Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

How Do You Nourish Your Creativity?

by

Torn white paper and blue background encourages the viewer to know they are able to nourish and nurture their creativity.

What does it mean to nourish creativity?

Like food for the body provides nourishment, food for the writer’s life nurtures us so that our creative output not only increases, we also feel more satisfied and fulfilled in the process. I was under stress yesterday – much of it self imposed – and I ate a hunk of chocolate.

It wasn’t even good chocolate. It definitely left me feeling empty and the opposite of nurtured.

I didn’t feel nourished at all, I felt pretty dumpy. This morning, I prepared nourishing snacks in case I happen to get stressed out again I may have a much more satisfying afternoon sweet – with cranberries and oranges rather than processed fluff of temporary feel good and crash.

I use creative, spiritual practices to nourish my creativity. I have had a daily writing practice for more than two decades now and while I am not perfect at it, I show up at the page not to create the next chapter or be instantly brilliant, but because the page calls and this daily “writing to stretch like a runner stretches or a singer warms up her vocal chords” makes everything in my life run more smoothly – NOT only my writing.

Most recently adding meditation allows me to be calmly focused and again, life flows better when I add these two together.

Since my near death experience in 2019, I have been almost chronically at the ready for the next crisis – and as many have come, this is to be expected. Meditation is incredibly helpful for writers in a variety of iterations. You may choose writing meditation, art meditation, walking meditation or the old-school meditation practice I have going now all nourish my creativity in different ways.

For example, nourishing creativity might look like this:

✨First and foremost, continuing my daily creative and spiritual practices, partnered together. Writing Practice and Meditation practice. Both will be done in the first hour of waking. This starts my day focused and keeps me open to ideas, insights and wisdom beyond my own.

🌟Secondly, I will focus on honoring my planning practices and implementation with a focus on follow through and follow up.

💝 Finally I will utilize healthy doses of personal kindness, forgiveness and grace as I seek to improve and am bound to fail. Failure is a welcome creative teacher.

🎭 Also on my mind is I will be beginning a local theatre project, my first in New Jersey since I was 11 years old. My intention is to build community and mindfully study how the script, the writing and the art of theater intersects with my anchor art of writing. My role is a fun, supporting character role – the character development has begun – looking forward to read-through tomorrow.

You may nourish your creativity with experimentation

🙋🏻‍♀️❓How are you nourishing your creativity? How is that working?

In this New Year, perhaps it is time to try some new activities to nourish and nurture your creativity.

Three ways to nourish your creativity in 2023

  • Take time to explore new things – try something new each month or maybe more often depending on your schedule or what is most inspiring to you. , like taking an art class, visiting a new museum, exploring a local park, attending a live improv show.
  • Connect with others – attend events, join a club, or collaborate with other creatives. Talking with others can help you find new perspectives, collaborate on ideas, and stay inspired. Open the door for possibilities and follow through with other creatives you resonate with the most.
  • Set aside time for creative thinking – dedicate at least 30 minutes a day to brainstorming, daydreaming, and exploring new ideas. Allowing yourself to be open to whatever comes to mind can help you come up with new and innovative concepts.

💝 📚📒

💡 Your presence here makes me feel grateful. 

✍🏻 I am a writer first, writing & creativity coach, multi passionate creative next. Writing has always been my anchor art and to her I always return. Thankfully, with great love.

🎯My aim is to create content here that inspires and instructs – if there is ever a topic you would like for me to explore, please reach out and tell me. My ultimate goal is to create posts, videos and more that speak to your desires as well as mine because where these two intersect, our collaborative, joyful energy ignites into a fire of love, light and passionate creativity.

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.

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.

Facebooktwitterpinterest

Pause to Consider: How Willing Are You to Be….

by

In my years of life and creativity coaching, I’ve witnessed one of the biggest barriers to achievement comes when a person confesses they want to do something but don’t know how to do it, are nervous about asking for help and might not even know who to ask or how to ask how to do whatever that “thing” is.

The second barrier is often… an unwillingness to be a beginner or get a part of what they want to do wrong. The results become IT rather than the experience.

The natural question to ask oneself then, on a scale of one to ten, how willing are you to be bad at something you have a strong desire to try? Can you be passionate and detached at the same time?

