The impact of your inner resources

November journaling prompts

And so wraps a significant month. With December around the corner, today’s journal prompts invite you to reflect on your role within the collective.

When it comes to the reflective prompts I share, they’re always introspective in nature. I offer an angle of introspective not so that we can each burrow more deeply into self-focus. That’s not the point. I’ve noticed in myself and in others that hyper-individuality is often as much a rejection of our innate interconnection as it is a neglect of what DH Lawrence called ‘the deep self.’

Introspection, in this light, becomes an act of reclamation—a way to reconnect to the deeper, relational self that holds the potential to engage meaningfully at a time when things are so atomized and separated by design.

When we know ourselves deeply, we can gather and direct our energy to show up with integrity as a life-long practice.

This month’s journal prompts invite you to look deep within and to call on yourself to bring your gifts forward. It’s an opportunity to reckon with your distinct magic, your agency, and what it means to be alive at this time.

November’s journal prompts are available to all readers through the end of this month. Beginning December 1st, they will only be available to paid subscribers of Gentle Musings. To read the full archive and support this publication, I invite you to upgrade your subscription.

Onto the prompts!

What skills, knowledge, wisdom, strengths, and gifts do you have to offer to the collective?

These are your inner resources.

Don’t discriminate here, catch everything you think of. We aren’t getting pragmatic yet, we’re just collecting. If it helps to write a list or mind-map to keep your thinking relaxed, try that.

As an experiment:

• Think big. Like cosmic. What gifts and strengths do you have that feel like a secret superpower? Some of this strength might come from generations of wisdom in your lineage.

• Think as small as possible. Sometimes our skills and knowledge is so practiced, it becomes invisible to us until we name it.

If nothing comes up right away, you probably aren’t giving yourself credit here. Sit with the uncertainty, catch the self-doubt, own what you hold inside.

How have these inner resources made your life better?

It can also be helpful to think of yourself at different life stages here, looking back in time. Are there moments you can think of that illustrate the impact of your inner resources?

How do you want to share your skills, knowledge, strengths, and gifts?

Tune into the wisdom of desire.

One way of exploring this is to consider things you can do—or are skilled or natural at—but it feels draining to offer these up in a general sense.

So, what’s the opposite? What makes you light up? In what ways do you feel compelled to be generous and extend your inner resources to the collective?

You might start with: I could…

Remember: the collective might be as small as the people in your house, and as wide as considering those you don’t even know.

If you get snagged by pragmatic thoughts here, just keep leaning into the feelings of generosity and connection.

How are you called to share your inner resources at this time?

Starting prompts if this is helpful:
I am feeling called to share more of my ____.
I am feeling called to serve through my unique ____.

What is one meaningful way to share your inner resources this week or month?

As you explore this, consider what other resources you might call on to support you in taking action. For example, a friend might help look over an outreach email if it’s outside of your comfort zone, or they might sit with you on the phone as you send it.

Notice where thoughts of not-readiness creep in and lovingly challenge them.

From Roshi Joan Halifax: “May we be generous and helpful. May we cultivate integrity. May we be patient and see clearly the suffering of others. May we be energetic, steadfast and whole-hearted. May we cultivate concentration and be grounded, so we can skillfully serve all beings.”

Thank you for writing, thank you for being here.
XO
Maggy