This is your life — here and now, this moment.
This is your life — a free and endless gift.
This is your life — to embrace, to change, to shape.
This is your life — to spend, to share…
Create the life you want; the work you love; the book alive in you.
imaginethis@maxineclair.com
I was born in a corner of Wyandotte County, Kansas City, Kansas, which is across the river from the urbane Kansas City, Missouri of jazz fame. It was a great place to grow up—in the atmosphere of all that music, yet at a distance safe enough for children to be children, catching lightning bugs and imagining how we might seek our fortunes.
Fast forward to the fortune I sought. For nearly two decades after earning a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Kansas, I worked as a Medical Technologist at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. Approaching midlife, when the big questions began to arise—who am I, why am I here—I discovered my passion for writing. I took my MFA at American University, and became a poet, fiction writer, and Professor of English at The George Washington University. Take a look at the “books” link for the titles of my books, and how they have been received in the world.
Changing careers was a very human story. The deeper story, however, was my becoming aware that this transition was the out-picturing of my sacred journey toward allowing what answers might come for who I am, and why I am here. The ongoing story involved that awakening, and living with the mystery.
As a licensed, conscious-living (spiritual) coach, I now urge others toward a deeper knowing and greater experience of the essence of their being-ness. I believe that conscious creative expression—in the arts, in business, science or any arena—is one of the avenues to that eventuality, and I spend much of my time and energy living out that belief.
Deeper peace, greater prosperity, more harmony, radiant health, the joy of being alive – these are experiences that most of us are looking for. If you notice the level of worry, fear, doubt that you carry around everyday, you’re bound to hit upon your desire for change. As a conscious-living coach, I am committed to knowing the life-affirming, spiritual truth about you and your life situation: there is a power within you that is greater than anything outside of you. You are connected to that power, and you can use it.
I encourage you to bring your account of challenges you face, and together we work to change circumstances by changing the only things you control: what you think, what you say, what you do, your beliefs and attitudes. Ultimately, these are the things that actually shape your experience. Once you open to the process involved with inner re-definition, you have necessarily begun.
A conscious-living coaching session begins within you, before we meet. When you allow time to think about what prompted you to make an appointment, essentially, you have formed your intention. The session usually lasts for an hour, and we begin with a meditative, focusing process. We proceed with your account of what is troubling you, or the change you would like to see. Unlike any psychotherapy sessions you may have encountered, you will not be encouraged to dwell on the details and history of the “problem”, but instead you are guided toward the life-affirming details which bring resolution.
The process is tailored to each individual with an introduction to exercises, processes and techniques all designed to bring a greater level of insight into your life. Identifying not with a “problem”, but with an inner power that is greater than you know yourself to be, can be transformative. Sessions end with affirmative prayer. And then you get to observe changes which sometime seem miraculous.
Individual and group sessions available. Find out more under “Events and Classes”.
Discovering your passion, answering the call, finding the life affirming thing you would love to do with your time and energy – whatever label you give it, know that it is always seeking you.
In my book Imagine This: Creating the Work You Love, I suggest that whether this is your time for a career change, or time to commit to a long-held dream, you can find your perfect fit.
How you identify the what, when and how depends upon how open you are to becoming aware of the inner guidance which is forever broadcasting ways which are specific to this part of your sacred journey.
And how do you cultivate that awareness? You attune your receptivity and attend to your mental hygiene. Once you explore such age-old practices as meditation, contemplation, journaling and other newer “awareness-generators”, your way becomes clear and your commitment assured. Your dream of doing the work you love becomes a reality.
As your coach, I will introduce and guide you through the processes of expansion, discovery, development, and ultimately sharing your life-affirming expression with the world.
Individual and group sessions available. Learn more, click on “Events and Classes”
Novel, memoir, collection of stories or essays? Publish, leave a legacy, or merely express yourself. Creative writing comes down to marrying form and content together in a way that brings an experience alive in a reader. The story-teller speaks and you write it down.
Start where you are, build on your strengths and strengthen your weaknesses. Discover your personal process which some refer to as “muse.” As your writing coach, I will guide you through steps as basic as setting an intention, generating ideas, and mastering foundational elements of craft. As needed, we move through stylistic considerations in language, pacing, dramatization and form, to revision. Ultimately we move to your final glorious manuscript where we explore paths to publication.
As in all endeavors of creativity, the work begins when—with conviction—you turn in the direction of what you wish to accomplish, and hold that focus until you see your book on Amazon’s best-seller list. For more than twenty years, I have taught creative writing at the university level, and also in communities of adults. Group work in writing workshops is a good fit for many, but not for all. Although the outer work can be challenging and even at times, tedious, the inner work will sustain you to completion. Individual and group sessions available.
Embark on something new, find out more under “Events and Classes”.