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!

“An alternative is to be happy wherever you are, with whatever you’ve got, but always hungry for the thrill of creating art, of being missed if you’re gone and most of all, doing important work.”
–Seth Godin

My friend Patty Walters calls it “Yes AND,” a key principle in her brilliant improv-for-business work based in enchanted Santa Fe.

Others like my friend and mentor Paul Bauer of Dreams Alive talks about embracing the polarities.

Gaining traction for this process of holding seeming opposites within ourselves (without going crazy) is not the usual model that the black-and-white old paradigm world wants us to live by and believe.

We have a “crust” of old assumptions around this seeming dichotomy. It is time to release and break through, so that we are embracing and dancing with the polarities, the dichotomies, where love creates the symbol of yin and yang, balanced, both present, and somehow in beautiful harmony. In love are all the dichotomies transformed into wholeness.

This is the way of the Divine Feminine Spirit — in business and elsewhere. The Divine Feminine Spirit, like the female of the species, gives birth to male and female alike — literally giving birth to the polarities. She encompasses within her the creative spark, the divine fuse of life force, the connection to Source and the greatest good for all.  How can both sides of the equation NOT be sacred?

Dance! Reclaim your unfettered agility for holding fire and ice, male and female, child and adult, in solid, grounded, harmonic, and fully encompassed balance.

Launch, Learn, & Clear Your Path to Abundance

Learning the ins and outs of online launches by being on the front lines…Well actually at the  keyboard. But wow–what an experience to put all the words together for all the emails, messages, sales page, registration page, autoresponders etc., etc.

I’ve been learning purposeful marketing-by-doing on a collaboratively operating team: It’s an eye-opening experience. I knew there were a lot of “moving parts” to a launch campaign, but I had NO IDEA!

We are sprinting the last few hurdles for a new course starting next week at the True Purpose (TM) Institute. It’s called Effortless Pricing: The Exchange of Love and Money.
You’ve asked where I’ve been, what I’ve been up to, eager to see samples of what I’ve written lately.

Most recently it’s been an awesome time of collaboration with Tim Kelley and the team at the True Purpose(TM) Institute. Mentored by Tim in Purposeful Marketing, I’ve been partnering with them on writing the marketing messages for launching the latest course, Effortless Pricing: The Exchange of Love and Money.

The message below is an invitation that I had a hand in writing, giving you a flavor of the marketing writing I’m doing right now. I’ve jokingly called it “Launch ‘n Learn,” since we have been co-creating a full launch campaign for the upcoming class. I’m learning from a hands-on perspective just how many written parts go into a launch like this.

It’s been an experience both sobering and exciting — of living and breathing the details, project management, scheduling, writing, writing, writing, revising, publishing.

Actually the Effortless Pricing: The Exchange of Love and Money class starts this week. I’m enrolled to take the class too, because I sense that abundance is something that is part of my message to share. Why? Because it seems to be one of my biggest challenges.

So I’d like to invite you to join me in the first call of the class, Effortless Pricing: The Exchange of Love and Money. There is no cost to come to the first class. If you decide to participate in the full 6-week class, and you use the links below, I will receive a small referral fee. Obviously I believe in the course and its approach — since I signed up myself!

As I say,  I will be in the class myself. If you are too, then shoot me an email, and we can put together our own community mini-mastermind group for support through this journey to abundance and Effortless Pricing. (This is  my personal bonus to you for signing up through my affiliate link.)

Again, the following letter is one I had a hand in copywriting, so I wanted to share it as a sample of what I’m up to right now. If you feel called to explore this specific invitation, I look forward to connecting!

If now isn’t the time for you to delve into this specific issue, then many blessings to you on your journey. I’m sure we’ll reconnect soon!

Why Clients Don’t Want to Pay for Your Time

When selling services, charging by the hour (or day, week or
month) is the norm.  Have you ever wondered why?  If you stop and
think about it, your clients aren’t really seeking your time.
The time you spend with them is merely the means to an end.

In most situations, there are much better ways to exchange your
talents and gifts for money.  Ways that create better incentives
for you and your clients and don’t punish you for being skillful
and efficient.

