with Soulshaping author
and Institute Founder Jeff Brown
Begins FEBRUARY 6, 2024
You feel the call to write. You feel it there, below the surface of your daily life, demanding expression. You don’t know where the call is coming from, but you can’t quite turn it off. You know there is something in there for you- a healing, a spiritual path, a great creation, a way to finally say what’s on your mind. Something that wants to awaken you or others. Something that wants to come alive. Something abundant and beautiful. Something true.
Yet you can’t quite get it out of you. You either begin and then retreat, or you can’t begin at all. You delay, deny, distract. Perhaps you feel afraid of its intensity, its honesty, its impact on your emotional life. Perhaps you are overcome with self-doubt, resistance, perfectionism and shame. Or you can’t quite figure out how to integrate it into a busy daily life. It seems impossible to create the space to just write. At the same time, you are simply not willing to deny the call any longer. You are tired of burying it. You want to open the gift and see what’s inside. You want so much to give it life.
If any of this describes you, then this course is for you.
We are at a new stage in our human development with respect to our creative and spiritual callings. Where before we were willing to sacrifice them in the name of survival, we can no longer put them away. We can no longer bury that which longs to be revealed. This is particularly true with respect to the call to write, which lives with such passion in so many of us. Closely aligned with our transformation, the call to write is fundamental to our expansion. It is a cry for wholeness. It is a call for liberation. It is an offering to the world. It is not to be repressed. It is not to be ignored. It is to be expressed and celebrated. If you are born to write, you must write. It’s that simple. It doesn’t matter if you write for the world or for yourself alone. It doesn’t matter if you write epic novels or occasional blogs. It doesn’t matter if you write of soulful matters or practical things. It doesn’t matter if critics applaud or ignore you. All that matters is that you honor your soul’s voice and write!
Please join me!
This course is an invitation. To give voice to the call to write that has been nagging at you for years. To confront and overcome any fears, beliefs, and doubts that block your fullest expression. To deepen a voice that has already been awakened. To explore writing as a spiritual practice.
This course is an opportunity. To surrender to your curiosity about writing and see where it takes you. To give voice to your deepest mysteries and truths. To get feedback on your writing. To know the power of the written word to heal and transform your inner world. To write your way home.
This empowering and supportive course meets you right where you are and walks beside you as you arrive at the next destination in your creative life. If you have heard the call, please join me on this journey of soul-discovery and self-expression.
My Story of Finding my Writing Voice
Hi I’m Jeff Brown, and I am thrilled to be facilitating this Course. I too had my own journey of excavating and expressing my writing voice. I had seen glimpses of the call to write throughout my life- in my dreams, when writing school essays, while reading other people’s work- but I was either not emotionally prepared to own it, or I had a number of other things to do first. And excuses, I had lots of those! I found all kinds of ways to delay the call to write for as long as possible. Why? Because I was afraid of it. I was afraid of its intensity, its truthfulness, its transformative properties. And I was afraid to stop seeking. I had been searching for my sacred purpose for a long time and I had grown comfortable with the quest. It felt safer and less vulnerable than actually finding my path. If I was seeking, I never had to risk failing at anything, and I never had to worry about someone taking anything away from me. My sacred purpose was always up ahead on the path, too far out of reach for me to risk losing it. At the same time, I experienced what I refer to as ‘truth-aches’, the deep frustration that arises when we resist a path that calls us. It was very difficult to postpone something so deep in my bones. Our sacred purpose does not take procrastination lightly.
And then the call to write became unstoppable after I completed a lengthy emotional healing journey at Harbin Hot Springs in California. At the end of that journey, emotionally clearer than I had ever been in my adult life, I knew it was time to write. I flew back home to Canada and began writing the next day. And I haven’t stopped since- now 14 years later. Not to say that it has been an easy journey- it hasn’t. At first, I found myself in the clutches of tremendous self-doubt and internalized shame, certain that no one would ever want to read my words. And there was the very real challenge of trying to create space to write while still trying to make a living in the real world. That’s often the biggest challenge people face.
At the same time, there was the energy of the calling pushing me onward. It would call to me at night, at work, in the heart of a distracted moment. Without apology and with tremendous ferocity, it would call me back to the computer, the notebook, the walls I wrote on, insisting that I express it. The calling was particularly alive when I was trying to sleep, relentlessly chirping in my inner ear. If I ignored it, I lay there awake and agitated. If I got up and wrote, I calmed down. It soon became clear that honoring my calling was my best defense against sleeplessness.
As time passed, writing became my primary spiritual practice, one I could not live without. It became my way of finding my way back to center, to connect to something truer, to touch the divine. It didn’t matter if anyone else would ever read it, or like it, or buy it. All that mattered was that I allow this stream of language to rise into expression within me. All that mattered was touching pen to paper and giving voice to my soul’s journey. My way home.
