Why Journal Now?

Life has been turned on its head.
Now more than ever the energy & emotions we are feeling each day need to be given a way out, so that the energy of a renewed life can find its way in.

Living in this climate of the uncertainty can create stress, frustration and anxiety, leaving us feeling unsettling to say the least. The dreams and goals we had been nurturing which have now come to a halt, need to be given a place to continue to grow, to take shape and to come into greater clarity, especially at a time when what we can do about our goals may be limited.  Journalling provides a welcomed exchange between our inner & outer energies as well as a structured, reliable way to be with all that is going on within us.

With our usual routines dismantled -life and time feels odd at the moment. There is an urgent frantic energy in the air and at the same time with fewer demands being placed on our time we can more easily slip into the depth of any given moment. It is as if we are moving in rapid slow motion is it just me?

Even if it was our personal fantasy to slow down our hectic lives, now that this has come true, we are finding that we are faced with unexpected challenges from simply being alone with our thoughts and our feelings. On the one hand there is some joy with being able to be at choice with much of our time and actions, on the other hand we are having all of '“our stuff” pop up, the stuff that life typically keeps us too busy to notice.

I share this truth with a measure of optimism as it also feels like we are being given a back-handed opportunity to see this stuff and all of our habits, good, bad, ugly etc. as they are being exposed to us. So it is perhaps by way of these slower days, free from the clutter of life‘s usual distractions, that we now have the opportunity to witness ourselves more clearly and to be intentional with our time, awareness and presence. Journaling is the “just right’” thing to do with this newly available ever-lasting time.

The COVID Invitation

Perhaps by now you’ve cleaned out the basement and/or garage, re-organized the kitchen and all your closets, caught up with friends and distant relatives, whom you haven’t spoken with in years…

The desire to check in with loved ones and colleagues is greater than ever. The push to stay connected via the media, news and social media for updates and instructions has a sense of urgency to it.

We are seeing more clearly than ever (literally as the skies are freed from our polluting ways) the significance and impact of our outside lives. At the same time we are becoming more affixed and identified within the safety and comfort of our indoor lives.

We must take a breath and look up from our screens to further recognize the calling to tend to the most central layer of our being. We are being gifted the chance to find and explore this deeper home within ourselves. This is perhaps our greatest opportunity. By exploring this internal home, we are enlivening another layer of our very existence, a home within which, much like those distant relatives, seldom get visited with.

You’re invited -Come, sit quietly and be present with yourself. Find attunement. Embrace the gift of seeing with softer eyes, your habits of distraction, resistance, meaning making and self-sabotage, the habits which so often occupy the stage of our unconscious. Take some time to notice what typically gets brushed off, like the celebrations and accomplishments we down play. This is perhaps our most alluring invitation during this time. Deepen your relationship with mind, body and the soulful you who has already been ‘shut in’ for far longer then this shelter-in-place mandate.

As a way to balance the need to be attuned to others as well as with ourselves, might this daily journaling invitation be your next opportunity, your next personal project, your very own Personal Ownership Project?

Join me if you wish to do more than just stay in but to also intentionally and quietly tune in to all that you have inside to explore. Sign up @ the Personal Ownership Project.

Why Journal?

Journaling helps us to climb inside our whole self and stay there for a while.

We humans tend to be owned by our heads a bunch -too much. So it’s good to get all that’s going on in our heads out of us and too also take the time to notice the bodies that are holding up our heads! When you journal, you create the needed space for this shift of awareness - you provide a passage for the illusive details in life to land quietly within you so that you may see and be with them often for the first time.

This time of reflection, sorting and gathering of self is a commitment to go toward and attune to your underlying truth. A simple routine which helps you to embody your energy of purpose each day. Once there, gathered and focused, you can take your collected energy and self into whatever you wish to be or do with your day.

So…

Why journal?
To get to know yourself through conversation and deepen your relationship with whole self, mind and body. To reflect, to meditate, to envision, to strengthen your voice and your health. To be seen and heard by someone who cares -you.  

Why journal?
Journaling helps to relieve stress. It provides the opportunity to gently tune into your challenges with greater focus and clarity. It keeps you connected to your intentions, helps you to track your emotional and physical self and helps you to reflect on the meaning you make out of your life experiences. In this process you gain clarity, so much so, that all of your relationships become clearer as well.