If you earn money selling services that you deliver, make time
to join my friend and colleague, Tim Kelley on Tuesday 3-20-12
for an eye-opening exploration of how you charge for what you do.
He will do an in-depth examination of the time-for-money pricing
model and tour of some of the alternatives.  Put it in your
calendar now:

Go here for the details to join this call:
http://tinyurl.com/EPclass1

Tim is starting a brand new course on Tuesday and he’s inviting
you to attend the first class of Effortless Pricing: The Exchange
of Love and Money at no charge.

In the first call of the Effortless Pricing course, you’ll get
an overview of the limiting beliefs and fears that get in the way
of money flow. Then, as he puts dollars-for-hours pricing under a
microscope, you’ll learn when it’s effective (less often than
you’d think) and when using this model causes needless struggle
and competition (most of the time).

You’ll also discover OTHER ways of charging for your services,
some radically different than what you’ve encountered before –
all to be covered in great detail in the full Effortless Pricing:
The Exchange of Love and Money Teleseminar.

Because your purpose is as unique to you as your fingerprints,
there’s no proven formula or sure-fire step-by-step method that
you can you can shake from a can like magic dust to live your
purpose as your livelihood.

Yet if you are willing to spend some time focusing on it, you
can remove your inner blocks and learn the outer strategies to
earn what you deserve for the gifts and talents you offer your
clients.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
See where you are stuck around money, and
you will also see the exact place you are
stuck in offering your transformational work.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The money blocks you experience are a crucial part of your path,
and resolving them is key to your personal transformation! If you
constrict when it’s time to discuss money with prospective
clients, you may still have hidden blocks.

Imagine how liberating to uncover answers, insights, and a
like-minded community!  If money is not a clear flow with you, I
encourage you to explore this no-cost class, the first session of
Effortless Pricing: The Exchange of Love and Money.

Go here for the details to join this call:
http://tinyurl.com/EPclass1

With you on the path,

Bobbye

P.S.  I’m registered to be in this course myself, so I hope you
will join me! I’ve been working on the copywriting for this campaign
with Tim and the True Purpose ™ Institute team.

P.P.S. I hope you are able to come to the no-cost call on Tuesday
3-20. Should you continue with the course and make a purchase from
The True Purpose™ Institute, I will receive a referral fee.

There’s no charge and lots to learn.

Wishing you abundance on your path,

Bobbye

 Honoring Winter Solstice 2011

Dusk starts folding in shortly after lunch.
Sun’s Southerly arc
Creates spaciousness in early twilight sky.
A single planet arises above Eastern horizon.
Brightness blooms before darkness descends.

From under a welter of initiatives and mountains of missives
Day’s end and cavernous silence
Swiftly inserted as our salvation
Inviting imagination to play.

Ungainly illusions and expectations knock about
Loud as bumper cars on a fenced track.
Seasonality shored up by carnival barkers spitting
Holiday spirit on sale tags increasingly shrill, urgent, alarming.

Breathe the early night air and embrace
freedom in the dark thrill of silence.
Let peace descend as night laps at the edge of Earth’s carpet.
And when all is darkest night
Consider your mission is simple: to shine.
Other dots illuminate the landscape.
Holidays of Light from every tradition mingle –
Uncertain how far that goodwill extends.
And yet the common foundation for the billions of brilliances –
an underscore, an uncommon heritage of souls.

We are the ones called, called to Light, called to illuminate.
We are the ones answering the call.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.
We are the voices at hand to speak up.
We are the bowl vibrating with resonant waves of love on the wind.
We are the candle shimmering to brighten the darkest corner.
We are the book — the sacred tomes — and each soul a story,
And each story, a connection,
And each connection reverberating…

“We are the ones!”

Launching spots to multi-
Dimensions.

We are the ones.

Shine, my friends.
Shine on, blessed
Illuminati of the Divine Heart Center.

Bobbye Middendorf
18 December 2011
Photo courtesy Middendorf-Salovaara

The following meditation was created as part of my collaborations at PeacefulDay.com, where I lead their program for Meditation Mondays.

