I’m a little late with my Chinese New Year journaling prompt post because my lunar new year began with a full rodeo of flu/bronchitis/sinusitis. Yee ha. But, with my body bouncing back I wanted to offer y’all a little giddyup for your creativity.
Even with the crud, it has been a delight to see Singapore dressed in her boldest red and gold for the festive season. Lanterns swinging from anything that could hold them, orange bushes dotted with small citrus suns, everything humming with anticipation.
And I felt something I don’t quite have a word for yet; maybe you can help me find it.
The day before the new year, we walked through shops more chaotic than the day before Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve mashed together. Families moved with purpose, carts overflowing, arms full of the ingredients needed for reunion dinners and sweet offerings. I could feel it in the air, that particular electricity of belonging, of ritual about to unfold.
And in my body, it was just Monday.
I tried to reach back for the old sensations of the holidays of my own childhood - the food we loved, the people who filled the rooms, the anticipatory sparkle that lived somewhere in the chest. But the magic flickering all around me wasn’t mine to step into. I had the beautiful and complicated honor of witnessing someone else’s tradition bloom in full color all around me.
Of course our neighbors were tender and generous, pressing tins of pineapple tarts and paper bags with oranges into our hands with warm smiles.
Still, I couldn’t quite summon the hum that comes in the days before a holiday you’ve grown up inside. I was both welcomed and wandering, standing in the glow of something beautiful that did not originate in my bones.
Is there a single word to name that sensation? Maybe the word is immigrant.
If so, I welcome the ongoing experience of learning what others feel like when they leave everything they’ve known as home to find whatever they most need elsewhere.
Anyway, on to the journaling prompts.
Below are 88 prompts (because I’ve learned that 8 is auspicious, so double abundance, double power). The prompts meander through fire, freedom, courage, balance, and sacred rebellion.
I wonder which prompts will choose you.
🔥 Fire - Desire, Passion, Creative Heat
What sets me ablaze in a way that feels holy, not harmful?
Where have I been dimming my light to make others comfortable?
Where does my passion meet the needs of the planet?
What anger in me is actually love in protective clothing?
What passion have I mislabeled as “too much”?
Who in the world today ignites inspiration for me?
What am I ready to set down in the fire as an offering?
What would devotion to my own creative spark look like this year?
What story have I told myself that needs rewriting?
What is the difference between destruction and transformation in my life?
If my desire were a flame, what color would it be?
What part of me is ready to blaze trails?
What am I afraid will happen if I let myself shine?
When is anger clean and clarifying?
What flavors fuel my creativity?
What am I willing to fight for this year?
What pleasure feels nourishing rather than numbing?
Where am I being called to ignite something new?
What would I create if I stopped thinking about likes, restacks, and subscribers?
What dream refuses to cool down?
🐎 Horse - Freedom, Movement, Instinct
Where in my life do I need more open field?
What fences have I built that no longer serve me?
What does my body know that my mind is resisting?
If I trusted my instincts completely, what would change?
Where am I restless for a reason?
What pace is natural for me?
What am I outrunning?
Where am I meant to gallop instead of trot?
What does freedom actually feel like in my nervous system?
Who benefits when I stay small?
What wildness have I domesticated?
Where can I choose fierce love instead of polite compliance?
How would I sketch or describe the landscape of my freedom?
What season mirrors my current inner landscape?
What wild place is calling my name?
What rituals could mark my sacred thresholds this year?
If my future self visited me, what would she tell me to start now?
If this year were a color palette, what five colors would define it?
If I stopped asking for permission, what would I begin immediately?
Where have I confused productivity with creativity?
⚡ Courage & Leadership
Where am I meant to lead rather than wait?
What is my voice asking to say clearly?
What conversation have I been postponing?
What would brave boundaries look like?
What are my non-negotiables in life?
What do I believe strongly enough to stand alone for?
Where can I model freedom for someone else?
What inherited script needs interrupting?
Where am I confusing harmony with silence?
What does bold compassion look like?
What is the soundtrack of my power?
What kind of leader do I never want to be?
Where does my courage come from?
What would it mean to be unmistakably myself?
What power have I handed away?
What injustice makes my blood boil?
Where can I take a visible stand?
What does righteous anger require of me?
Who taught me to quiet down?
What does leadership rooted in love feel like?
🌿 Balance - Fire with Wisdom
Where do I need tending, not pushing?
What does rest look like for a fiery soul?
How do I cool down without dimming?
Where is gentleness the braver choice?
What practices keep me grounded?
Who helps me regulate when I overheat?
What does sustainable passion look like?
Where can I move from reaction to response?
What would it mean to trust timing?
Where is patience an act of strength?
What signals tell me I’m near burnout?
What nourishes my nervous system?
Where do I need containment, not expansion?
What rituals help me come back to center?
🌎 Community, Justice & Sacred Rebellion
What system am I done participating in?
Where can I redirect my energy toward liberation?
What does solidarity look like in action?
How does my freedom connect to others’ freedom?
Where have I mistaken comfort for peace?
What kind of ancestor am I becoming?
What community speaks my true name?
What does holy rebellion look like this year?
Where can I practice courageous generosity?
What would collective justice feel like?
Which of my gifts serve collective healing?
What am I ready to rebuild differently?
Where is hope not naive but defiant?
If this were the year I finally ran free, what would change?
You could:
Print the list out and cut it into strips that you can pull from a jar once or twice a week.
Create a cozy space where you can light a candle before writing.
Pair it with a long walk and speak your response to the nature beings around you.
Or answer one in a hand-made journal at a hawker center while the world hums around you.
I’d love to know which prompt lands and blooms in your heart.