#5for5BrainDump – Creative Life Midwife

Planting the Seeds of Love: Overcoming Resistance to Encourage Growth

January 10, 2023 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Hands touching rich, dark soil and a young seedling showing a nurturing energy

Early in the day, everyday, I start with writing practice. Today, it led to something rather extraordinary.

I was reminded as a theater director and writing teacher, facilitator and coach, how much I value process work. Sometimes that is where the gold is found even more so than the final product.

Today, I am going to be transparent and bold, sharing with you my process of drafting wrestling with my thoughts through words. What you will read is the question I asked at the end of the “Mining for Writing Gold” process I created and use.

I always end with asking a question of myself and then free flow writing for five minutes. This time, it was longer than five minutes because I knew there was more there for me to explore.

My hope is you find value in witnessing the process. I’m also wondering if you ever enter into loving, open-hearted conversations with yourself? Maybe you view your inner conversations differently. I would love to hear more, hopefully after you gain some gold nuggets from my process.

What are the seedlings – the sprouts – to overcome my struggles that seem so inherently cooked into me? I can’t see or taste or notice them in me and yet they are there, like a virus or allergen that makes me sick at times.

I find myself wanting to go elsewhere. I want to look up quotes or google something. I don’t want to just sit with the imagery and the question I carefully crafted. I will stay. I will ask myself the question again.

What are the seedlings, bravely pushing through the rocky soil of resistance – the invisible destructive force, not the airy, gracious force I also say is there yet I don’t always act as if that is the case. I stay in the unripened state, the inert, filled with great question that sits in the core of the seed, not yet initiated into the seedling stage.

It is the potent question and the belief there is healing medicine within the answering of the question, the living the question where the seedling grows.

Giving space for the answer to rise – the seedling then, is the question + space + light + nourishment + belief –

I take my hands away from the keyboard. I am onto something.

I am going to pause for a few moments and re-read, allowing the seedling I have just managed to create to bring more to us, right here right now,

The seedling grows when it is surrounded in love: the air it breathes, the water that brings it nourishment, the space around it is drenched in love.

Once a coaching client asked me, “What does love mean?” and I had no idea what to answer.

From the perspective of the seedling:

Love is staying with me, not turning away frustrated when you don’t understand what I am trying so hard to tell you.

Love is bringing me your innermost secrets, your uniqueness – not holding back. How can you be afraid of me, a little seedling, when all I want to do is make this world a better place – just like you.

Love is witnessing the people we meet not at the surface, but at their core. Love is seeing the uniqueness of each one and the similarities we share. Honoring the uniqueness and delighting in the connections.

Love is being willing to set down the rushing agenda to be with the mindful agenda where we both find value in mutual restoration.

Second part: how to nourish the medicine within the seedlings as they grow and become stronger?

I went longer than five minutes.

The second part may come up later. We’ll see.

Woman (Julie Jordan Scott Julie JordanScott) seeming to burst through a broken wall on an abandoned home.

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.

How to Take One Prompt to Create Multiple Forms of Content

January 9, 2023 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Writing Prompts help us practice taking the best action, even if it feels risky at first. Practice facing the next similar situation by courageously remembering and in effect rewriting “What happened next.”

Prompt: Have you had a time when you wish you spoke but didn’t and someone got hurt? Share the story.

Two examples:

One friend, I’ll call her Maureen, got fired from a job. Another friend, Frank, got promoted to Maureen’s job. No one in our friend’s group said anything to Maureen about Frank being promoted after she called Frank.

She called me to ask if I knew Frank got the job. I could hear her disappointment that I didn’t speak up. She was incredulous, “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

The most common response was we didn’t want to hurt Maureen’s feelings. None of us thought, “Well, maybe Maureen will find out, anyway – and she will discover we didn’t care enough about her to let her know.”

Put the Other Person’s Desire Above Your Discomfort

More than a year later, Frank had more good luck career-wise. I took a deep breath and called Maureen. “I just wanted you to know… in case. I remember the last time…”

Maureen wasn’t upset by Frank’s success and she was grateful I remembered and acted differently than I had in the past. It was worth my discomfort and risk-taking.

New Scenario, Familiar Trauma and Trigger

Last week, my coaching client Sharon had a moment when her heart leaped into her throat and wouldn’t let go.

