NLP

Film Review: Beyond Right and Wrong

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Carla Woody
beyondrightwrong

Beyond Right & Wrong: Stories of Justice and Forgiveness. Co-directed by Lekha Singh and Roger Spottiswoode.

Directors Singh and Spottiswoode have taken the beautifully hopeful line from a Rumi poem…

 Out beyond ideas of right and wrong doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

 …and shown us examples of people who have done just so. I will give you this warning: It’s a difficult documentary to watch. But the rewards of doing so are many.

Some of it is inconceivable. How do those we would think of as victims—or their families—set aside horrendous acts done to them and move on? How do those guilty of such acts face what they’ve done…and the survivors…and live with themselves?

The documentary features acts done in the name of war:

It focuses on the personal stories of selected individuals who entered the tricky area of forgiveness and resolution. They came together in person, the one who undertook the act and the one who was devastated by it. The film uncovers raw emotion and struggle. Initially, a couple of the perpetrators put up defenses…justifications. In the beginning, some of the victims just could not face the gut-wrenching grief, fresh all over again in their presence. But all found the courage and finally a sense of forgiveness and resolution through various means begun through first coming together.

In watching their stories, I immediately thought of the places in my own life that were relevant. I’ve never had experiences to the level these people have. Many of us haven’t. But we’ve all had loss in some respect. We’ve all done things we regret.

The film subliminally invites personal consideration and the act of letting go. While war is the rationale here, each one of us is the instrument within our own lives as to how we respond to circumstances, what we do with what occurs.

I’m certain that forgiveness is not for the one who performs the wrongdoing, although they will benefit through being forgiven. If we don’t forgive then our lives remain tainted with the act—emotionally, mentally and even physically—and we pass the effect on. The same is true for the weight of guilt carried through a lifetime.

It’s not common knowledge that I’ve been a conflict mediator on a professional basis for nearly 30 years. I’ve always done it as a sideline. I believe in mediation and the magic that can happen within its forum. Years ago I mediated victim-offender cases, in this case juvenile first-time offenders. I still mediate parenting plans for divorcing parents for the county where I live. I can think of no better reason to come to forgiveness and collaborate than for the sake of children and interrupt a pattern.

Resolution can be a long, slow process. But it doesn’t have to be. From my private practice I’ve found Neuro-Linguisitic Programming (NLP) processes and rituals addressing forgiveness, grief and loss to be highly effective whether the other person is physically present or not. Here’s an article of mine published in an NLP professional journal back in ’95 that gives a case study example. (Go to subtitled material under “The Grief/Loss Process” and “The Forgiveness Process”.)

You may view the film for free here. You can purchase the documentary within a kit, which also includes a group and self-study guide, as well as a book The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict by The Arbinger Institute that brings the core material in the documentary into our everyday lives for personal and global effect.

The 2012 documentary has received the following prestigious awards: Best Social Impact Film by Sundance Collective, Best Avant Garde Film by the American Psychological Association, Official Selection of the Hamptons International Film Festival, Introduced United Nations Resolution on Mediation by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and more.

Film length: 1 hour, 22 minutes.

Late-breaking news! Jo Berry, who is founder of UK-based Building Bridges for Peace and one featured in the documentary, is coming to Arizona in late September-early October for speaking engagements and film screenings.

I am pleased to announce Kenosis Spirit Keepers and the Quad City Interfaith Council are co-sponsoring a film screening and talk “Making Peace with the Enemy” by Jo Berry to be held on September 28, 6:30-8:30 PM, at Prescott College Crossroads Center, 215 Garden Street, Prescott. Admission is free will offering at the door with no one turned away.

Other currently scheduled venues in Arizona are below.

Categories: Compassionate Communication, Film Review, Healing, NLP | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

A Not-So-Secret Access to Consciousness

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Carla Woody

In The Energy That Finds Its Source, I shared how I stumbled upon a strategy through meditation that greatly affected my artwork in a positive way. I want to build on that by discussing something a number of us do unconsciously—but brought to consciousness can generalize to different contexts of your life. It increases clarity and mental/emotional flexibility, in addition to creativity. I’ll use writing as a springboard for an example here.

One of the biggest challenges fiction writers have is to breathe life into the characters of their stories, to make them believable. This is particularly true if your book is character-driven. You want readers to connect with the story and those in it: to love or hate them. A reader of my latest book Portals to the Vision Serpent wrote to say how she couldn’t stand Sybilla, who features prominently in the novel—until she really understood her. Then she had great empathy. Even if the book is plot-driven, you want the characters’ actions to make some level of sense from their eyes.

