Category: Writing

Honor Your Dream. Give It Words.

Yes, there it is: Honor Your Dream. How long has it been in hiding? How long have you maintained the silence? How long have you felt “on the verge” of expressing it, yet always pull back at the last minute?

So here sits your challenge: Give It Words.

Does that feel threatening? Scary? Exhilarating? I acknowledge you for even considering that it may be time to open the closet door and dust off the dreams so you can clothe them in words to bring them forth. 

One of the hardest tasks in the world is to tell your own story.

 

Especially for those of us called to make a difference in the world — to transform, to do something that hasn’t been done, to create anew — bringing forth our message is a doubly challenging endeavor.  The typical models just don’t fit.  It’s discouraging.

 

Maybe you’ve spent a lot of time trying to create your messages, to shape your marketing, to put together web sites or speaker sheets or articles,  blogs or books. You long for your words to reflect the truth of the potentials and possibilities that are bubbling up inside you.

 

And yet, you haven’t captured the essence in spite of giving it your best effort. Your words are falling short of saying what you really want to say.

 

  • But how to put it into words?
  • How to articulate the ineffable?!
  • How to say it so the most perfect people “get it?”

 

How can you express what you do with authenticity and put it out there in words so that your most perfect people hear your message? There’s the rub.

 

Even as an experienced writer/marketer, I’ve faced the challenge of saying what I do so that people “get it.”  And when they don’t,  that hurts, especially when you’ve put your heart into saying what you do and it just doesn’t connect.

 

And it’s not only the message. It’s your WHO: your people, tribe, community. Once the message is ready to be shared, you face  the challenge of putting it in front of your most perfect clients, so they will be able to say, “Yes! That’s me. I want some of that!”

 

For those of you sharing messages of transformation, take a minute to feel into what it might be like to have a partner, a believing mirror, someone who “gets it” and can help you put words around that vision  you’ve been hiding for so long.

 

As writer, creation coach, and vision midwife, I help visionaries with the words and writing that bring forth the stories, wrap your gifts in words, and give shape and substance to your visions and dreams.

 

Especially if you are a woman in the best half of life — whose true gifts have been hidden or are only now coming forth — really take in the possibility that you might be able to express your stories and still feel safe. Feel heard. Feel embraced with understanding…Be held in a sacred container of conversation, content, and creation.

 

What would it feel like if you experienced your visions and messages coming to life in words?

Wouldn’t that change everything?

To open a conversation that just might change everything for you, please send me an email at bjmiddendorf(at)gmail(dot)com.  Give me the 100-word synopsis of your story and dream to make sure this is the most appropriate fit for you and bringing forth your dreams.

Everyone who responds will receive my BEEing Presence Plan Kit for Messengers.

 

 

Partnering with the Power of Nature

To the East, over Lake Michigan a mile or so away, the sky is navy blue, even now. Last night, more than 12 hours ago, the forces of nature — wind, lightning, hail — created a dramatic light show. Great forks of lightning illuminated the sky. The power of nature was palpable as the hail flung itself against the windows.

So grateful, then, to be inside, in our house. Outside, some of the plants in the garden of Shangri-La took some damage. From my office window, I spot a few holes in the plate-sized redbud leaves. The ligularia, not under the protection of a tree, was torn to pieces. Lots of leaves came down in the heavy winds and hail. I’ve taken a sweeping-meditation break to move them into piles to pick up on the next break. All in all, we are grateful for the minimal damage.

The power of nature is dramatic, yet embracing it as a partnership not a war can make for an experience of integrity, wholeness, oneness. The prepositions are important here: with Nature; in Nature; of Nature. And *not* against or over Nature. That’s the misstep.

We as a species are still learning, and there remains much we do not know.  Mysteries remain that the scientific method (sorry to tell you) will not unravel. And yet — these mysteries, this other kind of knowing and knowledge, can be accessed in other ways.

How? Those prepositions are the key. It’s starting with the heart, the compassion for all on the planet and the planet herself, Gaia. We, and all beings, both seen and unseen, are worthy of our places here. And notice that we are here together. We are here together at this time for a purpose. Our mission is to engage within that continuum of relationships in all the many manifestations.

We are moving from the old model of “power over nature” to partners with Nature, learners and students in Nature,  beings of Nature. Yes, we experience AWE in the raw power of nature, while at the same time, consciously engaging with the Earth and her creatures to listen for the lessons we are now able to hear and perhaps even embody.

If tapping into the messages from the animals is the way that best draws you into conversation with nature, I’d like to introduce you to David Wodtke, aka Pine Tree. His focus is on Earth-Service over at: http://earthservice.blogspot.com/ David shares messages from the animals that offer powerful ways to learn from the wisdom of the creatures.

Why Yoga and Writing?

Many people have asked about the connection between yoga and writing.

