Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

Moving Ahead During Uncertain Times with MicroGoals

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Micro-goals will help you be more successful. This blog post shows you how.

How do you want to feel about your life – your work, physical health, role as a parent of adult children living at home, role as a community member, and content planning at the end of the next two weeks?

Easily stated, I want to feel better than I feel right now. I want to feel more satisfied with this situation, even if we are still being asked to stay at home and wear our masks in public.

What are Micro Goals: aren’t they just goals?

Micro-goals are classified as a certain type of goal. They amplify the present moment and reward you for being productive in a way that suits your personality and aligns with your vision and values. They are simple and short term rather than complex and long term. One of the keys to success with micro-goals is with their length: you may quickly experience success and naturally feel compelled to continue with that goal or leverage that micro-goal into a bigger part of your plan or vision.

Micro Goals work because they offer fast results and easy success. Check marks in boxes make us happy.

Examples of Micro Goals:

This morning I worked on my monthly walking goal. I am using steps to measure success and building up to an end-of-January goal: a fourteen mile walk from Ojai to Ventura. 

I have recently restructured this goal because I am speeding up my training, so this micro goal will be increased every two weeks. 

Each day I will aim to meet my standard step goal. If I walk 1,000 steps more, I will reach my “Stretch” goal. If I walk 2,000 steps more, I will reach my “Damn Girl you are a superstar” goal.

I have made an ordinary short term goal fun, humorous, and in chunks is time limited. I have a reward at the end I find ridiculously fui and right now in September, slightly unreachable.

Today, I am helping to motivate myself to continue with other daily tasks as I stride my way into my two-week-goals so that I may more likely reach my next level in my walking goals.

Other micro goals may be trying meatless Mondays throughout the month of September, learning the basics of a musical instrument, writing an instagram post, a story and a reel every day for two weeks. Short, fun, fast success or not. You get to try it out (beyond the “first time”) and decide to continue or modify your goal based on results and data.

I have also found there are often times barriers because I just don’t feel like taking the extra steps, making the additional phone calls or emails, cleaning that drawer out today, fill in your task you don’t want to do here.

A women looks frustrated: she doesn't believe she has to do this task. She doesn't want to do it! Everything is NOT do-able!

For those times when you just aren’t “feeling it” – and yes, they happen more than we might think during “these uncertain times.”

After I finished my morning walking today, I took note of the extra benefits to walking that don’t relate directly to the number of steps I have taken. I wrote this write into the notes section of my phone:

Because I walked farther than I wanted to, the rewards were plentiful:

  1. I smelled freshly mown grass (a favorite smell)

2. I heard a birdsong I had never heard

3. I got closer to the end result I’m aiming for

4. I built more self trust

5. I feel better about myself

6. I was able to say good morning to a man working in the park, cleaning trash.  I imagine he is often “invisible” as he works, I wanted him to be seen and to receive a happy, grateful smile.

7. I prayed for children past, present and future who will play here.

8. I walked on a baseball/softball field, something I haven’t done in years. The simplicity of this made me feel grateful and content.

9. I hugged a new-to-me tree. 

10. When I get home I will write, I will publish, I will scoop up dangling threads, I will choose to be happy.

Trying on a goal is like trying on shoes and clothes and rearranging the furniture. Micro-goals are one way to do this successfully

A-ha moment, in the writing!

I just realized while I didn’t know it at the time, writing an occasional list of celebration when I achieve my goals unexpectedly is a great idea!

Also, when I got home, I did do those tasks. I finished some graphics, I posted to two of my facebook groups, I am now finishing up this blog post. And I have been cheerful the whole time, even making plans with my sometimes reclusive son for this afternoon.

End Result: I felt incredibly accomplished and ready for the next item on my agenda. I have gotten more and more accomplished today – this morning – than I did all day yesterday.

Creating a Successful Micro Goals is as easy as starting where you are:

One simple way to consider what to use as a micro goal, I like to “look out over the future” and ask what I want to see in the next week or two weeks. Then I reverse engineer my way back to the present – and this is where many of my micro goals come into being.

I want to be able to look back at my calendar and say “I wrote my haiku every day, I marketed my business on these social media platforms every day, I made a list of ways to generate income with the skills I have right now.”

A row of palm trees at sunrise is one of the haiku photos I have taken during 2020. Poetry and dailiness has made a big difference for me with Micro Goals.