We all have a specialized, individual template we live by. Here’s a quick review on how that happens. Your brain codes experiences you have. The original coding usually takes place early in life. The coding becomes your perceptions…translating to the beliefs you have about yourself, others, the world in general, even what’s possible. This template also becomes the filter through which you experience your life. You develop strategies for thinking and living that further reinforce the original beliefs—those that support and those that get in your way. When something significant happens to disrupt the old beliefs, things can shift dramatically.

Characters in a novel are no different. Here’s a way to uncover their templates by “stepping into” different perspectives.

  1. From your “self” position as the writer, note how you experience different characters: the nonverbal signals, the way they speak, your own response to them.
  2. Now taking each character at a time, imagine you can slide right into their body, look out of their eyes, become them—rather than witnessing them—and answer these questions: What is their family of origin like? Based on what they unconsciously ingested then, how do they experience their own identity, who they are? Note the trickle down effect: What beliefs were generated? What about capabilities? Resulting actions? How they experience their environment? This way you can really get inside the hearts and minds of the characters.
  3. Then step back. By being a detached observer you get additional valuable information. Given what you discovered about your individual characters, now you can really get a bead on important dynamics between the major players and incorporate them into your writing.
Secret Access

Secret Access
Mixed media on canvas
©2014 Carla Woody

By using a method like this, you also invite your reader to tag along through your writing, to undergo the same discovery and identify with different characters. They’re playing out the human condition, no different than the rest of us. We are all who we are based upon where we’ve been. But when something of great enough significance interjects itself, triggering a change in one character…it also affects the others in close proximity. That’s how things get shaken up; the story becomes so much more interesting; the characters can grow in various ways.

I realize in the writing of this piece that, because this strategy is so engrained in me, it’s another way of describing what I wrote about in The Energy That Finds Its Source. I was very much in the “self” when I was meditating. But when I came out of meditation, I became the “observer.” When the artwork communicated with me, I may have been in “other” position…or an unexplainable esoteric element occurred…

Of course, you can use what I’ve written here as a guideline to explore other aspects of your own life, not just your creative outlets. This is a brief primer toward self-discovery and relationship dynamics that I use with clients as a springboard for transformation.

I’ve adapted the content of this post from my mentoring program Navigating Your Lifepath addressing how to live through your deeply held values—and thrive.

Categories: Compassionate Communication, Creativity Strategies, NLP, Personal Growth | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Make Your Characters Come to Life

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Carla Woody
Gallery shot

Patiently waiting for life.
Photo credit: Carla Woody

One of the biggest challenges fiction writers have is to breathe life into the characters of their stories, to make them believable. This is particularly true if your book is character-driven. You want readers to connect with the story and those in it, to love or hate them. A reader of my latest book Portals to the Vision Serpent wrote to say how she couldn’t stand Sybilla, who features prominently in the novel—until she really understood her. Then she had great empathy. Even if the book is plot-driven, you want the characters’ actions to make some level of sense from their standpoint. 

We all have a specialized, individual template that we live by. Here’s a quick review on how that happens. Your brain codes experiences you have. The original coding usually takes place early in life. The coding becomes your perceptions, which translates to the beliefs you have about yourself, others, the world in general, and what’s possible. This template also becomes the filter through which you experience your life. You develop strategies for thinking and living that further reinforce the original beliefs—those that support and those that get in your way. When something significant happens to disrupt the old beliefs, things can shift dramatically.

Your characters are no different. Here’s a way to uncover their templates by “stepping into” different perspectives.

  1. From your “self” position as the writer, note how you experience different characters: the nonverbal signals, the way they speak, your own response to them.
  1. Now taking each character at a time, imagine you can slide right into their body, look out of their eyes, become them—rather than witnessing them—and answer these questions: What is their family of origin like? Based on what they unconsciously ingested then, how do they experience their own identity, who they are? Note the trickle down effect: What beliefs were generated? What about capabilities? Resulting actions? How they experience their environment? This way you can really get inside the hearts and minds of the characters.
  1. Then step back. By being a detached observer you get additional valuable information. Given what you discovered about your individual characters, now you can really get a bead on important dynamics between the major players and incorporate them into your writing.
Antigua bells

Antigua bells.
Photo credit: Carla Woody

By using a method like this, you also invite your reader to tag along through your writing, to undergo the same discovery and identify with different characters playing out the human condition, no different than the rest of us. We are all who we are based upon where we’ve been. But when something of great enough significance interjects itself triggering a change in one character…it also affects the others in close proximity. That’s how things get shaken up; the story becomes so much more interesting; the characters can grow in various ways.

