I’ve been having some difficulty keeping up with posting regularly. Truly, I don’t know how the pros do it. I’m in awe of those who post daily, let alone several times a day!

What with tenants moving out, new-cat-itis, client work, networking, Toastmasters, growing the business, and that thing called Life, sitting down to write has been fairly elusive this past week.

‘Tis not from lack of action, though… So, I had the potentially awesome, and potentially dangerous idea of posting some correspondence.

The first one that comes to mind to share is an extension/follow-through from a post a month ago, Mental Chatter of Silence?

I’m happy to report that progress has been made on that booming message from the Universe (about trying out a meditation class).

Naturally, to protect the identity of concerned individuals, I have changed the names referenced in the following emails:

Hi Jill,

I understand you offer a meditation course. I’ve been positively referred to your course from both Anne and Sharon. Sharon forwarded me the dates for the next course beginning Oct. 10th. May I sign up?

I’m desiring another tool for working with/calming my mind and bringing forth more soul-wisdom into my daily work, especially into my business, Project Simplify. http://projectsimplify.com/yoga/mental-chatter-or-silence/

I’m a regular at Katie Carter’s Friday morning Yoga class and do a modified home practice a couple times a week. Ok, enough about me, now let’s talk about me for a while (joking! heard that in a movie recently.)

:) Looking forward to hearing from you,
Shawn

and her response:

Shawn, I had fun reading the articles on your website. You are such a great writer! I’m putting you down for the October/November Meditation class coming up. I’ll mail you the flier tomorrow. You are already in this realm with your efforts and musings, experiments and tools. It will be fun to get to know you and I daresay stimulating to have you in this class where we will all be endeavoring to “direct attention” among other things! Jill

Guess I’m signed up :) With public witness, there is NO excuse to let it slide now!

A fellow cafe patron observed, only moments ago, “That could drown a lot of flies!” referring to the 12-ounce-double-latte-with-a-packet-of sugar-in-the-raw just set down before me. My response: “That was way too gross before 9am on a Saturday morning!” As if it weren’t too gross for 9:17 am on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning? And what am I doing at a cafe before 9am on a Saturday morning, eyes still puffy with sleep?

Well, I ask you this: What happens when you wake up? Do you float in half-awake dreamy space? I wish! In one millisecond I’m in an almost aware dream state and then Ding!, a millisecond later, I’m shot straight to an awareness of sounds, body temperature, and skin sensation with no hope of falling back asleep. Wednesday or Saturday.

The worse part is that this Ding! wakes up the mental chatterer, “Oh boy! it’s a new day! let’s go!” No. let me sleep some more. “Hey! you know all those things we said yesterday we were going to do tomorrow? It’s tomorrow! We can start!” Shut up. let me enjoy this comfy bed. “So I think I have an idea about that one problem, we could try blah blah blah! Ya know, we really compromised in that situation with John yesterday. What could we have done? Well…” Makes me want to cry sometimes, I tell ya.

That chatterer is like a wiggly little puppy who wants to play play play but it’s decidedly not cute. The strategy I usually take to shut it up: I just get up. The activities that follow seem to side-track it enough to quiet down a bit. Not a great strategy, admittedly. Sets a bad precedence. I mean, isn’t this how we get into do-do-do mode, i.e. just doing in order to engage or appease the mind?

What about relaxation? (very important) What about intuitive planning and writing time? (super important) What about quietly listening to the silence of the universe? (super super important) What about creating an internal environment conducive for listening to intuition? (super duper important)

Plus, being wide awake AND present in the awareness of body, mind, spirit, and the external world (without mind chatter) is a really yummy experience. Lately I’ve been experiencing this once a week. On Fridays. From 8:30am - 10am to be specific. (That’d be during yoga class.) And without fail, at some point during this time period for the last four Fridays my intuitive voice has chimed in, “How about that meditation class you’ve heard about from a couple of different people?”

For those who are into listening to subtle, or not so subtle clues, to guide them, let’s do a quick count of intentional deafness indicated in the paragraphs above:

1. 2 friends telling me about their good experience with the same meditation class led by a certain teacher
2. 4 times the intuitive voice has chimed in to check out that class
3. countless times waking up to out-of-control mind chatter
4. too many times racing through a day “doing” without allowing time to “check-in”

= Duh! That’s like standing under a 30 foot wave and saying, “What tsunami?”

