Reflection Guide
Reflection Guide: Journal Prompts for Peace, Kindness, and Gratitude
Life moves SO fast sometimes, and it’s easy to go from one day to the next without much time to pause and notice our own inner experience – and what it might be trying to tell us. The Reflection Guide from Minnesota Clinic for Health and Wellness is a free set of journal prompts built around three themes: cultivating peace, choosing kindness, and noticing gratitude.
There is no right order and no right way to use it. You can work through it from beginning to end, choose the reflection that fits today, or return to it over time.
What Is Inside
Reflection 1: Cultivating Peace
Our clinic is recognized as an International Peace Site because we strive to practice five Peace Actions: seeking peace within yourself and with others, reaching out in service, protecting the environment, respecting diversity, and being a responsible citizen of the world. The prompts in this section ask what peace means to you, and encourages you to reflect on the people, places, and practices that can help you cultivate peace – within and outside of yourself.
Reflection 2: Choosing Kindness
As humans, it’s pretty common to find it’s easier to respond with kindness when we’re interacting with someone who we agree with, share a similar worldview, or feel connected with. It tends to be MUCH harder to muster genuine kindness and respect when we’re engaged with people who see the world really differently than we do. This reflection invites you to think of someone you have had conflict or judgmental thoughts about, dig in to try and identify something you respect in them, and choose curiosity over assumptions. It also introduces a skill from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) known as “opposite to emotion” actions. That means acting in line with your values even when your feelings pull another way, like bringing a coworker a coffee or writing a short thank-you note – even if they really get under your skin sometimes.
Reflection 3: Cultivating Gratitude
We’ve all had difficult and unwanted experiences in this life. Connecting with gratitude can be hard during difficult stretches, especially when we feel hurt by people we care about or let down by institutions we rely on. This reflection suggests starting small, with things like running water, electricity, or a warm coat, and building from there. Choosing to orient toward noticing (with appreciation) some of the subtle “good things” in our life can help us find a little balance when the hardships threaten to “swallow up” the glimmers of goodness that are still there or are emerging. Seven prompts, starting with a short breathing exercise, help you gently orient, with curiosity and openness, toward cultivating gratitude. And when it’s hard to feel thankful for anything, there’s a reminder to pause – noticing that, right now, your body is supported by the earth and gravity is still solid. Thankfully.
Bonus: A Moment to Pause
The guide also includes two short, guided meditations. One is a gentle introduction to breath awareness and grounding. The other focuses on inner strength, resilience, and setting an intention for how you want to show up.
A Daily Journal Page
A printable daily journal page is included, with space for the date, your mood, your thoughts, your intentions, and what you can release.
Why Reflecting May Help
Taking time to put thoughts and feelings into words has been studied for decades, and has been a healing practice for as long as we have human recorded history. The literature demonstrates that expressive writing may help some people cope with the emotional effects of stress, and that the process may help with emotional regulation and processing. Written reflection tends to work best when you are trusting your own pace and process – so feel free to skip any prompt that doesn’t feel helpful right now.
Gratitude has been studied too. Harvard Health notes that research has consistently linked gratitude with greater happiness, and that it can help people feel more positive emotions, deal with adversity, and build stronger relationships. Some research suggests, too, that gratitude is a bit like a muscle that practice helps strengthen over time, for example by keeping a gratitude journal – or having a spiritual gratitude practice.
As for kindness, a review of decades of research summarized by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley found that people who are kind and helpful tend to report higher well-being. And many therapy approaches – as well as spiritual wisdom – incorporate the value of “prosocial behaviors” as not only benefitting others, but also improving one’s own wellbeing.
How to Use the Guide
- Find a quiet spot where you can have 5 to 10 minutes. Each reflection starts with a few slow, deep breaths.
- Work on one reflection at a time.
- Write by hand or type, whichever feels better.
- There are no right answers. Notice what comes up, and let that be enough.
- Come back later. Your answers may change with the season you are in.
When You Need Support
Sometimes reflection brings up things that are hard to sort out alone. You may notice patterns you want to change, relationships you want to understand better, or stress that has been building. You do not have to figure everything out by yourself. Our team can help you connect with a therapist who can walk alongside you.
Take the Next Step
If you would like support exploring what came up for you, our team is here to help. Schedule an appointment with Minnesota Clinic for Health and Wellness or call our care team at 612-706-9630.
Your health is interconnected. Let's support the whole you.
This article is for general information and is not a substitute for professional care. If you are in crisis, call or text 988. In an emergency, call 911.
