Fun can look simple on the surface, but the things we choose for enjoyment often reveal something deeper. They can show us how we connect, how we recharge, what we value, what we avoid, and what parts of ourselves may need more room to breathe.
This journal prompt begins with an easy question, then invites you to look beneath your answers.
List five things you do for fun.
Do not choose what sounds productive, impressive, or socially acceptable. Choose the activities you genuinely enjoy—or used to enjoy before life became busy.
The General Prompt
Write down five activities that bring you pleasure, energy, peace, connection, curiosity, or relief. Beside each activity, answer the following:
- What do I enjoy most about this activity?
- Do I enjoy the activity itself, the people involved, the atmosphere, or how I feel afterward?
- Does this energize me, calm me, challenge me, or help me escape?
- Do I prefer to do it alone, with one person, or in a group?
- How often do I actually make time for it?
- What usually prevents me from doing it more often?
- Does this activity reflect who I am now, who I used to be, or who I am becoming?
Questions That Promote Deeper Insight
After completing your list, use these questions to notice patterns.
- Which of your five activities involve creativity?
- Which involve movement, learning, nature, competition, music, beauty, or connection?
- Which activity makes you feel most like yourself?
- Which activity do you keep postponing even though you know it would help you?
- Are your current hobbies restorative, or are some of them mainly distractions?
- Do you allow yourself to enjoy things without earning the right to rest first?
- When did you last try something new purely because it looked enjoyable?
- What did you love doing as a child that you have abandoned as an adult?
- What would your list look like if money, transportation, time, fear, or other people’s opinions were not barriers?
- Which activity would you like to add to your life during the next year?
Favorite Animal Reflection
Your favorite animal can also serve as a useful reflection tool. The point is not to prove that an animal has a fixed symbolic meaning. The point is to notice what you admire, fear, or recognize in it.
- What is your favorite animal?
- What qualities do you associate with it?
- Which of those qualities do you have in common?
- Are these your best qualities, your most difficult qualities, or both?
- When does that trait help you?
- When does it create problems?
- What trait do you admire in the animal but have not fully developed in yourself?
- What would a healthier, more balanced expression of that trait look like?
For example, independence can be a strength when it creates confidence and resourcefulness. It can become a weakness when it turns into isolation, refusal to ask for help, or emotional distance. Loyalty can create deep connection, but it may also keep someone attached to people or situations that no longer feel safe or healthy.
My Example: Five Things I Do for Fun
I live in a small town in Southwest Louisiana. There are not endless entertainment options nearby. The movie theater is a drive, many events are farther away, and spontaneous outings usually require planning. Living in a small town has taught me that fun often requires creativity, intention, and the willingness to make something out of what is available.
1. Games
I enjoy arcades, family game nights, playful competition, and the energy that comes from people laughing together. I like the games, but the deeper reward is connection. Games create a temporary space where everyone can stop thinking about tomorrow’s responsibilities and be present.
What this reveals: I enjoy stimulation, challenge, humor, and shared experiences. Even though I value solitude, I also need moments of lively connection.
2. Painting
I am self-taught and still a work in progress. That is part of what makes painting meaningful. I enjoy blending colors, building an image, and watching something slowly take shape. At first, I only painted what someone else showed me. Eventually, I became brave enough to paint what I felt.
What this reveals: Creativity helps me process emotions that may be difficult to explain directly. Painting also reminds me that confidence grows through practice, not perfection.
3. Thrift and Sale Shopping
I enjoy finding a good deal, especially on cardigans, handbags, books, beauty items, and unusual pieces. Shopping on a budget becomes a kind of treasure hunt. Part of the fun is not knowing what I will find.
What this reveals: I appreciate beauty, possibility, and resourcefulness. I like taking overlooked things and recognizing their value. The question I still need to ask myself is whether I am shopping for enjoyment, collecting for a purpose, or using the thrill of finding something new to manage stress.
4. DIY Projects and Crafts
Flower arrangements, centerpieces, Sunday school crafts, ornaments, journals, and small creative projects all appeal to me. I enjoy turning ordinary materials into something useful, meaningful, or beautiful.
What this reveals: I do not only want to consume beauty; I want to create it. Making things gives my hands somewhere to place the ideas moving through my mind.
5. Live Music
I am an ambivert. I enjoy quiet hobbies that help me recharge, but I also need occasions that pull me out of the house. Live music offers movement, atmosphere, friendship, and the chance to feel part of something larger for a few hours.
What this reveals: My best life probably needs both solitude and community. Too much social activity drains me, but too much isolation can make life feel smaller than it should.
What My Favorite Animal Reveals
My favorite animal is the wolf. I associate wolves with strength, intelligence, loyalty, instinct, leadership, and the ability to survive alone when necessary. I recognize several of those qualities in myself.
Some are among my best qualities. I can be independent, observant, persistent, protective, and comfortable thinking for myself. Those same qualities can become difficult when independence turns into emotional distance, observation turns into overanalysis, or self-protection makes it hard to trust others.
The wolf reflection reminds me that being capable of standing alone does not mean I should always choose isolation. Strength can include accepting support. Leadership can include listening. Loyalty can include loyalty to my own well-being.
The Activities I Want to Add
A meaningful list should not only describe the past. It can also point toward growth. I would like travel to become one of the things I regularly do for fun. I also want more movement-based enjoyment, such as hiking, walking new trails, stretching, or eventually jogging.
This leads to another useful question: What kind of fun would support the person you are becoming?
- Do you need more adventure or more rest?
- More community or more solitude?
- More movement or more stillness?
- More creativity or more structure?
- More novelty or more consistency?
Closing Reflection
Fun is not meaningless simply because it is enjoyable. Healthy leisure can reconnect us with curiosity, play, creativity, movement, and other people. It can also help us notice when something has changed.
If activities that once mattered to you no longer feel interesting, pause and pay attention. Ask whether you are exhausted, overwhelmed, disconnected, grieving, or simply ready for something new. Persistent loss of interest may be a sign that you need additional care or support.
Final journal question: What does your idea of fun reveal about what your mind, body, and spirit need more of right now?
— JB Simon
Console the Soul 