I grew up in a household where healthy eating was paramount. My grandfather kept 1/3 of an acre in organic garden before organic gardening even had a name. My grandmother was always into vitamins and supplements, but when my father had a health crisis when I was 10, she went into overdrive researching how to restore his health. There's been a lot of research on creating health in the last two decades, but not so much when I was a kid. Unfortunately, no amount of healthy eating was going to undo a cigarette-smoking habit that started at 7 and persisted through countless health crises before claiming my father's life.
Along the way, however, Grandma infected me with the understanding that we can be in control of our health outcomes. Since I was 10, I've been aware that what I ate made a difference. Not unlike many young adults, I didn't always eat the way I should, but I knew the difference. By the time I was 25, my failure to eat the way I knew I should resulted in me packing an unnecessary 15 pounds. I was pre-diabetic.
A doctor sat me down and had a long talk with me about my intentions. He made it very clear that if I kept my weight in the normal- to slightly-below normal range, I would probably never develop diabetes. But, with that formidable disease on both sides of my family, he said, I was almost destined to develop it if I continued to carry that extra weight. That may have been my first real conversation with anyone about my intentions and the impact of making choices in alignment with them. To this day, whenever I put on a few pounds, I hear his words and take them off.
Back then we weren't talking about exercise so much, but my grandparents were farm people and moved a lot. Granddad covered miles hunting and fishing, and lamented at 94 that he couldn't jump creeks like he used to. (Really! We had that conversation.) They were very active. Three of my four grandparents lived into their 90s. My maternal grandfather/organic gardener died just short of 100. My paternal great-grandmother lived to 106. My parents, who didn't make healthy lifestyle choice, both died in their 60s.
During my Midwestern trip last fall, I visited with two aunts--87 and 89--and the mother of a friend who is 94. All are in amazing shape and truly inspirations. Healthy lifestyle choices really make a difference. But that is no surprise to me.
I've been coaching for 25 years, and a number of my Intentional Living Intensive executive and professional clients were totally inflexible and had trouble taking the long walks that were part of the three-day process. I asked clients to stop caffeine and alcohol a week before they came, but a few didn't think that was important. Several went into serious withdrawal from caffeine; one complained of headaches for the first two days. Most of my clients were around 50, and I'd seen first hand the impact of their choices. About 20 years ago, before it even had a name, I declared that my encore career would be as a health and mobility coaching for older adults, many of whom lose their ability to move because they don't.
It is not uncommon for coaches to have a number of topic-specific credentials. I have a dozen or so, among them social and emotional intelligence, influence styles, human-centered design, and 360 feedback for government executives. As I have contemplated this season of reassessment, I've made a list of things to explore--seriously explore, not just think about. Among them was health and wellness coaching.
Tomorrow I start a four-month program to get my certificate as a health coach for adults and seniors, euphemistically called "prime time coaching." I spent several hours today doing readings and viewing background videos online. This material feels like "home" to me. I guess it should, I've been thinking about it for most of my life.
While most people who know me think I look and certainly act much younger than my years, and I have really made healthy eating a major intention in my life, I have rounded the corners. (Geez, that sweet tooth gets me every time.) Nothing in this material has been anything I haven't known for decades, but having it presented in an organized fashion, I was reminded I could do better.
Since the New Year, I have kept my commitment for at least 15 minutes of exercise a day and most days worked up a minor sweat. In fact, once I got moving most days I've gone at least 25 minutes and was up to 47 once. This evening I visited the gym in my building. (With a gym at work and one in my apartment building, I really have had no excuse for not exercising.) I've lived here for over three years, and I think this was the second visit. Not like running 7 miles a day and lifting weights three times a week, but developing, or redeveloping, a habit. Baby steps.
Most important, between getting my exercise groove back and focusing on health issues, I have been recalibrating around my intentions to create a healthy life. No earthquakes here. Just consciously pulling myself from good to better.
At the same time, I believe that my sorting project is spiritual recalibration. Not unlike my physical recalibration, I think I've done pretty well in staying the course with my spiritual intentions, but I could do better. Focusing my attention on my intentions will help me be very clear about what I am creating in my life and in the world. The reason that started the process a month ago now seems less important than that I am doing a body, mind, and spirit recalibration, and that has got to be a good thing.
Showing posts with label spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spirit. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Free us from lack of vision...
This morning in church, we were reciting prayers that we always recite. At least, I think we always recite them. For the first time I wondered: do they change these periodically? I really don't remember that line before. The line? "Free us from lack of vision, and from inertia of will and spirit...."
Back in the day when I used to speak more, I would often write a speech before I left home. Then, I'd rewrite it, often till it was a different speech, on the plane and in airports. Finally, I'd rewrite it again the night before in my hotel room...until it was a different speech. At last the moment to delivery my remarks would arrive, and I would delivery a whole different speech than any of the ones I'd written or rewritten. I felt like God would give me the words that people in the audience needed to hear in that moment, but I was never confident enough to prepare no remarks. The ritual repeated itself over and again. I created a file labeled, "Speeches I never gave," for the ones that I had written but...well, you get the idea.