I started getting serious about the effectiveness of micro goals when I started writing haiku every day. It is a micro goal because the daily task is so small. The length of time, however, isn’t micro at all.

I started writing haiku again and used it as my first goal in a long time because I asked myself this question, which I ask you to ask yourself as well.

What is it that used to make me feel better in the past?

What short amount of time and energy activity has been known to lift you from sadness to joy or at least “an improvement”?

You can go back as far as childhood: recently my daughter has started jump roping again and is having a blast at it – something that brought her alive as a child will help her reach her health goals as an adult AND she is still having a blast!

What do you like to do that will support how you want to feel in two weeks that utilizes what you have at your disposal where you are right now?

Take your time before you answer – and when you do, it would be great for you to join the Bridge to the New Year facebook group where we discuss goals and micro goals all year long as you create your most satisfying, creative life.

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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 in Bridge to the New Year to reflect, connect, intend and take passionate action to create a truly remarkable rest of 2021

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Rumi, A Walk in the Park & You

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Some of this might take you out of your usual comfort zone of understanding. Right from the first line I talk about my heart having a front door. Whose heart has a front door?

I invite you to think differently today – and consider if you are, in fact, a “guest house” and your heart is the doorway into the house. I would love to know how your writing goes if you choose to write.

The front door to my heart rang this morning. When I opened the door, I heard a subtle invitation:

“Would you like to spend your haiku time today at the

Panorama Vista Preserve?”

I thought for a moment as I got into my car, “Oh, I might indeed want to go to the Panorama Vista preserve this morning. Hey – that’s a cool idea, I was considering where to aim myself to write my haiku- I might just take you up on that idea.”

The knock on my heart wasn’t totally unlike the concept of someone saying “May I buy you a drink?” or “Would you like to go to the movies?”

Once there, my senses and my heart opened fully to whatever it was my host aimed for me to see. 

My being human is a guest house, I thought. Divinity swings by sometimes with assignments I may choose to take or not take. I have the option of writing and storytelling and sharing or not sharing. No matter what happens – even nothing – there is learning and growing as a result. 

Today as I tromped along the dusty, recently horse travelened path, I was astonished about the new things I saw: two no-longer-alive trees called to me as they stood, towering over the smaller, well cared for bushes and plants planted by the Kern River Conservancy folks.

I found a bench farther along the path than I have ever found before – because I had never walked that far. This morning I didn’t set out to see new things or walk farther than I had before, it just happened because I opened the door to receive the invitation and responded.

I allowed myself to be further romanced by dead trees at sunrise and because of that, I moved forward farther and with more strength and sure-footed than I was the last time I visited.

This time, I saw more bunnies hopping around there than I had ever seen. They made it into my haiku. I heard a different sort of bird than I am used to hearing. I posted a video on my daily haiku sharing and have started a conversation to find out what sort of bird I was hearing.

I was able to fully embrace the dusty, burnt plants air and admire the work of the Kern River Conservancy in their outdoor green-house. When I first visited here a good ten years ago there were lots of those dead-looking trees, not an abundance of native plants under cultivation.  

I sat on the new-to-me bench to write and it was because of my quiet that more animals grew to trust me and made themselves known.

This being human IS a guest house. My guests include you – and the animals I saw – the egret, the bunnies, the insects, the birds-I-can’t-quite-name-yet. 

Each aspect of this experience was and is sacred. Each aspect is profound enough for me to remember so that tomorrow, I will open my heart so that more guest house visitors will be welcomed in.

I forgot to mention the ending of this story.

I walked back to the parking lot and a car that had been idling for at least twenty minutes started moving, doing donuts and making huge circles of dust in an out-of-control way. I hurried to get seated and get the ignition on so that I might be able to write this. I stumbled and was flustered and before I could even begin to move, the other car was driving away. 

One moment, my heart was pounding and full of fear and the next, I felt safe. I allowed the momentum of the love and joy and witness of the sacred in the ordinary guide both my writing and my experience. Yes, the wacky-scary donut driving car experience also happened, but the one negative didn’t overshadow the beauty because I knew “I am being a guest house, not a house of horrors.”

I look forward to going back and walking further than the two dead-looking trees and the second bench. I will continue to follow the flow along the current of the sacred where I know every morning there is a new arrival waiting for me.

