Soften Journal Prompts

 
 

Pick three of the words below and write your own description of them. For example, to luxuriate in something is to enjoy it slowly and savour each moment.  

Soft, tender, open, spacious, languid, liquid, fluid, moving, still, sanctuary, soothe, relieve, ease, unwind, laze, recline, relax , rest, repose, allow, slow, luxuriate, lean, lay, lengthen, weighted, comfort, home.

 

Write about a place that allows you to feel soft, safe, and at ease. It could be inside or outside, you might be there by yourself or with a friend, partner, family member, or someone that you trust.

For example, I feel soft when I step into a warm bath.

 

Continue writing about this soft scene as vividly as you like. Using your senses as a doorway to the imagination.

What does the scene look like? What does it smell like? What sounds do you hear? Are you in your own company or with someone else? Is there something you can taste? What textures can you feel? You might like to spend some time meditating on this scene before you journal about it.

 

Now describe how this place makes you feel

For example, when I step into a warm bath I feel held, gravity disappears and this creates space for me to process thoughts.

 

Lastly, there is an invitation to create an ongoing index of places, people or activities that allow you to soften. This list can be as simple as you like. You can continue building this index list and come back to it when you want or need to soften. For example here is a short list of singular things that encourage me to soften.

  • Taking a walk

  • Drawing a warm bath

  • Talking to someone on the phone

  • Taking a break from my phone

  • Reading in bed

  • Writing or journaling

  • Listening to a certain album 

  • Listening to the ambient sounds of my environment

  • Cooking something slowly

  • Eating or drinking something slowly

  • Self-massage 

  • Gentle movement

  • Resting when my body needs to rest

These are all things that may come easy for some and hard for others. Cultivating this list can be an empowering and quietly political act that allows us to get in touch with what we might need in a given moment to access softness. When we become intimate with our own needs, rather than heeding to what the exterior world is telling us that we need, we can cultivate a deeper sense of agency and choice in life.