49 Journal Prompts For Forgiveness
If you are struggling to forgive someone, these journal prompts for forgiveness will help identify your feelings and help you move past your anger.
We are often told to simply ‘forgive and forget’.
Deep down we know this is good advice and that there are many benefits of forgiveness. One of the main ones being that holding onto our anger at certain people and situations is only hurting ourselves.
But sometimes it’s just so damn hard.
Especially when you allow someone to be close to you and they break your trust. You can start to over analyse what happened, replaying it over and over in your head, building up more and more resentment each day.
Writing about the event with journal prompts can help you stop ruminating and identify your feelings about the situation, including why it has upset you so much. Once you identify your emotions you can then start to work through them and see if there are any deeper issues which need attention.
Holding a grudge never really works. It just takes up your time and turns you into a bitter person. I’m not saying that you need to be best friends or spend loads of time with someone who has wronged you, but forgiveness is all about helping YOU so that you can be in peace.
Here are some journal prompts for forgiveness to help you let go of your anger and start to heal.
Journal Prompts for forgiveness
What does forgiveness mean to you?
How forgiving a person do you think you are on a scale of 1-100?
How forgiving would you like to be?
What are the benefits of forgiveness?
What are the disadvantages of forgiveness?
What are some ways you can be more forgiving?
Do you think you are more forgiving towards yourself or others? Why?
Do you believe in forgive and forget or forgive and remember? (or neither…)
Do you find it easy to ask for forgiveness?
What is something you wish someone would forgive you for?
Do you need someone to say sorry to be able to forgive them? Why?
Who is the most forgiving person you know?
Do you think people who can forgive are happier?
When is the last time someone forgave you?
Forgiving someone else
What is something that happened in your life that you find really hard to forgive?
Why do you think that is?
Write about the experience in as much detail as possible. Who was there? Was it the first time they broke your trust? Are you shocked at their actions?
List 4 emotions that come up when you think about this experience.
Did this situation trigger feelings of low self worth? (if so here are some journal prompts for self love).
What motivation did the person have for their actions?
Write about the experience from their point of view.
Was it an accident or on purpose?
Do you still want this person in your life?
What positive impact does this person have in your life?
Has this situation made you more cautious in your other relationships? How?
Write what you would want to say to them about how you feel, but may be too afraid to.
What would you need the person to do to be able to forgive them?
Is there anything you think you could have done differently in this situation?
Do you think it is hurting you not being able to forgive this?
How much time have you spent ruminating about this situation?
Where in your body do you feel the tension when you are unable to forgive? Imagine what it would feel like to let this go.
What positives might arise from this situation?
How have you grown as a person from this situation?
Forgiving yourself
What is something you need to forgive yourself for?
Write about the experience in detail.
What would you say to your younger version of yourself now?
Did you hurt anyone else?
Do you want to forgive yourself?
How have you developed as a person from this?
How will you act differently in future situations?
Is there anything you can do now to make it easier to forgive yourself?
Do you want to ask someone for forgiveness?
What motivations did you have for doing it?
Was it an accident or on purpose?
What emotions did you feel at the time?
What are some critical thoughts you have about yourself when you think about this? (I am selfish, I am stupid etc. )
Write about the ways in which these critical thoughts are not true.
How can you be more compassionate towards yourself?
I hope you enjoyed these journal prompts for forgiveness! If you are looking for other journal prompts inspiration check out these posts on journal prompts for gratitude and journal prompts for childhood memories.