Why journal?
Because all that is within you is calling to be sat with -your light, your dark, your hurt, your peace, your fear and your bravery. And, just maybe this is the time you’ve been collecting all those blank journals for?

Join me in journaling daily, sign up @ the Personal Ownership Project.

Uncovering Our Defining Beliefs

What is the idea behind examining our belief systems?

Good and bad, all of our life experiences shape us, and go on to create beliefs that we then carry, about life and the world around us.  These beliefs that we develop are usually meant to be purposeful, at least when they come about, to keep us feeling safe and ok about ourselves in the world.  So, we reinforce these beliefs, and then go on to rely on them to inform the decisions and choices we make in life, both consciously and unconsciously. 

When we decide to investigate our beliefs and bring them more prominently into our awareness, we can come to understand why we developed them in the first place and then be more decisive about whether they are still working for us.  

Why might we need to do this in our lives?

Each and every one of us is ruled by our belief systems to varying degrees. 

Everything we do and don’t do, and every decision we make is, connected to a choice and a belief held in our belief system.

Consider, that thing you really want to make happen for yourself but still haven’t? 

Perhaps it just needs more time?  Or quite possibly, some part of your belief system is involved in creating limitations within you and keeping that thing from happening.

We call these beliefs, limiting beliefs. We all have limiting beliefs, many of which originated in childhood and have been a part of us for so long they have become very strong.  Some of these old ones have even lead to us creating life habits around them.  These are the limiting beliefs we want to go after, so that they don’t negatively impact our choices, our actions and ultimately our lives, forever.

I think of our belief system in the same way I think of all the other systems of the body, i.e.; respiratory, digestive, circulatory, nervous system, etc.

All though it is not physical in the same way, I think of the belief system as most like the respiratory system in that it too can be consciously altered.  With our respiratory system, we can choose to hold our breath if we want, or slow our breathing down, etc. and much, if not most of the time, we just breath rather unconsciously.  This is true of how our belief system works, we can go along in life making nearly unconscious decisions with it everyday.  The good news is we can also slow it down and make very different intentional choices and change our belief systems in order to support our selves in the way we wish.

Through the understanding of the mind-body connection, we have come to understand that a healthy belief system can have just as much impact on our well being as all the other bodily systems.

Here is a personal example of this within myself.  For years I believed I could not draw.  Then later in life, as I was assisting in a 5th grade class as part of a special project I was involved in, I found myself reliving a personal experience I had had in grammar school in an art class that did not go well.  I remembered the day vividly and how miserably my project came out.  My work did not meet my expectations or the expectations of my teacher, who promptly said to me, “it’s ok, not everyone can draw“.  At that point in my life, I decided for myself, that I was one of those people and that “I can’t draw”. 

I proceeded to carry that belief with me in life for many years (reinforcing it along the way when drawing came into play, “I can’t draw”, “I can’t draw”…) until this day when I was acting as teaching assistant.  The teacher I was working with on this day insisted that everyone can draw and she even showed us how.  This was a huge break through for me as I sat there participating right along side the fifth graders drawing!  Aside from the short instruction she gave, the truly changing aspect for me was the story and consequently the new belief in my mind that “everyone can draw”!  I’m not saying that I am a newly born fine artist, but I am now, not the least bit apprehensive to put pencil to paper.

How have you’ve seen it work for your clients?

Recently I had a client recognize that she believed the people in her life weren’t ok on their own and that she had to take care of everyone else.  When she first became aware of this, she didn’t even think of it as a belief, but instead as just a fact of life that she had accepted long ago. 

As we identified that it was in fact a belief of hers, she was able to understand how it came about and begin work on shifting it.  As she was able to turn this belief around and test it out, she was rewarded with a new way of being in her life, which allowed her to trust and come to know, that others truly can take care of themselves. 

This lifted a huge burden she had carried in her life for so long.  In reflection she realized that she had missed out on so many opportunities because of how this belief impacted what she allowed herself to do.  Now with her newly gained awareness and newly re-worked belief, she is making all sorts of new choices and adventuring out.

