Prompts for cultivating creativity and resilience. For therapists (and other humans).
Use the Listening Inward Prompts to take some time for yourself, make space to breath, connect with yourself, and nurture your creativity and resilience.
If you’re already familiar with the Listening Inward Prompts, scroll down to get started!
About Listening Inward Prompts.
These prompts are designed with therapists in mind, but they can be used by anyone who finds them helpful. Therapists may choose to offer them to clients if they feel useful in clinical work.
You might bring one or two of these prompts into your morning practice, an evening wind-down, or play with them during your day between sessions. See if you can let them be an easy resource to support you.
You can use these prompts in any way that you like. They are for you!
If a journaling prompt encourages movement, go for it. If a movement prompt inspires you break out the art supplies, that’s terrific. If you’d rather write than make art, follow your own wisdom. And if you want to simply sit with any of the prompts and be curious, that’s a lovely way to explore and reflect.
No writing, movement or art experience needed. For art/creative expression prompts you can use materials as simple as pen and paper or as fancy special paints or other materials. A few markers, your kids’ crayons – all good.
The Texture of Delight
I have been reading Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights, which is itself a delight. At first, I read one a day here and there, but now I find myself sneaking an extra one or two, munching on them like an extra cookie.
But these little essays are no sugar-coated moments of bliss. These delights are offered in the context of very real pain and struggle, which underscores just how essential delight is for navigating the complexity of life.
Gay shares surprising delights, tender delights, funny delights, profound delights.
These little gems of essays have been helping me pay attention to delight in new ways. I have been looking for delight inside the moment I am in, whatever kind of moment it is.
Delight is beginning to feel more like an element in the air I breathe, something that nourishes me, something that is essential.
Delights are perhaps just a different way to describe glimmers, those small moments in our lives that give us a sense of safety, joy, connection, and help regulate our nervous system. Or perhaps there are subtle differences. I’m not sure it matters.
What matters is that glimmers and delights are powerful and important. And as therapists, we benefit immensely from creating a habit of cultivating them.
I invite you to join me in this practice.
Also see Listening Inward #3: Savoring Glimmers for more.
Prompts
Journal Prompts
- What small delight might be available to you today, right now in this moment, if you look around, listen, and pay attention – no matter what else might be going on?
- Write about a time you experienced a sense of delight or joy despite going through a challenge or hard moment. How were you aware of it? What did it look like, sound like, feel like? How did it feel in your body?
Movement Prompts
- Take some time to walk or move. You can stay right where you are or choose a different location. As you walk or move, notice what creates delight. You might feel it in your body, or you might notice it with your senses. Can you pay attention to the delight and let your body really enjoy it? What happens to the way you walk or move?
- Can you feel delight or joy right now? If not, remember a time when you did and let yourself remember how it felt. Let your body move in a way that celebrates the delight or joy. Maybe it’s small, like a deep soft breath. Maybe it’s a gesture with your hands. Perhaps you shift your gaze. Or maybe you want to reach wide or turn in circles or dance to your heart’s content.
Art / Creative Expression Prompts
- Find a scrap piece of paper – a receipt or envelop, a piece of junk mail. Draw or scribble the feeling of delight. See what happens if you use your non-dominant hand or even both hands at once. What happens when you use the “scrappiness” of the scrap paper for inspiration?
- Create a small arrangement using objects that happen to be handy. It could be anything: stones, pens, leaves, scraps of paper, toys, objects in your junk drawer, paperclips, the mail waiting by the door. See if you can let yourself be playful and enjoy the experience. See what happens when you let some creativity into the ordinary.
Bonus for Therapists
As therapists, you might choose to approach these prompts in relation to your clinical work. You can keep the following questions in mind:
- What are the delights and joys in your work?
- What happens for you as a therapist when you pay more attention to delight?
- How does delight impact your own resilience?
I’d love for you to comment or join in the chat. Feel free to share your own responses, reflections or art. I’d love to hear what resonates.