14 Effective Journaling Prompts to Increase Your Self-Esteem

If you are struggling with negative thoughts about your abilities to perform in life, work, and go to your dreams, then you are in the right place...

I will show you eight journaling prompts you can ask yourself in your journal and get unstuck from low self-esteem.

I have just finished my journal session, and I am very excited to share with you these journaling questions that can increase your self-esteem and push you forward to your dreams.

They will help you accomplish your wildest desires.

Before moving forward, let's make clear what self-esteem is.

Self-esteem is how you view yourself and how you think about yourself. 

It's your perception of yourself, and this influences all your life, your work, your job, your relationship, your dreams, your play, and even your health. 

That's why it's essential to raise your self-esteem because this influences all your life.

Let's make a parallel. 

Look at the laptop. 

The laptop has different applications. 

And let's say my thoughts are applications.

The quality of the applications I put into my computer depends on how it works. 

That's why the quality of thoughts about yourself that you put into your mind will influence all your life.

And before moving forward with prompts, I just need to read this quote by August Wilson:

“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.”

And all the prompts I wrote in my journal for self-esteem that I will share with you will attack your low self-esteem and raise it to heights.

Let's read the first question:

What negative things do people say about me that I start to believe and continue feeding these thoughts about me that have no objective evidence? 

And here is the answer I wrote:

Some people told me in the past that I am not capable of doing X, that I need to stay on one thing and not move into a not familiar zone.

I invested some face in it, which negatively influenced my self-confidence and self-esteem.

And this is a compelling question. 

It helps you to think about external criticisms you get from other people and ask yourself:

Do you really continue feeding these thoughts right now?

Do you really continue thinking about them as if they are true?

Maybe it's time to tell the truth that they are not real, that these is only other people's opinion.

And they are not familiar with your talents, capabilities, and ability to perform in life. 

When answering this journal question, it's essential to understand that the external world only validates what is already inside of you. 

So if, for example, I have low self-esteem and an external person says I am incapable of doing something. 

Then he only triggers thoughts that are already in my head. 

And your task here is to stop feeding these negative thoughts and false beliefs with faith that this is true.

They are not true.

It's not your true nature.

When you were born and when I was born, we were gifted by God with all we have right now with our life, bodies, faces, skin, talents, and so on. 

We didn't earn these things.

We just receive it from nature, from God. 

We were created in this way and are worthy from the beginning. 

Our worth is not under question. 

Self-esteem is another thing. 

It's when we look at ourselves and say we are not worthy of God-given talent; this is a big problem we need to solve.

The next question I designed in the journal sounds like this:

Tell yourself words of encouragement and compliments.

What do I love and admire about myself? 

This question is natural because you need to remind yourself, remember what qualities you have that are tremendous and that are great.

Which of them gives you power and energy?

Your answer will be different, but I wrote this in my journal:

I can concentrate my whole body and soul on the task and not get distracted. I can do the hard work if I don't worry about it.

I can have significant empathy and understanding for others.

So take a journal and write the answer to this question. 

Think deeply about what qualities you admire about yourself. 

What qualities do you have that you forget about and write them down in your journal?

And by the way, if you want to print these questions or save them on your phone, you can download them in PDF format. 

It's available for free.

Also, you will get six more bonus questions for raising your self-esteem, which is not part of this post.

The following journaling prompt is mighty:

List things you thought were not possible for you and still did them.

What an excellent question because we often take something we did in the past for granted. 

We were struggling, struggling, pushing forward to achieve it.

And then forget about that. 

We take our results for granted.

Now, you think it is difficult to have a current task and struggle.

But if you remember your past efforts, you will trigger neural pathways that will remind you about your ability to perform.

And this raises your self-esteem and your confidence.

Here is an example of an answer I gave to this question:

I thought it would not be possible to learn a new language every day for 15 to 20 minutes.

And still, I've been doing it for more than a year. 

Every day I learn a new language in an app in the morning for 15 or 20 minutes. 

