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Day 28 — Accepting: Beyond

Beyond accepting is living! Beyond accepting is flow! Beyond accepting is who I am meant to be and how I am meant to live. How do I move beyond accepting? How do I jump in the river and not drown? There is a point where I move beyond consciousness of myself to allow the flow of energy to come through me. There is a point where I need to let go of everything that is me and just be a channel. I do this more often than I realise. I allow me to move into the background and a deeper sense of me to come to the fore.

Emptying My Mind

When I am with a coaching client I find that the best results come when I empty my mind and I work on instinct, on what comes to me in the moment. I have, of course, my training and my experience behind me, I do not just do anything that comes to mind, I do, however, focus on what seems right in the moment. I feel the energy of the moment and I feel the energy of the other person. This directs me in the direction I need to go. I let logic go and let my emotions out to play.

A friend of mine who is a very experienced coach was sitting on her bed coaching a client over Skype. She had been working hard and was tired. In the middle of the call she fell asleep while the client was talking and when she woke up the client was still talking. She was not aware of what had happened when she was asleep or how long it had been. At the end of the call she, as usual asked how the client how it had been for her. She replied that it had been the best call she had had! Sometimes the unexpected yields extraordinary results.

Creativity

Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy. There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life—including ourselves.

Julia Cameron

This openness, this energy, this letting go is about diving in to the flow of creativity. I have always accepted creativity into my life, indeed I have encouraged it.

Creativity is at the core of when I am at my best. Creativity infuses me with strength and energy and allows me to produce work that I could not have imagined on my own.

As a lighting designer I relied on my creativity to produce innovative ideas, and I was not let down. I was responsible for some stunning work that I am proud of.

As I was explaining above when talking about being a coach, my creativity does not come from a vacuum. It comes from the depth of my life and experience. It starts with my interest and fascination with the work of others. As a designer in the theatre my experience was embedded in my work as a theatre electrician. I spent years working with and for more experienced designers learning their techniques and the sources of their inspiration.

I integrated what I learned until it all fused into my own unique technique and method. There were ideas from other designers, ideas from my observation of nature and ideas from places that I did not understand. The ideas came, I put the down onto paper and saw them in reality—on stage. I then judged them visually and discarded the ones that did not work. This seemed like an intense process of natural selection that resulted in my great work.

Coaching

This happens in my coaching, my broadcasting and in my writing. The more I write, the more I let go when I write, the more inspired I become.

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things.

Steve Jobs

I agree, except that I do not feel guilty—I just flow.

Meditation