Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

Inspirational Writing, Meditation & Poetry is Right Here & Out Beyond

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A Call to Love Yourself & Others

Sometimes it feels like “Self-Love” is overdone just like sometimes “Self-Care” often falls into a shallow trap of massages and manicures.

Beyond those limiting experiences, there is a depth of beauty you and I may not know yet.

This series “Out Beyond” will blend the richness of poetry, the mindfulness of meditation and the expression of writing and visual art to respond to the ever important call to love others… as yourself.

How often do we forget that this most important guidance not only calls us to love others, we also need to have a true respect and honoring for ourselves before we can understand and apply that same knowing of love for others.

Compassion: Beyond Others and Into Self

“Remember to give yourself grace,” I said yesterday to someone I am working with to have a more satisfying life experience while also living with a chronic illness.

I might as well have been holding up a mirror to my face.

How often do I offer myself undue favor, kindess and offer an outstretched hand of understanding before I leap into negative talk toward myself I would never say to others.

In “Out Beyond” we will explore compassion, too.

Forgiveness: Look Both Outward and Inward, to Self

It is not unusual for people to be great at forgiving others and not so good at forgiving themselves.

I will raise my hand and say “ME!” here because it is something I have been actively working on for quite a while. I recognize how valuable and necessary self-forgiveness and other-forgiveness are during this time of explosive separation, let’s step peacefully into increased forgiveness starting with ourselves.

This experience will take place here, at the Creative Life Midwife, and will writing exercises, videos, inspirational quotes and two five-day writing explorations with prompts and the option to practice and apply what you’re learning through the poetry and meditations.

Rumi wrote, “Out beyond the field of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I will meet you there.” A field of love, compassion and forgiveness will welcome you to explore, discover and add to your creative life in ways you may not even fathom yet.

I look forward to seeing you “Out Beyond” beginning on January 14.

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she is working on finishing her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

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Let our Words Flow Writing Community: the only one missing is you! Join us in the Private Writing Group by clicking here.

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How to Use Journaling to Become Clear on Your Weekly Goals – and Beyond

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Because I am an artist, I have a lot of friends and coaching clients who are also artists – and many of my creative friends have an aversion to setting goals. While I know this is true in other fields, I must confess in my informal research from years of working with people on reaching their goals and fulfilling their hopes and dreams, we turn away from naming and claiming our goals for several reasons:

  1. We are afraid to speak our goals because if we speak them and we don’t achieve them, we convince ourselves this will mean we failed. It doesn’t mean we failed at all. If our goals don’t work out exactly as we planned means your results were different than expected. You got feedback. You experimented. You won!
  2. We are embarrassed about where we are or by what we want. People won’t understand us, won’t want to spend time with us anymore and worst, will judge us, abandon us and no longer associate with us. I can tell you, some of my wacky goals have helped me immeasurably in the “I don’t want to get tangled up in other people’s opinions” categories, so if I want to set and work toward a goal of leaving 100 pennies in random places for people to find, pick up and feel happier because of it – you and others may think I am incorrigibly silly. And that’s ok.
  3. We don’t believe we can achieve the goal anyway so… while the heart-call is there, the energy isn’t so we ignore it. Ignoring or denial is among the most dangerous actions to take. This is where block begins to build. When we resist the desire and pile up lots of over-thinking, underappreciative energy on top of the overthinking, the mindclutter can translate into life clutter. Even taking micro-actions will keep energy flowing and will help you gain evidence that you CAN begin and you CAN move forward.

Even if it is just for this week, try this exercise as an experiment.

If you feel doubt seeping into your thoughts, consider this wisdom from Eckhart Tolle, best selling author and thought leader who wrote, “When the basis for your actions is inner alignment with the present moment, your actions become empowered by the intelligence of life itself.”

We gain clarity when we write without editing, judgment or forethought. Our inner wisdom is given room to roam. We can explore what we truly want without letting other people or our own negative thoughts get in the way of becoming energized and empowered to move forward.

Write using a stream-of-consciousness or free flow,journaling style for five minutes following the framework in the prompt:

First free flow write or journal for up to five minutes using the prompt:

This week I want – and consider what you want to feel, what you want to achieve, who you want to connect with, what you want to let go.

