40 Journal Prompts for Anxiety

Updated 2026-09-29 · By the Journal for iPad team

Anxious thoughts are loud in your head and a lot quieter on paper. These 40 prompts walk you through a worry step by step: write it down, check it against the facts, test it, and settle your body when it's too much.

Please read first: journaling can help you sort through worries, but it isn't a treatment for anxiety. If your anxiety is severe, lasts for weeks or gets in the way of daily life, talk to a doctor or a licensed mental health professional. If you're in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US), or call 911 in an emergency.

Step 1: Catch the worry

A worry that stays vague feels bigger than it is. The first step is simply to get it out of your head and onto the page, in its own words.

1. Write down the worry that's loudest right now, in the words your mind is using, not the polite version.
2. When did this worry start today? What were you doing?
3. Where do you feel the anxiety in your body right now? Describe its location, size and temperature.
4. On a scale of 0 to 10, how anxious are you? What would a 3 look like?
5. List everything that's on your mind, big and small, without ranking any of it.
6. What did you check, reread or ask about more than once today?
7. What is this worry trying to get you to do?
8. Take today's worry. Is it about something that happened, or something that might? (From our Worry Trial program)
9. What time of day does the worry get loudest? What's usually going on then?
10. What would you be doing right now if this worry weren't here?

Step 2: Weigh the evidence

Now put the worry on trial. You're not trying to argue yourself out of it, just to see it more accurately.

1. What facts do you actually have? Write only what a camera could have recorded.
2. What are you assuming that you don't really know?
3. List the evidence that supports the worry. Then list the evidence against it.
4. How many times have you worried about something like this before? How did those times turn out?
5. A friend tells you this exact worry. Write what you'd say to them. (From our Worry Trial program)
6. If the worry came true, what would it mean about you? Is that fair?
7. If the worst did happen, what would you do first? Who would you call?
8. How would you see this if you'd slept well and eaten a proper meal?
9. Which part of this can you do something about, and which part can't you?
10. Write a more balanced sentence about the situation, one you believe at least 60 percent.

Step 3: Test it

Anxiety makes predictions. You can check them.

1. Write the worst realistic outcome in full. Not the vague dread, the actual events. (From our Worry Trial program)
2. What exactly is the worry predicting? Write it down with a date so you can check back later.
3. Design one small test you could do this week to see whether the worry holds up.
4. After the test: what actually happened? Write it down before you interpret it.
5. What did you expect to feel, and what did you actually feel?
6. Reread a worry you wrote two weeks ago. What happened in the end?
7. What would happen if you postponed this worry until a fixed time tomorrow? Pick the time.
8. Where do you usually look for reassurance? What happens if you wait an hour before looking?
9. What's one thing you've stopped doing because of anxiety? What's the smallest version of it you could try?
10. What did you learn this week about how your anxiety makes predictions?

Step 4: Calm-down prompts

When you're too wound up to think clearly, skip the analysis. These prompts are for bringing your body and attention back to the present.

1. Write down five things you can see, four you can hear and three you can touch.
2. Write the next three things you need to do today, and nothing else.
3. What has helped you calm down before? List everything, then circle what's possible right now.
4. Describe a place where you feel safe, in enough detail that you can picture it.
5. Write three slow sentences about exactly what you're doing at this moment.
6. What can wait until tomorrow? Write it down and give it permission to wait.
7. What would you tell yourself about tonight, a year from now?
8. Write the worry on one line. Underneath, write “and I can still…” and finish the sentence five times.
9. What's one kind thing you can do for your body in the next ten minutes?
10. What went okay today, despite the worry?

How to use these prompts

You don't need all four steps every time. On a normal day, one prompt from step 1 and one from step 2 is plenty. When a particular worry keeps coming back, work through steps 2 and 3 over a few days. When you're overwhelmed, go straight to step 4. Our guide to journaling for anxiety explains the approach in more detail, and a mood tracker can help you spot patterns over weeks.

If you'd like to go through one worry properly over a month, the 30-day Worry Trial program in Journal for iPad gives you one step a day. For other topics, see the full list of journal prompts or our journal prompts for mental health.

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