The Invisible Mentor

Archive for July, 2009

There are times when we feel out of sync, like our life does not fit us, like nothing is working for us. For us to live a fulfilled life, all aspects of ourselves have to be in sync with each other. So, Have you ever been in a situation where nothing worked for you? You tried many different things but to no avail, now what do you do?

A few years ago,  I asked Lydia Danner and Lea Chambers to share their techniques when all else fails.

Lydia Danner who teaches high-speed learning shares her process with us. “Quiet your mind and go to the place where the true solutions lie…to the alpha state of your brain. It is in this state that we can access our higher power. But, it’s usually the last place we want to go in our frenzied quest to get things done. If we could train ourselves to go to this state first, that is our best solution, for everything…yes, absolutely everything.

So, how do we access our higher power whenever we want or need to? By slowing down our brain. By living an alpha life. According to scientists, there are four known (and possibly more) brain wave states…beta, alpha, theta and delta. Our general state of being is the beta brain state which oscillates at 14 to 25 cycles per second. This is where stress, anger and disease reside. Then there is alpha (7 to 13 cycles per second), where all creativity resides and where all things are conceived before they become reality. This is also where learning takes place.

The next time you find yourself in a situation where nothing is working, it is because you are in a highly agitated beta state and you are preventing solutions from coming to you. Sit in a comfortable chair and relax. Breathe deeply. Close your eyes and count backwards (in your head), slowly, from 10 to 1. While you are counting, roll your eyes upward toward the space between your eyebrows. This effectively puts a brake on your beta frenzy and slows your brain down to alpha. You can actually feel this happening. In this state of well being answers will flow to you. In other cultures this is called the state of surrender. Try it. Your life will be the better for it.”

Lea Chambers, a marketing professional responded, “I believe that when we are on the right path in life and moving in the right direction, the results we want come to us, seemingly without effort or struggle. However, sometimes our conscious mind just doesn’t have the capacity to understand what that might be. This causes fear and stress for us, but we can overcome those feelings if we believe in synchronicity and the power of Being in the Now.

I’ve just recently come through a period where I wasn’t getting the results I wanted right away. At first I struggled with this, becoming emotional, fretting over why things weren’t working, wondering what I was doing wrong, looking backwards at the decisions I had made to get me to this point and beating myself up about them.

Then, one day, I surrendered to all of that frustration and struggling and just TRUSTED that I was in exactly the right place at the right time. I looked at my situation differently and saw all the positive things that were happening all around me and enjoyed each day, rather than fighting against the way the path was leading me. I relaxed, just focused on doing what brought me pure joy and didn’t worry about the results I was getting. I just decided to breathe and “BE” and exist in the moment and not be connected to any outcome whatsoever. I took time to “clean my space”, get exercise, eat better, call people I hadn’t spoken to for a while, read some good books, slept a lot, went for slow walks in the woods and felt love and joy.

Then, one day, without me having to do much at all, the result that I had wanted all along virtually came to me and was absolutely better and bigger and more wonderful than anything I had imagined. And I had to do almost nothing to make it happen.

Believe in synchronicity and ignore the mind’s tendency to trouble over what “isn’t”. Focus on what is and let your Being breathe within that space, where time and money and all your daily troubles are irrelevant. There is something bigger out there waiting for you that is larger and more wonderful than what you could ever imagine.”

Are you willing to try something that’s different?

Excerpt Ambeck Edge November 2005

I wanted to do a slideshow blog post but did not have a clue how and where to begin. I knew that I would have to figure it out someday, but kept putting it off. Have you ever done that?

Joanna Young at Confident Writing is having a Mission Im(Possible): Group Writing Project where she asks individuals to write a post in a format that they are unaccustomed to, and I thought that someday has come. I used my close friend Google to figure out the technology that would allow me to create a slideshow that is compatible with a WordPress blog. This post is my entry into the Mission Im(Possible): Group Writing Project. I created the slideshow using the tools at Slide.com.