And then, in 2007, I brought my first book to the world: Soulshaping. Published by North Atlantic Books, it was beautifully supported by a community of amazing people on Facebook. One more successful book followed, and I then made the decision to develop my own publishing house- Enrealment Press- so that I could both bring my books to the world on my terms and support other congruent authors. Then I published 3 more books- including the best-selling ‘An Uncommon Bond’- and I formed Soulshaping Institute, fulfilling a long-held dream to create a center that focuses on authentic self-creation. All of this happened because I surrendered to the call to write 14 years earlier. All of this happened because I sat down one day- ass in chair- and made a commitment to overcome the doubts and challenges and find the words. You can too.
Now my life is more satisfying than I could have ever imagined. It is not always easy- sometimes our sacred purpose calls us to work harder than ever before- but I no longer yearn for direction and meaning. I wake up every morning knowing why I am here. And I am able to make a living doing what I love. There are still distractions and challenges, but there is an energy that meets and overcomes them. The fire of sacred purpose can overcome most anything.
I look forward to sharing with you some of the lessons I have learned along the way – and some tools and techniques that may make your journey a little smoother, and a lot more satisfying. I also look forward to sharing my knowledge about the publishing industry, so you can make the right choices if you ever decide to write a book. When we identify the paths we are here to walk and the gifts we are here to open, we explode into a world of unlimited vitality. I look forward to the possibility of working with you.
In this course, you will …
- Explore, energize and express your call to write.
- Recognize and overcome obstacles to your expression.
- Develop tools and techniques to inspire and guide you.
- Learn essential facts about the publishing industry.
- Embody your writing voice with courage and curiosity.
WRITING YOUR WAY HOME:
ANSWERING THE SOUL’S CALL
6 weekly talks and over 40 pages of exercises,
assignments and supportive writings
BEGINS FEBRUARY 6, 2024
COURSE PACKAGE: WHAT YOU RECEIVE
- SIX weekly 45-60 minute pre-recorded audio classes taught by Jeff Brown
Weekly Audio classes will be held on Tuesdays, beginning FEBRUARY 6th. You will receive a weekly email link on the evening before the class. For those who cannot listen on the Tuesday, you will have access to the recordings for 6 weeks thereafter. So, if this day is not ideal for you, no worries. You can listen in at a more convenient time, from anywhere in the world. The weekly class can be listened to simply by clicking the link, or it can be easily downloaded to your phone, computer etc.
The six sessions are scheduled as follows:
February 6, 13, 20, 27
March 5, 12
- A printable PDF WORKBOOK (emailed to you) that includes optional exercises, assignments and related readings that reflect and deepen the weekly course content.
- PDF TRANSCRIPTS of each audio class for those who prefer reading to listening.
- Direct Feedback on your writing from Jeff Brown, when you request it.
- A free e-book of one of Jeff’s quote books (Love it Forward, Ascending with Both Feet on the Ground, or Spiritual Graffiti) sent to you after the course begins.
See a video that captures Jeff’s first writing process…
A former criminal lawyer and psychotherapist, Jeff Brown is the author of 8 popular books: Soulshaping, Ascending with Both Feet on the Ground, Love It Forward, An Uncommon Bond, Spiritual Graffiti, Grounded Spirituality, Hearticulations, Humanifestations. He is also the central subject in the award-winning spiritual documentary, ‘Karmageddon,’ which also features Ram Dass, Seane Corn, Deva Premal and Miten. Jeff has authored a series of inspirations for ABC’S ‘Good Morning America,’ and he has contributed to The Washington Post, Elephant Journal, Positively Positive, The Good Men Project, Unity Magazine, Rebelle Society, and Maria Shriver.com. In 2010, he wrote a blog ‘ Apologies to the Divine Feminine (from a warrior in transition),’ which quickly went viral and continues to be widely shared today. His dictionary of new terms and short impactful writings became a phenomenon some years ago,and continue to be shared by individuals worldwide. His quotes have been shared in social media by Alanis Morrissette, Fergie, Jason Silva, LeAnn Rimes, Amanda De Cadenet, Chrissy Metz, and many other well-known figures. Most beautifully, they have touched and benefited many souls. This gratifies him deeply. Jeff is also the founder of Soulshaping Institute and Enrealment Press. He lives in Canada with his wife, poet Susan Frybort.
When you walk through the door to your calling, you walk into yourself. Blessedly buffered from the madness of the world, your calling filters out those relationships and energies that undermine your expansion. Infused with vitality and a clarified focus, new pathways of possibility appear where before there were obstacles. Life still has its challenges, but you interface with them differently, coated in an authenticity of purpose that sees through the veils to what really matters. If writing is truly your path, it is a spiritual practice that will help you to make sense of yourself and the world. It will transform you and deepen your relationship to the moment. And like any true spiritual practice, the quest for perfection is both insignificant and impossible. The gateway to divinity opens when we surrender to the call, whatever form it takes. How it is perceived by others- and that includes those parts of us that are self-critical- is of no consequence. Just write, and the act of creation will bring you home.
For help signing up or if you have any questions, please write to us at support@soulshapinginstitute.com
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