A library ofquestionsworth sitting with.
Short prompts for your Journal, a walk, or a slow minute. They describe nothing about you and recommend nothing. Copy one, and make it yours.
Before a purchase
Questions to ask in the gap between wanting and paying.
What state am I in right now: rested, rushed, restless, celebrating, flat?
If this arrived tomorrow instead of today, what would I feel about it?
What is this meant to give me, and is there another way to get some of that?
Who or what put this in front of me just now?
Would I describe this choice out loud to someone I respect, without editing it?
What would I have been doing with this moment if the option did not exist?
After a purchase
Looking back kindly, to learn rather than to judge.
How did I feel a minute after paying, and how do I feel now?
What was I hoping this would do, and did it?
What was happening in my day just before I decided?
Is this a choice I would make again in a calmer moment?
What small thing would make the next similar moment easier?
What can I say about this choice that is true and not harsh?
Salary day and routines
The days when money arrives and the habits around them.
What is the first thing I tend to do when money arrives?
Which routine around money do I follow without ever having chosen it?
How do I feel in the days before money arrives, compared with the days after?
What would a calm version of this day look like for me?
Which part of my money routine feels like mine, and which feels inherited?
What is one thing about this day that I would keep exactly as it is?
Money and family
What we absorbed at home, and how it still shows up.
What did money feel like in the house I grew up in?
Which sentence about money did I hear most often as a child?
Where do I follow a family habit without agreeing with it?
Where do I do the opposite of my family, and is it a choice or a reaction?
What would I like to be able to say about money to someone close to me?
Which conversation about money am I avoiding, and what makes it hard?
Saving and goals
What a goal is actually for.
What is this goal really about: safety, freedom, belonging, proof, rest?
Whose voice is the loudest when I think about this goal?
What would I notice in my daily life if I were closer to it?
What makes it hard to stay in touch with it on ordinary days?
Which goal have I outgrown, and is it okay to say so?
What is a first step so small it would feel almost silly?
When money feels heavy
For the days when thinking about it is the hard part.
What exactly am I worried about, in one plain sentence?
Is this a worry about today, or about a day that has not happened?
What do I know for certain, and what am I filling in?
Who could I talk to, even briefly, about how this feels?
What is one small, kind thing I can do for myself today?
What would I say to a friend who told me exactly this?
When money is tight
Making room to think when there is little room.
What is the one thing this month that matters most to protect?
Which cost feels bigger in my head than it is on paper?
What am I doing right now that is working, even if it is small?
Where do I feel most pressure, and where does it come from?
What would feel like a little relief, without a cost attached?
How do I talk to myself about this, and is it a voice I would accept from anyone else?
Looking back at the week
A minute to notice, not to score.
What did I spend on that I was glad to spend on?
Which moment this week felt like it ran on autopilot?
When did I feel most like myself around money?
What was the hardest moment, and what state was I in?
What did I notice that I had not noticed before?
What is one thing I would like to carry into next week, and one I would leave?
Nothing matches that search. Try a single word, such as “family” or “calm”.
You do not have to work through a prompt. Tele-MANAS (14416) and KIRAN (1800-599-0019) are free, open any time, and there to listen. Fingene is educational and is not a substitute for support from a person.
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