Faith & Trust – Learning to Pay Closer Attention to Intuitive Wisdom Adventures in Awareness Issue #13 “At the heart of each of us, whatever our imperfections, there exists a silent pulse of perfect rhythm that is absolutely individual and unique, and yet which connects us to everything else.” - George Leonard, American writer, editor and educator who wrote extensively about human potential (1923 - Jan 6 2010) Faith & Trust Learning to Pay Closer Attention to Intuitive Wisdom As I was gathering the information for our ‘Energy Soup’ Report, this Full Moon’s theme of Faith and Trust is what I’ve found myself grappling with the last few weeks. Over time, I’ve repeatedly experienced how accurate my intuitive wisdom is, provided I not only am aware of its messages but that I have the Faith and Trust to follow that wisdom, that is. What I’ve discovered is that when I give myself spaciousness within my daily routines and schedules, I’m ‘in the flow’. Spaciousness supports me in trusting my inner wisdom and having faith that following it will lead me to the people, situations, and experiences that inspire me. I no longer choose to move through my life only going from one task to the next, or one meeting to the next, feeling like a ball ricocheting around a pinball machine. The pinball machine analogy also reminds me that when that ‘busy-ness’ ball is in motion, there are lights, bells, whistles and other distractions going on the entire time. My intuitive wisdom is a kinder, gentler version of those lights and bells, serving not as a distraction, but rather...
Mistakes – DOH! It’s All About Making a Conscious Choice of Perspective Adventures in Awareness Issue #12 “Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here.” - Neil Gaiman, author of “Make Good Art” Mistakes - DOH! It’s All About Making a Conscious Choice of Perspective Having just returned from a 5-day road trip vacation to Glacier National Park, I’ve been contemplating the concept of mistakes. Why? Because, boy howdy, did we encounter a ton of those in that five days! And there have even been some mistakes since coming home – Holy cow! These mistakes range from the minor to the ridiculous, as these may illustrate: Mistake 1: requesting a lower floor for our first night’s lodging, which was at a mountaintop ski lodge. Our ‘view’ was of a dirt path and pedestrian bridge - on a mountaintop! - and the lodge was fully booked, so no option to change rooms. Mistake 2: refusing to backtrack our original entry point to Sandpoint and getting nowhere fast, literally going in circles. And mistake 2a: squabbling with each other about it the entire time. Mistake 3: a deluded idea that our black convertible would remain shiny and bright throughout the trip. We stayed at a real ranch while in Montana as a wonderfully adventurous thing to do, yet the roads in and out were gravel and dusty. And several highways along our route were being resurfaced, some with miles and miles of nothing but dirt & gravel to drive across. Needless to say, our Mercedes...
Assumptions – A contributing Factor to Miscommunication Adventures in Awareness Issue #11 “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” - George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, essayist & short story writer as well as co-founder of the London School of Economics (Jul 26 1856-Nov 2 1950, age 94) “The very ground of your being, out of which comes all your thoughts, is silence…When you arrive in your own silence you will know true freedom and real power. Stop, take a minute, and listen to the silence within you today. Then be aware of what disturbs your inner silence. It could be negative thoughts, memories, sensations. And when you are aware, you will know what is draining your creative power, and you will know what needs to change…on the inside!” (Unknown) Assumptions A Contributing Factor to Miscommunication Over the last month or more, I’ve noticed that within each coaching conversation my clients and I were unraveling assumptions from facts related to the session’s topic area. As we traced each assumption backward and finally unearthed the simple facts, we were astonished by the different choices that became visible. With each conversation, I became more curious about my own ‘assumption habits’ and have been observing them with fascination. A case in point: a couple of weeks ago I had a telephone interview with a potential client who had contacted me about coaching. During our conversation, I took notes as I typically do and wrapped up by asking when she would be making her choice of coach. She said she had some company arriving the next week...
Introspection – The ‘Perfect Space’ for a New Moon Adventures in Awareness Issue #10 “There is so much about my fate that I cannot control…but other things do fall under the jurisdiction. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I can read and eat and study. I can choose how I’m going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life-whether I will see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts.” - Elizabeth M. Gilbert, American author, essayist, short story writer & memoirist (18 Jul 1969-) Introspection - The ‘perfect space’ for a New Moon Heartfelt thanks and much appreciation to those of you who reached out because you realized my messages had been missing in recent weeks. I am aware once again that it’s important to leave a bit more white space and introspective time than I did. As I write that, I chuckle because I realize that there will likely be one or more times that will occur. You’ve never done that, right? [Wink, wink] And speaking of introspective time, I’m still immersed in that for now with a myriad of thoughts and ideas whirling that are not yet quite ready to come together. My ‘muse’ and I have agreed to go with the flow, which means this message is purposely short. As I began these ‘Adventures…’ messages, I promised myself that they would emerge...
Collaboration – The Importance of Clear Agreements Adventures in Awareness Issue #9 “If people work together in an open way with porous boundaries - that is, if they listen to each other and really talk to each other - then they are bound to trade ideas that are mutual to each other and be influenced by each other. That mutual influence and open system of working creates collaboration.” - Richard Thomas, actor (13 Jun 1951- ) Collaboration - The importance of clear agreements Having delivered a 2-day workshop for an intact work team last week with a colleague, I’m in the process of reflecting on what went well and what I will pay closer attention to in future. While my colleague and I spent several months in multiple conversations collaborating on the workshop design and how we planned to customize it for this group, we experienced a bit of a rocky time delivering it. In all fairness, it was the first time we’d co-facilitated this particular process together, and we each have different levels of experience in facilitating it. What I’m clear about so far is that it would have been beneficial to capture the verbal agreements on paper that we were making between us throughout our planning conversations. The primary benefit this would have given us is the opportunity to clarify our individual ‘definitions’ of what each agreement truly meant right up to and during the workshop. By doing so, discovery of any as-yet-undiscovered or unnamed expectations of each other can surface and be dealt with in the moment. The reality is that we were each operating under...
Courage and Self-Doubt – Your Inner Bully as a Catalyst Adventures in Awareness Issue #8 “I’ve come to realize that courage isn’t about feeling brave, it’s a willingness to move through an assumption and pass out the other side. And every time I confront this bully of self-doubt and make headway, my self-respect grows.” - Jay Fulcher, Contemplative, Colleague, Friend- Richard Thomas, actor (13 Jun 1951- ) Tomorrow brings us New Moon, which signals a time to go within and take stock [see the ‘energy soup’ below]. This month is also about ‘new alignment’ for liberation: liberation from limiting thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and yes, liberation from our very own ‘Inner Bully’. [Please see the quote in the sidebar from my colleague and friend Jay]. As I’ve been walking through my process of inner reflection for what’s next and have moved forward with new and exciting opportunities, I’ve noticed that at times my Inner Bully speaks up with self-doubt phrases like, “What you have to say has all been said before, so why bother?”. Or it says, “Who do you think you are…?”. This same type of inner dialog is also showing up for my clients as we explore what’s ahead for them, leading to feelings of fear and frustration; fleeting they may be, but present nonetheless. It helps me to remember that although what I have to offer may not be ‘new’, my perspective on it is unique and deserves to be offered from my heart as I share Life with my fellow journeyers. For me, the key has been to remember that I have a CHOICE about how...