When I was in middle school, there was a required gymnastics portion of our gym class. I was excited to try the parallel bars but I knew it might be something I couldn’t do very well. I waited until the very end of class and my patient and probably insightful PE teacher offered to help me when all the other girls went into the locker room.

I wasn’t good on that first attempt.

I never tried again.

Pulitzer Prize winning author of “Understanding Creativity – A Journey Through Art, Science and the Soul” Matt Richtel writes of a shift that happens starting in the fourth grade when we internalize rule following and peer pressure that doesn’t allow us to try new things, to experiment. It is like setting aside our creative muscle like I set aside my gymnastic muscle for fear of looking even less athletic in front of my peers than I already did.

I wasn’t willing to be bad or worse than I already was at any aspect of gymnastics. This from a kid who two years earlier had spent an entire Saturday mastering the monkey bars at the neighborhood park. Between those two years, I stopped being willing to be bad and work through being bad to be better. Not great, but better.

How willing are you to be bad at something you really want to “get right”?

How willing are you to be bad at something publicly?

This week, take some time to consider what you are willing to do badly in order to get better. 

What small experiments might you try to begin to flex that needlepoint, cardio, writing, painting, dancing, French speaking self? What passion is your heart calling you to bring to life with passion and yes, detached from the outcome.

This first step isn’t making a declaration of what passion you want to explore, it is about considering, reflecting and opening up the treasure chest you haven’t been willing to explore… yet.

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.

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.

Facebooktwitterpinterest

Ordinary Adventures in Mindfulness & Caregiving

by

Plants and nature symbolize mindfulness in the every day. Passing a fragile yet full of potential plant from one hand to another is indicative of everyday ordinary adventures in mindfulness and caregiving.

Mindfulness in Everyday Life

“The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness.”

Jon Kabat-Zin

I am aware I am feeling disgruntled today. It started when I woke up and realized I had less than an hour until I needed to facilitate a meeting I didn’t really feel like facilitating. 

I took a deep breath and moved forward, anyway.

Not what we think of as mindfulness and yet, mindful.

This is not what I would call quintessential mindfulness AND there are aspects of it that ARE mindful which may be constructive to point out.

  1. Recognition of how I was feeling. Disgruntled. Didn’t feel like doing what was on my to-do list. 
  2. First action: a deep breath.  I stopped mindlessly scrolling and took the action that would help me move forward to facilitate the meeting.
  3. When I got dressed, I actually practiced balancing. One foot in my shorts. Hold. Second foot in my shorts. Hold.
  4. Sat at my desk and was the first one to the zoom room meeting. 

After the meeting I needed to focus on caregiving tasks. With that came more aggravation. Within the caregiving I offered myself attempts at self-compassion and compassion for the other person. None of this segment felt mindful EXCEPT….

  1. I was as aware of my feelings and my responses to those feelings.
  2. I was able to calm myself from being more angry and cranky. 

Reflections in Mindfulness

I notice as I retell the story, the awareness and the kindness I am showing to myself by not making my emotions the enemy, not making the person I am caregiving for the “bad guy” and recognizing these are the current circumstances which I have the power to process through using writing as a tool I am doing is also mindful in its own way.

I allow myself to flop back in my chair in response to the a-ha’s of discovery from this exercise. I smile at myself and with myself. 

I remember a quote I saw last night, another from Jon Kabat-Zinn. “Mindfulness is a way of befriending ourselves and our experience.”

Mindfully beginning again…. (and again.)

I am starting to write again. I can feel my spine straight up, not leaning against the back of the chair. The light is blocked by the lacy curtains. I notice I ought to get out my dust mop and dance with the dust bunnies after I finish writing. My breath is filling my lungs and my lungs are singing in reply. It is Monday. It is the 4th of July. Samuel isn’t here. I miss him and am aware he gets upset at sentimentality so I will leave that thought to sit beside me without needing to pick it up and share it with him.

The person I am caregiving sends me messages that are slightly upsetting. I attempt to stay calm about them and I do. I am calm as I do a bit of research and return his messages and communicate I will honor his request when I am finished writing. 