Build on what you want by creating a connection with 

This week I intend: and base your intentions on what you discovered from writing about what you want. 

How often are our intentions the same thing we have automatically been speaking for weeks, months or a season but not related to our heart’s call? 

Using journaling as a tool of clarification will help you align your desire with your intention and then tie back together with what actions you will choose to take in the final prompt:

This week I will choose….which is where our goals, intentions, and vision takes form. You can want something for years or decades but if you do not set intentions and goals and move forward with love through action, you will more than likely find yourself ten years in the future in a very similar place now to where you were when you started.

Julie JordanScott is a multipassionate creative who delights in inviting others into their own fullhearted, artistic experience via her creativity coaching individually or in groups, courses and workshops. To receive inspiring content and videos weekly and find out more about Coaching, Courses, Challenges and what’s going on in the Creative Life Midwife world? Subscribe here:

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Let our Words Flow Writing Community: the only one missing is you! Join us in the Private Writing Group by clicking here.

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Top 7 Writing Micro-Goals for Creative Entrepreneurs

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I’ve seen this happen with more of my coaching, healing arts and creative entrepreneur clients than I can count – and I have even done it myself. We plunk down at our desks at our designated writing times and absolutely nothing happens.

Here’s the thing: creating a small, micro-goal specifically aimed to help you with consistent content creation is deceptively simple. Try one of these on for a week. If it doesn’t appeal, try a different one for seven days. Repeat as necessary.

My secret success is from having one solid “writing not for content but for exercising the writing muscle” practice, for me it is a daily stream of conscious journaling in the morning, and then have a second micro goal I mix up and serve differently, like a writing buffet.

Watch the video here and read below for more details for each tip.

  1. My newest accidental micro-goal is a daily #RollOverandWrite. That’s it. Wake up, roll over and pick up the notebook you placed at your bedside before you went to sleep and write a few sentences.
  1. Write an affirmative intention daily in the morning. “I am capable of writing effective blog posts.” “People enjoy what I write.” “My sales letter is both effective and engaging.”
  1. Exercise for 20 minutes and write immediately after. Set up your writing space before you go for your walk, job or attend your zumba class. If you work out someplace besides your home, bring a notebook with you and write in your car or at the gym or at a picnic table in the park. Your subconscious is watching to see how important your writing is to you by the consistent time you give it.
  1. Journal/free write for a set amount of time or set number of words/pages each day. You may write as few as 250 words (approximately one page) or for three minutes. The amount of writing matters less than simply flowing with your writing rather than attempting to mold it or edit as you go along. That comes later – and believe me, if you can get the words on the page to begin with, editing will come easily.
  1. To practice writing concisely and with the most writing “bang for your buck” write a daily haiku, six word story or American Sentence poem. Any of this “very micro writing” will help you be use your best words. It will help you write compelling copy and/or characters with a more curated conversational style than you may usually write. It will teach you to cut out unnecessary words that often bog down our readers.
  1. Write a 5 item gratitude list before you go to sleep. You may also make a list of “What went well today” or “5 Good Things that happened today” list. Thesetrain your brain to focus on what is constructive and helpful in your life. A bonus is the subject of each item on the list may easily become a blog post, a social media post or a chapter in a book or poem.
  1. Use a timer to write 5 minutes a day for 5 consecutive days, #5for5BrainDump style. You may try unprompted or prompted writing. In the Let Our Words Flow Creative Community we have prompts and videos to guide you as you practice this – plus it is free to join the group which also has a thriving community, lots of tips, video teachings and daily discussion for creative entrepreneurs.

Julie JordanScott is a multipassionate creative who delights in inviting others into their own fullhearted. artistic experience via her creativity coaching individually or in groups, courses and workshops. To receive inspiring content and videos weekly and find out more about Coaching, Courses, Challenges and what’s going on in the Creative Life Midwife world? Subscribe here:

Follow on Instagram to Watch IGTV exclusive videos, stories and posts about writing and the creative process.

Let our Words Flow Writing Community: the only one missing is you! Join us in the Private Writing Group by clicking here.

