Intention/Connection – Creative Life Midwife

How Connection Shifts & Grows & Makes Everything Better

August 13, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife Leave a Comment

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.

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

August 11, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife Leave a Comment

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?

For the Love of Intention: Acting with Flow for Your Best “What’s Next”

August 8, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife 3 Comments

Do you know that person? The one who is always stopping you when you’re on a roll, talking about something you’re setting forth, a hope a dream a plan and then that voice pipes up, “What’s your intention here?”

That person speaking up is more than likely me, if we’re together.

Here’s the secret underneath that chronic question: When we start with with intention we are claiming and activating something similar to when we pull back the bow and release the arrow. We are engaging ourselves to take energetic steps on this same spiritual road the arrow takes toward a destination. Do you follow?

Intention is the road, it is the journey, it is the path.

Intention may initially feel like full steam ahead in a linear sprint but here’s the beauty: the road isn’t usually straight and I don’t believe arrows are actually perfectly straight, either.

How about we just let go of the idea that straight one-way-only push push push is the only way to approach life or business or love or anything that matters?

We’re stepping into intention because it matters to have an idea of where your heart most wants you to end up. Like my friend Henry David Thoreau was talking about when he said ‘If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.’

When I throw anything the air is a part of the journey, even if the destination includes a mud puddle.

Basket of possibilities: a beige basket with towels and flowers, an image of self care

Let’s pick up our basket of possibilities and have the courage to consider taking aim. There’s no wrongs possible here. You’re good and you’re surrounded by good.

What’s your intention here?

==@ ==> ==@

We’re opening our hearts and our notebooks in next week’s #5for5BrainDump session. To participate, join the Word-Love Writing Community Facebook Group where the conversation and livesteam sessions will be accessed in a safe, private writing community. You may also find us outside the group (if groups aren’t your thing) on Facebook at Writing Camp with JJS, pn my YouTube channel and on Periscope (so if you are on twitter, you will see it there at the same time).

Julie is also one of the Founders of Bridge to the New Year. Access the visionary promps from the mid-2020 in #Refresh2020 to reflect, connect, be inspired and re-start your 2020 even if you have been hopelessly stuck in the “everything sucks” space. The Bridge to the New Year Space is welcoming, it includes weekly goals and intentions AND it is free to be a part of it – simply invest your energy in the community and it’s all good!

Refresh Your Beliefs: the 2020 Version

July 22, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife 4 Comments

A teal tabletop flatlay with a coffee cup, paperclips and pencils. A new Way to Work with Beliefs While Living Your 2020 Pandemic Life

One of the most helpful writing prompts I have used with my students, coaching clients and with myself is “I believe.”

Lately as we have become more fractured and unfortunately too often stuck in the underlying fog of “us versus them” and “If you are one of them” (someone not like me) than I can’t talk (work, play. Collaborate, talk) with you.

This is why in the pop up #refresh2020 group that when I asked people about what they believe I qualified it like this:

Before you hit reply and respond with a lot of what you have said before please spend a few moments (or longer, perhaps write in your journal or go for a walk or listen to music or watch a TV show you love or have a conversation with this question hovering n the background of your mind.)

What do you believe – about what has been going on in your life right now?

What do you believe when you see situations that upset you, that you can’t control or influence?

What do you believe when you have been at the top of your game and the world and the people you love are praising you for no other reason than you showed up in the same space they are in?

What do you believe when you are lying under a canopy of stars or you were just in a car accident or are sitting in a hospital or close to death or just witnessed the birth of a child?

What do you believe when you can’t live like you always have before?

What do you believe when you are sitting in the rubble or are face to face with your greatest fear?

Finally, add any scenarios that will help you to move beyond what you might have written or thought before… allow it to simmer… and when you come back to the questioning space here – share examples from your direct experience about what it is that brings you to that belief.

Feeling back into what we believe is crucial to creating and living out our vision as we finish out this rocky, tumultuous, unexpected, confusing, beautiful, unwanted year of 2020.

