Pen to Progress with Jen Taylor Issue #39 Intentional Writing, Empowered Action, Meaningful Change The Power of a Good Question Hello Reader I collect questions the way other people might collect inspirational quotes. Why? Because great questions become great journal prompts. In writing therapy, we call them "Springboards" because questions serve as a jumping off point from which your writing might go into unexpected directions. The other thing to know about questions is that our brains our...
13 days ago • 3 min read
Pen to Progress with Jen Taylor Issue #36 Intentional Writing, Empowered Action, Meaningful Change How to Dig Yourself Out of A Hole Hello Reader I think we all have areas where progress feel elusive. There are areas that we've neglected for weeks - months - even years! Common areas of neglect are things like weight, debt, mental health, relationships, even physical clutter. First, let's acknowledge that there are reasons that we've been unable to make progress in these areas: Trauma -...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Pen to Progress with Jen Taylor Issue #35 Intentional Writing, Empowered Action, Meaningful Change Holding Space for Endings and Beginnings Hello Reader Our neighborhood has deer. A lot of deer. We see them in our backyards, they sleep in our neighbor's front yards. They watch with curiosity as we walk past them and then go back to grazing on the grass. It's one of my favorite parts of my neighborhood. This weekend, one of the deer was hit by a car and killed. During my weekend run, as I...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Pen to Progress with Jen Taylor Issue #33 Intentional Writing, Empowered Action, Meaningful Change Gratitude Forensics Hello Reader How was your weekend? From the looks of the many social media posts I reviewed over the weekend, there's a good possibility that it was pretty wonderful. There was a theme that I noticed over the weekend and that was one of gratitude. Social media posts and private messages were filled with expressions of gratitude. Gratitude is an essential element of...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Pen to Progress with Jen Taylor Issue #32 Intentional Writing, Empowered Action, Meaningful Change The Paradox of *Could* Hello Reader You may have heard the expression "don't should on yourself" as a reminder of the problems associated with the word "should." Should's are obligations based on our perception of what is morally right in a situation, or what is expected of us in a social or cultural situation or some other belief or value that we hold that is meant to guide our behaviors. I...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Pen to Progress with Jen Taylor Issue #29 Intentional Writing, Empowered Action, Meaningful Change Recognizing your priorities Hello Reader Is your to-do list a mile long? Like laundry or dishes, the things that we must complete each day or week seem never-ending and quite frankly, exhausting. Are there things on your to-do list that never actually get done? Day after day, week after week, do they just sit there on the list? Last month in the Business of Therapy Facebook group ran by my...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Pen to Progress with Jen Taylor Issue #27 Intentional Writing, Empowered Action, Meaningful Change Springing Forward: The Power of a 10x Jump Hello Reader In the United States, this past weekend, we all "sprung forward" - an overnight leap in time forward one hour. And while many are excited about how this brings more daylight in the evenings, it is also a week filled with crabby children and bodies slightly out of rhythm with our habits. So often we wish that we could leap over the messy...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Pen to Progress with Jen Taylor Issue #25 Intentional Writing, Empowered Action, Meaningful Change Motivation FOLLOWS Movement Hello Reader When my son was in preschool, there was a day that he came to me and said he didn't feel like going to school that day. He said he was "tired of learning." I remember giving him permission to not learn anything that day. Just show up. You don't have to learn anything today. Follow directions, but take a day off from learning. Really? He was so surprised...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Pen to Progress with Jen Taylor Issue #24 Intentional Writing, Empowered Action, Meaningful Change The Good, Bad and Something Totally Random Hello Reader When my family moved from Maryland to Florida in September, I was really happy. But my kids had mixed feelings. They liked the pool, but they missed their friends A LOT. It was really hard to be so happy when my kids were struggling and I knew that I wasn't going to win the "Florida is Awesome" game just by constantly reminding them how...
4 months ago • 2 min read