Let Imagination Rewire Old Stories
A 5-min. practice to untangle your thoughts, plus the essence of your C.O.R.E.
This post is part of a Seed Pod collaboration about libraries. Seed Pods are a SmallStack community project designed to help smaller publications lift each other up by publishing and cross-promoting around a common theme. We’re helping each other plant the seeds for growth!
Welcome! I’m excited to share #44 of our free library of 5-minute imaginative tools that encourage brave, creative living. If you’re like me and don’t always practice daily meditation, today’s exercise (below) helps us befriend the pesky Monkeys in our minds. Plus: the ancient framework behind these playful tools. First, a swan song for summer & our sponsor, the Earth:
What IS a library, friends? A home for imagination.
Can imagination save you? I endured a traumatic childhood by drawing pictures, making stories, and singing songs about imaginary worlds I wished I could live in.1
In summer, I rode my purple Schwinn to the library and filled a knapsack with fantastical books that I devoured and returned the next day. Later, I wrote YA fantasy novels for kids like me whose lives depended on stories.
When midlife and grief cracked my heart open, I found solace and insight through ancient wisdom traditions of Indigenous elders,2 mythology, and shamanic journeys. I cried my way through “Women Who Run with the Wolves,” “The Artist’s Way,” and “The Red Book.” Neuroscience engaged my curiosity about how we can heal and change.3 Ultimately, art-making revealed and mended the emotional stories stuck in my cells.
Imagination can rewire the stories collected in our hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits.
I longed to share these joyful, life-changing experiences with my teen and women’s circles. Over a decade, I developed a playful deck of cards (and this FREE library) of short imaginative exercises and creative prompts. HeartsQuest cards (and the Holy Sh*t potty-mouth version) invite you to explore inner worlds and act on your takeaways.
A library of tools to nourish and strengthen your C.O.R.E.
Your core runs deeper than your abdominal strength. It’s your essence, the source of your well-being. HeartsQuest tools are organized around a C.O.R.E. framework of four essential elements for human thriving (we’ll explore in more depth this month):
Curious Mind (air)
Open Heart (water)
Resilient Spirit (fire)
Energetic Body (earth)
Indigenous belief systems around the world honor these four elements and the four directions. North American Medicine Wheel teachings interweave four facets of living a good life: mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual.4 NOTE: It’s vital to protect and honor unique Indigenous cultures. Yet many teachers speak of unity, and that we all have Indigenous roots. With permission, I adopted these universal symbols of wholeness and interconnectedness to support myself, young people, and women in life transitions.
You are much more than your thoughts!
Today we explore the thoughts that live in the Curious Mind of your C.O.R.E. If you’re like me, your brain stores a lot of funky messages from the patriarchy (be perfect, look good, be strong, do more, get more, don’t show emotion, blah, blah, blah). I call these inner voices the Monkeys of Fear.5 They’re normal, natural survival mechanisms, and they’re NOT your fault. But they’re yours to deal with.
Meditation and mindfulness are proven to promote well-being, yet many resist it 🙋🏼♀️ This simple yet difficult act of witnessing your thoughts is powerful. It’s brave to observe the persistent patterns and underlying programs that rule your day-to-day. Plus, you’ll get friendly with a wiser part of you, the observer who watches you think.
So let’s get curious. See you in the comments 💗
Today’s 5-minute exercise: The Earplugs
May this 5-min. practice create space from the thoughts in your head. This video features my ridiculous alter-ego Queen Poopicina sharing the potty-mouth, ‘Holy Sh*t’ 💩 version of the tool, with a spontaneous song. Or follow the steps below.
Earplugs: How can I tame my Monkey Brain?
BREATHE deeply, and get comfy.
IMAGINE wiggling a pair of earplugs into both ears so the outer world gets quiet.
FOCUS on your breath: slow in and out.
WATCH your thoughts come and go, like clouds passing through a clear sky. “Oh, that’s a thought. Oh, there’s another one.”
NOTICE: Do your thoughts jump around, like what Buddhists call the ‘Monkey Mind?’ It’s ok. Everybody has jumpy thoughts. Observe these workings of your mind with curiosity.
BREATHE: With loving kindness, bring attention back to your breath. You can’t do it wrong.
REFLECT: “My thoughts are like...”
Creative Prompts: notice what your brain is really up to
EXPLORE: Share or write what you thought about (in the comments👇🏽)
CREATE: Make a drawing of what it’s like inside your brain. Or act out one of your surprising thoughts.
MANIFEST: This week, sit, breathe, and listen to your thoughts for a full minute each day. Notice any patterns? Meanness, or self-criticism? Be gentle. Where does this lead you?
🗣️ Your turn: What did you observe in your mental landscape? Any old junk lying around? How do you support your C.O.R.E.? Do you honor earth-based traditions of four elements and four directions?
THANK YOU 🙏🏼 For sharing your brave voice. When you reply, comment, forward to a friend, restack, or especially when you subscribe, my heart glows with gratefulness.
More to come,
Want more posts from this Seed Pod or join in on the fun? Head over to our thread for more!
This Art and Mental Health interview with
includes childhood drawings from my graphic medicine work-in-progress, “Meet Your Monkeys.”I’m blessed to live on the lands of the Suquamish Nation, home to Chief Seattle. The generosity of spirit in the land, the waters, and the people transforms me daily.
Anishinaabe medicine wheel teachings include “…having a spirit, heart, mind, and body… capable of connecting, feeling, thinking, and acting, which leads to healthy relationships with self and others.” ~ Indigenous Perspectives On Education For Well-Being In Canada
“How I Met My Monkeys 🐒” first in a series on Parts Work (inner archetypes of thought and belief).
I relate to your journey Christine and also loved Women who run with the wolves and the artists way. I need to check out the red book. What a beautiful resource you created. And live from the loo was brilliant!
…definitely in the elements and out of my element in equal measure…could use more core focus for sure…keep wielding and rocking…