Whenever I am invited to share my beliefs, a song by Blessid Union of Souls starts playing in my mind. Today, I would like to share a bit of that song with you. If you would like, watch the video.

Here is a change I made in my beliefs in 2020, a modification that is in alignment for my long standing belief that love is the answer, the quetion and the action plan.

Today I am thinking and feeling I believe in haiku. I believe in the power of daily creative practice and sharing that practice with a receptive audience. This makes me laugh – but my daily haiku practice….has shifted so much for me… and it was started BECAUSE…

(lyrics from the Blessid Union of Souls single “I Believe…”

Open up your mind and then open up your heart

You will see that you and me aren’t very far apart

Cause I believe love is the answer

I believe love will find a way

Before you leave this blog, I would enjoy hearing your first thoughts – not your final thoughts on this way of looking at what you believe in general, but choose one of the scenarios and make up a first draft response. Clarity, feeling better and healing are right at the end of your keyboard.

Julie JordanScott typing a love poem on the edge of a foothill of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Julie is also one of the Founders of Bridge to the New Year. Join us now in 2020 in #Refresh2020 to reflect, connect, intend and taking passionate action to create a truly remarkable rest of 2020. Click the graphic below to join the Private Facebook Group to join the conversation!

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Revised-Refresh-general-flyer-1.png

Let’s Explore Trust: How to Grow in Trust Every Day

July 17, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife 3 Comments

A sunrise photo with flowers and the title "Growing in Trust, one day at a time."

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I don’t know how to start talking about trust. How can I talk about something I know so little about, if I am completely honest?

At the root or core of my life experience, no single person has been 100% trustworthy. I have not been able to trust myself. While I trust God in the long run, it seems unreasonable to trust God in some of this day-to-day when so many horrific things take place day after-day-after-day. (please note, this is not written to be a theological discussion and in fact, this is an exercise in vulnerability which I believe God appreciates.)

Perhaps this is why I have been so focused on writing haiku for the last two hundred plus days. I can trust one simple action – and now, since July 2, I have been “writing sunrise haiku” because I trust the sun to rise, each and every day.

I can trust that.

I can look up the time of day it will move above the horizon and every day – whether the clouds cover it or it is clear as a whistle, the light comes.

This I trust.

Light through a tree at sunrise with the Maya Angelou quote, "Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time."

I have trusted myself to scribble seventeen syllables each morning as well: not because my boss told me if I didn’t I would be in trouble. I wrote haiku because I thought it would be fun, not because a doctor told me to do so. I contemplated at least one present moment every day because I knew it was good for my spirit and maybe even for the spirit of others – not because of any oath or promise or contract other than the one I made with myself.

For the last 206 days I have proven to myself in this one instance I am trustworthy.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe reminded me this morning, “As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”

This morning I shared my sunrise photo and haiku on my facebook page in the same way I have been doing for all these days. Within the first moments, people were enjoying it – and receiving peace simply by looking at the photo and reading the words.

I am slowly gaining trust in myself again and my actions are in alignment with this trust.

When we are open to explore and be authentic with our responses to questions such as these, we will grow in ways unmeasurable. Yes, we will truly know what it is to live.

Note: This essay began as a free-flow writing exercise and as a result has had minimal editing. Sometimes trusting the raw word-flow is what is most important.

Woman writing on the front porch of a brick home, — Write wherever you find yourself.

How to Use Moments of Gratitude to Improve Your Life (and the lives of others)

July 8, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife 5 Comments

Gratitude is both tender, like a tiny shoot of a plant rising up, and fierce, like that same shoot that managed to push its way up through densely packed, dark and heavy soil.

Gratitude has been one of my faithful friends when other friends went silent, tunneled underground so I wasn’t able to reach them. Or maybe it was I who went underground and it was gratitude who lowered a ladder for me to climb up on.

Gratitude is one of the highest forms of energy available to us.

For these and many other reasons, today we began our time together in #Refresh2020 using gratitude and gratefulness as the focus of our first prompt.

