Everyone experiences fear, it is not uncommon at all however, how you deal with that fear can be different to others. It can be extremely debilitating if your fears have control of your life and impact how you live your life.
What is fear? Why can fear be a good thing?
Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm. Fear can be healthy and is programmed into our nervous system. It goes back to caveman times, it gives you the survival instincts you need to keep yourself safe from danger. This is also where the fight or flight response comes from.
On the other hand, fear can become unhealthy when it makes you more cautious than you need to be in order to stay safe. As well as avoiding your fears only make them scarier.
What are the benefits of facing and overcoming your fears?
- You learn to know and show what you are capable of.
- It allows you to turn your dreams and goals into reality.
- It can reduce the amount of things to regret.
- You will improve your resilience.
- Give you the confidence to overcome your future fears.
- You can encourage others to face their fears.
- Helps you to develop and grow.
Journaling can be a great practise in identifying your fears and exploring the reasons behind them as well as how to overcome them all in a safe space. Journaling prompts can help you with that.\
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Why not give these 35 journal prompts a try:
- What are you afraid of and why?
- Have you ever conquered a fear? How did you overcome this?
- Has a fear ever stopped you from doing something you wanted to do? What happened?
- Are your fears realistic or unrealistic?
- Does trauma play a role in your fears? If so, how and why do you think that is?
- Break down you fears into realistic and unrealistic categories and bullet point why you have put them into each category.
- Are you aware of your comfort zone? What things make you feel calm and comfortable?
- Can you reflect on a time you stepped out of your comfort zone, what was the situation? How did you feel before, during and after the situation?
- What are things you are not afraid of that a lot of people are?
- How often do you try to step out of your comfort zone?
- What is your biggest fear and when do you remember developing this fear?
- Do you like to feel scared? If yes, then why do you think this is?
- Do any of your fears interfere with your growth and development? if so, how? And how can you address these?
- With the fears that you have written down, do you have triggers for them? If so, what are they and are they helpful or a hindrance?
- When was the last time you were truly scared? What happened?
- Describe the person you want to be once you have overcome your fears.
- What are the reasons for wanting to face your fears?
- When you are scared, what helps you to calm down?
- When you are scared, do you have a safe cosy space you like to retreat to?
- What has been stopping you from facing your fears?
- Once you have identified what is stopping you from overcoming your fears, what can you do to change them?
- Identify what fears have been controlling your life, how can you change this?
- Are any of your fears related to your childhood? If so, how and why do you think that?
- Describe a time when you felt fearless, what happened? What did it feel like and did you enjoy that feeling?
- Can you recall a time you felt brave, what happened?
- What do you do when you feel uncomfortable?
- What do you think you need to be more fearless?
- If there was nothing to be afraid of, what are some things you would like to do?
- Do you ever fear about what other people think about you? If so, why do you think that is?
- Are there any truths you ever feared hearing?
- List activities you would like to do, but are too scared to do so.
- Does change scare you? And why?
- Does anybody scare you? Why?
- How do you feel and what are you thinking when you are scared?
- Have you ever had any dreams that elected your fears? What happened? How did it make you feel?
Your journal gives you a safe space to prioritise your fears, allowing you to process emotions and situations that may be weighing on you. Furthermore, using your journal will help you to organise your thoughts better, set and achieve goals and relieve stress.
So, whether you wanted to design a fear journal or just simply let your thoughts flow with journal prompts in your daily journal, you will see positive benefits to writing about these topics.
What journal prompts do you like from this list? I’d love to hear in the comments.
Wonderful list of affirmations, Lauren. Diving into our feelings through journalling is a great way to process our emotions and learn more about ourselves. Thanks for sharing!
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These will be very helpful, I love to use prompts to help me feel better and control the situations.
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These prompts are thought provoking. Thanks for sharing.
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Facing up to our fears allows us to move on through life, if we dont we remain stagnant.
Great prompts Lauren, will be doing a few of these in my journal!
