Tag: gifts

What More Is Possible

What if I wrote a love letter to my Divine Audience?

Before I do, it’s time to acknowledge Jeffrey Davis of #TrackingWonder.  This is part of a mid-2015 challenge, #DareToExcel  #1of1 and number 1 is considering a #BurningQuestion. Specifically, “What burning question of possibility will influence what & how you create during the next 30 to 90 days?“  There’s one for me, above, and one for you, below.

Plus a bunch of bonus “What ifs…?” to play with as jump-starters for your own sacred vision quest.

About that love letter… It sounds something like the following.

 

My Beloved,

What if … the impossible really does take just a little bit longer?

Lean in here with me. Consider if that which looks impossible and appears unlikely, is the game we play to strengthen our ability to give birth to the Great Work that is ours to do in this great shared playground.

Sixteen years ago, at the beginning of July, I started a new chapter, leaving behind a corporate job in publishing. Did I ever imagine what has transpired? And how long it has taken to feel like myself, and finally to write from a place of interconnection, inner and outer, you and me, in community, with collaboration and with sacred solitude …

I sing to you, darling and beloved multi-faceted creator, as you inhabit the murky land of the crossroad, the tumbled place called the #ChaosOfReinvention.  There, seemingly in the void, your purpose, essence, your very BEING — all of these bump up against the DO-ing of your Great Work, the creative you, creating life as art and work as art in this world of a billion paradoxes.

You know you are here to make a difference.

How do I see you?

I see the difference you ARE making by showing up. It’s revealed in the poetry of your presence, your healing, your art-making, your art-full life of cooking and reading, children, beloveds, and fur-companions, writing, singing, meditating, dancing, dreaming, making home, building, nurturing, nourishing, flourishing in your full-sensory goodness.

You ARE the difference you came here to make. My deep joy is seeing you, hearing you, and amplifying the YOU that is coming forth as apprentice to the Great Work that’s also coming forth.  And all of it along a path of joy that’s both sustainable and sustaining — and no longer just out of reach.

SmallerDiveDeep

When something isn’t fully aligned, there is discomfort, even pain.

Finding a way to honor your integrity and deep compassion, your vision and joy and divine spark, your commitment to life in all its sacred interdependencies, has ignited a flame of yearning so powerful in your tender heart that you are compelled to address it.

Take a moment at this #InterDependenceDay to consider what is beyond the edge of your current vision. Beyond activating the vision, ponder what more is possible when you step into the knowing of what is calling to be created next, what longs to be born as your next art-full creation in the world.

If this is you, sweet and often solitary maker-of-art, ask yourself if the following are next up on your menu of life-as-art-making:

* Creating a new story

* Birthing the next version of your gifts

* Putting rooted resonance and strong foundations under visionary and paradigm-shifting new approaches and processes

* Cultivating your change agency — clarifying your purpose, why you are here, and how you are meant to change and bless your Divine Audience

* Authoring the next narrative to uplevel your and others’ expression in the world

* Fresh iterations of your purpose, message, art, and work in the world

The book of your gifts and infinite potential hovers nearby, accessible to you in the #MultiVerse. Reach out, grasp this fist full of shadows, and dream them into being.

You are one intrepid explorer. Here, one-by-one, a community of conscious co-creators assembles, finding nourishment and connection, sustenance like an oasis and clear spring for a thirsting traveler.

Like-hearted. Full-sensory. Healing-intent-focused. Sacred impeccability. Book-writing. Message-expanding. Co-creating a world that works for all. Co-creative and collaborative community.

Mar2015LightingThePAth

For I see in your story the fractal essence of my journey.

You are smart and multi-tiered, a complex, many-faceted, and deep-thinking visionary-creator on many levels. You are change-maker and shero, delving deeply into the inner energies, the emergent of what-is-yet-to-be. Determined to bring it forth and make the difference (finally) that you were called here for.

Rebel and trailblazer, purposeful and art-full, a dash of entrepreneurial crossed with maverick, a journeyer and healer, heart-infused, soul-based: You are someone who stayed well-hidden wearing protective coloration, navigating an uneasy alliance with parts that felt fraudulent, unworthy, not enough. And an outer world that didn’t get it (you) on so many levels.