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In Doubt of Your Ability to Focus Purposefully?

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Like many, I have had to get used to having my entire family underfoot during this pandemic. It used to be I would have complete days to myself to work on my business and create courses, content and sometimes even write for pure pleasure.

These days, I have gotten grumpier and less fun to be around.

Today, I was ready to give up until I decided to use one of my own writing prompts to figure out how to stay focused and purposeful. 

You can do the same thing.

How can you be more focused, even when circumstances are less than optimal?

Here’s what happened for me: I looked back toward a writing prompt I wrote last week for my coaching clients. I knew it would work!

It started with a quote from poet Muriel Rukeyser that went like this.

“In time of crisis, we summon up our strength. Then, if we are lucky, we are able to call every resource, every forgotten image that can leap to our quickening, every memory that can make us know our power. And this luck is more than it seems to be: it depends on the long preparation of the self to be used.”

From that quote came this prompt:

An autumn scene is the background for a writing prompt directing purpose and focus to summon the creative muses.

Here’s what I wrote in 5 minutes:

I remember as early as middle school when I sat in the back of the room typing away at a typewriter, banging on and on about my passion for music. There I was on a manual typewriter with the clanging return bell and my wild push back with my left hand – music, music, music.

I remember earlier, actually, in elementary school, we had a box for our student newspaper. One day I sat and wrote poem after poem after poem about my classmates. I would write one and submit, write another one and submit, write another and submit.

It was exhilarating.

Back then noise didn’t bother me. In fact as an adult I would spend Sunday mornings in sports bars, writing, while my children were at church. I loved church but I loved writing freely, even in loud bars, more.

So why is it right now I can’t seem to get writing done when it is too noisy in my house, which is where we all are given this pandemic?

It may be because here in the house I am responsible. If something happens, I am the one who feels compelled to jump up and “make everything better.”

I am the “go to for instant solutions.” I am the guide, the champion, the always willing to wake up out of a solid rest in case of a crisis because for Mommies there really isn’t much of a rest.

5 minutes of writing yields results

From there came possible mindset solutions that invited me to take different actions in the future:

Solution? 

Give myself a break for continuing to do my work in the world. Trust everyone here can take care of themselves in case of a crisis, big or small.

In fact, each person in this house will be a better human if I sit back, do my work, and be more grounded in my own mission than constantly worrying about theirs. Figure out the noise canceling headset.

I am now free to choose to have a strong, focused week because our audiences are out there, wondering where to find their next inspiration.

After all, during this time, what do we know, most of all?

  1. We have the power to look within and find solutions there, even with limitations other people have chosen on our behalf.
  2. We are strong and powerful in all circumstances.
  3. We can do this, whatever this particular “hard thing” may be!

Let’s have a productive, focused week. If necessary, return to this rescue writing prompt. Heal those negative, naysaying energies.

Find a supportive creative writing community in our private facebook group

How would your writing productivity change if you received varied, niche driven writing prompts daily – also fiction, poetry, entrepreneur, copy writing and video prompts are offered, join the Private Word-Love Writing Community on Facebook by clicking here.

Julie JordanScott lives in Bakersfield, California in a house too small for quarantine life. She leads discussions on Zoom and is polishing her most recent memoir and some poetry for soon-to-be publication. If you would like her to speak to your group over ZOOM until travel is available again, she would be happy to talk to you about that OR maybe you are looking for a slightly quirky, very open hearted, compassionate and tender Creative Life Coach. She would love to speak with you soon.

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Explore “Everyday” Passion, Even During These Pandemic Times

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You might think to yourself, as many do, passion is this huge experience, this mountain-top time of pure, unadulterated delight. 

Today, I am inviting you into everyday, ordinary passion – because this is the space in which life may begin to truly feel vivid and refreshed and ready to be lived again, even in the midst of this negative, life abrupting pandemic time. At the bottom of this blog post, there is even a mini-writing workshop video so you may try the prompt right here and now, “almost live”.

