Tag: Writing
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Watch Your Language…
This is one of my favorite ELAN Principles because the words we choose directly affect our perception and thoughts. We may have no power over the actions of others, but we have control over our words. We choose our internal language. It takes practice, but we can adopt a more positive dialect. In the tiny,…
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Media Deprivation…
I recently recommended THE ARTIST’S WAY, by Julia Cameron, to an aspiring writer. It is a twelve-week “spiritual path to higher creativity,” in which Cameron encourages her followers to write three longhand pages, first thing in the morning. The purpose of these Morning Pages is to dump stuff on the page more than to create…
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Adopt a Policy…
Maybe there is a catchier way to say it, but adopt a policy means to make a decision once about an issue that comes up repeatedly. Then stick to it. When we had a landline, I decided to always respond to the urgings of telemarketers with “I have a policy to never participate in phone…
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Float Your Own Boat…
What floats your boat? Don’t you love that expression? It suggests a personal creative vessel that rides the waves of inspiration. Like water, inspiration can be peaceful or tumultuous. Sometimes we need some chill time, resting in a boat on a quiet stream. Letting the things of this world pass by without too much of…
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Stir the Current Current…
Have you been observing your world? Really paying attention rather than floating down the river of life allowing the current to carry you wherever? What contemporary wave is driving your reality? The current of the world changes constantly. Trends. Fashions. Conventional Wisdom. Opinions. Likes and Dislikes. It is tempting to lay back in the boat…
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Observe Your World…
Observe Your World is one of my favorite ELAN Principles. It is closely related to staying present, being here, in this moment. And it corresponds to watching for and naming moments of beauty and abundance: a green sprout poking through concrete, fresh flowers in an unexpected place or stopping to turn your face upwards toward…
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Double Grief…
In 2008 we lived in a nearly idyllic bayside community in Galveston, catching fish and crab in our literal back yard while soaking up salty sea spray and sun rays. Until Ike, a Category 4 hurricane, plowed right over our shores and into our homes. Ike turned island living into years of construction and boarded…
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Check out my twitter pitch today!
Hi Blog followers, subscribers and checker-inners! I have posted two pitches for the twitter competition today. Check it out here and retweet if you want!
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Lifelong Learning…
My good friend Linda is an excellent example of the tenth ELAN Principle: Be a Lifelong Learner. Semi-retired, she has dedicated three weeks this spring to travel to Paris for the sole purpose of immersion in all things French. She teaches French at the college level so I would call her fluent, but she recognizes…
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Running Downhill…
Is week two of the new year too early to feel a loss of momentum from that wide-open-to-every-possibility optimism we held last Monday? When we told the world we would go ahead and make our own day by honoring that which matters to our creative selves? Even though I’ve made great strides in preparing novel…
Patty Mayeux Blog 