jjscreativelifemidwife – Page 20 – Creative Life Midwife

How Your Next Embodied Moment will lead to a More Fulfilling Life

October 28, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

How would your life change if you made the choice to open yourself fully to each moment as it happens?

Your first response might be “Don’t I do this right now?”

Maybe and maybe not.

Bombarded with distractions, all the time

We are constantly bombarded with distractions, most of which our mind filters automatically for us. Sometimes we are “playing with our kids” with our computer open and our phone in our hand and we are trying to get our partner’s attention. This isn’t very “in the moment.”

I know people who are distracted so much by a ticking clock they can’t focus on the conversation they are attempting to have with friends.

If you have that sort of sensitivity and you haven’t learned how to focus on the conversation, life becomes frustrating rather than fulfilling.

This goes beyond ticking clocks and flashing lights and startling smells that rise up and greet you as you are walking down your office hallways.

Your entire life experience will become better when you are 100% engaged in whatever you are doing at that moment. This is true no matter what you are doing: enjoying a concert, taking a walk, writing a blog post: the outcome is the same. Better results with better focus.

Embody the moment and rewards will follow.

Our experiences are better when we are fully immersed in whatever we are doing instead of sitting blankly scrolling on our phones, waiting for our boss to give us an inspiring assignment or checking the Netflix schedule praying something might capture our attention.

To experience full embodiment, we allow ourselves to be engaged with our senses as we are living that moment. Still not sure what I mean?

Here’s an example from my own life which could have been another boring everyday moment which instead, became not only sheer delight, it caused me to write a poem.

Ordinary coffee in an ordinary cup by an ordinary notebook or is it? When lifted to the lips and fully observed, embodiment occurs and a poem (or best seller) may be born.

Today I poured a usual cup of coffee into my favorite mug and sat down to drink it while I wrote social media content. Somewhere on the way from the coffee put to my seat here in the corner, I decided to make the experience one of embodiment: completely in touch with the tactile, sensory feelings within my body as I drank the coffee.

Coffee: Ordinary or Extraordinary?

Here is what happened when I allowed myself to be present to the experience of my lips and coffee.

I lower my head, as in prayer

Mug lifts to meet my lips, cold orange edge

rests on the soft yet firm shelf my lower lip offers

tongue meets lip from inside as coffee

pours forth, into my waiting mouth

slightly bitter warmth, pleasure for barely

a moment slides in and down and then

my throat opens and closes and satisfied,

my lips make way for the exhale, while

still heated slightly, while still cozy, while still

pleasantly plumped from the

liquid invocation of a new day

no matter what arises my lips

and I know. Coffee comes to visit

and temporarily makes all things perfect.

Coffee, writing and poetry are beyond the ordinary.

Rarely does my own poetry make me laugh, but this one did.

Embodied writing can be playful, deeply moving and sacred. It can be all three.

I may rework this poem but for now, I am sitting back admiring the moments I had drinking the coffee, taking notes while I drank, and now being brave and silly enough to share it with you here.

A Master Class in Embodiment and Your Richer Life, Right here

Last week I blogged about sharing ordinary moments as extraordinary. Today may be seen as the master’s course in the same subject.

Do me and your reading audience a favor: fully immerse yourself in any given ordinary moment. Take notes. And then write something from it, anything. I wrote a poem, you might write a sales letter. It doesn’t matter WHAT you write, it simply matters that you write this way.

FIND A SUPPORTIVE WRITING COMMUNITY in a Private FACEBOOK GROUP:

How would your writing productivity change if you received varied, niche driven writing prompts daily – also fiction, poetry, entrepreneur, copy writing and video prompts are offered, join the Private Word-Love Writing Community on Facebook by clicking here.

We look forward to writing with you!

Julie JordanScott lives in Bakersfield, California in a house too small for quarantine life. She leads discussions on Zoom and is polishing her most recent memoir and some poetry for soon-to-be publication. If you would like her to speak to your group over ZOOM until travel is available again, she would be happy to talk to you about that OR maybe you are looking for a slightly quirky, very open hearted, compassionate and tender Creative Life Coach. Text or call her at 661.444.2735 She would love to speak with you soon.

Shift Happens: Compassion & Being Your Authentic Self

October 26, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Hands in shape of a heart, showing the shift into compassion. Illustrates the power of authenticity and being real.

I overslept today. I feel like crap when I oversleep. I lecture myself, I think of all the ways I am bad and wrong and not worth the butt that I sit on, but something happened this morning to shift me from that harangue of self hate into a much better place.

I got up and set out on my original path, even though it was much later than I wanted it to be.

Seems natural, doesn’t it?

Eventually I got out of bed. I put my pants on one leg at a time – but what I decided to do that was different is I decided to not make myself quite as wrong for oversleeping. Instead I offered self compassion – eventually.

Self compassion, eventually?

It helped to text my friend Kelly and lament at myself a bit more before I got to compassion.

Nothing like public self-flagellation to complete the cycle.

One of the things Kelly said as I whined and kvetched about my lateness fired me up, perhaps in a way she hadn’t expected. She said “And at the same time you are being REAL.”

