Prompts

Shadows, fears, insecurities . . . Prompt #736

“We all have shadows, fears, insecurities, and doubts. Acceptance of them all leads us to realizing an unconditional love for ourselves. When we can begin to love the parts of ourselves that we’ve deemed to be unlovable, when we invite in our shadows and let them know they are welcome, when we acknowledge and become curious to our fears, doubts, and insecurities, then we begin to realize that our innate nature (Love) has the capacity to hold them all. Everything within us is part of us. When we accept this, our true nature is revealed.” —Alister Gray Writing Prompt: Explore your fears, doubts, and insecurities as a curious child would explore sand, rain, flowers. Observe. Imagine. Create. Invite your shadow self to peek around the corner. Take a deep breath in. Let it out. Another deep breath in. Hold for a moment. Release. Acknowledge your fears, doubts, and insecurities. Give…

Prompts

I would never . . . Prompt #729

Write from your personal experience, or as your fictional character would answer. Prompt #1 Write a list of things you, or your fictional character, would never do. Prompt #2 Choose one item from the list. Imagine you have accomplished that item. Write about it as if you have done it. What happened? Did that accomplishment lead to something interesting? Did you win an award? How did you feel writing as if you accomplished it? #justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter

Prompts

Acceptance . . . Prompt #728

A writer and writing teacher I admire,  Rebecca Evans, talked about an Entry Point as an opener when writing. Rebecca asked us to think of comfortable things. Things you’re wearing and you don’t even know you’re wearing, like eyeglasses. I thought that was interesting because I don’t like wearing my glasses. I usually take them off as soon as I get home from going out. About a week after Rebecca’s workshop, as I drove to my first errand, things looked blurry. I couldn’t read signs clearly. I thought, “I need to get my eyes checked.” I accomplished my errands. Got home. And did my usual, took my glasses off first thing. That’s when I noticed . . . I was not wearing my distance glasses. I was wearing my computer glasses. I guess the moral is things can be comfortable without our even noticing it. Or, maybe the moral is…

Prompts

Comfort Food and more  . . . Prompt #727

Excerpted from the May 2023 issue of the Sonoma County Gazette: Research over the past 20 years shows the same result time and time again: when we’re stressed, we want what researchers call high energy and nutrient-dense foods—those snacks, treats and meals that are high in fat and sugar. Comfort foods improve mood, reduce loneliness and connect us to cherished memories, often linked to childhood. A craving for comfort food typically stems from an extreme emotion, including happiness, meaning we reach for comfort foods even to celebrate. Comfort foods often trigger our reward system by releasing dopamine, a hormone and neurotransmitter. When we take a bite of that comfort food, whether it’s a hot fudge sundae, peanut butter and apples, tikka masala or a double bacon cheeseburger, dopamine floods the brain and gives us a huge boost of pleasure feelings. Any negative feelings we may have been experiencing before—stress, anger,…