Archives for June 2019

How to Be Open to the Art of Receiving

June 29, 2019 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Receiving: it is one of the most important skills on your journey to living a passionate life.

Yes, I said “skill” because so few of us are as adept at it as we could be and if we mastered it, truly, both our abundance and passion would grow exponentially. I’m not alone in this thought, I learned it from other experts. Look at what Alexander McCall Smith says: “Gracious acceptance is an art – an art which most never bother to cultivate. We think that we have to learn how to give, but we forget about accepting things, which can be much harder than giving. Accepting another person’s gift is allowing him to express his feelings for you.”

1. Truly receive your next compliment. No matter what your next compliment is, your task is simply to say “Thank you.” You may not rebuff the compliment, for example, say “oh, that’s nothing” because it is something. Receive kudos well and more receiving will come your way.

This video not only shares a valuable writing prompt, it goes more deeply into the concept of accepting compliments as a means of receiving and accepting gifts as a receiving practice.

2. Give without expectation of being “paid back” or “receiving in return” for what you give or what you do. Practicing practical, daily detachment is a heart opening way to invite more receiving into your life. When our motivation is giving-to-receive the greatest point is left behind.

3. Gracious acceptance may mean accepting both what we see as positive and negative. One of the most important skills we can learn, alongside with receiving is also being able to receive criticism and news we don’t want to hear with grace as well as a clear heart and mind.

4. Communicate to others what it is you really want. Oftentimes those around you have no idea what that may be because you haven’t yet communicated with them. One of the techniques I regularly use is asking the question, “Do you know anyone who….?” and then fill in what you want or need. It is like a magic wand to receiving what is wanted or needed.

5. Visualize yourself receiving what you want down to the tiniest detail. Jim Carrey is one of those well-known people who visualized his success long before his success was apparent to others. Athletes consider it “mental rehearsal.” Those who rehearse more often in the mind are also successful in the rest of their lives. Practice this and receive more abundantly.

Before you go, please remember to write to the prompt:

Today I am open to receive….

Below is my unedited response.

I am open to receive surprises. I am open to receive gentle words and refreshing gifts. I am open to receiving the energy to do some of the tasks that aren’t thrilling me. The idea of cleaning my desk, for example, felt so great when I initially planned it as homage to Maria but right now it doesn’t feel so great.

It is almost like she just whispered, “One drawer at a time, Julie,” so I will at least choose to start that project.

I am open to receive financial abundance via my expertise and gifts and talents. I am open to receive new people and connections that will serve as bridges to more abundance in experiences and opportunities.

I am open to receive a splendid sleep and to wake up with plentiful time to hang out with my online friends at 6 am and my new group of spiritual friends at 8 right here in Bakersfield. This, by the way, is so prosperous! Great new friends in Bakersfield!

I am open to receive direction, I am open to receive hugs and praise. I am open to receive new subscribers to my YouTube Channel and social media channels. (This feels almost silly to say but hey, I am open to receive them!)

I am open to receive flowers and chocolate before I die.

I am open to receive shared laughter and deep conversations with surprising people. I am open to receive smiles and acknowledgment and praise. I am open to receive apologies and authentic requests which I pray I am able to fulfill.

Today I am open to receive. I am open to receive.

I am grateful for cooler thn average temperatures. More walking than usual, clean-house-cleaning supplies. I am grateful for pencil sharpeners, good conversations with friends and fluffy pillows.

I am grateful for abundant receiving practice.

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. Be sure to follow her on Social Media platforms so you may participate in one of her upcoming events. You won’t want to miss a thing – your future self will thank you!

Paradise Found and Tossed About and Found Again.

June 26, 2019 by jjscreativelifemidwife

I tend to feel a slight twinge of guilt when I don’t agree with my favorite writers. Today, I feel sheepish because I disagree with this quote from one of the most revered women’s voices in current literature. Today, I agree to disagree about the other side of paradise with a favorite writer and poet I’ve been reading and quoting for years.

“Happiness is a garden walled with glass: there’s no way in or out. In Paradise there are no stories, because there are no journeys. It’s loss and regret and misery and yearning that drive the story forward, along its twisted road.”
― Margaret Atwood

On a warm June afternoon I considered this quote and I don’t want to agree with it.

In fact, I am feeling the excitement of victory above and over the damn thing.

Loss, regret, misery and yearning alone move stories forward?

It can’t be so, this can’t be the reason or the magnet or the finish line or the goal posts rising toward the sunset and champagne and accolades and hugs and happy high fives. No no no no and no.

I respect Margaret Atwood AND no, I don’t believe her assertions here about happiness and paradise. Do you believe what she says?

I’m going to think of today as a microcosm of story.

