Mindfulness journal prompts, together with a mindfulness journal, are tools to help students understand how they’re feeling. Teachers often use mindfulness questions for students as a framework to give students another way to understand themselves, and to get in touch with their emotions.
It’s hard to know how you’re feeling sometimes. Journaling is an excellent tool for countering this effect.
But when you sit down to journal, the blank page can be intimidating.
Get dozens of one-page exercises to help practice mindfulness, meditation, gratitude, and self love. Perfect for printable handouts when teaching mindfulness to groups, students, or in the workplace.
To see examples, plus a full list of the 61 exercises included, click below.
That’s where mindful journaling prompts for students can come in handy. Teachers often use mindfulness prompts as a framework to help students overcome “blank page syndrome” so they can get started writing while getting in touch with their emotions.
While a “regular” journal tends to be about whatever happened in your day, mindfulness journaling focuses on elements of your mindfulness journey.
Common topics include gratitude, being present, noticing how you feel, paying attention to your senses, visioning, self-compassion, awareness, and mental and physical tension.
Mindfulness journaling can help you to notice how far you’ve come, and what areas you still want to develop. Whether you’re working with middle school students, elementary students, or teens and high schoolers, it’s possible to help your students get value from journaling.
To get started, simply grab a piece of paper, a notebook, or open a new document on your computer, and reflect on or more of the following journal prompts for mindfulness.
61 mindfulness journal prompts for students
- What things at school make me smile?
- What are some challenges that stretch my limits and help me grow?
- What skills or personal qualities come easily to me?
- In what ways (small or big) do I impact my school, family, or community?
- What habits am I working on?
- What’s something I’m procrastinating on right now? Why am I avoiding it?
- In what ways do I feel loved right now?
- What are three things I noticed this morning?
- Do I feel a sense of internal calm? If not, can I identify what obstacles might be preventing me from feeling calm?
- Where am I holding tension in my body right now?
- Are there any conflicts in my life – whether with teachers, parents, friends, or relationships – that feel unresolved?
- What am I looking forward to today?
- What’s making me feel anxious or stressed right now?
- Is there anything that I’d like to do differently in my life?
- When I make a mistake, do I feel compassion for myself? If not, why? Remember that just as we show compassion for others, we owe compassion to ourselves.
- How can I feel more aligned in life between my thoughts and actions?
- Is there any part of myself that I’m holding back in the way I show up in the world?
- How am I feeling about myself in this moment?
- What makes me feel alive?
- Am I happy? If not, what are my biggest obstacles to feeling happy?
- What steps can I take to grow into the person I want to be?
- What are 3 things I’m grateful for today?
- Noticing the thoughts going through my head, here are 3 things that pop up.
- What do I appreciate the most about the life I live?
- What past failures actually helped me to grow, or to learn what I want (and don’t want)?
- What are the three qualities I love most about myself?
- Are there things I’m holding against the people in my life?
- What things in my life bring me joy? How can I do those things more often?
- What’s been the most challenging part about growing up? Can I think of any ways that this has made me stronger?
- How can I be more compassionate towards myself?
- In what ways can I forgive myself?
- As a young child, what activities did I have fun with and get completely lost in? How can I pursue those activities at school, or outside of school?
- What topics am I endlessly curious about?
- What negative “story” am I telling myself right now about my life? Can I replace this story with one that’s more useful and accurate?
- What is a habit I’m proud I’ve developed over the last year?
- Am I more aware of my emotions today than one year ago?
- When is patience most needed in my life?
- When do I feel most authentically “me”?
- Is there anything in my life that I’m struggling to accept?
- When am I most often in a bad mood? Are there ways I can pause when I notice I’m in a bad mood, to be conscious of avoiding projecting my bad mood onto others?
- When do I notice myself trying to be something, or someone, who I’m not? How can I live more comfortably in my own body in those moments?
- When was a time I didn’t feel seen, or felt or “less-than”? How can I hold compassion for myself in those difficult moments?
- When do I feel most capable?
- In what moments in the last week have I felt joyful?
- What inspires me?
- What’s something that annoys me? Are there any changes I could make in my approach to the situation or my reactions to reduce how annoyed I feel?
- In what moments have I been thankful for trusting my intuition?
- Something I’m excited about that’s coming up at school is…
- As I journal, what can I hear? What can I smell? Going through my five senses, what do I notice?
- What vision am I holding for the future? Do I feel like I’m dreaming big with this vision? Or, am I holding something back based on what I think is possible?
- How much time do I spend in the present, versus the past or the future?
- What role models or friends in my life embody a spirit and energy that I want to cultivate? What can I do to nudge myself in that direction?
- Am I allowing myself the rest I need to recharge?
- How does the act of journaling feel right now? What emotions are coming up about the act of sitting down and writing?
- In what ways do I feel myself changing as a person?
- What are my current top five favorite activities? Why?
- What life lessons have I learned from my parents and teachers?
- How do I feel when I receive a compliment? Why?
- How important is it to talk about my emotions, whether at school or at home?
- How do I feel when I do poorly on a test or project? In what ways can I be more compassionate to myself in those moments?
- When have I missed out on fully experiencing something because I wasn’t mentally present?
You can print off copies of these mindfulness prompts using the below PDF.
Frequently asked questions
What is mindfulness journaling for students?
Mindfulness journaling for students is a classroom or take-home exercise that teachers can implement to help students connect with their emotions on a deeper level.
By using mindfulness writing prompts, students have another way to write about, and develop, awareness in their lives. Topics focused on include awareness, gratitude, being present, noticing how you feel, paying attention to your senses, visioning, self-compassion, and mental and physical tension.
Where can I download a Mindfulness Journal Prompts for Students PDF?
You can download this list of 61 mindfulness journal prompts for students here as a PDF! It includes mindfulness questions for kids that are intended help build a mindful journaling habit.
My mindfulness practice kicked off in 2016 with a ten-day silent retreat. Since then, I’ve read dozens of books about mindfulness and completed hundreds of hours of meditation. Thinking about what makes humans happy, calm, and peaceful is endlessly fascinating to me.