When being real & authentic is not a positive thing –

I’m raising my hand and being real when I say I believe sometimes people use the expression, “but I am being my authentic self” when they are making excuses or behaving in ways that aren’t acceptable – for example, using language that would make your grandmother’s skin crawl or being rude, arrogant, the opposite of compassionate or list your “but I am being my authentic self” shortcoming.

I can be my authentic self and stretch myself. I can be my authentic self and be uncomfortable. I can be my authentic self and be lonely.

I can also be my authentic self and do better than I have before. I can also be my authentic self and show compassion towards others AND myself.

I can be real and look amazing, I can be real and go out with unbrushed hair and an outfit that looks like I am on my way to a costume party portraying a very down-on-her-luck person.

Being Real isn’t always what it seems

This morning I didn’t do my usual amount of walking, but I am almost to the number of steps that was average at the end of the day in 2019. This makes me feel some sense of accomplishment.

I have made more progress at working my body than if I had stayed on the bed lamenting about how horrible of a person I am.

Both ways, I am being real, being true to myself. At the same time I have stumbled upon the conversation about how people have taken a well known adage, “Be real” and “Be authentic” and use them for their own shortcomings.

Let’s talk & write about being authentic and being real.

Is it wrong for a person to use “being real” and “being authentic” as a way to make themselves feel better for not doing something?

There are probably as many opinions on this as there are for styles of blue jeans. Remember, Levis’s are “authentic” and Coca-Cola has been called “The Real Thing.”

Now, it is your turn to write: Writing Prompts across genre

Journaling Prompt:

“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.”

Brene Brown

Prompt: If I were to describe my true self, I would say…

“Hard times arouse an instinctive desire for authenticity.” Coco Chanel

Prompt: When I think about being more real in hard times, what comes up is…

Copy Writer: Make a case for “Coca Cola” being “the Real Thing” or Levi’s jeans being “authentic”. Play with this fictitious copy as if it was for the most important client you’ve ever had. BONUS: write an article for your newsletter or blog using this writing as an example.

Social Media Post: Encourage people to be brave with their authenticity. Be a role model of courage in the post. Ask for input from your audience.

You can find more prompts from a wide array of purposes in the Word Love Writing Community on Facebook. Beyond prompts, there are people who want to see you succeed creatively – what could be better than that?

We look forward to writing with you!

So Much Better than Constant Drama, Drama, Drama!

October 21, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves is recognizing the extraordinary in ordinary moments.

As I write this I am listening to an audio of rainfall in a library. I am sitrting in my Bakersfield living room “in real time” but I am listening to a recording that makes my heart so happy – and it is completely ordinary.

My coaching clients will often construct a desire or even a perceived need of a life reminiscent of a perpetual retreat experience – which would be very nice and for many of us is simply not where we are every day. Unfortunately, this also sets people up to be pretty miserable most of the time.

How to Discover the Joy in the Ordinary

One of the unusual ways I learned about the joy in the ordinary was through poetry, which many people believe contains a standard context of flowery, difficult to understand, “way above me” language and meaning.

Sunday someone said to me, “I don’t consider this poetry. This is clear and easy to understand writing, it isn’t poetry.”

Why not write about coffee, then, or sunrise?

Some of my best early poems that weren’t overly flowery or angsty were written about coffee. My first poem, in fact, was printed and carried by my love at the time. He enjoyed the poem that much. He may have liked his daily cup of coffee more, but it was a lesson to me that poetry didn’t always have to be about crisis or struggle or ecstatic experience, it can be quite effective when it is everyday and relatable.

This morning I was chuckling over a poem written more than three hundred years ago by John Dunne. We was writing about sunrise saying, “Busy, old fool, unruly sun.”

He was mad that the sun was shining in his window at an ungodly hour, waking him and creating chaos in his mind. “Busy old fool, unruly sun” is such fun, simple word play it is clear all these years later. Ordinary and extraordinary.

Ordinary: 365 Times a Year, Sunrise Happens

When I wrote my first coffee poem, I hadn’t discovered Billy Collins or Mary Oliver or even William Carlos Williams who wrote so effectively about eating the plums in his refrigerator and realized his wife may have had a different plan for the plums. (For reference, that poem is “This is Just to Say.”

This reality – that I could write poetry about coffee and an infinite ways to describe the sunrise – was quite a revelation. Poems don’t need to be written about angst or discomfort or romance.

As I wrote this blog post, I found a poem I wrote in 2010.

In the poem, I write of the sun thanking me for taking the time to unwrap her. 365 or 6 times every year she reappears, most often without note. Ordinary and extraordinary all at the same time.

Write Like Jerry Seinfeld: Ordinary worked for him!

Jerry Seinfeld made a career out of joking about nothing in particular and my favorite television show of my twenties was a show about nothing (and everything) called “thirtysomething” – back then I thought they were so mature, Elliot and Nancy, Michael and Hope and their daughter named Jane.

Writing of the ordinary, extraordinary is as important a subject as one may ever have. Wrestling with the plain, the unflavored, the (what some might call) boring may become your favorite writing of all.

Perhaps you aren’t ready to believe me yet.

In that case, your writing prompts await, not unlike a romantic suitor waiting to whisk you away for an evening of revelry.

Writing Prompts: Discovery & Writing Practice Specialized for Your Form of Writing

Coffee Mugs and Coffee beans frame writing prompts for numerous niche writers: Social Media posts, poetry prompts, fiction writers and more.