I had a blast of a morning: so much fun in my virtual co-working experience where we all got more than the norm done. We all moved forward perhaps along a slightly twisted road and I heard nothing about misery.

We had some technical glitches and stuff took a little longer than we had hoped, but loss and regret?

I’ll look at something else from today. Lunch with Emma. Found out a server at a restaurant we go to died in a car accident. Definitely loss. Discovered a gofundme I can share, something I can take action on, which made me feel slightly better.

Next Emma and I went to Kaiser. I felt annoyance due to poor communication but at least we took action. One might argue we were focused on avoidance of misery if a broken toe is misery. Perhaps it could be misery?

I put her car key on a cute key chain I found. I have no idea where the key chain came from, I just know I felt ridiculously happy because I have a horrible habit of misplacing keys and this one simple tool would make it much easier… to avoid loss and or regret?

Perspective, I think as five minutes of writing passes and I start yawning, wanting to avoid more discovery of loss or regret or misery or needless misery.

Happiness is unexpectedly seeing an old friend who values you more than you believe you deserve.

Happiness is forgiving yourself for being afraid and then finally taking action. Happiness is having the action netting authentically pleasing results.

Happiness is framing photos and art after waiting a while, and then hanging that art which makes people smile and then create their own art.

Happiness is going to a meeting where people appreciate you and a meetup with a friend who finds you funny and interesting and surprises you with the memories of you she shares.

I totally forgot the loss and yearning and misery as I recounted happiness which is probably why I feel so strongly about using gratitude as an ending point for free flow writing exercises.

I have experienced a lot of grief in my life. I have lost friends I cherished, I have fallen upon hard times with my face squarely in the mud for a lot longer than was healthy.

What helped me pick myself up and begin again was not the misery or the grief itself, it was the awareness of the sun rising, again, even after a lengthy darkness.

It isn’t an either misery or ecstacy, it is the awareness that even with misery or is currently great loss, there is also room for joyful ecstacy. It isn’t one or the other, there is one and there is the other.

Paradise has stories. For some reason, I am smelling vanilla – rich vanilla, not cheap, mild flavored vanilla – when I think of paradise stories. I see maps and diaries detailing journeys into and out of and over paradise and journeys into and out of and over and into hell: which is the only antonym for paradise (heaven, bliss, cloud nine, utopia, wonderland) and many other synonyms to happily, contentedly and transformatively describe a space many of us aim to inhabit.

Misery might love company, paradise loves permanent residents: especially those who are compassionate and kind to those who live outside. Those who haven’t learned about the joy of experiencing the richness and fullness and sweet losses of life with grace and hope and a future.

I can’t think of the perfect red bow to tie this up and I want to be finished.
Maybe you have a more proper ending? If you do, add it here.

As for me, I am off to today’s next paradise, next regret, next happiness, next loss, next story and next dissatisfaction and next moment of deep belly laughter, and the next story I tell about it all.

Julie JordanScott is the Creative Life Midwife: Her work as a life coach, muse and group facilitator has inspired best selling novels, new careers and knocking knees during speeches, performances and video releases. Right now she is enjoying hosting Ta-Da Tuesdays and preparing for her next Summer and Fall programs.

Good Job, Dear Friend

June 23, 2019 by jjscreativelifemidwife

“I have turned away from myself, ” I thought, this morning.

A trigger, a “oh no not that!” feeling rose from my gut. It wasn’t a running away screaming with my arms flailing, it was a quietly tip toe away so no one notices and climbing into a corner behind a curtain so that no one would take notice of my disappearance and then….
I realized this is what I have habitually done.

Past, present and now with awareness may cross off my “to-do” list or “to be forgiven for when arises in the future” list.

So interesting, this self-witness thing because in the turning away from myself, I am actually turning away from the gifts I bring to this world, it is like shutting off a valve of all that is good and right and pleasing to others as well as myself.

Do you ever find yourself doing this? Please tell me I am not alone in this.

I give myself the gift of five minutes to write and I find myself holding my face in my hands like in “The Scream” by Edvard Munch except my face is lifeless and numb, not outwardly screaming at all but…..

Perhaps this is the quintessential Julie scream. Numb, not even noticing myself pull away until I have sunk into unconscious disconnection.

I look around the room. My messy art table, my floor that needs a once (or several times) over.

Note to self. You are seeing. You are feeling. You are writing. You are alive.

You have now turned back to yourself.

Well done, good and faithful friend.

Coffee as a waker upper today and through July

I’ve been absent from here. My intention is to write a five-minute-blog post daily (or as close as I’m able) starting in July and figured this was as good a time as any to begin. I literally grabbed a random photo as a header… it fit… and am looking forward to writing this week with the #5for5BrainDump I’m running this week. Here’s to taking off the numb and beginning again, again.