And I take it for granted that over a year, I learned hundreds of new words in this language.

This raises my confidence to perform.

That I am capable of doing complex tasks.

Now let's move to the following question:

List things you currently do and understand that others are still learning to do or don't understand.

Sometimes we struggle with imposter syndrome.

We do some difficult work and think that everybody around the world does it quickly too.

But in reality, nothing can be farther from the truth.

Think about what language you learned that other people are still learning.

What skills did you acquire in university, at work, in your relationships with other people, with your spouse, or with your kids? 

What skills have you developed that other people are struggling with?

Maybe someone is just learning them right now?

And you already know them.

This is an important question to ask yourself because, in this way, you are healthily raising your self-esteem.

Not because you are comparing yourself with other people.

But because you make it clear in your mind that what you were performing and doing is not something simple, not something usual.

And other people are still learning it.

Now I am just obligated to share the three quotes I like about rising self-esteem:

The first quote is from Carl Young:

The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely. 

And other quote: 

Everything that happens to you reflects what you believe about yourself. 

We cannot outperform our level of self-esteem. 

We cannot draw to ourselves more than we think we are worth.

You, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection - Sharon Salberg.

And the next powerful question you can ask yourself to raise your level of self-esteem is:

What good things do I stop seeing?

My answer is: 

If I compare myself to the person I was 10 years ago, or even five or two years ago, I will see how I went to where I am right now.

Our life flows very quickly, and we have a lot of things to do. 

We have a lot of things on our plate.

So we don't stop and think about what good stuff I stopped seeing in my life?

What items did I forget that I need to appreciate about my situation, life, and talents?

And now, let's move to the next journal in question to raise your level of self-esteem:

What challenges did you overcome, and how did you do it? What can you learn from these experiences for the future?

We often forget about struggles that we have already overcome. 

And this question helps you to remind yourself that you are a strong person.

Here is my answer to this question:

I overcame a painful divorce. 

It was really a big challenge. 

I suffered a lot. 

But I found strengths that led me to continue a productive life. 

It teaches me that there are a lot of inner reserves I am not always aware of.

We also often have doubts about our ability to perform. 

That's why, particularly for this situation, I designed the following question:

What is the one small thing you can do today towards the goals that show you that you are capable? Plan such one thing also for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

And here is my answer to this question:

Today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, I can write 300 to 500 words for my book.

It would be like 3000 or 4,000 words in total in a week.

Surely I will make progress and feel more confident.

And now is your turn to ask yourself what one small thing can do to raise your self-confidence and self-esteem in your abilities to perform?

I can't share with you the following quote:

If you have a dream, don’t just sit there.

Gather courage to believe you can succeed and leave no stone unturned to make it a reality ― Dr. Roopleen.

By the way, if you want to take your journaling to the next level and start journaling continuously and create a journaling habit, then you need to know that I designed a course for you, Thinking in a Journaling Challenge has 50 plus good questions. 

You can ask yourself these questions daily in your journal, and also it shares with you all the steps you need to take to establish a journaling habit.

From selecting a journal to starting journaling, how much time you need to journal, what environment is the best to journal, how to split your journal, and so on.

And the next journal in question will help you to raise your self-esteem through gratitude. 

And here it is:

What do you appreciate and can be grateful for in your life? 

How is my life incredible?

And here is my answer: 

I am grateful for living in a beautiful place. I am grateful for cooking healthy and delicious food, enjoying beautiful nature, and walking in it almost daily.

For learning what I want and what I need every day.

Ask yourself what you are grateful for. 

Because gratitude is very powerful. 

We can live in a state of abundance, and we can live in a state of scarcity. 

Gratitude helps you to push yourself to a state of abundance from scarcity.

When we are in a scarcity mindset, our self-esteem also goes down.

Now you know the reason I designed this question. 

Thanks for reading I hope it will help with your journaling and rising self-esteem.

And if you want to learn all the nuances on starting journaling and establishing habit, check out my journaling course: here.