I, too, have walked the path of trying to do practical things and gaining no traction. I see you and know the heartache of dreams untended because the siren songs of distraction became overwhelming. Or dreams tended that don’t bring themselves out into the world.

Here are some of the “What ifs … ” to consider

I ponder these for me, for you, for all of us called to the path of purposeful messenger, change-maker, sage-hearted evoutionary. These “What if …” questions are the coin of the realm for the Creator. Examine these “What ifs…” and tailor them to your own inquiries.

 

* What if the creating you’re called to do now or next, whether it’s writing, authoring, art-making, book-creation, blog-building, curricula-writing, speaking, even marketing, can carry the energetic essence of the healing imprint you’re here to offer?

* What if the stuckness was simply a message to yourself about connecting in with all levels of your being in the most perfect timing for your essence to come forth?

* What if you could connect with a gentle yet spacious container for creating your book (or web site or speaker’s sheet or …?), in a creation process deeply connected with your inner psyche, your gifts, your sources of guidance? And finally come out with the words that connect deeply to the heart of your people, words you didn’t even know you knew?

* What if you could bring mind, body, spirit, heart essence and soul-purpose all to play together at your creative table?

* What if you connected with a foundation of purpose, magnified mindfulness, amplified your conscious intent, in partnership with a guide through the depths of creation process that is calling to your yearning? And then bringing it all back out into the manifest world?

* What if you could magnetize your very being into deep and purposeful alignment with your change-making vision for your creation?

* What if you felt both free yet supported, liberated yet in safe and sacred partnership to create from that place where you allow your wisdom and the process to have its way with you?

* What if your process for connecting your story with the heart of your people and their yearning nourished you and them?

* What if engaging with your people was a sacred trust?

* What if surrender and trust were your watchwords?

* What if you really surrendered and really trusted?

* What if it IS really finally SAFE to bring your sage-hearted creations into the light of day?

* What if you could do what you do in a co-creative and collaborative container, while being seen into the YOU you are here to be?

* What more is possible if you bring it alive through the magic of “What if…” and it is so?

Are you willing to breathe into what more is possible? Can you entertain the possibility that the impossible might indeed be possible with TLC and a re-frame?  How about holding a new, shiny “What if…” in your heart of hearts that yearns to believe the impossible only takes bit longer?

Divine creator, you, consider these. Explore. Inquire. Hold the infinite possibility that you are right now strengthening your ability to give birth to your Great Work, whatever is yours to do. And don’t do it alone!

I’d love to connect for a conversation if that seems like a fun next step. Email me at jasbjm(at)earthlink(dot)net to inquire about setting a time for conversation.

 

You are loved, and you ARE love!

Bobbye

Bobbye Middendorf, Poet of Pure Potentiality, is your visionary (yet grounded) guide, a combination sounding-board and wordsmith.
Bobbye Middendorf, Poet of Pure Potentiality, is your visionary (yet grounded) guide, a combination sounding-board and wordsmith.

 

P.S. Or consider joining me for a deep immersive creative vision quest on the train journey playshop from Chicago to Albuquerque. Read more at the link and contact me at jasbjm(at)earthlink(dot)net to learn more.

 

 

 

Creator’s Vision Quest By Train

Are you being called to create some space in your life this summer to move a dream forward? Is it time to create, to give yourself permission to explore what is longing to be born through your creative self? I’d like to invite you into the year’s Creator’s Vision Quest by Train!

 

Some of the wisdom teachers who will accompany us ...
Some of the wisdom teachers who will accompany us …

 

 

Do you remember the spell of possibility every time you connected up with track nine-and-three-quarters? It was the Hogwarts Express, and magic was afoot. This summer, step into your own magical, liminal creative space.

 

In summer 2014, I did a workshop for creators in transition, getting all of us started on Creating What Matters. This year, we are taking to the rails to continue and grow those dreams of creation.

 

On Sunday, August 2, I am leading an intrepid group of bold creators on a 25-hour creative deep dive on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, traveling from Chicago to Albuquerque.

