You’re thinking about journaling for personal introspection and self-discovery, and you want some ideas on what to write about. Maybe you’re new to journaling or maybe you’re an experienced journaler. It doesn’t really matter because in either case, you’ll be looking for something to stimulate reflection and broaden your perspective. So, you do a quick internet search and pull up lots of self-discovery journal prompt lists.

But, when you review your treasure trove of journal prompts, you’re disappointed. They’re not very provocative or inspiring. Nor do they encourage you to go deep.

Fortunately, there’s one sure-fired you way to fix them.

The Problem With Most Self-Discovery Journal Prompts

Many journaling prompts are uninspiring because they don’t draw you in, encourage deep and creative reflection, or push your mental or emotional boundaries. Prompts such as “What’s your favorite weekend activity” or “What do you like about yourself” evoke short phrases and lists. This is at least in part because your first automatic reaction is probably to answer the question directly and not to elaborate. Without further prodding, however, your journaling experience will be more like the chitchat at a cocktail party than deep personal introspection.

This is a critical issue because simple questions and the simple answers they give rise to aren’t likely to generate many new insights. Yet, it’s depth, exploration, and insights that you’re really looking for.

Attributes Of A Good Journal Prompt For Personal Introspection

For deeper introspection, you need provocative multipart prompts that:

• encourage you to be curious,
• promote deeper reflection,
• help you get under your automatic responses and stuck thinking patterns,
• cause you to dig into your stories,
• provoke your imagination,
• challenge you to consider different angles or alternatives, even hard ones, and
• open you to possibilities and opportunities.

In this way, your process can give rise to new perspectives and potentially initiate a significant shift.

How to Create Provocative Self-Discovery Prompts

You can think of a good multipart prompt as one that generates similar kinds of information you look for in a good news article. Good news articles include a basic description of an issue or event, underlying causes and outcomes, and implications. And, as a bonus, you might gain some insight into how the story is relevant to your life, interests, and/or way of thinking.

In other words, you want the full story and the bonus of a takeaway or two.

The Multipart Prompt For Greater Personal Interoception

Fortunately, you don’t need to keep searching for better prompts or toss out the lists you already have. Instead, make a few minor adjustments or edits to them. Quite frankly, it isn’t hard to transform almost any dull prompt into a galvanizer of deep personal introspection and discovery. Here’s how you do it.

Creating Your Own Multipart Journal Prompts

Very simply, the way to turn any ho-hum prompt into an inspiring one is to pile on the interrogatives.

Examples of useful interrogatives:

• Why
• Why not
• When
• What
• What if
• What else
• What can you do now
• What stands out from your writing
• How
• How does it make you feel
• How else
• How do you feel about the journal prompt and why
• How do you feel about what you’ve written
• How will you apply what you’ve learned from journaling to your current life

Let’s look at two quick examples of how to apply these interrogatives.

Start with the journal prompt “What is your very favorite leisure activity?” You answer “running.” Then you can dig in with the following:

• Why is running your very favorite activity?
• How does running make you feel?
• When was the last time you ran?
• What else can you do that makes you feel like you do when you run?
• What stands out to you related to what you wrote about running?
• How will you apply what you’ve just learned to your current life?

Which interrogatives you use and how you edit the prompt will depend on the topic, your relation to it, and your intention for journaling. For example, “How do you feel about the journal prompt and why” is typically more relevant to prompts that deal with more difficult issues. “What if” and “How else” help when your thinking is rigid or stuck.

Do what works best for you and for your intentions. In other words, play with the language to get the inspiration you’re looking for. Since writing is creative and can help you tap into your subconscious, it can be a powerful tool. Almost any topic has the potential to be provocative and insightful.

For More On Journaling For Self-Discovery, See:

My Mind Body Spirit blog and, in particular:

• 7 Benefits of Using Writing For Self-Discovery
• What To Do If You Get Stuck On Your Self-Discovery Journey