Of course, you can use what I’ve written here as a guideline to explore aspects of your own life, not just writing. This is a brief primer toward self-discovery and relationship dynamics that I use with clients as a springboard for transformation. I’ve adapted the content of this post from my mentoring program Navigating Your Lifepath, which guides folks on how to live through their deeply held values—and thrive.

What are ways you can imagine exploring perspectives would be useful to you? Let me know your ideas or experiences in the comments below.

Categories: Compassionate Communication, Creativity Strategies, Healing, Healthy Living, NLP, The Writing Life | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

History, Herstory, Your Story

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Carla Woody

Periodically I offer retreats, an opportunity to create a parenthesis, a safe haven to cocoon, in order to create clarity of intent and direction without the “busyness” rewarded by our culture that can feed distraction. Sometimes we work in the area of family lineage. I’ll share with you the introductory paragraphs of the process sheet I give participants as one approach in this area.

Collective UnconsciousThere exists a collective unconscious—a field of information—in your family line; what is passed down in underlying knowledge and expression through generations.

History/Herstory.  Her story. His story. Your story.

Now is an opportunity to bring to consciousness what was unconscious. Witness. Inquire. Reflect. To choose what is yours—your own heartbeat and what of your lineage aligns to it.

Marking out space on the floor as a timeline, you have those who came before you—your ancestors—and those who came from you—your descendants. We all leave our fingerprints on others in ways wider than we might imagine, even if we have no biological offspring. Stepping back to witness interwoven connections over time can give a whole new meaning to your own personal choices in the present and what you can and do affect.

***

I have people work as partners, trading off once complete. The partner acts as a witness to the explorer’s process, also to document significant aspects and prompt questions. In this way, the discovery and its effect have depth.

InheritenceFirst, they just observe from a point beside their lineage timeline. Then I invite them to walk beside the timeline and note their own responses and, when their body is drawn, to step onto the timeline and into the body/subtle energy field of that ancestor. I encourage them to do so even when it doesn’t make logical sense; an ancestor generations back isn’t even known to them. After “becoming” the ancestor these are some of the questions answered: What intelligence is communicated through posture, sensation or energy? What is the patterning? Is there a gift?

Usually the draw has to do with a vibratory resonance. Something within them has found a match in some way. The origins of a talent may be suddenly explained through this sort of inquiry. Or maybe the discovery of a detrimental pattern, having skipped a generation or two, but active in the present through the past, is now apparent. What are the stories that have been passed down through the family field of invisible information?

These new awarenesses are but seeds. From this place, answers to follow-on questions can emerge, and means of getting there can present themselves.

What are the gifts you’ve been blessed with that you wish to pass on?

What are any dreams that you’ve taken on that aren’t yours to live?

What are any wounds to be healed that are not yours to be borne?

As the reader, you might wonder how anything could come from this exercise. Here’s what I’ve found to be true through many years of guiding such inquiry and undertaking it myself. There’s something in play—during the parenthesis of a retreat—when we take off the overcoat of our everyday selves. Then an inner intelligence has a chance to take the lead, delve into areas usually not given notice and integrate the results into day-to-day thoughts and actions.

Energy FieldThis particular line of inquiry is produced from the person’s own energy body, their resident field—not through analysis by the mind. In fact, if the everyday mind takes the lead in this process, the explorer will likely be hindered or stalled. Although, insight will be channeled to the mind through energy intelligence.

Whether it turns into conscious awareness or not isn’t really important from my standpoint. For those who are used to intellectual investigation, this pathway can be especially frustrating because they may not know what created the shift. But in the end, is that really important? Or is it more meaningful that life—after such a level of work – naturally evolves to include clarity and joy?

*************

Note: This process was inspired from  NLP and the ground-breaking work of Virginia Satir and Bert Hellinger in family systems.  Then it was further produced from inquiry into my own lineage and ongoing exploration into the ways of energy.  If you’d like to know more about retreats go here or get in touch.

