Once we believe in ourselves...

Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit. ~ e.e. cummings

As I read and pondered on Module 37: Self-Confidence Practical Methods for Building Your Self-Confidence Muscle I was struck time and again by the realisation that rather than someone Trying To Get Someplace, I'm someone Who Has Arrived Somewhere.

To say this was [and still is] a surprise would BE, ummmmmmm… well, understating the obvious.

It occurs to me that I am no longer scurrying and hurrying and all at loose ends. MayBE it is BEing in my 60^th year or mayBE it is just what it is.

Both Vision Interviews were “tiny adventures close to home” for me. Amy Clover returned me to 1986, probably the most Touch And Go If This Hasn’t Killed Me I Think I Am Here For The Long Haul year of my Life. I got intimately acquainted with cognitive BEhavioural therapy that year, something I have carried along with me though NOT something I have always remembered to practise when my need to practise it has been the greatest.

Gratefully, I can Now say Amy’s swift yet gentle nudge in that direction has encouraged me to shift into a new habit of using those tools to write down, writing in pen or pencil, NOT on the computer, much of the noise in my head that just bangs about like a toddler in a kitchen with all the pots and their lids to play with. I have blown right through a few Okay I Am Now Officially In The Zone Of Currie Crazies, finding myself travelling a more tranquil path in what feels like moments, though really it is more like an hour or two… that writing, I am Now remembering, takes a lot of energy, but oh my is it ever worth the effort.

I loved Amy’s philosophy of Empowerment coming from the inside. So often, despite knowing that my thoughts create my Life, I get to thinking about things I KNOW won’t bring me to a happy place, encourage my dreams, or let me BE of Service in the World. The capacity to STOP and empower myself by challenging those runaway thoughts is always there. I suppose, well, I suppose I got lazy and I also wandered far afield from this way of living and BEing.

In Lisa Braithwaite’s interview I was immediately struck by SIMILARITIES. I love when that happens. It seemed for me like I’d passed along a long stretch of highway without seeing anything that looked familiar. As I read her sharing about her panic attacks, yet more than the attacks, her way of accepting and dealing with them as just part of Life, I had one of those moments where I caught myself nodding and smiling as I read. There are aspects of that in MY Life, NOT the same but similar, and my process is simply to accept that as true for me.

One of the most brilliant things Lisa said was that she encourages her clients to embrace their uniqueness. She goes on to say that when you are speaking, publicly, people will judge you, that in fact this is what we DO. It isn’t a “bad thing” and in fact, it is amazing, really, how good it feels to judge and BE judged. I love how this turned me round and made my thinking get a little more sparkly.

Another part of Lisa’s interview that turned my similarities meter up was when she said that we need to BE humble about how much we need to learn. I have noticed in these past few months, since I BEgan participating in various online art challenges, how refreshing it is that no one, including ME, thinks they are “all that” and how no one is running around and saying Me Me Me, look at ME!!!!

Each and every time I participate I am encouraged, inspired, and I LEARN SO MUCH. What’s more, what I share either in my posts or in my comments to others, and oftentimes both, is HOW I am learning and WHAT I am DOing to learn or practise. Just this weekend I received several emails from people who have either asked me more about it, said how what I shared I am DOing has inspired them to try something similar, and gave us a REAL connection. NOT a “good job” and we’re out sort of comment, but a real connection person-to-person.

So Now, back to e.e. cummings’ quote from this module’s Mission Brief. The thing about BElieving in ourselves preceding taking a RISK is utterly spot-on true. NO passing GO, no collecting $200. For way too long I have had that turned the other way.

Amazing…CHC

Some Rambling Thoughts On Getting Things Done

In a perfect World, which I don’t live in, I would have something wise and Grasshopper-ish to add to this. So… living in this World, where oftentimes things are hurtling down the track at such breakneck speed that I run, duck, and cover almost out of habit, let me say only that along with the age-old wisdom I learned in Kindergarten, “when you hold hands with your partner don’t pick your nose,” Thich Nhat Hanh is a mighty wise dude.

In Module 36: Gentle Productivity of A Year With Myself, I was re-introduced to a few insights about Getting Things Done that, frankly, no longer even apply to me. And this is NOT BEcause I don’t live in the same World with other humans who are breathing in and out and living from experience to experience. It IS, however, BEcause I am less concerned with things getting “done” and more apt to shine my light onto the wonder of DOing things.