Yoga practice can be a tonic to the ceaseless inundation we face every day.  Bombarded by the electromagnetic waves of cell phones, microwaves, WiFi, PDAs, computers, iPods, we turn up the volume to drown out any possibility of hearing the inner stillness. Even in yoga classes, sometimes students spring up before shivasana, needing to be off and about their business, back to crammed schedules and ceaseless hurried, harried busy-ness.

Any yoga at all is a good thing, even when it’s treated more like calisthenics than meditation. And the special secret, the magic and true power of yoga — when you fully give yourself over to the fullest and deepest experience of that  — is its ability to quiet the mind and transport you — body, mind, and soul — to completely different levels. Yoga practice is a time and space to settle deeply into the body and hush the surface chatter of the mind.

What can emerge, what can be heard in that profound inner silence, is what some call the still small voice. As a writer and conscious creator, I treasure any practice that helps me unplug and connect to that deep, quiet place, the wellspring of words, the source of flow.

Yoga is like the bucket on the pulley of my grandmother’s old-fashioned well.  The bucket, on the end of the pulley,  travels down the well shaft to the surface of the water far below ground. Using the pulley, the bucket submerges then is drawn back up, bringing forth a vessel brimming over with the waters from deep and dark places.

Yoga serves as bucket and pulley, drawing up from the depths the elixir of life to be savored then, above ground, in writing and on the page.  Such is the perfect precursor for writers and creators of every stripe, the palpable connection to the deep inner world.

If you want to explore these inner connections and possibilities, please read about the Yoga + Writing workshops, here. Feel free to call or email me with any questions or for more information.

Relieve Tension & Tap the Depths of Writing

Restorative Yoga + Writing Workshop

with

Monika Andreas & Bobbye Middendorf

Open your inner spaces with Restorative Yoga to release the flow of your writing. Reinvigorate your life with words…Unlock the heart of your writing, messages, and gifts.

Join us on the Inner Vision Quest

WHEN: Saturday + Sunday June 4-5 9:30 – 4:30pm

YOUR INVESTMENT: $250 per weekend; Early paid commitment = $220

One day only: $150; Early paid commitment = $125

WHERE: 3600 N. Lake Shore Drive  Chicago, IL

*Welcoming beginners — writers and yoga students of all ages, shapes & sizes

*Inviting anyone who loves words and self-reflection — including journal writers

*Opening with yoga makes your writing easier, deeper, and renews your creative self

Monika Andreas’ 35 + years of yoga teaching helps you feel safe and at ease in your body,  inviting you to tap your peace of mind and inner healing wisdom.

Bobbye Middendorf, award-winning writer, holds the space for your sacred stories and expressions to unfold.

Email jasbjm(at)earthlink(dot)net for more details about the workshop. Please put “Yoga and Writing” in the subject line!

Restore, Renew with Yoga and Writing Weekend

It’s so exciting to partner with
Yoga for the Seasoned Body(TM) expert
Monika Andreas for an upcoming weekend
of renewal! Details below.

UNLEASH YOUR INNER CREATOR @

RESTORATIVE YOGA AND WRITING WORKSHOP

with

Monika Andreas and Bobbye Middendorf

Renew  *  Refresh  *  Restore  Your
Body  *  Mind  *  Spirit

*  Leading off with deeply relaxing and
restorative yoga, Monika gently introduces
ease for your body and peace for your mind.
This Yoga taps your inner healing wisdom
with therapeutic effects on your heart,
immune, digestive, circulatory, skeletal,
and other physiological systems — AND
your spirit and creativity!

*  Renewing your creative self and
reinvigorating your life in written words:
Like Yoga, writing can heal the heart and
renew the spirit. Bobbye helps you awaken
to your inner gifts and expression. In our
sacred circle, you are invited to bring
forth the stories and truths you are
yearning to share.

Where:    Addison at Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois

Your Investment:   $225 for entire weekend of renewal

Sorry…The Early Decision Deadline has passed.

****Save $$$ with your Early Decision!****
Your investment on or before Feb. 25:
Early Registration (with deposit)  $180

(Individual sessions receive $10 discount
with early registration/deposit by Feb. 25)

When:
Friday, March 4 -   6:30-9:30 p.m.   $ 55**
Saturday, March 5 – 9:30-5:30 p.m.  $115**
Sunday, March 6 -   9:30-3:30 p.m. $ 75**
**Costs per session if purchased individually.

Monika Andreas, with 35 years of yoga wisdom,
responds to the needs of each student.
She has trained with master yoga teachers
including B.K.S. Iyengar, Roger Eischens, Angela
Farmer, and Victor VanKooten among others
during more than three decades as a yogi.

Bobbye Middendorf leads Sacred Story Vision Quests,
convenes circles for writing and meditating, and
mentors people with urgent healing messages.
She is an award-winning writer with an
M.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts
from Columbia College and creator of
https://writesynergiescopywriting.com.

