20 Journaling Questions for Life After Quarantine

Regardless of how long you’ve been out of quarantine, the pandemic is too large of an event to not pause and take stock of your life. Use these 20 quarantine specific journaling questions to help decide what kind of life you want to build going forward.

The day our state transitioned to Phase III, which meant everything opened up except public swimming pools, indoor fast food restaurants, and large gatherings, life was full force back in action.

My daughter, who previously only “wanted to get back into the water” with her swim team, now had so many different things to do couldn’t make it to swim practice more than two days in a row.

As I was back in the familiar driver seat that all moms of teenagers know all too well, I heard sirens from wrecks and firetrucks and stuck in traffic that just weeks before was nicely missing.

Debates about which stores insisted on you wearing a mask or receiving looks from others if you don’t wear a mask or assumptions you’re sick if you wear a mask, is enough for me to long for another quarantine.

Although a pandemic is never a blessing, there were some blessings along the way.

The pause we were all forced to take in our lives is one we can consider how do we want our lives to look different from this point going forward?

There will be some things we might not have any control over.

Regardless of how you felt about the pandemic, it was simply too huge of a life-altering situation, especially if you’re raising kids during a pandemic not to take stock of your life.

The following are some simple prompts you can either journal or sit with.

Take stock of your life pre and post quarantine to see what kind of life you want to build from this point forward.

Questions to consider after the quarantine

What do you really value?

During quarantine, many of the activities and things we filled our lives with were taken from us, from sporting events to recreational activities. We were left with nothing to do and no one to be with except for our immediate family.

Without all those distractions, did we value all of those activities?

The multiple sports your child was involved in, all the extra shopping you may have spent your time and money on, all the driving around you found yourself doing for your family.

Do you want to continue all of those activities?

What was worthwhile?

Did you add anything extra during the quarantine into your family’s life that you want to continue going forward?

Maybe you want to continue one night a week where you and your kids have absolutely nothing going on; perhaps you enjoyed a slower pace of life.

How did quarantine life change you?

Do you find that you appreciate your family more?

For almost everyone, relationships changed during 2020. Whether that means you found a friend, co-worker, or family member to be more meaningful to you or they disappointed you, take note of this. People show their true selves during high-stress times.

You may determine that you need to let some friendships go. Not all relationships are forever. People come into your life for seasons.

What has been life-giving?

What has been life-taking?

Did you find all the quiet and alone time to be too much?

Did you find that you need more people in your life so that next time you experience a tough time, you have more people you can reach out to?

What did you miss the most during the stay-at-home order?

If you’ve been able to go back to that place or enjoy that thing again, is it as good as your memory thought it would be?

How has social distancing affected you?

Do you feel saddened when you see others and can’t hug them, or do you feel okay with social distancing rules?

What impact of the pandemic do you see on your children?

Are they taking everything more in stride due to their age?

Or are you seeing signs of anxiety in your children? If so, what seems to make them more anxious? Are they reading your cues?

Continue to Evaluate How You Feel

These are just a few questions to get you started thinking about the effects the pandemic has had on you and your kids and what kind of life you want to create.

Your feelings about the pandemic can change too. Even if your state has begun to go “back to normal,” your feelings about the experience may be different today than in 6 months.

Keep checking in with yourself and keep making your life yours.