For the third year in a row, we are concentrating on self-care for the first month of the year. We have decided to kick off 2021 with a whole month of journaling prompts suitable for those of you who are totally new to the idea of journaling and those with lots of experience.

We have designed this challenge to be accessible to everyone, no matter your journaling experience or confidence. You don’t need anything fancy. Just a notebook, pen or pencil and somewhere quiet and cosy to sit and write for a few minutes each day.

Journaling has huge benefits to both our physical and mental health.

Journaling January can help us to:

• Relax and reflect on our feelings and emotions;
• Reduce our stress and anxiety;
• Focus on the positives and reframe the negatives in our lives;
• Become more self-aware;
• See our progress.

There are many different ways to journal and it is given many different names across literature and the internet. We are talking about sitting with a pen and paper and writing for a few minutes each day. You can add doodles, use pretty colour pens, jazz it up with washi tape or just scribble with your favourite pencil.

For you to feel the benefit, you need to find what suits you and works well in your routine. We will share the prompts at 7.30 am on Instagram for those of you who prefer to write in the morning (let me know if you get up even earlier than that, India and I are not early birds!)

You do not need to share your writing with anyone. If you would like to share or ask for help, there will be a daily thread in our Stationery Addicts Facebook Group, where you are free to chat about how you have interpreted that day’s prompts or to ask for inspiration if you are struggling. There is no right or wrong way to do this. We will have some treats to giveaway to those of you who get stuck in and embrace the challenge. If you do want to treat yourself to journaling supplies, have a look here.

We hope lots of you will love it and that we can all work together to build a habit that we can take forward into 2021 together.

1. What was your highlight of 2020?
2. What did you learn from 2020?
3. What did you miss most in 2020?
4. What are you surprised you didn’t miss in 2020?
5. What lessons are you going to take forward into 2021?
6. What are your goals for 2021?
7. What is your word of the year?
8. Write out a bucket list for 2021.
9. Describe your perfect day.
10. What is your favourite thing about yourself?
11. Identify an unhelpful negative thought and create a counter-argument to it.
12. What is your favourite season and why?
13. What is your favourite comfort food?
14. What makes you feel safe?
15. What do you do to relax and unwind?
16. Who are you grateful for and why?
17. What object has the most sentimental value for you?
18. If you could write a book, what would it be about?