She unexpectedly stumbled upon was a disagreement between family members – or rather one family member was mad at another and attempted to drag Sharon in it via a posting on social media.

Internal triggers and memories of years of loneliness and disconnection pulsed each moment Sharon did nothing. The drumming in her ears increased with each moment she did nothing.

Creating a new way out of her panic, she reached out to her closest family member to warn her what she would find the next time she opened her social media account.

“I didn’t want you to be hurt by what was said or how I was implicated in the posting.”

It was risky. It was scary. Yet Sharon felt instinctively it was better to reach out first. The swollen block in her throat diminished, even though for the next day or so she didn’t feel quite right. “How would I feel if I saw that, unprepared for it?”

Terry Tempest Williams wrote, “When one woman doesn’t speak, other women get hurt.”

Be devoted to being the one to prevent other women from getting hurt.

More Writing Prompt Variations to Use:

“When one woman doesn’t speak, other women get hurt.”

Terry Tempest Williams

To create a neutral gender phrasing, simply insert “person” and “people”

Questions:

Have you had a time when you wish you spoke but didn’t and someone got hurt? Share the story.
Have you been hurt when someone didn’t speak up for you when you couldn’t? Tell the story.
What are some things you can do in your life now to build community between yourself and other people?
Lists: Make a list of 1 to 10 things you would like to be forgiven for by someone else.
Make a list of 1 to 10 things for which you would like to forgive other people.
Bonus: Take action. Write a note of forgiveness to one of the people you want to forgive. Write a note of apology and request permission from those you have hurt.

Traditional Writing Prompts:

I remember when I spoke up and….

I remember when I didn’t speak up and….

# # # #There are no rights and wrongs as to following the prompts here. There is only showing up for your life and your creativity and using what inspires you to fulfill your dreams, passion and purpose.

Woman hugging a cartoon tree - white with black polka dots

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Our Story of Courage & Compassion

October 4, 2022 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Background is pink with white hearts and says "Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the braves thing we will ever do." Brene Brown. Included is a journaling prompt: How will you see your story (daily story, mountaintop story, yearly story) through the lens of deep, profound love this week? — ***What will you write?***

Today hasn’t been easy. I didn’t sleep well – and I was slow to get going – and if truth be told, I might have been better off just going back to bed AND there were/are certain things I want to get done today so here I am, writing, using a prompt I wrote several months ago that is ideal for me right now.

Choosing what to write is easy with #5for5BrainDump

I created a method several years ago that is so simple and effective, some people might not want to believe how profound and meaningful the process was and how deeply everyday people can get with their writing so quickly.

Considering the dumps I am in right this minute, what have I got to lose?

Set the timer for 5 minutes and write, write without thinking or judgment.

Me: I didn’t sleep well last night.

JA: What happened?

Me: I didn’t sleep well. I woke up coughing, choking again.

JA: Ohhh. That sounds tough.

Me: It is tough, it’s scary.

JA: Yeah…

Me: And it makes me wonder about a lot of scary things that lead me down scary paths and I don’t want to go there. I don’t feel like going there.

JA: Ohhh. I get it, I understand not wanting to go to those dark places. I am with you there. I know, I know.

Silence.

Heartbeat filled silence.

Me: Will you tell me a story?

JA: I can write you a story, sure.

Here we go.

Wait.

First.

Me: Yes? What?

JA: Do you trust me? Julie? Do you trust me?

Silent Nod

JA: Thank you. You trusting me is a big deal.

JA: I’m going to write you a note, so you may read it later when you start feeling this way again.

Silence.

More silence.

JA: Dear Julie,

I know it is scary to be awake at night in the dark alone.

You have come so far that sometimes it feels secure to be scared. It is familiar. It is as if your fear is an abusive friend but at least it is familiar. You wake up coughing and choking and you remember what it was like to be a nineteen-year-old version of you, sleeping on a bottom bunk in a dorm room coughing and choking and not being able to breathe at night when you were almost an adult but not quite.

You were taking on a lot and you were scared you wouldn’t be able to manage it all.

When you got older, you called it a stress cough.

You had kids and were working hard to raise them right but sometimes you were uncertain. You know you made mistakes.