For instance, I recently started participating in what I am learning are called everything from memes and blog-hops to challenges and prompt-inspired events. Sometimes they are billed as parties. This is, frankly, Very Cool Beans for someone like me. I have always loved taking an idea, suggestion, or gentle nudge and running with it.

I Now have a growing group of people I’ve never met face-to-face who I am engaging with in a meaningful way and they are All Over This Planet!!! It’s NOT that this practise is new-to-me, but what is new is the underlying intention.

It seems that these folks also enJOY a gentle guideline and very specific window of opportunity. And they too have even MORE fun going off to visit and see what others have been up to. And leaving a comment or just an encouraging word. Golly what a difference THAT makes.

They are present or absent without story or excuses. They are full of information and willing to help and literally seem to step right through the Wildly Weird Wacky World called The Internet and sit BEside me right here in the Wee Cottage, guiding me along, encouraging me, and helping me find the questions I need to ask that I don’t know enough to know I need to ask.

This has BEcome my measure of productivity. And this is good. For me. For Now.

I loved the reminders and insights and great suggestions throughout Module 36. I enJOYed the Vision Interviews, in particular Lisa Baldwin’s “best advice to creative women who want to find a gentler path to getting great things done.”

She says, Listen to your self. Trust your own process, even when it’s weird. Be curious about your ways. And do everything you can to sculpt an environment that supports you and your work in the world.

So here’s what I see. Life is a Journey and there is NEVER EVER going to BE that ethereal roadside oasis where we get all of our buttons counted and are deemed “done.” Done isn’t the objective. DOing is. DOing with what brings ME [or YOU, or, hey, mayBE both of us!!! ;~D] JOY and a happy heart.

A Life BEwildering…

 

Module 35: The Flow  Why You Procrastinate and How to Stop It in A Year With Myself is a curiously inspiring module. Well, for me anyway. And inspiring is the right word for me to use here. Sometimes, perhaps due to the amount of time I spend living my own little Life out here on my own, I discover I’ve lost perspective on How Others Live.

I made up a “rule” for myself some years back which is: I won’t spend more time thinking or talking about something than it takes me to START IT, or even just DO IT. As a world-class worrier obsessed with recreating the past, this “rule” has given me the traction to stay in Right Now, get my eyes OFF that rearview mirror, and NOT imagine I have a crystal ball about what’s up ahead round that next bend…

It was insightful to read about the rituals, routines, and creative practises of the two instigators, Tia Sparkles and Cynthia Morris. It is refreshing and encouraging to see that their discoveries mirror my own in many ways. I was reminded that there are as many paths to live Life on, none really better or worse than another AS LONG AS THEY ARE WORKING FOR YOU…

In my Life I have pretty much eliminated the issue of procrastination. I stay in this day and this moment. Since letting go of my car in April, this has really made itself clear. So many things, having to BE mindful about HOW A) I am going to get there to DO them, and B) get back home again, quickly reveal their unnecessary-ness. Likewise, putting something OFF that needs to BE done Now is no longer a luxury I can afford.

The larger picture from this module is how I see Life and my place in it. There is Life and Currie’s Life. NOT necessarily intersecting. NOT always on the same page. I never realised how much I forced MY WAY onto Life [as well the people in mine]. When I “hit the wall” in late March of this year, when I was “out of schemes and solutions,” the idea popped into my mind about letting go of my car.

This was NOT even a consideration. NOT on my radar. Furthest thing from my mind… and then, in a blink, it was The Answer For ME At This Time. Everything, and I DO MEAN EVERYTHING shifted in that one moment. The way it unfolded, the things it made possible, and the gift it is to me, a gift that keeps on giving, these are things I never could have imagined part of Currie’s Life.

So… I was deliciously delighted by this week’s Venture Maps. Connecting the Dots really sings to me. In particular:

 Narrow thinking keeps people within the imaginary boundaries of the box and stuck dealing with the same old problems.

Creative thinking goes outside the imaginary boundaries of the box and discovers innovative ways of solving problems.

Are you faced with a lingering problem in your life or your business that you could solve by thinking and going outside your box?

I’ve found a way of living my Life that is way BEyond any box I have ever constructed round myself or found myself living in. It’s definitely in The Flow…