30 Days of Shadow Work: Deep Journaling Prompts for Healing Your Inner Child

TL;DR - You might be thinking, "I dont' feel like reading this whole article. Just give me the Deep Journaling Prompts for Healing Your Inner Child." I've got you. Here is a PDF of just the prompts. But, If you are someone new to this and want all the help you can get, keep reading. The PDF is available at the bottom of this article too.

Before we get started, I just want to emphasize that I am not a therapist. Nor am I a life coach. I am just someone who has done this work and is speaking from my experiences and has read and learned a lot about the subject.

You may have heard this "shadow work" term before, but what does it mean? Shadow work is doing the work of examining your why you react the way you do in certain situations. Their may be parts of you that you donn't want people to see. Maybe you feel like you have short fuse and don't know why, or maybe you give in to everyone's requests or demands of you taking on too much. These are all learned behaviors and were engrained in you at an early age.

With shadow work, you can uncover where this comes from and learn how to accept all the parts of you or even learn ways to "unlearn" the behavior.

This work is usually done with a therapist especially if you don't feel safe or comfortable doing this on your own. (Reminder: I'm not a therapist.) If you feel you need a therapist, please reach out to one. Some of us have don't have a traumatizing past. We just have the way we were raised. You might even think you had a great childhood, but there are traits you aren't proud of and they had to of come from somewhere. I can't tell you if you should do this with or without a therapist, but I think you know yourself best. Personally, I think everyone could use a therapist. Cleveland Clinic has a great article explaining shadow work. I encourage you to read that as well.

This could be some of the most important work you do. It has been life-changing for me. It's not going to happen over night. Have patience with yourself. These journaling prompts will be a great place to start. I recommend journaling every morning, but if that sounds overwhelming, pick something doable. Start with once a week if you need to. I do want to warn you that this work can feel heavy. You may even get emotional. It is a necessary step to processing trauma no matter how small or big it is. Again, if you feel you need to do this with a therapist, please do so.

Alright, let's get to writing. I have created a handy PDF you can print out refer to each morning when you are ready to journal. Get your copy here.