Ascent: Being There … Supporting Your Personal Evolution One Step at a Time
 

Climbing to Your Personal Zenith

December 2010
 

The Winter Solstice has just past. After dropping to its lowest point, the fiery sun begins its climb back to the zenith and midsummer power.

News:
Ascent Launches
A New Author

With the publication of Making a Pearl from the Grit of Life, Sharon Rainey joins Ascent’s roster of more than 200 authors who have launched their writing careers under our guidance.

An excerpt from Making a Pearl… will be featured in Modern magazine.

Sharon began her memoir, but had become stuck, before entering Ascent’s Writing Track in 2009. Previously, she had attended other writers’ retreats, but with Ascent’s monthly guidance and directives, she was able to clarify central themes, create narrative structure around them, and finally bring the years-long project to successful completion.

Making a Pearl… tells about the depression and low self-esteem that took hold of Sharon at a young age, settling like a grain of grit within her being. Feeling uncomfortable with herself, Sharon began making choices that led her deeper and deeper into a life of unhappiness and pain — until as she puts it:

“In a single defining moment, I finally learned how to make better choices for myself.” And slowly but distinctly, those choices turned hers into a life of beauty and fulfillment.

Today, Sharon is head of a highly successful small business, NeighborsNetwork, and has been honored by both the President of the United States and the Governor of Virginia for her work supporting U.S. troops abroad.

If you or someone you know needs a spiritual and emotional lift, Making a Pearl from the Grit of Life is a book full of honesty, encouragement, challenge, and hope.

Order it now:

http://www.sharonrainey.com

But that’s just a two-dimensional way of viewing it. The earth is also spiraling through the universe, cutting its way into new quadrants of the star-map with every turn, every second.

That means we, as a planet, are always pressing into the front edge of undiscovered territory.

What lies unexplored and undiscovered in you? What core aspiration — like a potent seed of fire — needs to rise from within you, press its way toward fulfillment, and carry your life into new territory?

You carry within you one very potent life energy that, allowed to grow and take its course, can energize your body, mind, and spirit. If you feel bored, stuck, buried beneath duty, or if your choices have led you far from your true purpose, it’s time to uncover this energy and let its power invigorate and empower you with the energy of enthusiasm.

In the coming year, Being There will offer a series of articles to help you grow in the direction of your core aspirations. All you need is a willingness to find the cutting edge of your life, and then to explore the pathway a step at a time.

We’ll begin next month by helping you deepen your understanding of who you are and what you’re here in this life to do — you as an individual.

It’s true that raising families or supporting other people as they move toward their dreams are noble acts of self-giving. Yes, we can find a deep sense of fulfillment in the simple, human joys of relationships, home life, athletic and business or educational accomplishments.

And yet, we can do these things and still sense we’re not on the path to … somewhere. Our own zenith.

So, each month, to support you on this personal journey, we’ll look at questions such as:

  • How do you find your core aspirations?
  • How do you make big shifts, when you feel entrenched in a situation where others are depending on you?
  • And, because life is not merely about doing and achieving — how do you become the person you need to be?

In 2011, Being There will offer provocative perspectives and directives, meant to stir the fires of mind, body, and spirit. Throughout the month, we’ll support your journey with booster-emails to help keep you motivated and on course.

Plan to join us for a year of growing in the direction of your aspirations — the ones that will take you, like the rising sun, toward your own personal zenith.

   

In 2011, Launch Your
Writing Career

Ascent’s 2011 Writing Track begins January through April, with Writers’ Intensive Workshops in six locations.

The workshops start off our 3-part annual offering, which includes: the Writers’ Intensive, an 8-Month Guided Writing Program, and a Publishing Essentials Seminar.

During the Writers’ Workshops, you can receive one-on-one help sharpening your concept, developing your outline, and refining necessary techniques. These 4-day sessions are lively and instructive, and are kept intentionally small to maximize the attention given to each writer.

Click for More Information
and to Register

After completing the Workshop, you become eligible to sign up for our Guided Writing Program, in which professional writing mentors will work with you individually, month by month, to motivate, instruct, and guide the development of your manuscript.

As one writer puts it:

Even though I am a professional writer by trade, I was much in need of wise, patient, and skilled guidance when it came to developing my book. Thank you, Ascent, for offering this eight-month program to carefully walk me through the long-haul of developing my book manuscript.

— Geary Morris, Falls Church, VA

The 2011 Program also includes a Conscious Journaling Workshop, to open and stimulate the creative mind, and two Writing Retreat Days … all at the beautiful and secluded Stone Manor.

In November 2011, our program will culminate with a Publishing Essentials Seminar, during which you will learn how to create proposals to attract the interest of agents and publishers.

If you or someone you know wants to jump-start their writing career, Ascent offers you the chance to launch yourself in 2011.

 

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