Julie Unplugged

To See Heaven (or a Creative Solution) in a Wildflower

Do you love inspirational quotes and images like I do?

I started a series featuring William Blake poetry and my images to assist you in your business and creative life. While you may use these images as simply for pleasure, I

"To See Heaven in a Wildflower" William Blake - Poetry image + Creativy Prompt

also suggest you spend a smidge of time (only 5 minutes) mindfully gazing at the photo and quote.

 

I’ll be doing the same with this quote and image, but more importantly, I look forward to what YOU do with this poetry and image.

If you would like examples before you begin, here you go. Please return here to do your contemplative time. After all, it could change the way you live or do business or even how you feel about the way you live or do business.

Click here for an explanation of the process.

Click here to see where the original quote and image took me creatively.

I’ll be doing the same with this quote and image, but more importantly, I look forward to what YOU do with this poetry and image.

 

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© 2013

Today: Stop Allowing Bullying Beliefs Get in the Way of Your Dreams

What are you willing to risk to stop allowing Disempowering Beliefs to Bully My Dreams?

What is getting in the way of you reaching for your dreams?

This is simple yet not so simple to answer.

The thing is, I don’t want to be trite and shrug this issue off my shoulders like my navy blue sweater leaves my shoulders once Spring arrives. This is one of those niggling areas of belief I need to take a sledge hammer to rather than let it bully me anymore.

That’s it: my barrier to my dreams is a belief “There isn’t time and there isn’t money for me to reach my dreams, so why bother when it will never work out?” If that were true, how do those scrappers who were in the face of ruin managed to rise up and take the world by storm?

Perhaps that is part of it: there is no metaphorical gun to my back.

 

Perhaps it would be wise to create one today. Something like, “Your daughter can not go to college unless you are able to fund it on your own.” This actually isn’t far from the truth. My eldest daughter is at Smith College, a very prestigious seven sister’s college. Several weeks ago she visited Princeton, which is where she wants to go to graduate school because they have the not only the top Presbyterian Seminary in the country, they also have the second largest theological library in the world. The Vatican’s library is apparently larger.

This leaves my second daughter’s education to be concerned about when my eldest is going into her second year at Princeton.

Can you even imagine the financial opposite of windfall that will create?

What has worked for me when I was the most successful in the past is to create a game of some sort – a personal challenge – and then to go for it with all my might. I am looking at an adorable photo of my daughter right now as I type. She is looking back at me as if to say, “I believe in you, Mommy.”

She has risen above the bullies of her past. It’s time for Mommy to do so, too. I notice my shoulders aren't up around my ears anymore. Just writing those words seems to be have started the process of releasing the Belief Bullies.

Now, to create the game that will send them completely underground. Come back again to see what happens next so that you may toss your Belief Bullies out of your world.

 

 

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© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

 

Let's Show the World How Cool We Are... Exactly as We Are Now!

The Wiltern Theater: Oh, to Be as Cool as THIS! (and who is to say we aren't?)

I can’t remember when I was first told this, but I have been told a variation on this theme a number of times. “One of the cool things about you is you have no idea how cool you are!”

I picture myself looking out of my left eye wondering who they are talking to since cool-and-me are not on the same page. Except for all those people who keep telling me I am cool, or whatever the current most used synonym for cool may be.

The only problem with any of us not knowing we are cool is that we tend to not believe in our own coolness. Imagine my surprise at a writing workshop I was facilitating and one of the women writers there wrote about why she came and she included, “Come on, its Julie Jordan Scott!” as if I was someone impressive.

I am not writing this because I want people to comment with, “oh, Julie, I think you are cooler than cool!” or “What might happen in your world if you believed you were uber- cool? How would you behave then?”

Taken while waiting to be filmed for Hamlet Machine - an awesome experience... and my look shows its cool, doesn't it?

Please don’t life coach this life coach unless she requests it.

I want to go beyond wondering what if, I want to act upon the what if because I know how other people see me as oozing with cool is actually more accurate to who I am then the way I see myself.

What I will do also is to invite you to play along, too.  

Play the “What if” game with me for a week.

We’ll start on Valentine’s Day, simply because it is a day about love and if we truly love ourselves we would have no issue recognizing and valuing our own coolness, right?

For seven days we will consciously affirm ourselves and our unique coolness via some sort of passionate action.

Here is an example: because I know my facilitation of workshops continues to change people’s lives positively, I will schedule a workshop AND I will tell people about it as soon as the date is set.

