Shadow Work Prompts
18 shadow work prompts about your inner critic
The inner critic usually borrowed its voice from somewhere. These prompts are for finding out whose it was, what it thinks it is protecting you from, and what you would attempt if it were quieter.
The prompts
- What does your inner critic say most often
- Whose voice does it sound like
- When did you first hear it
- What is it trying to stop you from doing
- What is it afraid will happen if it goes quiet
- Which mistake does it bring up again and again
- What does it say when you rest
- What does it say when someone compliments you
- Would you let anyone else talk to you this way
- What would you say back if it were a person
- When has it been right
- When has it been loud and wrong
- What have you skipped because of it
- What would you try if it were softer
- What would a kinder voice say about today
- Whose kindness could you borrow until yours comes
- What do you want to be true about you instead
- What is one thing you did well this week
How to use them
- Take one. Not the list. One prompt is a whole entry.
- Write the first honest answer, not the tidy one.
- If a prompt makes you want to close the notebook, that is usually the one.
- Come back to the same prompt in a month. The answer moves.
Somewhere to keep these
Prompts are easy to read and easy to lose. Exist is a private journal where you can answer one, keep it, and find it again later — and, if you want, see that other people are sitting with the same thing.
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