Hello again, friends! We’ve been on a roll this year with the seasonal journal prompts series, so I figured we’d better finish strong. After all, what better season is there than autumn to cozy up with a hot mug of tea and a fresh page in your journal?
With so much happening in my life lately, my journal has become an emotional anchor, a way to navigate the waters of my mind as I encounter so many new and unfamiliar experiences. I hope you find the same sense as you roam through some of these prompts.
1. Make a great long list of all the things you are most excited for. A few on my list? Writing my story in cafes for hours and hours on end, buying cozy new sweaters and beanies and socks (and just knitwear in general), pumpkin spice candles, the feeling of accomplishment when you submit an assignment, hiking through the woods that inspired Narnia, and hot cocoa filled to the brim with whipped cream, and coming home at the end of this study abroad program to spend Christmas with my family.
2. Imagine your perfect office space — plants hanging from the ceiling or roses by the windowsill? A desk or a hammock? What scents are your candles? What color is the baseboard, the walls, the curtains? What are your essential supplies that you keep tucked away in the drawers? Fill the mental space with all of your favorite things.
3. One of my favorite things about autumn are the scents and smells — a dash of cinnamon on your cappuccino, soup simmering on the stovetop, rain on the pavement. Once you write out all your favorite scents, close your eyes for a minute and try to search your memory for any memories associated with those scents.
4. Imagine that you were given a weekend retreat anywhere in the world. What would you bring in your little suitcase, where would you stay, what would you see, and how would you spend your mornings and afternoons and evenings?
5. Write out a list of all the poems you wish you knew by heart. In class this week, I felt entirely invigorated in my love for poetry as we read through a series of Irish poets — Clearances by Seamus Heaney, Porpoises by Mary O’Malley, and The Pomegranate by Eavan Boland are a few I enjoyed most.
6. Using a whole spread in your journal, make a mind map constellation of everything that inspires you right now. Think of things you’ve been studying, songs you’ve heard on the radio, the flowers that speak to you most, your new favorite flavor of tea, wardrobe changes you want to make, landscapes you’ve been drawn towards.
7. Take a minute to collect a rambling journal entry about all the little things that make your home – or even your bedroom – feel special and heartwarming.
8. Take a moment to breathe and sense your mood. Describe the aesthetic you need right now — choose a space and let the vivid details of that feeling soak through you. You could simply imagine it, but it’s more lovely to write it out and feel yourself in the scene.
9. Autumn is the time to let things go. If there are things that are bothering you, people who are irritating you, work it out and find a way to release them or accept the role they play in your life.
10. In a library full of stories, which ten are the ones that fill your soul every time you read them?
One last note before I head out …. I might have mentioned last week that I have lately been feeling a caffeinated flood of inspiration for this blog. There’s something magical in the fresh air of northern Ireland, in these mountains and these faerie-haunted woods. Honestly, this trip is transforming my life and I can’t wait to share all this abundant autumnal inspiration with you.
It’s good to be back.
<3 Olivia Grace
