31 Deep Journal Prompts

Meaning and purpose

1. 1.What do you think you are here to do, if anything?
2. 2.What would make your life feel meaningful even if nobody ever knew about it?
3. 3.When have you felt part of something bigger than yourself?
4. 4.What would you want to be true of your life if you only had one year left?
5. 5.What do you hope people say about you when you are not in the room?
6. 6.What does a life well lived mean to you right now, and how has that changed?

Identity and truth

1. 7.Who are you when you are not performing for anyone?
2. 8.What truth about yourself have you known for a long time but never said out loud?
3. 9.What part of your identity would you hold onto if you lost everything else?
4. 10.Which of your traits do you think came from your parents, and which are fully yours?
5. 11.What lie do you tell most often, even a small one, and why?
6. 12.What are you still trying to prove, and to whom?
7. 13.If you could know one thing about yourself with total certainty, what would you want to know?

Love and connection

1. 14.What does it feel like to be truly known by someone?
2. 15.Who do you love in a way you have never fully expressed?
3. 16.What have the people you loved most taught you about yourself?
4. 17.What do you need from love that you are afraid to ask for?
5. 18.Which relationship shaped you the most, for better or worse?
6. 19.What is the difference between being loved and being needed, in your experience?

Time, change, and loss

1. 20.What are you afraid of losing most, and how does that fear shape your choices?
2. 21.What do you miss that you never expected to miss?
3. 22.How do you feel about getting older?
4. 23.What would you want to say to someone you have lost, if you had five more minutes?
5. 24.What has ended in your life that made room for something better?
6. 25.What moment in your life would you relive exactly as it was?

Big questions

1. 26.What do you believe happens after we die, and how does that belief affect how you live?
2. 27.Do you think people can really change? What makes you believe that?
3. 28.What is something you used to be certain about that you now question?
4. 29.What makes something right or wrong to you?
5. 30.If you could ask the universe one question and get a true answer, what would you ask?
6. 31.What is the most important thing you have learned so far in your life?

Tips that make it stick

• •Deep prompts can bring up heavy feelings. Pay attention to what you feel as you write and name it plainly, whether it is longing, grief, awe, or fear.
• •Do not aim for a neat conclusion. A good deep entry often ends with a better question.
• •Write somewhere quiet where you will not be interrupted for a while.
• •Share an entry with someone you trust if it sparks a conversation you want to have.

Related feelings