You would cough, sometimes with people around, looking at you.

You would ask people to give you water, anything, to shut down the cough to take the horrible cough away because if the cough persisted… like that time you and Emma were in that Cracker Barrel in Indiana on the way to take her to school and you started coughing so hard and you couldn’t stop so you got up and went to the restroom and you coughed so hard you vomited and you cried and you couldn’t get it to stop but you did, eventually, and you went back to the table and Emma and you smiled at her.

“Mommy is ok,” you told her, “I’m fine honey, all is well.” or at least this is how you see it in memory.

There were quick episodes when you were scared and long episodes when you were sick and now, after a long time without the coughing, they’re here.

Maybe they’re ready to say goodbye.

Are you ready to say goodbye, dear Julie?

Sometimes the writing takes you away for more than one 5 minute section, so you keep going.

That’s what happened here. I wrote for about ten minutes in this dialogue format, having a conversation with my highest self, Julianne, about what had been bothering me all day.

This just scratched the surface, but I got it out – and with a writing process like #5for5BrainDump, 5 minutes of prompted writing for 5 consecutive days, magic happens. Trust grows. A new relationship with words and yourself begins.

Devotion, Movement & Trust in Action.

Like I said, I have had a tough day and I didn’t want to show up. I’m still not convinced it was and… because I am devoted to you and because I am devoted to the healing that comes from unedited, non judgmental writing, I am not going to change a thing.

Yes, And….

Writing like this is similar to improvisational theater. In Improv, the primary rule is “Yes, and…” so with writing like #5for5BrainDump we say “Yes, And” to whatever shows up. Jodi Picoult said this about “Yes, And”

“In the space between yes and no, there’s a lifetime. It’s the difference between the path you walk and the one you leave behind; it’s the gap between who you thought you could be and who you really are; its the legroom for the lies you’ll tell yourself in the future.”

What you have read here – if you have gotten this far, is a page in my story. I am loving myself enough and loving you enough to share it here.

Are you brave enough to tell the pages of your story and love yourself through the process?

Julie Jordan-Scott 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 Northwest New Jersey (Sussex Borough, 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.

Rise… with Prompts You Never Knew You Needed

April 12, 2022 by jjscreativelifemidwife

A tree with birds rising from it. Words on the image say "Rise Prompts for Different Purposes.

Today, it is time to rise up, separately and together.

Rising up is a choice. First, an example and a story:

I’ve been consciously walking for a couple months now, but a year ago, I could barely walk at all.I spent thirteen long days in the hospital with pneumonia, Valley Fever and Sepsis. My doctors told me I needed to include walking in my healing regime. I got good at getting out of bed and sitting up, but the walking part besides walking to the restroom and back wasn’t something I felt so great about. It took my friend Beth coming by and insisting we walk.

She held my arm and off we slowly went.

Beth and I became an instant community and we rose up, together.

After that, I was willing to walk and I did walk. People visited me and we slowly walked. I even had landmark goals like the Pumpkin window – that was a big highlight. My friend Tim tried to get me to walk more – but his suggestion felt too far.

Rising up for you may mean making a phone call (and writing a script before making that call.)

Rising up for you may mean writing for five minutes on a subject that makes you angry and you are concerned you will get angrier so you don’t do anything. By the way, one of my favorite notes to self is anger in and of itself is not bad, it may be constructive. This morning I walked 7 flights of stairs because I was angry. It worked in that instance.

Rising up may be stretching your arms over your head once a day. Write a gratitude entry about how good it feels. Repeat tomorrow twice. Tell a friend about it in a text message. Continue. Continue. Continue.

Rising up may mean writing with a friend or writing live on a zoom session

There are prompts and videos you can write with today – tag one of your writing friends and set a time to come in and use one of the #5for5BrainDump videos at the Let Our Words Flow Creative Community or one of the many prompts in the albums or by searching the popular topics that show up in the group. (Check the MEDIA tab in the group.)

Rising up may mean setting a goal today to finish editing one chapter by Friday.Today, we are rising and writing about it.