I wrote this post in less than 5 minutes using the same methods we use in the #5for5BrainDump experience: we write from a prompt for 5 Minutes for 5 consecutive days and as a result, some pretty magical insights take place… and new pieces of content are born. This five minutes will, I know, be used in social media posts beyond this blog post – and reliving this morning’s experience in words makes it even that much more sweet.

Simply use the prompts from the image above to begin your renewed writing experience. All it takes is 5 minutes.

It’s all waiting for you to simply say yes. Thank you for reading.

To receive an email with a private video message and writing tips during our next free writing experience, please subscribe to our #5for5BrainDump Email List:

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To participate in conversation with other participants, join the Word-Love Writing Community Facebook Group where the conversation and livesteam sessions will be accessed in a safe, private writing community.

Portrait of creative life coach and creative life midwife Julie JordanScott

Julie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, A Social Media Whiz and a Mother of three. One of her greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. 

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Let’s Share the Good of 2020: Visiting Family #Refresh2020

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Last year I repeatedly said I was going to visit my parents in Flagstaff. I was going to go to Flagstaff alone and it was going to be wonderful. 

In April 2019, I was so burned out from care-taking and worrying and self-imposed pressure I decided I would go right after Samuel’s high school graduation. But then my volunteer activism continued to be heated and then the budget dried up and then…

There were a couple trips to Las Vegas to get Samuel to orientation and then to move him to school. His needs came first. 

And then I almost died in October. No traveling then. 

I considered somehow squishing it in post Thanksgiving but I really wasn’t feeling well enough for that much driving. And then there was the family adventure to the East Coast for Christmas which was excellent but completely stretched my post-illness abilities and budget restraints again.

In 2019, I never went to visit my parents in Flagstaff.

On our last night visiting with Katherine, my daughter, and Donald, her husband in December, we played a game which focuses on resolutions and goals, mission and vision (sounds like my ideal game, doesn’t it) where vulnerability and sharing stories are a given. 

I stated again, “This year, I am going to visit my parents. Around my birthday, I am going to visit my parents. I can’t keep putting it off.”

My birthday is at the end of January.

January came and my birthday left and in February, something that felt like a miracle occurred. Emma and I drove to Flagstaff. She originally wasn’t going to come with me, but I decided it would be good for her to visit with my parents, too, so off we went.

Two older people and their twenty-year-old granddaughter visit at the kitchen table, happy to see each other.

It was truly a fantastic experience. Having Emma with me helped me in numerous ways, but I especially loved hearing my Dad talk to her with his usual enthusiasm. No other grandkids there to compete, just her.

We didn’t rush around like we usually do, we simply visited and talked, talked and visited. Emma and I had a motel room and explored downtown Flagstaff with its vibe so aligned to us. We woke up one morning to snow and thoroughly enjoyed the Lowell observatory, just like we had when Emma was a little girl.

We made plans for our next visit, which we planned to make after picking up Samuel after Spring semester at UNLV but that didn’t happen because of Covid19. My mother was hospitalized in the Spring and there was no way I would put my parents at risk by visiting them as much as I would feel reassured if I saw them.

I am so grateful I finally took the road trip, that I took it with Emma, and that no matter what I will hold this memory close to my heart. For that, I am so grateful.

What is one (or more) experiences you are grateful for so far in 2020? Bonus: after you create a list, write about at least one of them for five minutes or more, like I wrote about one of my experiences of gratitude in this blog post.

Our #Refresh2020 prompt on July 7 requests we make a list of 5 experiences in 2020

This blog post was inspired by a prompt from #Refresh2020 – a 3 week initiative during July 2020 to intentionally explore our experiences of 2020 so that we may continue the year with purpose and passion, even and especially if chaotic circumstances continue to erupt around us.

We will be holding space for the unknowing and aiming for our best, even if we don’t know what that best is. If that compels you, consider spending the next month or so with us. Click the image below to connect or ask me any questions yo

Refresh 2020 is a Three Week Pop Up experience to address experiencing 2020 from a fresh perspective. Flowers are the frame, showing optimism amidst the primary unpleasantness that has been indicative of much of 2020.

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

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Looking into Your Near Future as we #Refresh2020

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Julie JordanScott, Creative Life Coach in her art studio where she writes and creates mixed media art, leads online workshops and aims to make the world a better place.

“What’s next for you?” used to be a simple question to answer. If it wasn’t simple, it at least prompted reflection and discussion about a wide array of possibilities.

