What is the Admission Price to the Path Out of Fear?

November 20, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife 11 Comments

A small part of the Appalachian Trail is a piece of the story of the Path out of fear - and overcoming a challenge as written by Julie JordanScott

Yesterday I was writing a fairly innocuous seeming caption to a photo on facebook. I post photos to facebook on most days because of my personal #377TreeHug project. I use my facebook page as a means of documentation and accountability. Yesterday was no exception.

I had a marvelous tree hug of a hickory tree on the Appalachian Trail and I was extremely excited to post about it.

In one caption I wrote, “I love how the nuts are here to feed the animals. Once in childhood we saw a porcupine near the trail. I was scared of everything (even lightning bugs) so I had visions of the porcupine shooting quills at me from a distance… and was also convinced there were bears lurking inside fallen trees. How I survived and even loved these adventures even while petrified I’ll never know.”

I re-read my words and sat back in my chair, shocked at the truth within that seemingly simple, ordinary caption.

I was scared of everything (even lightning bugs)….. How I survived and even loved these adventures even while petrified I’ll never know.”

I was also teased unmercifully for my fear, which made it even worse.

I was afraid of things. I was afraid of being afraid of things. I was afraid to express my fear so I did my best to hide my fear, at all costs.

Somehow I did all this as a child and it continued – and in some ways continues still, today.

I realized the facts were to spend treasured time with my father, I would need to pay the price of admission. The fee was a lot of faking courage. I needed to be comfortable with pretending my fear didn’t exist or hiding my fear under an enthusiastic seeming smile.

I hid my fear by proclaiming my trust in God.

I hid my fear by looking on the bright side. I remember when my daughter died, for example, I comforted myself by saying, “God must have chosen me to have my daughter die because He knew I am strong enough.”

I hid my fear by doing things other people fear like being an actor and performing poetry in front of audiences and becoming a public speaker.

The thing is, those things don’t scare me, they exhilarate me.

Slowly, I hid myself and withdrew almost completely when I had too many sequential challenges. I no longer had the energy to show up because hiding one’s fear is exhausting. Exhausting one’s shame over being afraid is even more exhausting.

It was easier to disappear and infinitely painful when the people you love don’t even seem to notice.

Mary Oliver wrote in one of her most well known poems, “The Journey”

But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.

In the depths of my sorrow and sadness of hiding and pretending pain didn’t exist, I had many difficult conversations with myself.

Shonda Rimes in her book “Year of Yes” reminded me eloquently this week, “I know on the other side of that difficult conversation lies peace. Knowledge. An answer delivered. Character is revealed. Truces are formed. Misunderstandings are resolved.”

Having time alone here in my “Long Term Self Care and Artist Retreat” I have had a lot of time alone to have tough conversations with myself. Real conversations with myself. Experimental conversations with myself.

There have been tears and laughter, tree hugs and walks, deep dives into memory, discovery and my dear old companion, fear.

It feels like everything up until now has just been practice for this and what is coming up in the next few months as I finish my book projects and continue to build my life coaching practice, do more speaking and keep showing up on video and here, on my blog and on social media.

I am doing things that scare me every single day, sometimes subconsciously I am getting tapped on the shoulder divinely or intuitively to take a closer or deeper look. I am no longer afraid of lightning bugs or bears or porcupine quills.

I still get a bit nervous about criticism from people I love or worse – people not caring at all.

I am not hiding and that, dear reader, is the best victory of all.

I could have told you today about my near death experience or many other twists and uncomfortable turns along the path, but this feels most like what we needed to talk about today.

What challenges have you overcome?

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

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What Happened When the Inner Critic Crashed the Forest Bathing Party

November 10, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife 4 Comments

Woman writing in a notebook in the middle of the forest. Words say "Hello, Inner Critic! Fancy meeting you here!"

Forest bathing is one of the most pleasant experiences anyone may enjoy – it doesn’t require equipment or skills or new shoes. All it requires is one have a willingness to be in a wooded area – a forest or park – even an urban park or a back yard with numerous trees will work. The technical definition (if you don’t know it yet) will show up later.

Last Monday, I visited High Point State Park in Sussex County, New Jersey which is where I am living right now. I brought my notebook with me to possibly write, but that was a second part of the plan. The true plan was to be with trees and hug a tree or two for good measure.

How did I end up laughing in the Forest with my Inner Critic?

Even as I typed the words “Laughing in the forest with my inner critic” I realized how foreign or flat out wrong this may appear to some people. Who laughs with the villain?

Who chuckles with the one who makes us feel unworthy of praise?

Admittedly as a writer and as a writing coach, I have some unconventional ideas – and trusting the process is one of them. Stay with me as the story unfolds.

