Printable – 25 Journal Prompts for Moms
There's a certain time during motherhood when it's so easy to get lost under everyone else's needs. Writing in a journal can help you find yourself again and it doesn't have to be complicated. I've found benefit even from sitting down and writing just for 10 minutes or so. I also often write in incomplete sentences, just getting out fragments of an idea. Anything to get some of the thoughts out of my head and onto the paper often makes things easier to think about.
I hope you enjoy this printable collection, and if you want more journal prompts for moms, take a look at the rest of my Fill Your Cup Prompts.
25 Journal Prompts for Moms
These prompts are pulled from the numerous prompts have been created already for Fill Your Cup, so they cover a variety of topics (which you'll see in bold at the beginning of the question.) All of them are here to provoke thought and reflection. Take just 10-30 minutes and write in your journal today and see where they take you.
Another way to use these journal prompts is as conversation starters. When my kids were littler sometimes another mom friend and I would talk on the phone in the morning and share a prompt with each other to think about during the day. The next time we'd talk we'd share what had come up after pondering the prompt.
Download The Printable Version of Journal Prompts Here
- Breathe – When your children were babies did you wake at night to look for their breath? Perhaps you do that now. What would you tell that mother in the dark listening for breathing?
- Choose – What are you putting off making a choice about in your life? What are you fearful of losing if you choose?
- Engage – Are there activities or people with whom you engage that drain you? What do you need to disengage from?
- Prepare – Do you ever spend too much time preparing and not enough time acting? How can you get yourself moving?
- Honesty – As we grow often we are able to be more honest about our experiences, particularly painful ones. Is there a story you can begin to be honest about at this point in your life that has been shadowed or glossed over in the past?
- Grow – What did you think you would feel like when you were a grown up? Do you feel like a grown up now? Home – How would you like your home to feel? Make a list of the words that come to mind.
- Relax – How are you modeling relaxation to your kids? Do you want them to follow your example when they grow up?
- Clearing Space – What do you read/watch/talk about that’s just mental clutter? For example: reading about problems you do not have, responding to people who do not want help, watching things that stress you out instead of rejuvenating you. What can you do to reclaim this mental space? Related: A Year to Clear
- Rhythm – What rhythms are currently present in your life? What is working well? Is any part of your current rhythm unhealthy or something you’d like to change?
- Inspire – What has inspired you in the past, before you were a mother? Do these things still inspire you and, if so, would you like to add more of them into your life?
- Allow – What do you need to allow to take more time or space in your life? What you trying to force to be something it isn’t at this point in time?
- Patience – Make two lists: 1) Regularly occurring situations which I need to be more patient about 2) Situations about which it is time to stop being patient and start making a change
- Play – Think back to childhood to the most clear joyful, playful memory you have – whether it’s with a friend, a toy or playing a game. Try to recapture the emotion you felt. How does it relate to your life now? How can you bring play into your life?
- Stop – What have you unintentionally stopped doing? Do you need to start again, or let it go and move on?
- Gifts – What is the best gift you’ve ever received?
- Love – List making: List 10 things that make you feel loved, then 10 things that make your family feel loved
- Grow – We have to make mistakes to grow – What mistake do you need to forgive yourself for making? Write a letter to yourself explaining all the ways you have grown from this mistake.
- Home – Are you literally or metaphorically being called home right now? What events or symbols are tugging you home? Will you go?
- Laugh – When was the last time you laughed until you cried? What makes you laugh like that?
- Choose – Sometimes we never really know if we made the right choice. Do you have choices that haunt you? Is it time to finish your rehashing and reconsidering on a choice that you’ve made in the past – how are you going to let it go?
- Breathe – We all need to ‘take a breather’ from time to time, but sometimes we wait for others to tell us it’s ok to pause. Who are you waiting on to give you permission to breathe? How can you give yourself that permission?
- Patience – Are you ever impatient because you are trying to control too many people, events or situations in your life? What can you let go of in order to be more patient?
- Clearing Space – What is the most important place in your house to keep clear? What routines do you need in place in order to keep that space clear?
- Play – Come up with a playful, even a completely fanciful solution to a problem you’re having in your life right now.
Related Posts on Journaling:
- My Favorite Journaling Supplies – and journal prompts on rediscovering yourself.
- 52 Gratitude Prompts – for exploring Gratefulness all year long
- On Being Present – Presence and Mindfulness Journal Prompts
Alissa Zorn is an author, and founder of the website Overthought This. She's a coach and cartoonist passionate about helping people overcome perfectionism and shame to build authentic, joyful lives. Alissa is certified through the International Coach Federation and got her Trauma-Informed Coaching certification from Moving the Human Spirit. She wrote Bounceback Parenting: A Field Guide for Creating Connection, Not Perfection, and is always following curiosity to find her next creative endeavor.