In reading blog posts for “The Ultimate Blog Challenge” yesterday, I discovered a missed a prompt that six months ago would have made me smile and rush off into a menu of ideas and plans. With delight I would open a new calendar and jot notes in pencil because I knew at least some of them would be bound to be erased.

The question asked about “The Future” and my view of it, especially in relationship to my writing, my blog, my creativity coaching business.

There are unique nuances about “the future” since we are living in a time of this Covid19 global pandemic. Most of us realize what were once certainties no longer are and a more day-by-day approach usually serves us better.

A 1970's era portable typewriter with paper torn around it on the ground to be a metaphor for the torn up promise of 2020.

This doesn’t mean I like it. It means I am attempting to be an optimistic realist who knows there is no end in sight and I will remain high risk. I think back to a conversation years ago in a restaurant in Union Station in Los Angeles with a friend I met on line from Australia. He had built a multi-million dollar business while bedridden because he asked the question, “What can I do while my body heals using the resources I have?”

For years my work  – whether on this blog or in the workshops I teach or the groups I facilitate or in individual or group coaching or creating social media content –  one overarching theme has been continual since the very beginning.

A group of people gathered around a table at a writing workshop facilitated by Julie JordanScott

I want the messages I offer and the work I do to have a positive impact on people. I want my messages to matter to people. I most desire to have a transforming impact on the people who read my words, who participate in my workshops, classes and coaching.

One of my favorite stories from recent years is when I gave a gentleman a ride when I was working for a ride-sharing company. We had a thirty-minute friendship. The magical energy started when I spoke of the beauty of the overgrown cotton field we passed, the way the golden light was hitting it at the precise moment we were there.

He insisted I turn down the radio so he could hear everything I was saying. He wanted me to say more. I narrated the drive. I spoke of the beauty of the fields we were passing, the homes to our north. We discussed our children, some fully grown and my youngest, still in process. We talked about the future. About what might be next in our lives.

When he left my car, he gave me one of the largest tips I ever received and thanked me earnestly for reminding him to slow down. To notice the world around him. To appreciate the seemingly small things which are actually rather glorious.

It is true whether I am engaging the world as an activist, as a mother, as a teacher, in a portrayal of a scripted character onstage or doing a livestream video and in that earlier moment as a ride-share driver on a randomly selected drive.

Julie JordanScott sitting backstage in a theater dressing room, catching up on writing while waiting during rehearsal.

What is the same is always this space in my heart for forward movement in a world that is often hurting – and hurting badly.

Sometimes I lament the experiences I have had, complaining there has been too much loss, too much fear, not enough wide swaths of sweet satisfaction. In writing tonight, I realize more than ever why that is actually a good thing.

Last night amidst too many illegal fireworks I felt my heart acting in an unusual manner. One of the outcomes from near death- one of those life experiences I would rather not have had – is I know my body much better than I did before I almost died.

I know if my lungs hurt – that what is hurting is a particular spot on my lungs that still hasn’t healed. If I feel in the space above my heart a flutter, flapping, like a group of birds dancing in my chest – that is my heart working through a possible “afib” or irregular heartbeat episode.

These moments where my body reminds me she has been in battle and she has stayed the course and I must, too. I must stay the course, continue doing this work that so compels me in whatever form reaches into the hearts, breath and action of others.

In answer to the original blog prompt question, don’t know what the future holds in a larger “when will I be able to live like I once did?”

I know there is social unrest here in the United States and systemic racism that needs a lot of attention and healing. I know there are military tensions on the border of India and China. I know there are countless other areas in the world and households in my neighborhood where fear reigns supreme.

Amidst all the chaos, my future today and as long as I have to go is provide the world with fuel for creativity and making, context for intentional connection and purposeful passion – and to do so one step at a time, one project at a time and as many people at a time who are ready and willing to step up together, with love.

This blog is a part of the continual and infinite stepping up together.

Doesn’t that feel good?

This week I will begin to lead a group of intrepid people through something I am calling #Refresh2020, a 3 week Pop-Up Experience primarily facilitated in an existing facebook group usually used to reflect at the end of the year as we step into the coming year.

“In these uncertain times” it is important to have a place for conscious, creative and large-hearted people to gather and bring their vulnerable, whole-hearted selves in a place where they may speak to what has been happening and where they may place their “now” and “future” vision safely.

We will be holding space for the unknowing and aiming for our best, even if we don’t know what that best is. If that compels you, consider spending the next month or so with us. Click the image below to connect or ask me any questions you may have in the comments.

