25 Journal Prompts About the Small Things That Calm You Down

Some things help and make no sense: a show you have seen nine times, a particular seat, a snack doing a lot of emotional work.

These prompts are an inventory of yours. Nobody is asking for your sources.

The prompts

Pick one. One prompt answered honestly beats twenty-five answered at speed.

1. What is your safe place? Describe it like an estate agent.
2. What is your comfort show, and how many times have you seen it?
3. Coffee: enemy, friend or complicated?
4. What do you do that calms you down and makes no sense?
5. What is always in your pocket?
6. What food does your anxiety approve of?
7. Who is your “text me when you’re home” person?
8. What do you do with your hands to keep them busy?
9. What is your going-out uniform, chosen so you don’t have to think?
10. Which song do you put on when you need to feel like a person?
11. What is your routine before something scary?
12. What object would you rescue because it helps?
13. What do you rewatch because you know how it ends?
14. Which seat do you choose: aisle, back row or near the door?
15. What snack is doing a lot of emotional work for you?
16. What do you say to yourself that actually helps? Out loud?
17. Who can you sit in silence with?
18. What small habit would look odd to anyone watching?
19. What is your decaf story?
20. What do you do on the walk home that resets you?
21. Which chore is secretly soothing?
22. How heavy is the blanket? Be honest.
23. What do you carry that you have never once needed?
24. Which animal has helped more than most people?
25. What is your shower for: washing or thinking?

Want somewhere to write the answers?

These come from the same place as Anxiety, My Old Friend: A Journal for Things That Haven’t Happened. Its section “Creature Comforts” has six prompts like these with ruled space under each, plus the comfort inventory. The whole journal is a 58-page printable PDF with 60 prompts and ten activity pages.

These prompts are for writing things down and occasionally laughing at them. They are not treatment or medical advice. If anxiety is making daily life hard, please talk to your doctor or a qualified professional.

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