I’ve been following Terri Connellan’s blog on her website Quiet Writing for a while now and was excited to watch her journey towards writing her book: Wholehearted: Self-Leadership For Women in Transition. Today I’m happy to share details of the book with you.
Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition
About The Book
Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition is a personal recount of one woman’s journey about shifting from being a long-term government employee towards enjoying a richer, more self-directed and creative life as an inspirational life coach.
The book comes together as a wise mix of memoir, practical strategies and positive self-leadership resources for women going through major change in their lives.
Wholehearted contains a set of self-leadership skills including intention setting, writing as daily practice and prioritising exercise and self-care, whilst providing guidance and a toolkit for women seeking to transition positively, whether self-initiated or instigated by others or circumstances.
An aligned Wholehearted Companion Workbook provides deeper reflection and crafting personal strategies to live more wholeheartedly.
Purchase links: Australia | International
Given my interest in creativity, I asked Terri to share her views on creativity being a powerful source of self-development, a way of living and healing. Here are her views:
Creativity is a powerful source of self-development, a way of living, healing.
I have found through my journey of transition and growth and through working with others I coach and co-write with that creativity is a constant theme. It is both a goal or focus for making change and developing ourselves and also often the way through it.
It might be getting to creative dreams and priorities left behind or overlaid by life like writing a book or creating art. Those creative projects or desires become a focus for change and self-development and we grow through doing them. They are a psychological journey we move through and we learn about ourselves through moving through the experience, reflecting as we go, dealing with the challenges, overcoming them.
Long haul creativity – learning artistic skills over time, writing a book – can be particularly insightful and healing. But so can smaller moments – writing a blog post or journal entry, creating a work of art – all can be steps along the way in the healing process. Integrating these creative moments into life through daily practices, like morning pages and working with our intuition through art or tarot, means we can tap into our self-development in a more active and consistent way. We learn to practise self-leadership in creativity and life through this self-expression and reflection.
My journey of transition focused around writing and shifting to a more creative way of working and living. Others also featured in the book and in Stories of Wholehearted Livingembraced art therapy, became skilled in sacred geometry, integrated creative process into self-inquiry and wrote their way through cycles and seasons to feel more whole. The common feature is creativity both as process and product and a deep desire to get to what matters.
Key excerpts from the book:
‘So following that critical turning point in July 2016, I began a journey of transition back to a life that more fully reflects me. For three decades, work had taken over and important pieces of me were missing in action.’
‘I made the crossing of this unknown sea from government employee with a regulated framework and defined job description to self-employed intuitive creative making wise choices and knowing where my practice and attention need to go next. These practices have also been an excellent way to trust my own processes and not worry about what others think.’
‘Being wholehearted is finding the self-leadership to be the explorer of your heart and to own that unique journey. It means not being captive to the smallness, meanness or insensitivity of others. Or your own shoulds. It means keeping the landscape big, the canvas open, the opportunities expansive and our hopes and dreams as real as when we first thought of them, and finding a way to navigate through them to our new way of being—the one we have imagined.’
‘I committed thirty years to my organisation and at the end of it, it just felt like a waste of time. It was not a total waste, I knew in my heart of hearts, but the lack of valuing of people is endemic and I think it’s a hole in the heart of the world that I can address. I decided I would write and reflect my way through and find a way to craft a business helping people transition from an organisation or lifestyle that no longer loves them into another future that they love with their whole heart.’
‘Writing daily as a creative practice, working on larger creative non-fiction pieces and progressing towards crafting a novel, is central to my business. If I am not authentically and creatively me—writing day in and day out, showing up, and making time for the longer pieces I have outlined or the ones there in my heart—it is not genuine. I am only able to help others with their creative lives and careers through my own writing and coaching practice of living this every day.’
About Terri
Terri Connellan is a certified life coach, writer and accredited psychological type practitioner. She has a Master of Arts in Language and Literacy, two teaching qualifications and a successful 30-year career as a teacher and leader in adult vocational education. Her coaching and writing focus on three elements—creativity, personality and self-leadership—especially for women in transition to a life with deeper purpose. Terri works with women globally through her creative business, Quiet Writing, encouraging deeper self-understanding of body of work, creativity and psychological type for more wholehearted and fulfilling lives. She lives and writes in a village on the outskirts of Sydney surrounded by beach and bush.
Connect with Terri:
Website: QuietWriting.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/writingquietly/
Email terri@quietwriting.com
I’ve been reading Terri’s blog since a long time too! I love her writing and her views on creativity. I’ve also seen, first-hand, how creative pursuits can be both insightful and healing, and a beautiful journey of self-development and growth.
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Terri’s concept of being “wholehearted” for anyone willing to discover their creative lives and career sounds very promising! I especially love how she talks of writing daily as a creative practice and about self-leadership as a means to chart out one’s creative journey, brushing aside the smallness and the meanness that often gets us down. Thank you for sharing these reminders, today, Corinne, through this post. I know I definitely needed to read this.