Interesting: boundaries are easier with mindfulness. 

Mindfulness Lessons

I was actually more mindful than I thought this morning, even though I thought I wasn’t.

Basic mindfulness does not always look like a zen garden at dusk. Sometimes mindfulness looks like having tough conversations without letting our emotions hijack us.

Tell me about your experience(s) with mindfulness in the comments. I would love to hear from you.

Hugging a cartoon tree is almost as fun as hugging a tree outside, almost. Creator of #377TreeHugs, Julie Jordan Scott, enjoys hugging a black and white cartoon tree in downtown Bakersfield.

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 Sussex, NJ, where she is working on finishing her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

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.

Facebooktwitterpinterest

On Sundays, We Plan the Week Ahead

by

It is basic and also easy to overlook: life works better even with the most basic plan.

Planning Basics: Even with a Hectic, Unpredictable Schedule basic planning is grounding and illuminating.

As a creative who is also busily caretaking, it would be easy to toss away any idea of planning and just “go with the flow” or as it often devolves into “go with the chaos” or whatever is the best of the worst possibilities.

This is not inspiring in the least.

This is why it is better to at least have the minimum amount of a plan before your week begins.

Calendar + Appointments + Tasks “To Do” + Practices = Better

On Sunday afternoon, evening or early Monday morning, be sure to gather your calendar, a list of your projects, classes, and to-do’s you are aware of as your week kicks off.

Fill in your calendar with what you know for now. Include any family or friend activities you are expected to attend. If you are unsure what other people’s expectations are for you, now is the time to ask and set the boundaries that fit.

Once those times are filled in, it is time to do some intentional breathing and take time in free flow, meditative writing or journaling to see if there is anything deserving space that has not yet appeared in your plan.

Journal or Free Flow Write to Double Check” and Allow the Unspoken within You Speak

Here’s a reality we often deny or pretend away: within our busy minds racing to get things done, we ignore the wisest part of ourselves. The quiet whispers, the tugs on our intuition, the nudges that are encouraging you to go in a possible different direction.

As you consider the blocks of time filled with appointments, daily basic care activities (hygiene, meal prep, spiritual practice, exercise), tasks and to-do’s, take a moment to journal or free flow write using this question and the sentence starter to tune into those most important aspects of your plan you may have not paid any attention to (yet.)

Revise your plan: It is a leaping off point, not a concrete wall.

One of the ways people resist planning or decide not to plan is based in perfectionism or “all or nothing” thinking. Can you relate to either of those?

Starting Next Week: Suggestions, Coaching & Response to Your Questions

Do you have any questions about how to plan, best practices for planning, planning mindsets or advice around planning? I will incorporate these in upcoming blog posts.

Please comment below or send me an email at juliejordanscott at gmail.comVideo Exploring Trust (which may have kept you from planning in the past.)

Optional Video Exploration/Writing Exercise on TRUST

A blast from the past (2017) a prompt for you to write with – videos will be shared at the end of each blog and are optional for you to use (or not) as a means for you to be inspired to write more or differently or better. This particular theme of TRUST is essential to grow as a writers and leaders.

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.

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.

Facebooktwitterpinterest

July: 2022 Begin Again”The Best is Yet to Be”

by

I am a relentless optimist, usually. Today as we begin a new month, I am reclaiming my Optimistic Hat as will many of us in the community of bloggers in the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

Ultimate Blog Challenge banner for Fridays which will be recaps and refreshers. Today is all about goals: being and doing goals, intentions and writing goals.

Recap: The Year that Wasn’t

I had some ambitious yet also not too outrageous goals when 2022 started.

Unfortunately, my brother’s death with less than two weeks left to go in 2021 helped start everything off in a rather dark way. Two family deaths in a short time was nearly unbearable.

I didn’t factor in grief as well as the health failures of another family member in which were healing after I left California in February and came to a climax in March – when I returned for three weeks and then in May, when I returned for final stages of that healing only to find his health had slidden beyond the place where it had started getting bad.

It had become a crisis so I had to give up my sabbatical on the east coast for a time not just for standard caregiving but for crisis caregiving. 

Somehow the past me knew I would be best off by setting goals differently this year.

