Recently, my mom had a close call. I admitted her to the emergency room early one February morning, her yearlong decline in vitality at such a point that there was no other choice. She spent three days in the hospital. I sat there with her, watching her, in pain and frightened, looking more petite than she is (if that’s possible). I sat with her for fifteen hours on that first day, trying not to look as worried as I felt, and then spent about ten hours with her ...

I've been discovering more about my voice and falling in love with writing again. Thank you, Shanna, for contributing to my rebirth. I'd gotten so caught up in the metrics of blogging, I'd forgotten all about the joy of writing for writing's sake. The personalized [writing] prompts really made me take a deeper look at what mattered to me, more so than any other exercise I've yet come across that promises to help you "find your own voice". I discovered WHY I bother to write in the first place, and I can't tell you what a shift ...

You are not broken. Your flaws are not fatal. Your eccentricities and sensitivities don’t make you a monster; they mark you as human. And what, if not that, are you meant to be? You are here to be the highest expression of yourself. You are a thread in the weave of humanity. You have all you need to know. You don’t need any more workshops, or trainings, or external degrees. You are eminently qualified to be you. The things that scare you are ...

Hey you. Tap, tap. Yeah, you on the other side of the screen... Wake up! I mean it. Even if you think you are awake, likely you are just sleepwalking through the day. And that cup of coffee? Not going to help for this kind of wake-up. No, I am talking about waking from your get-up-work-eat-drink-sleep-repeat lifestyle. I’m surprised you even call it living. And lifestyle? Not much style there if you ask me. I have big dreams, and like me, I bet you do, too. Or at least you did at one time. So, ...

We are at a pivotal time in history. Never before has so much information, so much stuff, been available to us at all hours of the day and night. It’s like a fire hose that we can’t turn off. I see us, this human species, on the precipice of something great—or not. The choice is ours. To move beyond the constraints of selfishness, of a me-centered mindset, will take time and intention. We are at nearly 7 billion people on this planet that we call Earth and it’s not sustainable to continue ...

Gift-Giving Season is Upon us. If you are lucky to have a writer or three in your life and you are stumped for gift ideas, I have few suggestions that will be sure to keep their words flowing all year long. And, just maybe, you might want to add a few of these to your wish list, too! Below are some of my favorite tools for writers: books, software, and more. In the holiday spirit, Shanna Great Gifts for The Writers in Your Life Moleskine Notebook (from $12.21 at Amazon). This is the ...

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. ~Ernest Hemingway How hard can it be, this writing thing? As a professional writer, I often hear non-writers suggest that copywriting must be easy for me since I am so good at it. That writing, for a writer, has got to be painless, just something we do naturally, like breathing. That a short project shouldn't take too long to complete because there are so ...

When I was in my twenties, I dated a man whose family traveled extensively. They lived in Saudi Arabia, the father was headmaster at an American school, and the entire family of six would travel all over the Middle East and Europe. The one good thing I remember from that train-wreck of a relationship was his family's mantra about packing before a trip: Never pack before midnight, and never pack sober. I reference that maxim often when people ask me for advice on packing light, not because I follow the ...

As the seasons change, so, too, our focus. We go from outward expressions of self during the summer: swimming, volleyball, beach trips, and camping. As we move from summer to fall (if you are in the northern hemisphere), our attention draws inward. Whatever hemisphere you’re in, it’s time to revive, or start, a supportive and nourishing home yoga practice. A practice that is lead by a woman whom I admire and respect: Marianne Elliott. Marianne is a yogi with heart, smarts, and soul. Kind and compassionate, she is the author of the ...

I was on a pressured deadline. Finish my first ebook, (with everything that entails from design, to editing, to promotion) and launch it to coincide with the Trail Blazers' Conference, all within a week. I needed help, I needed an angel. Burned out from writing the book I knew I couldn't try to cobble a sales page together 'just to get it done'. My first book-baby, my year-long collaboration creation deserved better than that. My readers deserved better. So I turned to Shanna. This word-mistress had my sales page turned around in less than a week. It was perfect on ...