Julie Unplugged

Key 4: What Positive Thoughts Start Your Day (or) What Are You Looking Forward to Right Now?

It is not an accident you arrived here today. Please read on, using the material here today on its own or as a part of the ongoing series.

This is potent life coaching material on its own and it is also Key Number 4 in 7 Keys to Discover Your Most Satisfying Word-Theme of the Year for 2016.

Prompt: My first positive thoughts in the morning are about.....

One of my best friends has said on more than one occasion, “I don’t know how you bound out of bed every morning the way you do.”

There are significant reasons for my get up and go in the morning.

First, I am passionate about what I am actively creating in my life. I know every day I will collaborate with my son to have a satisfying mother-son relationship. I know I am aiming to make the world a better place through my life coaching, my writing workshops and the retreats I leave. I know my words make a difference with others. I know people will glean goodness, positivity in participating in and watching my periscope broadcasts.

I know when I take the time to complete my daily writing and rituals, everything is better. I have also learned when I get stuck with words, I can play with paint and crayons and other mixed media to find my way.

This all starts with the common denominator of being excited at what lies ahead of me every day.

I see the day as a blank canvas I have the privilege to splatter paint upon in whatever colors I choose.

I see the day as a finite container for whatever I am up to, be it activism or a day of intentional play or sessions with clients or twitter parties or picnics with friends.

I see the day as an indication of my past, my present and my future.

Annie Dillard wrote, “How we spend our days is, ofcourse, how we spend our lives.” My day is a microcosm of my month and my year.

When I can say with sureness, “Right now I look forward to…” and can state what I am excited about, it makes a difference. This morning I broke it into tiny chunks. “This hour I look forward to finishing up these three pages of free flow writing so I can take a photo and send it to my writing buddy.” In making that statement, it increased my excitement over a very simple accomplishment.

I looked over the daytime hours and wrote, “I look forward to finishing my “about” page for my website. This project actually started close to a year ago and today, I intend to complete it. This could be just an item to tick off my to-do, but for me, it will launch a celebration.

Prompt: “Today, I look forward to…” and then go deeper, wider or smaller and narrower to define your day, week, month and inevitably your 2016.

Look for your common denominators.

These may point you directly toward your word theme of the year.

You’re getting so close now!

For further inspiration, watch this video --

 

 To read more about the process, the article that started it all:

 

 Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist  whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in Fall, 2015 and beyond.

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

  Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing. 

 Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter:   and on Periscope for writing prompt, tips and inspiration daily created to ignite your artistic rebirth.

 Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

  Follow on Instagram  And naturally, on Pinterest, too!      © 2015

 

 

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2014 Word-Love in Action: Bold

On Reverb13 from Kat McNally, we were asked to share our words... I think of them as themes... for both 2013 and 2014.

My word for 2013 is growth. I have grown a lot in a quiet sort of way.

It has been an internal growth, like the first three months of pregnancy; no one else can see anything happening, but inside a whole new life is being formed.

In 2014, my word will be Bold. My plan is to add BOLD to a different monthly word to really keep it alive and at the forefront of my mind.

It is time to actively apply all the progress and growth I have mad on the inside and present it to the rest of the world. It feels like a calling and a privilege.

Thank you, Kat, for reminding me of the idea of a word for the year. In my life, I work best when I also introduce monthly themes. Adding two words and themes together seems a mindful way to bring lots of abundance and fruit into the world that surrounds me.

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 Check out the prompt today for the specific wording and ways to connect by visiting KatMcNally.com.

 

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 Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at a First Friday soon, when it is warmer than it was in December!, in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

 

 Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot     

 

  Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

 

  Follow on Instagram

 

  And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

 

   © 2013 - Julie Jordan Scott - all rights reserved.

 

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Showing Up, In the Seat, Giving the Words Space to Arrive

I am in the middle of a writing sprint but you would probably noto recognize it. I am perched in my recliner, laptop actually in my lap, classical music filling my space and the requisite cup of coffee beside me.

What isn't here is a sense of rushing or urgency.

I don't have my glasses on so I can't even see the screen very well.

I love the words enough to show up, but I love myself even more so I show up and take it easy. I have learned along the way sometimes just showing up and taking it easy nets the best result of all, so I am taking it easy.

I am sleepy from an early morning binge of Halloween sewing.

I am thinking about November's creation  of art, every day, and I am excited and ready to begin.

I am remembering how much I inten tionally accomplished this month. In some places, I expected more out of myself but in other places, I excelled.

Being here now exactly this way is one way I most definitely excelled.

I am taking my seat.

I am writing.

I am smiling.

All is well.

>> -- <<

I oftentimes use BlogFlashDaily prompts for writing warm-ups or as a break from the writing I  "have to" do at any given moment. Some days, like today, bring up content I never imagined writing. I try to keep my posts right around one hundred words, but sometimes there is more that needs to be contained. Perhaps you will join us soon at BlogFlashDaily?

