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Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

How to Use Your Text & Other “Throwaway Writing” to Make All Your Writing Easier.

July 3, 2019 by jjscreativelifemidwife

The artists among us might say “Let’s Woo Your Muse” Clearly it is time to restore your writing voice now. Time to discover (or rediscover) the words within that are waiting to be written.

Your muse may have become jaded so these promps will restore your faith AND help you get your goodies on paper

Here’s what we’ll do. We will give you an inspiring quote and write a variety of prompts from it so you have a menu of sorts to elevate you to express yourself.

We are starting today with beat poet Allen Ginsburg. He is helping us figure out what to do with leftovers: text messages, emails, half written instagram captions, unfinished essays and novels we left behind in a pile of whatever thought or interruption came along to distract us.

Have you ever found stuff you put aside or buried in scraps and thought later, “This isn’t bad!”

Let’s scoop up the wisdom we’ve started and never finished and see what’s left to create from a new perspective.

Quote:

“Time’s left its remnants and qualities for me to use — my words piled up, my texts, my manuscripts, my loves.”

Allen Ginsberg

A remnant is a leftover bit of fabric like crumbs are leftover on the plate. When I was a little girl, my mom sewed much of my clothing, she would sometimes buy the remnants that were left on the end of a bolt after someone else used the majority of the fabric.

She would use it to make doll clothes or accent pieces on projects or, since she collected fabric like I collect books, sometimes we just put it away to inspire us.

Time’s remnants are leftover bits of that are connected to a specific time, space or experience and in Ginsberg’s quote, tidbits of writing. The texts he is speaking of are not like today’s texts, messages from one cell phone to another. He is talking about books written and not published.

Those tidbits hold the power of story within them: they are the substance of nostalgic “remember when…” conversations that make connect us to one another. Remember there is power in using storytelling in all our content.

I oftentimes suggest to my coaching clients and people in my workshops to glean or pick up bits and pieces of text messages and emails and Instagram posts to inspire or fill-in-the-blanks of other writing. The other place to look is remnants of memory or conversation.

A women is typing in the countryside, another way of looking at a remnant of time and words, launching inspiration into the air.

 Questions:

What remnants has time left you? Pick one remnant and describe it as richly and fully as you can with words that relate to t=e senses, not abstractions like “wonderful” or “awesome”.

What remnants have you left in the lives of people you love or co-workers or even frenemies? Write a small tidbit of a story about one of the remnants. Use these as inspiration for characters in fiction or screen plays.

Lists:

Make a list of 5 – 10 remnants of time in your life you would like to make into a quilt. Be fanciful and true.

Make a list of 5 – 10 remnants of time in your life you would NOT like ANYONE to remember. Be honest, be vulnerable.

Traditional writing prompts:

From the lists and the original questions, choose one which resonates and write interchangeably from these prompts.

I remember….

I wish…

I think….

I can’t leave without saying there are no rights and wrongs as to following the prompts here. There is only showing up for your life and your creativity and using what inspires you to fulfill your dreams, passion and purpose.

You may also choose to use these as conversation starters. I imagine there could be many heartful discussions from what we have launched here.

Do me a favor: leave a comment to tell me which prompt you will scoop up first so that I may support you fully in this adventure of creativity.

I love nothing more than supporting your process.

Julie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, and a Mother of three. One of her
greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. To set up a complimentary exploratory session, please visit here. Be sure to follow her on Social Media platforms so you may participate in one of her upcoming events. You won’t want to miss a thing – your future self will thank you!

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Filed Under: Writing Prompt, Writing Tips

When Flowers Speak about Abundance, Listen!

July 1, 2019 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Join the Conversation. Allow Yourself the Surprising Joy that Arises as a Result.

It might seem strange: The moonblossoms teach us about abundance and prosperity as they bloom by the Kern River.

My love affair with moon blossoms started during an exceptionally happy, satisfied time of my life when I would go to the river bed – an arroyo, a space that would house water if there was any to be housed, but at its best that season it was empty.  This allowed me to sit in the center of it all and have great conversations, watch the sunset, howl with the moon and be surprised by the sounds of urban nature.

I fell in love with absence during that time: I understood something didn’t need to be there at all for one to acknowledge and love it anyway.

If the river had been flowing, I might not have noticed the heavenly scent of the moon blossoms, so pungent at night.

Moonblossoms don't bloom quickly nor do the they show themselves when crowds gather to ohhh and ahhhh.