It happened again to me this morning. I was feeling very committed to staying grouchy. I was resentful of the oppressive heat rolling through California which kept me from walking around outside to keep up my daily walking practice. I discovered I was self-triggering when I walk inside because in the past I only walked like that when I was excessively agitated.

I did it anyway. I walked around the house – up and down the hallway, into the dining room, a swing through the kitchen and back again. Up down and around. Up down and around. Up down and around.

As I was walking I thought about an art challenge and my ideas for today’s prompt. Surprisingly I didn’t think how bad my idea was in relationship to others I had seen so far. I walked my loop a few more times before plopping myself into a chair at my project table and simply starting to make a tiny work of art.

I didn’t think about what I was doing, I simply did it.

My thoughts left, my inner grumbling silenced, my first mistake was tossed aside and then I was finished almost as quickly as it took to get started.

Now I had a smile on my face. 

Now I wasn’t grumpy.

Now I was ready to get the other tasks done on my to-do list.

Now I was looking forward to the rest of my day.

This, my friends, is ordinary passion.

This, my friends, is how something so plain and minor and insignificant can become a method to making the best from a challenging time.

Mary Oliver said, “Let the world have its way with you, luminous as it is – with mystery and pain,  graced as it is with the ordinary.”

Instead of stopping your natural rhythm and flow by staying committed to the blahs and blocks which may have been holding you back, now is your time to grace your life with your ordinary passion – and before you know it, the everyday stuff of life will shine. The everyday, mundane, not-even-energizing-enough-to-be-annoying will become a gift. 

You may choose to grow from your pain.  You may choose to breathe life into the ordinary.

Imagine it: mundane moments, becoming fertile ground for passion. Extraordinary-ordinary passion is in your everyday life.

Let’s write about it,together.

Think about the “little things” you really enjoy.

Walking past the rosemary bush with its hauntingly inviting scent.

That moment when you step into the shower after a long day at work or at the beach (or the moment you step out of the shower.)

Your first sip of cold water after a run.

That moment when you finish a puzzle or a project or a game that makes you smile so wide you’re glad you have ears so your smile won’t wrap around your head.

This is the world, having its luminous way with you.

Let’s write it:

My recent moment of everyday passion was when _______. What made me feel so happy was…… (and now, you write, starting with writing for five minutes reliving that experience of everyday passion. Write the details, keeping them as engaging as possible.)

We’re ending your blahs and blocks that so many are experiencing right now by using inspiring, mind-and-heart opening prompts that will help you gain clarity about what is the most important right now.

If you want to continue exploring and feeling better instead of worse, join us for our #5for5BrainDump experience. Writing for just 5 minutes a day for 5 consecutive days with curated prompts for exploration.

Would you like to participate? Two ways to do so. One is by receiving an email every day when #5for5BrainDumps are in session. The other is by joining our Word-Love Facebook Community.

Both options are available right here:

To receive an email with a private video message and writing tips, please subscribe to our #5for5BrainDump Email List:

To participate in conversation with other participants, join the Word-Love Writing Community Facebook Group where the conversation and livesteam sessions will be accessed in a safe, private writing community.

Portrait of creative life coach and creative life midwife Julie JordanScott

Julie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, A Social Media Whiz and a Mother of three. One of her greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. 

Julie is also one of the Founders of Bridge to the New Year. Access the visionary prompst from the mid-2020 in #Refresh2020 to reflect, connect, intend and taking passionate action to create a truly remarkable rest of 2020. 

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Rumi, A Walk in the Park & You

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Some of this might take you out of your usual comfort zone of understanding. Right from the first line I talk about my heart having a front door. Whose heart has a front door?

I invite you to think differently today – and consider if you are, in fact, a “guest house” and your heart is the doorway into the house. I would love to know how your writing goes if you choose to write.

The front door to my heart rang this morning. When I opened the door, I heard a subtle invitation:

“Would you like to spend your haiku time today at the

Panorama Vista Preserve?”

I thought for a moment as I got into my car, “Oh, I might indeed want to go to the Panorama Vista preserve this morning. Hey – that’s a cool idea, I was considering where to aim myself to write my haiku- I might just take you up on that idea.”

