All you need is Love

Five prompts to help you spend some time in the wonderful feeling of love

How would you like to feel a big wave of love wash over you? To wallow around in the feeling; to experience it in all its glory? From romantic love, to love for friends, family, pets and even strangers, it’s all there for us to access whenever we like and I’d like to invite you to feel some love right now.

I’m going to give you some?writing prompts to help you do this. Don’t worry, you don’t need to write a story or poetry, you’re just going to be using writing as a tool. In fact, you have my full permission to scribble incoherently, spell badly, throw grammar out the window and generally let go of everything you’ve been told to do when it comes to writing. I know, it’s a challenge, but if you can do it I promise you’ll thank me.

Just before I give you the prompts, if you fancy joining me and other soul-searchers in exploring and discussing this lovely subject for a couple of hours, we’ll be using some of these prompts and more at a?Write for your Life — creative group journaling special?on Saturday, 19 February 22.?Creative group journaling?gives you a safe, encouraging and fun space to write and share — it really deepens the writing and connects you to others, and most importantly, to yourself. What’s not to love?

Instructions

So, if you’re going it alone, engage free-writing rules for all these exercises, these are: Keep your pen moving, don’t correct or edit, and allow the writing to go where it goes, even if it’s off topic. Whatever you write about is calling your attention and is useful for you. If you get stuck, repeat the prompt, or write about being stuck, or whatever else is on your mind. Finally, time yourself — give yourself five minutes for each of these, setting a time allows you to let go into the writing. You can always carry on if you feel compelled but having an end time really helps.

Whilst love can be riddled with challenges and heartache, for these exercises, give yourself permission to just focus on the lovely stuff. Why? Because it’ll make you feel good!

1. What is love?

So firstly, what is love? Write simply from the following prompt, ‘Love is…’ Describe it in as much detail as you can. If you need some inspiration, engage all your senses, what texture is love, what colour, taste, shape etc.

Prompt: Love is…

2. To be loved

How do you know you’re loved? What does it feel like? Where do you feel it? If you want to pick one kind of love, then focus on that and feel free to get a bit saucy if you go for romantic love, go on, no-one’s looking.

Prompt: Being loved makes me feel…

3. To love.

Same as number 2. How do you know when you love someone or something (I’ve focused on people for these exercises but you are of course at liberty to pick anything you like). What does it feel like? Where do you feel it? How do you know it’s ‘love?’

Prompt: When I love someone/something, it feels…

4. Romantic love

As it’s February, we’d better include romantic love. How do you know when you’re falling in love — when you’re ‘in love?’ Have you ever considered that all the feelings that the significant other is stirring, live within you; laying dormant waiting to be brought back to life. So whether you’re in a ‘how many years!?’ relationship, single, or somewhere in between, I invite you now to tap into these feelings, to just enjoy them.

Prompt: The last time I fell in love…

If you’d like to let your love know how much they mean to you, you could write them a love letter for Valentine’s day.?Here are some tips if you need a bit of help.

5. Thanks for the love

Perhaps you don’t feel grateful for the love you have. Perhaps you don’t have the love you want and you take the love you do have for granted. You’re definitely not alone. Imagine what it would be like though, to not have that love, the love you take for granted, like familial love, however flawed it may be. So for this exercise, you’re just going to say thanks for the love you do have.

Prompt: Thanks for the love…

I hope you enjoy these exercises and I’d love to hear how you get on.

If you’d like to know more about Creative group journaling, coaching, or anything else, do give me a shout at?[email protected]?or go to cpsdayoff.com for more info.

Photo by?Ekaterina Shakharova?on?Unsplash