February arrives quietly, carrying the language of love into a world that still feels unsettled. This is not the easy love of cards and flowers, but the steadier kind—the love that stays when systems strain, when grief lingers, and when the news refuses to soften. In traumatic times, loving ourselves becomes an act of resistance and care. Creative practices—writing, movement, making—offer us ways to tend to that love, helping us remain present, human, and connected when the world around us feels anything but.
These are difficult times.
Caregivers know this terrain well.
So do direct support professionals, advocates, artists, and anyone showing up day after day for others while managing their own fatigue, fear, and uncertainty.
In moments like these, creativity is often dismissed as a luxury—something optional, extra, indulgent.
I believe the opposite is true.
Creative practice—
Writing, dancing, painting, making—becomes essential when the world feels unsteady. Not because it fixes what is broken, but because it helps us stay in relationship with ourselves and one another.
I write when words come slowly.
I move when my body holds what my mind cannot resolve and to connect to another positive human being for a few hours. Music transforms the moment we are in.
Mikelle, me and her team paint. We let the paint take us on journey through our marks and shapes—not to produce something worthy, but to let color and motion speak where language fails.
These are not escapes.
They are acts of attention.
Creativity gives shape to emotion without demanding answers. It allows grief to move, fear to soften, and moments of joy to surface unexpectedly. It reminds us that even when systems falter, our capacity to create meaning remains intact.
For caregivers, creativity may look like five quiet minutes at the kitchen table with a pen.
For providers, it may be movement after a long shift—music, breath, stretching.
For individuals and families, it may be art, storytelling, or shared laughter in the middle of a hard day.
There is no right medium.
There is only the invitation to make something—anything—that helps you stay present.
At Shining Beautiful, we believe creativity is not separate from care.
It is part of how we sustain ourselves and one another. It is how we resist numbness. It is how we remember that we are more than the roles we hold or the systems we navigate.
In uncertain times, creativity becomes a practice of staying.
Staying with the body.
Staying with the story.
Staying with one another.
You don’t need permission.
You don’t need talent.
You don’t need time you don’t have.
You only need the willingness to begin—right where you are, with what is already in your hands.
Loving ourselves through traumatic times does not require grand gestures or perfect practices. It asks only that we stay—stay with the body, stay with the breath, stay with whatever small creative act keeps us connected to ourselves and one another. In a world that continues to burn in visible and invisible ways, choosing creativity becomes a form of love: quiet, persistent, and sustaining.
This is how we endure. This is how we care. This is how we stay.
Creative Grounding Prompts for Uncertain Times
A Note to the Reader
These prompts are not about productivity.
They are about staying present when the world feels heavy.
You do not need to complete every prompt.
Choose one. Stay with it for five minutes. That is enough.
1. Writing: Stay With the Story
-
Write one sentence that begins with:
“Right now, what I’m carrying is…” -
Write for five minutes without stopping.
-
Do not reread. Do not edit. Let the page hold it.
2. Movement: Let the Body Speak
-
Put on one song.
-
Move in whatever way feels natural—standing, sitting, stretching, swaying.
-
Ask your body: What needs to move today?
3. Art: Shape Without Words
-
Choose one color.
-
Make marks—lines, circles, shapes—without trying to make something “good.”
-
When finished, name it with one word.
4. Breath: Return to the Moment
-
Inhale for 4 counts.
-
Hold for 2.
-
Exhale for 6.
-
Repeat five times.
-
Notice what softens.
5. Reflection
-
What shifted, even slightly?
-
What helped you stay?