reflection prompts for creative well-being
year-end story work exercises
If you’re new here, Story Work is the name of my next book to be published in fall 2025. It describes a process of reflecting, reclaiming, and reimagining the stories of our lives. It involves looking at your life experiences as creative material that you have the power to shape.
The weekly story work exercises that I share here on Substack cover universal life themes with references from literature, philosophy, science, and spirituality; offering perspectives that spark ideas for personal growth and creative expression.
Paid subscribers receive Story Work exercises every Sunday night at 8 pm et.
This week’s story work exercise is the last one for 2024 and it is open to all subscribers. There will be no email next Sunday, December 29, 2024. We will resume on Sunday, January 5, 2025.
Hi friends,
It's been just over a year since I got active on Substack. I lurked for a few months before I moved my list here and started posting regularly. While I already had a creative community, Substack expanded it and introduced me to a world of new kindred spirits and I am so thankful for this space. Every creative needs a place to nerd out about their craft, and Substack has become one of those places for many of us.
I look forward to more writing, coaching, and connecting in 2025. More creativity and joy as acts of resistance. More uplifting and empowering each other. More healing, more connection, more love. I feel like I am preparing for a spiritual battle in a way because the next four years are sure to be challenging here in the States.
I had a pep talk with myself the other day, and I was like:
This is not a time for being shy and holding back. This is not a time to be apologetic about your gifts and the unique medicine you have to give.
Maybe you need that pep talk, too.
For us to stop holding back, we need creative courage.
The energy we cultivate in our creative practice gives us the courage to show up more fully in every area of our lives. Sometimes we think that courage is an equation we can figure out once and repeat, but then we discover that acting with courage brings a fresh supply of opportunities and challenges that we need more courage for. So we learn that courage is a lifestyle, not a quick fix.
Creativity builds resilience. Following your creative callings teaches you to value patience, process, and persistence, qualities that make you more resilient.
Resilience builds creativity. Emotional resilience teaches you to be present, flexible, and open to new experiences—qualities that make you more creative.
What do you need courage for in the new year and beyond? Below I’m sharing prompts and exercises through a creative lens to help you reflect on 2024 and welcome 2025.
A Few Recommendations:
Answer the questions in more than one sitting with some time to simmer in between. Don’t rush the process.
Read through all of the questions before you start answering. If you feel overwhelmed, choose the prompt(s) that resonate most and just meditate on that one for however long it takes, whether it’s minutes, hours, days, or weeks.
Let your answers be raw, honest, real, and uncomfortable as needed. Practice curiosity without judgment.
Some of your answers will overlap and that’s okay. That just lets you know there is a theme or pattern there for you to notice.
Try doing these with a buddy.
FYI: We will be reflecting on these prompts together in the Inner Story Writing Circle in our final office hours session of the year on Friday, December 27.
Looking back
Make a list of the creative intentions, goals, dreams, visions, and urges you had at the beginning of 2024 and also the ones that revealed themselves to you throughout the year.
Make a list of all the ways you showed up for your creativity this year. Give yourself credit for every little thing whether it was taking time to daydream or journaling for self-care. Include the times you were vulnerable in expressing yourself and the times you set boundaries. The classes and workshops you went to, the risks you took. Document any and every effort that you made. (More often than not, we focus on what we didn’t do. It is so nourishing to acknowledge what we did.
What unexpected blessings did you receive this year? What surprise opportunities and connections showed up in your life? Moments of synchronicity. Winks from the universe. Problems that got solved. Discoveries that were made. What ripple effects came from those situations?
What challenges did you face this year? What storms had you sheltering in place? What losses and disappointments tested your faith? What patterns did you struggle with? Take stock of the tests, triggers, transitions, distractions, and obstacles.
In what ways did you hold back this year? Creatively, professionally, socially, spiritually, physically? What areas of your life and what parts of yourself did not get the love and attention they needed?
What personal stories, themes, and patterns were prevalent in your life and creative work this year? What about in your healing, self-care, and personal growth journey?
What lessons did 2024 teach you?
Looking forward
What questions, inquiries, and curiosities are you taking into the new year?
Start. Stop. Continue is a favorite of mine, an exercise that you can revisit as often as you need to take stock of what’s working and what’s not in all aspects of your life. Below is the creative courage version.
Start. What do you want to start doing to breathe fresh air into your creative life? What feelings, activities, and passions need more of your attention? What has gotten in the way of you starting these things thus far and what habits can help you manage those obstacles?
Stop. What have you had enough of? What are you tolerating or feeding into that is not adding value to your creative life? Where are you people-pleasing, shrinking, settling, avoiding? Where do you need boundaries to protect your creative callings?
Continue. What habits or trends in your life do you want to continue or take to the next level? What callings have you stalled on because momentum was slow or your inner critic got the best of you? What daily life practices can you incorporate to keep you in a frequency of courage and growth? What will it take for you to continue when you don’t get immediate results or validation? How can you help yourself remain devoted and steadfast through uncertainty, disruptions, and challenges?
What words represent the intentions, values, priorities, needs, and desires you want to emphasize in 2025? Tip: I find this list helpful for ideas. You can also refer to your responses to the reflection prompts and circle the words and phrases that jump out at you.
More resources!!
The Gift of a Year. In 2024, our guest for the first Practice session of the year was Laura G., creator of my favorite yearly planner. The Year Planner is filled with insightful questions and prompts to help you reflect on the past year, manifest your ideal 2025, and create a meaningful plan. Unlike traditional New Year’s resolutions that focus solely on goals, this planner focuses you on how you want to feel and why. By the end of the workbook, you'll have a clear vision for 2025, a collection of ideas to make it amazing, and a guiding word to keep you aligned to your north star. Laura offers this incredible yearly guide for FREE. You can download it here.
11 Writing Exercises to Support a Creative Mindset. Maybe you find yourself here because you want to take the stress out of your ambitions, make progress on your life goals, and learn strategies for long-term creative abundance. But you struggle with limiting beliefs, critical thoughts, and frustrating patterns. Creative abundance is an inner experience before it’s an outer experience. When you have an inspiring thought, idea, or impulse, it becomes a seed that you can plant and grow. But the seed will only grow if you believe in its possibilities, water it, speak life into it. The exercises in this guide help you open mental pathways to develop a more flexible, creative mindset.
100+ Story Work Exercises. I started the Inner Story Writing Circle in December 2022 and have been sharing weekly story work exercises ever since. We now have an archive of over 100 exercises that support you in the creative work of self-discovery and storytelling. Inner Story members have access to all of the archives, and paid Substack subscribers have access to about half of them. The weekly story work topics cover universal life themes with references from literature, philosophy, science, and spirituality; offering perspectives that spark ideas for personal growth and creative expression. Our 2024 themes were: the makings of courage, point of view, time travel, the five senses, body language, masks we wear, tree of life, ordinary people, friendship matters, the creative journey, and storyteller types. Dig in!
the creative courage writing intensive
There is no perfect time to start prioritizing your creative callings. You don’t have to wait until the end or beginning of the year. Every day is a new day, a new chance to explore, learn, and practice.
Whatever callings you have, pursuing them will enrich your life, no matter what season you’re in.
If are seeking guidance and community to do this work, I am currently enrolling for the winter cohort of The Creative Courage Writing Intensive which runs from January 9 - March 20. You can learn all about it here.
With so much love and appreciation,
GG