 

For me, it’s a long-time dream, to lead a group of dreamers, creators, truth-tellers on a train journey — an intensive immersion into dreams, creativity, and bringing forth the purposeful great work inside you. Do you feel called?

 

 

At Wolf Prairie, Cook County Forest Preserve, just outside Chicago. Connect to the sacred land as we travel through it.
At Wolf Prairie, Cook County Forest Preserve, just outside Chicago. Connect to the sacred land as we travel through it.

We will consider both landscape and dreamtime, though they are not separate. We’ll connect with the inner child who loves adventures. We’ll examine what gets in the way and how to consciously partner with blocks, obstacles, and stuckness. There will be a pre-journey playbook, time for 1-on-1 conferences about where you’re stuck or where you want to take your next body of work, opening and closing ceremonies, playing the Lightning Dreamwork game, and much more.

 

You’ll experience a spacious and regenerative deep dive into the heart of your own creations. It’s a chance to jump-start your creative process and get traction on a project: new body of work, course, workshop, or book. You might even decide to shape your life and its next phase as a work of art!

 

Here’s the invitation: Allow yourself to surrender into a creative dream world with the gentle click and motion of the train. We’re adding movement to the sacred container for generating a palpable momentum, infusing your creations with new energy. 25 hours (If the train’s on time…)

 

The investment is $225.00 for the immersive workshop (Train fare not included). Please email me at jasbjm(at)earthlink(dot)net to set up a phone conversation to see if this is the best step for you. OR text me at 773-263-7914 for more details.

 

A few words from your guide, Bobbye Middendorf:

I journey with sage-hearted collaborators, evolutionaries, messengers, visionaries, and change-agents as a powerful voice and advocate for the practical results they get through deep dives.

 

We walk together through the chaos of reinvention to co-create their evolving core messages, giving voice to the vision of their purposeful Great Work while revealing their wisdom in words they didn’t know they knew.

Bobbye Middendorf, Poet of Pure Potentiality, is your visionary (yet grounded) guide, a combination sounding-board and wordsmith.
Bobbye Middendorf, Poet of Pure Potentiality, is your visionary (yet grounded) guide, a combination sounding-board and wordsmith.

Solstice Wishes to Open to Your Healing and Flow

Wolf Road Prairie

Celebratory greetings on the longest day in the North!
Happy Solstice to you.

I’ve just learned what a powerful portal day it is for opening to our own healing and flow. Both self-reflection and gathering in a circle magnify those energies. This message invites you to do both!

Today’s series of questions for reflection:

* How is it that listening more acutely to yourself can be so healing?

* What practices do you have in your collection?

* How are you doing with actually using the positive practices that you know?

The Backstory

My whole lifetime living in the default position of, “Go Deep First,” combined with a commitment to bringing forth in each moment my best self and highest expression … Ah, this calling to shape and share a life of wholeness while creating what matters most, THIS is the heart of the sacred journey for making life into a work of art, a process-based art of living into wholeness and co-creation. All this keeps things moving forward and deeper.

Yet while continuing to plumb the depths and live life beyond the frontier’s leading edge, I landed in a quandary, thinking, “It’s incomplete.” My challenge has always felt like, “I can’t begin to share this. It’s not whole yet. I’m not cooked, and there’s more to be revealed!”

The Shift

Then something shifted. I was not exactly ready, but the willingness to experiment had shifted inside. The world’s energies were shifting too, inviting these new transformational depth-soundings out into the public sphere. After a three-week trip to India, I found myself dangling over the void one more time. From this deep sweet center of sacred emergence, (AKA chaos) I knew it was time. (Even if I wasn’t really ready.)

Go Deep First

I used the 7 steps of what I call the “Go Deep First” process on myself, to create this process as “what matters most” right now for me. It’s allowed me to get clear on how I’ve been a catalyst for transformation– even when I wasn’t quite sure what I’d “done” for?…to?… with?... my people and clients to support their transforming. Now I’ve turned this implicit and invisible magic into an explicit, clarified process and a sacred circle mini-retreat.

Create What Matters Most

“Go Deep First to Create What Matters Most” taps into people’s essential wholeness. It is a continuing and iterative process, so that those who really use it, including me, the facilitator, can continually take the work — writing, healing, learning, co-creation, collaboration, insights, art of every kind — deeper, following an ongoing learning journey.

