Journal Prompts For Finding The Silver Lining

But not in a gross, toxic-positivity kind of way!

Hello, my friends!

A little housekeeping

• Would you like to be a “recipe tester” for my prompts? I am writing my own journal (hurray!) and want/need feedback on what prompts work, which really hit home, which miss the mark, etc. I need ten brave souls to give me weekly feedback and as a treat for your help, I will gladly gift you the journal when it comes out! Help me, help you! Just reply back to this email with your name (first and last), email, city, and state. I’ll take the first ten peeps I get!

• I am going to break up the journaling prompts to two deliveries: you’ll get Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on Sundays and Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on Wednesdays. Make sense? I feel like this might encourage more journaling if you’re reminded mid-week! If we hate it, we’ll go back!

Journal Prompts For Finding The Silver Lining

But not in a gross, toxic-positivity kind of way!

A little podcast-y type thing to go with the prompts!

Imagine this: you’ve just lost your job without warning. The one to which you pegged your whole identity and self-worth. The one you worked at for twelve years and became so privately and publicly wedded to that people said the name of your company almost like it was your married last name: Tara Schuster Comedy-Central, for example. Let’s just imagine that, shall we? Not like it happened to me or anything…

I have a journal in French! Only makes sense to have one in English too, right?

A loss like this can (and often does) feel pretty terrible and throw our entire lives into upheaval. “How will I support myself?” “How does this look? “Do other people think I’m a loser?” “Will I ever find a job again?” These are just some of the cheery, totally rational, not-at-all distressing questions that might cross our minds. 

It might feel like even thinking about a silver lining is woefully stupid and unfair.

And yet…” Benefit Finding”, the science term for reinterpreting stressful situations and looking for, well, the benefit, actually helps us. A lot. Many studies have shown that looking at the positive side of things can help you mentally and even physically. In one study of university students who were asked to write about the loss of a loved one, those who wrote about the meaning and potential benefit of the experience, “showed not only better physical health, but also lower rates of prolonged grief, depressive symptoms, and post-traumatic stress symptoms.*” 

And before you say to me, “Hey! Wait! This sounds like toxic positivity, and you promised me no toxic positivity!” let me tell you, I already tried that route to discredit Benefit Finding, but alas! The Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine, really put me in my place when it stated that the practice of Benefit Finding “has been studied in a variety of settings [and] has an association with personality and emotional well-being, and can predict health outcomes month and even years later. Benefit finding enhances emotional and physical adaptation in the face of adversity.**” Ugh. Fine.  

So this week, let’s give Benefit Finding a whirl and a twirl, shall we? 

NOTE: If you are new here, or just getting started, the aim is that each prompt should take you about 15-20 minutes to complete. If you don’t know what to write, or get stumped, write that, “I don’t know what to write about!” “I’m stumped!” Just keep going until you reach 15-20 minutes. We aim to get past your inner critic and limits! 

Monday: Getting in touch