Bonus: Begin working a marketing buzz list to kick it off.

Another example: Because I love to write poetry, I will submit three poems to at least one poetry journal.

Bonus: Submit to more than one poetry journal.

Another example: Because I would love to make some new friends who are into activities similar to me, I will sign up for a workshop or a class within the next month in an area of interest.

Bonus:  Sign up for a class or workshop where I have zero experience and am a complete beginner.

Another example: Even if no one else joins me, I will do this exercise anyway.

Bonus: I will prove to myself I can be even more fearless than I felt five minutes ago!

Are you in? Let me know by commenting below or you may choose to email me (juliejordanscott at gmail.com) or text or call me (661.444.2735) I’ll post my progress here on my blog as well as on the Facebook Writing Camp page.

I’m also happy to run it again, starting February 28. Let’s show the world – and ourselves – just how cool we are!

===

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© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

 

 

What I Want from My Writing: A Confession & a Mini-Challenge for You via @Kathrynclang

"Why Write?" a question many bloggers grapple with daily.

I have written to the writing prompt, “Why write?” quite a few times. My answers usually hum a similar tune. Today, though, I am thinking a bit more strategically. Here’s what I mean: the prompt I was given from my blogging mini-challenge from Kathryn C. Lang gives me a completely different spin on my usual “why write”….

What do you want from your writing?

I want self acceptance from my writing.

Believe it or not, that was the first response to bubble up from my gut.

I want my writing to offer me relentless self-acceptance.

Whoa.

What on earth does that mean?

A-ha moment response to the question, "What do you want from your writing?" mini -challenge

For decades I have been told I am a gifted writer. I have been asked, “Where can I buy your books?” Well, I am in anthologies, I do have poems on greeting cards, I am in poetry anthologies but as for just me? I have a couple dusty ebooks before the days of Kindle and Nook….

I need to stop giving my power both as a writer and as a human being over to people who I have the inaccurate and paranoid fear might want to target me if I “let my success get out of hand.” I am writing this with some sense of stream of consciousness, so I am not putting much a veil between what I am typing and my inner critic.

What you read is what I wrote, in the moment. See? I am apologizing because I have yet to offer myself relentless and radical self acceptance.

Before I call this the magic key and come up with some terrific blog headlines such as “The Seven Jealously Guarded Secrets to Finally Following Your Dreams of Becoming a Best Selling Author” I need to percolate on this for a bit. My “percolating” usually mean, well, always means… writing a bit more. It means walking, thinking, perhaps painting and perhaps even having sex to get the physical self acceptance going, so I may not be able to go further in this one posting.

In fact I am going to practice radical and relentless self acceptance by saying YES to my process and asking you to please return for part two.

In the meantime, care to join me in writing along this mini-challenge theme?

What do you want from your writing?

  = = =

Do You Know What Famous Hollywood Bar I amm Writing In?

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© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

 

 

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

This Sensational Life: What Direction Are You Going?

This post was written in response to Rachel Payne’s Creativity Tribe and the “One Sensational Life” series. Through this series you may explore not only the typical senses but so much more. Join the fun!

This week we were to write on “Sense of direction.”

 

This photo was taken when my daughter was touring Smith College. She is now in the middle of her junior year there.

One of my favorite quotes from the movie The Patriot was “Stay the course.”

I can hear it as clear in my head as I can hear the famous Patrick Henry quote, “Give me liberty or give me death!” Stay the course… to liberty… to what your heart desires… to your next big thing.

I often hear from my coaching clients that their biggest challenge has often been that they don’t know precisely what that course is. The lament may sound something like this: “I am not perfectly clear on my heart desires and I can’t go into the direction of my next big thing because I have no idea what that means for me in THIS moment.”

This is where I find life to be especially exhilarating.

The key to staying the course, for going in the “right” direction, is to take action in the land of passionate detachment. You don’t have to know whether it is right or wrong, but when you make a conscious choice from a space of, “This feels so right in this moment, I am going to pick my foot up and walk towards it whether or not I can see exactly where it is taking me!”

One of my favorite rides at Disneyland is Space Mountain. Half of the fun is you can’t see where the rollercoaster is taking you, you simply get in, hold on and enjoy.

When I went on it with my daughter for the first time she said, “Can we do that again?” Yes. She meant immediately. So we did. We were having a passionately good time, but we were detached from the dips and the bends in the roller coaster rode.