Tap Into Your Deep Why — To Get To Your “What”

It’s an inner workout for strengthening your innards for what it takes to give birth to a new vision, whether it’s a personal healing journey that matters right now, or it’s the content and message for a book, talk, workshop, a whole new body of work, web site. Or maybe you find yourself at a crossroads where making a conscious choice about the next path is crucial. The process works in service to deepening anyone’s journey. It meets you wherever you are on your journey’s path to inspire and infuse confidence in creating what matters most to you. Now.

An Invitation

I am so excited to be facilitating a live sacred circle. It’s for co-creating what matters most to you right now. This afternoon mini retreat is in the Chicago area on Sunday July 20, 2:30-5:30. For full details and to register online: http://bit.ly/1iWJmbL

What you get is an inner-power-tool for creating what matters most. It’s a renewable resource for tapping into the well of gifts that all of us are here to bring forth. Use this process to bring them forth with quality and confidence. How you get there is by going deep first. I have done the process with groups, in one-on-one sessions, and for myself. It is a malleable and flexible tool that people can use on their own, repeatedly, with new insights gleaned each time.

If you’re feeling curious and hopeful, longing to bring forth the gifts you are here to give, then please take a look. It’s a potent first step! Details and to pre-register: http://bit.ly/1iWJmbL

Sending you blessings on your path as you magnify your presence and transform your people —- starting with yourself.

Warm solstice blessings,

Bobbye Middendorf

P.S. Remember to use the positive practices that you already know! And if you sense the camaraderie of a sacred circle can help you amplify your process to get the creation juices flowing, then take a look at the description of what we’ll be doing on July 20.

Here’s the EventBrite link with details and to pre-register. http://bit.ly/1iWJmbL And be sure to mark your calendar for July 20!

P.P.S. If you are feeling called to this journey, and getting to Chicago in July isn’t going to work for you, then shoot me an email. We can schedule a brief conversation to see if doing this visioning journey work one-on-one is a good move for you right now.

 

 

 

Savor the Silence

Lily of the Valley
Listen into the silence of the white bells of the Muguet. Photo by Bobbye Middendorf

Dear One,

Savoring silence and appreciating
the ambient sounds — sounds that
happen around you in your environment
wherever you are — can be a
beautiful practice as you develop
your “inner listening” muscles.

Note to yourself:
*What are you listening to?
*What are you attending to or
paying attention to?
*Are you connecting with your
own still, small voice?

This inspired nugget called
out to be shared. Take it in.
It’s for you to consider.

“The silence is as important
as the noise. What gets left
out is as important as what
gets included.”

–Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
Author, “I’ve Known Rivers“

*What are you leaving out?
*What are you leaving in?
*Are you noting the space
between the notes?
*Can you read what is between
the lines?

Ponder well and deeply, my
sweet friend. If you feel
called, use this quote and
these questions to travel
deeply within. Travel with
your pen and a journal on
the waves of sacred silence.

Let me know what emerges
for you in this exploration.

With blessings from your friend,

 

Bobbye

 

P.S. On July 20, I am offering an
in-person workshop in the Chicago
area. It’s a chance to connect to
your inner gifts and discover what
is in the way of bringing more of
them into the world. Mark your
calendars! More details coming soon.
Email me if you have specific questions.

 

 

 

Greetings from the Dark of the Year

 

We are called to be the bringers of light, the ones we have
been waiting for, the light bearers, the light workers. Your
light shining in the times of the dark makes a difference.

As the dark of the year descends, throughout delicious December,
know that it is time for dream-renewal on every level. Stretching
into the sacred container of December’s dream time, I invite you
to explore your connections with your own light and amplify
the wattage of the pure light of divine love in connections and
partnership with your sacred siblings.

If you would love some inspiring support, wisdom, and a
circle of light/like-hearted others, if you would love a new
way for you and your business to complete your year with
grace and delight, please say yes to yourself!

