Michelle Scotton Franklin, PhD, RN, PMHNP, FNP

Image of a bed with a large window beside and rain visible outside. In front of the bed is it a small mahogany desk, with a chair and a lam, with a mirror on the wall beside it.

Rainy-morning reminder 🌧️

Rest is not a reward we earn after doing everything — it’s part of how we stay well, creative, and grounded. This morning I’m leaning into it: still in bed, rain tapping the windows, reading, letting my body, heart, and mind catch up. No rushing. No productivity contest.

Yes!!

What’s your one word for 2026?

Save this. Reflect on it. Come back to it mid-year.
Words matter—especially the ones we choose to live by.

#HealthIsNotOptional #StillnessAndStrategy #OptimizingHealth #CreateYourLife

If you’re curious about how this philosophy shows up in my coaching and consulting work through Optimizing Health Collaborative, drop the word CREATE in the comments and I’ll share more.

And now I want to hear from you 👇

Not doing more.
Doing what’s aligned.
Working smarter, not louder.

✨ Creation doesn’t have to be chaotic.
✨ It can be intentional.
✨ It can be sustaining.

That may sound like a lot.
But here’s the truth: these aren’t optional.

This is my work.
And it’s essential to my long-term health, purpose, and goals.

So I’m choosing to create differently.

That means practicing stillness.
Honoring rest.
Listening closely—so I know which actions actually matter.

My One Word for 2026: CREATE.

Create new research.
Create offerings that truly serve through my coaching and consulting work.
Create deeper relationships—personally and professionally.
Create space to prioritize my own health.

#OneWord2026 #CreateWithIntention #LeadershipWithHeart

Yes!!!! And hopefully it includes a meet up with a policy walk and talk!

Yes!!!! And hopefully it includes a meet up with a policy walk and talk!

Here’s to remembering.
Here’s to the brave “what if we…”
And here’s to 2026.

Michelle Scotton Franklin, PhD, APRN

More details coming very soon.
In the meantime, check out my post from yesterday for my first offering for individuals who are ready to discover (or rediscover) what they are made to create — and the contributions they are uniquely equipped to make.

Michelle Scotton Franklin, PhD, APRN

Since then, I’ve been working behind the scenes on my website 2.0 and new offerings focused on optimizing health, creativity, and leadership. The new website reveal is coming soon—but until then, you can still connect with me right here or through michellescotton.com.

Michelle Scotton Franklin, PhD, APRN

This is the power of coaching and consulting.
✨ Powerful conversations that help us remember
✨ Support to do it well
✨ Space to see the broader vision of how it fits into our lives

In October 2025, I founded my coaching and consulting business, Optimizing Health Collaborative, PLLC.

Michelle Scotton Franklin, PhD, APRN

And just like that, I remembered.

This moment at the Dolphin Research Center in Marathon, Florida wasn’t just a bucket-list experience. It was a reminder of what becomes possible when someone helps you pause, reflect, and say yes to what you actually want.

Female with brown hair kissing Summer thr dolphin on her nose.

Last day of 2025. A remembering. 🐬

I had always wanted to swim with and kiss a dolphin.
And somehow… I forgot.

Not because it didn’t matter.
But because life gets full. Responsibilities pile up. Dreams get quiet.

Then a friend made a simple invitation — a “what if we…”

It’s about remembering what’s already there.

✨ Limited space
✨ This will fill quickly
✨ Launching in January

If you’d like more information, DM me your email and I’ll make sure you’re the first to know. 🌿

Creativity didn’t make my life easier.
It made it truer.

This January, I’m launching Optimizing Creativity Collaborative—a small, guided virtual experience. We’ll meet on Zoom every other week for 12 weeks to reflect, process, and reconnect—together.

This is not about doing more.

I committed to the full 12-week journey.

Four years later, I cannot overstate the transformation it sparked in my life.

Morning Pages remain a steady anchor.
Artist Dates still matter.
And my belief in the power of creativity—as a way of living, leading, and listening to myself—has only deepened.

✨ Optimizing Creativity Collaborative ✨
A guided creative and leadership journey through The Artist’s Way

Four years ago, I pulled The Artist’s Way off a shelf at my favorite bookstore—Buxton Village Books. I didn’t have a plan. I just felt something in me asking for space.

Just space to rest, reflect, and breathe.

That kind of quiet matters to me—and I’m making room for more of it.

What about you?
What’s one good thing you want to carry forward into 2026?

Instead of asking what needs to change, I’m asking something softer—and more powerful:
What is one positive experience I want to intentionally replicate in 2026?

For me, it’s taking time just for me.
A slow getaway.
No caretaking. No accommodating. No managing anyone else’s needs.

This week I am in Buxton, on Hatteras Island, North Carolina—a place that invites me to slow all the way down.

As the year closes, I’m taking time to reflect on what’s been, thoughtfully plan for what’s ahead, and get quiet enough to hear myself again.

Sunday ritual:
Local bookstore. Writing. One beautiful home design book to slow my mind.

Today it was The Principles of Pretty Rooms—and suddenly I was dreaming up the living room of my future beach house 🌊

What inspires or relaxes you?
And can you give yourself a few minutes of it today?

I’m grateful to my colleagues and collaborators who made this work possible.

📄 www.pcori.org/sites/defaul...

How might you or your organization incorporate person-centered approaches in research and care? Let me know if you would like to discuss

People with IDD and their families have historically been excluded from many areas of health research. This roadmap is a step toward changing that — ensuring that voices of people with lived experience are central in the research process.

Thrilled to share that I co-authored “A Roadmap for Accelerating Research in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities using PCORnet” with an incredible group of experts from across the US. And I’ll be able to share another update on this work soon!!!

📄 www.pcori.org/sites/defaul...

4 years ago today, I shared this image of Hatteras OBX and wrote:

“No rain, no rainbows.
Cloudy days always close and lead to sun-filled tomorrows.
So I will continue to practice sitting in the present with all it includes… so I can see tomorrow even more
clearly and fully alive.”

💜
Still true.

Please join us next Tuesday to hear our PCORI project finding and learn from incredible North Carolina and National Disability Advocates about advancing health research with the IDD community. It is free and open to everyone. Register here duke.is/7/nr6b

It’s a beautiful, quiet night on campus. And this view of the #dukechapel never grows old. #foreverduke

The cover of Uncommon Kitchens by Sophie Donelson. A kitchen brightly colored modern kitchen with bright blue tiles, a red stove, a green table, and what cabinets

My design inspo for today. #sabbathrest #knowandbeknown