This is just like I got into theater because I took an acting class not because I wanted an acting class, I wanted to take a voice class. I had been taking voice for two sessions in a row but wasn’t offered so I took acting, figuring at least I was doing something that used my voice. At that time I had a radio show as well as doing my telephone life coaching, so my most used “instrument” was my voice.

Three weeks into class I had an incredible spiritual and performance breakthrough.

I knew then I needed to be on stage, that this was exactly what I wanted to do. When people asked me, “How are you going to fit that into your schedule?” I responded, “I have no idea!” and I didn’t, but I kept landing roles, so I kept acting.

To go deeper, I stopped acting when I was eleven years old. I loved it when I was eight, nine, ten and eleven but then I had a very discouraging event that had nothing to do with my abilities and I decided to give it all up.

I was just so terrified to pursue that dream, I buried it underneath singing, mommying, publishing  a book, life coaching, creativity coaching, serving on educational committees.

Right now, I am not acting. I am recuperating from melanoma surgery AND I am going to do a benefit show to end violence against women and girls. I have taken the stage to perform poetry and do storytelling.

I can’t imagine never acting again.

When I took that class nearly a decade ago, did I suspect this would happen?

Not at all! I would have denied this was my direction. I would have vehemently denied this was my direction! I couldn’t have planned it. Spiritual a-ha’s like this that are decades in the making are not predictable.

I stayed the course of following what I loved in each present moment and my life was changed for the better as a result. I stepped into the direction of my calling, even when I didn’t know exactly what that calling was at the time.

What direction are you going? Pick your foot up and put it down, moving into passion and staying gloriously detached from knowing exactly where it will take you yet loving every moment of the mysterious ride.

 = = =

I have two open spots in my creative life coaching practice. If you are interested in discovering how creative life coaching might help you in stepping into your direction and staying the course, send me an email to : juliejordanscott@gmail.com or give me a call or text at 661.444.2735

Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

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

© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

 

 

 

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

 Thank you for reading!

 

 

A Practical Approach to Honoring Yourself to Take Away the Power of the Past

“Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you.”

Adrienne Rich

One of my beloveds chronically gets smashed, headfirst, into the concrete of other people’s opinions. Today I wondered how much longer it would feel satisfying to come alongside and scrape the dust off him, showing him the shards and deconstructing with him the fact from the truth.

How often are we tape recorders playing back what we think, what we feel and who we are?

I have done so much work on this subject it is tip toeing on the edge of annoying me.

When I heard my daughter echo back to me, “No one chooses to have a lousy day. No one wakes up and says, ‘Today I am going to have a sucky day and I will make everyone I encounter have a sucky day, too.”

It was like I was standing in a mirror staring at myself. She took me aback. She has been listening all these years, hiding behind a shadow of indifference? Could she be sharing my words with others? I pray it is only ones like these, not others that I am afraid were spoken in haste, without much conscious thought.

I wonder how many parents look at their children in the morning and say, “Well, don’t you look awful? You shouldn’t expect chocolate milk with your lunch today because it is just not coming… for you anyway…”

I remember one of those defining parent conversation moments when my mother told me the story of my conception. I was thirteen years old and at the height of self loathing when she informed me I was a product of complete birth control failure.

I wasn’t only unplanned, my parents tried to be sure I wouldn’t be born. Granted, they didn’t know this me was me precisely, but they didn’t want a baby.

Somehow, even at my age of total personality malfunction I had the fortitude to cover that label of “I am a product of birth control failure” with “I must have a special, unique purpose to live – and that’s why I was conceived in spite of birth control failure.”

On really bad days, the other label still comes up, but there is a higher knowing that says, “This isn’t true and you know it.”

I don’t know quite how to help my beloved “get” this.

Is helping him “get it” part of my special, unique purpose or is it more self-imprisonment because as a product of birth control failure, I somehow need to earn my way out of the "unwanted" label?

I ask that rhetorically, please don’t surround me with well meaning advice or concern.

Responsibility is such a heavy word. My shoulders clench just hearing or reading it.

Today, excuse me dear Adrienne Rich, I will replace it with “Honoring…”. Let’s try it on:

Honoring yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you.

Somehow that feels better to me. It feels more right to me. It feels like something I can work with alongside my dear friend, who is a significant part of my life.

I will continue to listen for divine wisdom concerning when the honoring myself no longer corresponds to honoring him.

This makes me curious: how will you honor yourself today?