It is a solid, deep and wide foundation for us to build upon as we move forward in 2020 with purpose and passion.

When we make that determined decision to “do 2020” differently, we aim to do it better. We can learn from experiences of gratitude. We can grow from holding space for grateful moments to continue.

What we know now that we might not have known in January 2020 is this:

Aspects of the world are chaotic. They may get even more chaotic, they may stay the same. We can’t say they will get better or worse or anything. We just know that around us, there is a whole lot of chaos and dissension.
We don’t know when the pandemic will be over. We don’t know when a vaccine will be available. We don’t know when it will be safer for people like me – with health issues – to function similarly to how we did in the past. This is similar to war-time. People have survived in times of not-knowing-when for generation after generation. We can do it now, too.
We don’t know how many more (metaphorical) shoes will drop. For now, I am considering it to be a centipede of many colors. I can admire the colors or I can go into my hole and complain about it or go into my hole and write a lot of stories about a centipede-free world. I would rather be out among the people, helping it to be a better world whether or not there are centipedes.

Our intention is to experience the rest of the year differently.

We are adding to our expanding knowledge about how to use gratitude as a tool. When we recognize the power of simply sharing and remembering experiences of gratitude causes us to be elevated to a higher level of consciousness.

When we continue to step into this awareness by taking aligned action, our personal satisfaction and rewards will be many. We will laugh more, get more tasks done with more ease – and we will lead a happier life.

Application: Take your list of five experiences you are grateful for and use them as creativity and conversation prompts.

Creativity Prompts

Video: Take 5 minutes and make a video telling the story of that moment of gratitude.

Writing: Take 5 minutes and write the story of that grateful experience. BONUS: Hand write the story in letter form and mail it to the people you were with who became “characters” in your gratitude story. Add individual thanks for each person. Here is an example from my list.

Conversation Prompt Tips: When you see a friend or family member begin to rant about how terrible living in this time of chaos is, let them wind down and start a new conversation about what experiences they are grateful for from 2020.

Warning: some will say “Nothing! There is nothing to be grateful for in 2020.”

In those situations you may turn and walk away (without a retort is best). Take a second breath and share one of your experiences. It’s an extra bonus if your gratitude experience includes them.

Intention + Passionate Action = Purposeful rewards

When was the last time you had a conversation with someone about being grateful, especially in 2020? How might you start that conversation?

Julie JordanScott is The Creative Life Midwife and one of the Founders of Bridge to the New Year. Join us now in 2020 in #Refresh2020 to reflect, connect, intend and taking passionate action to create a truly remarkable rest of 2020. Click the graphic below to find out more and register to receive emails.

Join the conversation in our closed Bridge to the New Year Facebook Group

The Opposite of Boredom Is…. Welcome to Anti-Boredom Month!

July 2, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife 7 Comments

A woman in a striped shirt balances a pencil between her upper lip and her nose, fighting boredom during anti-boredom month,

Today I discovered something fascinating! July is also known as “Anti-Boredom Month” fascinated me. For my entire life I have been in opposition to the concept of boredom. “An intelligent person is never bored!” one of my middle school teachers told me.

I decided to focus on the concept of Anti-Boredom because I have heard more people than ever complaining about being bored, especially with the disruption in what is open and what isn’t open due to Covid19.

I looked up antonyms for boredom and was surprised to find more than one place is “being entertained.”

My daughter, Emma, has a much closer to my perspective antonym for boredom as “excitement.” My thought is the opposite of boredom is “being engaged.”

I would argue strongly with what the experts see as the opposite of boredom: being entertained.

What?

Maybe it is because I never expect to be entertained that I am not one who is prone to boredom.

Maybe the call to be entertained rather than bored is true for passive observers in life, but it certainly isn’t true for those of us who are fully engaged with life.

It doesn’t surprise me to report I have decided to engage with anti-boredom all month via live-streaming, sharing anti-dotes to boredom and suggestions for people who cannot be entertained in their usual ways because of restrictions due to the pandemic and shut downs of various “non boredom” spots.