Please contact me to reserve your place, as space is
limited. Feel free to email me
jasbjm(at)earthlink(dot)net with any
questions, and we can schedule a
one-on-one phone conversation.

Wishing you an abundance of
Love, Light & Laughter,

Bobbye Middendorf
The Write Synergies Guru

Translate Your Vision into BEE-ing: Your Code

A few years ago, I created a personal mission statement. As a solo-soul-preneur, I am the face and being of my business.  At the end of 2010, I was called to update that document. Usually the word “mission” for me is a non-starter. I’ve read far too many mission statements that put me to sleep.

As the Write Synergies Guru, I teach people the magic of growing their results (in words) greater than the sum of the parts. To do that, it calls for stepping into a level of Being in the World (and in the moment) that can only be expressed as your mindful and conscious Presence.  Sometimes, that Presence yearns to share itself by owning the parts that it encompasses. Maybe my colleagues would benefit by revising their “mission” statements into “Presence” statements…Or what I call the Code.

As a writer and a mentor for those crafting,  honing, and polishing their public messages, writing is one piece of my process. Let me share a secret: Who you are Being, from your deepest essence, is what makes the critical distinction between you and everyone else. So ponder the following questions. Take them to heart. Write your answers. Then share your riches here and with your own community of customers, clients — your circle and tribe.

First, who are you Being?

= From your Being, what is your Vision for 2011?

= What is your process for bringing that Vision to life?

= What are the words, the code that you live by when you are truly expressing from your highest and deepest self?

Please share!

For me, it is out of a place of deep inner space, of silence, of a kind of solitude, of words written by hand and by keyboard.

The Write Synergies Code

Out of the deep inner space of silence and solitude grow discernment, intuition, compassion

Walking a spiritual path, I commit to living these core values:

Listening deeply and with loving attention

Exploring with joy, curiosity, passion

Living mindfully and artfully with health, serenity, abundance

Knowing the sacred flow in all energy exchanges

Promoting peace, creativity, wisdom

Expressing compassion for Gaia, nature, and all sentient beings

Advancing with honesty, integrity, authenticity, gratitude, imagination

Connecting with the highest expression of those intersecting my path

Embodying a focus on the Light within and highest good for all concerned

Such foundational and visionary work is the beginning of declaration — what some might even call the basis for a Manifesto. Rest assured, that is coming. Living and expressing fully from this deep place calls on all our intent, requires that we show up in these new and powerful ways of Being.

I have been able to share, above, acrostic messages as part of my Write Synergies Code. These totems and ways of Being are also part of the code and reminders to me about the deeper forces at play in all aspects of life.

We are being called to wake up and act from a more powerful place. Start by unlocking your Being, shining a light on your Vision, and acting each day in the truth of your Code!

Join me on the Write Synergies Path!
Bobbye Middendorf
The Write Synergies Guru

Your Mark

When I read Seth Godin’s comments on making your mark (his “Soles” post) from last week, something clicked. How about for you? Here’s an excerpt:

“The concrete impact of our lives and our work is the mark you make on other people. It might be a product you make or the way you look someone in the eye. It might be a powerful experience you have on a trip with your dad, or the way you keep a promise.

The experiences you create are the moments that define you. We’ll miss you when you’re gone, because we will always remember the mark you made on us.”

–Seth Godin  (see the full post here)

The particular magic that each of us brings to our interactions with people — these are the gifts that make the difference. And it’s the giving of these particular gifts that is the true purpose of our coming into this world. It is in the giving of the gifts of ourselves, our uniqueness, the sacred center and essence of who we are — these are the signs that we are in the space where we can “make our mark.”

It’s what I call “owning your greatness.” It’s encompassed in the phrase “Living your Legacy.”  The potentiality to make a mark is always there. Our responsibility is to come at it mindfully and for positive, life-enhancing purposes.

Epiphanies

Just like Christmas is always on December 25, so Epiphany is always on January 6. We’ve finished the twelfth night of the Christmas season and move on to the season of Epiphany.

I always loved the idea of epiphanies — those great ah-ha-s. Epiphanies were a big deal for Stephen Daedalus in James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, one of my favorites of the “great books.”

Epiphany, beyond the capitalized version of the religious holiday, according to Merriam Webster (at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epiphany :

2   an appearance or manifestation especially of a divine being

3  a (1) : a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something (2) : an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking (3) : an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure b : a revealing scene or moment

Such illuminations are indeed possible — especially using the writer’s toolkit. It’s a matter of paying attention to what is there, as one friend says, “Notice what you notice.”

Together throughout 2011, we will explore the many possibilities for synergies, legacies, epiphanies.

Here’s to Love, Peace, Joy …
and Epiphanies filling your 2011 to the brim!