These moments among the trees were like a tree fest of profound, beyond language joy. Gratitude is a close description and the feelings were – if possible to understand – so much more than simply gratitude.

Definition of Forest Bathing.

My plan was to do some forest bathing and tree hugging. What is forest bathing? National Geographic defines it like this: “The term emerged in Japan in the 1980s as a physiological and psychological exercise called shinrin-yoku: “forest bathing” or “taking in the forest atmosphere”.

I brought my notebook “just in case” it felt right.

There, in the forest, I came upon a companion black oak tree which invited me to take a seat on a makeshift stool and experience forest bathing with words.

This is where my inner critic (or perhaps the spirit keeper of the woods) stepped in when the very first two words off the tip of my pen were “majestic oak.”

Woman sitting at the base of a tree, writing in her notebook. Julie Jordan Scott (Julie JordanScott) is the writer.

Smack! I felt the energetic sting of a ruler on my pale, bent fingers cradling my trusty writing utensil. I kept my head lowered as I mumbled, “I know. Horrid. What was I thinking?”

This is when my Inner Critic and I started laughing.

My inner critic was being helpful. That’s what editors do, after all, they make our writing better.

How often do writers trot out the most maligned and overused meaningless words in the beginning of their writing?

Here I was, sitting in a forest surrounded by oaks of orange, brown, and assorted mottled spotted leaves. There were enormous green-yellow leaves on baby oaks that didn’t seem capable of bearing the weight of them. Deep blue sky over head with wispy clouds like smoke from candles that have been blown out. Leaves, sounding like foam on the Atlantic’s waves or perhaps imitating rocks on the flow of the river.

Woman hugging an oak tree in the forst. Tree hugger who is forest bathing.

Here an oak, there a beech, similarly covered with lichen.

It was possible, when I close my eyes, to smell the leaves returning to soil.

I noticed there wasn’t evidence of many other feet walking here in recent days.

My focus pulls aside when I turn toward the hum of a truck on the highway. After the truck I notice the hum of a small airplane, a motorcycle, a sports car.

The trees patiently wait for me to notice them again.

The tallest yellow tree, an eastern oak, seemed to call out to me.

“Let people know we are here,” he said, seeming to give my notebook and pen a half nod. “Let people know we are grateful for when they visit us and sit a while.”

Looking more closely, I see signs of a broken bough, a torn branch or two up his spine. This tree, like me, is healing and whole at the same time.

Just like I am healing and whole at the same time.

Just like so many writers and creatives are both healing and whole at the same time.

Somtimes that wholeness is when we are able to laugh when our inner critic gets it right and she becomes a collaborator. Special note: you are best knowing how to write free flow style well before you allow the inner critic to interject her corrections and suggestions.

One of the reasons I was able to shift gears into better writing was because I knew my word choice was tired and cliche almost as soon as they tumbled off the tip of my pen. I didn’t respond to the appearance of the tired, cliche words with a gasp or a barrage of negative self talk, I laughed.

What would happen if you decided to play with your inner critic instead of making your inner critic wrong?

The most effective way to work WITH your inner critic

The single best thing you can do is give your inner critic space to help you AFTER your first draft is complete, after you have allowed your words to flow wherever they wanted to flow – even if the first words are trite and cliche.

Did it occur to you if my inner critic hadn’t showed up and overstepped her boundaries while I was forest bathing, you would not be reading this? Maybe YOU are the exact reason she showed up with me while I was minding my own business, enjoying nature with my notebook and pen in hand.

Consider this an invitation to take your notebook outside and find some trees to spend time with soon. Bring an open mind and heart. Enjoy finding words that fill you with delight as much as the experience fills you with delight.

Reach back here and tell me when your mission is accomplished, please.

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

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What Does Tree Hugging Have to Do With My Niche?

November 5, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife 9 Comments

Truth is, tree hugging being or not being connected to my work as a creativity coach didn’t cross my mind when I embarked on this adventure otherwise known as a three-year-connected adventure of hugging trees from the United States, coast to coast.

Many of my peers are obsessed with only creating niche related content. I am not.

Emphasizing my daily tree hugging for nearly a year is definitely not within the standard realm of my profession.

I was simply looking for a way to continue feeling better after surviving a near-death experience. The first year after sepsis and Valley Fever almost killed me, I wrote haiku. This helped me start and continue to write daily, a practice I gave up in the hospital and was difficult returning to afterwards.

I didn’t know when I started that practice that we would be reeling from a pandemic and ordered to stay in place and physical closeness became something rare except for those we were quarantined alongside in our homes or small groups.

Tree hugs became a way to continue healing both of myself and reaching energetically to people I wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise.