See if this sacred bundle of Solstice gifts from 21
wisdom-energy-keepers speaks to your soul, and if so,
please sign up. I am among 21 givers of gifts in this
collection initiated by Success Shaman, Brenda MacIntyre.

I am tickled to be part of this illustrious group.
My contribution and your gift from me:
You might have heard me talk about the Waterfall
of Divine Virtues, on Facebook or in a meeting/attunement/
invocation/collaboration.

If you are intrigued, this is your chance to get
from me some special poems and guided meditations
into the waterfall of the divine.

Specifically the 21 Days of Solstice Gifts…
You can sign up for your gifts — a variety of
wisdom packaged for your delight — over here:
http://wintersolsticegiveaway.com

You will receive messages through Dec 21, and
prior gifts are available for download after you sign
up.

Sending you love and light,

Bobbye
Bobbye Middendorf
Poet and Priestess of Pure Potentiality

Blueprint for Conscious Creation

 

Words for Transforming You and Your Contribution:
How to Be in the Soup of Chaos and Know You Are in the Right Place —

 

Monarch emerging and 2 remaining chrysalises
Photo courtesy MK Salovaara

 

Welcome to the new Heart of Creation where:
*All is new and forming and malleable.
*All is possible.
*There is nothing wrong with you.

 

“Change is nonlinear; it proceeds by leaps and bounds to strange and unexpected places. If you want creativity, you give up predictability…”
—Margaret Wheatley
Author of Leadership and the New Science
(and most recently, Walk Out Walk On)
From the New Dimensions Perpetual Calendar

The New Heart of Creation

Many are observing and speaking out about the shifts of energies on the planet as we come to the end of the cosmic age. People see things breaking down, deadlocks, impasses in the old models and paradigms, the powers-that-be fighting a vicious fight for survival, deep disappointment in the institutions that purport to serve us and instead are serving only themselves. This is looking at the half empty glass.

Consider…

Meantime on the other side of the matrix, millions of lightworkers, members of the Turquoise Tribe, self-growth experts, are busy creating anew.  We are the ones seeing and building on possibilities and potentialities. WE are the people bringing forth new stories, birthing new ways of working and playing together, renewing and rediscovering the richness of ancient paths of wisdom, community, contribution, and grace.

New paths, many diverse yet congruent paths, are opening their way up and up the mountainside. From the shared “everyday,” we are scaling these peaks together and in new ways, many lamps lit along many pathways. All together, we are illuminating the way — FOR EACH OTHER.

Here from within the heart of creation, ask yourself this question: What if you didn’t have to “attract” anything?   Nothing.  At.  All. Why? Because with your deep and conscious Presence, (and the confidence to stand firmly grounded IN that Presence) the very act of waking up means that it’s all right there at your fingertips.

It’s not about “Attracting” anymore. It’s about waking up and Allowing. Yes, the new, improved LOA is The Law of Allowing.  It’s a matter of unlocking and opening the door, of shining your light of welcome, and inviting in the most perfect relationships for whatever is next for you.  From the place of conscious awakening, you’ll realize that even the door itself is an illusion.

That takes trust. And when you are in the cocoon, perhaps even still liquefying, how can you see clearly?

What is the message of transformation from within the chrysalis?
Deep within, from the heart of the imaginal cells, the seed and blueprint of the butterfly lives in perfection. Even when the caterpillar is breaking down inside its protective chrysalis, the message of the existence of butterfly lives pure and true, even in the soup of seeming chaos.

From this invisible world, inside the butterfly blueprint, what comes forth at the most perfect time IS the butterfly — breaking free, stretching and exercising its wings, as it emerges into the physical, manifest world.

Many of us, and I include myself here, feel like we are in a soup of chaos and transformation — and that is on our good days.  What if that is true? How do we move forward together, trust the unfolding, especially when that seems completely of new cloth, a new paradigm?

For millenia, the Feminine Spirit has been abducted, spirited away from the public conversation. Patriarchy has been running the show. Now She — The Divine Feminine Spirit in Business, Healing, and the Heart of Creation — is back in this planetary eleventh hour.

The Feminine Spirit in Business holds the blueprints for paradigm-changing awakenings in how we structure work, contribution, service, and bringing the divine and gifts to the clear channels for exchange.  It’s resolutely NOT going to look like what came before.