Refresh Intention: Goals of Being + Goals of Doing

CS Lewis Quote: There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind." Relax about the year so far and settle into what is next.

Goals of Being are more like the Miss Congeniality winner intentions and goals: engaging, kind but not threatening – more like the one who builds up others confidence rather than setting the bar too high for the average person.

Goals and intentions of doing focus on accomplishments, achievements, tangible, measurable tasks and the like.

I revisited my goals for the year and was thrilled when I realized my crowning glory was in the goals and intentions of being. Here are some examples:

I am consistently 

  • Enjoy the process, whatever the process becomes
  • Be present to what is rather than what was or what is to be in the future.
  • Create small, daily goals and move forward with love toward a desired result
  • Practice clear, soulful communication
  • Do a daily self-belonging check in as a part of my work-prep session (since I have been caregiving and not business building, my work is showing tender loving care to my family member and others providing health care and service to my family member.
  • Playful experimentation and practicing passionate detachment about the results: I continue to write and do writing and creative experiments even while not working on building my business. This is as close to “doing” as these goals are!

Looking into July, I will be returning to my original 2022 goals and updating them on my Friday weekly recap posts here. My hope is I encourage you as well to look at your own goals and intentions as I do – with authenticity, courage and hope.

Caregiving, Grieving and the Creative Life

My professional life work includes creative life coaching, facilitating personal growth programs, classes, courses and workshops. My caregiving life this year has included several members of my family. Health, Grief, Aging, Support.

It is very difficult to schedule classes, clients, speaking engagements and live streams or set goals and intentions around this while grieving or caring for loved ones. I can barely schedule one hour ahead, much less a few weeks or months ahead.

Since April 2021 I have both grieved and taken care of others, simultaneously.

During these months I have continued to be active creatively: I’ve written a short play (it was produced in May and I was able to see it while I was in Bakersfield), I have been in a play in a new community. I have written many blog posts, poetry, completed a 377 daily challenge and while in New Jersey my primary task was working on the completion of several book projects while rebuilding my business. I have participated in other blog challenges and I hope to complete this one.

Since mid-May until now, in early July, the caregiving has taken over all other activities except for writing and creative practices in the early morning moments and late night moments. Most of the time, that is.

I don’t know if I could even attempt the Ultimate Blog Challenge without this continued attention to creativity. I am so grateful for the people who will visit in July and comment, share my work and get to know me better or get reacquainted. 

I’m grateful to celebrate with you in all your best hopes, goals and intentions.

I have come to value friendships on an even higher plane since my father died and the many tumultuous chapters since then. You may have helped me and didn’t even know it. For this and other things, I am grateful you are here, reading.

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.

Facebooktwitterpinterest

How to Wake Up Everyday With Content You are Proud to Publish

by

This simple 5 step or less technique may become your best way to create consistently good content you are proud to publish.

Start an evening or end-of-the-work-day writing practice. It is a simple and meaningful formula that will fill your content with helpful, interesting stories/information/transformations.

  1. Write a question, by hand, in a small notebook. This question may be something you are struggling with and/or what your clients/subscribers struggle with, too.
  2. After you write the question, note three to five gratitudes, in writing, in the same small notebook. Experiment with re-writing the question in a slightly different way after writing your gratitudes.
  3. Within an hour of waking or arrival in your workspace, pull out the notebook and write for five minutes in response to the question. If you get stuck or writing stalls – which is rare because your subconscious mind has literally doing your creative work all night long for you – write about your gratitudes as a back up plan.
  4. Bonus: Add your question to a closing thought of the work day or conversation before you sleep. Post the question on social media before the end of the day or before bedtime. If you have a partner, ask them what they think about the question. Fall asleep with a healthy curiosity.
  5. Wake up with content ready to go. When you tap “publish” you will be proud.

Try this as an experiment for at least three to five consecutive days. Please come back and let me know how it goes for you.

If you already have a writing practice, see how this might augment what you are doing now. Tell me about it in the comments.

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.

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.

Facebooktwitterpinterest

Why Reading Poetry is an Important Strategy for All Content Creators

by

A block letter of "POETRY" in pink, blue and lavendar encourages writers in all genre to read poetry with great love and enjoyment.

