20 New Year Journaling Prompts and It’s Random Journal Day (Link Up #58)

 

 

Happy New year, and Welcome to Random Journal Day 2016! 

This year there will be some changes here at RJD and I welcome your input and feedback. First of all let me start by thanking my fellow Journal Keepers for your faithfulness to link. I understand things get busy (boy do I!) which is why we went from weekly links to monthly links awhile back.

Journaling is personal…and I understand that sometimes it is not always comfortable to share…or finding something to share might pose challenges that are yet out of your comfort zone. That being said, I hope you will find a way that suits you with the new options we would like to offer this year…

We will still feature a fellow Journal Keeper. But we will be adding other opportunities, features and yet to be disclosed journaling experiences and adventures to inspire, encourage and support your journal writing momentum.

Expect NEW things here for Random Journal Day.

Let’s review what we have been doing since we started RJD back at the old blog in 2012.

1. We dig into our Journal Archives
2. We randomly or selectively choose an entry to share in part or in full, as we feel comfortable and/or led.
3. We write up a blog post sharing the selection chosen, including pictures when possible. We add a link back to RJD community URL.
4. We link up here at the Random Journal Day Link Up.
5. We make an effort to participate in community by visiting, reading and commenting the linked posts.

 

Now, this may seem like a lot. But one of the biggest blessings of our monthly link up is taking the time to look through old journals and reflect now on what was written then. Many of our Journal Keepers have journaled many years and have wonderfully wise and witty insights they stumble upon after revisiting posts from 10, 15, 20 years ago. Nothing looks the same in today’s light as it did then. There is much to be gained by this one monthly gathering and activity.

What about the new to Journaling, or the Wanna be Journal keeper? 

We offer a safe place of authentic journal sharing! It’s ok, to read and not share initially, especially if you are new to journaling. There is a danger in journal keeping I see on the rise. Writing for audience. The beauty of journal keeping is that it is intimate and personal. Journal Keeping is a brave and courageous act and gift you give yourself. It is a place where you can cultivate your voice. Anyone who seeks to journal should know that sharing is secondary to the intimate, soul baring act of journal writing. It takes time to get naked on paper. It also takes time to take that vulnerable nakedness out into community, and the world. If you do it before truly cultivating your own voice, authenticity, vulnerability in the quiet, blankness of the stark and safe page, you will stunt your own growth and devalue the gift that Journal Keeping is to those who cultivate their relationship with paper and pen.

There are different forms of Journal Keeping , obviously, that can lend themselves more readily for sharing. I vary my journal writing with primarily spiritual reflections, thoughts, prayers, but there are entries which captures a special event, or something fun, or a daily meandering. Lighter fare which is non-threatening to reveal. But there are entries, for God’s eyes only and these entries are guarded appropriately. As far as prying eyes…well I trust in the reality that all will be revealed in the end anyway. Meanwhile, I pray the odds are ever in my favor.

Let’s get to the next BIG THING! I welcome those of you who are way too tired, busy, overwhelmed or underwhelmed with the holidays and New Year to join in and write on a prompt below. Preferably in your Journal…but if that means your blog, or something else that is fine by me. I write both ways depending on what I am responding to, or in the mood for. Soul stirring is not limited to pen and paper…however, I do my most intimate writing on paper. There is something about the act of writing itself that fosters intimacy, yes? Feel free to join here this  month or next month and let us know how you did.

As per usual, use the prompt as you wish. Go with what moves you!

January Journaling

Prompts:

1. I resolve to…
2.  ‘Tis the season to…
3. I wish…
4. My One Word for this year.
5. If I could turn back time…
6. I’m so tired of…
7. The one television program I must see this month and why.
8. I never would have thought…
9. Take my __________________, please.
10. The song on repeat in my head.
11. What is the theme song of your day, month, year (current or past)?
12. One person who I can’t stop thinking about.
13. One person I plan to invest in this year.
14. When the going gets tough, the tough … do what exactly? What do you think shows toughness, mentally, spiritually or otherwise?
15. I may have failed at______________  in the past but I will succeed this time because___________________.

Quotes:

16.   “We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”~ Edith Lovejoy Pierce.

17. “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” ~Benjamin Franklin

18. “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice.” T.S. Eliot

19. “New Year’s eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights” ~ Hamilton Wright Mabie

20. “Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true” ~Alfred Lord Tennyson

 

I hope this gives you some inspiration. If you love the prompts or  hate them, have a suggestion, or just want to throw confetti at me, give me a holler!

 

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If you need more prompts check out Journaling in January or any of the other options in the Journaling Tab. (Hover to see all options).

*Be sure and check out Kel Rohlf’s GIVEAWAY at Nourishment for the Soul!

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