The knock on my heart wasn’t totally unlike the concept of someone saying “May I buy you a drink?” or “Would you like to go to the movies?”

Once there, my senses and my heart opened fully to whatever it was my host aimed for me to see. 

My being human is a guest house, I thought. Divinity swings by sometimes with assignments I may choose to take or not take. I have the option of writing and storytelling and sharing or not sharing. No matter what happens – even nothing – there is learning and growing as a result. 

Today as I tromped along the dusty, recently horse travelened path, I was astonished about the new things I saw: two no-longer-alive trees called to me as they stood, towering over the smaller, well cared for bushes and plants planted by the Kern River Conservancy folks.

I found a bench farther along the path than I have ever found before – because I had never walked that far. This morning I didn’t set out to see new things or walk farther than I had before, it just happened because I opened the door to receive the invitation and responded.

I allowed myself to be further romanced by dead trees at sunrise and because of that, I moved forward farther and with more strength and sure-footed than I was the last time I visited.

This time, I saw more bunnies hopping around there than I had ever seen. They made it into my haiku. I heard a different sort of bird than I am used to hearing. I posted a video on my daily haiku sharing and have started a conversation to find out what sort of bird I was hearing.

I was able to fully embrace the dusty, burnt plants air and admire the work of the Kern River Conservancy in their outdoor green-house. When I first visited here a good ten years ago there were lots of those dead-looking trees, not an abundance of native plants under cultivation.  

I sat on the new-to-me bench to write and it was because of my quiet that more animals grew to trust me and made themselves known.

This being human IS a guest house. My guests include you – and the animals I saw – the egret, the bunnies, the insects, the birds-I-can’t-quite-name-yet. 

Each aspect of this experience was and is sacred. Each aspect is profound enough for me to remember so that tomorrow, I will open my heart so that more guest house visitors will be welcomed in.

I forgot to mention the ending of this story.

I walked back to the parking lot and a car that had been idling for at least twenty minutes started moving, doing donuts and making huge circles of dust in an out-of-control way. I hurried to get seated and get the ignition on so that I might be able to write this. I stumbled and was flustered and before I could even begin to move, the other car was driving away. 

One moment, my heart was pounding and full of fear and the next, I felt safe. I allowed the momentum of the love and joy and witness of the sacred in the ordinary guide both my writing and my experience. Yes, the wacky-scary donut driving car experience also happened, but the one negative didn’t overshadow the beauty because I knew “I am being a guest house, not a house of horrors.”

I look forward to going back and walking further than the two dead-looking trees and the second bench. I will continue to follow the flow along the current of the sacred where I know every morning there is a new arrival waiting for me.

I wrote this post in less than 5 minutes using the same methods we use in the #5for5BrainDump experience: we write from a prompt for 5 Minutes for 5 consecutive days and as a result, some pretty magical insights take place… and new pieces of content are born. This five minutes will, I know, be used in social media posts beyond this blog post – and reliving this morning’s experience in words makes it even that much more sweet.

Simply use the prompts from the image above to begin your renewed writing experience. All it takes is 5 minutes.

It’s all waiting for you to simply say yes. Thank you for reading.

To receive an email with a private video message and writing tips during our next free writing experience, please subscribe to our #5for5BrainDump Email List:

Subscribe

* indicates required

To participate in conversation with other participants, join the Word-Love Writing Community Facebook Group where the conversation and livesteam sessions will be accessed in a safe, private writing community.

Portrait of creative life coach and creative life midwife Julie JordanScott

Julie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, A Social Media Whiz and a Mother of three. One of her greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. 

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How to Create a Simple Intention that Will Change Your Life for the Better Even During these Uncertain Times

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I confessed to you in yesterday’s blog post I had one of the largest blocks of my lifetime last Fall after having a near-death experience. It wasn’t only the almost dying that shut down my creative will to make things, it was the unsupported recovery.

In the perfect world, I would have had numerous caretakers hovering nearby ready and able to be at my beck and call but in reality it was Emma and me… and since I never trained Emma to “adult” – my mom never trained me, I just became an adult from about age eleven and increasing as I grew older – so there I sat in my corner recliner doing nothing except walking to the restroom back to my chair and walking to the kitchen and making myself not to terribly healthy meals and back to my chairs and at the end of the day, I would either sleep in the chair or wander to my bedroom.