As the meditation guide within this meditative oasis and peace playground, I share (just in time for the US Thanksgiving holiday) a five-minute time out for cultivating gratitude and appreciation.

The YouTube video of the Gratitude and Appreciation Meditation is here.

Here is the text if you’d like to follow along. (see the next post for a series of “Gratitude Stems” that you can use for journaling.)

Breathe in Gratitude…….Exhale all that is not gratitude

Breathe in Appreciation…..Exhale anything less than heart-felt appreciation.

Breathe in with Thanks…..Exhale and let go… let go… let go…

Breathe in……& Lean into inner alignment with — and appreciation for — your own Centered Presence.

Ahhh thank you.

From my heart and your heart — from every heart of every breathing being, we chant a chorus of appreciation.  Consciously bring into your heart’s awareness the feeling of deep appreciation — for the light –AND for what is not YET illuminated. Breathe into that appreciation — what has been freely given to you. Ahhhhh Thank you.

What If…

Imagine a wave of appreciation even bigger than you and your life — a wave of Divine Appreciation so enormous it encompasses everything. Yet it’s a gentle nurturing wave of Divine Appreciation. Imagine it washes over you, through you, picks you up in a warm and buoyant embrace. Feel yourself infused … enfolded by it. Imagine being tenderly held in this wave of Divine Appreciation for YOU — for all parts of you, inner and outer, for your life, your dreams, your contributions, your many kindnesses, even your slips of magnificence– your BEING, your very Presence on this planet at this time…

B-R-E-A-T-H-E into the nuances of gratitude and appreciation…

When you finish listening to this meditation, fill in these sentences. You will find these and more gratitude stems at my blog on PeacefulDay.com

Fill a page. OR more. Do it daily. Consciously meditate on and write — filling the blank spaces….

I am grateful for:

I send appreciation to:

Even though it looks like a challenge, I say thank you for:

And now with deepest appreciation for your presence in our Circle, I say in closing: Thank you. Mahalo. Namas Te.

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

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!

What Does Love Have to Do With It?

BEE-ing Attraction:
What Love Has to Do With Business and Marketing

When my coaches, Jan Stringer and Alan Hickman of Perfect Customers, invited me to write a review of their book, BEE-ing Attraction: What Love Has to Do with Business and Marketing, I was thrilled to do it. I’m a professional, published reviewer after all. (My reviews regularly appear in ForeWord Magazine’s review section, a trade journal serving book publishing and libraries.)

It’s been a few months since that initial request. So what happened? In the interim, I recognized that I had gotten far closer to this book (and its authors) than I do in my professional capacity as reviewer. I had been using the essential (and brilliant) 4-part “BEE-ing Attraction” Plan process for so long that the “usual model” for reviewing simply would not be adequate. (I have also gone through their program and have been certified to offer this planning process.)

Let me tell you a story.

It’s been nearly a decade since I first came across the 4-part Attraction Planning Process pioneered by Jan Stringer. It was no coincidence. I connected with her first book, Attracting Perfect Customers: The Power of Strategic Synchronicity with lovely synchronicity through her first publisher, Berrett-Koehler, a client of mine. She had co-authored (as Jan Brogniez) and developed this 4-part process that brought the seeming magic of attraction to a business audience, and it was launched out of Houston. Texas.

This 4-part Strategic Attraction Process, along with the fundamental idea that the very best marketing grew out of building great relationships, became part of the air I breathed.

As the years unfolded, I came into Jan’s orbit, signed up for classes and learned more about this 4-part planning process through my own practice of it and with regular reminder classes that the “Biz Goddess,” Jan, offered with her sweetheart, then husband, Alan Hickman, a brilliant cheerleader of a coach in his own right.

In 2009, Jan and Alan published a new, deepened message, BEE-ing Attraction: What Love Has to Do with Business and Marketing. Its cover includes the tagline, “A Guidebook for Developing a Heart-Centered Business and Life.” It’s a process that works (like magic) for all manner of relationships.

With their new book and my deepening understanding in applying the 4-part plan, now sometimes called a “BEE-ing Attraction Plan,” the planning process that had been a traveling companion became an intimate friend.

