Creatorship

A message to take to heart

 

 

Click to download The State of Ease Booklet.

 

An intelligent article about the nature of decisions and BP....

Here's an intelligent article by Deborah Mackin about the nature of decision making, the way our minds work, and why disasters like BP keep happening.

It's worth a read:

BP Oil Spill, the Challenger and Columbia Explosions, and the Deaths on Mt. Everest: Key Decision Making Tragedies and What We Can Learn 
From Them

I was going to write about Goldman Sachs..

I was going to write about Goldman Sachs: about how, now that Corporations are considered people, maybe they should be prosecuted as such; about how wealth generated in ways that harm others may indeed be immoral. 

BUT instead, I was distracted. It is still spring, a time when life shakes off the dormancy of winter and reawakens to show the world what its capable of.    

Spring is about the budding of what is beautiful and of what is nourishing to the soul. It's a reminder that it's when we lose sight of what is truly life giving that we settle for what is only wealth giving. 

I'd like to share a poem I read in Ian Berry's recent newsletter. It's about life, connection and contribution.

I will not die an unlived life. 
I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. 
I choose to inhabit my days, 
to allow my living to open to me, 
to make me less afraid, 
more accessible, 
to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. 
I choose to risk my significance: 
to live so that which came to me as seed 
goes to the next as blossom 
and that which came to me as blossom, 
goes on as fruit. 
           Dawna Markova

What else is there to say...

They forgave so they wouldn't be hostage to hostility...

Last night I watched the TV movie Amish Grace with my husband. I was familiar with the story. Oct. 2, 2006, a man walked into an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania and shooting, left five girls dead and five seriously wounded before taking his own life.  What was remarkable about the story was the fact the parents of the children and the Amish community forgave the shooter and befriended his widow and children. They forgave so that bitterness and anger wouldn't turn into  hostility... they would not close their hearts.

The movie brought me to tears so many times. The level of forgiveness that was given in the midst of such profound pain touched the depths of my soul.  My heart opened and I wondered had I forgiven all that I needed to. This was the potential of the human race....to rise above our violence, our personal pains, our desire for revenge and justice, to choose love no matter what. Forgiveness is not easy, as the Amish at the time said,

"...forgiveness is a journey, that you need help from your community of faith and from God, and sometimes even from counselors, to make and hold on to a decision to not become a hostage to hostility. "

Bill Moyer covers this remarkable story in his 6 min. review of the book, Amish Grace. It's worth a look.

Breakthrough

I've been stuck in my work recently and found some great help in a paper by Michael Neill "The Supercoaches, Part Two" - the section on "Discovering your Commitments".  He is talking about his own breakthrough work  he did with the Hendricks on commitment.

As I read, I understood that we are all committed to something, even when we think we aren't. It is just that what we are committed to may not be what we want.

I played with this idea, asking myself, "by staying stuck, what am I committed to?"  I just sat with the question and wrote down what I got without judging it. I let the statements flow, checking to see how they felt in my body. At one point I could feel a shift, a release.  I knew these statements captured my commitments to being stuck. For example,

I am committed to figuring it out all by myself

Ah, this was old stuff re-surfacing; my version of protecting myself from rejection. But my current work was demanding more of me. It was an opportunity to grow and be more conscious.

Then, in meditation, I sat with the statements and the vulnerability I felt in acknowledging them.   I asked my Higher Self, "OK what am I willing to commit to now?" I expected a laundry list. The simple answer I received was TRUST.

I commit to trusting God, myself and others.

Again, I could feel the energy shift inside. I am lighter.  

"The future is more beautiful than all the pasts." Teilhard de Chardin

P.S. I noticed while writing this post that the commitment exercise came to me through a friend just when I needed it; almost as if to reinforce "what's not to trust? "  <major grin>

Hanging on at the speed of light...

Technology is changing so rapidly its hard to keep up. When is it time to let go of old ways of doing things; old ways of thinking?

I've a Mac Computer, an old Palm and a back-up paper calendar. I like seeing my schedule laid out on paper in case my computer should crash. Yet this system is complex. I have to enter appointments into my palm, sync with my computer and then transfer them into my paper calendar. Recently I forgot to transfer an appointment and, well I missed the appointment.  I, who prides herself on reliability, lost it.

This happened at the same time I was exploring ordering a netbook for traveling to keep up with emails, blogs etc.  I felt overwhelmed.  I have a Mac  and an old PC laptop that gets used to patch my husband's networked PC through to the printer. Is a netbook a waste of money? Do I need to keep up when I'm out of town?  Does it matter if I'll have hundreds of emails when I get back?  Would I keep both PCs? Maybe I should dump my phone and get an iphone?

