Prompts for Journaling

[Cascade]

Just thought I would add onto Blueberry's post about stabilization with notes I compiled in the Exploring Shame thread earlier today.
  -Cascade

Stabilisation in no particular order:  resiliency  - discovering what you do already to be resilient, what can you add or further develop. That kind of journey/development is something you could also journal about.
safety irl - not being in contact with past or present abusers, having a physically and emotionally safe space
grounding - learning how to ground self and stay grounded. There are exercises you can do in the minute like pushing up against a wall to stop dissociating but also physical activity that you regularily do just to stay in your body. Some  mindfulness exercises help with grounding too
Some of what we tend to learn over here to stabilise is possibly covered in CBT which I gather is not very popular... - some of that could be imagination exercises, eg Inner Safe Place, Bank Vault, Helpers for Inner Children, but also things like getting all physical senses involved and practising that e.g. go for a walk in the park and concentrate on what you can hear or look to see if there's any purple or circular objects... Mindfulness.
creativity / artistic expression
Some of the prompts for journaling on those lists point in this kind of direction e.g.: What are things, people or places that make you feel safe? Or Do you have any self-care activities in place? or as I wrote above things like: 3 Good Things a Day, Joy, I Achieved, Progress
I hope this helps.

Before venturing too deeply into shame, I've also been working on safety and stabilization.  My therapist sent a video with a bunch of different exercises to try.  She'd like me to have two or three Go-To activities that I can do when I feel I am outside the window of tolerance.  The video and my notes are below, reorganized in a way that makes sense to my brain.  I'm still working on the activities themselves.
  -Cascade

Safety Activities
Goal:  Strengthen an internal sense of safety.
Practice:

• Try each activity, describing how it feels both emotionally and physically in your body.
• Find two or three favorite activities that work best.
• Perform the favorites daily during times of calm to build new sensory pathways.

Container
Is it just too overwhelming?  Put away whatever is moving you outside the window of tolerance until it is more manageable (e.g., when you can talk with someone about it).

Light Stream

• Beam of light enters into top of head.
• Light flows through and fills entire body.
• Light leaves through feet.

Anchors
Make lists of things that bring a sense of safety.

• Safe places
• Safe people and/or creatures
• Safe music
• Safe memories
• Safe sensations

Grounding
Self-regulation in the present; "I am safe enough right now."
Notice the real world around you:

• 5 things you can see
• 4 things you can touch
• 3 things you can hear
• 2 things you can smell
• 1 thing you can taste

Drawing Safety
Simultaneously activate the visual cortex while in a sense of safety.
[Note:  Does coloring mandalas count?  I think it does!]

Gratitude (Blueberry, I always think of you with this one!)
Shifts attention from scarcity to abundance.

Strengths and Accomplishments
List your good qualities, achievements, and challenges you overcame.

[Blueberry]

 

[WeAreAllAPartOfUniverse]

Thank you all and Kizzy for this thread! I was searching for new journaling input and here it is 
I´d like to share one, too, what was incredibly helpful  to me. It´s from Pete Walkers book "c-ptsd - from surviving to thriving".
In it, he  describes a client, who was unable to choose a mothersday card, as all the texts saying "thank you for...." just didn´t apply to his own experience with bis mum. So he said "Maybe I should start a mothersday card business, for people like me! Thank you mum, for never being there for me, Thank you mum for beating me up. ....."
I used that idea as a journaling prompt and felt it was incredibly helpful and resonating with me, with it´s sarcasm.
Maybe it´s useful for some here too.