LOOKING FORWARD: 28-Day Creativity Reset Wk 4

My friends! We are in the home stretch. The theme for this week is all about the future. Let’s take what we have explored so far and channel it into some ideas and direction for the future.

As always, take what you like, do as much or as you need, and be gentle with yourself. For a little more context, check out this post or this video. You are receiving this because you subscribed to my Substack, and for this month, I’ll be delivering daily prompts in a weekly email guide.

• Favorites - Monday (day 22 of 28)

  • Meditation: Have you ever loved a book or a movie so much that you just wanted to share it with everyone you know? Or maybe you’ve discovered a new artist or taken a trip to somewhere new, and you just want to share it? Me too. I think of favorites as a kind of selfie. What and whom you love defines you. It doesn’t need to be things: I have many favorite moments. Collecting them gives me true joy. So for today, let’s think about our favorites.

  • Writing: Take a few minutes to note recent favorites—it could be media you’ve consumed or places you’ve visited, concerts you’ve loved, or wines you’ve tasted. Then pick one of the categories, or specific items, and write about what makes it so special to you. If you are blanking, look back on the past three weeks and pick two of the writing or art prompts that you most enjoyed: what appealed to you about them? The color, line, shape, or the introspection, mining of memory, or planning something extraordinary. Create your self-portrait with words.

  • Art: create your self-portrait in any medium you’d like. It can be a collection of favorite things, or an actual drawing, painting, or collage-based portrait of yourself. Set up in front of a mirror. Don’t overthink. If you are struggling, paste in a recent photo or selfie of yourself. Don’t think too hard about it — pasting in a photograph of you at a particular moment in time will be so interesting in the future.

    

• Intentions - Tuesday (day 23 of 28)

  • Meditation: I love intentions. I believe in my heart that Intention is as powerful as experience. If there is a will, there is a way. Some call it manifesting, and I suppose this makes sense, because if you know what you want, you are more likely to catch the opportunity for it when it arises.

  • Writing: Think about your intentions. What is it that you want to take away from this four-week experience? Will you continue on this path? Explore something new you learned along the way? What will transcend the prompts, livestreams, and comments for your personal journey?

  • Art: Today, let’s do some word art — either through repetitive writing or layering writing and design. Explore what you are manifesting through words, color, and mark-making. Obscure the words with color or collage, or leave them as a reminder and a talisman of what is to come. Alternatively, make the words and typography an embodied work of art, like a Paula Scher map.

    

• Goals - Wednesday (day 24 of 28)

  • Meditation: I have never been one for grand New Year’s resolutions. I feel like they are often too focused on the outcome rather than the process. I do, however, enjoy an off-beat goal or side quest. A few years back, a dear friend got me to walk the length of Manhattan in a single day. It was up there as one of the best days I have ever spent in New York City. We stopped anywhere we wanted along the way — a Cuban sandwich in Washington Heights, the Apollo theater in Harlem, a gorgeous flower shop just before we hit Central Park, a Mexican place in Tribeca, etc. In a way, I suppose this 28-day reset is a bit of a quest in itself.

  • Writing: Do you have an offbeat goal or quest? It doesn’t have to be soon. It can be a someday idea. I’d love to have a little art show at our local restaurant, Superfine — but that will require making art outside of my art journal, something that I haven’t yet fully mastered. Still, it is fun to imagine and design. What about a garden? Especially if you live in an apartment with no backyard or terrace, what would your garden include? How would it sit in the world?

  • Art: Make an illustration, diagram, or map of your side quest or someday project. Either the steps and path to accomplishing it, or the imagined end result. Sketch the vision you have in your mind. Add detail until your idea feels real.

• Resilience - Thursday (day 25 of 28)

  • Meditation: We have all faced obstacles of one kind or another, and with certainty, and some sadness, I can say that will continue in the future. But we are resilient creatures, and we can find a path forward through most of the things life throws our way.

  • Writing: Think about moments in your life where you have felt resilient. If need be, make a short list. If you are struggling to identify a moment for yourself, think about when you have observed resilience in others who are dear to you. Then choose one of the moments or experiences and write about it in more detail. Try to focus more on the resilience than the obstacle faced. How can you continue to build the muscle of resilience?