 

Categories: Energy Healing, Healing, NLP, Personal Growth, Spiritual Evolution | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lifepath Design [Special Offer] – Why take the long way home?

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Carla Woody

Lifepath Design Special: Your Personal Intensive
Spring Limited Time Offer

I would rather be a superb meteor, ever atom of me in magnificent glow,

than a sleepy and permanent planet.     — Jack London

Fulfillment

Fulfillment
Photo: Carla Woody

 Spring is the perfect time to come to life—completely. There are those of you who have been itching to accelerate a breakthrough, and I want to do my part to support that process. As a gift to subscribers and Facebook friends, I’m offering a private retreat day at a deep discount. (Your intensive may also be divided into two sessions.) I have space in my calendar to engage with seven people over the next couple of months in this way. If you’re interested, get in touch: info@kenosis.net.

Such an intensive won’t be to everyone’s taste.

Cloudburst

Cloudburst
Photo: Carla Woody

But it will be a perfect match if:

✯ You are hovering at a threshold and want to move through it;

✯ You seek to sort through options and dissolve confusion;

✯ You aim to bring a deeply held dream to ground and create clarity;

✯ You desire to engage your spiritual values, your highest priorities and kickstart a fully expressive lifepath;

✯ You are ready to invest in yourself and move beyond stagnation.

It’s my passion to mentor people through a process I went through myself and refined over twenty years to make it readily accessible to others. That’s why I’m making a special discounted offer of $897 ($1497 value) for seven people. Your personal intensive may be taken in person, via phone or Skype. This invitation is good until May 8 and must be taken by July 12.

Here’s an extra bonus: If you decide you need additional guidance, you can apply the retreat cost against Navigating Your Lifepath, my six month mentoring program. You can also read more about my own journey.

Why take the long way home? A well calculated shortcut is ever so much better.

If you fit the criteria above, I’d love to hear from you: info@kenosis.net. Be sure to act now! Lifepath Design Intensives are something I rarely offer due to other commitments. If you’re ready to work, then let’s do it, and it would be my honor.

Categories: Healing, Healthy Living, NLP, Personal Growth, Spiritual Evolution | Tags: , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Lifepath Dialogues Gathering: The Edge of Limitation (Audio)

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Carla Woody

The Lifepath Dialogues Gathering is held on the fourth Wednesdays, 6:30-8 PM, at Creekside Center in Prescott, Arizona. The intent is to build like-hearted community and dialogue about what truly matters. I choose monthly topics from my blog and host the evening with special invited guest(s) whose philosophies and work are relevant to the topic. The format involves my presentation of material to create a framework and interview of the special guests. This portion is recorded to share with the world community—wherever you are. Then we turn off the recorder and turn to intimate sharing.

The September 26 Lifepath Dialogues Gathering:

THE EDGE OF LIMITATION

My special guest for this month was Ross Dunbar, ND, MSOM, a Naturopathic physician and Chinese medicine practitioner who has practiced in Prescott, Arizona for the past 10 years. The complete unedited audio is about 40 minutes long. Click on the link below to listen. Please be patient as it may take a few minutes to download! I hope you enjoy. This was an interesting subject that brought much food for thought. Many thanks to all the folks who showed up to participate. The Lifepath Dialogues community is definitely growing and engaged.

The Lifepath Dialogues Gathering: The Edge of Limitation (Audio)

Carla Woody and Dr. Ross Dunbar

Carla Woody and Dr. Ross Dunbar

You may contact Dr. Ross Dunbar at Prescott Naturopathic Medical Group, 810 W. Gurley St. Prescott, AZ 86305, (928) 445-1999. And I always love to hear from folks: phone (928)778-1058 and email cwoody@kenosis.net.

October’s Lifepath Dialogues Gathering:

Is Genetic Engineering Life-Affirming?

Based on the collaborative post: What Legacy GMOs?

Our next gathering will be held on Wednesday, October 24, 6:30-8 PM, at Creekside Center as usual. Special guest host will be Lesley McKeown, Vice Chair, and board member of GMO-Free Prescott, a nonprofit organization seeking to raise awareness of genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) and encourage nourishing food options. October is National Non GMO Month. Come learn about this topic so important to health and preservation of tradition.

To remain current on monthly topics subscribe to The Lifepath Dialogues blog or Kenosis Inspirations ezine.