Ok, ok! I’ll check it out! I’m also interested in hearing what you, reader, do to work with your mental chatterer…

Silence is the true friend that never betrays.
~ Confucius

Fantastic yoga class this morning. Focus: hamstrings. Even after some 10 years of doing yoga, I don’t ever remember hearing that hamstrings correllate with control.

Rephrase: tight hamstrings can indicate control freak tendencies. hmmm, that hit home. I ask you this: what Organizer doesn’t have minor control tendencies? We go into other people’s spaces and tell them what to do, for goodness sake! (ha ha. uh, kind of)

The other theme of the class was Silence. Love it! “Protect silence like it’s an endangered species.” It is about that rare. Listen to the space between words, the space between thoughts.

This concept is great for loosening the brain. The brain gets tight always chattering away! Changing pace by listening to Silence is very calming and brain cooling.

Martha Beck, author of books such as The Joy Diet and Finding Your Own North Star, specializes in working with people who have been on auto-pilot for too long. They long for more satisfaction and fulfillment but don’t know what that means for them. The very first “ingredient” in The Joy Diet (Ten ingredients for joy) is “NOTHING”. Literally do Nothing for 15 minutes a day. Stop the mind-chatter and give yourself a chance to reconnect with your soul’s desires.

Consideration #1
One of the aspects I love about yoga class is being able to let go. I get to trust that I’m “safe”, I get to trust that the yoga teacher is going to lead me through class safely - physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Consideration #2
I’m of the camp who believes “failure” is an illusion. There are always lessons to learn in situations that don’t go as expected or as hoped. To me, these far outweigh the disappointment of not meeing those expectations. Things don’t “just happen”. There is always a series of events and decisions that led up to that moment at which I utter, “oh no”, and figuring out where I miscalculated or over-extended can be a very powerful realization.

Consideration #3
I’m also of the camp who believes that our thoughts create our reality. If I constantly think, “I’m overwhelmed and stressed,” I will continue to engage in situations that support this belief. Basically, to think about “failure” is to set myself up for “failure”.

Collision of considerations
So you can imagine my surprise at yoga class Friday morning when, during relaxation at the very beginning of class, our substitute teacher said, “today’s class is about redefining failure.”

Egads.

In order to “redefine failure”, one must first believe in failure. “Oh help!” I panic, “This class is being led by someone who not only believes in failure but is probably feeling failure, hence the desire to deal with it” (my projection).

Opening up class with “failure” immediately threw up my defenses. I didn’t trust my mental and spiritual well-being would make it through unscathed.

My whole body does this involuntary tweak and holds the tension. My mind, that had been letting go, fires up immediately, “what the? Nuh-uh.” I feel it taking a stance for warfare, “Show me what you got. I’ll debunk it. Bring it on!” I get the feeling a relaxing yoga session this will not be.

We move into a couple of minutes of seated meditation. Eyelids closed, my eyeballs dart back and forth mirroring my thoughts which have switched to desperate grabs at how to make a get-away without making waves. I did not want to spend the next hour and a half fending off “failure”.

After meditation she began to lead us in a pose on the floor. “Perfect!” As quietly as possible I rolled up my mat, walked silently to the teacher on the way to the door, “I’m not quite ready for yoga this morning.” Her understanding smile released me from guilt for not speaking totally straight with her. I left the room, hopped on my bicycle, and pedaled to freedom.

It was 8:40 a.m., already at least 85 degrees Fahrenheit and I felt exhilarant! Free, light, relieved. Ready for the day with a smile.

Friday morning comes again with 8:30 yoga class at Wild Mountain Yoga with Center owner, Katie Carter. Lately, there has been a consistent before and after yoga experience.

before class:
“I should be writing.”
“I’m tired.”
“I really should water the plants.”
“Did I shave this week?”
“Maybe I should just rest instead.”
“Why don’t I just practice at home?”

after class:
“ohhhh yeahhhhh” emphasized by a full body perma-grin

This is my reference point for experiential simplicity. And really, I’d say that having an experiential reference point has been an incredibly powerful tool for me. When I get away from that full body perma-grin, I know what I want to come back to. I know what state of being is the most helpful for maintaining my priorities.

