When we sit down at an empty page, we wait.

Where to start?

Once you’re up and running with journaling as a way to hear what your heart has to say, the blank page won’t be a thing to create a slight panic (!), instead a space of pure possibility.

But until then, it can sometimes be useful to have a few ideas to kick the ideas off.

Read down this list and start with the one that jumps out of the page at you.

Daydreaming is fine – it’s often a portal to surprise yourself with what you find.

As best you can, don’t censor what comes out onto the paper. You’ll find at the start you’ll probably write what you THINK about the points below. But if you can give yourself a decent chunk of time, you’ll start to UNCOVER truths that aren’t already known to you.

Once you’re done. You can either go back and re-read to see if there any themes. Or simply close the journal – your work here is done.

Don’t be surprised if insights make themselves known to you in the space in between your journaling sessions – often, despite all our writing, our journaling sessions are actually just the questions close to our hearts. And the answers reveal themselves when they are reading – in reponse to the asking.

1.     When I was small I loved to…

2.     If I wanted a quieter life, what would I change?

3.     What keeps me up at night?

4.     How can I love more deeply?

5.     The one thing I wish I could tell my mother is…

6.     The one thing I wish I could tell my father is…

7.     If I could go back to my twenties, how would I do it all differently?

8.     My favourite place in the whole world is…

9.     The way I want to feel at work is…

10.  The way I feel about my current work is…

11.  The way I want to feel about my work is…

12.  If I could develop one quality that would support my mothering, I would…

13.  I wish my friends knew this about me

14.  Three things I want my children to know

15.  What common themes are there amongst the last 10 books I read?

16.  What does sensuality mean to me?

17.  Solitude….discuss

18.  My heart longs for….

19.  What am I being invited to do?

20.  Who might I listen to more instead of talking?

21.  If I had a week left to live and 3 sheets of paper, what would I want to write to share with the world?

22.  Open-hearted. Discuss…

23.  What do I do to create a jangling nervous system?

24.  What change do I wish to see in x? How can I make that change myself first?

25.  A deeper realm beyond our current experience. Discuss…

26.  Integrity. Discuss…

27.  What are the parts of me I’m not that proud of

28.  What did I yearn for as a child, that was missing from my growing up – how does that play out in my life now?

29.  How am I re-creating my patterns over and over again?

30.  What is the thing that’s so easy for me, that’s so hard for others – why?

31.  What is the thing that’s so hard for me, that’s so easy for others – why?

32.  Where am I over-complicating?

33.  What is the title of the book I would love to write?

34.  If I stopped ‘going for it’…what then?

35.  If I stopped…..what then?

36.  What is my relationship to the unknown?

37.  If I wasn’t a control freak then…

38.  If I never checked my bank account again….

39.  What does ‘Unfolding Her Heart’ mean to me?

40.  What am I scared I might uncover?

41.  Where do I feel yearning in my body? What is it asking for?

42.  What does ‘feminine’ mean to me?

43.  If I were to stop reading anything for a week then….

44.  Honestly, do I copy the work of others?

45.  How can I find my own voice?

46.  How can I deepen my connection with the earth/nature?

47.  How can I have more beauty in my life?

48.  How can I create space – to be filled by knowing?

49.  What am I seeking?

50.  How can my work be an expression of love and beauty, rather than a quest for it?

These are just a handful of questions – as you sit quietly with your journal and pen, you’ll find you have questions of your own that arise.

Once you’re done. You can either go back and re-read to see if there any themes. Or simply close the journal – your work here is done.

Make a note of them.

Those are YOUR questions to sit with.

Don’t be surprised if insights make themselves known to you in the space in between your journaling sessions – often, despite all our writing, our journaling sessions are actually just the questions close to our hearts. And the answers reveal themselves when they are reading – in response to the asking.

Let me know which ones jumped out at you.

Nicola x