Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

How to Ask Questions Differently to Create Better Results

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“If you treat every question as if you’ve never heard it before, your students feel like you respect them and everyone learns a lot more.”
Anita Diamont in The Boston Girl


What questions are you asking that might be more effective if you ask them from a different perspective or angle?

What if you used slightly different words – like instead of saying “What do I want?” practice and play with “What are you excited about?” or “What are you looking forward to?” or “What’s next for you?” and then following the flow of the conversation or if I am journaling, following the flow of my energy straight into my pencil or pen.

“What I am excited about tomorrow?” can open up a planning session from a dull creation of a checklist into a jumble of realizations or a suddenly give me choices of actions rather than a dictation of shoulds and “oh geesh, I gotta do this or that” which makes me get sick to my stomach just thinking about it.

Maybe I understand “What do I want” to be slightly edgy or depressing because I played “The Ghost of Christmas Present” and one of the scariest moments in that production is when the children who play “ignorance” and “want” are so tragic. The truth is, I used to utilize “want” all the time with my coaching clients, but now, I favor other questions like the ones I shared with you above.

You may modify to make questions that resonate more strongly with you.

Here’s one that works with me:

“What brave action will I take today?” comes along with “How much better do I want to feel?” which for me comes from stopping the procrastination train in its tracks.

This particular question appeared right at the end of a 5 minute journal writing session – where oftentimes the really good stuff comes, right when you have said “I am committed to creating in short chunks to get more done” like our signature #5for5BrainDump.

Questions also help to end procrastination and help you to take action against it.

My biggest project right now in my household is tackling my living room one section at a time so with that, I am asking myself the question, “How fantastic will it feel when someone knocks at the door and you don’t have to worry whether they can see into that cluttered room?”

Brand new response to the question I am hearing for the first time? “I would feel pretty darned good, self!”

Just asking myself “What do I want?” hasn’t brought me significant results. It forgot the value of positive energy and what happens when we choose to use that energy to create flow.

I’m in it, fully, now, because I am practicing asking better questions.

From what you’ve seen here and noticed in the rest of your life, what questions are most likely to stir you into action and then momentum?

Julie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, 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. To set up a complimentary exploratory session, please visit here.

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Daily Making Diaries: Four Months Until Katherine’s Birthday & Christmas!

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  • This post was written #5for5BrainDump style which means – it was written using stream of consciousness writing for 5 minutes. No editing or forethought of content. Images were added later. #5for5BrainDump writing is meant to be an exploration of personal growths and a mini a-ha incubator… a collector of insights and awarenesses written on purpose… for no purpose.

It was a divine call today, I hadn’t even thought of stopping at the park on my drive home. I thought I would stop at a parking garage and take some panorama shots of metro Bakersfield. It was an ugly-sky-morning and I thought that was what I was meant to capture.

I am focusing on daily making, a practice of daily creativity because I know in doing this – a determined crafting of something – it will positively impact my entrepreneurship. It activates different parts of my mind that have been lying, dormant, waiting for me to shake myself back into life.

I decided I would purposefully capture images not at my ultimate destination of the moment, instead to capture scenery along the way. Interesting how yesterday’s imagery informed today’s choices.

I felt led to a park instead of a parking garage.

I did a fair share of stretching and bending and posing which felt almost yogic which felt great and was a response to my slight whining while I was getting ready for bed, “I need to stretch my hips more, this is ridiculous” and even though this morning I didn’t have “stretch your hips” on the list, there I was, stretching my hips as I squatted to get this, and other photos, so that I might tell the story the imagery was calling me to tell.

Even writing this feels awfully intimate and not entirely safe.

Two seconds and my five minute writing session will be over.

The bells ring. I’m awake. I’ve been uncomfortable enough and thrilled enough this morning.

 

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7 Simple Steps to Set Yourself Up For Journaling & Writing Success

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Writing success is so much simpler than people believe AND that doesn’t necessarily make it easy.

Simplicity definitely does make it do-able.

The first simple step to take is to set yourself up to write.