Copy & Paste Texts: (Use these to copy right into your text or direct message box and send – or personalize for your situation. Surprise someone with a text message they weren’t expecting!)

It doesn’t need to be a special day for me to remind you how special you are to me!
I’m drinking my morning coffee wishing I was sharing a mug with you.
I just watched (name a TV series or movie) and it reminded me of the simple yet wonderful days we have had together!

Entrepreneurs: What is the most extraordinary (yet seemingly ordinary) quality of the product or service you provide? How can you accentuate the simplicity of it?

Social Media Posts: What you think is everyday in your life may fascinate your followers. Show your most behind-the-scenes/behind-the-scenes in an upcoming post.

Video Prompt: Project yourself back to your school days and make a video that is about a “how-to” and share something simple like tying your shoes or how to hold a pencil. Then stay very present to the reality there may be a time when people no longer hold pencils or tie shoes.

Fiction Writers: Set the stage for a regular/ordinary day in the moments before something really outrageous or unexpected happens.

Lifestyle Bloggers: The pandemic has given us a lesson in how quickly things change. Share a blog post of something that has stayed the same – and why you treasure it even more now.

Memoir/Life Writers: Take a dull scene you need to write in order for a more interesting scene to make sense and insert an interesting object to spice it up. Yes, make the object the star and see what energy that gives to the sequence.

Poets: It was a poem about coffee that helped improve ALL my writing. What is something everyday YOU will write about?

Copywriters: How would you sell and market a completely ordinary project? Write some practice copy and then think how to use it in your actual copy assignments.

Journaling Quotes & General Prompts

“I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.”

Alice Paul

Prompt: When people make things more complicated than they are, I wonder…..

“If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence.”

George Eliot

Prompt: I imagine the sound of grass grow is much like….. And that makes me feel (continue to follow the thread to see what unlikely place the sound of grass growing may take you.)

“My mother is a big believer in being responsible for your own happiness. She always talked about finding joy in small moments and insisted that we stop and take in the beauty of an ordinary day. When I stop the car to make my kids really see a sunset, I hear my mother’s voice and smile.”

Jennifer Garner

Prompt: Watch a sunset and write what you see… like the sun is giving dictation.

Find a supportive writing community via a Facebook Group:

We look forward to writing with you!

Expanding & Exploring Intuition to Increase Your Personal Effectiveness

October 20, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

I can’t remember when I discovered how intuitive I am. I may have been born with an intuitive gift AND I believe intuition is something I have practiced and stretched and grown over the years. I think having a non-verbal only thirteen-months-younger than me brother was extremely helpful in picking up clues from body language and the most tiny changes facial expressions. My empathy factor is also high, probably higher than most people.

That was just the start. Developing the intuition is like developing any skill set. It takes time, effort, commitment and there are times you will “get it” wrong – or not as right as you might like it to be.

For those of you who are intuitive, this exercise and the writing prompts will help you develop your abilities. Some of you who believe yourselves to be absolutely the opposite of intuitive, for today and today only I ask you to allow yourself to open your mind to consider growing your intuitive skills.

Judith Orloff, MD, Professor at UCLA said, “Highly developed intuition is a “secret weapon.” Learning to develop your intuition will make you better at your work, in your relationships and more.

Simple method to practice and develop your intuition now

Take note of hunches you receive. Write them in a note on your phone or in a small notebook. It is important to actually DO this instead of “just remembering.” Jack Canfield explains further “Your intuition might speak to you as a hunch, a thought, or in words. Your intuition may speak to you in physical sensations, such as goose bumps, discomfort in your gut, a feeling of relief, or a sour taste in your mouth.” You may take the notes you make in your phone or notebook one step further by dialoguing with the hunch. Do this by free-flow writing. Don’t plan what you are going to write, just ask the question of your hunch and allow your pencil to move. You might want to start with, “The nudge to call my former friend to talk about reconciling feels uncomfortable and I don’t like it but if I asked the wise old person who lives inside me what they might say is….
Take a specific time daily for quiet time by yourself with the specific intention to tune into your intuition. This may mean taking a 15 minute walk followed by a 5 minute journaling session. This may be meditating for 5 minutes. This may mean yoga followed by singing scales and listening between the notes for ideas.
Look for connections between seemingly disconnected objects in your surroundings to see what they want you to notice or “hear.” Try it now. Pick up three objects, put them in a row and start “riffing” aloud about them.

An example of how to process Intuition Exercise Results

These were the three objects I chose randomly from my environment:

Meyers Clean Day Cleaner; a coffee pot; the seagull reader (a poetry book I am using as a makeshift mouse pad.)

Possibility One: (First Flash insights using intuitive associations, without intellectual associations)

Be awake when I edit my poetry. (mindful and creative instead of seeing editing and revision of my writing as a chore to rush through)

YES!

This is spot on! Lately I have been writing much more which means I am spending more time in revision and editing. I tend to rush through revision and editing because my intellect thinks it isn’t as fun as the drafting process.

Possibility Two: Very practical – Remember to buy hand soap when I run errands later today. (This has to do with cleaning and other people – may not make sense to you but it does to me. And yes, I did remember!)

