Journaling Prompts for Making a Genuine Apology
A real apology is one of the harder things to do—not the social lubricant 'sorry' that smooths things over without really addressing them, but the kind that requires genuinely looking at what you did, understanding its impact, and taking responsibility without defending yourself. Most of us weren't taught to apologize this way. We were taught to apologize to end conflict, not to make repair. Writing can help you prepare an honest one—to understand what you actually need to say, and to separate the apology from the self-defense that usually wants to accompany it.
Journaling Prompts
What do you need to apologize for? Describe what you did—not why you did it, not the context that makes it understandable, just what you actually did and what its impact was on the other person.
What has it cost you—internally, in your sense of yourself—to carry this unresolved? What has it cost the relationship?
What are you most afraid will happen if you apologize? That it won't be accepted? That the other person will say more than you're ready to hear? Write that fear out.
Write the apology you actually want to give—not a draft for their approval, just the honest version you'd want to say if there were no consequences. What's in it?
What would you need to do differently going forward, concretely, for this apology to be more than words? What change does it actually require of you?