Silence Speaks

"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself."

--Alan Alda

This quote so resonated with me when I read it this morning. This is where my journey has taken me. To myself. Trusting myself. Stopping long enough to hear my intuition and to also pay attention and honor it.

It's not always easy. It's certainly has not been a life long habit - quite the opposite. The typical inner voice in my life's journey has sounded more like..."Hurry and make the decision. What are you waiting for?"

I've realized that I'm waiting to hear and to feel... for the message that my soul wants to send to me.

How powerful it is when I stop and listen.

The more I create opportunities to stop and listen and to stop and feel the more grounded and clear I am.

One night a good friend of mine saw a book I was reading, "Stillness Speaks" by Eckhart Tolle.  She said, "Oh, that sounds like a really exciting read!". I knew she was kidding me and yet for a moment I felt a pang....I heard my inner critic saying..."You are soooo not exciting! You are reading a book about silence. How fascinating is that?" 

And I read anyway. About silence.

What I know is that stillness speaks volumes if only we will stop long enough to listen.

It's the path to greater and deeper contentment and inner joy. I have my most spiritual feeling of connection when I am in a place of silence.

In this busy, stressed out, Living -with -Urgency every minute world, we all need some luscious, guilt-free, quiet time- if for no other reason than to hear what our heart is trying to tell us. (Which would probably sound something like, "If you don't slow down, I'm going to give you something to slow down about!")

I remember when my oldest son was a toddler and I would send him to a corner for time out when he did some behavior I didn't agree with. I decided I didn't like this as it felt very shameful.  So, I set up a small rug in front of a bookcase in the spare room. In the bookcase I put things like a picture of our family, the cat, spiritual children's books, and things like little birds with nests and minature eggs. When time out would occur, I started sending him there to reflect on his behavior and what he might have chosen differently.  And, hopefully be inspired in the silence. I think I was hoping he would get used to silence and realize that he could step into silence and reflection throughout his life. Once I moved to a new home, I got away from that practice....I think it's time to set up a new Silent Inspiration place....it sure sounds better than threatening to take away Nintendo.

Imagine a creative and inspiring space with no Nintendo, computers, cell phones, no beeping of any kind....oh yeah, they call that the backyard.

So go into a backyard, or if you don't have one, find a neighbor's or a public park and as Simon and Garfunkel encouraged us long ago....to listen to the Sounds of Silence.....

With Quiet Love,

Laura

Power of Practice

I bought my son a skateboarding magazine the other day as a special treat. He loves to skateboard and rollerblade, among all his other athletic endeavors. He read the magazine over for a few days and then one afternoon he brings me the magazine and says he wants to show me something reallly stupid.  He shows me a picture of a guy who is skateboarding on the ceiling of an archway.  My son went on and on about how stupid this was.

I am sure it was his way of relating to me by letting me know that he knew this was a “don’t do this at home kids” kind of skateboarding trick. But part of me felt a little sad that he was just labeling this trick as stupid and dismissing the idea of ever achieving it.  (Although I have to admit there was a maternal part of me saying….oh yes, stay safe, my love!!)

Then I asked him if he thought that guy just woke up one day and decided to scale the wall with his skateboard? My son said, "No Way!  Of course, not. It probably took years of practice!”  So, we had a familiar conversation about patience and practice. How you can do so much more than you ever think you are capable of by practice.

Imagine this as a metaphor for your business. Have you ever thought of a big idea and immediately dismissed it because you thought it was too big, unachievable, maybe even stupid? Is there a project or a direction in your business or your life that feels impossible from where you sit now?

What if you just took baby steps?  What if you just practiced today what you know and stretched just a little.  Practice tomorrow and stretch a little more.  And the next week, practice, take a little more risk……and next month, practice, and take another small step outside your comfort zone…

Next thing you know, you’ll be skateboarding on the ceiling!!

What's the view like from up there!!!??

Laura

Trends

I have always loved watching, spotting, seeing trends. I am not necessarily the innovator who is going to be the first to do something out of the box but I love observing and early adopting!  So, of course, I have a little passionate outlet that feeds into this fetish/strength/obsession. It's a website and ezine called www.springwise.com 

Just go to this month's list of trendspotting and you'll be in the flow of new products, businesses, ideas and patterns showing up all over the world. This month read about:  Life Caching (memory and memoir documenting by the techno savvy X & Y generation and legacy conscious baby boomers), carplace (for people who live life's expression through their cars and want to talk about it online), something called Eccky - a multi-player game where two people create an online baby, add it to msn and guide it through life with decisions, and purchases that are related to buying Doritos.  (I'm thinking about what I just wrote and I find I am cringing....I guess I can't help think that if we have that kind of time on our hands and could provide a forum for that kind of creativity ....what would it look like to come up with fun, playful, crazy ideas for world peace and poverty....just imagine...)

There's oodles more ideas and trends that are just fascinating. It's fun to read from a curiosity place and also....ask yourself...what does this mean for me?  And my business?  What are the possiblities?  How could this help inform me of the next evolution for my business?

Have fun!

Laura

Inspiration Infusion

The child whispered, ‘God, speak to me’
And a meadow lark sang.
The child did not hear.

So the child yelled, ‘God, speak to me!’
And the thunder rolled across the sky
But the child did not listen.

The child looked around and said,
‘God let me see you’ and a star shone brightly
But the child did not notice

And the child shouted,
‘God show me a miracle!’
And a life was born but the child did not know.

So the child cried out in despair,
‘Touch me God, and let me know you are here!’
Whereupon God reached down
And touched the child.
But the child brushed the butterfly away
And walked away unknowingly.”

Ravindra Kumar Karnani
Indian Poet
Related Quotes

from Inspiration Peak  - cool little inspiring website - just bought their "ancient love" symbol T - new a few new tshirts now that spring is busting through here in the southern usa.

Enjoy....Laura