If a picture is really worth a thousand words, what is your story now that you have watched the slideshow? Mine would go something like this. As I journey through life, I take different paths because I stumble, but always pick myself up. Some paths are easier than others, sometimes they are steep, cloudy, crowded, or busy. I reflect on the experiences that I have on my journey so that I can course correct if necessary. I look up and see the beauty in all things, and I try to laugh and not take myself too seriously. There are lessons all around me, I learn, move on, but most importantly I remember that though the destination is important, the journey is the key and so I smile because all is well.

Exercise

Select photos that have a special meaning to you and write a cohesive story based on what you see and feel. The Invisible Mentor is about peeling off layers and getting to the real you.

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WRITER, PHILOSOPHER, AND FEMINIST, Mary Wollstonecraft best known for her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, was the mother of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein . Born in 1759, she was truly ahead of her time, and during her short life (she died in 1797) she advocated and argued for the rights of women.  According to Wikipedia, in her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Women “she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.” Wollstonecraft could be considered the “Mother of Feminism.”

Note: As is the case with all the posts so far in the series 10 People Who Would Have Been Great Bloggers, based on research, I attempt to get into the head of these great thinkers and project what I think they would say.

There are many troubling aspects of Mary Wollstonecraft’s life as you will discover while reading about her, but focus on the positives. Like us, she too was human.

Mentor: Fanny Blood

Pioneering Way: Became an author, though it was uncommon for women to support themselves by writing

Big Break: Publisher, Joseph Johnson commissioned Wollstonecraft to write Thoughts on the Education of Girls, which was published in 1786, and two years later they founded the journal Analytical Review

Circle of Influence: Tom Paine, John Cartwright, John Horne Tooke, William Godwin, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Blake

Works Studied: The Bible, Milton, Shakespeare

Wollstonecraftisms

1. Do not accept things because they have always been that way, challenge social norms
2. Read books and attend lectures to expand your intellectual universe
3. Seek intellectual stimulation from those around you
4. Do not be afraid to test your ideas
5. Teach your children how to reason
6. Well educated women make good wives and mothers while making contributions to society
7. Women deserve the same rights as men
8. We all have a social responsibility to the poor
9. Where you start out in life is not an indication of where you will end up
10. Invest in your mind to reap big rewards

Further Reading

The History Guide Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History: Mary Wollstonecraft 1759 – 1797

Mary Wollstonecraft Legacy

Spartacus Educational Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft on Education

Mary Wollstonecraft

Related Posts: Great Blogger Series

What Would Earl Nightingale Blog About?

Can a Group of Thoughtful, Committed Citizens Make a Difference? Margaret Mead Thought So

What Would Earl Nightingale Blog About

If Estee Laudee Were a Blogger, What Would She Say?

Photo credits: Wikipedia

Book Review

The Vowels of Personal Power: 5 + 1 Ways to Liberate Your Creativity

by Bob McCulloch & Julia Gluck

I have been reflecting a lot on my life, and with reflections you revisit things you did and how you did them. So, I have looked at my newsletter to see if some of the work that I did is still relevant today. You will notice that I have been splattering this blog with book reviews and interviews that I conducted a few years go. The review of  The Vowels of Personal Power is still relevant today.

Even though The Vowels of Personal Power contains a lot of information that I have been exposed to before, I liked it because it was presented in a “fresh” manner. It’s taking old ideas and giving them a new spin. The book is filled with many examples to help you grasp the concepts. One criticism that I have, and it’s just my personal preference and may not be the same for you, is that there were too many examples, and the majority of them were about the authors’ personal experiences. Is it possible to have too many examples? I would have preferred it if there were less examples and more of them about other people.

According to the authors, the premise of the book is that “we are all born bundles of creative energy… We’re born with the capacity for awareness, engagement, openness and understanding.” The “I” from the vowels is for Integrity and what McCulloch and Gluck refer to as the “Thoughtful I,” which integrates all the other practices in the vowels.

