from The Way of the Journal workbook, Kathleen Adams
Completing sentence stems is a great journal exercise when you feel overwhelmed , want information quickly, don’t have much time, or aren’t sure what to write about. This activity is well-structured, concrete, practical, and immediately useful.
Begin by completing these sentences with the first word that comes to mind. Try not to censor or judge your choices.
A word that describes me is:
A word that describes my journal is:
When I check inside, I find:
My Inner Writing Critic says I’m:
My Inner Wisdom says I’m:
The person I feel closest to is:
If my present mood were a color, it would be:
Complete these sentences with a longer thought. Again, try not to edit your thoughts.
I am a person who:
If I had time I would:
I am grateful for:
Journal writing is:
Complete these sentence stems in at least three different ways.
When I think about writing a journal, I…
The most important things to do right now are…
I want…
The biggest challenges I am facing now are…
Write your own Sentence Stems next. Complete them in serveral different ways.
When you’re done, as yourself, how was it? What did you like/not like about sentence stems? What did you learn about yourself? When might you use this technique?
