What Does Your Heart Want?
Using prompts for art that heals.
Inspiration is everywhere! Use your senses to notice your surroundings and you will see, hear, feel, smell, and taste things that invite creative expression. You don’t need any special sort of prompt to help you make art, it’s true.
When you’re interested in art that will help you heal, and you’re not sure where to begin or how to continue, however, prompts can offer helpful springboards inviting your heart to dive deep into memories, thoughts, and feelings for healing.
Prompts can be clear and direct. Sometimes this is just what you want - like a road map to get the journey started, with plenty of options when it comes to the actual route you choose. I like to begin with timelines, for example, because it helps people notice what feels important. You can make a timeline of your whole life, or just a particular period of time. The prompt to create a timeline can turn the timeline into a prompt. As you bring your attention to the timeframe you choose, your memory will stumble and jump about as you add items to the timeline and then remember more.
Prompts can also be metaphorical or oblique. Perhaps a quote or a few lines of a poem will send you down memory lane, inviting you to create art related to your experiences of pain, fear, resilience and healing. For example, Wild Geese, one of my favourite poems by Mary Oliver, includes the lines “You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.” Such sentiments can open the heart to creating art related to forgiveness, acceptance and love.
Visual and audio prompts can be very powerful, too. Images and sounds that may spark the imagination and invite unique entry points into well-washed topics from a new perspective. When you’re delving into feelings, using vivid imagery and a variety of sounds can draw from a deep well of healing creativity.
Whatever story you need to tell, using whatever creative medium you choose, consider prompts as an opportunity to focus your attention and expand your creative expression when it comes to exploring your past, present, and future on your healing journey.
Summer Solstice Event: Book Launch and Music Release Party on World Music Day!
June 21 is going to be a big day! If you’re in or near Kingsville, Ontario, you can join us at the Legion from 1-4 pm to celebrate. We’ll be singing happy birthday to my mom, too!
Two New Books Coming Soon!
If you want to write the story of your life, whether you want to share it publicly or just explore it personally, Heart Work: The Transformative Power of Story and Song: A Memoir and Guide has a companion book called Prompts for Writing to Heal that will be available in June 2025. If you want the prompts but you’re not that interested in the memoir, this book is for you. It will include all the original prompts along with additional writing exercises designed to help you write and reflect on your life’s journey.
If you’ve experienced a tragedy, you might appreciate The Truth About Trauma and Grief. Coming in July 2025, this clear, concise guide helps explain what happens to you when the worst happens in your life. With definitions, description and discussion that helps normalize post-traumatic stress and deep grief, this book also includes suggestions to aid in recovery in the aftermath of trauma and loss.