Illuminating the expansion of the concepts, the authors build from the idea that marketing is all about relationships (in the first book)  to its new iteration, “Building relationships which are heart-centered and feel good to you.”

The varied stories in this book, shared through the voices of clients, create a level of specificity, spaciousness, and hope for all manner of sizes, shapes, and intents of plans — whether around growing a business, renting a dream house, or connecting with a soul mate.

What Makes YOU Tick?

At the heart of their process, and Part 2 of the 4-part plan, is a deep-inner-connection process called, “What Makes You Tick?” The “tick” as it’s called for short, is the ultimate foundation on which your relationships stand. What makes you “tick” is like water to a fish — you may not recognize or realize that’s what it is. It’s what you bring to every encounter in your life, whether you know it or not. Its power grows from the idea that “like attracts like,” so what makes you tick is also what makes your most perfect client tick.

Say the authors, “The Bee-ing Attraction Planning Process is about shifting paradigms. You must first become what you want to attract.” This whole new paradigm is unfolding under the nose of the crumbling infrastructure of the old way of business as usual. In this all-new business model, collaboration and cooperation take the lead over competition. It’s about bringing your heart to work and knowing that what Tim Sanders said is really true: Love really is the killer Ap. It’s about Being, Presence, Attraction, and Manifestation in their highest and best incarnations.

For me, one of the most memorable take-aways, among many, “The qualities that impressed me in others were in reality resonating within me,” reports one client. This is a ray of hope for me and so many people like me who have second guessed ourselves for ages!

For recovering perfectionists, you may wonder why your results don’t look like the ones in the book. Yes, I did too. “What am I doing wrong?” you may, like me, be asking. When you are sitting on the aisle of a 737 jet at 35,000 feet, you don’t realize you’re moving at several hundred miles per hour.  So too, in delving deeply into playing with this Strategic Attraction Plan, it helps to surround yourself with what Julia Cameron calls “believing mirrors.” Only then will you realize the progress you are making. Far from sitting still, you may suddenly discover you are getting off the plane in another country, far from where you started.

That is the power of putting the 4-part Strategic Attraction plan to work for you. Simple. But not easy. The plan calls on its users to go deep and bring forth the answers to the questions with radical honesty. And in so doing, miracles and magic do happen.

With its success stories and practical guidance, plus detailed explanations of putting the plan to work, templates, samples, and inspiration for creating your own 4-part plan, this is a visionary and refreshing (woo-woo-free) approach to creating a heart-centered business that really fits.

For those ready to step into, as client Doug Upchurch shares, “a different passion…[operating] from a different sense of ownership and power…” Bee-ing Attraction: What Love Has to Do with Business and Marketing is the perfect accompaniment.

Disclosure: Over the past year, I have gone deeply into this process, both through the Strategic Attraction certification training (so I’m certified to offer you this 4-part planning process) and during extensive coaching with Jan and Alan to build my sales muscles and refocus on what exactly IS my heart-centered business. If you would like to taste this 4-part planning process with me, send me an email at bjmiddendorf (at)gmail(dot)com, and we can open the discussion.

Make holy every moment
Acknowledge the sacred in every place, every
Where

All the atoms in the universe make up the
Breathing body of God.

Some travel and pilgrimage to far lands…
Seeking… Seeking… Seeking

I say, “Go inside.”
It is your own infinite voyage of discovery

The diamonds and sacred crystals
Patiently await your attention.

Wake up!
Go inside!
Uncover your treasure!
Bring it forth!

Chant this like your personal mantra—
A reminder that all you dream of is present
When you awaken to your Inner Presence

As Source.

—Bobbye Middendorf
Your Vision Midwife and Creation Coach

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.

Turnarounds 1:

Chrysalis: Emergence At Hand

Photo by MK Salovaara

This is the first in a series of life lesson stories that illustrate the powerful and invigorating TURNAROUNDS that we are all capable of creating for ourselves, in the sacred circle of our words, reflection, and inquiry.