I had friends swing by and take me places, doing the best they could, but no one really knew what my life was like inside my house.

I wasn’t about to tell them because that would make me a creative failure, a wannabe, a nothing. After almost dying, I felt so lackluster that being “a-nothing” was where I hovered the most.

I would look at the computer, but wouldn’t use it. I wouldn’t go on the internet and scroll, I would look at the turned-off screen, not interacting with the keys or watching videos or anything.

I would hold my notebook in my lap, but I wouldn’t move my pencils or pens or crayons.

In retrospect, there were two necessities that were far from my experience. I needed an intention and I needed someone to give me a bit of a believing push.

I needed someone to say “I believe in you. Your work is important to the world! It’s time to love and live an inspiring question because you love the people in this world and sister, they love you, too.”

I existed through November and early December, normally exciting times for me. I slowly started feeling better.

It wasn’t until a December sunrise shortly before I went to visit my daughter Katherine and her husband, Donald, that my creative will started to move through me with any sort of consistency.

What made this shift happen? I decided to live and love a question while keeping my heart open to the forward flow of intention:

“What is it that I used to do that made me feel better that might make me feel better now?

Some possibilities that rose up were good, but I couldn’t do them without the help of others. I love karaoke, but my lungs and voice didn’t feel ready. I knew my recovery would take at least six months. I would adore being on stage again, but same challenge – PLUS I would need to have a director who really wanted to cast me. I couldn’t imagine that happening anytime soon.

I chose writing haiku which combined writing – which I have always loved – with haiku – which was a very short poem and therefore, an easy idea to put into motion. 

I also knew if I failed, it wouldn’t be heartbreaking because… it is only a short poem once a day. Besides, no one would be paying very close attention. I made it even easier because I said “Must complete in the morning,” which meant I didn’t have a long time to think about how much I really didn’t WANT to write a haiku. 

I didn’t have time to think about how much I didn’t want to do anything but sit alone in a corner.

After a week which included quite a bit of family travel which is wonderful and stressful and tense, I realized my question, “What will help me feel better?” changed everything when I loved the question, was patient with myself in allowing the response to find its way to me, and I took a very small baby step every day.

Interesting to note it was that same week when I insisted I was going to visit my parents in Flagstaff sometime around my birthday, an idea and an intention I had been holding for over a year but other people’s needs and my own lack of planning continued to interfere with the actual implementation of my plan.

I will forever be grateful I visited my parents in the middle of February. It was only a few weeks later a simple visit with them would be impossible due to Covid-19.

A simple question: “What would make me feel better?” and a contemplation of which activities were do-able yet also a bit of an inspiring stretch, has changed my life in ways I never expected.

It is important to make considerations as to what you are willing to…. do or be or accept or let go of in order to feel better or do better or be better. You may have to let go of your perfectionism or be willing to get up earlier or be willing to drink more water or take something out of your schedule or you might have to be willing to make people angry.

In the long run, none of those small annoyances – or what may feel wildly uncomfortable now – will compare to how great you will feel by consistently aiming for what it is that will make you feel better. You have the wisdom within you right now to determine what that is.

I believe in you. I look forward to seeing your “what’s next” with a little extra nudge of intention added to your experience.

Even with the challenges of 2020, I am more alive and more connected and more compelled to make a difference than I have been in years. Often during my visioning work, I imagine 5 or 10 or 500 or 25,000 people feeling better, too. I imagine the impact that would have on our planet.

Do you have five minutes to write in response to this prompt and others like it? It’s all waiting for you to simply say yes. Thank you for reading.

To receive an email with a private video message and writing tips, please subscribe to our #5for5BrainDump Email List:

Subscribe

* indicates required

To participate in conversation with other participants, join the Word-Love Writing Community Facebook Group where the conversation and livesteam sessions will be accessed in a safe, private writing community.

Portrait of creative life coach and creative life midwife Julie JordanScott

Julie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, A Social Media Whiz and a Mother of three. One of her greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. 