  • Art: Draw, collage, or paint a vessel. A vase, a bowl, a planter, an urn. Take your time with shading to give the vessel a sense of form. Study the slants of its dimensions, the patterns adorning its outward-facing planes. Approach this as a meditation as much as an exercise in observation.

    

• Joy - Friday (day 26 of 28)

  • Meditation: We often treat joy like a massive project—something we have to engineer, plan for, or pursue. But I think joy is actually much more accessible. It thrives under constraints. When you narrow your focus and limit your choices, you can clear away the decision fatigue and nurture a sense of playfulness. By simplifying, you give yourself permission to stop thinking and feel the immediate pleasure of living. Think of the small joys: how the dog looks when bounding after a frisbee, the shape of the Flat White design made by a barista at your favorite coffee shop, the smell of freshly washed laundry, warm out of the dryer, taking 30 minutes to curl up with a good book in your favorite chair.

  • Writing: What small, uncomplicated joys do you return to again and again? Think of something small that consistently brings you a spark of delight. How can you make more room for it in your life?

  • Art: Create a colorful painting, drawing, or collage around things that bring you joy. It can be literal, like my spread below, or abstract and meditative. It’s okay if flawed — it’s fun to look back and see how your style progresses over time. And while I’ve grown a lot, this spread still brings a smile to my face. Make one for yourself!

    

• Meaning - Saturday (day 27 of 28)

  • Meditation: We often look for meaning in monumental occasions, but I find that it rarely lives there. Meaning is derived through pattern and repetition, and from how we process the events of our lives. It’s what happens when you return to a practice so many times that a pattern inevitably emerges. A single day feels ordinary; a hundred ordinary days together become a life. Trust that the small things you do today are anchoring the memories you will treasure tomorrow.

  • Writing: Where have you found meaning in surprising, everyday places? Has it been apparent to you at the time? Do you only realize it in retrospect?

  • Art: Create a series of five-minute sketches that add up to a meaningful whole. Create small rectangles to make the thumbnail drawings easier. Pick small details that can add up to a bigger picture. You could use this exercise to document your home, yard, and neighborhood. Something you will one day look back on as a time capsule, something to remember.

    

• Closure — Sunday (day 28 of 28)

  • Meditation: It is our last day! I am so thrilled to have spent this time with you, and I am so excited to see all that you have created and shared. I have been thinking about closure a fair bit lately, as I have personally been through several major transitions in the past few years (losing one’s parents, career shifts, children moving into new stages of independence, etc.). I am not sure closure is always possible, though I have experienced it a few times. Let’s reflect on the past four weeks and consider where we have been and where we are heading.

  • Writing: What kind of closure are you experiencing? Did you finish a notebook? Discover something new? Will you take a well-earned break before treating yourself to another notebook or a new set of markers? Do you feel drawn more to the art or the writing, or do you enjoy how they coexist? What will you do tomorrow?

  • Art: Close out the notebook or create a final sketch or drawing of whatever you most feel like today — maybe beautiful flowers or sketch your breakfast spread. Practice the patterns that you see in lake water. Sit and study a tree, then draw what you see, slowly, deliberately. Nothing spectacular, just be an observer of your own life as you have for the past four weeks. Congratulations, you’ve done it!

    

My friends! If you have made it this far, you have completed the July 2026 28-day Creativity Reset! I hope you have learned something new, explored your creativity in a new way, and filled a big chunk of your sketchbook with gorgeous writing, line, and color. Even if you are still working through some of the prompts, good for you! You will get there when you get there, and that is wonderful too!

I hope you will continue this practice— after all, I find that any kind of reset is really just the beginning of a habit. And mostly, I’d like to thank you for such an amazing month. I’ve had a wonderful time, and I feel we have started a real community. I will be taking a break from social media and YouTube in August for some family time, so I will see you in September!

Take care and keep writing & making art!

Amanda

p.s., if you are having fun with this reset, why not send it to a friend? Making are and journaling is even more fun together!