Forgiveness is about letting go of the negativity and resentment you have towards a person who has wronged you or yourself for a previous mistake.
Forgiveness can be a difficult but is vital in moving forward and your own wellbeing. As holding onto that bitterness and negativity will affect you more than the person you need to forgive.
What is journaling and the benefits?
Journaling is the practice of writing down your thoughts and feelings or documenting your day. You can journal by writing it down on paper or using a digital app or document.
There are so many benefits to journaling in all areas of your life including: improved memory, prioritise your problems, fears and concerns, an opportunity for positive self-talk, a chance to identify negative thoughts and behaviours and can even give you the time to reflect on your thoughts and feelings. And so much more.
When it comes to forgiveness there can be a lot of emotions in those situations. So using journaling and journaling prompts can help you take a step back, assess your thoughts and feelings to make the practice of forgiveness more manageable and successful. These are 60 best journaling prompts for forgiveness.
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
- Do you reflect on your mistakes with compassion and grace or of judgement and criticism?
- Do you find it easy to forgive yourself? Why?
- What does forgiveness mean to you?
- Do you struggle to forgive others? Why?
- Do you forgive and forget?
- Have you ever forgiven someone but realised you weren’t ready?
- Do you have any regrets? Why?
- Are you stubborn when it comes to forgiving someone?
- What experiences have you had with others that you believe you are still struggling with?
- How do you feel when you have forgiven someone?
- What do you need in order to forgive yourself?
- When you hear the word forgiveness, what does it make you feel and think?
- Are there people in your life you have forgiven? Write how you were able to move through to forgiveness, or discuss why you haven’t.
- Do you set boundaries with people who pressure for forgiveness? Write how you may have been pressured and how it made you feel.
- What are the benefits of forgiveness?
- What do you need to forgive your younger self for not knowing?
- Do you find it easy to ask for forgiveness? Why? Why not?
- What do you require in order to forgive someone?
- Write 10 affirmations for yourself regarding forgiving yourself and others.
- Do you feel you have failed yourself? How do you move past this?
- Do you require an apology to be able to forgive someone?
- Are you having any negative or intrusive thoughts holding you back from forgiving yourself or someone else? Why do you think you are having these thoughts? What thoughts would you prefer to have?
- Do you find the help of others enable you to forgive? Do you like to talk a situation through with others?
- Practising forgiveness can be beneficial, what is something you have learned about yourself through forgiveness?
- Do you think forgiveness can be empowering? Why?
- Write down any negative feelings you are having now.
- What does it feel like to be too hard on yourself? How can you forgive yourself and be kinder?
- Why do you think it is important to forgive?
- Write about a time when you were forgiven by someone special in your life. How did it make you feel to be forgiven?
- Is there anyone you cannot forgive? Share all the reasons you have for why you cannot forgive them.
- What makes forgiveness difficult for you? Why do you think this is?
- What do you think is the most difficult thing about forgiving someone? How do you deal with this?
- How do you know when you have forgiven someone enough?
- Write about your earliest memory of being forgiven. What happened? Did the person find it difficult to forgive you?
- Do you think forgiveness is something that can be learned? Why or why not?
- Do you feel it is possible to be too forgiving?
- Write how forgiving yourself in the past has helped you.
- Why is being forgiven important to you?
- What are some things that have gone wrong in your life and what did you learn from them?
- Why do you think it is important to forgive yourself?
- Do you accept responsibility for your actions?
- Write about a time you forgave someone, how did you feel? How did you move forward?
- Have you ever had difficulty forgiving someone? Why?
- What are some things you would like others to forgive you for?
- What are some things you need to forgive yourself for?
- What role does forgiveness play in your life?
- How do you think forgiveness affects your relationships?
- How can you practise forgiveness in your daily life?
- Do you feel forgiveness makes you stronger?
- Do you think in some situations it is okay to not forgive? Why?
- Why do you need to forgive?
- What do you think is the best and worst thing about forgiving someone? And yourself?
- What are 5 ways you can move forward from past mistakes?
- How have you grown and changed from a really negative past mistake?
- How do you deal with feelings of regret?
- How can you separate yourself and your identity from your mistake?
- What do you require to forgive someone?
- Have you ever had a situation where you haven’t fully forgiven someone? Or you have not been forgiven fully? How do you deal with these feelings and situations?
- Have you ever felt betrayed by someone in your life? How did you accept it and move on from what happened?
- Who do you think it’s harder to forgive others or yourself? Why?
Forgiveness is a big thing to work through and there is no right or wrong way to deal with feelings that comes with needing to forgive someone, forgive yourself or needing forgiveness. These are just some of the best journaling prompts for forgiveness, to help you work through these situations and eliminate the negativity, fear and bitterness that can accumulate.
Do you find it easy to forgive? Have you tried journaling on this topic? I’d love to hear in the comments.
I need to be more forgiving. I am terrible at holding a grudge.
I have been working on that too. Thank you for reading and commenting.
While out shopping yesterday I very nearly bought a new moleskine for myself.
A new notebook especially for journaling is always a good idea!
I try my best to be more forgiving and these prompts are very helpful, I will save this list. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for reading and commenting. I am glad you found the prompts list helpful.
These journaling prompts are great! Thank you!
Thank you for reading and commenting.
This is great for people that have suffer traumatic experiences.
Thank you for reading and commenting.
So many points on this list are incredibly introspective. The thoughts and feelings that each of them invoke are great for these type of journal entries.
I am glad you enjoyed the post. Thank you for reading and commenting.
These prompts were so useful and a nice little reminder to work on forgiveness towards myself and other people. I will be using some of these soon!
I hope they help you. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Forgiveness is personal. I’d like to use these prompts to reflect on a couple of things. Thanks so much!
I hope they help you. Thank you for reading and commenting. X
Some great prompts here. Forgiveness is so important, to others and yourself. There’s no point holding grudges forever and damaging your own mental health so sometimes doing some forgiveness practices are so beneficial x
I would hold grudges a lot but working on myself and it only hurts me. Thank you for reading and commenting.
I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever forgiven someone or not. I have a feeling I normally just move on, rather than letting it fester, but I have no idea if I’ve forgiven someone because I’ve never thought about it in those terms. Nevertheless, these prompts seem like a great way to help someone move on and/or forgive
Thank you. It is great you can move on and not dwell on it. Thank you for reading and commenting.
This post Ia great , I wrote down a couple in my to be journaled when I have no idea what to write about. Thank you for thank toy for sharing them with us. I’m pinning to my mental health board too.
I am so glad you found some of these helpful and have written down ones you liked. Thank you for reading and commenting.
I love these journal prompts for forgiveness. That’s definitely such an important topic! Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you for reading and commenting.
I usually journal free-form, but I’ve been interested in prompt-based journaling recently. I have a nice, new notebook that might just be perfect for this… Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for reading and commenting.
Loved reading this. Journaling is something I need to start doing. As for forgiving I think I am quite a forgiving person but things always stays on my mind x
I’m an expert grudge holder if I feel someone has been unfair, unkind, or deliberately mean. But I’ll always forgive my friends because they’re my friends. The one person I find hard to forgive is myself – but don’t we all! Not tried journaling for this though, I may look into that, thank you.
Yes I am so hard on myself too! I hope it helps you x
Love these and definitely saving to my collection. Thank you for sharing!
I hope they help you. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Forgiveness is quite complex at times, the pain does not go away instantly but having to let go despite the fact that the hurt and pain exists. I really loved the prompt you shared about , How do you feel when you have forgiven someone? How does forgiveness look like? I really need to think about this. Thanks for this amazing post
I am glad you were able to take something from this post. Thank you for reading and commenting.