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Reflection Questions for Committing, Creating, and Pacing This Summer

Filed Under: Contemplative Practices, Emotional Literacies, Everyday Feminism By Beth Godbee June 9, 2021 Leave a Comment

Recently, a Patreon subscriber shared that they appreciate reflection questions, and their feedback prompted me to consider which questions feel especially important for this summer (summer 2021).

Spinning off the original Q&A response (shared as part of the Q&A newsletter for subscribers), here are some questions I’m sitting with.

These are influenced by the CHANI app (“astrology for self-discovery, mindfulness, and healing” by Chani Nicholas and team). The app offers three journal prompts each week, and I really love these prompts!

These questions are also influenced by my recent readings, which include Luvvie Ajayi Jones’s Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual; Lama Rod Owens’s Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger; and Susan Weis-Bohlen’s Seasonal Self-Care Rituals.    

This photo shows a late summer afternoon. The corner of a green picnic table points toward a green field and blue lake stretching out to blue-green hills. Leaves hang down, and puffy white-grey clouds float overhead. The scene, hopefully, captures the possibilities of summer: open, outdoor space inviting contemplative practices.

This photo shows a late summer afternoon. The corner of a green picnic table points toward a green field and blue lake stretching out to blue-green hills. Leaves hang down, and puffy white-grey clouds float overhead. The scene, hopefully, captures the possibilities of summer: open, outdoor space inviting contemplative practices.

Reflection Questions for Summer 2021

As you read these questions, consider which resonate now—and why those questions might be speaking to you. Then spend time journaling, meditating, or walking with the questions that resonate.

Honoring Continued Re-Commitment

  • How am I coming through for myself and my commitments? And how could I come through a bit better—toward building stronger trust, reliability, and integrity?
  • How could I come through, show up, and take aligned action more consistently?
  • Where am I building or restoring trust with myself and with others? And where do I need to do more trust-building?
  • In what ways could I be more truthful? More compassionate? More discerning?
  • Who sees me, and what are they reflecting back to me?
  • Who and what helps me come home to myself (to get centered and re-aligned)?
  • What relations are foundational to build with, from, and for?

Honoring Creative Energy

  • What sources of inspiration are in my life now, motivating and guiding me?
  • Where, when, how, with whom, and why am I creating now?
  • How am I sharing my creative energies?
  • What’s getting the bulk of my attention these days?
  • Where do I wish more of my attention was going? And why there?
  • What rituals could support my creative projects?
  • What rituals could support my overall wellness, bolstering creative energy?
  • What impacts do I hope my creative projects might have?

Honoring Pacing for the Summer Months

  • How do I relate to the concept of pacing?
  • How do I practice pacing on a daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally, and yearly basis?
  • Who are guides, archetypes, or role models for pacing (from animals like snails to elders and ancestors in the work)?
  • What gives me energy, increasing my capacity at this time?
  • What drains my energy, increasing my need to recharge at this time?
  • What sort of pace to do I need this summer?
  • What emotions do I have with recognizing that pace?
  • How can I honor the wisdom of pacing, while honoring my commitments?

For more questions, check out these past blog posts:

  • “Questions for Honoring Creative Energy and Play”
  • “Contemplative Practices for Setting Intentions and Welcoming the New Year”
  • “Career Discernment for a Purposeful Career Path”
  • “How Do We Build More Accountable Lives?”
  • “From Fear to Love: Working with Emotional Overload”
  • “Today Resistance Looks Like …”
  • “Heart-Head-Hands: A Journal Prompt for These Times”

—
This post is written by
Beth Godbee, Ph.D. for Heart-Head-Hands.com. If you’d like to connect around reflection and writing, check out upcoming writing retreat days, subscribe to my email newsletter , and join me on Patreon. Thanks!

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Tagged with: art, commitments, community care, countering perfectionism, courage, creative, disruption, habits, learning, pacing, practices, questions, reading, reflection, resources, rituals, self-care, social justice, writing, writing retreats

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bethgodbee

This fall, so much is being asked of us. There's a This fall, so much is being asked of us. There's a need to keep speaking and acting up (#FreePalestine), and there's a need to keep resting and pouring into our inner reservoirs. Writing retreats are aligned with both needs -- both to create work that speaks into being a more just world and to feel held within a supportive structure, like along a #nature trail.So, there's another #writing retreat this week -- Wednesday, Nov. 29th: https://heart-head-hands.com/product/writing-retreats/ ... And more open dates in December and early January. Toward acting up and holding space with and alongside you. <3✏️ link in bio ✏️
#writingretreat #speakingup #holdingspace
Also, in life news, I have my first pair of readin Also, in life news, I have my first pair of reading glasses! Here's the Sunday evening photoshoot (from the bathroom, of course :-)) with me cracking up.
Some views of November hiking ~ with incredible gr Some views of November hiking ~ with incredible gratitude for the land and water, leaves and fungi, and particularly my person Jonathan. With so much bearing down and needing continued intervention, the trails provide respite. I share them with love and deep breaths. <3
#Repost @theimeu with @use.repost ・・・ Reachi #Repost @theimeu with @use.repost
・・・
Reaching a permanent ceasefire for Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is committing genocide and ethnic cleansing, is critical. It’s also the bare minimum.Palestinians everywhere deserve freedom, just like anyone else. This includes the freedom to live safely on their own land, access to basic resources, and protection under the law.Link in bio to contact your representatives and demand a permanent ceasefire and freedom for Palestinians.
“as artists we must become courageous in telling “as artists we must become courageous in telling truth to power
and razor sharp in our analysis and commitment to liberation,
while we continue to strengthen our collective networks of care”#Repost @chiara.acu with @use.repost
・・・
🌸
what kind of cultural practices do we need to usher in more just worlds?what cultural artifacts must we create?what narratives desperately need to be told?what stories should surface?and which are no longer acceptable?
.
these are the questions on my mind,
on the heels of a holiday shaped by colonial propaganda,
in a country that is financing a genocidal war also framed by colonial propaganda,
while back in my homeland patriarchal violence is again excused and justified in all major media after another femicide
.
racial capitalism has had the upper hand in shaping our reality for centuries
after all, it was financially supporting the production and distribution of most cultural artifacts, from paintings to books to scholarship
.
the change we desperately seek
is in the words we speak,
the images we create,
the songs we sing,
the books and zines we write
.
no art is neutral-
storytelling shapes the way we perceive reality,from our romantic relationships to family expectations and dynamics of power in our cities & workplaces
.
as artists we must become courageous in telling truth to power
and razor sharp in our analysis and commitment to liberation,
while we continue to strengthen our collective networks of care
so that we don't have to choose between a job and speaking out,
between paying rent and selling out,
between safety and saying what must be said
🌸
it's high time for a cultural revolution
and each one of us can be part of this reshaping of reality -
this time on the side of justice
🌸
.
.
.
[Image ID: All text included in caption. 6 slides showing manipulated, two-tone paintings of napoleon, king henry VII, and king philip. pink and yellow flower patterns also cover part of the images. Bold text appears in each slide. The last slide shows purple and bright blue flowers patched together, with tilted text on the lower right of the image]
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About Beth Godbee

I'm an educator and former writing studies professor who believes our fully embodied selves matter in the world. We can’t just think our way out of the incredible injustices, dehumanization, violence, and wrongdoing that characterize everyday life. We must feel and act, too. [Pronouns: she/her.] Read more ...

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