Another client uncovered a limiting belief, that he identified coming about as a result of a humiliating experience at about age 10, where he decided he was “not good at being in charge”.  Because he had taken this experience and belief to heart, it caused him to hang back, stay in the shadows in group projects in school and then later in life, to not take any professional or career risks in which he might have to be innovative or lead.  As you might imagine, this really limited his professional advancement.  Shortly after we uncovered this belief and re-worked it, he volunteered to do a presentation for his colleagues at work on a subject that he had taken upon himself to pursue!

What are the steps we need to take to do this?

Working with a coach is a wonderful intentional way to work through uncovering your limiting beliefs.  Either way, with a coach or on your own, It takes a gentle, non-judgmental process of self-witnessing and consideration.

Here are some steps to get started on your own:

-Slow down, add pause and self-witnessing to your decision making process and take an honest look at what’s behind your choices and decisions. 

-If they are motivated by a negative belief then that is a limiting belief that you are carrying.  It may be an old belief that you are holding onto simply out of habit.

-Next ask yourself “Why do I hold on to that belief?”  “Where did it come from?”  Even if, or maybe especially if, it is a negative belief, there is usually a powerful feeling and reason you believe this.  "Is it really true?"  Could there be another truth?"

-Then ask yourself “In what way do I benefit from keeping this belief?” Sometimes you have to really think outside of the box here to find this answer.  It can even be counterintuitive, but look closely, because however unreasonable it may be, there is always something you are getting out of your beliefs. 

-Next ask yourself “What ‘life rules’ have I created for myself as a result of holding this belief?”  And, “What has holding this belief kept me from being and doing?”

-If after this process of examination you wish to re-write this belief, ask yourself, “What new positive belief would I like to hold instead?”  And also, “What new ‘life rules’ would I like to make for myself pertaining to the new belief?”

 -Then practice these and remind yourself of them often.

Anything else we need to know?

Our belief system is wired into our brains, thereby creating an auto pilot scenario from which we can ‘safely’ take actions repeatedly, over and over, rooting a reaction, connected to a belief, turning it into a habit... 

So, as we’ve discussed, adding pause and mindful witnessing to our experiences and the beliefs they touch upon, will help us to stop and make different choices.  Overtime as we become freer in our thinking and our choosing, we can have new experiences that support new positive beliefs.  This shifts the whole pattern so that we can then, from our new beliefs, create new habits and eventually the new normal we desire.

Notes On Unitasking

Unitasking, an idea whose time has come.  

Seems straight forward, and it is, but it can be challenging to put into play in as a culture of chronic multitaskers.  The idea behind unitasking is to simply, focus your attention on being with, or doing, one thing at a time. We are essentially giving more of ourselves to one subject, person, or experience.

It makes for situations that are freer from a lot of stimulus, which creates a stronger sense of presence; deepening our connection, with the one thing that we are giving our attention to.   Unitasking is a simple way to make any moment mindful practice, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, no need to be in the yoga studio or on your meditation cushion. 

Why do we need to use it in our lives?

Unitasking is a mindfulness tool that is helpful in creating so much for us in our lives.  It heightens our ability to focus and to be free from distraction, which helps us to be more efficient in doing the one thing we have chosen to do. Over time we build and strengthen these muscles in the mind, making focusing our attention easier.

Unitasking helps improve memory function, and not only will we remember what we have done more clearly, unitasking improves comprehension, so, we will take it in and understand it to a greater degree as well!

It helps us to slow down and to embrace the notion of trust, with regard to time.  In other words, trusting that there is enough time in our lives to be and do all that we want to. 

It puts into play a mentality of ‘time being plentiful’ rather then ‘time being scarce’.   This is a welcomed new practice and an attitude adjustment with huge psychological benefits. 

It is a lovely alternative to feeling maxed out and as if there is never enough time, which is unfortunately reinforced in a culture where we often inflate the importance of being busy.

The idea of unitasking is definitely a change in attitude, but it is tangible because it is actually a physical change to our way of doing, along with the attitude shift.  It is a change that gives us permission to live with a more graceful energy inside of us, rather then a frazzled, hurried energy inside of us.  Anyone who feels ‘rushed and busy’ all the time, can benefit greatly by embracing unitasking.