Last Friday night, I came upon my first blossoming patch of the season near twilight. None were fully open. They sat alongside a different portion of the flowing river. This summer, a lot of flow due to last winter, lots of rain and snow.

I had to go take a look, to pay homage to who I was and who I am and the presence of the moon blossoms amidst all of it.

Considering the current work I am doing, I made this two-minute video.

Please take a look:

Now, consider the prompt as an invitation to conversation. Bring it up with friends and co-workers. Ask on Twitter and make an Instagram post. “What is prosperity to you? How would you define it? When have you experienced it?”

Now – consider the moon blossoms.

“What is calling you to blossom, in darkness or in the light or anywhere? What is calling you to blossom into abundance and prosperity?”

Let the words flow, either on the page or in conversation.

A couple things before you go:

Take a moment to follow me on social media and on YouTube. If you are a blogger or writer across any genre, I offer valuable methods to keep your words flowing.

Leave a comment here, as a way of pledging your devotion and commitment to keep your writing prosperity, your word abundance flowing. If you would enjoy additional support I am offering to tag people in my daily instagram story time lapse posts as a way of saying “Ta-Da! I did it! I did my daily writing!”

The world is waiting for your words… let’s get them on the page now.

Paradise in Las Vegas in natureJulie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, and a Mother of three. One of her greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. To set up a complimentary exploratory session, please visit here. Be sure to follow her on Social Media platforms so you may participate in one of her upcoming events. You won’t want to miss a thing – your future self will thank you!Facebooktwitterpinterest

Filed Under: Creative Adventures, Creative Process, End Writer's Block, Writing Prompt Tagged With: BlogBoost, Conversation Starter, Kern River, Moonblossoms, writing prompt

Good Job, Dear Friend

June 23, 2019 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Focus on Practice Just Write

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You have now turned back to yourself.

Well done, good and faithful friend.

Coffee as a waker upper today and through July

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

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Filed Under: Creative Process, End Writer's Block, Writing Prompt Tagged With: #5for5BrainDump, rebirth, writing practice

Your Writing Life: Write Your Love to the World

January 18, 2019 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Poet Mary Oliver long ago reminded me, “My work is loving the world.” in her poem, “The Messenger.”

This single line in her well-crafted poem has shaped many choices I have made by asking myself, “How am I loving the world in this action I am taking?”

Sometimes I do a slight translation or edit to the original work when I ask “How is my writing loving the world?”

I write for different reasons at different times. Sometimes I write because my words may be of service. I write because I must. I write because I am a better human being when words splash on the page.

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love wrote: “I write regularly, but in bursts, if that makes sense. I’ve never been burned by writer’s block, either. Writing is my love and my life, but it’s also a job.”

You may be in a couple spaces: you don’t have enough time to write.

You may be in a space where your writing lives within the “I gotta do it, I gotta do it, I must publish this blog post, but wait, there is laundry and my child’s soccer practice and…. Oh, here’s a writing assignment that will pay me $25! Throw all my personal goals to the side to make $25 so I can call myself a pro!”

I know these well because I have lived each and all of them.

When I do my best and my writing is the best is when I think of it as my “work” not “just another crummy gig.”

Each writing job I choose to take is honorable. I am blessed because my work, my writing, is loving the world.

How do you show love to the world through your writing?

How do you show your love to the world through work?

Consider these questions – and consider adding your comment to this post. I so enjoy connecting with you.

Julie JordanScott is the CreativeLifeMidwife who loves creating life changing content to inspire you into passionate action. She has a writing circle starting on February 1 and several other challenges and programs in the near future where you may participate as well.

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Filed Under: Creative Process, Writing Prompt Tagged With: Mary Oliver

Sacred and Strategic: Welcoming the Return to Heart

December 14, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Last night two exceptional things took place: I chose to light a candle before I sat down for my evening writing time and in doing so I claimed the time as sacred. 

Before I went to bed, I blew out the candle and as strange as it may sound,  my notebook insisted I take the time to do my evening sacred journal time.

My sacred strategic journaling time, something I have wanted to do consistently but had challenges making into a regular ritual.

I fell asleep later than expected last night and yet I am awake again before 6 am, writing. My life long lover – writing and the creative process – who I have been neglecting and in neglecting my writing practice I’ve also been neglecting myself.

Sacred. Set apart. Loved.

The action of writing, free flow, journaling is sacred. When I recognize and complete the act I recognize the blessings I receive in taking the simple action. It is the opposite of neglecting myself and my intention, it is bathed in spirit and love and it says “You have chosen yourself, you have chosen to invest in your vision, you have come inside it instead of pressing your nose against the window of it.”