Welcome, Co-creators with the Divine Feminine Spirit in Business. We are in the soup of Transformation, and something new and brilliant is in the process of being born: The birthing of each one of us and all together “Owning Our Greatness.”

It starts with going inside first, going deep first. It starts with listening to the yearning and longing and allowing what is deeply true to emerge onto the page in your own words.

Your first step in practical creation is making a safe space for your young inner parts to speak their truth to you — without your judging-self stopping the flow.  Your emergence is longing for you to be present!

I’ve been called a “vision midwife.” Partnering with the Feminine Spirit in Business means co-creating from a planetary and cosmic space that has never before been accessible. Recently I received a direct message from the Divine Feminine Spirit in Business and asking me to share. “Language is key to manifesting,” she said, “and it’s one of the primary limitations for those bringing their vision into form.” That’s where I support women visionaries and co-create safe spaces for growth and expression inn partnership with the Feminine Spirit in Business.

All our rich contributions and gifts are so needed at this crucial time — especially the hidden and secret messages! So step into the circle and become one of the Conscious Co-Creators. For that, you may indeed want to consciously “Own Your Greatness.”  There’s a proven path to follow to strengthen yourself as you emerge from your cocoon.

For your own personal access to a no-charge “Safe Space” Playbook/workbook for “Owning Your Greatness,” for downloading your yearnings and really listening to your own inner messages, please sign up at the top of the right-hand column!  Just enter your name and email at the top of the sidebar on the right side of the page.

You’ll receive a link to download your personal guide to owning your greatness — in words. You’ll receive uncommon support in emerging from your own chrysalis as the beautiful butterfly that you are!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Owning Your Greatness and Why It Matters

Owning Your Greatness:

The Write Synergies Path to Manifest Your Creative Vision

Birthing visions and clothing those visions in words: What an exciting path to traverse!

For Conscious Creators, change agents, thought leaders, and those committed to creating a global awakening of consciousness, aligning your heart — the inner fire and desire — with what you intend to create and manifest in the world, is absolutely crucial.   Without this inner alignment, all the outer marketing tools create anemic results at best.

At worst, they fall flat, and drag you farther from your goal because you are literally “losing heart.”

Starting today, is there some way to bring that inner heart-knowledge into alignment with what you intend to create in your business, book, or creative project?

One powerful process to manifest your creation and your vision is to follow your inner yearning. Listen to it. Get into a dialogue with your inner yearning.  I’ve discovered that one of the most effective ways of tapping that inner yearning and building the dialogue is using a gentle writing and journaling process. I’ve seen this process create miraculous transformations in my Yoga + Writing workshops time after time.

In one iteration, I call it, “The Write Synergies Path to Owning Your Greatness.”  A guide and playbook to this process is my gift to you for signing up in the box at the top of the right column.

But what does this “The Write Synergies Path to Owning Your Greatness” really mean?

Write Synergies is all about generating results greater than the sum of the parts using writing.  This can be a process of uncovering information, tapping into your essence, connecting with your inner voice or trusted source, as well as generating finished results.

Owning Your Greatness means just what it says. We each have gifts to give.  Those gifts are our greatness, often living quietly hidden and invisible for years — if not lifetimes.  After a time, the inner yearning to express those gifts becomes palpable, not to say painful.  When the pain or divine discontent gets great enough, that means it’s time to listen, to really pay attention, and make something happen in bringing your vision to life. It’s time to join yourself on that inner journey.

Many are being called in this moment to share those visions and gifts. In this profound shift and turning toward consciousness on this planet right now, all the deep gifts are needed. How do you have the courage to bring them forth, out of their long invisibility and into the light of day?

“The Write Synergies Path to Owning Your Greatness” is a process that gives you the chance to listen and write your own vision into expression. So many of us hold ourselves back! I know. I’ve been doing it for years.  We put on the brakes, slip into the invisibility cloak and resist having to fully step into owning our greatness.  Now is the time.  We are called to express our greatness and gifts fully.

Starting right now: Make this the year that you are Owning Your Greatness — and receive the commensurate results!

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.

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.”