Julie is also one of the Founders of Bridge to the New Year. Access the visionary prompst from the mid-2020 in #Refresh2020 to reflect, connect, intend and taking passionate action to create a truly remarkable rest of 2020. 

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Set Your Words Free From Pandemic Blahs & Blocks

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It seems like forever ago when the pandemic began and we were scared: this was the beginning of a temporary situation, all would be well soon, we said – and we put some aspects of our lives and thought, “I can do this for a while, I suppose.”

And we did. And now a while is a lot longer than we expected or suspected it would be and many of us are left feeling either defensive or constricted or unable to break through the barriers. We know, intellectually, we have been the ones who create, tear down and build up our thought barriers yet here we sit.

Pencils unmoving. Pens, immobile. Fingers a long way from the keyboard.

Some of you don’t know I almost died of Sepsis back in October. For many days I sat in this exact spot I am sitting in right now and wouldn’t touch my computer that sat on the table right next to me. I just couldn’t do it. As much as I loved writing and knew underneath this wall of inability and destructive thoughts it would be what would make it all better, I sat. Facing the opposite direction. Once I got home there was no television, I didn’t know about podcasts, few phone calls from friends or family, very little interaction at all. Every day it stayed the same.

Julie JordanScott in the hospital while she was battling pneumonia, sepsis and multiple organ failure.

It was my rehearsal for the pandemic.

In retrospect I look back and wish someone had handed me my computer and my keyboard and asked me to type in a question.

I know myself well enough to know the question – any question – would be all I would need to begin to write – and to begin to feel – again.

This is why I feel so strongly about leading these writing sessions, these mini-workshops. They’re open for anyone who can tune into either YouTube or Facebook Live. We will be there, everyday, I will provide you a question and together we will write.

We will – you and me and whomever else is there – feel better and spread that “feeling better” to our communities.

That sounds excellent to me right now, on this Sunday in August, 2020.

Would you like to participate? Two ways to do so. One is by receiving an email every day when #5for5BrainDumps are in session. The other is by joining our Word-Love Facebook Community.

Both options are available right here:

To receive an email with a private video message and writing tips, please subscribe to our #5for5BrainDump Email List:

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To participate in conversation with other participants, join the Word-Love Writing Community Facebook Group where the conversation and livesteam sessions will be accessed in a safe, private writing community.

Portrait of creative life coach and creative life midwife Julie JordanScott

Julie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, A Social Media Whiz and a Mother of three. One of her greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. 

Julie is also one of the Founders of Bridge to the New Year. Access the visionary prompst from the mid-2020 in #Refresh2020 to reflect, connect, intend and taking passionate action to create a truly remarkable rest of 2020. 

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How Connection Shifts & Grows & Makes Everything Better

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My lousy mood had no chance when I created a Connection and Gratitude Breakfast Sandwich. Add in a cup of yummy coffee and the rest… took care of itself.

One of the sure-fire ways for me to get off course is for me to be in a bad mood.

If I am in a sour mood, I find it difficult to get work. I find it difficult to focus. I find it difficult to create a shift which I know would make everything get better almost instantly.

Maybe you are one of the people in the world who is full of sunshine all the time. I tend to be an optimistic, happy person but recently, it has been more and more difficult to lift myself up and out of a not so great mood.

This morning I found myself in a grumbly, frowny face state of mind. Little annoyances piled into a leaning tower of inner bickering. A chorus of bad vibes were pointing and laughing, taking note of short-comings from as long ago as seventh grade.

This was how I felt before my livestream #5for5BrainDump today – when I was to talk about connection. Being in a foul mood when I am scheduled to talk about one of my favorite subjects was like disappointing a most loved friend. I dreaded the livestream yet I knew I had a date with – less than perfection. 

I was connecting to less than perfection whether I wanted to or not. Full steam ahead.

I started like I usually do – with breath exercises and focus and suddenly, as I breathed the light of connection into my heart space, everything felt better.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was better. I felt better – and the livestream went on.

Was it my best ever live-stream? Not at all.