I can literally hear the shrieks from many of you upon reading the title of this blog post.

Poetry, the dreaded. Poetry is difficult to understand. Poetry, that unit in English class that brought your grade from a healthy B to a C, which made your parents take away your phone privileges for a week.

Would it help you to read poetry if you saw real reasons why any and all of us who use words to create content of any sort ought to embrace and regularly read poetry in a similar way to how Robin Williams character in “Dead Poet’s Society” suggests? At the bottom of this blog post I have included a video with some words from that movie about poetry the Apple Corporation used in their advertising campaign.

9 Examples of how reading poetry will help you be a more successful writer and content creator


1) Samuel Taylor Coleridge famously wrote, “Poetry: the best words in the best order.” Many of us believe him and practice poetry for the joy of polishing our words into short, enjoyable and yes, easy to understand and/or natural to make us want to stretch our understanding of life, this world and one another.

2.) Poetry is often concise -which will help you write better headlines, catchy slogans and synopsise main points you want to convey.

3.) The Harvard Business Review stated “Poetry teaches us to wrestle with and simplify complexity.” Harman Industries founder Sidney Harman once told The New York Times, “I used to tell my senior staff to get me poets as managers. Poets are our original systems thinkers. They look at our most complex environments and they reduce the complexity to something they begin to understand.”

4. ) Reading poetry gives us more unusual topics of conversations, videos and written content. Reading a poem in the morning and planting it into your subconscious mind will ignite you to approach your content differently – which is always a good means to improve your content and writing development.

5.)A Fast Company article visualizing a post-Covid19 Pandemic World leads off with a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke followed by these words about how poets and poetry reading people make for better business leaders: “Poetry requires of its readers a different way of thinking, more expansive than usual, more flexible, more nuanced; a way to tune in to undercurrents, accept ambiguity and the absence of answers—embrace lack of closure and relish complexity and uncertainty.”

6.) Reading poetry increases one’s curiosity and the desire to ask questions. This is especially good for people writing sales copy. How does this poem relate back to what I am trying to communicate to possible clients and students?

7.) Memorizing poetry about success and overcoming obstacles helps the brain to stretch and grow. Suggestions for such poems include “Success” by Ralph Waldo Emerson; Triumph May Be of Several Kinds by Emily Dickinson or In Praise of Pain by Heather McHugh.

8.) Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft said “Poetry is akin to ‘that force created within us that seeks out the unimaginable, that gets us up to solve the impossible.” This sort of inspiration and motivation helps me get up and write yet another blog post, social media post, thank you note… every day – to tune into the creative life force that creates poetry as well as a note to someone who is grieving.

9.) Discover the pleasure of the sounds of poetry through watching videos of poets such as former California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia (who is also a graduate of Stanford School of Business and worked in the business sector for 15 years before pursuing a literary and academic life. Recognizing really good writing through the voice of Dana Gioia will help you to hear your own writing improve.

Your poetry reading challenge:

I challenge you, even or especially for the skeptics among you, to visit some of the links I am providing here and consider how poetry has the power to help you improve in every single kind of content creation you are attempting.

Reading one poem a day will change your life in an infinite number of ways.

Reading (or listening to) one poem today, even if it is the last poem you ever read, will impact you as well. 

I am grateful you are even considering it. Thank you so much for reading this far.

Poetry Resources, including references from this article:

From The Poetry Foundation:
Poems to Read When You Get Stuffed in a Gym Locker (success and anti-success poems):

Success Poem list frpm DiscoverPoetry.com

Dana Gioia YouTube Channel Playlist of Poetry Recitation. His voice and delivery are incredibly enjoyable.:

Fast Company Article about CEO’s and Poetry:

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.

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.







Facebooktwitterpinterest

How to Create Content from Livestream Video + Writing Prompts

by

Woman at desk, appearing to be considering a problem or solution - and aiming to have a more satisfying work, life and content creation experience.
Writing and Journaling Prompts plus video are below to guide you.

Two questions before we begin: allow them to circle around outside of your direct thought process as you read the rest of this post.