How have you’ve seen it work for your clients?

I coach a lot of creatives and I’ve seen that slowing down, unitasking and trusting their process has made for a deeper connection to their creative flow, and has truly freed up their creative energy.

I’ve seen both parents & partners build stronger more intimate connections when they unitask in their relationships, by intentionally giving their loved ones their undivided focused attention.

In general clients report that when they have given the people in their lives, both personal and professional, their undivided focused attention, it creates an atmosphere where that person feels seen and heard at a more sincere or whole hearted level.  They also share that is seems to be contagious and that they then tend to be the recipient of focused attention in return.

What are the steps we need to take to uni-task?

Removing layers: Simply remove layers when possible to simplify the stimulus and allow yourself to be more present with the chosen layer.

Examples of this are, choosing silence in the car perhaps rather then the radio, especially when also having a conversation with others in the car.  Or, When you are walking your dog in the park, choosing to just be present in the moment at the park, taking in nature, rather then staring at our smart phones or catching up with someone in conversation on the phone.

Then, paying attention to and being open and curious about, what you are in the middle of experiencing, rather then thinking “how quickly can I get this done and get on to the next thing”.  Or asking yourself “What else could I be doing right now as well?”

Unifying our efforts: Often in multitasking we compartmentalize ourselves, while our bodies are busy doing one thing, we decide that our minds could be focused on something else, so we pull our active attention away from the thing our bodies are doing and get busy elsewhere with our minds.  In this moment, we have divided our efforts, our focus, and ourselves, energetically.

Ask any insomniac about how much work they got done last night while also trying to go to sleep.  This is the perfect example; our bodies are trying to go to sleep and our minds are thinking “Well, I’m not asleep yet, so maybe I’ll just start planning out my day tomorrow.”  In this case all efforts are not focused on getting to sleep, they are divided.  This sleepless person is multitasking even as they lay in bed!  It is also a case where this over industrious person will miss having a good night sleep, so in the end, it does not matter how much extra planning they have for their day, they will be too tired to implement it well.

We often do this with conversations.  We are busy in our bodies doing one thing and think, “Well hey, I can also make that phone call to my friend while I…”  and then suddenly, our energy is divided and we are not fully present with either activity.

Incubation:  The idea of incubation is, intentional taking time to not do something.  In this case, we are intentionally adding the element of time in order to let things ‘cook’ or ‘incubate’ on their own…  It is acknowledging, that adding even inactive time to a process, also contributes to the final outcome.

For an artist or creative, this can mean walking away from a project in order to give it time to evolve within us, in the back ground, on it’s own.  This tool again embodies the essences of trust.  And It requires us to embody trust, that all will happen in due time and that there is plenty of time to take a break now and come back to something with fresh energy.

So, more of a ‘let it happen’ then a ‘get it done’ mentality, which gives us permission for down time or time to rest. It introduces this idea that what we choose not to do, is just as important as what we choose to do.

Incubation is a helpful tool to pair with unitasking, as it helps us to understand that actually setting aside a project is a good thing.

Anything else we need to know?

We have become a culture that praises multitasking and multitaskers above all else.We are learning that multitasking is impacting our ability to focus, and that multitasking not only makes us less present but often less impactful in the moment.

Unitasking is an invitation to take a deep breath, slow down and be truly present with the task at hand!  It models to our bodies, and our beings, that time is on our side.  It helps us to step out of a rushed, frantic mode of existence and in to a more calm, graceful existence.

Do yourself a favor, work the idea of unitasking into your vocabulary as one of your available choices.  It teaches us that going slow with quality focus is not only valuable, but beautiful.

Creative Courage

I needed to share these excerpts from “The Courage To Create” by Rollo May

"We are living at a time when one age is dying and the new age is not yet born . . .  To live with sensitivity in this age of limbo indeed requires courage.

We are called upon to do something new, to confront a no man's land, to push into a forest where there are no well-worn paths and from which no one has returned to guide us.  

This is what the existentialists call the anxiety of nothingness.  To live into the future means to leap into the unknown, and this requires a degree of courage for which there is no immediate precedent and which few people realize. . .

