9 journaling prompts for a heart-led 2026
One of my favorite New Year’s Day traditions is sitting down with my journal and a cup of coffee (or three) and reflecting on the year that’s passed and the year to come.
This year, I’m sharing my annual end-of-year journaling reflections before the fireworks hit—should you like to join me!
These prompts are for you if you want 2026 to be less about what you accomplish and more about how meaningfully you live—how deeply you align with your values—and how present you are for what really matters.
I hope they help you slow down, reflect, and touch a sense of inspiration as we step into the New Year.
PS: Through January 7, I’m offering an exclusive New Year’s discount: 25% off all private coaching packages for both:
Apply by January 7 and begin coaching anytime in January or February to make use of the discount.
Without further ado — here are our reflections:
4 Reflections to Integrate 2025
🌀 If 2025 were one chapter in the Book of Your Life, what would the chapter be titled? What would you like the title of 2026 to be?
🌀 Make a list of the events in 2025 that held the most emotional significance for you—joyful, grief-filled, beautiful, or existential. From your list, consider the event that most changed you as a person this year. How did this event deepen your character? How did your sense of what matters most shift as a result?
🌀 What challenge or hardship are you most proud of surviving or overcoming in 2025? It could be a burnout, breakup, loss, betrayal, illness or injury, conflict with a friend or loved one, or beyond. In retrospect, which of your personal strengths did surviving this challenge highlight for you?
🌀 Research shows that we tend to forget to savor and hold gratitude for our experiences, rushing instead to our next goal or dream—which can make life feel like an unprocessed blur. Looking back on 2025, what’s the one, single thing you’re most grateful for? Specifically, why?? Spend a few sentences actively reflecting on this—and notice what it feels like in your body and heart to do so.
5 Reflections to Imagine a Heart-Led 2026
🌀 Imagine that it’s the distant future and you’re on your deathbed, looking back at your life. What would your life need to have included in order for you to feel you’d lived as meaningfully as you could? So far, how does the way you’ve been living compare?
🌀 What’s one relationship, activity, or commitment that once reflected who you were—but no longer feels aligned with who you’re becoming in 2026? What would it take for you to feel an inner permission to gently let this go in the New Year?
🌀 Zora Neale Hurston wrote, “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” What unanswered questions are you carrying with you into 2026—questions that you want to hold space to be uncertain about, experiment, and not know the answer to yet?
🌀 Pick one value that’s very important to you, but was ignored or undernourished in 2025. (You can see a list of common values here.) Why does it feel so important to prioritize this value at this moment in your story? And what’s one, single way you’d like to meaningfully embody it in 2026?
🌀 Research shows that humans tend to get a sense of meaning from four places: belonging, purpose, transcendence, and storytelling. (You can read my article about this—and get a more thorough description of each—here.) Which of these four would you like to prioritize most in 2026—and what would that look like for you?
I’m wishing you a beautiful, restful, and easeful New Year’s celebration—and I’m looking forward to sharing more with you in 2026!