> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.tom-shaw.uk/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Time To Check-In With Yourself - URL: https://www.tom-shaw.uk/time-to-check-in-with-yourself/ - Published: 2025-04-28T16:01:09.000Z - Updated: 2025-04-28T16:01:09.000Z - Description: Some questions to ask yourself about where you are at. - Author: Tom Shaw - Tags: Reflections, #substack, #substack-type-newsletter, #substack-access-everyone, #Import 2026-10-24 12:50 I was tweaking the bio that I use on [my website](https://tom-shaw.uk/?ref=tom-shaw.uk) and [About](https://tomshawwritings.substack.com/about) page this week. It’s a process I spend a lot of time with and often find myself revisiting, as it gives me the opportunity to ask myself questions in order to understand myself better. In finding answers that feel accurate for me, I often find that this is the genesis of [a profound poem](https://www.tom-shaw.uk/why-bother/) or other piece of writing that changes how I show up in the world and that moves thoughts and emotions of others. I believe that our soul—the essence of our humanity—holds everything we need to become our most authentic selves, and I alluded to this in one of my [Notes](https://tomshawwritings.substack.com/notes) that many people were resonating with: Getting curious about who we are and what we’re here to do in the life we’ve been given forms a key part of the [poetry workshops that I offer](https://tom-shaw.uk/bookings-and-sessions/?ref=tom-shaw.uk), and I’m always looking for how to have more of these kinds of dialogues in the things I attend to. With this in mind, I’ve put together ten questions that I regularly ask myself. I believe others would benefit from asking themselves these same questions, knowing what they do for me. These questions will prompt you to explore the deeper parts of yourself—perhaps the parts that don’t get to come out in the people you interact with on a day-to-day basis. The questions you’ll see are, first and foremost, for you to answer for your own use. I’ve deliberately written them in the first person and I encourage you to read the questions aloud as you see them. Furthermore, I recommend writing your answers by hand somewhere that you can return to every now and again for your own reference. I will leave this piece pinned on the [Reflections page of my Substack](https://tomshawwritings.substack.com/s/other-stuff) should you wish to return to them at any point. You are not required to enter any answers into the boxes provided. If you are open to sharing what comes up in your self-inquiry with me, I would be incredibly grateful, as this can help me to tune into patterns emerging across all of our psyches, and thus I can tailor my poetic efforts towards this. The results aren’t shared with anyone except for myself, and it’ll go a long way to helping my work be more than just a poem or reflection that arrives in your inbox. [Click Here To Begin](https://www.tom-shaw.uk/survey/2912879) That said, if you do wish to share some of what you found in your self inquiry with myself and other readers, I welcome your contribution wholeheartedly. You can do so by using the button below to leave a comment, and I invite other readers to check out the comments too so we can all become strengthened by those willing to share their process: [Leave a comment](#ghost-comments-root) Here’s what came up for me as I explored just one of the questions in the list: > **Who is the version of me that I let nobody else see?** > > I let nobody see the “lazy” me. I am always putting up a facade that I am being productive, that I am generating and creating, when so much of the time I desire to neglect my opportunities to up-level and instead just sit back, maybe watch a film or listen to an album, and do nothing. Or the times when I reside myself to eating shit food because I was too lazy to cook something more nutritious. I am uncomfortable admitting these instances; the times when I sleep in all morning, or spend an afternoon on the sofa procrastinating on whatever would be useful to be working on. I have a lingering fear that I will not be welcomed by others for admitting the times when I am unproductive, or that I didn’t accomplish what I’d told myself I would do because I felt too lazy to do it, and find creative ways to avoid admitting that I didn’t achieve as much as I’d set out to do. Perhaps there’s a poem for me to find in this. Thank you for taking the time to engage with this, and I look forward to bringing you more soon. With gratitude, Tom ![](https://cdn.mymidnight.blog/a14ac55a4f27472c5d894ec1c3c743d2/substack-post-media-s3-amazonaws-com/public/images/5bdcc4c2-4c8f-489d-994b-bedeb8e6c288_750x990.png) [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) [Leave a tip](https://tom-shaw.uk/product/one-time-donation-or-tip/?ref=tom-shaw.uk) --- *P.S. I also experimented with Substack’s Live Video feature this week, where I read a few poems live and worked with* [Harry Radcliffe](https://open.substack.com/users/310817847) *of* [Silly poems](https://open.substack.com/users/3801815) *to finish up his latest masterworks. I have some plans to do a more formal live reading very soon using the feature, but in the meantime, you can check out my preliminary efforts below:* [Reading Poems & Testing Livestream FeaturesThis video was taken from a somewhat-impromptu tester I did of Substack Live, where I read out some poems from my previous books and explored the capabilities of the current system. I was also graced…![](https://cdn.mymidnight.blog/a14ac55a4f27472c5d894ec1c3c743d2/substack-post-media-s3-amazonaws-com/public/images/10bb0009-5e84-44ee-a718-12b501f3eb7a_1280x1280.png)Tom ShawTom Shaw![](https://substack-video.s3.amazonaws.com/video_upload/post/161907056/a12b5ceb-e1c3-4907-8cd8-1d3eabd364ac/transcoded-00001.png)](https://www.tom-shaw.uk/reading-poems-and-testing-livestream/)