Parenting Tools + Book Invitation 🌟 + My Big-B Brave Decision

Greetings from southern Sweden!

Our family is seven months into our 1-year adventure living abroad. Notice the bold sunflower yellow I picked up there? It is my little ode to sunshine. For a native Californian, this sure is a long dark winter! I am more grateful than ever before for thick hats, scarves and wool mittens. 

For those who remember the "capitol B" Brave news I said I'd share in this newsletter, juuuuuust wait for it, read on, it is here. 

To those who have just joined our community, welcome! It is a joy to have you. 

Giving things away is fun, so let’s start there!

As has often been said, parenting is the toughest and most rewarding work there is. Nobody parents with perfect grace, confidence and clarity all the time. We all flail. What I have noticed is that many of my most rewarding interactions with my daughter are infused with learning I've gained from 14 years as a coach, and 22 years of leadership experience. 

So for January's free recording, I turned to someone with extensive

communication and leadership experience working with children, parents, educators and school groups. We had lots of fun during our chat and it's up for download here.

TOP FIVE LEADERSHIP
AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS
FOR PARENTS

a 47-minute interview with Vancouver, BC-based personal growth and relationship expert Tina-Marie Meyer CPCC, ORSC, ACC

And in February?

Our free talk posted February 1st will be an interview with Atlanta, Georgia-based Monica Moody, Founder of Owning Change. 

Monica and I met in a moment of gorgeous synchronicity and I am honored to walk this life on Earth in her company. She helps people step into greater personal power by discovering the "True You" at work. 

Want to participate in co-creating my first book? You have two days left to jump in!

You might be perplexed by its title, Love, Mama: Letters from the Grave, yet when you hear more you may want to jump in fast to participate — whether you are a mother OR there's a mother you respect who you want share this opportunity with. Today I am extending the deadline to Fri. Jan. 19. On Saturday I will be reading all the letters submitted. 

We are living in a time of enormous transformation. Women all over the globe are waking up to fully feel our internal power, to value ourselves more than ever before, and to stop tolerating mistreatment — physical and emotional, at work and at home.

Not convinced? Oprah Winfrey's speech at this year's Golden Globe Awards is one hefty sliver of proof.  

In his 2015 Bioneers Conference speech, Epic Change, Kenny Ausubel talked about how the uprising of women is the great game-changer of our time. 

Wholeheartedly and in my bones, I agree with Kenny. 
 

To hear one of the smartest men alive calling it out with such succinct and certain eloquence, frankly made me raise my hands as if I was singing in a gospel choir.

Kenny has a way of inviting people's most powerful self to shine through. He is a living hero of our time. Highly recommending his speech to you: emphatically, men and women. It will give you chills at least once. 

OK OK, how's this relate to my book? 

After giving birth in 2013, I was bewildered about why women give our power away so often. We do it, and we need to stop. 

We heavily criticize and over-focus on our physical appearances, we undervalue what's inside — our super-powered hearts, sharp minds, fierce intuition — we invest in relationships that do not serve our wellbeing.

After I gave birth I just. Could. Not. Understand. Why we undervalue ourselves so much when... We can give birth to new life!?!? And all it takes to do that!?!? 

It seemed crazy that any mother in the course of human history could undervalue herself. 

From there on out, I was committed to being a voice for women "rising" — up out of our Small Self holes, and into the light of self-love and acceptance, where we find friends and lovers who are worthy of our time, our attention, our touch. 

In the blunt words of one wise man I know who reveres women, "When women stop sleeping with assholes, there will be no assholes left in the world." 

My book is part of the global puzzle that's piecing back together women's self worth. On its pages, women will stand in our worth, laying words down as part of the story we're all writing together today.

Written by mothers all over the world, this book will be a compilation of letters from mothers to our children, from a perspective of "the other side" where we are stripped of our insecurities and every other excuse not to love fully. Mothers all over the world are invited to participate, so jump in now!

I'll close with a little treat for you. 

If you love music, you just might swallow it up like a thirsty desert backpacker, especially if you find your favorite Stevie Wonder song -- or whatever song you love -- and pump up the volume for with 3 minutes of bliss. Here is a letter I wrote to Stevie Wonder last month, published by the Findhorn Foundation. One of my life's great honors these days is to write for an organization I admire as much as Findhorn. Thanks, life!

Oops.

I cannot close without honoring something I gave you my word about last month. That "capitol B" Brave thing. The decision I made a few months ago that took a lot of courage to make.

Yes, once in a blue moon, it is tough for me to find words. Here goes.

Being an artist -- a writer, a lover of humanity -- doesn't always pay well. I've had lucrative years at work, and then my art took over. It claimed me. It IS the greatest way I can serve humanity: this. Blogging, writing. Essentially what I do is FEEL LOVE for humanity and spill it out in words.

Once my art took the reins in my life, paid work has been unstable and job searches have yielded mostly disappointment.
So from now on... (Ready? Here comes the Brave part.) ....

I trust my art to find those people who feel the power of love in my writing -- for whom money flows -- just as most areas in my life flow with wondrous ease.

Just as Shakespeare and DaVinci did many years ago,
I welcome patrons for my art.

Today I launch Patreon! You are the first to know. 
You can check it all out here.

THANK YOU for celebrating with me.
If you'd like to share words of support please feel free
to send me an email.

There! Succinct?

Huge hugs from chilly southern Sweden,
Jessica