Community Tuesdays: This Month's Prompts + 4/29 Gathering
Plus: extra goodies to help you give yourself a totally-offline retreat
Holy cow, you guys. This first month of our Community Tuesdays Chat was so fun, and so inspiring.
If you didn’t have the opportunity to join us in real-time, I still encourage you to join in now.
The basic idea was this:
Let’s check in weekly asynchronously between gatherings
Let’s set intentions together, then tie each subsequent chat thread back to them, keeping that intention front and center for four weeks of writing prompts that build upon one another
Let’s build a sense of community along the way.
This experiment has already exceeded my expectations, and there’s still time for you to be a part of it! The prompts remain live, and there’s no new one this week, giving you time to catch up.
It might feel especially good for you to set aside time for yourself and to treat this series of prompts like a mini-workshop or retreat. Light a candle, pull a card or two from your favorite deck, snuggle under your favorite blanket, grab a journal and a pencil, and go inward, moving from prompt to prompt in 1-2 writing sessions.
To support you in this, I’ve gathered some resources for you in this post.
Resources for all subscribers below include:
An opening audio meditation we’ve used at past In Tending gatherings that you can use to settle your mind before you begin
Links to all four chat threads, as well as the respective posts we sent to help people to work with them
Some inspiring perspectives from members of our community
Paid subscribers will also receive a few extra goodies at the end of this post that will allow you to take this self-guided retreat totally offline, including:
A printable version of the meditation above
A printable journal insert (in two size formats) that you can write on by hand, if you’d like to do this outside in the sun
Either way, you are warmly invited to join us at our next In Tending online gathering, on Tuesday April 29 at 8pm EST.
At these gatherings (typically timed to the New Moon), we’ll deepen our sense of connection to ourselves and to community as we:
Enjoy some guided meditation time together
Sit in circle and share what’s coming up for us this month
Engage in guided journaling to brainstorm a new set of intentions for the month ahead
Share our responses with the group (or just listen and snap along, as you prefer)
To sign up to receive the Zoom link for Tuesday 4/29, please fill out this short form.
Have more questions about our Zoom gatherings? See this FAQ page.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
It can be very difficult to enter a creative, open, expansive, intention-setting mindset if you’re feeling tense or run-down from a busy day (or month, or year). So, before diving in, I recommend finding a quiet place to sit or lie down, then trying out the following short (under ten minutes) śamatha-vipassanā meditation, which invites you to create a “harbor” for your awareness.
Samatha means “tranquility;” vipassanā means “insight.” Samatha is about training one’s focus, bringing one’s awareness back to a point of focus from where it has been wandering (or spiraling). Vipassana is linked to the often-concurrent or -complementary action of noticing how things in one’s awareness shift and transform. Taken together, they show us that we can establish a still point — and eventually, a conscious intention — amid the constant flow of change.
(Questions about this meditation? See my original explainer post here.)
THIS MONTH’S PROMPTS
Week 1: Setting Intentions
✨ What is something to which you’d like to bring more energy or awareness this month? If you’re not sure, start by observing yourself with curiosity and gentleness, as you might do for a loved one. What sensations, experiences, thoughts or stories about yourself create a feeling of tension in the body? Which ones create a sense of expansion, space, unfurling? Use the latter as clues to feel your way forward to the intention that feels right for you.
—> Ready to jump into the chat and share your intention(s)? Click here.
—> Need more help with this one? Click here.
“One of my personal intentions this week is to be more mindful of how I'm speaking to my daughter when we're in the classic preschooler struggle leaving the house for school. This is the time of day I have the most challenges with keeping my calm leadership, since we're time crunched. I'm hoping that naming my intention will help me stay mindful in the moment, so I can catch myself and course correct as needed.”
—
, parent, food writer and creator of
Week 2: Mutual Aid
✨ Complete these two sentences:
I love to ______ for other people.
I love it when other people _____ for me.
Consider: what does this tell you about the value you’re putting into the world (even if that value is not monetary)? What does that tell you about the kind of support you might need to ask for in this season as you pursue your intention?
—> Ready to jump into the chat and see if your needs might match up with someone else’s gifts, or vice versa? Click here.
—> Need more help with this one? Click here.
“I love offering insight and transparency around publishing (namely cookbook publishing!). As an agent I hear from SO many people how hard it is to get a direct line to industry experts. So lately I’ve been offering one reader of my newsletter the chance to hop on a call during my weekly walks outdoors. I’m calling it Huff & Puff chats. It’s been incredible to connect with people and hear about their passion. All while doing an act of self care and being outdoors.
I also love it when other people make small household decisions for me! I’m a full time solo mom with a wonderful partner who doesn’t live with us but is around a lot. When he helps offload the mental energy around running the household it’s the best!”
—
, cookbook agent, busy parent and creator of
Week 3: The Whole Truth
✨ If setting intentions and pursuing them consistently were easy, we’d all already be doing it. In this community, people say they value Real Talk over edited social media perfection. So, this is a place to celebrate our wins and share our struggles, as well as a place to ask for or brainstorm further supports. To do so, please answer the following questions for yourself:
What’s one small way you know you can already connection to your intention, or have already done so?
What’s one struggle you’re having with this intention? What makes it hard?
What other support or changes do you need to clear the way? How might connecting more deeply to community help you?
—> Ready to jump into the chat and help others celebrate their wins and brainstorm solutions to their struggles? Click here.
—> Need more help with this one? Click here.
“My intention was to listen to my body, and it's an ongoing practice. I had some traveling the last few weeks that disrupted my sleep, but I was able to still care for myself in small ways—recognizing my limits and honoring them instead of pushing through.
One struggle I've consistently encountered along the way is my mind far outpaces my body when it comes to ideas and my capacity to achieve them within a certain timeframe. I've usually let my mind dictate the schedule/expectations but I'm flipping the script and trying to let my body do that instead. It's a HUGE learning curve for me but one I'm excited about!”
—
, poet, new mama, nurse, community organizer and creator of
Week 4: The F@#$%s We’re No Longer Giving
✨ If we’re too depleted from tending others to tend our own intentions, often something has to give. Below, we invite you to decide proactively what that “something” is, before overwhelm and/or resentment and/or burnout decide that for you. What is one f#$s you're not going to give, in order to make more space in your life for pursuing your intention?
—> Ready to jump into the chat and drop those f@#s like they’re not? Click here.
(Ed: This was by far our favorite chat thread of the month, and that’s really saying something.)
—> Need more help with this one? Click here.
“Sorting out other people’s logistics for them when they haven’t asked me to! It will all get figured out—it’s not my responsibility to coordinate everything around me (and probably good for me to get more comfortable with that specific type of uncertainty).”
—
, therapist, quilter and creator of✨Paid subscribers: Keep scrolling for the meditation script + printable journaling inserts that go along with this post, so you can take this process offline if you like. ✨
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