Below are listed the five vowels of personal power and the 12 practice areas – presented in the book -to unleash your creativity.

1. I: Integrity and the Thoughtful I
2. A: Awareness
   i. Stay Mindfully Aware
   ii. Capture and Cherish Your Lightness
   iii. Be Thoughtfully Authentic
3. E: Engagement
   i. Get and Stay Engaged
   ii. Stay Resolved Without Attachment
   iii. Accept and Support Your Mutuality
4. O: Openness
   i. Accept Every Idea’s Inevitable Relevance
   ii. Allow and Fully Appreciate Fresh Associations
   iii. Perceive the Positives
5. U: Understanding
   i. Acknowledge and Suspend Judgment
   ii. Confirm Your Understanding
   iii. Embrace the Power of the Both/And

Glancing at the list you may think that “oh I already know this,” but knowing something and practicing it are two very different things. This book is a good reminder to be positive, appreciative, focused, fully engaged in whatever it is you’re doing, not be attached to how you get to your destination (outcome), and to give things a chance before you decide to “nix” them. The book helps you to integrate the 12 practices into your life.

Five + 1 Great Ideas

You have lots of things standing in the way of the flow of your personal creative energy, all anchored in your thoughts and beliefs about the way the world works. So to get out of the rut of automatic thoughts, you need to mobilize your conscious thinking

Equilibrium seems safe to us. It is still, unchanging, knowable, and predictable. However, it stops us from growing. It stops us from being open to new possibilities

What happens to you, what you achieve in your life, is dictated less by your abilities than by the choices you make, including choices to do nothing

By not becoming attached to one particular way of doing things, you liberate people’s creative energy. You liberate them to use whatever talents they have in order to achieve the desired outcome – even a difficult one

Carry a notebook and pen at all times… Whenever an interesting thought comes to you – even one with no apparent application in the present – write it down. When you find your energy blocked regarding an idea or a situation, consulting your ideas book may just give you the inspiration to move forward

Solutions will not always present themselves to you right away. Sometimes they need to be coaxed out, and sometimes you need to sneak up on them from behind

I recommend this book, and it’s one that you should read more than once, just to remind yourself about what you already know.

Application

1. How can you apply the concepts from The Vowels of Personal Power to your life?
2. What techniques do you use to ensure that you stay in the moment?
3. How do you capture ideas when they come to you?

Excerpt Ambeck Edge November 2006

One of the things I discovered about myself is that the more I read, the more creative I am, and the more great ideas I generate. I thought I would have some fun with this blog post and create tweets (less than or equal to 140 characters) for some great people who died. Click on the links to learn more. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

@Einstein I was surprised when Time magazine named me Person of the Century, thx to Max Talmud 4 exposing me 2 key texts in science & math

@FlorenceNightingale Thx 2 Charles Villiers for supporting me when I advocated for improved healthcare in infirmaries

@RolloMay I’m convinced I got it right “The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice … it is conformity” Man’s Search for Himself

@Archimedes I was so excited when I figured out how 2 measure the volume of an irregular object I ran down the street naked shouting Eureka

@Gutenberg I had no idea that inventing the printing press would so profoundly impact info dissemination, of course the Internet helped

@TheWrightBrothers No one succeeds alone, we’re gr8ful to Otto Lilienthal, whose research was instrumental in assisting us to invent the airplane

@Confucius I’m both teacher and student, learn more by reading the Analects of Confucius online

@MarieAntoinette Things u may not know abt me, I am fond of music, I cld barely read or write at age 12, and I believe in giving to charity

@LadyGodiva I’m not an exhibitionist, I rode naked on a horse to protest the oppressive taxes my husband imposed on his tenants

@MartinLutherKingJr We are our brother’s keeper, what affects one of us affects all of us

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last speech

Rollo May Existential Psychotherapy Video

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Photo credit: Public domain, photo of Archimedes