Somewhere in the past few years at some time, it doesn’t matter right now exactly when and where, the last lingering shred of my daily practices fell away.  I did them less often than I didn’t.  I didn’t make excuses, I didn’t talk about it I didn’t even notice enough to put voice to their absence. Unconsciously, I pushed away what kept me the most productive and happy. I didn’t even look up as they exited the room.

A metaphor hovering above my fingers is “your lack of devotion to your practices closed your heart-door” and along with it my mind-brain door. And while I looked pretty ok on the outside, if one looked closely – it was obvious. 

Now I’m back, now I am taking action – in the book-ends of sleep and waking. Three days in and a part of me says “You can’t call yourself back yet,” but I do and I am.

Yes, I had been writing – but it wasn’t as much of the free flow style, writing simply to write that quenches the thirst of my spirit, that actually soothes the underbelly of what’s showing up as “wrong” in life and understands clearly it is all simply process.

This was sacred. And I forgot it. 

Last night, I picked it back up and held it in the candlelight. 

I remembered. Sacred. 

Sacred is back and I am, too. 

I am sitting in the center of the sacred chambers of my heart, moving my fingers on the keyboard allowing words to find their way whether good or bad or boring – the letters and words are no longer stalled. I’m declaring the end of my prison term, the completion of my punishment and the return of the daily sacred, of experiencing the transcendent joy in the extraordinary ordinary, I am devoting myself a bride to my own worth and return to the safe haven of self-love.

I realize some people will find this entire public written display to be quite odd.

So be it.

This post came from engaging with the 7 Magic Words process from Marisa Goudy. Find out more here. 

Julie JordanScott is a creative life coach, writer, poet, Mama extraordinaire and mixed media artist whose greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. To set up a complimentary exploratory session, please visit here.

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Filed Under: 2018, Rewriting the Narrative, Storytelling, Writing Prompt Tagged With: 7 magic words, Marisa Goudy

Insights into How to Tune into Gratitude: Bridge to a New Year Day 4

December 4, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

#BridgetotheNewYear Day 4 Prompt: Appreciation and Gratitude

Today’s Prompt: What have you grown to appreciate in 2018? .
How do you show your appreciation? .
Is there a way you would like to grow in gratitude practice in 2019?

I started adulthood  as a cynical naysayer, sneering down my nose at the “attitude of gratitude” army who I likened to television evangelists with overdone make up and dramatic acts of supposed religiosity. And then, something happened.


I am not sure when or who or how it happened, but I decided to start making a gratitude list every day.
And then I started making a gratitude list in community.
And then I started making a gratitude list in community for 365 days straight.


This isn’t for everyone… and it changed things for me. Oprah was talking about it, gratitude was an every day “thing.”


It still is for me, though I don’t keep a 365 Gratitude list anymore, it is ever present in my consciousness most of the time. (A side note, perhaps it will resurge in 2019).


This year I have grown to appreciate in greater depth something I have believed for years: the majority of the people sharing this rich, ripe globe with me want to do good by one another.


They want to pitch in, they want to help and be of service. People enjoy being asked to provide as they can and get a lot of satisfaction out of lending a helpful hand (or wallet or spare bedroll or bisquit.)


A month ago this came to light in a new, larger and more grand way than I could have foreseen. A woman I have come to call my daughter was in a crisis more than 1,000 miles from me and more than 2,000 miles from her blood family. She was a refugee stranded in a small city in Colorado after enduring more hardship than most Americans I know endure.


When her teary voice said to me, “I don’t know if I can take this, Mum.” I sprang to action and started connecting with people who started connecting with people who started connecting with people and miracles happened for this young woman.

My three youngest children, Samuel< Queenta and Emma. Children of my blood and of my heart. Welcome to the US, Queenta.
My three youngest children, standing by the Palm tree where they have traditionally posed for years. Samuel, Queenta, Emma


The thing is, we had more outward differences than samenesses AND the greatest sameness lived in our heart space, in our love for humanity and in a willingness to go beyond what others may do – but only because they don’t know how yet.


The next day I spoke to my cousin and she said, “Wow, you have an incredible network of people.” And I responded, “They’re your network, too,” just like they are YOUR network, you who are reading this now.
I didn’t know many of the people who helped. I just knew people who knew people who knew people and I asked and I kept asking until my daughter was safe and sound.


I’m still showing appreciation and gratitude to the people I met along the way.