This is as simple as preparing a place to write. Just like we set the table before we eat a meal or set up a shot before we make a video or take a photo, we may also set up for writing.One of the suggestions I make to those who are almost always “going to write today” and then don’t is to literally put out all the writing tools they need, take some other unrelated action, and then plop down in the chair and write.

How it looks in seven easy steps goes like this:

  1. Place your notebook (or journal or writing paper), your pen or pencil (or tablet or phone).
  2. Set a water bottle beside your writing tools.
  3. If you like to write with music, preset the music you like.
  4. Whatever it is you prefer to have for your writing experience, literally put it all in one spot.
  5. Write a prompt across the top of the page or document. (There are many right on this page. Pull one down and use it, choose several to give you variety if that helps you get your energy flowing.
  6.  You might write a question such as “What is the best focus on my social media this week?” or “What are some sample headlines I might use for blog posts this week?” or “How may I be a heroine for my clients, customers and readers this week?”
  7.  Then do the opposite of writing: take 15 minutes (or your preferred allotment of time) to cook, to walk, to do a yoga sequence, a photo taking session, a drive, a shower – whatever it is that you enjoy doing to clear your mind and get into your body, to become more alert and then without any hesitation, sit in the chair and write.

You may want to light a candle or speak your intention aloud. I like to have my essential oils diffusing, so that’s an example of an extra item I use.

It is that simple.

You may follow along this week as we continue to learn tips, hacks and share stories on my livestreams (Periscope, Facebook Live, Instagram Live) this week as well as on IG-TV, Instastories, and YouTube. If you feel compelled to create content from what we’re sharing here, please tag me so I may support you and share what you’re up to with others.

Let’s have a more successful writing week than we ever imagined.

What’s the first writing project you will set free this week?

Our 5for5BrainDump 5 Day Writing Adventure is coming up next week – it is free for you to make your journaling and writing better at any time! To join us live, please take a moment to register here – and in thanks, you may download our free Strategic Journaling Guide for your future success with writing and with life, overall as well. 

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Strategic Journaling: How to Help Yourself to Find the “Right” Words When They Go Into Hiding

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There are times when I can’t access the exact right words to say what my heart is calling me to say. This is embarassing to admit as a writer, but I am nothing if not authentic.

Sometimes it is a feeling I’m attempting to describe, sometimes it is a concept just on the edge of language – but not quite inside the language sphere and the longer and more I try to smooosh the concept or feeling into language, the more it moves away.

Rather than get frustrated I have found a few strategies to “free” the words that are stuck inside me and then return to the writing process reinvigorated.

1. Create something that isn’t connected to language: borrow your child’s crayons and fill a sheet of lined paper with circles, then color them in. As you are drawing, focus on the experience. When you are complete with it, return to your writing with the prompt, “What I mean to say is…”

2. Go for a five to ten minute walk. As a bonus, speak affirmations and positive mantras of your choosing as you walk.  Return immediately to your writing and use the prompt. “I know what I have to say is valuable. People will be thankful to know…..

3. Garden, cook, fold laundry or do other mundane chores. While doing the chores, start a very carefree inner conversation in your mind about the topic you are writing about today. Make associations to the folding, the stirring, the digging with your topic at hand. As new thoughts begin to pour in, say thank you aloud or silently. Return to the page with the words, “What I discovered is….

Here is a very short video for you about writing affirmations – similar to the walking affirmations – that may help your words flow as well.

Pick one to start with and remember these very simple and easy techniques to keep your words flowing.

🌀📚 .If you have further questions about staying in the writing flow, consider a complimentary transformational coaching conversation now. Request a session by clicking here now.

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed media whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives.

Her life changing, free #5for5BrainDump programs are available to you this Summer by visiting this link.

To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.

Be sure to check out  her social media channels in the links above, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

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Instant Writing Improvement: Have Fun With Writing

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Here are two reasons to be more specific with your writing. The first reason includes all your writing and communication. The second reason to be specific with your writing is about creating and living life as a content creator or maker.

I will be sharing in my stories and vides about these topics as we gear up for next week’s #5for5BrainDump. Check the link in my profile to register for that free program.