Melt down!!!!

Then, this morning I got it. It's what I've been been espousing to clients for a long time.

Define the end you want and the needs you are trying to meet. Center yourself (get coherent), let yourself know what your next step is. Do it!  Repeat as necessary.

What I want is to keep up with email/blogs when I'm out of town. My need is to be relaxed and not stress myself out. I like my phone. Soooo, I ordered a netbook and packed away my paper calendar.

Here's to going at the speed of light .... one baby step at a time.

Coming off a seven day fast

I've just finished a seven day Master Cleanse (or the Lemonade Diet) as a way to give myself a jump start for the New Year. What did I learn?

1) Cravings are in my head. Hunger is in my belly.  When I start craving food if I check in with my stomach, I'm usually not hungry. Rather it is the images and smells I can conjure up from memory that are driving me. 

2) If I wait and go do something else, the craving will pass. 

3) I learned from Oprah's show recently that another good thing to do is ask the question "What am I really hungry for?"  For me it turned out that sometimes I just wanted a break from the work I was doing or, I needed to do something with my hands instead of my brain.

Fasting brings awareness of how use you food in your life.

Now it turns out for me, coming off the cleanse is harder than doing the cleanse. Once I start to eat food again, I can conjure up delicious tasting pizzas, cheese sandwiches (always things high in fat I've noticed) that I must have.  NOW!

What is my strategy to avoid the "pigging out phase" I'm so vulnerable to? 

Eat consciously!

Jo in her blog suggests the following:

"Savour your food.  I know we were told to eat more slowly as kids.  That’s important, I believe.  I mean enjoy what you are eating.  Eat what you enjoy and really savour it.  Celebrate each mouthful.  Enjoy the taste, the texture, the smell, the colour, the combinations." 

I love her word "savour' because when I'm in an eating frenzy mood I am usually

• multi-tasking (reading, watching TV) and not paying attention to what I'm eating, or
• just tired and trying to get energy (I should just nap)

In either case I am certainly not savoring the food.

So I am practicing savoring my food, and so far so good.

Are you interested in a fasting?   Here are some other cleanses to consider In addition to the Master Cleanse.

Rebel Belle is doing the Raw Diva Detox (free on line).

If you want to do a more intense cleanse, there is Dr. Shulze's Cleansing programs. I did his 30 day detox after I was diagnosed with breast cancer in '94. It is good but not for the weak of heart nor at a time you have a tough work schedule.

Living the dog's life?

This recently came in an email. How does it strike you?

• If you can start the day without caffeine or pills,
• If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
• If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
• If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
• If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
• If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him,
• If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,
• If you can conquer tension without medical help,
• If you can relax without liquor,
• If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
• ...Then You Are Probably The Family Dog!

Hmmm! Creatorship requires we pay attention to our intentions. For what purpose was this written? True it reminded me of how much we can learn from our pets, but it did so by implying we could never live this way with our endless shortcomings and stress filled lives. Is this the picture we want of ourselves?

Is this related to work? It might be. How much we do secretly envy the simple life of a dog. I wonder if our quest for the perfect leader is a cover for our wish to have a good master, so we too could live without cares and worries.

At the core of creatorship is the belief we can live more easily, with greater enjoyment and true abundance. How? Check out the this 20 min. talk by Tony Robbins for some ideas.

If what you focus on you reinforce, let's consider a new ending. How would the ending change if we were able to do those things listed above? Perhaps the ending would then read:

• ...Congratulations! You are probably well on your way to living the life of your dreams. Enjoy!

When nonsense makes sense

Learning to manage our thoughts and emotions so we can effectively set and hold our intentions is a skill set not taught in school. What do you do when worry descends like a wet blanket? You know that focusing on what you want is important and focusing on what you don't want only attracts it. BUT, how do you shift out of worry?

Well, Debbie Call has experienced a technique that at first blush sounds, well like gibberish. Her post, "Taming Worry Through Gibberish", describes her experience with doing a 21 day "gibberish" meditation that not only stopped her worrying, but led her to a sense of greater peace and increased her capacity for staying present during her day.

A simple meditation technique, the version Debbie learned can be found at http://www.anandagalleria.com/ where you can click on meditations in the left-hand column. When that page comes up, select "Life Bliss Program Meditation Techniques."  Another version brought to Debbie's attention by Prem Dana Takada can be previewed at OSHO meditations where you can scroll down to "Gibberish and Let Go" which when you click on it, will give an explanation of what to do.

Whether this approach calls to you or not, see it as a resource. And perhaps more importantly as we cover other techniques for personal mastery notice what works for you and what you actually end up using. The techniques you use end up being the most effective <grin>.

Happy gibberishing!