Olivia | http://www.justolivia.wordpress.com
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These are such helpful journal prompts for fear, these can definitely help someone to feel more in control when it comes to fear x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
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Great Post Lauren. It’s so easy to try to avoid dealing with emotions such as fear, but there are definitely benefits when we do take time to sit with then and explore how we can deal with them. Your prompts are a good way to start exploring and understanding
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My pleasure. How have you been doing?
Good thank you. Just struggling a lot with chronic pain. I hope you are well x
Hopefully it settles a bit for you. I’m good, just need to avoid accidents lol
Thank you! Oh bless you x
These are excellent and beneficial prompts. These will be helpful to control and overcome feeling of fear. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for reading and commenting.
I love this list. I used to much better about facing my fears and stepping out of my comfort zone. I’ll use these as inspiration.
I hope they help. Thank you for reading and commenting.
This is a really great list of journal prompts, Lauren! I think #21 is my favorite because once we’ve identified our fears and what exactly we feel is holding us back (which is so important to name those!), we have to find a way to change things so that we can learn how to push through those fears.
Wishing you a wonderful rest of your week! 🙂
Sounds like a great way to grab hold of any fears and take control of them. Great list.
Thank you!
That’s a very good list of questions you’ve listed in this post. It allows for the introspective work necessary to identify your fears, understand them and overcome them. Everyone has fears, and these prompts can be useful to many people who don’t dare ask themselves these questions. I believe that using them for journaling is a good way of giving them the courage to address and resolve their fears.
Thank you for reading and commenting.
Oh, this post was so good and thanks for providing these prompts which are very thought provoking.
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Wow what a great post! I feel like all of these would really help to get ahold of your thoughts! Thank you for sharing!
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As someone who regularly journals, I have never thought to use prompts. Fear has played a huge role in many parts of my life, and it’s held me back. I love all the prompts you have shared and will definitely be putting them into action; Thank you for sharing!
I hope they help you and you try them in your journal. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Your blog embodies the acronym meaning of FEAR: False Expectations Appearing Real. Thanks for sharing these jounal prompts to help us process our fears.
Thank you for reading and commenting. I love the acronym, a great reminder!
I often deal with a bit of fear and this list of prompts will really help we work through that when it crops up again. I will be saving these and making good use of them — thanks!
I hope they help you. Thank you for reading and commenting.
I haven’t thought of journalling about fear, but you bring up some good points. I like the prompt of putting fears into unrealistic & realistic categories x
Thank you for reading and commenting. I hope it helps if you do try it.
These prompts are also good ways to overcome fear too. Let’s be fearless!!!
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thanks for sharing
Such great journal prompts for getting to the nitty gritty & root cause of an issue.
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Nice post and some great prompts here. I don’t necessarily journal as such but more just write journal type notes from time to time, definitely we give some of these a try to help identify fears and what’s holding me back. Thanks for sharing
I am glad you found this post interesting. Definitely give some of them a go! Thank you for reading and commenting.
These are great journaling prompts.
I particularly like 26 because it helps you understand yourself and what you do when you are uncomfortable and 28 as it helps you think beyond your fear & got to a place where no fear exist to think of what you want. Fear can be bad or great depending on how you deal with it.
Great post😊👌
I am glad you were able to relate and get more from this post. Thank you for sharing.
(I’m commenting again because I was logged into my old blogging account) I love this topic. I love journalling too. 31 resonated with me. I really want to attend a book club event but I have so many fears and social anxiety kicking it. But I hope to conquer that fear and actually go to one!
I am glad this was helpful. Thank you for reading and commenting.
I am glad you could relate to this post and found it helpful. Thank you for reading and commenting.
I have struggled with not being able to take the next step because of fear holding me back, so these are great prompts to journal about to help me process my emotions and and hopefully achieve my goals!
What a fantastic read on the power of journaling! 🌟 Your journal truly is a safe haven to explore your fears, understand your emotions, and find clarity in the chaos. It’s remarkable how putting pen to paper can transform overwhelming thoughts into manageable steps forward.