Your Journey

Have you been on a journey of personal growth, spiritual development, and profound transformation for awhile now? Maybe you feel like something just isn’t happening; it’s incomplete; OR you feel like you should be there already?  Maybe you’re tired because you feel like you have been on this journey your entire life. “There has to be a better and simpler way,” you think to yourself.

Like you, I feel as though I have been journeying long and often alone. It’s been a precious voyage of inner discovery. And it has seemed like things have been “so close.” It’s like the mathematical asymptote: The line approaching the curve and never arriving.

A Puddle of Ineffectiveness

One day, I confided to my coach, Alan Hickman, that I felt exactly like a little puddle of ineffectiveness that wasn’t going anywhere. Thanks to Alan’s deep listening, reflecting, and training in inquiry, he stood with me in the sacred circle to turn it around.

First, I owned that, “Yes. It’s true. I’m right now in a space of being not very effective.”  Deeper inquiry told me a different story from what I’d been judging myself about and beating myself up for.

(You know, the old riff of “I’m stuck. What’s wrong with me and why can’t I move?”  And I’m sure you’re familiar with the “WHY AM I NOT THERE YET????!!!!” conversation.)

The Caterpillar Turnaround

The metaphor that arose in our discussion was the caterpillar. It had felt for so long like I was melting down from the inside, and I didn’t know who I was or what I was about. Everything seemed to be shifting and changing.

Then the Ah-Ha.  Suddenly I realized that I was indeed looking at the inside of the chrysalis.

Here’s what I could now see: By loving and embracing the stuckness, the ineffectiveness, the right-where-I-am-ness, I was able to acknowledge myself for exactly where I am — like the butterfly looking out from inside the chrysalis. Observing myself with love and compassion, I can see that I am right where I am supposed to be.

Butterfly on my Ankle

A few weeks after my conversation with Alan, this chrysalis narrative continued, as I continued to “notice what I notice.” As I practiced Qi Gong meditation in the garden on two separate days, a butterfly landed gently on my ankle. That was my signal to share this narrative. The butterfly wings are flapping to strengthen themselves for emerging from the chrysalis and getting ready to fly.

(Interestingly enough, I also observe that my drops of essences from Jane Bell, called synchronistically enough, “Emergence,” are nearly complete.)

The Message from Ovo

Another message reaffirmed my understanding. A visit to Cirque Du Soleil’s brilliant “Ovo” show, provided the image of the chrysalis in an aerial interlude. Pressing against the sheer fabric, the butterfly finally emerged high in the air, flapping its  (her?) gossamer wings.

Affirming Our Shared Emergence

These words too emerged. “Share this story and this image. For many are in the chrysalis and can use a guide, the powerful validation  that where they are is just where they are meant to be.  Help them to understand they are seeing from inside the chrysalis, and that their time of emergence is at hand.”

And so, for midlife, best-half-of-life creators of all kinds, global transformers of consciousness, messengers, change agents, thought leaders, awakeners, authors, and healers: I send greetings and encouragement from the chrysalis.

I’m with you when I say I know you are longing to step into your potential, to create transformative projects, businesses, creations, books, messages, ventures. I know you’ve been feeling for a long time stuck, stalled, scared, not good enough, or like you should be there already. Maybe you feel like you are trying to push the river to MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN.

Emergence — Not Emergency

Allow yourself in this moment to relax. Know that you are enough as you are; and you are where you’re meant to be. Allow yourself to just BE in the soup of transformation. Be willing to flap your wings to strengthen them for your own emergence.  (Try practicing in this safe space by bringing your story from your chrysalis into this community of comments.)

Shift the DNA of Your Experience

What has been most surprising for me in this turnaround is that by embracing the stuck, stalled, scared puddle of ineffectiveness, I’ve literally changed my patterns and shifted the cellular experience of myself.

It starts with an honest acceptance of, and even surrender to, exactly where you are right now. Realizing and embracing that you are still taking shape  — you, your project, your creation, all together inside the chrysalis — creates a powerful self-recognition. More powerful still is to embrace your whole seemingly stuck self  — completely free from judgment, and with love, appreciation, and gratitude.

And so you can. It’s the best prayer and meditation ever.

Photo by MK Salovaara