Prompts for different sorts of Writing

Copy & Paste Texts: (Simply copy, add to a text or direct message and send. You may also add your own brief message to personalize)

1. I have noticed how you rise to the occasion over and over again. Thank you for your inspiration.

2. I haven’t heard from you lately. Is there anything you are facing I may help you with? I miss hearing from you

3. Hey, I am looking for someone I may reach out to when I’m feeling stuck or need inspiration. Would you be willing to receive an occasional check in text from me?

Copy Writing and Social Media Posts

How can your product serve as encouragement to help the people who are interested in your product face their challenges?

Write a heartfelt letter to a possible client/student/buyer and then mold it into a sales letter.

Fiction Writers:

Two options:

1) Write backstory about how your main character has a history of overcoming challenges.

2) Inject a “rise up” story/scene for a secondary character that fills a more stagnant part of your book with a new energy.

Lifestyle Bloggers and Vloggers

We’re getting toward summer when people stop working towards the goals they made earlier in the year.

How can you invigorate your audiences to rise up and over whatever they’re facing amidst the realities of 2022?

Memoir/Life Writers

Make a list of the times you have chosen to rise up. If the timeline doesn’t fit within the outline of your current memoir, how might it help with fleshing out the unseen or backstory in your memoir?

Bonus: How might it be useful in marketing your memoir once it is published.

Poets

Think of metaphors for rising up and use that metaphor to write your poem. Here are some examples to start you off:1) Early shoots of flowers in late winter/early spring2) A child taking her first step3) The beginnings of a difficult conversation.

Quotes and General Prompts

“When Monrovia rises, the city rises witha bang, and I wake up with a soft prayer on my lips.”Patricia Jabbeh Wesley

Prompt: When I wake up, I…..

“Sometimes we have to reach rock bottom before we’re willing to rise up and overcome our trials.” Dana Arcuri

Prompt: I remember when I rose above rock bottom…..

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.”

J.K. Rowling

Prompt: I am guilty of allowing failure to block my progress, and now to rewrite that story, I will ….

Finally, save this link to Maya Angelou’s classic poem, “Still I Rise” and read it as would make you feel ready to rise (even if you don’t really feel like it.)Maya Angelou’s Poem “Still I Rise“

And now, write! Run and write with the words you find here.

Rise separately, Rise together… RISE.

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Trust: How Practices and Imperfection Lead to So Many Insightful Gifts

April 8, 2022 by jjscreativelifemidwife

This morning I sat at my desk intending to write in the same, highly practiced way as I do on most mornings. I met with my focus mate partner – for those who don’t know, Focusmate is a co-working environment online that helps people transform their to-do’s into ta-da’s while supporting another person doing the same in either 25 minute or 50 minute containers.

“I am going to complete my morning writing practice,” I told my new friend’s smiling face and she reported her tasks back to me. We wished each other well and I started writing.

What I wasn’t expecting was to be visited by memories, Kahlil Gibran, Daniel Pink and experience divine healing in the midst of it.

I knew Dan Pink would be present because I had been meditating on his sentence since I read it yesterday in his new best seller, “The Power of Regret.”

The sentence was “Some beliefs operate quietly, like existential background music.”

The overall theme of the writing was to be trust, a word that has been known to invoke a churning feeling in my gut. My friend Laurie Smith’s 28 Days of Flow Challenge had thrown down the word gauntlet and feeling brave, I stepped into the circle to wrestle with it.

Here is what I wrote:

Trust: some days, most days to be honest, I don’t trust much of anything or anyone, much less myself. There was something Brene Brown says in “Atlas of the Heart” about living disappointed instead of risking disappointment. Over the years, I have lived more disappointed than I have risked disappointment.

When I visit my patterns of trust, I realize the bruises of opting out of trust started very early. I don’t want to sound like I am blaming because I am not claiming victimhood, I am exploring what happened. I am examining what the facts are without reconstructing a false narrative based on my opinions.

I think about what was happening in my young parents’ lives when I was a little one and I think “I don’t know how they did as well as they did. A cross country move with four children under the age of 7 with Mom pregnant setting up in a new location with a newish company. All the expectations for success…. once John was born with Down’s syndrome… the guilt and the grief and the fourteen month (fifteen sixteen month) me battled the lack of trust with refusing to learn to walk.

If I didn’t walk, they would have to carry me. They would have to pay attention and lift me up to the places I couldn’t crawl, right?

