I wrote this prompt for myself on a random Tuesday. Not for a launch, not for anyone but me. I did not expect it to take me out the way it did.
The prompt
Most prompts I write, I edit, and I move on. This one stopped me mid-sentence. I closed my laptop, made tea (Okay.... I made coffee, you know me too well), came back to it an hour later thinking it would be easier the second time.
It wasn't.
What did I need someone to say to me back when I thought I was the problem?
That's it. Nine words. I sat with a blank page longer than I have in months.
Why it hit the way it did
Here's what I've noticed, after writing hundreds of these: I know a prompt is doing its job not because it feels good, but because it finds the thing you've been carrying without asking permission first.
This one found the version of me who used to apologize for taking up space. Who thought being difficult, being too sensitive, being too much, was the reason things went wrong. It didn't ask me to fix that belief or explain where it came from. It just asked what I needed to hear instead, and let the rest stay unsorted.
That's the whole philosophy behind Leaf & Latch, honestly. We're not here to hand you a lesson. We're here to hand you a question and get out of the way.
Try it yourself before you doom scroll later.
You don't have to answer this one out loud, and you definitely don't have to answer it perfectly. Just read it again and notice what shows up.
What did I need someone to say to me back when I thought I was the problem?
Sit with it for a second. That's enough.
A few more, if that one cracked something open
If this prompt got you, it's probably not the only thing sitting under the surface. Here are a few more from the same rooted place, for whenever you're ready for them:
- When did I first start believing I was too much, or not enough?
- Whose voice am I actually hearing when I call myself the problem?
- What would I say to the version of me who believed that?
- What do I need to hear today instead?
None of these need to be solved in one sitting. Write one line and stop if that's all you've got. That still counts.
If a stranger's prompt can do that to you
Imagine what a whole journal full of them can do.
Need somewhere to actually put these feels once they surface? Our Mental Unload Journals are made just for this, no productivity pressure, no need to make sense of anything, just a safe place to set it down and leave it there.
Tell me in the comments if this one got you too. You will not be the only one who needed tissues.
Part of the Leaf & Latch journal prompt library. Find more prompts like this at leafandlatch.com.