How will you speak for yourself, think for yourself, claim and name for yourself?

What will you make “honoring yourself” mean?

Welcome to my fifteenth post (of 31!) for the January Ultimate Blog Challenge. Watch here for Writing Prompts, Writing Tips + General Life Tips &  Essays.Word-Love to YOU!

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© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

 

 

 

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Art Journaling + Fragments + A Long Ago Challenge = Questions to Live Now (and throughout 2013)

 I got a grand idea on Pinterest today. It was a weekly art journaling adventure I could play along with – how exciting, I thought, since I always wanted to do more art journaling but never felt particularly good at it.

I clicked on the blog page and got so excited to journey along with others and then discovered – the blog post was from January 2009.

What to do?

I decided to do what I had been excited about: working on a weekly art journaling theme… with the arch of it surrounding asking myself high quality questions which I will go out and live… and then report back via any media that works for right then and there.

One of my current bodies of work is “Fragments” inspired by both what I get to work with when all is said and done as a busy-mom-writer-teacher-entrepreneur-etc, my most often used media is fragments, be it time or fabric or pages from old books.  When I read Terry Tempest Williams’ book When Women Were Birds last Summer, this quote rang a loud gong which continues to echo in my work.

She wrote, “Women piece together their lives from the scraps left over for them.”

Why else would quilting be such a revered feminine art form?

Scraps + Left overs + Women’s Creativity + What is, is….= Beautiful.

I thought to myself, What are my  (-future-)  now delights for 2013?

This is the question I am living and responding to this week in a variety of areas: free writing, meditation, prayer and creativity.

My weekly question will begin each Tuesday.

What questions are you living in 2013?

Next Tuesday,  January 8, 2013, I will begin to ask and live the question:

“What are some of the best actions to develop my creativity and life coaching business while impacting the planet for good?”

Perhaps you are looking for a challenge? Join me! Comment below to let me know.

Inspired in part by this quote:

“Love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live with them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now.”

Rainer Rilke

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 © 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott    

This is my third post (of 31!) for the January 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  and will be traveling throughout the US to bring this unique, fun filled creative experience to the people wherever she finds the passion & the interest.

Imagine Losing All Your Memories of 2012... in 7 Minutes. Take that time to capture important memories

Yet another fantastic REVERB prompt, this time coming from EMBRACE LIFE.

Visit her link (it is with her name, Embrace Life above) and pick a prompt or two or twenty and play along. It is a grand way to look back and look forward consciously.

Here is the prompt: Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2012 in 7 minutes. Set an alarm for 7 minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2012. (Author: Patty Digh, with an extra 2 minutes from me!) And yes, this is completely stream of consciousness. And as I post I am frustrated because I am thinking of other things I wish I had written down! YAY for the practice of letting go to results I mentioned on another REVERB prompt!

What I want to remember of 2012 in seven minutes:

I want to remember Katherine’s comings and goings. I want to remember going to Canyon de Chelley with all my children. I want to remember how well my friends took care of me after my cancer surgery. I want to remember when Sarah took my photos before my surgery. I want to remember visiting Morro Bay. I want to remember being sad, at disappointments involving that one friend I will not mention. Such bizarreness.

Couchsurfers: we had a decent number and oh, my gosh, met some grand people I would love to see again and probably won’t. I loved the impromptu drive with Tim to Porterville to help him make up days after being trapped here for a few days.

I want to remember Emma winning a journalism award for all of Northern California as a freshman. I want to remember Samuel’s birthday party, he always has fun at them and I love seeing him with friends. I want to remember how I solve his “I don’t want to go to VAC anymore” problem.

(This is still being made…)

I want to remember my parent’s 60^th wedding anniversary which is happening on the 26^th.

I want to remember conversations with people who actually noticed my absence and missed me, especially those that had no idea about my cancer.

I want to remember the eyes of the young prostitute who was hurt, a slashed calf, and the humanity I saw looking into her eyes.

I want to pass these memories, indelibly to others which is why, I suppose, I write openly and publicly.

I want to remember that story thing we did, monologues. I was so bold and shared so from the heart only to have one person say something so out of left field it completely reiterated what was horrid about my story.

And I want to remember I moved along from that. And that is another story that will be published.

With a pseudonym.

I want to remember Weeping Rock at Zion National Park.

My fingers fell silent. I have said enough, with the most important remembrance being I want to pass these memories along.

7 minutes are up….