Did it provide value? Yes! It did! Here is the prompt we used and you may use now, too:

We are connecting both this week and next week for #5for5BrainDump sessions. If you would enjoy participating, join the Word-Love Writing Community Facebook Group where the conversation and live-stream sessions will be accessed in a safe, private writing community.

Portrait of creative life coach and creative life midwife Julie JordanScott

Julie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, A Social Media Whiz and a Mother of three. One of her greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. 

Julie is also one of the Founders of Bridge to the New Year. Access the visionary prompst from the mid-2020 in #Refresh2020 to reflect, connect, intend and taking passionate action to create a truly remarkable rest of 2020. 

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How to Choose Aliveness Over… (Insert Bleak Sounding Term for “Uncertain Times”)

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Most of my days I wake up away from home because I house sit for a friend who has been quarantined away from Bakersfield. Lately I have been waking up, walking my way into a haiku poem and photo and getting home in time to fix breakfast for Samuel and myself and starting my work day in my home office.

Today I was shorter on time than usual because I host Ta-Da Tuesday at 7:30 am and I had my #5for5BrainDump writing session to facilitate at 9. I didn’t have time for a lengthy walk and I wanted a walk. Oh, how I wanted to take a walk and it was making me grouchy that I wasn’t able to walk longer and just cavort according to my own choosing.

I arrived at one of the parks I sometimes enjoy spending a slice of time in the morning and felt ornery when I heard leaf blowers. And then I heard lawn mowers. And then I almost didn’t get out of my car to walk because “the noise was ruining my experience (how dare they.”

I remembered I have the luxury of choosing what my responses are. I have the joy of choosing whether or not I walk or whether I take a photo and write a haiku.

I opened my door and stepped out and into the parking lot and immediately smelled fresh, cut grass. I smiled. Yes. I made the right choice. 

I walked across the parking lot and as I lifted my foot, I saw a spent hypodermic needle. I shut my eyes and felt the tendrils of anger rise up from my gut. To the west of the park is a methadone clinic. Naturally there will be heroin addicts around.

I took that anger and breathed love into it. Tonglen meditation says to allow the revulsion to be there and breathe in the revulsion of the many and exhale relief for revulsion. In this moment I breathed in compassion and prayer for the pain of the addict who used the needle. I exhaled relief, I exhaled peace for the person and for other junkies who may have dropped needles in other parks.

All of this was done as I continued to walk. I paused as I walked toward the pond where ducks were swimming to inhale the scent of grass, mounds of freshly cut grass filled me with delight. I went on a short trip in my mind to my elementary school classroom. My heart thrilled at the side-trip.

I realized how sunrise was still putting on a show and felt such joy. I admired the mallards and the other, not-identifiable probably “mutt ducks.” I noticed the pigeons on the roof of the bridge. I smiled as some started circling and dancing and playing as if they were celebrating the sunrise and the freshly mown grass and they were flying around to celebrate the feeling good rather than feeling lousy. I am not yet able to circle around in flight, so I pulled out my notebook.

I noticed as some of the pigeons were not stereotypical looking. One was brown with white spots. Another pigeon was smudged with shades of black. The other pigeons didn’t seem to mind, though in their pecking order I am sure some may hold their beaks in a particularly superior way, but I am not one to pass pigeon judgment.

I didn’t want to leave the park but people were waiting. The rest of my life was waiting.

Because of the seemingly inconsequential choices I made, I was filled up to the brim with passionate aliveness even with noise, even with ugliness, even with any number of things I might have, at another time, labeled as wrong.

This morning I chose passion above being a grouch.

This morning I chose movement above staying stagnant.

This morning I chose tonglen meditation over grumbling about something I stepped over. 

This morning I chose peace over spilling anger and aloofness.

This morning sunrise found me, unexpectedly, as I found myself back to people I connect to with love.

Today, what will you choose?

Portrait of creative life coach and creative life midwife Julie JordanScott

Julie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, A Social Media Whiz and a Mother of three. One of her greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. 

Julie is also one of the Founders of Bridge to the New Year. Access the visionary prompst from the mid-2020 in #Refresh2020 to reflect, connect, intend and taking passionate action to create a truly remarkable rest of 2020. 

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