Relax and still take all the credit! The less efforting (as in pushing the river) on our part, the more room for the flow to flow (or the elves to be their merry selves).  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of the book FLOW, distinguished the state of flow as that unself-conscious state where we are in the zone of optimal experience.  I’ll have what he’s having.
For more flow and less fuss, try these:

1.  Tolerate ease. Make friends with it.  It’s not an insult to your intelligence and capacity, nor does it put the world at risk.   You may need to sneak up on this one as your MIFFED credentials will clamor for a timecard full of overtime.  Who would you be if you weren’t defined by effort and achievement?

2.  Tap into the present moment and let yourself be informed.
Present moment awareness provides us with the focus of all our energy on life in the now – which happens to be the only moment there is.  Hit the Pause button, breathe, and get perspective.   You don’t even have to ponder a question, just let your busy full-of-opinion mind rest so you become available to what is.

3.  Interrupt a pattern that keeps you trapped. Like one that is so automatic, it gets to run the show without your permission.  In order to see it, you may need to step back and watch it in action.  Once you see it, you can reassign its power so that it becomes a source of entertainment or a reminder to take a break or a reason to just throw your head back and laugh out loud at its demand for self-importance.  And you don’t have to tell a soul what you’re doing.

We’re in the season of fixation, expectation, and attachment which also makes it the season of dispute, disappointment, and despair. Stay awake, find the flow, breathe. Stay open to who you may encounter when you are in the present moment.  As the poet Hafiz says, “The Beloved will send you wonderful and wild companions!”

If you want more direct practice in all this, join us for the Resilience:  The Art of Ease workshop happening in January.
Full details here Get good at letting it be easy!

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I wish you great ease and joy.  May all beings live in peace.
Blessings galore, Victoria

PRACTCE OF THE MONTH

WHILE YOU’RE AT IT,
DO SOMETHING GREAT FOR YOURSELF

Join the next Embodied Abundance tele-course which begins in just a couple weeks – March 31st  (and is the last one until fall).  It’s all about living in flow and could also be titled Embodied Ease, Embodied Happiness, Embodied Effectiveness, Embodied Wholeness, Embodied Confidence, Embodied Satisfaction.

2-minute AUDIO RECESS

CLICK to listen

TO PONDER AND AMUSE

Written and edited by Victoria Castle. © 2010 all rights reserved. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, make sure you receive your monthly copy by signing up directly.  It only takes a moment.  We never share our mailing list with anyone.

CHEERFUL DISCLAIMER:  Participating in Necessary Mischief has been known to induce greater ease, connection, and effectiveness – even joy!  Don’t say you weren’t warned.

WHY RECESS MATTERS

School kids do it, Congress does it, even plants during winter snows do it.  (If you know the tune, please sing along.)  Fact is, taking recess is an occurrence in both the natural and the human-made world.  It is us adult bi-ped’s who are not very reliable for knowing when to take one.

Every week I send out an Audio Recess for the sake of you taking a break right in the midst of all the demands in your life.  I trust you’ve figured out how to listen to it and still look terribly busy.  Because as we all know… if we’re busy, we’re productive.

Oh contraire!  If we’re chronically busy, it’s likely we are operating not at peak performance but more at “numb speed”.  That’s my term for “head down, pushing through, and taking self way too seriously”.  I’m hoping it will find its way into the general lexicon.

Who has time for recess!  Atheletes, artists, musicians, builders, writers, leaders, cooks, teachers, physicians, coaches, farmers, creators – they all know the role of taking a break, giving something time to come to form, letting things rest, getting perspective, clearing their heads or resting their bodies.

We’re hyped up and melting down.  The source of most disease is stress (yep, there’s plenty of science to support that).  So the game is not go faster and manage your time better – by cramming more in,  but to manage your energy.

Taking a recess (even a 2-minute one) gives us a chance to hit the reset button – interrupt the overdrive and downshift into the best gear for the grade we’re traveling on.

Albert Einstein, when working on solving a problem, would take a break and go play the piano.  He was known to often exclaim “I found it” while at the keyboard – away from working the problem.

When we take a break, we are releasing ourselves from the limits of our habitual thinking and seeing, and plugging in to the All-ness of the Is-ness of the Now-ness of the Whole-ness a.k.a. a greater intelligence than just us.  And we can still take all the credit.

Since your second grade teacher isn’t around to announce Recess, it’s up to you.  What power you have.

The highest performing atheletes (the Winter Olympics are happening right now in Vancouver, BC) are masters at tuning into themselves before their capacity diminishes and restoring themselves so they can perform at their best.  Recess is a part of their greatness.  Ours too.

Listen to the Audio Recess below for more on this subject.
You can count it as one of your breaks today.

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PRACTICE OF THE MONTH

Step back – enough to get perspective, fresh air, and your sense of humor in case you misplaced it.  The more flexible, the more creative.  Give yourself a break – alone or with others.  But not just once a week or a month, but daily – maybe several times a day.

Track your productivity and mood for a week when you don’t ever stop and compare it to a week when you do.

Don’t make someone else have to send you on a Time Out.

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GREAT WAYS TO PRACTICE

The next  Embodied Abundance tele-course begins March 31st (last one until fall).  It’s all about living in flow – that’s timing at its best.  And there’s no commute time. It doesn’t get easier than this.

Just for Alpha Women (us over-achievers who are too good at what we do), I’m starting a coaching group – all done by teleconference – on March 16th. You know who you are.  Check it out.

For all women who are ready to deeply nourish their soul so they are revitalized with a greater sense of ease and purpose, do consider the Women’s Retreat to the Sacred Isle of Iona in Scotland this May.  It’s heaven! Just a few spaces left.

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