I would love to hear from you.

What is the opposite of boredom for you?

How often are you bored?

Julie JordanScott is a Creativity Coach, Writer, Speaker and Artist-of-Life who forgot long ago what boredom means. In her continuing quest to create intentional connection, she hosts Intentional Coffee Conversations on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Starting July 7 until July 28 she is hosting a Pop Up Group to #Refresh2020 where we will explore ways to re-engage with this unusual year. To find out more and register for this unique experience, please click the image below.

July 2020: Turning the Page on Mid-Year

July 1, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife 11 Comments

A journal, a to-do list, and a year-in-review timeline for the person reading the blog post to continue to do the same. All writing is in pink ink.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” is how one of the most famous works of literature begins. Charles Dickens tapped into a deep well of truth in his opening paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities. When I revisited the book as an adult, I was taken with the poetry and power which goes far beyond these first twelve words.

The first few months of 2020 have felt this “best and worst” way to some people and others have seen “the worst of times” overshadow much of the light in their lives. Others say “worst times? What worst times?”

In the beginning of any month, I enjoy reflecting on the month before it – but here in the wearied “worst of times” that come with 2020, I have spent time reflecting on the bests and the worsts.

Many of the worsts this year are universals: we are living through a worldwide pandemic, something that hasn’t been experienced at this level since 1918 with the Spanish Flu.

Here in the United States, we have also come face-to-face with systemic racism – nearly all Americans are more aware and are diligently addressing our shortcomings, addressing the biases which run our lives outside of our everyday view. I am one of the people who used to say “I am color blind” and “I see everyone the same” which I didn’t understand is inherently problematic.

The “Best of Times” in my life are the ones which make me smile the widest.

I will begin with a smaller smile, perhaps coupled with humility.

I am smiling to see healing – and to participate in the positive shift I see happening across the planet. It will take time to get to our destination, and even with all the darkness we have experienced, I can see and feel the seeds of healing.

My personal “best of time” moments occurred both before and during the Pandemic.

In February, Emma and I visited Flagstaff to see my parents, a trip I had hoped for since the previous Spring. I always meant to go by myself, but as the time drew closer, I invited Emma along and I am so grateful I did.
In mid-March right after the Stay in Place order in California happened, I started something called “Coffee and Intentional Conversations” which I saw as a way to “hang out on a coffee date with friends” virtually, every day. I had no idea how long any of this would last – and I knew having a connection point would help me and it might help others. It did both of these things. Recently we minimized our group to meet twice weekly, but the connections of the women have been astounding.
I am continuing to go strong with my goal to write a haiku and post it daily – This morning I am on Day 191/377. Each day before noon I post a photo and a poem on my personal facebook page (it has held me accountable) and what a time to be documenting life as it unfolds. Lately I have written more angry poems, but oftentimes the poems focus on the beauty around me. It is important, I believe, to address and stay alive for all of life, not only the areas you are most comfortable addressing. After all, the more comfortable we get with being uncomfortable, the more we will expand our effectiveness and courage.

If you are interested in exploring 2020 from a refreshed perspective, you may want to consider joining the Refresh2020 initiative which is a Pop Up Initiative for Reflection, Intention and Activation that will begin on July 9 and last for 3 weeks.

How have you fared in 2020 so far?

Refresh 2020 is written in large letters, followed by the dates - July 7, 2020 through July 28, 2020. the words Intentionally exploring our experiences so we may continue with purpose and passion. Flowers and a purple frame highlight.

Julie JordanScott facilitates The Bridge to the New Year initiative which includes sharing insights at the end of the year as well as intending and planning for the New Year. Because 2020 has been different than the norm for all of us, we are offering #Refresh2020, a 3 Week Pop Up group which will include reflection through creativity and a private facebook group for interaction and engagement as we explore the impact of the first six months of 2020 and how to continue to move forward, with love as the year continues.