Categories: Healing, Healthy Living, NLP, Personal Growth, Spiritual Evolution | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tales from the Golden Cabinet: Carla Woody on NLP and More…

Posted on September 29, 2012 by Carla Woody
Bali Pond

Bali Pond
Photo: Carla Woody

I was honored to be interviewed once again by host Teresa Maijala on Tales from the Golden Cabinet on KOOP Radio streaming live from Austin, Texas on 91.7 fm. Our conversation was broadcast on September 15, 2012. You can listen to it here or go to the archive on KOOP Radio. We discuss Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), indigenous wisdom traditions, spiritual travel—and the dynamic effect of integrating these aspects. The interview is 52 minutes. I hope you enjoy!

Here’s what Teresa has to say about Tales from the Golden Cabinet:

It’s…”sharing stories about natural medicines and holistic lifestyles, from qualified practitioners. Every culture on earth, has their own traditional medicines and healing ways. Traditions that have been handed down from generation to generation. I feel it is important for us to remember the wisdom of our Ancestors, and share them so we can keep the natural medicines of our cultures alive, it’s one of my passions. We are now pod-casting our shows for you to enjoy at your convenience. Please follow the link at the bottom of each blog entry to get to the Internet Archive of the show!

The name of our show Tales from the Golden Cabinet, is my way of honoring an ancient Chinese Doctor and Alchemist by the name of Ge Hong. Ge Hong is the author of a famous ancient text on Chinese Herbal Medicine called Essentials from the Golden Cabinet, hence the name!”

Categories: Healing, Healthy Living, Indigenous Wisdom, NLP, Spiritual Evolution, Spiritual Travel | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

September 26 Lifepath Dialogues Gathering

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Carla Woody

Lifepath Dialogue Gathering

Exploring the many threads that weave together an expressive, celebrated life.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR AND JOIN US FOR DIALOGUE THAT MATTERS

You are invited! Please pass to friends and family.

SEPTEMBER 26, 6:30-8 PM

FREE Monthly Gathering on Fourth Wednesdays

Creekside Center, 337 N. Rush Street, Prescott, Arizona

September’s topic:

THE EDGE OF LIMITATION

with

CARLA WOODY
Author of Calling Our Spirits Home and Standing Stark
Founder, Kenosis and Kenosis Spirit Keepers

Ross Dunbar, ND, MSOM

Ross Dunbar, ND, MSOM
Photo credit: Carla Woody

September’s special guest is S. Ross Dunbar, ND, MSOM, a Naturopathic physician and Chinese medicine practitioner who has practiced in Prescott, Arizona for the past 10 years. He has studied and practiced alternative medicine since 1995 and is passionately committed to achieving wellness through various alternative modalities by accessing the body’s own innate ability to heal. Dr. Dunbar has achieved great results with his patients by listening empathically and thinking strategically, blending a broad array of traditional and cutting edge, alternative treatment methods. Through a comprehensive clinical evaluation, including lab work and medical history, he creates a holistic treatment plan comprised of dietary, lifestyle and nutritional recommendations as well as any Chinese herbal medicines that may be appropriate. Modalities of treatment may also include acupuncture, homeopathy, musculoskeletal manipulation, IV nutritional therapy, injection therapy, and prescription medication. Dr. Dunbar works collaboratively to design a treatment plan that is realistic, achievable, and is in line with the patient’s needs and goals.

Dr. Dunbar

Dr. Dunbar performing acupuncture.
Photo credit: Carla Woody

For more information, Dr. Dunbar can be reached at Prescott Naturopathic Medical Group, 810 W. Gurley St. Prescott, AZ 86305, (928) 445-1999.

I’m very much looking forward to presenting some material on The Edge of Limitation and opening a discussion with Dr. Dunbar for its relevance based upon his philosophies and professional practice. For more information on the topic see my blog post.

Email: info@kenosis.net or call 928.778.1058.

Categories: Healing, NLP, Personal Growth, Spiritual Evolution | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Wake-Up Call: Part II

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Carla Woody

The Attunement

 Years ago I developed The Re-Membering Process, a model of spiritual evolution, and identified the first phase as Sparking.