Possibility Three: For this response, I used both my intellect and my intuition and went deeper. The results are brilliant. I will make a note to myself to put this into action:

Take time to enjoy your morning practices. Allow the “chore” parts of your day be as soulful and inspiring as poetry.

How to discover and use your intuition exercise results:

Gather the items and look at them, loosely. In other words, don’t stare them down and shout “Speak to me, objects!” instead allow yourself to simply be curious.
What associations come up almost immediately? Write them down.
Go about your business and return to the objects later in the day or the next day. Now consider not with solely your intuition, look with your intellect as well. What associations or ideas pop up now?
Take note of anything resonant, especially if it has relevance in your ife right now or for a loved one.
Experiment with the intuitive hits (or messages) from your objects. Repeat as compelled. Remember to have fun with this!

Writing Prompts for further exploration

Social Media Posts: Use one of the intuition prompts offered in the journaling section as a caption to a post. Ask your audience what they think. When they respond, be curious rather than “provide expertise.”

Video Prompt: Do a livestream video about the topic of using intuition in your business. Prepare for this by writing about a time you used intuition in your business and what happened. You may even do the exercise I used above to develop intuition to practice live. (I have done this before – it is very fun!)

Lifestyle Bloggers: Ask your audience to share their stories of intuition with you. Interview one of them, Q and A style and feature it in your blog, Keep the conversation going to gain clarity about your readers in a different way so that you may continue to offer refreshing content.

Poets: Write a poem about a time when you followed your intuition and things did not turn out like you expected.

Copywriters: Freeflow headlines as outrageous as possible. Just start scribbling, even if they make no sense at all. Set them aside for at least a day or two. When you return, use your strongest editing skill – with an open mind – and see what gold nuggets appear.

Journaling Quotes & General Prompts:

“Intuition is seeing with the soul.”

Dean Koontz

Prompt: When I see with my soul, I notice…

“Don’t try to comprehend with your mind. Your minds are very limited. Use your intuition.”

Madeleine L’Engle

Prompt: My intellect likes to take me down a path of…. and my intuition seems to take me down a path of……. and I wonder what would happen if I….

“Insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads. It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out.”

Malcolm Gladwell

Prompt: If I started to allow myself to trust my insights more….

For Daily prompts & a flourishing writing community – look here:

We look forward to writing with you!

Julie JordanScott lives in Bakersfield, California in a house too small for quarantine life. She leads discussions on Zoom and is polishing her most recent memoir and some poetry for soon-to-be publication. If you would like her to speak to your group over ZOOM until travel is available again, she would be happy to talk to you about that OR maybe you are looking for a slightly quirky, very open hearted, compassionate and tender Creative Life Coach. Call or text her at 661.444.2735 to schedule an exploratory session.

She would love to connect with you soon.

Writing Prompt to Start Your Week with Intention

October 18, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

I ended last week with a thud. Have you ever ended a week like that, almost afraid to turn the page on the calendar?

On Sunday morning I told a group of friends, “I really need support with my mood and my follow through: I have been so cranky and so angry and it is made me fall into a fog of “nothing is going to get better” that I find myself getting blocked. I haven’t been walking as much, I haven’t been reading for fun, I haven’t been feeling as well… I haven’t been drinking as much water…”

Sometimes shifts happen when we see sunrise in a new fresh way. No more malaise!

It was as if the malaise started in a small way and then started spreading out over the majority of my life. I knew I needed to do something differently in order to continue to improve and to reach the goals I have set for myself.

How a simple prompt may shift your entire week

This simple fill-in-the-blanks prompt can take your journaling deeper each time you use it. Here is what I wrote this morning:

I started this week feeling vaguely optimistic and my intention is to end this week feeling satisfied because I followed through on my goals and plan for the most part and I allowed space to be open to even bigger, more cool stuff to take place.

off the end of my pen came the words:

“The world deserves the best from me.”

I value the people here and I have been praying for things to get better overall. I want to play a part in that “getting better” instead of angrily watching things get worse.

Begin adding energy to your intention by commenting here OR

You may respond to this post with your beginnings… and then continue to write “offline” even sharing throughout the week. As I watched my “thud-ending” week last week I realized it didn’t have to be that way… and maybe this is one way to stay on course and check in daily with myself before I check in with my friends, who offered to be that for me.

If accountability helps, share your daily updates on twitter or on instagram or facebook stories

Writing and journaling prompts do not have to be difficult or long and laborious. Like this one, they may also be playful and inventive with a chance for you to repeat, revise and play over and over again, simply write a different ending.

Bonus Tip? Daily preview using the same prompt, modified:

“I am starting the day feeling ______. I intend to end the day feeling _____ because ______”

Today, I might have written:

I am starting the day feeling rushed. I intend to end the day feeling accomplished because I will successfully lead the discussion group and get my blog updates ready for the week. I feel so blessed to know my work is helping others to gain insights and awareness as they begin their week. When I am productive and focus on what is in front of me rather than mourn what I didn’t do yesterday or worry about what will happen tomorrow, things fall into place better. I know this to be true. Deep breaths: I feel better about it already.

Take some time today to consider your week and/or your day.

Making a subtle shift in your intentionality has the capacity to make an enormous impact. You and the world deserves your fully expressed life.