Celebrate Your Goals: Be Trusting, Be Enthusiastic, Be the One Who Activates Your Passion & Purpose

June 29, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife Leave a Comment

woman standing in a river. She is inspired to be the one who stays the course - and lives with purpose and passion because she follows the energy of her goals.

I remember when we celebrated Emma’s first birthday at the beach. She had been walking for a little bit more than a month and had a fierce independent streak. She was surrounded by people who loved her. I watched her face as she appeared to be building up energy for some unseen by me challenge, something of utmost importance.

“I do it, I do it, I do it!” she said to herself. Then she charged toward the waves, still chanting and then laughing and shouting, “I do it, I do it, I do it!”

More than twenty years later, I can still hear the little Emma voice as she took action on her goal of conquering the ocean and the two -decades-younger-me ran after her, amazed at her will and her focus. She was going to conquer the ocean, by gosh and by golly.

Last December I said my own version of “I do it I do it I do it” challenge. Six months later, I am more than half-way to my goal.

It has taken a daily focus of consistency and a devotion to honoring myself every single day for the last 189 days.

Now as a part of my jubilant celebration of my continual goal reaching, I offer my top discoveries with you.

As I grew with my goal, I learned to trust myself. I knew everyday I would write my short haiku poem. I decided the parameters: I would take a photo of whatever inspired the feeling of my short haiky poem. Next, I would write and post the haiku on my personal facebook page publicly as a way to document and celebrate my goal.

I trusted myself to do my best. To make the attempt and to gain trust as I took this one small action every day.

Once we trust ourselves, anything is possible. In the daily action of writing my poem, I was not only activating my passion, I was purposefully standing up to the world and vulnerably sharing – knowing all the time I might fail at some point. I took action daily, in public, anyway.

Quote: “We are trusted because of our way of being, not because of our polished exteriors or our expertly crafted communications.”

Lolly Daskal

2. Taking action on my goal consistently grew my enthusiasm and when I needed it, the stored up enthusiasm carried me through to the next daily action. I started with this goal because I tuned into what had historically made me feel better. I was watching a gorgeous sunrise – which always made me feel blessed and grateful. What was something I might do daily that would help me to feel blessed and grateful? Autumn was ending and that was the season I was in the hospital and almost died. I didn’t want that malaise to carry into my next season. Enthusiastically I created, continued and cherished my goal day after day after day.

Quote: “You need to have unbound enthusiasm for what you’re building. Energy is contagious, so your team and everyone you interact with feels it.” – Tyler Haney, Founder of Outdoor Voices

3. My gut instinct said, “Feeling better, every day, happens when we take aim and activate through more than just thinking – but when we do what it is we say we will do.”

My inner wisdom said, “What is something you may do daily, publicly, that you will be happy you did even if you fail along the way?”

Quote: “Every day in every way I am getting better and better and better.” Emile Coue

These three primary lessons have a lot more depth than may immediately be seen.

My hope and intention is you see yourself – and your vision – reflected in Emma’s voice ringing out, “I do it, I do it, I do it” as her life force called her to conquer the ocean. Maybe what she was actually conquering was her fear of the ocean and running towards it, anyway.

Somewhere in me and also in you is the “I do it!”that is calling to you.

Six months from now, what do you want to look back and say, “I wanted to do it and I did it?”

Refresh 2020: Want a fresh start to 2020? This graphic shares information about the initiative Refresh 2020

If you would like more insights and guidance for the rest of the year, join the Bridge to the New Year Facebook community as we present Refresh 2020. We are hitting the Refresh button on 2020, together.

The 100 Day Project: Shifts, Growth and the Best is Yet to Be on Day 42/100

May 21, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife Leave a Comment

The Joy of Mutual Support and Collective Benefit - the 100 Day Project and my work creating engaging video - this is the 6 week or 42 day check in. Pink background with white vines interspersed.

Here’s a fact about me you may not know: I do my best work when I am in community – when I am working alongside other people who are also working on a project. It doesn’t have to be the same project or in the genre, but simply that we are all working away, separately together.

