25 Journal Prompts for the Physical Side of Anxiety

Anxiety is not only thoughts. It is also a leg that will not stay still, cold hands and a stomach with opinions.

These prompts are about noticing what your body does, without deciding what it means.

The prompts

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

1. What is your weirdest anxiety symptom?
2. What do you blame the shaking on? (“I’m just cold.”)
3. Write a formal complaint to your stomach about its timing.
4. How many times have you checked your pulse today? Round down.
5. Your heart is racing. What did you suspect before “I had coffee”?
6. Where in your body does anxiety clock in first?
7. What does your leg do under the table in meetings?
8. What does your body do in a waiting room that it does nowhere else?
9. Describe the pit in your stomach. Give it a size and a name.
10. What did your body panic about after your brain agreed it was fine?
11. Which symptom arrives five minutes before you have to speak?
12. What do your hands do when someone is talking to you?
13. Rate your jaw tension out of ten. Now unclench it.
14. What does your handwriting do when you are nervous?
15. You searched a symptom. What did you have by page two?
16. What does your voice do the moment it matters?
17. Which body part gets the blame? “It’s just my back.” “I slept funny.”
18. What does your stomach know about Monday that you don’t?
19. Sweaty palms, dry mouth or the loo. Which goes first?
20. What does your body do when your name is called?
21. Describe a yawn that was not about being tired.
22. What have you fidgeted with until it broke?
23. What does your face do while you are “totally fine”?
24. Which of your symptoms would a doctor call “that’s just you”?
25. What does your body do at the top of a stage, a queue or an escalator?

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 “Body Betrayal” has six prompts like these with ruled space under each, plus the body map. 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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