In order to make your writing better, be as specific as possible.

  1. Julie drives a blue car.
  2. Julie drives a midnight blue Mazda.
  3. Julie drives a midnight blue Mazda CX5 that is parked in a driveway in Bakersfield, California.

In order to create a life as delightful as possible, speak and write of how you want to feel using as many different descriptive words as possible.

  1. I am excited to be as productive as possible.
  2. I am delighted to see what content I may create that will change other peoples’ lives, and the world, for the better.
  3. My enthusiasm is contagious when I share on multiple platforms and realize how easy this is to be consistent and continue to move forward, with love, always.

Suggestion: Draw a circle in the middle of a blank sheet of paper.

Write the name of the object in the circle and then free associate all the ways you could describe the object. Allow yourself to notice the tiniest little bit of description. Witness the object with multiple senses.

See how it looks, hear how it sounds, feel the weight or density when you touch it.

To go more deeply with your description, compare it to other objects.

The last step in this first stage is to associate your memories either with the specific object or an object similar to it. With the car example, I might write about memories in another car I owned. Lately I’ve been thinking about my high school friend, Susan, so perhaps I’ll write about my Ford Cortina or the Volvo Station wagon she used to drive. For now… I am going to play with writing more specifically.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more writing improvement tips for you. 

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed media whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives.

Her life changing, free #5for5BrainDump programs are available to you this Summer by visiting this link.

To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.

Be sure to check out  her social media channels in the links above, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

 

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Out in the Great Beyond Woo Woo: Having Fun with Factual because who pushes applecarts anymore, anyway?

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What does it mean to be “woo woo”?

I learned today from google that “woo woo” is a cocktail that sounds pretty darned yummy and what I was looking for was a classification of people or the way some people experience… again caught in a web of words.

It is almost a pejorative when someone says “woo woo”. When I say it,  I am often describing myself, the mystical me – the one who believes in a sort of alternate way at times that people who are more linear or scientific or stodgy might not understand. They might say I am cooky or nuts or… out there.

See, words can be tricky.

This is how it relates back to the Untalkaboutables.

I remember before Samuel was diagnosed with autism. I didn’t want to talk about his autism in certain circles because I could hear them say things like “don’t use labels” even in a movie I loved recently they kept saying “quirky” instead of autism. A women behind me said “He has autism.”

When we dance around or use metaphor or refuse to face what is so – we cloak that topic in being wrong and our mind hears “wrong” and this can be, at least, frustrating to those of us who thrive on accuracy and damaging to those of us whom “people pleasing” flows through our veins whispering “don’t do it wrong, don’t upset the apple cart”.

Who even pushes an apple cart anymore? Who even uses an apple cart anymore?

Practice in talking:

1. Practice being as factual in your conversation as possible.

2. If you are uncomfortable with just starting being factual, add a preface in your conversation – something like “I am attempting to be as succinct and close to the facts as possible, like an old-time journalist be.”

3. Do the opposite: be as ridiculously, flagrantly un-factual as possible in your conversation. This is actually a lot of fun and quickly brings us back to the facts.

And as always, we may start this practice with our writing. Take the three steps above from conversation and write them, instead.

I would love to hear from you about your progress with talking about your “Untalkaboutables”. Please comment your thoughts, experiences with woo woo and/or applecarts and maybe you would benefit from watching  more on my YouTube channel, too.  This particular video is about the twisting, curvy road of transformation. Take a moment to watch this video and then subscribe over there as well.

 

 

 

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What Will You Do to Make a Positive Impact in Your World?

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I just started the same sentence several different ways because the first few attempts just didn’t feel good, didn’t feel right, didn’t feel like me – so here I will say it again, this time like this:

I feel a deep satisfaction from being constructive, making an impact, showing up and being a light in my corner of the world. If I can say something or do something or share something and a light goes on for someone my heart reaches out and sings –

Today I was doing a livestream broadcast and it seemed like when I made important points the light from the window – the sunrays, shone down on my heart. It was like Divinity was saying “Yes, listen!” This is important, you will feel happy when you cultivate this!”