= = = = = =

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

  Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

 

© 2013

Stranded or Not Stranded: Who Decides, Anyway?

 

It was last Friday afternoon when my daughter, Emma, and I talked about the times my siblings and I were left behind at various parks and shopping centers. It was never intentional, naturally, but my dear mother was often preoccupied. This wasn't surprising given her rigorous schedule, her personal expectations for herself and the fact she had six children, one with special needs, and a husband with a drinking problem.

This all came into our conversation when I asked Emma, quasi-rhetorically, "Who was it who designed Central Park in New York City again?" She blinked at me, as if her eyelashes were asking. "How do you expect me to know this?"

"You know," I continued, "He also designed the Smith College campus and that really cool park in Hartford, surrounding the capital?"

More blinking. I actually pulled over to look up his name: Frederick Law Olmsted.

What did we do without google and smart phones?

"He also designed Brookdale Park, a park we used to go to when I was a little girl. We sledded there and fed ducks and we played on the playground. Once Nana left John swinging on the swings and went home and he just kept on swinging!"

John, my dear younger brother, had Down's Syndrome. His secondary diagnosis was autism and I can see many of his unique qualities in my own son who has autism.

The thing is, John never felt like he was stranded, he simply continued doing what he loved doing, in a place he loved doing it, wrapped up in love of his family -  even when we temporarily disappeared.

I most often got lost hanging out in the toy department of Newberry's or.... I can't remember the name of the other department store, but I could drive there from my childhood home.

Who decides we are stranded, anyway?

I think it is our beliefs coupled with fear makes us feel stranded.

I'm grateful John didn't feel alone that day or probably anyday.

He probably isn't feeling alone now, either.

I imagine in a couple decades I'll see him again and he will be able to speak, to tell me all he told me non-verbally when we were both here, alive, together.

 >> -- <<

I oftentimes use BlogFlashDaily prompts for writing warm-ups or as a break from the writing I "have to" do at any given moment. Some days, like today, bring up content I never imagined writing. I try to keep my posts right around one hundred words, but sometimes there is more that needs to be contained. Perhaps you will join us soon at BlogFlashDaily?

= = = = = =

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

  Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

 

© 2013

"Olly Olly Oxen Free!" + Where It & I & Maybe You Grew

Olly Olly Oxen Free!

What do those words mean except, "Come out from hiding, there is no risk of you being "it!"

I never liked being "it" so I became a very good hider and a rather unwilling seeker. In fact, I can't remember ever being a seeker when our neighborhood kids gathered to play together. I was convinced if I was the seeker I wouldn't ever find anyone.

As an adult I realize how odd that is, because if I was such a good hider, wouldn't I have taught myself all the tricks of the 'don't get caught so now I can find all those sneaks a lot easier?"

No one could ever convince the very stubborn me this now realized truth when I was seven or eight or even thirteen-years-old. Especially at thirteen-years-old.

Olly Olly Oxen Free! As it turns out, was derived from the long ago cry of a herald, saying "All ye, All ye, 'outs' in free!" which meant if you were in hiding (not playing a game, mind you) you could come in without penalty - as in being arrested.

I think I'll use that in a poem soon.

= = = = = =

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

  Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

 

© 2013

 

 

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My Dream: To Be Ursula, Even if Just for One Day - -

Yes, this is a longheld dream of mine: portray Ursula the Sea Witch - even if just for a day!

I have a secret love affair with Ursula, the sea witch, from Disney's The Little Mermaid. I have often thought she is a character I could portray with all her evil loveliness and humor.

 When I visit Hollywood, my children and I have oftentimes said we should dress up at the Chinese Theater and along Hollywood Boulevard and I always say I will be Ursula. It would be so fun to costume and make up and my vision includes a rousing rendition of her signature song.

Anything is worth doing once, right?

Besides that, I love the thought of having her tentacles. Just for a day, that's all I need.

Tentacles for a day.

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This post was inspired by #BlogFlashDaily - Join the writing fun!

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

 

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

  Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

© 2013

 

How I Could Have Done Better in Biology Class Oh, So Many Years Ago

Maybe I would have done better in Biology if I saw it as a Pink Flamingo rather than dissecting frogs and the like. When I moved to Dana Point it became mini-marine biology, identifying sea weed. Being new to the coast, I didn’t get it: wasn’t I supposed to be staring endlessly at cell diagrams and memorizing which part of the cell was which?

I would have done better in Biology if it had been taught be an artist or a naturalist, or perhaps an artistic naturalist biologist.

I realize I would do better in Biology if I took it now!

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This post was completely inspired by the image on the left which was offered as a flash blog post prompt by the folks at BlogFlashDaily. It was such fun to write - "flash" writing is fast and short, too, so it helps me as a writer to learn how to say what I want to say with the most precision possible. Most of my entries are right around 100 words. Makes it all seem so do-able. To join the pleasure of BlogFlashDaily check out the link here or the image to the right --->

 

 

 

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

  Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

© 2013

 

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Momschlepping Challenge: A New School Year & I'm in the Driving Seat Again....