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© 2012 by Julie Jordan Scott

What 13 Things Will You Get Rid of in 2013? How will it change you?

I wrote this in December, but I revisit this right as I am in the midst of clearing out my garage.

The question is still highly relevent and we have 11 months to go... so... tell me....

What are 13 things your life doesn’t need in 2013? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these things change your life? (Author: Sam Davidson & Me).

1. 1.       14 bags of donated clothes that no longer serve my children and myself. How: Bag ‘Em Up and call a truck for pick up.
2. 2.       In 2013 I don’t need to continue saying yes when my heart kicks me in the gut shouting “You were supposed to say NO!”  How: Practice
3. 3.       I don’t need six cats claiming my front yard as theirs because I feed Constance, our ONE outdoor cat. HOW: Should she become an indoor cat? I really want to initiate #2 on this one, especially since Constance was dumped on us more than eight years ago and she has been an outdoor cat ever since.
4. 4.       I don’t need people who are unwilling to make forward motion in their lives through continually living in the past. HOW: Have some long overdue conversations. Make list of who I need to speak to in order to suggest friend separation or friend divorce.
5. 5.       I don’t need to hold on so tightly to unforgiveness of myself and others. How: Plan a day-long personal retreat before December is over to finally forgive me. Collect name memories of who I need forgiveness from. If I still know them, ask for forgiveness. If someone has hurt me and hasn’t a clue, forgive them anyway.
6. 6.       I don’t need all these piles of “stuff” that simply doesn’t have a home. How: One pile a day. Find a home for it where it will be accessible OR get rid of it.
7. 7.       I don’t need all the children’s books I have in my home. None of my children will be re-reading these books. How: Donate all the ones I don’t REALLY have a purpose for. Some I will use in art. Identify which ones I want and which ones I don’t. Review monthly and each month… aim to rid myself of five bonus books.
8. 8.       I don’t need to leave so much of my art tucked away. I need to fill my walls with my creativity. How: Decide how to get certain pieces framed and frame them. Restore those collections of shelves, hang them, and put assemblage pieces and sculpture pieces there. Anything that doesn’t fit or I don’t want, see if anyone you know would like to give it a home. Maybe throw an art party in the Spring? Or an art trade? Not a bad idea…..
9. 9.       I don’t need all the files I have on my computer. Make a weekly practice of dumping at least 10 files or choosing different places to store them or just delete. Buy an external hard drive.
10. 10.   I DON’T NEED ALL THAT UNREAD EMAIL SITTING IN MY EMAIL BOX! How: One at a time, delete, delete, delete.
11. 11.   I don’t need to give up what I love because of others. How: Make a list of activities I have neglected and then find matching activities to attend.  Perhaps audition next Fall again.
12. 12.   I don’t need self pity. How: get on with it. One foot after another.
13. I don't need ugly hats or hats that don't fit. Donate them so some other people who wear hats will have them and love them and wear them with joy.

I am going to print this one out. My life will be so different because of it. Now, off to begin eliminating even today.

What 13 Things Will You Get Rid of in 2013. Think about it... and act on it.

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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. 

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Plans Go Awry - Because "Life is What Happens When.......You are Busy

making other plans", so says our friend, John Lennon.

I read through some of my reverb11 posts and they make me sad and happy.

Happy and sad. Wistful and lustful and disappointed in myself.

Today's prompt from Meredith at Cultivate12:

Letting Go: What do you need to let go of to cultivate your best life in 2013?

 I need to let go of any plans or expectations or ideas or hopes or dreams or need for any particular outcome in 2013, especially if it involves anyone else besides myself. I can take responsibility for myself but for others, I cannot.

Clear Communication is so critical to living a fulfilling, passionate life. I need to let go of thinking other people are communicating honestly or in a way I can understand. I may ask for restatement, I may reflect what I heard and ask for clarification, but if people are going to be dishonest, that’s that. I need to let go of anger or worry or hurt because those I am communicating with are positional, or angry, or don’t understand ME yet don’t ask for clarification so we muddle around in a vat of hurt and misunderstanding.

I need to let go of that vat, toss it over the edge and let it evaporate away…. Go to the great shredder in the sky to be made into something useful.

I need to let go of how my face used to look.

I need to let go of the need to understand others’ silences.

I need to let go of the hurt I feel from others’ silences.

I need to let go of what was, what happened and what I made any of that mean.

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© 2012 by Julie Jordan ScottF