Refresh 2020 is a Three Week Pop Up experience to address experiencing 2020 from a fresh perspective. Flowers are the frame, showing optimism amidst the primary unpleasantness that has been indicative of much of 2020.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What?

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

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

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

I would love to hear from you.

What is the opposite of boredom for you?

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

How often are you bored?

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

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July 2020: Turning the Page on Mid-Year

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How have you fared in 2020 so far?

Refresh 2020 is written in large letters, followed by the dates - July 7, 2020 through July 28, 2020. the words Intentionally exploring our experiences so we may continue with purpose and passion. Flowers and a purple frame highlight.
Julie JordanScott typing a love poem on the edge of a foothill of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Julie JordanScott typing a love poem on the edge of a foothill of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Revisit Your Opinions: Is Your Shadow the Enemy?

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A view of the beach at sunset time frames the quote "There is no light without shadow. Light without shadow, just as there is no happiness without pain." from Isabelle Allende. This begins the article about writing as meditation.

Before you begin to exhale your knowledge about different teacher’s concepts of “The Shadow” or “Shadow Sides” or anything with Shadow in its title that a wise person once said, remember back to childhood.

barefoot child at play in the playground, enjoying his shadow. Children don't see the shadow as a bad thing, but as a good thing.

Remember the wonder of your shadow. I remember my son laughing in delight on the playground, watching his shadow follow his silent command. Where his feet went, his shadow feet went.

This weekend I took a photo and I realized my shadow had the capacity of being a character in the photo that gave it an entirely deeper meaning as object being witnessed.

What would happen if you chose to return to pure enjoyment, without your intellect rushing in to explain?

What if you simply took time to enjoy your shadow?

One of the voice in my head hangovers I have heard since perhaps the moment I was conceived is “Whatever you do, don’t get “it” wrong.” It could be whatever I hold the dearest in that particular moment.

“Don’t fail” and “don’t fail’s” sibling ‘don’t try because if you try and fail…..’ and…. what?

I solved this conundrum in adulthood by holding a tiny bird in the center of my palm saying “There is no right, there is no wrong, there is simply ______” Most of the time I say writing.

I could put almost anything as that final word.

“You can’t get this wrong,” I remember telling my friend Josh when we were cooking dinner together. “It is impossible. With this, there are no wrongs, there are only different version of right.”

Samuel is still angry with me about what ‘could have been’ if I had been braver and allowed him to possibly experience failure.

He is possibly and perhaps probably right and perhaps probably wrong and we will never know.

I recently asked myself, “Would you do it over again?” and I said, “Yes, I would do it over again braver, taking more risks and not allowing fear to overshadow the light within me.”

In fact, I wish I could.

I wish I could get taken up into a science fiction life, step into a different dimension and come out with a who-knows-how different ending.

What I can do today, even without the science fiction ending, is to change my responses that might have swung into fears and whispered long-standing warning shouts of “don’t get it wrong!” today and tomorrow and tomorrow’s tomorrow?

Take some time to create from this question. Don’t rush or push or make it into “I have to do this,” write to it because it feels good to do so.

This writing was borne from Meditation Month of Blending Poetry and Meditation. I meditated on the quote in the graphic from Ursula Le Guin’s poem “Leaves” and this morning, 24 hours later, wrote this brief essay in one “writing as a meditation” swoop.

The poem "Leaves" by Ursula K. Le Guin shares this line, "Might as well say I am the shadow," which I used to center my meditative practice yesterday. The tree is the mulberry in my front yard, where I livestreamed on Instagram Live and Periscope.

Julie JordanScott has been writing since before she was literate by dictating her thoughts to her mother and then copying in thick crayons onto construction paper. She was a pioneer in epublishing and continues to reach readers through her blog, bestselling books, greeting cards and her essays and poems in anthologies. Join her for #5for5BrainDump beginning August 10- to experience the freedom of writing in an online setting. Join the Facebook Group Word-Love Writing Community to meet other writers and explore writing more deeply.

She also hosts or writing circles and a writing for social media program.

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Transforming the Sting of Shame to “Hey, I’ve Got This and Better!”

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This morning someone I didn’t know did her best job to publicly shame me and now, about ninety minutes since the initial sting, my thought it, “Wow. I’ve been publicly shamed! That hasn’t happened for a while.”

I could have done what I once did which was fall to my knees in mourning as I pluck each of my marbles from the ground and skulked off, whether or not what the shamer was saying about me was true or not.