I read an article in Business 2.0 today about the man, Gamal Aziz, behind the MGM Grand rebirthing in Las Vegas. They called his approach “working backward”, but what struck me was the vision of success. It wasn’t relative, it wasn’t comparative (i.e. well, I’m more productive today than yesterday…). It was almost like his fantasy vision, and with resources as extensive as they were at his disposal, he was able to create his vision. It’s been wildly successful. (successful in terms of financial bottom line. I’m not going to belabor my primary criticism of this method, namely, major demolition–read: waste–of perfectly functional buildings = high resource cost.)

I appreciate his integrity in sticking with his vision as a recipe for success, not benchmarks and measurements. Similarly, I desire to stick to my vision of simplicity. Not relative or comparative, simply 100%.

This afternoon I noticed that faintly creaky, tight feeling in my neck that usually forewarns a “bug” attacking my immune system. The common symptoms of this “bug” are a small fever, runny nose, sneezing and a great desire to sleep. For me this is also an indication that I’m not living simply. If my immune system is compromised to the point of succumbing to the common cold flu bug, I’m “out-of-whack.”

A bookkeeping project looming, nonetheless I took a nap after eating a protein based lunch and drinking a glass of apple juice. Before drifitng off I set the intention for excellent health. Several hours later I awoke feeling cheerful and energetic.

“Time for the project now,” I thought. Nope again. Instead, the urge to do yoga was strong and prevailed. It took several minutes for my mind to let go of the “I should be doing something else!” loop and relax into how the different muscles in my body felt in the different poses.

Ahhh, here is my relaxation. Both body and mind content being and doing exactly what they are doing. For me, this is being “in-line” (as opposed to being out-of-whack which is when the cold flu steps in to force me to slow down). Simplification for me is being in-line–priotities/state of mind/state of health, or more poetically, mind/body/spirit.

My yoga teacher in Nevada City, Katie Carter at Wild Mountain Yoga Center, has never warned our class about this particular hazard of yoga, so I want to make sure you know just what can happen in this seemingly innocuous practice.

Preface to this story (a true story!) is that in winter, with the air nippy, open-toed sandals forgotten in the back of the closet, and a small shower stall that doesn’t encourage bending down for pedi-contemplation, attention to my toe nails is LOW. Basically, the only time I really look at them is when practicing yoga and doing a low lunge–this is when I get a birds eye view of the toes at a distance of a foot.

Where am I going with this? Well, on the day in question, my toenails had been neglected for some time and were long, uneven, and sharp. I was in the middle of my home practice, had warmed up with sun salutations and a few warrior poses. I was ready for a “jump through.” (This is when you go from down dog (i.e. butt up in air) to seated by slowly and gracefully jumping and passing your legs through the tunnel formed by your arms to lightly land with legs extended in front of you.) It’s a rather challenging flow until you get the hang of the balance, timing, and stomach muscles required. I’m still a rather clunky at it.

So that morning, I’m in down dog, exhale, look forward, jump. OUCH!! In my sloppy move, my legs kind of crashed through my arms (rather than a smooth pass-through) and one of my TOENAILS grabbed a chunk of skin from my right hand that was ever so firmly planted on the ground! Yes, a drop of blood passed through the compromised barrier of my epidermal protection. Shocked at the uncomfortable clashing of external physical awareness and internal spaciousness, I stopped and stared at the puncture for a few moments. Why wasn’t I warned of this? Why wasn’t there a warning label on my toenails stating, “Beware! Dangerous if left unattended!” How could this happen to me? I realized then and there that I cannot rely on others to warn me of every single potential danger lurking in this rough and tough world. While the authorities “protect and serve” the population, it is up to me, as an individual, to be aware of my surroundings and my place within them. And yes! there are practical applications to this lesson learned. For example, if I have a cup of scalding hot coffee from McDonalds in a squishy styrofoam cup in my hand, I should not drive my car. Wow! I feel wiser already.