Journal Prompts for Illness

1. 1 How is your body feeling tonight? Describe it without judgement, as precisely as you can.
2. 2 Write about the moment you learned of your diagnosis, or the moment you realised something was wrong.
3. 3 What has illness taken from you that you grieve most?
4. 4 Describe the relationship you have with your body now. Has it changed, and how?
5. 5 What are you afraid of that you have not said aloud?
6. 6 Write about the people who have shown up for you during this time. What has their presence meant?
7. 7 How do you cope with the uncertainty, the not knowing what comes next?
8. 8 What does a good day look like now, and how has that definition changed?
9. 9 Write about something small that brought you comfort today.
10. 10 How has illness changed your relationship with time: the way you spend it, the way you feel it passing?
11. 11 What do you wish the people around you understood about what this is really like?
12. 12 Describe a moment of strength you have shown, even if it did not feel like strength at the time.
13. 13 How has your sense of identity shifted? Do you still feel like yourself?
14. 14 Write about the medical world you now inhabit: the appointments, the language, the waiting.
15. 15 What has this experience taught you about what truly matters?
16. 16 How do you hold hope and fear in the same hand?
17. 17 Write about the things that have not changed, the parts of your life that illness has not reached.
18. 18 What would you say to someone who is just beginning the journey you are on?
19. 19 As the night settles, write about what your body needs from you right now: not treatment, but tenderness.

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