Sparking is what awakens us from sleep and an unconscious life…We all live within a container of some sort and are in a stupor to some extent…It’s part of the human condition. The questions are:  how deep is the sleep? How big does the spark to awaken us have to be?  What will jostle us out of the daily shuffle?  What will cause our heads, bent over so intently eying our shoes, to rise up?                                                           —Excerpted from The Questions We Live By

Bali Temple Figure I

Bali Temple Figure I
©2007 Carla Woody

We usually enter Sparking through crisis of some sort. That was true in my case. In my late twenties I encountered a serious health issue that took me out of my stupor and caused me to determine that I wasn’t on track. I wasn’t astute enough to recognize it on my own; all was so foggy. I was clueless. Something—certainly much greater—took over and led the way. I just feel fortunate that I didn’t balk at that point but reached my hand into the fog in trust.

If I’d had a guide solidly present that I could look in the eye…or if I’d been more connected then to receive all the inaudible messages I’m quite sure were coming my way…if I’d recognized my own intuitive abilities…then perhaps the journey through the Re-Membering Process could have been greatly truncated the first time around.

But that wasn’t my path. Those ‘ifs’ I note above didn’t happen for some years yet. Mine was a journey of learning all the twists and turns, the double back, the two-steps-forward and three-steps-back, the intricacies and nuances that have led to a visceral knowledge: how to side-step, leap over, move through…what creates limitation. And to simply recognize the signals calling for evolution—or revolution—in a way that honors and allows.

And…it’s not necessary to endure a crisis. Why undergo the intense pain and confusion that comes with it?

I’m a great believer in prevention. There are three things necessary to avoid the crisis and create movement when the Sparking calls.

Bali Temple Figure II

Bali Temple Figure II
©2007 Carla Woody

1)    Presence. You’ve got to have a way of coming to stillness—regularly—to create a buffer from all the internal and external input bombarding us every day. Meditation was the practice that chose me all those years ago. I can’t say I knew what I was doing then but I did keep at it. Here I am some thirty years later and it’s still my daily saving grace.

2)    Awareness. Stillness allows you to get in touch with what’s truly going on that you might otherwise block in daily life. You become aware of bodily-felt sensations, internal voices, and imagery that presents itself to answer the questions: Where am I? What am I feeling? What am I lacking?

3)    Acknowledgement. If you are truly present and allow awareness, there’s honesty to what you’re shown. At this point, simple acknowledgement is all that is necessary to open a doorway to answer the questions in the phase that follows.

Continue reading →

Categories: Healing, Meditation, NLP, Personal Growth, Spiritual Evolution | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

The Wake-Up Call: Part I

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Carla Woody

Time for A Change

The Wake-up Call

The Wake-up Call
©2011 Carla Woody

Something has been running beneath my skin; not pain or real discomfort, more something urging change–an eager part of me pulling away, separating out, wanting to rip the bandage off. What I’d made familiar, through my own intent, attraction and careful placement has become–to an extent–mundane. I am a creature who relishes evolution, really revolution. Looking back over the last few years, I discovered that I’d gotten lazy. I’d become a prisoner of the status quo, a resting place ordinarily quite distasteful to me.

So this energy has been humming, making waves beneath my skin, in readiness. But toward what? To where? It’s been a mystery. There’s only been a glimmer. My eyes refused to focus, there being nothing solid they could land on.

When I’m in creation mode my mind has a strategy, somewhat like unconscious storyboarding. Ideas get filed away on post-it notes hanging out in space. Some are more visible, some completely obscured. There’s a time they collect in the ether, simply shimmering in the breeze. When the time is right the truly valid piece parts are attracted to each other and swoop down and join. The puzzle comes together. The image may be seen in its totality. I’ve learned to have patience with the process.

But when there are distractions, as there have been lately, when there’s so much drawing on my attention, it can be like an internal tornado where everything gets caught up and whirled together, making the process longer than necessary.

The Breakthrough

The Breakthrough
©2001 Carla Woody

I’ve been in Ireland on vacation. This time it took jet lag, being awake in the middle of the night with no hope of returning to sleep. There’s a several hour time difference from my home in the US. The urge to boot up the computer to check email wasn’t there. I had no Internet access. The phone wasn’t ringing; no cats demanded breakfast, nothing to get up and clean. All was taken out of my hands. There was no external “noise.” I was given an invitation: to be–only–fully present.

And that’s when it all began to come together: the answer to the question running beneath my skin.

What do I want now?

 What more do I want to create?

***

Go here to read The Wake-Up Call: Part II – The Attunement.

Categories: Creativity Strategies, Meditation, NLP, Personal Growth, Spiritual Evolution, Spiritual Travel | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

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