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April 2007In this Issue: The Web |
This past weekend I spent some time showing my six-year old son the relationship between root, stem, bud and blossom. Then we went to the river and talked about flow, whirling eddies and chill-enlightenments. Like my coaching clients, there are many places where I can find inspiration. I can even find inspiration on the internet. Check out this 11-year old girl’s pipes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO4WL4ZgNW8 Some of us want to inspire and expire from a deeper depth than the clamor and chattering of our noisy and always-on culture. I’m not against technology or even entertainment (loved that Celtics game against the Heat) but when my sense of Self begins to come from who I know, where I go, and what I do… then I know it’s time to stop, sit with myself and listen for the stillness and movement of deeper water. Blessings of a bountiful spring,Sean Casey LeClaire *If you'd like to share this issue with a friend, they can view the newsletter online at http://www.seanleclaire.com/ezine/, or you can use the Forward link at the bottom of this issue. If you'd prefer not to receive future issues of Be The Change, click the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of this message. THE WEBA Jeep Cherokee hit a telephone pole in our neighborhood this morning, shutting down all the power in West Concord . Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt but you could still feel the panic. Electric, phone and cable companies scrambled. People didn’t appear to know what to do as the power grid shut down. Stores and coffee shops normally open were immediately closed. Folks had to face a day without power, a day off the grid. No flat screens to drive our over-scheduled and over-structured lives. I walked over to my chiropractor’s office and had a deep release in a room filled with natural light then went for a walk by a brook. Everyone needs time off. I am not talking about vacation or sick days or retreats. I mean some time, each week, maybe even each day, when you are off the grid. It’s the opposite of being connected 24/7. You’re offline, but in-touch with a deeper part of yourself. Not for long—at first, maybe only a few minutes. You’re not doing your morning or evening meditation or doing your yoga or doing your power walk or doing your twenty minutes with nature. You are simply unencumbered by electronic devices—free from flat screens—off-the-grid, quiet time. It’s possible. A coaching client of mine recently created a quiet room off the bedroom, a room unencumbered with a flat screen. A company I’m doing some consulting work for designated a quiet room in their offices as part of a corporate wellness program. A woman I know, who’s starved for connection with her husband, threw the bedroom television out the window. I understand it made quite a crash. (She’s on the fast-track coaching program.) I recognize that going off-the-grid is difficult, especially for parents and business people who think they are important, and if you’re both, start small, take a baby step. Unplug the phone, turn off the cell, mute the beepers, give the television a rest, silence your iPod and radio and just sit somewhere for two minutes. The other morning I saw a woman I know sitting on a bench in front of a store eating her lunch. She was just sitting there, with the afternoon light on her face. She looked happy. There’s a reason we won’t stop. There is a reason that men and women find themselves sitting at their work desks on Sundays not knowing how they got there. TWO MINUTES. I promise it won’t kill you. The world will still turn without you. Observe. Sit. Wait. A lot happens when I do nothing. Blasé Pascal said: most of men’s misery can be attributed to his inability to sit quietly in a room, alone. The beginning of solitude is the experience of being alone and knowing that you are not alone. It starts with stopping. An old friend recently told me that she was going on vacation but, will, of course, be available on my Blackberry. WHY? I think people who are always available are crazy. I know a guy who went on trip with another man to a weekend workshop. They were getting away for some male bonding time. The guy who told me the story said that the other man spent the three-hour drive working on his laptop… just catching up with a few emails he told my acquaintance. People don’t seem to want to be where they are any more. I have always believed that the cause of so-called attention-deficit disorder is two fold: children don’t get enough genuine attention when they are young, and that the last generation has become steeped in an addictive, visually-oriented culture that renders the brain/mind passive, unable to concentrate. We are losing our ability to concentrate, and thus lose our access to higher meditative states and the inherent natural will and focus to fully complete an action. How often do you find yourself in the middle of a conversation with a friend, and their phone rings or buzzes and they’re gone? Or maybe you’re the one with the phone in your ear. How often do you hear yourself not finishing a sentence? When was the last time you spent a few minutes during your day away from flat screens? Each of us, in our own way, is becoming a slave to the technology that we thought would free us. A life-affirming practice (LAP) which can lessen our collective addiction to technology is to make the choice to take time off-the-grid each day and enter the web—of life.BODY-CENTERED BREAKS (BCBs)The Body-Centered Break is a body-focused inquiry and awareness meditation lasting only two minutes and done whenever and wherever you are in your day. Benefits as described by coaching clients include: calmness of mind, overall sense of well-being, sharpened mental focus, reduced anxiety, increased ability of autonomous nervous system to recover rapidly from stress, and an increased capacity for learning. CLICK here for an audio-guided BCB at any time you feel the need to slow down and center into yourself. Enjoy the Benefits NOW! HeadRest Radiate QuietMind SteamValve PEERS OF INFLUENCEMost of my coaching clients are easy to love. Nan Shaw is no exception. A powerful soul, she addresses a big challenge and need in the culture... the isolation and delusion of addiction. Nan's "Happy Hour" has now taken on a whole new meaning—one of genuine connection! Nan is a professional coach known for her gentle yet laser-like listening, and for her revitalizing approach for removing the "lifecuffs" of addiction. She is founder and lead facilitator of eClubSoda, a unique, cutting-edge environment in which addiction cannot easily survive. Offering over 800 conference calls a year, Nan, a Brown University graduate, provides daily, hands-on, easily accessible, worldwide coaching. Check out a recent article and eClubSoda here: http://www.eclubsoda.com/news/archive/article.php?id=1226 SHARED WISDOMMost of men’s misery can be attributed to his inability to sit quietly in a room, alone.
POEMADDICTION Show me a person
INQUIRYHow does technology use you? WONDERINGIf silence is God’s language why are so many of us illiterate? EVENTS/WORKSHOPSIN THE COMPANY OF MEN EXPLORING THE MIND/BODY CONNECTION The Journey of Divorce RIGHT ACTIONSpend some time with buds breaking open. |
© 2007 Sean Casey LeClaire, all rights reserved. |