We look forward to writing with you!

Miss Foley: My 1st Grade Teacher as Super Hero

October 12, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

When I was a little girl. I didn’t really like cartoons. The only comic books I read were the Archies, and that was because of Betty and Veronica. I didn’t enjoy super hero type shows. I was forced into watching the shows on TV because my brothers liked them but I was always so girly.

What makes an ordinary person into SuperHero?

My super hero would be someone who magically appears and heals wounds, often in secret. My super hero would prevent future wounds by building up the person’s confidence and esteem by not only healing the wound, but walking the person through the process – learning the cause, the impact, and embracing their personal strength so that they wouldn’t constantly be seeking other people to rescue them when challenges appear.

I remembered someone who was absolutely heroic and helped me to shift from being an invisible, unlikeable, not very smart kindergarten student to a super star first grader.

She healed the wounds left behind my Miss Wick (who I now call Miss “Ick!”)

My transformation was due to Miss Foley, my first grade teacher and undercover SuperHero!

The Legend of Mimi Foley, My Teacher

The legend of Miss Foley is one my children hold in their hearts clearly from my telling and retelling. Once we saw a young woman with long brown hair that flipped up with a curl on the ends and happened to be wearing a bright pink mini-dress, my daughter gasped and said, “Look! It’s Miss Foley!”

This is what Miss Foley’s view from inside would have looked like.

On the day I first experienced the magical Miss Foley I got to school early. I always liked getting to school early and I stood there, nose pressed against the window, wondering who would be my first grade teacher.

I was hopeful yet cautious. The moment I saw her for the first time. She was wearing the fuschia dress with big buttons across the bodice in two rows. She had brown hair, long with the flip, and brown eyes that sparkled.

I thought she was beautiful. She was almost as beautiful as my mother!

She was smitten by my enthusiasm, too, which probably helped me love her more.

A Six-Year-Old’s Dream Come True

Miss Foley's classroom circa 2014. The chalkboards and desks are no longer there, but the room itself remains the same. Smart board, tables and chairs, work stations. Excited children.

She helped me fulfill my lifelong dream, to learn to read, and also did some other distinctive actions. I am not sure if she ever realized she was doing anything special nor did she know how much these same themes would run throughout my life.

I reviewed in my mind the definition of a superhero: Someone who magically appears and heals wounds, often in secret. Miss Foley did that in these ways:

She openly liked me. She praised my abilities and gently corrected my mistakes.

She accepted my invitation My mother had a tradition of inviting teachers into our home for lunch once a school year. Linden Avenue School had an hour long lunch break and we all lived close so we went home for lunch. There was no cafeteria at our school and everyone walked.

Miss Foley walked to my home with me on that memorable day. Mom even made the special coffee cake from the recipe from the Bisquick box. To this day I still make coffee cake like that as a signal to my children how special they are.

My kindergarten teacher did not accept my invitation.

Now I know she was a hardened old woman who liked no one, but I thought it was just me she didn’t like. She assigned me to the “less smart kids” first grade class which was lucky because I was rewarded with Miss Foley as a result!

Miss Foley also received the gifts I gave her (flowers from my garden, stories I wrote at home to bring her) with much excitement. Lots of children brought flowers from home gardens and most of the teachers had desks with flowers on them: roses, daffodils, tulips carefully wrapped at the bottom with foil and a paper towel to keep it fed on the walk to school.

On the Friday before Mother’s Day as we walked out of our classroom I said (in my sweet, naive little way) “have a Happy Mother’s Day Miss Foley!” She laughed and hugged me tight and said, “Oh, I hope to have a happy mother’s day someday, when I have children!”

To be hugged and loved by Miss Foley was like being loved and hugged by God-in-person.

It’s funny to think that’s all it took to be seen as a superhero.

Being appreciated, well received and accepting, exactly as I was.

In her classroom, I never felt wounded. I always felt whole.

This makes me want to create experiences for people like that, too, no matter what I am doing.

Miss Foley didn’t wear a magic cape and gratefully, she wasn’t a fictional character on a screen or in a comic book. She was living and breathing and exactly the first-grade-teacher this little girl needed.

Did you have a special “super hero” person when you were a child, or maybe there is a super hero in your life today. Tell us about your super hero in the comments!

Sunday Story: Warrior II spoke to an Unlikely Warrior, too

October 11, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Two women are doing the Warrior 2 pose and the Creative Life Midwife has challenges with using "Warrior" or violent words in her writing. This image illustrates her resistance and her willingness to write.

This morning I spent time in the Warrior II Yoga pose. A writing friend suggested it as a “writing invocation” of sorts.

It is a familiar pose and as I have been doing more yoga lately I thought, “Fine, I will try it. Maybe it will strengthen my writing practice.”

I wasn’t immediately convinced.

I resist words that have violence attached, so today, when called upon pose and write “warrior” I felt my way into the meanings ascribed and what a warrior does and feels and is.

I did my best to set my intellect aside.

I have been a protector since my brother was born. I’ve been constantly on high alert, a watchman, a guardian. I have been ready to take on whatever might appear and cause harm. Those skills, those labels are all duties of a warrior.

I have been mastering these skills since Toddler-hood.

