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Jun. 2009In this Issue: |
Summer’s here and I’m hearing from many clients that they want to slow down, “You know, like the Europeans do, close shop till September. Of course Sean, China don’t care that it’s July 4th!” I sure resonate with the hard choice of that man’s honest sharing. Not sure what he’s going to do this summer, but I know what I am. For your attention…there’s a powerful lobby to mandatory paid vacations in the USA. Check it out. http://www.timeday.org/ And take a real vacation this summer, and if you’re up for the challenge, engage the timeless wisdom practice called “Rest & Renew” described in The Web. Blessings of peace, *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 WEBThe other day a young man said something startling to me: “Friends of mine think that if they have looked at your Facebook page then they’ve had a conversation with you.” Picking up the phone for a conversation, or actually meeting someone in-person for a chat, beyond a work-related conversation, has been relegated to “not the norm.” And, you know what they say…the norm is rarely natural. The internet, e-commerce, email, webinars, twitter, mobile phones, GPS systems and so on have given us many freedoms, but the seductive nature of these technologies are creating “fast minds” attempting to mirror the speed of the technology that we’ve created to serve us. I’ve consistently observed that these minds are disconnected and almost always anxious. Certainly my mind is, when I get hooked by the technology. I call this ubiquitous state mind: frantic serenity—a person with all the modern tools and toys and no inner peace. Recently at the Arjuna Men’s Conference in Western Massachusetts my colleagues and I introduced three timeless wisdom principles and five timeless wisdom practices to the participants. The first practice was “slow down.” There are so many ways to do this…you could take a slow walk every day or you could go to my BCB page and do three body-centered breaks a day for a month and see how that feels, or you could start with stopping at the stop signs on the road. Growing up in Canada, we had a phrase, “Oh, he just did an American stop.” The car, somewhat led by the driver, approaches the stop sign, and slows to about 10 to 15 miles, sometimes 20 miles an hour, as it blows right through the sign. Americans are in general gung-ho, it’s one of the many things I like about the people…imagine what we could accomplish, if we’d also spend sometime “slowing down,” finding a more natural pace for our lives. Another timeless wisdom practice we introduced to the guys was “rest & renew.” The practice involves spending at least 24 hours, preferably two or three days completely alone, engaged in no activity, or some activity that rests and renews your spirit, mind and body. When I asked how many men had done so in the last year, 1 in 5 raised their hands, an unusually high percentage in my experience of coaching men and women. Try it sometime this summer, a day or two alone, no flat screens, no mobile phone, Blackberry, etc…downtime, getting in-touch time, off-line, and deeply connected, within and held by timelessness. We’re not talking about taking a vacation, that’s a very different animal. Taking time alone to “rest and renew” is life-affirming and soul awakening, you could even start by gardening for a whole day in relative silence. That’s a start in the right direction. I like the web, the freedom it can give, but it is just a tool like a hammer or hoe, nothing more. Modern technology will never surpass the simple pleasure and joy of seeing a friend’s face laugh in real time over a coffee, or the beauty of two people occupying space together in silence, or the peace without suspicion, which can arise when you slow down, and drop into deeper dimensions of your own being—off-line and connected. 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! NEW Body-Centered Breaks Body-Centered Break (BCB) History Legs and Feet The Maserati HeartBeat Sitting in Your Seat The Pause SHARED WISDOMEnergy out of control has two characteristics: hurry and worry.
POEM Count your friends. Anonymous INQUIRYWhat stops time for you? WORKSHOPS & EVENTS
RIGHT ACTION In the late eighties, I invited nine men to join me on a river rafting trip to watch thousands of eagles feed on the salmon in the Squamish River in Brakendale, British Columbia. We were mesmerized by the natural order of things. Recently my old friend Karen Green made me aware that the natural wild salmon of British Columbia are seriously endangered due to government subsidized fish farms. If you enjoy eating salmon, real salmon, and/or care about the pristine beauty and natural rhythms of British Columbia, check this out. www.saveoursalmon.ca. Wild salmon are fundamental to the ecology of the area… An action you can take is to buy only wild salmon at your local grocery store, or go vegetarian and, we’ll put the fish farms causing the ecological problem out of business. |
© 2009 Sean Casey LeClaire, all rights reserved. |