You might be lost in your wondering, “What did the shamer do to try to shame you?” I don’t want to give it undue attention and I know about curious wandering minds so here it is, in a nutshell.

I offered to create micro-communities on Instagram for a challenge I am in, small communities of artists and makers to support each other during the challenge.

Mixed media work in progress. The image includes a photo transfer of Botanist Alice Eastwood and acrylic paint on canvas - the beginnings of abstract flowers.

I had quite a few people agree being in a micro-community would be fun so for much of yesterday and a bit of the day before I put people into groups and contacted each person who said they wanted to be a part of this letting them know they were in and how to access the instructions.

One woman said she wanted to be in a micro-community and wrote a long reply, stating she had looked at my feed and deemed it not full of enough art so I must be a fraud, out to cause harm or worse yet, bring attention only to myself.

I took a breath and replied, sharing about my video project – and saying I had spent the last day and a half putting people into small groups and while I was at it, complimented her project.

Maybe to her I do look like a fake, possibly because my Instagram feed doesn’t look like hers. It looks like an eclectic blend of images – two of which on the first row were video screen shots and another was a poetry prompt and quote, the theme of my videos.

In a mixed media collage, a woman is holding a bouquet of tulips covering her face. She is atop a copy of a musical score and painted light blue textbook paper.

In her article, “Shame on you! Do you use shame to control others?” in Psychology Today, Melissa Kirk writes, “The reason shame works so well is because we’re wired to connect to and seek acceptance from others. Shame effectively withdraws that acceptance and connection.”

Ouch. She is describing what I have often called “Using shame as a verb.”

Today, I did something I didn’t used to be able to do.

I brushed the shame dust off my clothes by journaling, writing this essay, reading poetry and yes, I worked on the mixed media art piece I started earlier this week.

The biggest a-ha from the situation is this: the more I put myself out there, the more vulnerable I will be to people who are likely to want to use shame as a weapon against others who are not like them or who do not fit into their carefully delineated mode.

My job, instead of fighting back and creating more of an uproar, is simply to continue creating, to keep making, and to explore any niggling themes that are bothering me about the episode.

These may also be useful as future writing and journaling prompts when episodes like this happen again or if they may happen to you.

  • Is there truth in anything she said?
  • Is there something in my behavior I might modify?
  • What bothers me the most about what was said to me?
  • Is my motivation coming from the greater good?
  • Am I willing to have this uncomfortable feeling of shaming in order to make a difference in the world?

During my visit to Poetry Foundation website today, looking for poetry for my live-streams next week, I synchronistically found this quote:

“Poets aren’t just makers, they are doers,” says Don Share, editor of Poetry

I am a doer who also does her best to make the world a better place.

Sometimes my actions – my doings – may be misunderstood. I am strong enough to accept the “shaming-as-a-verb” that comes my way as a result because the work I do and the people the work impacts is more valuable to the world than this other person’s assessment.

Julie Jordan Scott sits on her porch drinking coffee from a Lowell Observatory mug

Julie JordanScott is the Creative Life Midwife. She inspires people to live their life as an artform and take action towards their best results. During the 2020 Pandemic she is also leading daily Virtual Coffee Dates, Facilitating Intentional Conversation so people will feel less isolated during this time of social and physical distancing. Join the conversation by registering for free by clicking this link.

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How to Use Creativity to End Shame’s Power Over Your Choices

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More than twenty years ago I sat in a therapist’s office and she asked me to make a list of “Family Rules” which I went home and dutifully wrote. I returned with my list with lots of blue ink across a yellow legal pad. My cursive lettering detailed unspoken codes of conduct such as “Don’t cry in public” and “Do not do things that might embarrass the family.”

There is space in the world for such guidelines.

I don’t agree with any prohibition on crying – perhaps because I am one who cries at movie previews, coffee commercials and baptisms of babies I don’t even know. It isn’t the rules themselves that causes the problems all these years later, it is in the denial of what happened because of these unspoken codes.

What I believe in is taking back our personal power through creative process and growth. It isn’t about blaming others or fault finding or pointing fingers – it is about acknowledging our own strength and truth.

Today, I look back at things that happened and I say, “I am not rewriting history, I am recognizing we are all human and everyone was doing the best they could at the time.”

With that said, it doesn’t subtract or nullify the pain that was experienced or the grief that occasionally rears its head, especially during trying times like we are in right now.