I have been mastering these skills since Toddler-hood as my brother was born when I was a mere thirteen months old. I didn’t walk then nor did I have language to translate what I was watching and witnessing.He had down’s syndrome so he was vulnerable. He needed my caretaking. He needed me to protect him, the little Julie believed. We had a telepathic means of communication – partially body language, partially facial expressions, partially spiritual connection.I didn’t question this task, I fulfilled this position with a sense of honor and duty. When he died, my spirit tried to follow him. Once again, the paradox of acting and living as a warrior, too, has repeated in different live circumstances.

I remember when I was helping Estelle, an immigrant who was granted asylum to live in the United States. My task was to get on the plane to Massachusetts to resume her life with her family. After a treacherous long journey from Cameroon to the Unites States she found herself in detention until her asylum case was heard. I visited while she was detained and stood alongside her for weeks. She won her case and all that stood between her and her family was ICE. And Homeland security. And rules about flying without ID, which was taken when she reached the American border and not returned by ICE.

I had spoken at length with the local ICE officers. They had come to know me as a collaborator – as I knew, strategically, being an adversary was not in my loved ones best interest. This was acting as a wise warrior.

This is the same thing I did for my son, Samuel, when I advocated for his education. I entered the “club” by volunteering for the school district, joining committees, contributing, becoming known as a “team player” and an ever ready and helpful resource. This is being a mindful, strategic warrior.

When I waited with Estelle at the airport, the TSA Homeland Security man waved me away. I could not speak for Eunice, she must speak for herself. I paced, I called “my” ICE officer and was sure Mr. TSA Homeland Security man KNEW I was speaking to an ICE officer. It felt like I was in negotiations on the battle field. The risk was great and my mind and heart were intensely focused.

It was scary. My heart was in my throat as I watched the conversation between this young woman I had come to love as a daughter and a representative of TSA/Homeland Security. He went behind a closed door and spoke with someone on the phone, perhaps in Washington, DC. I had researched how this process worked and knew each decision was made both on a local and a centralized level.

What felt like an eternity later, Mr. TSA/Homeland Security came to me and said, still shaking his head no, “We are going to let her get on the flight,” my knees weakened and gratitude flowed from every pore. She got on the flight. She would reach her family. This effervescent young woman who had faced danger for most of her life was about to face her new life.

I was a warrior in those moments and I am a warrior now, though less dramatic. This final example may seem pretty far out, but please keep listening.

Just yesterday I hiked to a spot alongside the river and sat underneath a sycamore tree. I could hear loud children playing nearby like I was once a loud child. I enjoyed their voices.

I watched leaves falling, gently and felt my skin touching the earth. It felt heavenly in every sense. The thing is, I didn’t think I would be able to sit on the ground because I didn’t know if I could get back up. The sycamore tree and I decided to partner on this.

Woman's legs and shoes on the ground in front of a river. It is the writer of the blog, the Creative Life Midwife, practicing how to be a Warrior.

She was strong enough to help me and I so wanted to spend time there with her. This might seem slightly odd, but please keep listening.

A year ago to the day I was in the hospital. I didn’t know it, but Sepsis was about to enter my body and attempt to shut me down. Sitting under that Sycamore tree yesterday was a sort of meditative victory dance.

When I rose back up the tree – I was able to walk up” the tree with my hands and pull with my arms while my weaker knees straightened and I pushed with my thighs to stand straight and keep moving forward. When I went back out on the trail, I became a warrior again. Not someone who fights to kill other people, but a warrior to do the right thing. To be a stand for courage and healing and model vulnerability and love and hope.

I am a warrior, too. How are you a warrior?

Warrior, too prompts are available to the members of a private facebook group in the Word-Love Writing Community. The image showing women in community doing the Yoga Warrior 2 pose illustrates this.

I created some specific writing prompts for the private Word-Love Writing Community. I will share a few here. Every day through the end of 2020 we are sharing niche-based writing prompts based on the same theme. Today’s were especially fun for me to write – and challenging.

Social Media Posts Prompt: Share a photo of yourself in a Yoga Pose. Write about being the embodiment of the pose. Ask questions of your followers regarding what pose they embody. (See also lifestyle blogger prompt below)

Lifestyle Bloggers: Write your thoughts about Yoga. Try Top 5 Yoga poses for _________ (your niche/specialty).

Memoir/Life Writers: Do any of your characters feel like they embody a warrior archetype? How do you make that character more real, less cartoonish?

To receive varied, niche driven writing prompts daily – also fiction, poetry, entrepreneur, copy writing and video prompts are offered, join the Private Word-Love Writing Community on Facebook by clicking here.

Writers & Procrastination: 3 Ways to Be More Productive Now

October 11, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Photo of a woman, looking out a window while holding onto a cushion. She is a writer, procrastinating. She needs to write, but won't. Erica Jong believes it is fear of judgement that stops her.

“All I want to do today is get some writing done!” I said excitedly this morning. It was as if I was giving myself a personalize Writer’s Pep Talk! I was smiling, I was earnest, I almost had a plan and a schedule!

Why then was I sitting in my driveway checking twitter at 4 pm after I dropped my daughter off at her film shoot?

