TAKE PART
Below are the steps and questions required to get in touch with your monster and begin the healing process for yourself.
Before we start, please be aware that although this is a lighthearted process, you will be asking yourself some serious questions here. If anything that comes up feels too challenging for you to tackle on your own, please consult a therapist, counsellor or your doctor for help in dealing with the issue.
To get started, just follow the four steps below and answer the questions to build your monster’s character.
When you’re done, send it all over to the email address provided.
Finally, if you’d like to share your monster on your own social media pages, please use the hashtag #mindmonsters so I can find it.
A Note on Sharing
In contributing your monster, you'll be sharing vulnerable information. This is all good, but vulnerability has its tripwires.
What’s important is that you share your monster with the purpose of the project in mind. This campaign is here to teach the invaluable message that we're none of us alone. What this means is that, as contradictory as it might sound, the sharing part of meeting your monster is not really about you. Working with your monster to bring your fears into the light so that you can let go of limiting habits and embrace your creativity, on the other hand, is about you.
And so, the point of this disclaimer is this:
*Meet* your monster when you feel brave. It’s important, and it may change your life.
*Share* your monster when you feel ready to do that in order to reach out and connect with someone else who suffers with similar demons, so that you can help them feel understood.
The Steps
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Step 1:
Bring to mind an example of how you self-sabotage; a thing that you either do or feel that you wish you didn’t.
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Step 2:
Imagine that there is a particular part of your personality that makes you do or feel that thing.
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Now, consider this question:
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If you could see that part — as if it were a real thing, in the room with you right now — what would it look like?
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For help with that, consider these additional questions:
- If you could point to your “monster”, where would you point?
- Is it humanoid, animal-like or something else?
- Is it large or small?
- Is it dark or light?
- Does it move or is it still?
- Does it make any sounds? If so, what kind?
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Step 3:
Draw a representation of what you imagined in any medium you like. It can be as detailed or simplistic as you see fit.
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//Note: Square format is preferred. If you take a photo of your drawing, please ensure that the paper is well-lit and that there are no big shadows. Otherwise, I may not be able to use it.
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Step 4:
Copy the questions below into an email addressed to hazel@hazelgale.co.uk, and send your answers over with your image.
The Questions
1. What kind of self-sabotage were you thinking of when drawing your “monster”?
2. If your monster had a name, what would it be?
3. If your monster could speak, what would it say?
4. Where does it live?
5. Where do you think it might have come from?
6. How does it make you feel?​
7. (This is the big question) If your monster were here to teach you a valuable lesson -- something that would benefit you greatly moving forward, but that might well be hard to hear -- what would that lesson be?
That final question is key to the evolution of your monster. You see, monsters don't realise they're monsters. They think they're our saviours! They're just trying to repeat behaviours and feelings that have kept us safe in the past. So, there's no point in fighting them. They need something kinder and cleverer than that.
It takes a little courage and a healthy dose of lateral thinking, but when we dare to face our monsters, they can become our greatest strengths. Every challenging experience we face and every mistake we make has within it a lesson yet learned. Heed that message and your monster will cease to be monstrous. It’ll become your mentor.​
So, what's the lesson? If you can answer this question, then you already know the route out of the self-sabotage trap.
Good luck!
Your details (entirely optional)
If you’d like me to share your name, website URL, Instagram/Twitter handle (or anything else) with your image, please provide those details.
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My heartfelt thanks for getting involved!