When You Can’t Answer the Damn Prompt (and Think It Means You’re Broken)
You buy the book.
You know, the one that everyone is having huge breakthroughs with.
You open to Day One, ready for the magic.
And then the first prompt asks something like:
“Where do you feel dead in your life?”
“What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”
“What are your five deepest desires?”
And your mind?
Goes. Completely. Blank.
Not the peaceful kind of blank.
The foggy, churning, I-know-it’s-in-there-but-I-can’t-reach-it kind.
Instead of answers, there’s this swelling in your chest.
A knot in your throat.
A giant swirl of almosts.
You feel all the things, but can’t write a single one down.
✋🏽 Wait—Is That Just Me?
No. It’s not just you.
You’re not a freak.
You’re not “not trying hard enough.”
You’re not completely broken.
You’re not unfixable.
And you’re definitely not doomed to stay stuck just because you can’t spill out 5 polished answers on Day One.
You’re likely in a place so deeply saturated with emotion, survival, or masking that your words haven’t caught up to your feelings yet.
And that is what nobody tells you.
📣 The Problem With Most “Breakthrough” Work
There’s something incredibly frustrating that happens when you’re ready to shift but still blocked:
You see other women posting their journal breakthroughs, reciting affirmations in the mirror, saying things like:
“This one question changed my life.”
“I did this 40-day exercise and met my future self!”
“This journal helped me release 20 years of pain.”
And meanwhile, you’re over here feeling like:
“I stared at that same damn question for three days and all I got was a tight chest and the sudden urge to reorganize my spice drawer.”
You think, “Maybe I’m not ready.”
You worry, “Maybe it won’t work for me.”
You wonder, “What’s wrong with me that I can feel so much but not find the words?”
For me, personally, it’s like I can FEEL all the things, I can sense them but I just can’t form them into words. They all swirl and come together in a big cluster that just sits in my throat and in my mind sound like the adult voices in The Peanuts.
🧠 Here’s the Truth: The Brain Protects What’s Tender
If you’ve lived through:
Chronic stress or survival mode
Emotional or narcissistic abuse
Masking your truth for decades
Shame, silence, or always putting others first
Then your brain has gotten really good at building walls between your thoughts and your feelings.
It’s a protection mechanism. A smart one. But also? It makes personal growth feel like running a marathon in molasses. (Anyone else just pause and sit thinking about molasses for a few seconds? Just me???)
Because you’re not starting from “just a little stuck.”
You’re starting from “no one has heard me—not even me—for a very long time.”
🌀 Following Sparks Was Built Exactly for This
This isn’t a coincidence.
Every journal I’ve created at Following Sparks was born from this space.
The space where:
I couldn’t answer the prompt
I felt everything but said nothing
I wanted to move, shift, change—but not be cracked open by force
So instead of demanding answers, FS journals gently invite you to notice, play, soften, name, release, breathe.
There are no gold stars for going deep.
No shame for skipping pages.
No pressure to have clarity before you even have quiet.
💫 Because Here's What You Might Need Instead:
Not:
“Name the 5 parts of your soul you’ve buried in the desert of your childhood.”
But:
“Circle a word that stings.”
“Doodle the shape of your mood.”
“Name a moment that felt like a spark—or the absence of one.”
“Let it be fuzzy. Let it be messy. Let it not make sense.”
“Try again tomorrow.”
THIS is what real healing looks like when you’re thawing out after years of silence, pressure, or pretending.
🌱 You’re Not Destined To Stay Stuck. You’re Just Unfreezing- At Your Own Pace
And that process doesn’t respond well to demands.
It responds to safety.
Slowness.
Play.
Kindness.
It responds to:
Pages you can write on or ignore
Prompts that hold space, not expectation
Micro-rebellions that say: “I matter, even in this messy middle”
🛠️ Ready but Still Blocked? Start Here:
Here’s what I recommend if you’re in that foggy, swirly space:
Stop trying to force answers. You can’t crack open a flower by yelling at it.
Pick up a journal that asks softer questions. Start with:
You can get all three in a specially priced Spark Awakening Bundle
Let yourself feel. Scribble. Cry. Laugh. Doodle. Sit.
Come back tomorrow.
🔥 Final Word: You Are Not the Only One
If no one has told you this:
You can’t answer the prompt because you’re still reconnecting with your voice.
That voice is sacred.
And it will return when it’s safe, when it’s ready, when it’s invited—not yanked.
So if you’re sitting in front of a book that “changed everyone’s life” and feeling like it’s just making you feel more stuck?
Breathe.
You are not alone.
You are not broken.
You’re just in the pre-spark phase. And there’s a whole world of magic waiting to help you through it.
A note to the women who are also struggling financially:
When I first saw the light and found myself both emotionally broken and peniless from both mental and financial abuse, I kept feeling like rays of hope were just carrots dangling in front of my face. The resource was right there, but the money to take action wasn’t. Yes, there are free resources out there. But when something speaks to your soul, you should be free to follow that spark, especially when you are in those fragile healing days.
I reached out with extreme vulnerability to more than a few product creators. And, nobody offered their hand.
I am here, with my hand to help you. If any of my journals or resouces speak to you and you cannot afford them, send me an email and I will happily discount or give you what you need. We are all in this together, and your sparks matter
