The Imagination Experiment

I’m in the deep midst of an imagination experiment. I’m doing this to see how big I can really let myself play. How much do I hold back? How much am I letting myself have what I want? Where are my mental limits?

Start by listing a couple of things you deeply yearn for. Then start letting yourself have it in your imagination. Commit to daydreaming everyday for seven days.

It’s funny. Initially, you think, well since I’m just imagining, it’s easy. I can make up whatever I want. But really see what you can pull up in your mind’s eye. Can you fully let yourself have what you want? Do you feel safe enough, even with yourself, to admit your heart’s desires? How crystal clear is your envisioning?

I found that I was definitely holding back. Only giving myself tiny little snippets in the beginning. I was a shy director, embarrassed even! Read More

What do you desire?

Although the question itched and at at times plagued me from the moment I left my heart’s path after graduate school, I truly began to ask this in earnest about seven years ago. It’s taken me on a grand adventure, the best of my life:

“What if money was no object?”

This is a great short lecture from the late Alan Watts, full of wise counsel:

 

Lady Gaga: Doing What The Soul Yearns

 

“When a soul wishes to experience something, she throws an image of the experience out before her and enters into her own image.” – Meister Ekhart

I just read a fabulous article on Lady Gaga in Vogue’s September issue. Fabulous not only because Lady Gaga is Fabulous, but because the writer, Jonathan Van Meter, was able to see how her creative power and self belief are intertwined. Here’s a fun little excerpt about how Gaga’s friend sees her:

“I want you to imagine every creative idea you’ve ever had in your brain. Then I would like you to imagine that those ideas never stop—they come all the time. And then I would like you to imagine that you create ever single one of them. That’s how I would describe her. It’s like there’s no little star that doesn’t get through her galaxy. She catches every single one and puts it in the sky, and she makes it the most important star that ever existed.”

I love this article. Gaga is the epitome of doing what you yearn to do, what you dream of. Not living from egoic fears, but expressing what your heart deeply desires. Lady Gaga is instinctively able to do what Meister Eckhart, a German mystic and philosopher, intuited from the 13th century.

Here’s the thing I’ve realized: you don’t do things of the heart for the result. You don’t do things to get something. You do them because you must. Read More

Letting the Tides of Life Move You

There was a point in my life, about 5 years ago, when I felt utterly bereft. Of love, family, identity, security. I had gone through tremendous losses, some of them because of conscious choices, and some that came like a thief in the night. I also moved to San Diego during this time. It felt upon arrival that the entire town was burning, literally. It was during the big 2008 fires. Not to be too dramatic, but it seemed the perfect metaphor for my life.

I went through a process where I let myself meltdown. There is a choice in this. You can resist pain, or you can lean in. I surrendered, let go, grieved, and walked around in plenty of confusion. Strange enough, in my dark night, I sensed there was intention. A good, bright intention that went beyond my present ability to understand with logic.

Great fires roar through our lives to prepare ground for tremendous new growth. It’s the way of Nature. Read More

Why is it so hard to rest and play?

You know how to walk, talk, and tie your shoelaces because at some point, you practiced very, very hard to figure out how. These things took enormous effort, and somehow, they seem just so simple now.

Amongst my clients and many of us, there are three things we assume we should know how to do, yet they can be incredibly hard: resting, playing, and being kind to oneself. Coaches, especially those trained by Dr. Martha Beck, will always be telling you to rest and play. But what if you don’t know how?

People are so embarrassed, appalled, or confounded by not knowing how to do these things that they hold back from ever learning. We say to ourselves, “That’s ridiculous. What’s wrong with me? I don’t know how to play! But that’s so dumb, how could I possibly ask anyone?”

Well, I find it to be a silent epidemic. Read More