Tag: mindfulness

Creating, Co-creating, Focusing on Inspiration

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In my desire to stay healthy and well – mentally and physically – in times that feel chaotic and uncertain, I am in deep co-creation with others and I am following people who I feel inspired by. This post offers a few of the resources and sources I find helpful. Maybe you can add a few.

My partner Jerry and I have been writing extensively on how to create and sustain a Healthy Workplace Culture as we build a year-long program for a partner. Through this, we have developed a wealth of information, strategies and processes that we are now building into new virtual and in-person offerings with practical guidance that will make a difference to those who take part in them. The program is exciting and energizing and we are looking forward to launching it in January 2025, beginning with free online presentations to describe the program and what people will gain in the 4-part online series we are planning to offer in March 2025.

We are also offering an Art of Hosting Conversations that Matter 2 day Intensive in Bloomington, MN on February 27 and 28, 2025. It is a nourishing program in a supported space where people learn and experience patterns and practices to improve facilitation and hosting skills and is particularly attuned to the times we are living and working in.

I have deepened my spiritual practice as a way to stay grounded and present. In this vein, Dana Pearlman and I are co-creating a series of spiritual and magical offerings under the umbrella of the Inner Wisdom Lab. We are currently creating a self-guided program called Invoking Magic, Healing and Spiritual Power Through Ritual Practices with the Elements. It is full of goodness and offers practical guidance on how to stay focused and elevated above the fray of these times. I can’t wait for us to make it live in the world.

The Inner Wisdom Lab that Dana Pearlman and I are building is a refuge for those of us wanting to deepen our spiritual practice of connecting with our higher selves, inner wisdom and knowledge. You can join the FB group or check out the YouTube Channel where we have an Inner Wisdom Playlist. Specifically, you can check out this short video where Dana and I share what our post US election emotional experience has been along with what we are doing to nourish ourselves.

Shades of Life Conversations, posted on this YouTube playlist, where Jerry Nagel, Tenneson Woolf and I show up and riff off of what has our attention in the moment. A number of those conversations focus on the power of story, patterns and trends that we are seeing and how we nurture ourselves or others. These are longer conversations, suitable to accompany a coffee or lunch break, doing the dishes or making dinner. We also had a post US election call and you can find it here.

A few of the writers, authors, poets and groups I find inspiring:

My news and social media consumption has dropped off starkly in the last months, which is great. It gives me more time to create, to focus on what is within my control and what can I offer now.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes wrote, “One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these – to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.”

Patterning New Habits To Feel Good and Be More Focused

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I have been “asleep” for over a year – since I dislocated a toe and stopped running. Running used to call me out of the house into the great outdoors. And it prompted other exercise as well. For over a year, I have not run, I have exercised intermittently, been a couch potato, eaten far more chips than is good for me and been self critical of my bad patterns. While I have held the intention to get more active again, with a travel schedule that makes routines difficult, it was easy to become a slouch.

Then there comes the moment when intention becomes reality and everything shifts. Even subtle shifts bring change. This September has marked that shift for me. I find myself being called outdoors again, even, or especially, in the middle of the day when the sun is shining. Not to run, but to walk. I know walking is good for me but until now it didn’t have the same pull as running used to. Then a friend suggested Nordic Walking with poles and my game shifted into a higher gear.

me-with-walking-sticksThe thing about walking with poles is that it changes your posture and gait. I call it power walking. The first time I used the poles, I was not in sync. My legs went twice as fast as before and my arms were moving at half the pace of my legs. I didn’t care. At least I was moving faster with seemingly little effort. The second time I went walking with the poles, it all came into sync. It was that quick. My posture is better, I hold my head high, my gaze straight ahead as I focus on synchronizing the rhythm of arms and legs. My gait is different and, again, it feels effortless to walk for almost an hour at a good pace. And the physicality brings more mindfulness and the more mindfulness brings more insight.

Regaining a better level of fitness, being outside, brings me joy. Pure and simple. And the walking reminds me of how simple it can be to repattern old habits into new ones. Other exercise is now easier to do, I feel better, I can already feel the changes in my body and I am becoming more focused which benefits my work. My energetic vibration is on a higher frequency and this means more of what I want is manifesting in my life.

It is also a reminder to be compassionate with self when in a pattern and rhythm you don’t like or that doesn’t seem to serve. The contrast alone is a helpful thing and holding the intention long enough gives it its own life force and it will eventually manifest. It cannot help but.

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