How to Write a Guided Journal Entry

Who this is for: Anyone who wants a gentle starting point for reflection rather than a blank page.

Renata sat down at 1:30 AM, exhausted but unable to sleep. She wanted to write but did not know where to begin. Guided entries give you a prompt to respond to — a question tailored to your grief type that opens a door into your experience without pushing you through it.

Steps

1. Tap the Journal tab: Find it in the bottom navigation bar. The Journal screen shows your past entries on a timeline.

2. Tap New Entry: The plus button in the top right corner of the Journal screen. Tap it to open the entry editor.

3. Select Guided: At the top of the editor, choose Guided instead of Free-form. The app will generate three contextual prompts based on your grief type (set during onboarding or updated in Settings).

4. Choose a prompt: Read through the three prompts and select the one that resonates most right now. Prompts are written in compassionate, non-clinical language. Examples for a parent grieving a child might include:

   • "What do you wish you could tell them today?"
   • "What memory from this week are you holding onto?"
   • "What has been the hardest part of today?"

   There is no pressure to pick the "right" prompt — go with whichever one pulls at you.

5. Write your response: The selected prompt appears at the top of the text field as a gentle header. Write your response in the space below. You can go wherever the writing takes you — you are not required to stay on the topic of the prompt.

6. Select emotion tags: Tap any emotion chips that feel true to how you are feeling. You can select multiple. These are optional but useful for tracking patterns over time.

7. Tap Save: Your entry is saved with the prompt question preserved, so you can see what you were responding to when you read it back later.

Expected Outcome

Your guided entry is saved locally with the date, time, the prompt you chose, your written response, and any emotion tags. It appears on the Journal timeline labeled as a guided entry. You can tap it later to re-read or continue writing.

Notes

• Prompts are generated based on your grief type. If you change your grief type in Settings, future prompts will reflect the updated selection.
• The prompt is saved alongside your response — you will always be able to see what question you were answering.
• Guided entries work the same as free-form entries in every other way — same privacy, same storage, same emotion tags, same free-tier availability.
• If none of the three prompts feel right, tap New Prompts to generate three different options, or switch to Free-form to write without a prompt.