image by Elle Linda Yaven
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1. BREATHING ACHIEVERS
What speed are you?
One meaning of “anthropos”, or human being, is “to look up”.
I suggest this to the driven achievers I coach.
Strategists, quiet activators, learners -people who have a personal standard for how they like getting stuff done, can forget or override themselves. And not in the good way.
Rather than a productivet flow of self-forgetting, it's the scarcity kind.
Achiever types benefit from electing, whether blue sky or gray, evening darkness or moonlight, to raise their busy heads from even beautiful tunnel vision.
Not as needless interruption. Rather, a nod to the moment.
Any creative process worth its' salt has interludes of gaining and losing perspective. Taking a breathe streamlines a return to our fuller presence.
BFF-ing our own intensity for a taste of self-kindness is an option.
As an entrepreneur and longtime meditator, I'm a fan.
2. BFF-ing
Secreted in confusion, self-doubt or misdirected momentum is an opportunity to befriend your mind. Which has a mind of its' own behaving like a dictator/diva/elf.
A client from six years ago, recently returned for a refresher. Greg had jumped ship from successfully managing a UX team to entrepreneurship; he now ran his own agency. Calling his business building adventure intense, is putting it mildly.
He said he was in touch to “Make sense of the spaghetti my mind currently is.”
I knew him to be a busy being with a beautifully overactive mindset he learned to befriend. Years ago, I suggested he keep a book of haiku in his pocket to glance at for replenishing interference in his day.
I mentioned Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694).
Referring to this practice, it was sweet surprise to learn he had done exactly that. Without missing a beat, Greg recited a favorite:
tsunu mo oshi
tsumano mo oshiki
sumire kana.
I regret picking
and not picking
violets.
Anonymous from 1600's
And yet.
A steady diet of getting even worthy things done, including those who love what they do -gets to us. Savvy people can consider a pause in momentum -to catch a breath or ask "Am I even working on the right thing?" a bother.
Client's words:
"No matter how maxed out we are, people measure each other by bragging how busy they are".
“My goal is to take one deep breath a week”.
"I hesitate to meditate. I love my thoughts; I don’t want to get rid of them”.
Oh my gosh, they were preaching to the choir!
Meditation is not about denying thoughts, as much as BFF-ing its' endless rainbow and muddy variations.
Another, at the close of our sesh, was beaming. Asking how come, she replied “I haven’t looked at my phone once in 40 minutes."
We are all doing so much, taking care of so much, overextended in overdrive. On days immersed in a ton of input/output it's that message on an airplane to put on your air mask first so you can help others.
3. Just Arrive
There was no big reason, other than it felt right, to open my MBA classes and workshop facilitation with a brief meditation I named “Just Arrive”.
As an ensemble we move from a clenched, message delivery stance to generative letting (very George Harrison) it be -allowing the feels of the moment, the rush of momentum, be. Maybe subside.
Letting ourselves become flooded by a benevolent light-heartedness.
Good reverie helps the soul
take advantage of its rest and of an easy unity.
- Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Reverie (1884 - 1962)
4. Fresh Air
There's more good news.
Strategists, or really anyone who likes thinking things through, benefits from solo time in nature.
One client in tech began mountain climbing - Mera Peak in Nepal, Aconcagua in Argentina.
Quality time to simply listen, sort through the buzz going on in your upstairs.
It could also be three days later in the shower or on a run when next best steps are revealed.
Future scenario-building unfolds organically and intuitively.
Will you do it perfectly? Nope, cut yourself slack! ...Just Arrive to beginning. 🙂
I knew Greg had a dog. Rain or shine, he walks Tank every day.
As with dogs, so with active minds -constantly inventing, catalyzing, choosing, implementing!
The raw churn of powerhouse minds requires a daily walk too.
Literally and figuratively.
The fear & beauty of quieting is you
are the only other guest at the party.
One night I had a simple dream of how the priority is to think fresh thoughts every day.
Given half a chance, how willing your mind is to meet you where you are!
With consistent attention, nicely surprising doors open.
In unclenching 24/7 control, only imagined identities show up.
nor·mal·ize
ˈnôrmə,līz
verb
bring or return to a normal or standard condition or state.
They realized normalizing the care of their life as a communicator was ultimate self-care
mid 17th century (in the sense ‘right-angled’): from Latin normalis, from norma ‘carpenter's square’. Current senses date from the early 19th century.
3. THE GEOGRAPHY OF
BREATHING ROOM
All of humanity’s problems stem
from the inability of one human to sit
quietly in a room alone.
- Blaise Pascal, Mathematician & Physicist (1623 – 1662)
Whether a haiku, a three minute meditation or attending a 10 day silent retreat, peel away from velocity or urgency.
No matter how grubby, scattered or flustered:
Just arrive to where you happen to find yourself.
Just arrive to all there is to be done, to all you haven’t quite done and to all that won’t get done.
Vistas open -that's a promise!
Nothing to do but look up.
Inhale/exhale.
In one breath we let the unaltered present be itself.
Closing your eyes, listening to a dog, a car, a bell -we allow the possibility of ourselves, the scruffy work-in-progress we are, to bob to the surface.
How to begin? Be imperfect!
Just sitting.
Closing devices and eyes.
Opening hands.
Allowing for any nervousness, impatience or annoyance.
Allow the lush disengagement from speech to wash over you.
Melt for a minute.
Nothing to accomplish.
Just arrive.
Your very own impromptu “Come as you are” party!
(And now, am going to take my own advice:)
