Prompts for Getting Out of Your Head

Sometimes you have to stop thinking to think clearly

The last few months I’ve been kinda beating myself up for feeling uncertain. Not having a clear answer when someone asks what I’m working toward. Feeling tepid about what I’m supposed to want. There’s a lot I could fixate on, or exhaust myself trying to fix. I’m very good at getting in my own way.

Moon Lists has always been about separating signal from noise, but what about when you are the noise?

[Related aside: when I’ve stayed up too late, my contact lenses start to cloud over and my vision gets soft around the edges. I take this as a little cue that it’s time to call it and go home; to stop trying to see things half-clearly because I guess I can. When everything gets blurry, the answer isn’t usually more light.]

The same logic applies elsewhere. You can stop doing things that make you feel bad. You can stop forcing what’s “supposed” to feel good. Sometimes clarity comes from closing your eyes, not squinting harder.

This month’s prompts are for when you need to retune the signal: to clear some static, find the right frequency. To remember you have a pulse. To trust your nervous system over an inner monologue.

Getting out of your head isn’t the opposite of thinking, it’s just remembering that thinking isn’t the only form of intelligence. Stop narrating for a minute. Go outside. Touch something. Let the world remind you that you’re part of it.

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LP

1. EARTH ANGEL
We begin with a two-parter!

• The word “grounded” has been co-opted by people selling you things…but the concept itself is honest. I want you to rescue it: write your own definition of what “grounded” actually means to you, free from all the performative wellness subtext.

• List one thing that keeps you tethered to the planet. (Examples: your grandmother’s hand-me-down cast iron skillet. The corner bodega guy who knows you want a cup of ice + a lemon wedge with your crispy Diet Coke. The specific weight of your favorite coat.