It is sort of how my writing aesthetic works: I love words and I love the people who read my words. I don’t only write about writing or creative practices. Truth be told, often times my best ideas and insights and a-ha’s come when I am tromping around on walks or hikes or sitting in diners, rummaging through book shops or used book stores or hugging trees.

I love the people in my courses, classes and workshops. I love the people who I work with as a writing and creativity coach. I love trees. I love dark skies with stars calling out, their bright light taking my breath away.

Sometimes, when we are all courageous enough, we allow our words to flow out into the world with intentions for soul connection and expansion of love and confidence and the ever-wished-for optimism which for many has evaporated completely.

I’m coming to the end of my original tree hugging goal and I may revise the goal, to continue hugging trees adding 100 tree hug days (when I hug one-or sometimes more) daily.

Since December 21, 2020, tree hugging has….

Given me a task to do each and every day – sometimes it was “on the way” and sometimes it WAS the way (when I may have stayed closed up indoors, it gave me a reason to get out.)
Connected me to people in different ways, even inspiring some people to hug trees for the first time and then share those hugs with me. This has proven how tree hugging is a medicine, especially when many of us weren’t able to hug the people we love.
Once again I proved to myself how one daily, consistent act has exponential results far beyond what we imagined when I started. Some of the conversations while tree hugging have been priceless. I even made an instagram reel of my 300th tree hug because of what someone said as he “caught me in the act.”
Tree hugging gave me daily physical time and connection with the divine creator – and helped me to see how when I create, I am honoring the gifts I have been given – especially when I take time to “report back” via social media posts and other random and not-so-random spaces.

What does tree hugging have to do with my niche? Nothing and everything. You tell me.

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Top 5 Lessons from 200+ Days of Tree Hugging: Tuning into the Wisdom of Trees

July 23, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife 4 Comments

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.”

Robert Collier

Today will be my 211th consecutive day of tree hugging. My goal is to hug trees over 377 consecutive days: sometimes I hug more than one tree and on the occasional day, I have missed hugging a tree, which I make up and hug more trees the following day.

Consistency adds energy & passion to any project or goal

Both the trees and the consistency itself have taught me an infinite number of things, but these five I am sharing today may have something to say specifically to you.

I created this project as a follow up to another 377 Day Consistency Experiment/Adventure. That time, I wrote haiku poetry. Tree hugging has proved more challenging. I created a different set of rules this time because the context was entirely different.

I hadn’t expected to become an expert in so many different kinds of trees. I hadn’t expected so much in my life to change in 2021. I hadn’t expected to feel frustrated or blah so much of the time and having the trees to pull me up and into the world has made a big difference.

Affection and acknowledgment have healing properties. The mutuality between the giver of the acknowledgment and the receiver of the gift of acknowledgment expands when we stay present to it.
While we may think something will last forever, it won’t. Enjoy, document, share and when the time comes, grieve with your whole heart. Deciduous trees have an annual grief and healing process – helps us humans who don’t have that experience.
Water is life. Living in California means I am witnessing a lot of withered trees.
Tree hugging is a form of prayer. With feet grounded in the soil, body connected with the tree, mind and heart open – gratitude for the Creator and what has been created, including oneself.
When we listen closely, the trees speak (and sometimes they call out to us.). Yesterday, a Ponderosa Pine scarred and burned by a lightning strike gave me comfort – and I believe I gave comfort, also. A Pistache tree at a desert rest stop also called to be hugged even though “my plan” was different. I am so grateful I listened and acted upon what I heard.

By the time you read this blog post, my joy for consistency and for hugging trees may have expanded to 250 trees or 300 trees or more. Small efforts, repeated – in different spaces, places and contexts, have made an enormous difference in my life this year whether dealing with layers of grief, disappointment or practical matters like building my business.

And now, for you: Activate Your Passion – contemplate, write or create from these questions.

Do you have a favorite kind of tree?

Have you hugged a tree lately?

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. To receive her email newsletter to be inspired by her transformational articles, essays and videos as well as find out about her new programs, products and challenges, please click here to subscribe.

Why It May Benefit You To Consider Tree Hugging Now

February 12, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife 6 Comments

Why Hug a Tree?

Remember when we used to be able to hug people without thinking about risking our health?

That’s one reason why hugging trees feels so good right now.

I remember in 2019 regularly attending First Friday, an event in Downtown Bakersfield on the First Friday of every month. Art galleries and businesses downtown would be open and artists would line the streets, performers would be out and “my people” would inevitably either be showing their wares or circulating or performing.

I was guaranteed to hug and be hugged, smile at others and smile back, sing and laugh and play and be silly and for now, anyway.

I don’t have that on the First Friday of every month right now.

What is available is plenty of trees to hug, even in cities.

Yes, what I do have is an abundance of trees to hug.

