35 Journal Prompts that Helped me Cope with Anxiety Attacks

Anxiety attacks can feel paralyzing to some extent due to the mixture of different emotions present all at the same time and navigating through them often feels like a battle that seems like almost impossible to win.

Anxiety is a natural human response to stress but intense feelings of anxiety can leave us feeling emotionally and physically drained or even leave us sleepless and overthinking. It affects the quality of our lives.

One powerful tool for managing anxiety is journaling, a practice that allows us to express our feelings, process our thoughts, identify our patterns and uncover solutions and in my case, healed my depression and helped me found what I enjoy doing, my passion and my life purpose.

Pouring our thoughts to paper can help us better understand where our anxiety is coming from, listen to what they are telling us without the fear anyone judging us and see how they impact us.

In this blog post, I will share 35 thoughtful journal prompts that helped me and still helping me to not just reflect with my life, process my emotions and thoughts but most importantly, cope with my anxiety attacks.

Why is Journaling effective for anxiety?

I have struggled with intense anxiety attacks for years and without journaling, I honestly don’t know how I would have survived. It allowed me to crack my head, heart and soul open to find all those thoughts that were making me feel overwhelmed, scared, intimidated, tired, sad, unsure and even sometimes happy.

Journaling allowed me to have conversations with myself or at least, my soul to feel that I am finally listening to myself and that I have a voice too and that I matter in this life too.

I wrote and wrote in my journal until I have fully healed. Even to this day, I am grateful for journaling and it is a ritual that I will never give up. Writing on my journal helped me break tiring and long cycles of overthinking.

It is clear to me that this simple practice of writing my thoughts and feelings down helps me release tension, be more in the present moment and have a tangible way of logically solving most of my problems and the best, set aside what are not really problems.

Here are the journal prompts that helped me cope with my anxiety attacks:

1. What triggered my anxiety today?

2. How does my body feel during an anxiety attack?

3. What thoughts make me feel anxious?

4. What is one thing I can control in this situation?

5. What physical symptoms do I notice when I’m anxious?

6. What helps me calm down when I’m overwhelmed?

7. How does breathing help me during anxiety?

8. What small step can I take to feel better?

9. How can I ground myself in this moment?

10. How does mindfulness help me with anxiety?

11. What are my most common negative thoughts?

12. How can I challenge my negative thoughts today?

13. How do I usually react to my anxious thoughts?

14. How can I use positive self-talk to manage anxiety?

15. What is one positive affirmation I can use?

16. How can I practice more self-compassion?

17. What would I tell a friend who was feeling like this?

18. How can I be kind to myself today?

19. What’s one challenge I overcame recently?

20. How can I show up for myself during anxious moments?

21. What am I grateful for right now, despite my anxiety?

22. What are three things that went well today?

23. What’s a moment today where I felt calm?

24. What’s something I’m looking forward to?

25. What is one thing that makes me feel safe?

26. What self-care practices help ease my anxiety?

27. How can I practice mindfulness more regularly?

28. How does journaling help me process anxiety?

29. What small self-care ritual can I start today?

30. What is one way I can practice being present today?

31. What is one goal I have for managing my anxiety?

32. How has my anxiety helped me grow as a person?

33. What healthy habits can I start to manage my anxiety?

34. How can I create more moments of calm in my life?

35. What is a positive change I’ve made for my mental health?

I hope these journal prompts help you cope with your anxiety attacks and overthinking too like how they help me. I still answer these questions depends on how I feel. The more that I am worrying about something, the more that I am writing about it. Honestly answering these journal prompts makes me feel like literally taking things off my head, body, soul and heart and having a sacred place for them. In case they persist to bug me, I know it is time to grab my journal and write my thoughts and feelings down.

Journaling is very simple yet very powerful tool for self-awareness, growth and healing. I hope by answering these questions, you’ll have better understanding of your triggers and create ways that works for you on how you can cope with them. I hope in time you find clarity and peace that you deserve.

May you be patient with yourself as you are learning, growing and transforming. The key is consistency. A few minutes a day or when you are overthinking or overwhelmed make so much difference. Even the notepad on your mobile phone can do wonder.

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It is okay to take baby steps because managing anxiety is not a linear journey. I hope these prompts will guide you to a calmer you and have a peaceful life. Keep journaling, keep putting yourself as your number one priority and keep showing yourself the compassion and love that you deserve. Happy journaling!

P.S.

Share your favorite journal prompts that help you deal with your anxiety attacks. I will be happy to use them as well. =)

This Village Girl

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone

35 Journal Prompts that Helped me Cope with Anxiety Attacks

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