Gratitude is best expressed and practicing in a variety of ways helps.
In 2013 I had a gratitude jar, holding delights, which doubled as a writing prompt jar. Writing of gratitude expands it. 

I stepped away from writing and thought, “Sometimes I throw my gratitude out there, littering the world with it when I’m feeling fully connected and vibrant. When I am not, divinity delivers an invitation to notice gratitude and sometimes, the circumstances are so overwhelmingly beautiful in every way, it is like gratitude has rushed in and done a cosmic happy dance and I can’t help but burst over with joy.

Gratitude: sometimes I lean into it, sometimes appreciation takes my hand and shows me the way and sometimes gratitude is a moshpit of laughter so great I can’t even begin to fully understand it.

In 2019 I want to deepen my gratitude practice. As I said above, I believe it is time to share my gratitude in a journal and also publicly. I shared on my facebook page a few days ago I think I will continue to do so.


I also want to use the power of energy to share gratitude, via the people I meet randomly – really looking into their hearts, their being – and expressing gratitude not only with words but via the beating of my heart. I don’t think that makes sense in language form, but I do know my heart just warmed up as I wrote those words.


Woo woo. I can hear some of you. And then I remember what I used to think about those “fakes” and “weird attitude of gratitude” people and my temporary embarrassment diminishes.


Now it’s your turn. If you blog, consider blogging on these themes – link up at juicyjournaling.com


Today’s Prompt: What have you grown to appreciate in 2018? .
How do you show your appreciation?


Is there a way you would like to grow in gratitude practice in 2019?

If you Instagram, look for the hashtags #BridgetoTheNewYear or #Bridgeto2019 Follow our prompts there, too. 


If you would like to be a part of a Free Facebook Group where these subjects are being discussed, please visit us here and request membership.

Until tomorrow,
Julie JS Your Creative Life Midwife.

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Filed Under: 2018, Bridge to the New Year, Creative Life Coaching, Creative Process, Writing Prompt Tagged With: . Julie Jordan Scott, gratitude list, Gratitude Practice, Julie JordanScott

How to Use “The Monster” Storytelling Archetype to Market Your Product or Service

October 20, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

“The Monster” archetype is summarized as those times when “bad” or uncontrollable energy or happenstance appears which you (or in marketing, your client or customer or character in your ad campaign) eventually rise above, victoriously.


This is an archetype easily used by healing artists, storytellers – anyone who provides a product or service that makes someone feel better about some experience or circumstance.


In these cases I consider my cancer journey, my client’s experience of grief, perhaps the movie “Jaws” or I think about Julie Andrews losing her ability to sing.


I wrote for two consecutive 5 minute brain dumps today writing to the prompt of “monsters” which became “These are the topics I have never wanted to talk about.”


What you see next is simply stream of consciousness. No editing or foresight. In using this approach, I was able to tune into my own process AND glean insights my clients/customers/students may relate to as well.

Follow along with me now as I wrote to this prompt:


It hurts too much to open the door, which is why we keep the door shut and refuse to open it.


It is why the word “cancer” is whispered and we turn our heads from the mirror when we see our scars or an obstruction that blocks us from seeing what we would rather see. Even with that, we can’t stop watching the tragedy – the airplanes flying into the twin towers – is on replay in our mind’s eye, the most horrific images from wartime (I am seeing a few in my mind as I write) the heart stopping stories I look forward to watching each week on Law and Order, SVU.


Yesterday I spoke on the phone to a personification of “The Monsters” in my life. A person whose presence in my life initiated an episode of abandonment in my life I rarely address.


It was interesting because for the first time since that episode, I wasn’t overly troubled by the conversation. I still haven’t come to a conclusion about where I will take the conversation or what I will do with it, but it seems that particular chapter has lost some of its power as distance and time often does.


(It actually stirs me to think of lines of poetry in my head, oddly or not.)
The monster archetype and rising above it is a story of healing, a story of proclaiming victory – a definitive overcoming of the monster, not the surprise “this isn’t really over” almost to the ending scenario but the true ending.


I might have proclaimed victory from melanoma, but the scar on my face troubled me a lot in the year afterwards so much so, I had a second surgery to make it not so pronounced.


My face still hurts in very cool temperatures and I notice that as I age, it takes on different nuances.