Denial, for example, is something we are seeing across social media, in zoom calls I am on, in conversations with friends and family. Somehow we think if we don’t watch the news, COVID-19 will go away. We think if we share “Positivity Only!” on Instagram, sometimes we hope and pray reality will happen only to other people.

Quote & Prompt for Creativity and Conversation

A row of beautiful pink roses in flat lay style frame the words of Brene Brown and a writing prompt that suggest we ought to speak to shame directly. Speak on behalf of our shame instead of covering it up.
If poetry is not your thing, use journaling or free flow writing instead. Some of my best poetry started as a line in one of my many notebooks.

I found shame abhorrent for a long time. I read John Bradshaw’s work of the early 1990’s and I was “all shamed out.” I wouldn’t read any of Brene Brown’s works.

Less than a year ago I was declaring my distaste for anyone who “worshipped shame” until I realized she isn’t about the worship of shame, her work is about working through shame. Not denying it, not burying it, not climbing on top of it to look at the view below… instead, her work stands for working through shame and all shame destroys along the way.

Making that list of rules all those years ago allowed me to begin to disassemble them to see and label what was worth saving and what was fool’s gold or just not right for me.

Prompt for Creativity, Contemplation and Conversation

I aimed to consistently be open with my children, ready to talk about issues others turned from or stifled. In my view, it was easier to talk about things rather than hide them yet one of my daughters will disagree with this notion. She will insist we didn’t address important details.

Sometimes certain topics: death, grief, job loss, financial trauma and sexuality are just the beginnings of topics we may have varying levels of discomfort discussing around the dinner table. My family gathered during the holidays and played a conversation game about goals and visions for the new year and one of our family members would not address any of the questions.

My guess is there was quite a bit of shame attached.

The rest of us gave permission for the questions to not be answered. My hope is the unspoken questions will continue to percolate. Journaling or free writing in a notebook or into your phone is often a good way to process through untalkaboutables. I prefer the least expensive notebooks possible. It is a splurge when I buy a “Decomposition Book” – a composition book made from recycled materials whose paper feels fantastic underneath my hand.

If I had said something like this as a child – “whose paper feels fantastic underneath my hand” I would have been shamed for it – someone undoubtedly would have scoffed and said “Julie, you’re so weird. Who notices what paper feels like?” just like when I said I wanted a curling iron I was shamed for being so vain.

I don’t let either of those things bother me anymore: to this day I have numerous tools to curl, straighten, double curl and curl my hair in different sizes.  Who labeled wanting to look nice a bad thing?

Here’s what I know: our time is now to move beyond whatever is holding us back. Chances are if you are living there are some shame experiences to review and set aside and in some cases, finally bring out into the open so light may hit them.

I’m laughing because I love choosing the just right curling iron for whatever hairstyling task I am up for at the time and thank goodness I didn’t let sibling shame stop me. There are other times when I have allowed other people throwing shame in my direction stop me from using my gifts and talents for the greater good of all.

Finally, there may be a poem or a blog post or an instagram caption or a journal page you haven’t written yet. Linda McCarriston sees poetry as the art of language. Let’s throw some possibilities around today.

Prompt for Creativity and Conversation

PROMPT: What possibilities does artful language – like poetry – or visual language – such as painting, sculpture or photography – open up for you?

Our time is now. Your time is now. Take back the power shame has taken from you. Release the guilt or anger attached to what happened once-upon-a-time so that you may now live a life of peace and joy instead.

If you happen to write something, nothing would make me happier than seeing what you come up with as a result of this blog post.

Also, if you are feeling lonely and isolated as you work through reclaiming your power over shame, I host a daily Intentional Connective Conversation – you may think of it as a sort of Virtual Coffee Date – where we meet to give one another support, listen to each other’s stories, and just “be” together. You may find information about that in our

You may find information on our Facebook Event or directly on Zoom – the link is either here <— or at the bottom of this blog post.

Julie JordanScott writing personalized love poetry.

Julie JordanScott is the Creative Life Midwife. She inspires people to live their life as an artform and then take action towards their best results. Her specialty is writing – her easiest way to express what she does is this: She Coaches. You Write. Your Readers Win! During the 2020 Pandemic she is also leading daily Virtual Coffee Dates, Facilitating Intentional Conversation so people will feel less isolated during this time of social and physical distancing.

Join us! To register, visit here:
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