Trying again.

What will you do to make a positive impact in your part of the world today?

I type those words and wait, hoping some lightning bolt will rise through the ends of my fingers on the keyboard. I look out my window and I think, “There is something here I know it!” and the leaves dance in response. The wind says “You are here, Julie. You are HERE!” and I think…

That’s it. I am here. I am writing. I am showing up at the page, I am sharing with you. I am present.

I think about Emma whose class got cancelled, Emma who is in her room, quiet, and I think she wanted to run an errand and when I am done with this 5 minute writing spree I will ask her when she wants to go – because my positive difference is oftentimes with my children.

I think of Samuel’s carefully crafted birthday wish list, complete with arguments and possible rebuttals covered and all started with “Please stick within your budget, Mom” and “Since it is my birthday and you’re only buying for one person, maybe you can spend a little more than for Christmas.”

I laugh, what a kid, and am so grateful he knows he can ask for things.

I never wanted to and still feel anxious about asking sometimes.

What will I do to make a positive impact?

I am sharing here with you. Perhaps these words will touch you in some way, some way I don’t even have an idea about right now, perhaps you will write and tell me later. I would like that.

Please, comment or send me a note to tell me, “What will you do to make a positive impact in your part of the world today?”
When you respond, I suggest you go more deeply into what you will do, with a specific, absolutely non-generic response. I want to know the goods – the excellence within the goods.

What will you do to make a positive impact in your world today?

As you are writing, repeat the prompt.

I wonder for a moment why the timer hasn’t gone off yet?

Because I neglected to set it – and I suppose you were best served by repetition. 

Let’s get those pencils moving, those fingers on the keyboard dancing. Share with me. What will you do to make a positive impact in your part of the world today?”

Use this question as a writing prompt, a meditation or a reflection question. Please be in touch and let me know how this prompt served you.

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist  whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in soon!

To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.

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Take Time to Reflect: Mindful Action = Amplified Results

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I alternated this morning between angry, sad and anxious.

Hardly a productive combination of ways of being: more like a recipe for turbulence and possible destructive action – which tends to create more emotional carnage and rarely anything with an ongoing positive flavor, at least not in my life.

So far this morning I have cried and fretted. I have cleaned and sulked. I have edited some images and now, finally, I am writing,

I managed to have small moments of reflection primarily because I know reflection will (eventually) yield results though sometimes – in the process – reflection feels pretty lousy.

I wrote a micro-poem in a moment of anger this morning. I like it but I probably won’t rush out to post it all over social media because then my reflection turns into someone else’s pain. I don’t want to cause pain. Ever.

  1. Reflect in short bites. If it feels lousy at first, let it feel lousy with one caveat: attempt to keep your lousy in your own realm.
  2. Write, art or exercise out your reflections as a means of digesting whatever appears. Sometimes one, two or all three (and repeat) is necessary.
  3. Add an element of forgiveness into your process. Like in #5for5BrainDump when we focus on gratitude at the end of our five minutes, focus on forgiveness of yourself and others when you are completing your reflective time. Punctuate with gratitude and intention as feels right.

Interesting to note: in simply writing these words (total time investment about 7 minutes) I feel better. I feel less cranky, less anxious, less fretful.

Week ahead: I am coming your way. We are going to be great together!

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist  whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in soon!

To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.

 

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B is for Bella Bella Akhmadulina: Literary Grannies from A-Z/2018 #atozchallenge

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One of my favorite aspects of doing this challenge is I encounter new writers. Bella Akhmadulina was a Russian poet, essayist and translator I didn’t know until I wanted to find a new granny to represent for the letter B.

Those of you who are writers and poets, what would it be like to perform in front of a packed arena, as if you were a rock star or super bowl athlete?

That’s what happened for Bella Akhmadulina! She was well loved, defended the dissidents and in doing so, was not published much. She was among the top 4 poets of the time in Russia – and the only woman in the group.

She was one of 40 writers who banded together in 1993 a group of writers to stand up against then President Boris Yeltsin.