I suppose overcoming that monster is more like making peace with its presence on my face. I actually think my scar is cool much of the time.
People look at it in a sort of awe when they notice it is shaped like a heart. Other times they make up stories that I was attacked by a knife wielding… lover of love to leave a heart shape? I don’t know what they think when they think that but when I say it came thanks to melanoma people look relieved that I wasn’t attacked by a fellow human, instead I was attacked by a disease.


I stop typing momentarily. I think about the real monsters in my life, the ones that stay in the closet and remain untalkaboutable: the fear of being abandoned and alone. (My stress cough showed up as I typed that.)
The fear of my children having unsurmountable problems.
The fear of being disliked by people I treasure the most.


Some of these fears have already been realized and I have survived.


I am literally laughing and coughing, coughing and laughing because as I continue writing and continue to “speak my truth” through writing it on the page in spite of the coughing that attempts to choke me into silence, I am beating the monster one slug at a time.


#End Writing –


And to layer this over my Core Message: Express Yourself Freely, On Purpose to Leave the World Better than How You Found It….

The fact I wrote and laughed as I coughed and my stress cough has been a huge barrier for expression… I believe I am onto a victory of one of my biggest battles.


THAT FEELS PRICELESS!


Stand by to see how this is morphed into a marketing message and marketing story, to be used and told repeatedly.

Julie Jordan Scott (the one who wrote this blog post) says: This is what I crave for you: soulful creativity, aliveness in your passionate productivity, and a deeper sense of knowing how you belong in the world so that together we will be able to create a context for the rest of your life via your next book or your next workshop or simply your next day, week, month or year.

The people who named me “Creative Life Midwife” found words and paint and laughter and flexed their courage muscles on the way to a deeper satisfaction in their daily lives via new blogs, books, webinars and friendships – just to name a few. Contact me now for your complimentary Transformational coaching conversation.  Click here to complete the request form now.  

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Filed Under: Business Artistry, Creative Adventures, Creative Process, End Writer's Block, Rewriting the Narrative, Storytelling, Writing Prompt Tagged With: Marketing for Creative Entrepreneurs, Marketing Plan, One Page Marketing Plan for Creatives, Storytelling for Business, Storytelling for Creative Entrepreneurs

Intentional Collaboration: Past, Present & Future You

September 8, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Today in my review of notebooks, I found this statement; “Affirm and act in one fluid motion.”

It rang out for attention when the 2014 version of me sang out with utter confidence, “Affirm and act in one fluid motion.”

There was a paragraph after that which tried too hard and wasn’t true-in-that-moment – which is one of the challenges with successful affirmations.

I replaced those words with these and plan to revisit this writing for the next seven days as I continue to collaborate with “me of the past” with “me of the now” to create an even more empowered “Julie of the Future and Infinitely Ever After.”

In the past, I wasted time concerning myself with trivialities. In the past I made the mistake of consenting to believe it was ok to feel inferior or in less than the grand and glorious creation I was and now, I am aware. Now, I am clear instead that I am gutsy and glorious. 

I am entertaining and engaging. People who matter to me like me.

Today and all of the tomorrows to come I will remember this and am remembering this:

Any people who matter, truly like me for who I am, with my frailties and past moments of missing the mark – they choose then to love this authentic and gutsy and glorious me.

Today I am affirm this and am this. So I am simply being it.

Coming soon:

Downloadable Affirmation Work-Play-Create-Be Coloring Page

https://creativelifemidwife.com/septpassionatewritingcircle/
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Filed Under: Affirmations for Writers, Creative Process, Rewriting the Narrative, Writing Prompt Tagged With: . Julie Jordan Scott, affirmation actions, affirmations, Creative life Coaching, Gutsy and Glorious, Julie JordanScott

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

August 21, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

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

Simplicity definitely does make it do-able.

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

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

How it looks in seven easy steps goes like this:

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

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

It is that simple.

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

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

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

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

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Filed Under: Art Journaling, Creative Process, End Writer's Block, Journaling Tips and More, Writing Prompt, Writing Tips

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

July 25, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Filed Under: End Writer's Block, Journaling Tips and More, Writing Prompt, Writing Tips Tagged With: Artist Quotes, Georgia O'Keefe Quote, Journaling, Journaling Video

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How to Use Your Text & Other “Throwaway Writing” to Make All Your Writing Easier.

Trust in Creativity: Start with What’s Wrong

Self-Forgiveness: Often Forgotten, Always Worthwhile.

Beliefs: Review and Revise is it time? A clock face that needs revision with a bridge in the background.

Your Beliefs: Foundations of Your Creative Path to Peace

Introduction to “The Creative Path to Peace”

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