Are you struggling with low self-esteem and want to use journaling to combat the ill within?
Then you have come to the right place, for today we will be exploring 10 journal prompts that can help you achieve greater self-confidence.
1. When Did Your Lack of Self-Esteem First Appear?
A great first step for self-esteem journaling - and therapy in general - is to isolate those self-deprecatory feelings and try to suss out where they come from. In order to start fostering healthy self-esteem, it would be useful to try and work out when these feelings first came about.
Our mental health can certainly play tricks on us - the most difficult part about therapizing yourself is the fact that you are always looking at yourself from within yourself. This is why so many people opt to just see an external therapist in order to get an unbiased point of view on the matter.
2. Describe When You Last Felt Truly Confident
Starting from the opposite end of the spectrum, you can try to make sense of a time when you felt high self-esteem, flipping the narrative of self-deprecation so that you can own that feeling of inner strength and take it forth elsewhere for your future self.
Owning positive aspects of yourself in this way is a great way to oppose and depose the feelings of low self-esteem and self-deprecation that are otherwise plaguing you.
3. Look for the Good and Celebrate Your Strengths
In a similar way, you can take all your best aspects and list them out any way you like so that they are all bolstered side-by-side in the same place.
They say that there is strength in numbers, so if you are ever going to engage with some gratitude journaling, why not center it on the things which you are grateful for in yourself?
Just as with absorbing one of your strongest moments and taking it forth, this can be a great way to bolster your low self-confidence for the better.
4. What Would Make You a More Confident Person?
One of the things a journal can be great for - besides just about anything ever! - is to get hypothetical. Use your imagination and try to conjure up what exactly you think would make you a more confident person.
In therapy, one of the first things you will discuss with a therapist is what you want to get out of the personal development of therapy. If you are looking to negate your negative feelings and tell your younger self that everything is going to be okay, then so be it. If you are looking to lather yourself with self-love affirmations, then would that it were so.
5. Self-Love Affirmations
Speaking of which, you can also use this opportunity to make a list of your own self-love affirmations.
An affirmation is a short statement to repeat to yourself. Not exactly an incantation as in sorcery, a self-love affirmation is simply something to repeat with the notion that it will manifest deep within yourself and become true.
Positive affirmations are a simple and free method by which to change the way you think and feel about yourself and your place in the world.
6. 'So What'
Those more adept and experienced with this kind of journaling prompt will no doubt be aware of the 'so what' method. Instead of attempting to bolster your confidence in your abilities, why not tackle self-esteem head-on? Unlike a bullet journal, you can afford to let this get a little personal.
Indeed, instead of more positive self-talk, ask yourself what would happen if you were not as good at something as you would like to be. So what, for example, if you were not that good at writing? So what if you have outgrown your clothes? So what if you no longer have your wits about you?
7. Getting Outside Your Comfort Zone
When working from a point of low self-esteem, it can be all too easy to carve out a comfort zone and to reside in it at all costs. Now, this is by no means something to demonize and can be a fruitful and necessary enterprise for a while, but eventually, we must all come to face the world and make the most of our time on its surface.
Use a self-esteem journal, then, to brainstorm three ways to get yourself outside that comfort zone, facing negative thoughts head-on and writing about a time that is now.
8. What Would You Do if You Knew You Wouldn't Fail
As already elucidated, journal writing can be a boundless place, filled with all of the possibilities of the imagination and then some. Not only does it allow you to capture your thoughts and imagination in words but there is also the possibility of doing so with images too - or even in sheet music if you are gifted enough!
Try using this limitless possibility to your advantage by attempting to conceive of what you would achieve if you were not so worried about the prospect of failure.
9. When Was the Last Time You Exhibited Courage?
If you are the kind of person that needs real-world examples in order to feel convinced of something, then try to think of the last time your exhibited courage of any kind. This would be especially helpful if it was an example of courage shown in the face of burgeoning self-doubt.
Hopefully, you will feel bolstered by your own courageous moments that might otherwise have slipped under the radar. Life is, after all, a rather relentless stream of happenings and sensory impressions and, thus, it can be difficult to keep track and process all of the important things that go on each day.
10. What is Your Best Physical Quality?
If your lack of self-esteem is more centered on your physical aspects, then now would be a good time to explore what exactly you like about your physical self. You can try naming your favorite physical quality about yourself, though do try not to compare yourself and your aspects to others, as this can very easily lead the mind down negative trains of thought.
Instead, simply focus on yourself and how your favorite aspects of yourself make you feel. The hope is that in loving these parts of yourself, you can begin to love other parts of yourself just the same.
Final Words
So, there you have it! Hopefully, you are now feeling ready and able to better yourself!
FAQs Self-Esteem Journaling
DOES JOURNALING HELP SELF-ESTEEM?
Several studies have been conducted into the effects of gratitude journaling on overall mental health. Though this is not exactly self-esteem journaling, the same ought to be true of the latter as it is for the former. So, journaling about your self-esteem should help you feel more confident in your abilities to face the world head-on.
WHAT DO YOU WRITE IN A SELF-ESTEEM JOURNAL?
You can write anything you want in any kind of journal, though presumably, you will want to focus more on things relating to your self-esteem in a journal of this kind. Some people, for example, find it useful to focus more on the reasons for the low self-esteem, hoping that in understanding these reasons they can better bolster their own confidence in the future. Some, on the other hand, prefer to focus on the things that make them more confident anyhow, things that they are strong and courageous at.
HOW DO YOU JOURNAL TO IMPROVE SELF-CONFIDENCE?
Your methods for tackling issues around self-confidence will vary depending on your own preferences and the reasons you are struggling with these issues in the first place. Some are more inclined toward trying to negate the feelings of self-doubt by focusing on the things that make them feel more confident and courageous in the face of anxiety and worry. On the other hand, there are some who prefer to therapize those parts of themselves from which the low self-esteem stems.
WHAT ARE SOME JOURNAL PROMPTS FOR SELF-DOUBT?
Exploring these kinds of issues is much more effective when you are doing so at your own behest - who know you better than you know yourself? That being said, perhaps you need a few prompts to get you started - repression is not uncommon in those experiencing self-doubt and anxiety. Here are some examples: Describe When You Last Felt Truly Confident; When Did Your Lack of Self-Esteem First Appear?; Look for the Good and Celebrate Your Strengths; What Would Make You a More Confident Person?; etc.