I want to get to know Bella Akhmadulina better. I hope you do, too.

Writing Prompt: Imagine yourself a Writing (or whatever your passion may be) Rock Star. What would you say to the crowd gathered to watch you do your thing? Take 5 minutes to write – and just let your words flow without forethought or editing.

Julie has participated in the A to Z Blog Challenge for several years and is thrilled to be back, once again with Literary Grannies. Follow here throughout April for blog posts featuring women of literary history along with a daily writing prompt that reflects each featured writer.

Julie Jordan Scott is the Creative Life Midwife: a writing coach who specializes in inspiring artistic rebirth for those who may have forgotten the pure joy of the creative process. She offers individual creativity coaching as well as creating individualized programs for businesses and groups in the form of workshops, webinars and more. Contact her at 661.444.2735 for immediate assistance with facilitation, speaking or experiencing an enriched life no

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Writing Beyond Showing Vs. Telling: Wisdom from Ursula K. Le Guin & Laura Ingalls Wilder

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One of the best ways I have found to improve my writing is to study the lives of writers who went before me.

I’m not sure when I became blissfully obsessed by the lack of women writers who were quotes and looked toward by the literary establishment, but this passion has brought me countless hours of joy and pleasure in its pursuit. Today, two women writers I revere. I spoke about some of this on a recent FacebookLive broadcast. At the bottom of the information is a link to watch this and more videos that are a part of the #WordLoveYourself project I am working on with Writer and Blogger, Christine Anderson. 

Ursula K. Le Guin– a powerhouse writer and trailblazer in both style and substance – died recently.  Le Guin was raised in the shadow of one of the most prestigious intellectual spaces in the Country, University of California, Berkeley.  Her father was a faculty member and her mother was also a non-fiction writer.

I’m reading her most recent book, “No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters.” And have also read bits and pieces of what she is best known for, science fiction.

She doesn’t believe in the adage of “Show, Don’t Tell” and believes people have gotten lazy and NEED the exposition of TELLING.

Laura Ingalls Wilder – best known for her series of “Little House” books which became a marketing juggernaut in the 1970’s thanks to a hit television series – learned early how to tell AND show simultaneously when she became the eyes for her sister, Mary, who lost her vision during childhood. The Ingalls Family lived frequently as wanderers, oftentimes poor and moving about regularly trying to keep the family fed and cared for meant giving up “extras” like education and new clothes.

Her descriptions are vivid and crisply written, oftentimes woven in a storytelling style.

What can we learn from these two very different yet similar Literary Grannies?

  1. Telling isn’t all bad: it is the CLUNKY exposition that is horrid. Le Guin sounds as if she gets frustrated by writers who leap into dialogue without any background or explanation so the dialogue doesn’t have anything to “hold onto”.

The worst for me is watching a TV show or movie where a lazy script writer puts dense clunky exposition (telling) into a moment that might have come alive with old fashioned story telling – the WHAT HAPPENED

This is the Berkeley Laura Ingalls Wilder would have seen when traveling there in 1915 to see a theatrical production when she traveled across from San Francisco (where she covered the World’s Fair for the Missouri Ruralist) and then took the Street Car along San Pablo Avenue from Oakland to Berkeley.

approach which is also exposition, just exposition done in a better, more engaging manner.

  1. Another technique is to “project the scene in your minds eye” and then step into the scene. Live it in words via the senses. What do you hear, see, feel against your skin? Work on making the telling a part of the showing. They don’t have to be separate and one good and one bad.

This fits perfectly with my belief AND is always better than either/or.

  1. Make practice into a game. Try showing and telling in different ways.  Share what happens by commenting here. You may also join our live streams on our Facebook page and writing community.  Livestreams flow directly into Facebook.com/JJSWritingCamp for the Word Love portion of #WordLoveYourself and Facebook.com/MindfulYenta for the Love Yourself Portion where my friend, writer and blogger Christine Anderson hosts.  Experience more community conversation in the Word-Love Community group. You are welcome everywhere.

 

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming soon!

Contact Julie now to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.

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