This courage will not be the opposite of despair.  We shall often be faced with despair, as indeed every sensitive person has been during the last several decades in this country.  Hence Kieregaard and Nietszche and Camus and Sartre have proclaimed that courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair.  

Nor is the courage required mere stubbornness -we shall surely have to create with others.  But if you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.  Also you will have betrayed our community in failing to make your own contribution to the whole.

A chief characteristic of this courage is that it requires a centeredness within our own being, without which we would feel ourselves to be a vacuum. The "emptiness” within corresponds to an apathy without; and apathy adds up, in the long run, to cowardice. That is why we must always base our commitment in the center of our own being, or else no commitment will be ultimately authentic.

The word courage comes from the same stem as the French word coeur, meaning "heart.”  Thus just as one's heart, by pumping blood into one's arms, legs, and brain enables all the other physical organs to function, so courage makes possible all the psychological virtues. Without courage other values wither way into mere facsimiles of virtue.

[Creative courage is] the most important kind of courage of all.  Whereas moral courage is the righting of wrongs, creative courage, in contrast, is the discovering of new forms, new symbols, new patterns on which a new society can be built. Every profession can and does require some creative courage. In our day, technology and engineering, diplomacy, business, and certainly teaching, all of these professions and scores of others are in the midst of radical change and require courageous persons to appreciate and direct this change. The need for creative courage is in direct proportion to the degree of change the profession is undergoing. But those who present directly and immediately the new forms and symbols are the artists -the dramatists, the musicians, the painters, the dancers, the poets, and those poets of the religious fear we call Saints.  

[The artists] . . . they give us a “distant early warning “ of what is happening to our culture . . . The artists thus express the spiritual meaning of their culture.

. . . Whatever sphere we may be in, there is a profound joy in the realization that we are helping to form the structure of the new world.  This is creative courage, however minor or fortuitous our creations may be."

"The part in us that creates is the precious part, the sacred. It is the part in us that is willing to be vulnerable and that feels alive embracing the emptiness from which creation grows."    -Michele Greco

The Home Within.

I am new to meditation, only having committed to a fairly regular practice for the last year or so.  Between that and my even newer practice of qigong, I have at last carved out a regular opportunity to let myself embody these peaceful ways of being.
I can honestly say, it has changed me on every level.
 
Mostly what I have touched into by making room in my life for these ancient practices, is the calming reservoir of the ever present home within me.  This home welcomes me in any state, without judgement.  It is always waiting for me, and now after some time, calls to me to come rest and be at ease, with all that is around me and inside of me.  I am sweetly held and lifted up by the climate of this internal home and it’s endless, unconditional love.  It warms with compassion and cools with forgiveness; it helps to keep me buoyant as I head out into the world from this home.
 
In such unsettled times as now, I have begun to more deeply depend on these practices as I effort to stay afloat. When the external world feels so unpredictable and unknown, it upends us in every aspect of our being.  Even in our simple daily routines, we can feel out of sorts and restless. As this becomes an everyday reality, and as we become consumed with sorting all that is outside of us, we tend to skip over time to sit with, and come back to, a place of balance on the inside.
 
Should this external confusion and sorting continually dominate our energy, our internal life force or chi energy can become out of balance.  When unchecked, this can lead to great emotional distress or even illness.  In this state  of weakened chi,  our relationship to internal peace and balanced energy is easily hijacked by the less friendly state of frantic.  
 
So that we do not unintentionally fall into inhabiting this depleting & negative state indefinitely, it is my hope, with this simple note to self and all, that we may please give ourselves permission to act on the open invitation within, to return home.  Take a reprieve from the excessive external stimulus, stop, sit and be with whatever shows itself in the moment. 
 
The kind act of being in loving service to ourselves in this way, is humbling and revealing of the gentle beauty in our ordinary selves.   From this home within, shall we see with kindness in our eyes, be held by love in our hearts and feel at peace in our bodies.

 A few wonderful resources to support a meditation practice:
Insight Timer   
Headspace   
UCLA Meditations   

Michele Greco is a Mindfulness Based Life & Business Coach & Master Practitioner in Energy Leadership.  Michele's work is rooted in a somatic / body based approach.