I need to create a Momschlepping Challenge OR hire this dog as my driver.

One of my most hated chores is what I call “Momschlepping” but actually it occurs in all circumstances when I am driving anywhere without a purpose, sort of driving in circles for no reason.

I know, I am now completely opted out of the Mom of the Year, 2013 competition by making this confession but seriously, the obsession with getting kids from here to there and hinter and yon is enough to dampen even a Stepford Mom’s spirits.

To solve this, I need to remember to use the schlep as my workshop in presence. Be Here Now, Even Schlepping. 

* * * * *

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

 Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

© 2013

Two More Weekdays Left: Chaos/Order and What I Sometimes Make Them Mean

Exactly what I needed today: to write a less than 100 word meditation. #BlogflashDaily provided the inspiration and here I sit, better for it.

Two more weekdays left of Summer, 2013, and I sit at my desk, frozen to follow up.

Every day I check one measly thing or so off my list and the biggest remains undone not because of me, but because someone else holds the deck, shuffles the deck, sorts the deck and deals the cards from the deck.

The worst that can happen?

Waiting.

The best that can happen?

Not waiting.

The real best that can happen?

I can change my opinion about what is best, worst and anything in between.

Two more weekdays left of Summer, 2013.

 

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

 Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

© 2013

Stop Making Snap Judgements and Start Opening to Delicious Surprises

People who are alike dress alike: clothing and appearance is one of those identifying marks as sure as people who wear Girl Scout uniforms are more than likely Girl Scouts and people wearing McDonald’s uniforms more than likely work at McDonald’s.

I told some women the other day when I perform poetry I usually wear black with perhaps a colorful scarf near my face as an accent. I don’t normally wear a beret, although many people associate berets and poets. Add some bongo drums and snapping fingers and the stereotype is complete.

I can’t imagine some of my favorite poets donning black or a beret or carrying bongos when they read poetry.

Like so many other times, sweep judgments don’t work.

You can’t look at a scraggly guy and think, “He must be homeless,” when in fact, he may be an eccentric millionaire. You can’t look at the statuesque, well coiffed woman and assume she is a successful newscaster because she may be an out of work model looking for a gig whose only food yesterday was a can of tuna.

Look at yourself a moment.

What do you look like?

I’ll share what I look like this morning. You make your judgment AND I am not sharing a photo.  

I look like a tired Mommy who is recovering from melanoma surgery. My black polo style dress with grey pants underneath say I value comfort. Yesterday my friend complimented the waves in my hair and I replied, “This is called wash and run out the door.” She assumed I ‘made my hair look that way’.  Genes made my hair look that way. If you look closely at my hands you will notice my nails have been shortened by a nervous habit and my melanoma  wound has been dressed today, but not covered, and somehow right there – within the scar itself -  a double heart has formed.

What would you judge about me by “seeing” this picture?

Yesterday I attended a SoulCollage workshop and for some crazy reason I made eight cards in one afternoon. It was interesting because some people only made three cards, some made five and several of us made eight.

There is no rhyme or reason for it.

Several of the cards are sticking with me today.

This card (see it on the left) said to me, “I am one who collaborates with many sorts of ‘others’ – both those who look like me, talk like me, walk like me and those who don’t do any of that. When I stay open to collaborating with a variety of eclectic people, I find my greatest happiness and the wildest success.”

How many times do we look at people and immediately make a judgment?

She is too fat, he is too lanky, she doesn’t look very smart, I abhor that band on his t-shirt, Oh, I can’t work with people who were a t-shirt and jeans, can’t he at least wear khakis and a polo?

Perhaps these scenes aren’t exactly what you find and I am sure you hear yourself saying something like this.

What do people judge about seeing “your” picture?

Are these insta-flash judgers the people you want to be your friends?

Notice your snap judgments today and consciously snap out of them. Better yet, I dare you to initiate even the smallest conversation with a person you would never have spoken to in the past. The conversation may be your one-sided, “Good morning!” Quality and length don’t matter today: being open to different sorts of people is what matters.

The next surprise person you are open to may be filled with delicious surprises. Best of all, you may be someone elses delicious surprise.

This blog post was inspired by a prompt from BlogFest2012. Today's was written by Paula Martin: read her prompt and her "Judging  a Book by It's Cover".

 

Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot  

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook (THANK YOU!) 

© 2012 by Julie Jordan Scott

This is my nineteenth post (of 31!) for the October Ultimate Blog Challenge. Watch here for challenge posts which will include Writing Prompts, Writing Tips and General Life Tips and Essays.

  Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She leads Writing Camp with JJS & this Summer will be traveling throughout the US to bring this unique, fun filled creative experience to the people wherever she finds the passion & the interest.

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