I knew I didn’t have a lot of time to waste, so why was I on twitter, checking out the tweets using the hashtag #amwriting? I might not have noticed this was strange until I saw myself typing into my phone “I’m doing so well at procrastinating I checked who used #amwriting so I can “network” as a writing warm up?”

I rushed into my house and decided to google “writers and procrastination”.

Interesting to see how an academic institution differs from a professional website, I thought, before I realized, “I am still not writing.”

How often does this sort of thing happen to you?

During the pandemic I have reinvested in my interest in hiking. I started walking regularly for my health and hiking is another extension of that. I could do all the right prep work: research the best trails for beginners, , buy hiking boots, talk about hiking, drive to the trail and arrive at the trailhead early in the day, but if I didn’t actually get out of my car and put my feet on the trail, I wouldn’t really be a hiker.

Something changes when we actually follow through on what we say we want to do.

There are moments when we have to be our own writing coach check in with ourselves as we tweet and realize “I am writing a tweet to connect with other writers maybe because I am lonely, but why don’t I use ‘networking with other writers” as a reward once I actually write.

Here are three easy ways to settle your racing, procrastinating mind and sit at your keyboard and write something useful and productive instead of tweeting, ordering the next “how to write” book on Amazon or sending a direct message to your writing buddy to check in about how much you want to (yet aren’t) writing.

Set up a reward system for your writing time. If you say you are going to write at a specific time, WRITE – and have a plan to reward yourself. Say, “I will work on Chapter 3 of my novel at 11:00 am until 11:30 am. I will reward myself with 10 minutes on twitter. Set your timer and USE it. Repeat with different times and rewards. Find the time allotments that work best by experimenting and playing with your schedule.
Give yourself the gift of a writing warm up. If you have a particular subject or assignment, before you begin working specifically on that subject, give yourself 5 minutes (again, use a timer) to do a free write, stream of consciousness writing warm up. CAVEAT: when five minutes are up, write 5 sentences that include affirming your intention, your abilities and gratitude. Those five sentences may sound like this: “I am so grateful I have this opportunity to write today. Russell values my writing work and praised my blog post about refugee camps in times of Covid19. I feel confident this new work about influencing grandparents to actively engage their gamer grandchildren will make a difference in the world. When I am done, I will walk around the block and then come back and prepare for another writing session. I am a capable writer.”
Let go of the need to have anything precisely the same every time you write. “I can’t write because I don’t have my lucky blue mug to keep me company.” News flash: it isn’t your blue mug that is lucky, it is your butt in your writing seat, consistently getting words on the page that makes you lucky.

Did you notice what happened? Earlier today I said, “All I want to do today is get some writing done!” and now I have. I managed to stay away from twitter, I managed to not worry that I am separated from my coffee maker and I even didn’t throw my shoe at the loud noisemaking box someone else in my Covid19 too crowded space insists on keeping on constantly.

How did your writing go?

I have a lot of new ideas about ending writer’s procrastination and there may be more articles on this topic being published soon! Be sure to follow me on social media (links are above) and/or join the private Word-Love Writing Community on Facebook where we not only talk strategies and insights, we also regularly host writing sprints and community brain dumps and more, just for you.

Tenderness, Longing & a Vulnerable Confession

October 9, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

“True tenderness is silent and can’t be mistaken for anything else.”

Anna Akhmatova

I didn’t know how much I was longing for tenderness until synchronicity knocked on my door because I gave myself an assignment. I couldn’t disappoint other people, I couldn’t hide this material that poured out of me.

But the confession part, must I share that, too?

Must I share the longing?

I remember slight flickers of longing: my mother’s hand on my forehead, a nurse in the hospital after a particularly trying episode, my friend, Linda, covering me with a blanket after I fell asleep on the sofa. Well, she thought I was asleep but I was awake and fully immersed in feeling her tenderness.

I remember toward the end of my brother’s life he had a stroke. I brought lotion to the hospital and gave him a massage so I could feel how death was encroaching on the left side of his body. I would not be able to explain what I felt in his skin, his muscle, his sinew as I touched it, tenderly.

With my children, especially when they were small, I was tender. I remember welcoming their tears, not silencing them. I felt and expressed tenderness to the women refugees I helped as they made their way back to their families.

I wonder if some of the tenderness I express is my longing made into form through me?

I am discovering as I write. I imagine as I share this, raw and unfettered by editing and revision, a part of me will become angry for being so transparent and vulnerable, yet isn’t longing naturally clear and rough at the same time, slightly uncomfortable and on the verge of shattering experience?

Maybe it tenderness was an everyday experience, it wouldn’t feel as sacred nor would it feel as frightening.

Or perhaps, maybe, there will be a time when it becomes ordinary and I can report back to you about my findings, like a researcher on foreign soil noticing nuances unimaginable until witnessed, first hand in hushed quiet.

Maybe the first step is you, reflecting back to me your experience of tenderness as one who offers tenderness or one who offers tenderness.

-@ – @ – @

100 Days of Wonderful Words: prompts for many genre, all written uniquely for each particular audience so the writer may use similar content, sculpted accordingly. Image is mixed media art materials and words.

This blog post was conceived from a Writing Prompt I wrote as a part of the 100 Days of Wonderful Words that may only be found at the Private Word-Love Writing Community on Facebook. Join us to be inspired by seemingly ordinary words through the end of 2020 in a writing place where we hold space for vulnerability and healing from past writing hurts.