The Message Beyond the Message

Why are you writing what you intend to write? What is its deepest purpose or essence? Why you? Why this piece? Why now?

It’s important to look beyond the surface. (I’m doing a marketing campaign, a blog post, a flash-enabled web site.) You may have reasons, but go deeper. Explore your project from the perspective of the heart. And by staying in the aware heart energy, you can access a deeper guidance and a deeper why. This is a process of deeper engagement to see what is there and also what is not yet visible. To read on the lines and between the lines. To hear the notes and the silence and space between the notes.

Sometimes, like my client Barb, a whole book comes as a download as a result of some dramatic trauma. Her book on grief spilled out over a weekend as she continued to heal from the loss of her life partner and sweetheart. For years after she wrote it, she reported, “I’d still cry when I reread it.”  The unacknowledged grief, the hidden and ungrieved grieving, creates a heavy load. We all encounter many losses in our lives. Learning to take the time to acknowledge and embrace every one of them is the dark path towards the light of healing. This is her message for her readers.

No matter how the message of your  brainchild/heartchild comes through — whether through a download all at once or a steady progress of creation — the book that encapsulates the lessons and insights makes up the heart of your message.

But for many, once that’s settled, it seems like that should be all it takes. You’ve gotten your message onto the page after all.

That’s not all. Questions like, “Now what? What’s next?” can be the biggest stumbling blocks. Because it seems like you should be done, but you are in fact just starting. What is your message without people to hear it and connect with it and you?

Your book’s message in itself is designed to  be of service to your perfect people, the ones you are here to help. Otherwise, you probably wouldn’t be here reading this. Service and contribution are things you think about. So the main message, your service and love is done.

In truth, the writing you do next is just as important as the writing of the main message in your book. This is the writing you do in service to the message you are here to share. These are the words that connect you to your people, the ones who have maybe heard similar messages before, but they will “get it” in a brand-new and deeper way from you.

You’re probably not going to want to hear that the writing you do in service now to your message probably wears the clothing of “marketing” and “sales.”  Too many messengers shy away from that part of the process. Keep in mind that you are still in service to your main message. This is the process of bringing it into a more public conversation.  At the same time, the marketing messages need to remain true to the heart of your  greater work. For most of us, it seems like a different kind of a thing — this marketing and sales writing.

In the spirit of the great duality on this planet, I say, “It isn’t different. And yet it is.” Both/And. There are commonalities between your message, mission, and book AND the writing (and talking) you do to share your message in the marketplace of ideas. They need to be of a piece.

But in some ways, the marketing message, which is what opens the public conversation, is even more important. It has to catch the hearts of those who can hear it from you.

Here’s one way to approach the marketing message of your message.

Think about it as a way you are opening the conversation. Creating the space for dialogue, back-and-forth, feedback, response. Marketing messages take a different kind of crafting, and you can do it — writing to sell without selling your soul or selling out your message. Once again, bring the heart energies to the task of shaping your marketing messages that will be in service to your book, your main message.

Use that awareness and care you have for the people who can only hear it from you in sharing the gifts and greatness you are here to give.

#blogboost

5Cs to Live Your Legacy in Words

More than What You Leave Behind, Live Your Legacy in Words

I’ve written about living your legacy before.  It’s that important.  The following action points are part of an upcoming booklet of experts sharing insights on “defining your destiny,” a project coordinated by Paulette Ensign, the  undisputed queen of the tips booklet.

My suggestion: Test out these 5 Cs to bring your legacy alive. Use words. Write it all down. Document your process for yourself and others.

1 Center —

Begin by taking a deep belly-expanding breath or several.  Focus on your heart-center.  Listen for your internal wisdom and directions from inside.  Write them down!

2 Contribute —

From that breath-centered mindfulness, focus on the deepest gifts you are here to share.  Who are the most perfect recipients of your gifts?  Write down who you are here to serve and the gifts you yearn to offer.

3 Create —

Hold in your heart both what you are here to offer and who you are meant to do it for.  Envision what it looks like when those two come together, with results for the highest good.  Write that down.

4 Connect —

Bring your inner connections and ideas into conversation.  Invite your most perfect people into your sacred circle with powerful words and intent.  Connect and LISTEN.  Write down their words, what they want.

5 Commit —

Write down the specifics of your intent and commitment to create, connect, and contribute.  It’s your map for living your legacy.  Build it day by day with conscious actions — to make the difference you came here to make.

World-changers, writers, authors, visionaries, and conscious creators partner with Bobbye Middendorf, The Write Synergies Guru, to clarify their healing messages. If you’re ready for results greater than the sum of the parts, if you need the right words so people “get it,” if you want to make the difference you came here to make, then connect with Bobbye to live your legacy in words and “Write to Sell Without Selling Your Soul.”