be honest in your journal. You owe it to yourself to be honest. Plus, this is for you and you alone. No one else should be reading your journal besides you, so there is no reason to be anything but honest with yourself. If you aren’t prepared to be honest with yourself, you’re not ready to journal.

Don’t judge what you write. There is a big difference between judging and observation. When you journal or go back to read it, observe what you wrote, and do not judge yourself for the things you had to say. Don’t worry if you make mistakes either. I screw up full sentences and cross them out in my journal all the time. It’s okay to be messy when you write! 

Don’t overthink it. Overthinking things causes journaling to simply be more stressful or to feel like a chore, and you don’t need added stress in your life! You need to let go of those things, and that is the point of journaling. 

You don’t need to do every prompt all at once, and you don’t have to have all of the answers all at once either. Feel free to skip around the list and answer the questions you want to, then come back to the others later on when you’re ready. This is an exercise for you, and there is no right or wrong way to do it, so do what feels right for you. 

10 Journal Prompts to Relieve Anxiety Discussion 

Journaling is a form of self-care, and can definitely help you on your path toward better mental and physical health. It is essential to take care of yourself and be healthy. 

If you are finding that this doesn’t help, you may need to seek medical attention and medication to treat your anxiety, depending on how severe it is. Please don’t be afraid to reach out to a professional about it. 

If you are enjoying my journal prompts, here are others that I have written. 

Do you suffer from anxiety? Have these journal prompts helped you to get a handle on your anxiety or take more control over your emotions? Let me know your thoughts in the comments! 

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