10 Top Tips to Expand Your Self-Acceptance

October 8, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

A woman looking in a mirror smiling at herself is a model of the article, 10 Ways to Gain Self Acceptance by Julie JordanScott

You may be saying to yourself, “I accept myself. I love myself! I don’t need this!” and the data shows 70% of women do not believe they are enough, even if they say they feel self-love and acceptance.

These 10 Top Tips to Gain Self Acceptance along with the provided action steps will increase the self-acceptance you feel now and amplify your self esteem so you will have better results in all your goals and intentions.

Now is the time to align your thoughts with actions.

1. Set (and re-set) your intention to accept yourself daily. Remember acceptance is “the action or process of being received as adequate or suitable” and make that your marker. It doesn’t mean bright-shiny-A++ it means somedays a C grade for yourself is more than satisfactory.

ACTION: For extra self-insurance, write a short paragraph in the note section of your phone – a sort of “Text to Yourself!” as you start your day.

2. Be open to the realities of “negativity” in your life. You will make less than wonderful choices, you will fail, people will disappoint you. This doesn’t mean you are inherently bad, it means sometimes – like the rest of the world, your choices aren’t the best. It means sometimes you will fall flat on your face and stay there a while. It means we don’t always surround ourselves people who are the best for us.

ACTION: Assess who you are spending the most time with both in person but also via texting, facetime and zoom sessions. Are these the people who have your best interests at heart?

3. Be willing to face your what you are afraid of by practicing standing up to your smaller fears first. Once I did a “do something brave every day for 31 days” personal challenge. It was life changing.

ACTION: Create a daily check in system at the end of the day to assess how you showed bravery throughout the day.

Which of these action steps will you take to improve your self acceptance?

4. Release the obsession (or insistence) of perfection. Become a “recovering perfectionist” with small improvements over time. Perfection leads to procrastination and it may lead to losing friends due to being overly judgmental of other people, too – which leads to loneliness which leads back to lowered self-esteem which completes the circle back to the inability to accept oneself.

ACTION: Take note of when you get blocked by perfectionism. Literally, write it down. Begin eliminating the block by taking the first small action towards your goal without the circumstances being perfect.

5. Recognize what is within your ability to control. In 2020, there have been a lot of ordinary activities (before 2020) that we cannot directly impact. Sometimes we have made tweaks because of this. When we recognize the difference between what we control and what we don’t control, we will feel better – and become more and more creative as a result.

ACTION: When you feel upset or angry ask yourself, “Is this something within my control or not?” If not, let it go.

6. Be as compassionate with yourself as you are with others. As a bonus, be even more compassionate with yourself than you are with others.

Affirmations & Mantras help improve self talk.

ACTION: Create a list of mantras or affirmations to use when something disappoints you or if someone criticizes you. Repeat “I am enough” or your favorite scripture. Make it a joy to collect these when you are in a good space so you will be ready.

7. Prepare for the voice of the inner critic by having a set of affirmations to repeat. You may also memorize scripture or quotes from people you admire. Bonus: at the end of the day, journal the inner critic’s relentless dialogue with an open mind to see if there is a lesson hidden underneath the lecture. If so, thank the inner critic and dismiss her.

ACTION: Believe it or not, your inner critic can become an ally. What is she protecting you from? Is there any truth to what she is pointing out to you? Thank her, fix it and move along.

8. Build a network of support. Maybe, like some of us, you do not have a supportive family to rely upon. Pay attention to the people you share a natural affinity for and invite them for lunch or coffee to determine if there is a mutual interest in being supportive to each other. Remember that: mutual network of support. Mutuality is a beautiful thing!

ACTION: Check out meet up groups and specialized active facebook groups & events.

9. Begin taking notes of your essential goodness. Educator BF Skinner is famous for his “Catch ‘em Being Good” approach to behavior change. How long has it been since you have purposefully caught yourself being good? Why not start today? Build your list of essentially good moments and aim to catch at least 5 a day.

ACTION: Here’s one: you are proving your essential goodness in reading – and using what you read – in this blog post!

10. Regularly check in with your Highest Self: I use journaling to start this process. I have even named my Highest Self simply because I think it is fun! Your Highest Self is who you are at your core, without negative judgments, perhaps who you imagined you would become when you were a child… who got tangled up in the life that happened when you were busy making other plans (as John Lennon might have said.)

ACTION: Journal using the “Empty Chair” technique. Sit in one chair as your “usual self” and ask your “Highest Self” a question. Move to the second seat and reply as your highest Self. It might sound hokey AND it works.

Before you leave, think a moment about what action steps you will try first.

Now you have not only have the way, you have succinct, direct actions to take in order to increase your level of self-acceptance. Once you grow in self-acceptance and enjoy yourself enough to call yourself “your own best friend” you will naturally attract more exceptionally wonderful people into your life.

Note in the comments what action step you will start with as you begin to feel better about yourself – and act in alignment.

This blog post came from a prompt from 100 Days of Wonderful Words, a service of the private facebook group, the Word Love Writing Community. Join us to be inspired with your blogging, social media posts, fiction writing, etc – the prompts are specific and across different genre.

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.