After the speeches, I always believed that everyone in the audience heard a different message--the message that each person needed to hear that moment. Kind of the reverse of speaking in tongues: I said the same words but in transport to the ears of my audience, they transformed into a special message.
This morning as I heard, "Free us from lack of vision...," I wondered if that is what had happened to me. Had these words been here each week, and I had just never been ready to hear them? And, this week I was somehow different; now I was ready to hear that I had a lack of vision and inertia of will and spirit? I don't really know if the words actually changed or if I was just finally ready to hear them, but it doesn't matter. I am ready to hear them, so the timing is perfect either way.
I am starting a Staycation today. That's were I take a week of vacation and stay at home and enjoy activities that tourists, who travel from all over the world to visit Washington, do. I save money, and more important, I actually return to work next week rested and relaxed. I also get to enjoy my home, which I spend a lot of money on buying each month, but spend very little time appreciating.
I've been working long hours approaching this Staycation, and I haven't really had much time to think about what I'd do. I had considered some special art exhibits, but I've already seen most of the ones in which I had an interest. Three different venues, including the National Mall, show movies outside. I don't usually get to go to them because of my 5:20 wake-up time, but when I checked what was showing, none of them interested me. I invited neighbors for dinner, but they haven't responded. I have contemplated a day trip to a small city not far away that I've never visited.
However, this morning those words "Free us from lack of vision" stung me. My limited Staycation planning has lacked vision. I recalled a month-long pilgrimage to Greece in 1998 and 16 days in Tuscany in 2009. In each case I only had reservations in and out of the country, and I listened to my heart and where it wanted to go each day. Neither demonstrated inertia of will and spirit. What if I listened to each day this week?
Listening to our inner knowing, our spirits, or God whispering in our ears takes a great deal more vision, will and spirit than thoughtful planning. I have found that it also brings greater rewards, even if more courage.
There is an old quote, which I believe came from Marianne Williamson that when we turn over our lives to God, the first thing we hear is "Thank you," and the second thing we hear is, "Hold on!" Well, I am turning my Staycation over to God, so I am holding on. Except for dancing tonight and a tentative bicycle trip, scheduled with a friend, I don't know what I will do this week, but I am certain that it will reflect more will and spirit than it would have if I started a day earlier.
Back in the day when I used to speak more, I would often write a speech before I left home. Then, I'd rewrite it, often till it was a different speech, on the plane and in airports. Finally, I'd rewrite it again the night before in my hotel room...until it was a different speech. At last the moment to delivery my remarks would arrive, and I would delivery a whole different speech than any of the ones I'd written or rewritten. I felt like God would give me the words that people in the audience needed to hear in that moment, but I was never confident enough to prepare no remarks. The ritual repeated itself over and again. I created a file labeled, "Speeches I never gave," for the ones that I had written but...well, you get the idea.
After the speeches, I always believed that everyone in the audience heard a different message--the message that each person needed to hear that moment. Kind of the reverse of speaking in tongues: I said the same words but in transport to the ears of my audience, they transformed into a special message.
This morning as I heard, "Free us from lack of vision...," I wondered if that is what had happened to me. Had these words been here each week, and I had just never been ready to hear them? And, this week I was somehow different; now I was ready to hear that I had a lack of vision and inertia of will and spirit? I don't really know if the words actually changed or if I was just finally ready to hear them, but it doesn't matter. I am ready to hear them, so the timing is perfect either way.
I am starting a Staycation today. That's were I take a week of vacation and stay at home and enjoy activities that tourists, who travel from all over the world to visit Washington, do. I save money, and more important, I actually return to work next week rested and relaxed. I also get to enjoy my home, which I spend a lot of money on buying each month, but spend very little time appreciating.
I've been working long hours approaching this Staycation, and I haven't really had much time to think about what I'd do. I had considered some special art exhibits, but I've already seen most of the ones in which I had an interest. Three different venues, including the National Mall, show movies outside. I don't usually get to go to them because of my 5:20 wake-up time, but when I checked what was showing, none of them interested me. I invited neighbors for dinner, but they haven't responded. I have contemplated a day trip to a small city not far away that I've never visited.
However, this morning those words "Free us from lack of vision" stung me. My limited Staycation planning has lacked vision. I recalled a month-long pilgrimage to Greece in 1998 and 16 days in Tuscany in 2009. In each case I only had reservations in and out of the country, and I listened to my heart and where it wanted to go each day. Neither demonstrated inertia of will and spirit. What if I listened to each day this week?
Listening to our inner knowing, our spirits, or God whispering in our ears takes a great deal more vision, will and spirit than thoughtful planning. I have found that it also brings greater rewards, even if more courage.
There is an old quote, which I believe came from Marianne Williamson that when we turn over our lives to God, the first thing we hear is "Thank you," and the second thing we hear is, "Hold on!" Well, I am turning my Staycation over to God, so I am holding on. Except for dancing tonight and a tentative bicycle trip, scheduled with a friend, I don't know what I will do this week, but I am certain that it will reflect more will and spirit than it would have if I started a day earlier.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Just Imagine
I awakened in the middle of the night with a strange smell in my nose. Instantly, I knew what the pungent odor was, but it wasn't coming from my apartment. As best I can tell, it came in a dream. I don't recall any visual images or action from the dream, but I do remember the smell. I was warmed all over by the unpleasantness.
