30 Deep and Thought-provoking Journal Questions To Get To Know Yourself Better

Are you currently living your life on autopilot? Are you simply turning your mind off and going through the motions of everyday life? There certainly is no shame in it, especially since many of us do the same just to get through the daily grind.

But the truth is, living life on autopilot means that we aren't living life to the fullest! We aren't taking the time out of our day to smell the roses, to let ourselves reconnect with our emotions and better understand ourselves!

Are you happy at this moment? Is there something causing you unhappiness? What can do you to fix this? These are all questions that can be answered by journaling with intention.

Journaling with Intention

Intentional journaling should go beyond just recording down what happened in your day. It's about asking deep and thought-provoking questions so that you take a newer perspective on your life.

If you're ready to start journaling with intention, here are 30 deep questions to ask yourself in your journal! For the best results, we recommend you dedicate one page of your journal to one question every night.

So, let's get into things!

Deep questions for your relationships

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Relationships play a huge part in our lives, whether platonic, romantic or familial. However, forming and nurturing relationships is no cake walk. It takes lots of time, energy and effort to maintain a good relationship, and this goes both ways. We should constantly reflect on our attitudes towards our relationships and question whether we are playing our part in the relationship.

Additionally, the people closest to us can influence us in ways, both negative and positive, that we may not even be aware of. It's important to consider if the people closest to us are supportive and have contributed positively to our lives!

Here are 6 deep questions about your relationships that you can ask in your journal entries!

1. Do I feel fulfilled after hanging out with my friends?
2. Do my friends/partner lift me up and celebrate my successes?
3. How do my friends react when I vent or need a listening ear?
4. Who do you love and what are you doing about it?
5. Am I a pleasant person to be around?

Deep questions to help you find your purpose

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Feeling aimless is a fairly common struggle among people today. Too often we find ourselves pursuing careers that are the most "practical", but don't bring us happiness at all. As a result, we find ourselves working for something that we don't even care for, and this often causes a drop in the quality of work we produce.

Of course, there many who simply cannot afford to change their careers due to monetary concerns. In those cases, you can still pick up hobbies and lifestyle habits that inspire joy and purpose in you!

Deep questions to help you find your purpose in life:

1. Is your present self someone that your younger self would look up to? Why or why not?
2. What would you regret not fully doing, being or having in your life?
3. Why did you decide to do what you're doing now with your life?
4. Is there something that you’ve dreamt of doing for a long time? Why haven’t you done it?
5. What stands between you and happiness, and how do you overcome it?

Deep questions to get to know yourself better

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Do you really know yourself? It may sound like an odd question, but you'll be surprised at how many people don't really understand themselves! They may not be in the habit of noticing how they think or behave, and why they do so.

For example, someone may not notice that they tend to engage in negative self-talk and put themselves down frequently. This, as a result, leads to them being unambitious and afraid to step out of their comfort zone.

So, when you look into yourself and understand the way you tick, you'll be surprised at how much more you can achieve.

Here are 6 deep questions you can ask to get to know yourself better:

1. If a friend spoke to you the way you spoke to yourself, how long would that person be your friend?
2. When was the last time I told myself, "I am enough"?
3. What would you do differently if there was no one to judge you?
4. What is a memory that sticks with you till now, and why?
5. What do you love most about yourself?

Deep questions to help you practice gratitude

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Practicing gratitude is a great habit to have. When you practice gratitude regularly, you'll find yourself becoming a more positive and happier person. After all, when you're able to take a look around you and appreciate all the things that you've been taking for granted, you'll naturally be able to keep your spirits up!

If you're just starting to pick up the habit of practicing gratitude, it may be difficult to get into things. And that is where intentional journaling with these questions can help!

Here are 6 deep questions you can ask in your journal to cultivate the habit of practicing gratitude.

1. What am I the most thankful for?
2. What has life taught you recently?
3. What are 5 good things that have happened to you today?
4. What is something that you constantly take for granted?
5. List 3 things tomorrow you can do to be a better person

Deep questions to encourage self-growth

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When you're living life on auto-pilot, you may not be actively pursuing activities that help you grow as a person. Are you picking up good habits and kicking bad ones? Are you putting in the effort to pick up new skills and knowledge? Are you trying to become a better person than you were yesterday?

If your answers to these questions have been "no", then consider asking yourself these 6 deep questions in your journal to give yourself that much-needed push.

1. How am I a different person compared to 5 years ago? 10 years ago?
2. Where in my life am I not living up to my fullest potential? Why?
3. What bad habits should I stop doing?
4. What are some things I have been putting off doing?
5. What is my number one goal for this week?

Asking yourself deep questions with Journey

As beneficial as journaling is for one's mental wellbeing, not everyone has the time nor energy to sit down with their journal and write for 30 minutes every night. If you're juggling a busy schedule, but are still interested in journaling with intention, consider using Journey!

Journey is a digital journaling app that allows you to pen down your thoughts even while on the go. Journey can be used across multiple platforms, from desktop to iOS and Android, which means that you can journal even while on public transport on the way home.

With Journey's calendar feature, you can easily allocate each deep question for each day. You can create an entry with each question in advance, and then input your answers when the day comes.

You can even set daily email reminders to remind you to complete your journal entry! All you have to do is reply to these reminders via email, and Journey will download what you've written into an entry on the app.

And if you want to continue journaling with intention after you've already asked all 30 of these deep questions, Journey has just the thing for you in Journey Coach. You can enroll in various Coach programs with topics ranging from gratitude to self-care to relationships.

After enrollment, you will be sent a prompt everyday over the duration of the program, and you can easily answer these prompts via the Stories function on Journey.

So start asking yourself these thought-provoking questions in your Journey entries today!