As you take those first steps through the doors of grief, you may be flooded with emotions and physical responses beyond your control. It’s okay to not be okay and grief is not something that you get over, under, or around – only through. Grief is hard work of the heart and journaling can be a stepping stone to move inward and forward without having to say a word.

Once you grab your pen & paper, you may be wondering where to begin. The journal prompts below are sentence starters to help inspire or spark ideas for writing and drawing. We invite you to find a comfy place and ease into your first journal entry with these pointers, prompts, or tools. 

Journaling Pointers: 

• Be kind to yourself – release any judgments that surface 
• Let it flow - don’t worry about spelling or drawing to perfection 
• Lean into the tough stuff – welcoming all feelings of the heart 
• Once you are done – you can choose to save, share, or shred 

Journaling Prompts: 

• Today is bringing up feelings of... 
• Today my body feels... 
• What I miss the most about you today is.... 
• I remember laughing with you when.... 
• The hardest moment of the day is.... 
• I’m ready to feel.... 
• I’m conflicted by two feelings of.... 
• I’m comforted knowing that.... 
• I feel most connected to my person when... 
• I cherish the memory of.... 
• My most difficult memory is.... 
• I forgive you for.... 
• I forgive myself for... 
• I feel better when... 
• I feel taken care of when... 
• I can turn to ______ for help... 
• I need more of.... 
• I need less of.... 
• I’m angry about... 
• You would be proud of me for... 
• I’m scared of.... 
• If you were here, I would tell you... 

Journaling Tools: 

• Consider Eluna’s free Goodbye Letter template for children & teens with sentence starter prompts. 
• Sesame Street has created this free grief journal page that you can print out to write and draw daily feelings. They also have created this video to explore big feelings. 
• We also recommend introducing this free feeling faces handout to support kids with identifying and naming different emotions.  
• This Inside Out worksheet is another excellent tool to explore feelings together after watching the film. 
• Art with Heart, A Seattle-based non-profit, creates and distributes therapeutic books that combine art and writing to help kids cope with overwhelming feelings. We recommend DRAW IT OUT for elementary school age and INK ABOUT IT for middle & high school. 
• The Deconstruction Reconstruction grief journal by the Dougy Center is a place where grieving teens can draw, write, paint, and transform whatever they're thinking and feeling.