Weeding to think, what makes life tolerable and one thing we should stop doing
Here's what's happening over at Hit Pause, Then Play (February 2023)
🤔 3 things I’m thinking
1. Weeding to think
I have a friend who ran into trouble writing. Write as she may, it just wasn’t working. At the same time, she observed she hadn’t gardened that summer. Due to a drought, she hadn’t been allowed to water. So, she wasn’t gardening - or as she put it, “I wasn’t weeding. And I realised that when I weeded, I was thinking. When I stopped weeding, I stopped creating.”
The penny dropped.
What do I do to “fertilize” my creativity? When do I till the ground or sort or create order, all of this fodder for thinking and ideating and daydreaming?
Have you made the connection like my friend did?
All of us need to create space for daydreaming. All of us need to stare out a window. Or weed. Or go for a walk. It is hard to put it on the calendar - it doesn’t feel like real work, this daydreaming. And yet, as my friend observed, so many use social media to fill in and block out that space when what we really want to do is think or ponder or dream.
When daydreaming, our bodies settle, our minds settle and out of that “settle” grows an idea or the soupcon of an idea.
Go for a walk. Weed. Sit and stare out a window. Do what you need to do to create the space in your life for something new.
2. We can collectively get more by individually doing less
I was listening to a Book Bite a week ago and one of the ideas stuck with me. The author of The Good Enough Life from Princeton University Press was making the point that individually, we are limited. This is not a foreign concept to any of us, I don’t think. But what got my attention was two things.
First, by collaborating, each of us can do less - but each “less” adds up to “more” when we’re together.
Second, competition is about exclusion and rewarding the few.
Collaboration is about inclusion and giving many (people) the place and the space to contribute.
Yes. That is the beauty of collaboration.
Earlier this week, I was lucky enough to be able to create an opportunity for those who might never would, to travel to the other side of the world, to lend a helping brain. This is inclusion. This is about working together, all of us doing less individually, so as a group we can do more.
3. Watching without judgement
Just this morning, I was thinking about “watching without judgement”. This is a technique we use in meditation and one that carries over nicely into daily life.
In meditation, we “watch” thoughts come and go, like clouds, or a wave that rolls in and rolls out. We do not attach ourselves to the thoughts, we simply “watch” them (if we must) without judgement. We don’t entertain them or try to change them. We don’t try to make them go away. We watch them like we might watch a bird in the sky. There it is. Now, gone.
In daily life, I like to watch people. I watch them like birds. Here they are. There they go.
Watching without judgement.
❤️ 2 things I’m loving
1. A dialogue
I am really enjoying chatting with a hero, collaborator and friend this month. We’re talking about things like breathwork and facilitation, managing our energy as facilitators, and this week, Alwin is writing about trust. I get to read and comment on his work, helping to shape and breathe a little extra life into it. And then - this is the best part - we dive deeper into the topics, having a lot of fun along the way. You can watch the videos here and here (at the bottom of the posts).
2. A quote
We live in a society that peddles solutions, whether it's solutions to those extra pounds you're carrying, or to your thinning hair, or to your loss of appetite, loss of love. We are always looking for solutions, but actually what we are engaged in is a process throughout life during which you never get it right. You have to keep being open, you have to keep moving forward. You have to keep finding out who you are and how you are changing, and only that makes life tolerable. - Jeanette Winterson
🔥1 spark for you
Have you asked yourself this question today?
Anything else?
✍️You might like one of my recent posts on Medium
On travelling to India - I recently travelled to India for the first time. I did not expect to experience a life reset, but then, India surprised me.
On travelling to India, Part 2 - By way of a letter to Ammar, who writes to me from Karnataka in South India. “I do have a long list of questions that I also wonder about…” he writes, “If you can write further posts on them, my happiness will know no bounds.”
How to single-task - Try these surprising “3 things first thing” for 30 days to build your single-tasking habit. Of course, it all starts with doing one thing at a time (yes, really).
💡Join me in 2023
I’m writing a book! - Did I just write that out loud? Um, yes … I guess I’ve just now gone public … And so, I’ve gone a bit quiet. If you’d like to preview, comment on or buy a book on the topic of Pause, Play, Passion and Purpose, make sure you’re subscribed to this newsletter, where you’ll get all the inside goop. (Big thanks in advance for your support … oh and if you have friends who are into pause, play, passion and purpose, don’t hold back: share this newsletter!🫶)
Solving Big Problems - If you’d like engagement and impact to be a regular part of your gatherings in 2023, let’s work together. If you like the sound of the new workshops I’ve built out for the International Energy Agency and the Cambodia project, connect with me on LinkedIn. Even better, let’s talk.
Productivity Coaching - What one thing do you want to accomplish this year? How do you want to make sure you do it? I can help. Let's chat about how. I have 1 coaching spot open. Yep, just one. I have a book to write …
🙏Thank you
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3 things I’m thinking related to Pause, Play, Passion and Purpose
2 things I’m loving
1 question to spark you
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