Writing your own biography can be a bit boring, So I’m doing it another way
Name: Lynne Brown
Residence: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
Age: not quite as old as dirt
Employment: currently retired, although I do still dabble as a life coach. Previously I worked in upper management in the non-profit field
Favourite food: hamburgers and dark chocolate
Hobbies: reading (about 600 books a year), needlework (I’m slow) and of course journal writing and teaching.
Why teach this course? Because women, and I include myself, often have a fraught relationship with our bodies. We either hate them, ignore them or on rare occasions like them. Society is obsessed with women’s bodies and living up to those expectations can be painful. So this course is aimed at allowing us to develop a better sense of ourselves and our bodies.
Qualifications: Life Coach and Master practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming
Email: Decisioncoach1@gmail.com
Lynne’s Most Recent Workshops
MEDITATION led by Linda Sanchez
SUNDAYS, MARCH 24th, APRIL 7th & 14th
10am Pacific, 11am Mountain, 12 noon Central, 1pm EST
Lynne writes;
“What is a mission statement? probably quicker to tell you what it isn’t.
It’s not a list of goals and impossible dreams. It is a guiding light for you in making the decisions for your future.
It’s an opportunity to look at past, present and future.
An opportunity to reflect on your values, beliefs, and principles.
Once you have done that you pull together a statement you can use as your north pole into the future.
Mission statements provide us with the backbone we need when difficult decisions must be be made.
They are, in effect, our true self providing us with the guidance we need to move forward in life.
Plus there's a certain amount of joy in taking the time to really think about our life, what we’ve accomplished and what we aspire to.
JUST A REMINDER - DM me Frances DeMartino if you haven’t received your zoom link & would like to attend.
SUNDAY MARCH 17th 2024 MEET-UP
THEME - TRAVEL
Writing Prompts w/ Lynne Brown
Meditation w/ Linda Sanchez
10am Pacific, 11am Mountain, 12 noon Central & 1pm Eastern
PLAY
A Play-Based Meditation led by Linda Sanchez
Sunday, March 3rd 2024
10pm Pacific, 11am Mountain, 12pm Central,
1 pm Eastern
ADVANCED JOURNALLING. 3 sessions
(November, 2023)
Building on our previous classes, this session will add new tools to your toolkit. Other ways of journaling with the hope they will deepen your inner connections to yourself.
BODY TALK - 3 Sessions
(September, 2023)
We are born into a body and remain in it for the duration of our lives.
It is the longest and closest relationship we have, and for may of us, it is the most difficult.
Our society is unkind to women and judgement follows everything we do and how we look. We are too fat, too skinny, not pretty, too busty, not busty enough... The list is long and often painful.
This 3 part workshop is designed to allow us to explore our bodies in a safe and supportive environment. You will need at least 3 coloured pencils and a willingness to have fun. The classes are not intended to be therapeutic.
My qualifications are; Master Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming and a trained life coach. I have been leading journal writing groups for the last 25 years. And of course, I’m a life long journal writer ` 62 years and counting.
CREATIVITY
(August 20th 2023)
Teachers family and friends all have an opinion on creativity and it mostly is negative.
We are going to explore what stops us and how to push past that.
MISTAKES
(July 16th 2023)
Mistakes are a part of life - it’s what we do with them that counts.
This session will allow us to look at our mistakes and perhaps reframe them.
As always, we will chat, write and laughCONVERSATIONS WITH MYSELF
a workshop
Sundays
April 16th, April 23rd, April 30th, & May 7th 2023
This 4 week program is designed for both the experienced and the novice journal keeper. New techniques and skills will be offered in a safe and supportive environment. Participants will be encouraged to share their writing in a non judgemental atmosphere. Most of all, the course will be fun
JOURNAL WRITING AS AN ACT OF REBELLION
Throughout history women have found a way to make their mark and to be remembered. Women in the court of a medieval Japanese emperor kept “pillow books”. Books written in a dialect not easily understood by the men around then, books that provided a record of their lives and feelings. Hiding in an attic, Anne Frank kept a diary, a record of her hopes and fears during perilous times. A diary discovered after the war and read around the world. Each of these women and thousands more have used paper and pen to record their lives, hopes and dreams, choosing to express what is often unsaid.
Thinking of these women gives me courage to continue my journal keeping. I’ve written for 62 years and all my journals reside in Rubbermaid tubs. In the beginning I was 12 years old and the journals were full of teen angst: boys and crushes and all the issues that face teenagers. As I’ve grown older, the journals have grown and changed with me. When each of my parents died it was my journals that comforted me. When my 12 year relationship broke up, after I accepted he was an alcoholic and discovered he was a cheat, it was my journal that served as my therapist and comforter.
There have been days when I have written several times in a day, and weeks when I don’t put pen to paper, and always, I come back to it. There are no reproaches, the pages are always accepting of what I write. In my eyes, journal writing is an act of rebellion. It is an act that says: see me, hear me, notice my presence. Too often, women’s voices are not heard or valued: they can’t attend school, must wear prescribed clothing, or die from lack of medical care in childbirth because the powers that be simply don’t value them.
By our words on paper we are affirming our presence and rebelling against the forces that would silence us.
I’ve been journaling a long time and I know I will continue to the day I die. After all, what is the point of rebelling if you stop halfway through?