Grief Journaling Prompts To Check-In With Yourself In The Early Days Of Grief
Whether you’ve experienced grief in the past or if this is the first time experiencing a major loss, grief is a phenomenon that is hard to navigate. We all cope with grief and loss in different ways. Many will find that relying on supportive people in their life feels comforting. Others have found that engaging in activities they used to do with their loved ones help them through their pain. Some others find utilizing a creative outlet a way to canalize and express their feelings in a way that honors their healing journey.
Grief + Journaling
One of those creative outlets is journaling. Journaling is a practice in which our thoughts, feelings, pain, desire, struggles, joys and more are shared through words, doodles, lists, drawings, photos, etc. When it comes to using this creative outlet as a coping tool after loss, journaling has been proven to be an effective intervention to address the impact of grief and enhance self-care. Writing your grief can be helpful in supporting you process complicated emotions, can help you let out thoughts on paper when you might not want to share them with someone else and can provide an opportunity to express yourself.
Having some journal prompts on hand can be helpful, especially if you are new to journaling or if freely writing down words on your journal feel hard right now. Because of this, I’ve created a list of journaling prompts for the early days of grief, that you can use to check in with yourself if you have recently lost a person you loved or someone who was close to you, which you can find down below.
I wanted to specifically create these prompts for someone in their early grief after losing a loved but it is important to note that there are different types of losses, and that each of us will grieve our loss/losses differently.
How To Use These Grief Journaling Prompts
You can reflect and journal about each prompt to check in (or, asking yourself how you’re doing) with yourself every day, just complete one prompt a day or go through the whole list as a one-time mindfulness exercise. You might write each prompt on a notebook or find the free PDF download at the bottom of this page that you can print and fill out. The choice is yours.
More Grief Journaling Prompts
After you complete the grief journaling prompts I provide to you on this blog post, you might want to check these out too:
If you are reading this at the end of the year or as we welcome a new year and would like some grief journaling prompts to reflect on your losses from the past few months, then you might like to check these out.
The month of September (for me at least) reminds me of change. I wrote these grief journaling prompts inspired by the ever-changing fall season + the in-betweenness of the month of September.
Looking for a way to incorporate a gratitude practice into your life? Here are 30 gratitude journaling prompts.
If You Are A Therapist… Grief Journaling Prompts For Your Clients
If you are a therapist, you are welcome to use this free resource PDF of grief journaling prompts and share it with your clients in your therapy sessions. At times, my clients and I have gone through this list in our sessions to practice self-reflection. Other times, they have chosen this exercise as their “homework” or invitation to complete in between our meetings or as a resource to add to their coping toolbox.
30 Grief Journaling Prompts To Check-In With Yourself After The Loss Of Someone You Love
I’m grieving the loss of…
Today I miss…
I could use more…
I could use less…
To be more compassionate towards myself today, I can…
These are 1 to 5 people in my life I can reach out for support: (list them)
What could each of the people I listed above help me with? (Who could provide a meal if I need it? Who could be a better listener? Who might be able to help me with a specific task/chore? etc.)
How can I take care of myself/my health today?
What is something people have done recently that has made me feel supported?
What coping strategy am I using to deal with my sadness and pain?
Is the coping strategy I am using healthy/allowing me to keep safe and well? Why?
I feel…
I need…
I will…
I am honoring my loss by…
How am I? Truly?
I find comfort in…
What is a service, community, class, book, podcast you can use/attend to distract yourself or find comfort in?
Some words that describe my grief right now are…
I can creatively express myself today by…
The hardest part is…
My favorite memory is…
What are some kind things people have done or said to me lately?
I find it difficult to…
I choose to remember…
My favorite memory is…
Today, my body feels…
Today, my body needs…
Are there any other significant losses impacting my grief?
I’m giving myself permission to grieve by…
Through these grief journaling prompts, my hope is that you can reflect on your emotions, have more clarity about what your physical, spiritual and emotional needs are at this moment, and decipher what coping skills would be best to put into use to cope with this experience or how you might meet those needs.
This grief journaling resource is being shared with the intention of being a helpful tool in coping with the grief experience. If you are someone moving through your own grief after experiencing a loss of someone close to you, working with a therapist might be of great support in this journey.
I’m a therapist (MSW) and music therapist (MT-BC) for women & teens at Transcendence Counseling Center in Vero Beach, FL and I am also available to provide counseling services via Telehealth across Florida. If you are interested in collaboratively working with me in therapy, you’re welcome to learn more about me and my approach here or schedule an appointment with me here.