Begin with intentional questions: in this case, for livestream and written content, explore appropriate questions:

What does satisfaction look like to you?

What does the fulfillment of one’s wishes, expectations, or needs, or the pleasure of any of these feel like for you?

Yesterday I hosted a livestream – a common experience for me on Sunday afternoons – with the primary intention of starting the week with journaling and planning according to what is discovered during that journaling session. Yesterday we chatted about three primary areas in the prompt:

Satisfaction, passion and purpose. 

Why go live? With a basic outline (quasi-unscripted) and speaking freely, it is a form of “rough drafting” and when people are present, it has an element of market research.

Going live on Sunday afternoons is something I enjoy. I know going live and encouraging people  will provide value for them and has the possibility to make their lives better simply by following through with the writing from the prompts, especially when they take the wisdom they discover and apply it to their everyday lives. 

Here’s a recording of yesterday’s livestream which you may watch now – almost live – or come back later to watch and glean insight before writing from the prompts.

This morning – the day after I recorded the livestream, I used free flow writing to explore further: 

Free Flow Writing from the Prompts – even writing incoherently to anyone except for you – may be life changing.

This is what I wrote: Staying in satisfaction is a joy and a process and yet I know I cut myself off from it regularly, like I turn away from good people or possibilities because of my less than or other than reflex.

I am such an expert in turning from what is good and right and special about myself – so instead, I am stepping into this new space of satisfaction by recognizing the YES, instead!

When have I felt satisfied lately? Today?

Yesterday, I noticed the daffodils in front of the house. That was so sweet. They are gorgeous, so gorgeous and I want a photo with them. I will do that today if the light stays as nice and not so cloudy or overcast. The sky here is so beautiful, when I gaze at it the “what might be seen as wrong” evaporates.

Today I am wearing makeup.

Yesterday Julianne (note to reader: I consider Julianne to be my highest self. I use her as a writing companion and often address her by name in my “role over and write journal. I know, it is quirky and… I am quirky so… continuing now unedited) whispered something like “Let’s wear makeup for a few days and see what happens.” So I got up and put on makeup and curled my hair the tiniest bit and by goodness and gracious I feel happy about it and am smiling at my own face, thank you James Taylor.

This is one way satisfaction is experienced.

Satisfaction I have experienced is also deep breaths and writing these words while listening to classical music.

Satisfaction is walking in new places, trails, fun sidewalks. I realize I want to go walk in Glen Ridge simply for the joy. Retrace my steps. That would be so fun and perhaps slightly surreal. People who move away and come back or don’t come back…. I am looking at the walls in here thinking “What to change to, what to stay the same?” and realize, thinking of these things is satisfying and taking action surely brings an increased satisfaction.

Satisfaction is staying in focus.

Satisfaction is also  giggling when I don’t stay on focus

Satisfaction is sometimes engaging with another human on focus mate and knowing I am better when I am connected, first with myself and then with other people. 

Satisfaction is actually USING my planner 🙂

Satisfaction is the morning life in my home office.

Satisfaction is a tea cup from Czechoslovakia. Contrast is hearing the news out of Hungary… I didn’t realize they have become a “pro-autocracy state” which makes me sad. Satisfaction in response is breathing love to the people of Hungary. I realize some people will not understand what “breathing love” means and some people will get angry about my use of pro-autocracy and I am claiming satisfaction for speaking what I believe and accepting the consequences of doing so.

It is so satisfying to breathe deeply into my own heart, and breathe out love, multiplied exponentially. 

This is what satisfaction sometimes looks and feels like.

After we free flow write and after we live stream, we may continue to feel happy simply for taking action and allowing the action itself to bring us into the intended state.

I am sitting at my desk, smiling. I am in yet another focus mate session where my partner has the same name as someone I love. I wonder if they can see me smiling with a big dopey contented look on my face? They’re probably looking at their own work on their own screen and either way, in taking the time to write about satisfaction – I feel better than I have all morning and it has been a marvelous morning so this says a lot.

These tools are simple, practical and enjoyable.

Let’s go back to our original questions that you may now use as free flow writing prompts as well – if not now, perhaps later today.

Your writing prompts for reflection and action:

What does satisfaction look like to you?