It is like playing in the sandbox as kids or as adults, when we are co-working in the same space or going into a coffee shop on a Sunday afternoon in the fall – college professors are sitting all over the place, grading. You just don’t recognize this until you have your own stack to grade. Somehow you are more likely to get it done in a group.

This is my third year working on #The100DayProject – and my personal project is 100 Days of Engaging Video. I am a livestreamer and have been since 2015. I don’t feel as confident with my “static” videos as my live stream videos. I have improved, though, and the last few I made felt really good to make and to share.

I have a YouTube account I don’t promote much, unfortunately, and since many folks on the 100 Day Project at on Instagram, I have been making more IGTV videos in addition to my livestreams.

Most recently I have been repurposing my videos on IGTV to YouTube and next will put them on my JJS Writing Camp facebook page as well. Every day in every way better and better and better.

Because my son came home from college, I have taken the last week off from video making and now on Instagram there is a rumor I can turn my lives into IGTV videos, so this may change my entire strategy. This is exciting!

The 100 Day Project itself, however, has been much more fun because I was bold and asked members of the if anyone wanted to start an Instagram engagementgroup to encourage each other. Well, more than fifty people responded. I created five groups and they have been off and running for the last six weeks with only one blip. Two of the groups have done Zoom sessions that were very fun. People are inspiring each other even though the groups are anything but niche: we are all doing our thing and enjoying the others who are doing their thing.

I realize in writing this blog post I am going to amplify outreach and marketing for the next six weeks as an experiment and it will become a regular part of my reporting. I think I will do some “mano a mano” (reaching out to individuals as well as sharing in groups and spaces. To borrow from Anais Nin, I know my business will blossom when I am bold – and my videos showcase me doing what I do for clients, audiences and readers so it is time to be real with it and engage in my life work as I make these videos. I actually started this with the facebook version of my last video, I just hadn’t recognized it as such.

I have never given as much energy to my 100 Day Projects because I never had this level of consistent, mutual support. I have made friends within this small and mighty community that will surely last long after the challenge is over. Separately together, much like how things have been during the Covid-19 Pandemic which we are continuing to learn and live through –

Do you have communities you turn to for support in your projects?

What were the characteristics of your favorite. most effective support communities?

Figuring out our favorite characteristics of online communities by engaging with the question, "What are the characteristics of your favorite supportive communities?"

Finally, here is my most recent IGTV video for your viewing pleasure.

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or thoughtleader or creative or… . You may not even know right away what you want to be called or named or claim AND you do know it is more than what you’re doing now. This happens, a lot of times, because your beliefs and actions don’t match up with this way of being you want to call as your own. I was talking with friends and said I wanted to be seen as… a Philanthropist – and the a-ha’s started flowing. Watch this short video and start claiming some a-ha’s of your own. . 🐝 Day 37/100 Days of Engaging Video 💡 . . . . #100DayProject #WomenWhoCreate #CreateEveryDay #ChallengeAccepted #The100DayProject2020 #The100DayProject #womenofyoutube #middleagedyoutuber #livestreamer #womenwhocreate #womenwhomake #womenwhomakeadifference #soulcoach #soulcoaching #lightworker #spiritualleader #inthistogether #healyourlife #souljourney #innerwisdom #intentionallife #intentionalbusiness #intentionality #mindfulmoments #mindfullife #mindfulmovement #stretchbreak #Bakersfield #BakersfieldLifeCoach

A post shared by JJS ~ Life Coach for Creatives (@juliejordanscott) on May 12, 2020 at 9:26pm PDT

Finally, a closing question – I would love if you would respond in the comments:

Julie JordanScott has been writing since before she was literate by dictating her thoughts to her mother and then copying in thick crayons onto construction paper. She was a pioneer in epublishing and continues to reach readers through her blog, bestselling books, greeting cards and her essays and poems in anthologies. Next week’s theme of Aware of Abundance #5for5BrainDump program will focus on using writing as meditation to focus and release blocks or an upcoming writing circle or writing for social media programs.