Trees are in parks, they line many streets and parking lots. They are in my yard and in the yards of friends I can wave to and talk to outdoors from a safe distance.

When I hug a tree, I focus on one thing: feeling and experiencing a hug. On any given day I may also focus on healing for myself,for the rest of the world, the specific tree I am hugging, the neighborhood.

Specific health benefits of tree hugging

When you are tired, you allow yourself to feel the reciprocity the tree offers, just like the reciprocity humans offer. It isn’t exactly the same AND it is powerful in its own right.
You may receive positive energy from the tree, enough of this energy to find myself giddy and laughing.
Cardiovascular health and even obstetrical outcomes are improved when we utilize parks, green spaces, and hugging the trees within as noted in this research from Pennsylvania scientists.

In observing the tree, you will also notice how the branches bend and stretch. These may ignite associations in you like they do for me in my business and my life.
The scents from the trees serve as an up close and personal aromatherapy. You can feel myself relaxing as youhug the tree. Stress relief comes.
Matthew Silverstone noted in his book, Blinded by Science, evidence confirming trees and their healthful benefits includes their effect on mental illnesses, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), concentration levels, reaction times, depression, and the ability to alleviate headaches.
“Nature Deficit Disorder is real! Families need nature in urban areas, reports the New York Times . Tree hugging creates a deep connection point for urban nature, especially during times of Covid.

What I have learned in 52 consecutive days of Tree Hugging:

Since I started hugging trees every day for more than 50 consecutive days, I have never walked away from a tree hugging experience and felt worse. I always felt better.

When I focus on what I can do: I am able to hug trees, even with the pandemic, rather than what I can’t do – I can’t responsibly hug people who aren’t in my household. After hugging a tree, I re-discover joy, I open to what is present in abundance, I tune into what feels better.

How to Hug a Tree Most Easily

There are infinite reasons to hug a tree. What is yours?

Julie Jordan Scott is the Creator of the Radical Joy of Daily Consistency Course which helps people practice consistency and completion daily in order to experience a more incredible life experience. She also founded the free, private facebook community for writers and creative people at all levels of experience: the Word Love Writing Community. Join us!

Planting Hope, Peace & Love in August and Beyond

August 3, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife Leave a Comment

This is what heaven feels like, I thought. This is what peace feels like. Part of my job right now is embracing and creating peace wherever I find it or don’t find it. My idea is this: if I am aware of peace – and if I may expand that feelig of peace – it grows to embrace the rest of the world whether they are in the “Everything sucks” club or if they are in the “Pollyanna I am going to avoid everything” club or someplace in between.

This realization came when I spent a few minutes recently hugging a tree.

“He who plants a tree, plants a hope”

Lucy Larcom
Mill Girl. Poet. She who saw into the future.

This morning I took my morning walk in a park I don’t visit often. It is a lovely park with tall trees – this isn’t always the case in newer neighborhoods.I found myself in this new-to-me-but-not-entire-new-to-me park, fully enjoying the space – completely engaged in the light and shadows and the fresh air from well watered lawns and frequently emptied trash cans.

I decided I would reward myself for being diligent with my walk by hugging a tree. The trees here were still comparatively young so I could hug a tree all the way, wrap my arms completely around it. I watched and looked and decided on a tree that was close to the swings.

“I’ll be back” I told the tree.

I admired the tree as I walked away and looped around the park, fully feeling my feet as they moved on the sidewalks weaving around the park. I have new shoes that are very supportive of my feet so walking is even more pleasurable than it was just a week ago.

I continued walking and added an element of prayer and intention – for the children who play here and their families. I prayed for everyone who has ever visited the park. If any had died, I prayed for the families who were missing them. I prayed for the people in the hospital with Covid19, I prayed for the nurses who gave me such exceptional care when I was hospitalized in October. I came back to the tree.

I faced it, fully, and embraced it with my eyes closed and my spirit so high and happy.

We have the capacity to decide to embrace hope, love and peace. Even when we are in times like when I am writing this: in the midst of a global pandemic, social unrest climbing, continued divisive conflicts within my country. I am still able to stay in a space of hope, love and peace.

Writing Prompt for you to consider ways to stay in this optimistic rather than pessimistic space. Write for at least five minutes. If you are unable to think of what to say, simply write the words “hope, love, peace” repeatedly. Add words that are in a similar “feeling family” such as happiness, gratitude, connecting.

Even when times may be challenging, I am able to stay in a space of hope, love and peace when I choose to…..

Hello, August. Welcome peace, love, calm… happiness, joy… and upset, frustration, dissatisfaction – and may we choose to stay peaceful, loving and calm no matter what finds us.

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

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. Join us now in mid-2020 in #Refresh2020 to reflect, connect, intend and taking passionate action to create a truly remarkable rest of 2020.