How I Finally Did It!

I hope you are finding time in this gorgeous summer to soak up the gifts that the Earth, the sun, the water, the rocks, the trees and the flowers have for us. Truly, we are blessed.

I have been processing and reflecting on recent events in my life... which is finishing something I have worked years on and sharing it with the world.

I was told by an intuitive years ago that I would be writing a book that would contain new ideas to help people.

At that time, I didn't understand what the book would be about, or how to even start doing it.

In fact, every time I got a psychic reading, I would be told that it was time for me to start writing this book.

I started getting annoyed hearing this all the time... I had been trying to write, but I didn't know what I was supposed to write about!

Then I started asking for guidance. I was guided to a program where I learned hypnotherapy, intuitive guidance, life coaching and mindfulness. In this program, I applied many different tools to things I was experiencing in my own life. My assignments were to make up my own tools for my own intuitive counseling practice. So I did.

Then, I was guided to learn how to read the Akashic Records. 

Clients with a variety of situations presented themselves to me. I had opportunities to apply the approaches I had learned with these various people who trusted me to help them.

Then, I started noticing patterns.

I began to see that there was an approach that seemed to help people break through what was keeping them stuck.

One day, I decided to write down what I was doing with them. I called it the Soulful Work Method.

But, I had a lot of procrastination and fear around writing a (cue dramatic music)....

BOOK! Who did I think I was to do that?

I thought I didn't really have anything interesting to say. I didn't have a spectacular life of hardship.

And writing was hard. I tried getting up early to write. That didn't work since I was too tired for the rest of the day.

I started a few online courses on writing. I did the first two lectures and then gave up.

Then, I tried just writing random stuff that was on my mind. I ended up writing lots of blog posts. I got some articles published online. I used none of this writing for the actual book content. Although it probably started getting the juices flowing.

I knew there was some past-life trauma to clear, so I accessed my past lives and tried to heal.

I worked on meditating and clearing out limiting beliefs about my ability to write a book.

I actually started calling this book my "workbook" since that word seemed less intimidating than "book." It made it seem like less of a big deal.

But all this still wasn't quite enough.

I needed some help. I knew I was supposed to be doing more writing and putting something out into the world, but I had no one to hold me accountable. I asked to be sent someone who could help me. 

Then, I heard about Heidi Symonds, from my friend Lisa Estabrook (who created an amazing deck of Soulflower oracle cards I use regularly.

Heidi was a business coach, but she was also intuitive, she was awake and I liked her. Heidi listened to my worries and fears, helped me work through them, offered ideas, support and gave me the idea to create a 10-month training program for people to become Intuitive Guides, also called the Soulful Work Method.

So with her help, I created this program in 2020. Every other week I spent hours creating content for the classes I was teaching. I made slides, worksheets and an outline. It was this content that became the backbone of my book.

That was the beginning. Then, I had to make the outlines into a narrative. I tried doing this at home, but it was hard to find time with my kids around and things to distract me (The laundry needed to be done! The dishes needed to be washed! I had to respond to emails!).

I would come up with lots of ways to delay working on the book.

One day, I realized I had to just get away.

I found a cabin a friend let me stay in for the weekend with no cell phone service or internet. For 3 days and 2 nights, I just wrote, wrote and wrote, with a few breaks. Then, a year later, I did a little writing retreat again by staying in a hotel on a lake. 

I had the first draft done. But it wasn't ready. Heidi edited it, my husband Chris edited it. And I asked my mom to edit it. As she is a (now retired) lawyer, I was worried she might rip it apart. But she came up with suggestions that transformed the book - she suggested I add more case studies of my work with clients. So I did. 

Then, I edited it again. And again. And again. Then, Heidi and I worked with a graphic designer. It was an arduous, challenging process with more edits and layout changes and inserting lots of graphics, but ended up working out beautifully.

I edited it again, printing it out on paper. I kept finding more errors.

I decided to self-publish rather than wait to shop it around to a publisher. That could come later. I also decided not to put the book on Amazon but to sell it directly through my website. It just felt more sacred and pure that way.

I got the book proof and did one last read-through. More errors, but this time, minor things. Then, I made a change to the cover, and voila! It is ready.

And now, it is being printed. I have visions of the book being carried by wings out to those who need to read the words there. I hope that this book, Tools for the Awakening Soul: A Guide to Activate Your Intuition and Uncover Your Life's Purpose, might find its way to you if you are looking for support on how to cope, how to be, how to get unstuck, how to expand in your soul.