I didn’t trust for my safety and perhaps because I couldn’t trust I would receive the love I yearned for and practical love through action which I needed in order to continue my little life.

Before language set in fully, I determined being the ultimate protector and caretaker was what I needed to be in order to survive.

This was imprinted upon my innermost psyche: If I take care of others well, we will all stay safe.

This might have been my unspoken but definitely believed mantra – the existential background music, so now that my two younger brothers are dead, I have been proven lacking.

I have been proven lacking again. And Again. And again.

The adult, intellectual me says how flawed this belief is as we are all finite creatures. The spiritual side disagrees, saying “our souls are infinite, my brothers have gone nowhere”. The petulant side claps back with “oh yeah, if they’re here why can’t I shake and scold them for leaving me, for not fighting harder, what did I do wrong so that they didn’t fight longer or better?”

Kahlil Gibran ambles in and says a version of his lesson on Children:

“Your brothers were not your children any more than your children are your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.”

I realize in a flash or a glimmer of a flash I can trust life’s longing, the divine heartbeat, because each circumstance I have lived so far has proven itself to be a guide as much as I hated some of those situations and circumstances, as much as I wanted to vomit the moments from my existence – eventually the gratitude for them turned over in the soil as mulch, to be fragrant and helpful to my personal ecosphere.

I am sitting with that.

Hands off keyboard.

This morning I danced. I said I would dance so I danced in front of the mirror to Nat King Cole’s L-O-V-E twice. I trusted and acted.

I did my lymph exercises in the room of the manse I designated for dance and exercise. I trusted myself to do this, too. It isn’t a habit or a practice yet, it is an intention I am doing my best to fulfill.

Before I sat to write I moved. And I laughed as I danced and I breathed deeply as I moved my lymph system purposefully and it all felt so good, something I wanted to do yesterday but hadn’t built my self-trust ladder sturdy enough yet and now, apparently I have.

Today at this moment I have trusted and acted on purpose. Today at this moment my trust is enriched as even white bread may be enriched with nutrients.

Self-trust is an ultimate nutrient.

The little me can go back and trust her parents who she knows were doing the best they could do. They didn’t need my assistance, I offered my assistance with love, even as a toddler. Perhaps part of my assistance was a prayer for love, but it was birthed in love nonetheless as was I.

I was birthed in love, even if my birth wasn’t planned or convenient or even if my parents actively attempted to prevent my conception. I am a gift from life’s longing for itself. I can reference more sacred texts and embrace this.

After dancing and exercising and trusting myself to walk toward feeling better, I simply engaged with trust at the urging of my friend Laurie Smith and Kahlil Gibran showed up to offer healing.

I can’t think of anything to be much cooler than that.

What has been your favorite moment so far this morning?

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Satisfied, Passionate, Purposeful: Journaling Prompt to Plan Your Week

April 3, 2022 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Every week I go live on Sundays on my Facebook Page, JJS WRITING CAMP, and we talk about a specific journaling prompt. We free flow write in response to the question or prompt and through that, discern what actions we may take because of what we discover and uncover.

What I learned today is neither facebook nor linked in allow embeds of the videos they host on their sites so – next week I will also stream on YouTube so I may share here.

In the meantime, here is a link to the livestream on Facebook at the Writing Camp with JJS Page. When you watch that replay, I offer ideas and the prompt more fully than just in writing.

Satisfied, Passionate, Purposeful: What do these mean to you?

Free flow write for up to 5 minutes on any on all of these words. What are you doing when you feel the most satisfied, the most passionate, the most purposeful?
How are you spending your time so that you will spend more of your time feeling satisfied, passionate and purposeful?
Your subconscious mind will give you details you have yet to discover when you free flow write rather than planning every words to say.

Watch us live on YouTube, Linked in or at Writing Camp next Sunday!

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

January 5, 2022 by jjscreativelifemidwife

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 February 15, 2022

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

November 15, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife

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:

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!
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.
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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Top 7 Writing Micro-Goals for Creative Entrepreneurs

September 18, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In Doubt of Your Ability to Focus Purposefully?

November 16, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

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?

We have the power to look within and find solutions there, even with limitations other people have chosen on our behalf.
We are strong and powerful in all circumstances.
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.