What does the fulfillment of one’s wishes, expectations, or needs, or the pleasure of any of these feel like for you?

To get a reminder of this session on Facebook, please visit https://www.facebook.com/JJSWritingCamp/videos/4750013225125157

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.

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.

Facebooktwitterpinterest

We Wish You a Merry Vlogmas and Bountiful 2022 Word of the Year

by

I can feel it coming now!

Announcement of 12 Days of Vlogmas

Planning for 2022 have begun in earnest for some of us and for others, waiting and intuitive listening is the way to be open the “what’s next of 2022.”

Begin Your 2022 Preparations with a Word of the Year

Something I do annually is to craft – intentionally – a Word of the Year.

People create a word of the year in place of a New Year’s resolution – which is often broken or forgotten before the year even begins. It allows you to form your goals and intentions with the word as a theme or a frame for what you would like to take form in 2022.

Whether you take an intuitive or structured approach, this workbook will bring more insights before the new year begins.

Because I value taking time with the process, I have created a Workbook for you to use to purposefully bring your word for 2022 to light. It includes a 7 step process including creativity coaching questions, prompts and ideas.

If you take an intuitive approach, you are preparing and opening the door slowly.

If you take a more structured approach, this will help to bring energy and oomph to the work you are doing.

Vlogmas Video and Download:

To Download Your Word of the year Planner, visit here. I’m so grateful to be celebrating Vlogmas with you!

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.

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.

Facebooktwitterpinterest

What’s Next? Creative Life Midwife Blog in December & 2022

by

Gratitude to the Blog Visitors: woman writing ina notebook and circles of gratitude in this holiday flavored image

During November, I participated once again in the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Although I wasn’t perfect in my participation, I would say I improved greatly from past challenges. A big part of that is from the community created by Paul Taubman with the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

Gratitude: One of the Most Powerful Energies there is!

The people who are in the challenge are always a great support, but this year I took some risks in what I posted and was met repeatedly with meaningful comments and connections.

I have connected with some people in the challenge in the past, but this session was special because of the care of each comment participants made and how regularly my posts were shared with their audiences. I cannot thank each of you enough.

Please: if you have a blog consider participating in the next challenge by using the link above or this Ultimate Blog Challenge link right here! 🙂

What’s next? 12 Days of Vlogmas Gifts to Make Your 2022 Creatively Bountiful

I have been thinking of doing Vlogmas AND it feels so big, too big, especially as I didn’t quite make it through the Ultimate Blog Challenge for all thirty days THOUGH I was closer than usual thanks to batching my content.

I decided it would be really fun for me to do Vlogmas in 12 Days beginning on December 4th instead of 30 posts starting December 1 (though I leave room to add if I am having tons of fun and want to continue) and offer gifts – primarily tools I use that people may choose to use also via check lists, journaling pages, actual google docs to copy and things like that. 

Together, let’s delight in our individual and collective creative bount by giving and receiving the 12 Days of Vlogmas Gifts!

These tangible (and virtual) helps will make your 2022 more creatively bountiful than it would be on its own.

Who’s up for that?

Let’s Keep Our Connection Alive in December (and Beyond!)

I will share the posts in the Ultimate Blog Challenge group in December. I like popping in there even when there isn’t a challenge going as a way to stay connected on our “no challenge” months. Saying that’s part of my plan will make me more likely to follow through.

I will also be participating in the December Cornerstone Content Blog Challenge run by Jeanine Byers who I met from the Ultimate Blog Challenge. We have become better friends as the years and challenges have gone on. In the Cornerstone Content Blog Challenge. In December we are focusing on sharing on our Facebook Business Pages AND… truth be told I often repurpose a lot of my content sometimes with slight variations so ther 12 Days of Vlogmas Gifts may show up there on some days, too.

In 2022, I will be focusing on offering Soulful Writing Courses and Soulful Writing Circles in addition to launching other courses focused on intentional creative rebirth. In October 2022 I will be opening the doors to offering Intentional Holiday Circles, Even While Grieving again – and for those who want to process on their own, I am creating a journal now for that very purpose.

THANK YOU for being a part of my 2021 experience!

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.

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.

Facebooktwitterpinterest