Prompt #74 - Plant the Seeds for 2024
What do you want to grow?
Hi, and welcome back to 2024 with The Stress Less Pencil. Together, we create art to make us feel good, not to make it look good. All weekly prompts are designed for total beginners and experienced artists alike, so if you’re new here come join us.
Hello again, my dear friends, and welcome to the first TSLP prompt of 2024! I hope you all had a fantastic start to the new year?
We finished off 2023 by symbolically burning all the crap we did not want to carry with us into the new year. Now that we’ve rid ourselves of all that weight, let’s start 2024 by planting the seeds of everything we want to grow this year.
The Activity: Your 2024 Growth Plant
Step 1 - The Seeds
Write a list of all the things you would like to grow this year. This can be actual things, such as your bank account or your collection of old records. Or intangible things, like your patience or your poetry skills.
Try not to fall into the trap of thinking in terms of wanting or accumulating more, but rather think about the things and qualities you already have, and putting time and effort into making it grow bigger.
Keep the list focused and pick your top 5 priorities.
Step 2 - The Plant
Take out your favourite supplies and draw a plant on a piece of paper. This can be a potted plant, or a flower, or a tree. Just make sure it has 5 or more leaves or petals.
Now write your 5 priorities on your plant, one into each leaf. As you write them try to break it down a bit further in your mind and envision what growing this thing will actually look like.
You want to grow the amount of books you read each year? How many books do you want to read? How will you achieve this? When and how will you read these? What does that mean for your habits and routines? As you draw, try to visualise yourself actively doing the thing.
Step 3 - Hang your Plant
Put your plant where you can see it frequently. Setting intentions is one thing, but actually putting in the work on a consistent basis is quite another. So make sure you don’t forget to water your plant, otherwise it’ll shrivel and die.
My Example
This year, I want to grow:
My strength: I want to be able to deadlift 100kg more than once, be more flexible, and get better at cardio.
My knowledge: I love learning new stuff, so I want to make sure I lean into this more, even if what I learn is a bit random at times and often involves creating a new Instagram account for it.
My savings: to have more of a safety and comfort cushion to fall back on
The Stress Less Pencil: Obvs! I want to get more people to pick up their paints or pencils and create art for the sake of creating and feeling good, without the stress of creating something perfect.
My resilience: Times are scary, change is the only constant in life and more of it is coming, so I want to boost my mental resilience through things like meditation, journaling, a spiritual practice that works for me, and a closer connection to nature.
and while I’m writing this, I also realise that I should have added one more leaf: more food! I want to grow more food in my garden this year. :)
Here’s to a good start, and I hope all your plants with grow big and strong.
Love, Lorena