When I was in grade school and junior high, my father worked as a tool and die maker. He was highly skilled, and his company's customers sometimes flew him to their locations to solve problems. On one of those trips, he was recruited for a mid-management company for one of the Big Three American auto makers. But for all those years before he put on a dress shirt and tie, he would come home with the smell of grease on his clothes. Despite what might have otherwise been unpleasant, it was wonderful to me. My father and I were close, and he'd always scoop me up in a big bear hug. If love has a smell to me, it is the smell of grease from his machine shop.
As I've pondered, I cannot remember any details of the dream, but I've felt love all day. The consideration, however, has taken me in a different direction. We as humans have an incredible ability to transcend time and space--you might call us time travelers. A single thought, smell, picture, or even a phrase can transport us to another time. For me, it was the smell of grease that reminded me of the warmth of my father's love and hugs. The smell of fried chicken or a freshly baked pie sends me to my grandma's kitchen. The crunch of snow under my feet recalls building a snowman as a child.
We also have the ability to travel forward in time, and doing so is something that my coaching clients frequently do as they plan for their futures. Time travel, they find, is really the foundation of living with intention. Creating a vision of our future self, which we firmly connect into our being, produces a target of the future. Of course, then we have to act consistent with the vision to see it explode into our lives, but the time travel is the first step.
How does this work? Someone who has problems with a knee because she is over-weight envisions herself as healthy and mobile. Then working back in time she discovers how she needs to eat and exercise now to deliver that dream. Finally, the hard part, she needs to act on what she has come to know. What do you need to do right now to enable the vision, I ask? The vision of the future healthy her shows the way. (No matter how much of a picture she has, if she continues eating a pint of super-rich ice cream while she watches TV every evening, the vision will not find life.)
Similarly, a client who envisioned herself inspiring young women in her profession saw herself on stage giving funny speeches. What does she need to do right now to start bringing life to the intention, I ask? An artist who has a commission but has the artist equivalent of writer's block imagines a wonderful painting that touches the audience. What does she need to do right now to allow that painting to move through her? My desire to have a warm relationship with neighbors (12/9/13) started coming to life when I knocked on my neighbor's door last night with chocolate cake in hand.
Our ability to imagine something that hasn't yet existed is as powerful as our ability to time travel backward. The vision provides those in the invisible realm that assist us to live our dreams to know what we want. In many ways much of what I've written about in this blog has been about bringing intention to what we want to create in our lives--bringing to live what we know in our hearts. Just imagine what we dream to start it being so.
When I was in grade school and junior high, my father worked as a tool and die maker. He was highly skilled, and his company's customers sometimes flew him to their locations to solve problems. On one of those trips, he was recruited for a mid-management company for one of the Big Three American auto makers. But for all those years before he put on a dress shirt and tie, he would come home with the smell of grease on his clothes. Despite what might have otherwise been unpleasant, it was wonderful to me. My father and I were close, and he'd always scoop me up in a big bear hug. If love has a smell to me, it is the smell of grease from his machine shop.
As I've pondered, I cannot remember any details of the dream, but I've felt love all day. The consideration, however, has taken me in a different direction. We as humans have an incredible ability to transcend time and space--you might call us time travelers. A single thought, smell, picture, or even a phrase can transport us to another time. For me, it was the smell of grease that reminded me of the warmth of my father's love and hugs. The smell of fried chicken or a freshly baked pie sends me to my grandma's kitchen. The crunch of snow under my feet recalls building a snowman as a child.
We also have the ability to travel forward in time, and doing so is something that my coaching clients frequently do as they plan for their futures. Time travel, they find, is really the foundation of living with intention. Creating a vision of our future self, which we firmly connect into our being, produces a target of the future. Of course, then we have to act consistent with the vision to see it explode into our lives, but the time travel is the first step.
How does this work? Someone who has problems with a knee because she is over-weight envisions herself as healthy and mobile. Then working back in time she discovers how she needs to eat and exercise now to deliver that dream. Finally, the hard part, she needs to act on what she has come to know. What do you need to do right now to enable the vision, I ask? The vision of the future healthy her shows the way. (No matter how much of a picture she has, if she continues eating a pint of super-rich ice cream while she watches TV every evening, the vision will not find life.)
Similarly, a client who envisioned herself inspiring young women in her profession saw herself on stage giving funny speeches. What does she need to do right now to start bringing life to the intention, I ask? An artist who has a commission but has the artist equivalent of writer's block imagines a wonderful painting that touches the audience. What does she need to do right now to allow that painting to move through her? My desire to have a warm relationship with neighbors (12/9/13) started coming to life when I knocked on my neighbor's door last night with chocolate cake in hand.
Our ability to imagine something that hasn't yet existed is as powerful as our ability to time travel backward. The vision provides those in the invisible realm that assist us to live our dreams to know what we want. In many ways much of what I've written about in this blog has been about bringing intention to what we want to create in our lives--bringing to live what we know in our hearts. Just imagine what we dream to start it being so.
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