Hello Soul on the Risers,
Do you ever find yourself feeling like a robot going through the motions of the day, checking off one to-do after another? Well, I made this episode after feeling a bit like that myself and found two thought experiments incredibly helpful for offering a different perspective on a moment, a relationship, and life in general.
You can listen in for the full 30-minute episode and when you’re done, here are two writing prompts you can dig into to bring this into your life.
5 minutes of Being Human Exercise:
Find a place where you’ll have an uninterrupted view of nature. It doesn’t need to be super quiet. You’ll just need you and a tree, you and the ocean, you and the sky and no other person in between you and that thing.
Relax your eyes and take 8 deep breaths. Count to 4 on the inhale and 8 on the exhale. Repeat until you feel your mind massaging into softness.
Now close your eyes and imagine what you’re about to see, you’ve never seen before. You’re seeing it for the first time - the colors, the shapes, everything. Lean into the excitement of seeing something anew.
Open your eyes and stare at a particular aspect of the scene. Study it. Focus on the details while breathing. Do the colors look brighter or more awe-inspiring when you stare at them in this way? Does the sky look like it’s moving a touch differently? Soak it up - the gratitude, the simplicity, the reality that all of this is finite.
Continue sitting here for 5 more minutes. Set a timer if you find yourself wanting to do something else. Let yourself soften for a while. Let yourself just be instead of do.
After the timer is up, notice if you feel any different. Do you feel calmer? Do you feel inspired to do something in particular? Follow that thread.
Creative Writing Exercise:
Listen to Andrea Gibson’s “Royal Heart.”
Pay careful attention to the metaphors she uses, the words she stacks alongside each other. Are there any combinations that make you feel something? Any lines that make you want to remind them to hear again?
Find one of those lines and listen to it a few times. Then use that line as a writing prompt for your open poem or piece.
Thanks for making some time for yourself. If you want more of this in your life, subscribe and get inspiration in your inbox
Ep 21 - Thought experiments for a fresh lens on life