Working is Living

"I was laid off from my job yesterday."

I encourage each of you that are reading this to absorb the impact of this sentence. What does it mean to no longer be working? Think about that.

"I am unemployed."

Imagine how this statement feels when it rolls off of your tongue. Imagine that it is you and that you have to own this statement. You automatically feel that you are less than the people that you are speaking to. You must now be "among the unemployed." How many are there of us? Is the count up or down? Who will help us to re-gain employment?

In reality it is only us - the unemployed - that will reclaim our lives. Our livelihood. But, the fact is that most of us are fighting to keep our work. Can you imagine? Struggling to keep the means to feed our families and secure our futures.

I have been in the workforce for almost 35 years. I graduated from college in the late 70's and believed that there was a world of work in front of me, but I found that my work, my career, was controlled by people richer than me, and more "powerful" than me that considered me nothing more than a revenue source. Someone to pay for their salaries. It is a sad fact of working today - you are either a money-making machine, or you are tossed aside.

But, it is a fact that I was making money for my company, but not enough in their eyes. I was making money for myself and my family, but maybe too much in their opinion. I was the one to go so that my salary could be pushed into profits. For my managers it was a transaction. Moving cost into revenue. Not much more.

Isn't it amazing that corporate leaders can disregard the meaning of work from those that work for them? Aren't you astounded that executives can view you, who are a mother, a sister, wife, daughter, and professional as a line on a spreadsheet?

But, what I think that we all come to is that you and I are not that. We are our own flesh and blood. We have our own lives and our own value. We are not to be judged by those that take away our work.

Today I am speaking to you as much as I am speaking to myself. Deep within me I am strong. I know I offer tremendous value to the world and the people around me. I am not a line on a spreadsheet. I will remain here long after my name is archived in some corporate database. So will you.

I am living. I am working. No matter how hard you try to erase me, I am here.

Do Not Disturb

How did it make you feel when you read the title of this entry? It's the equivalent of someone telling you to leave them alone or asking you to go away, isn't it? But, this is a fairly common thing to see in hotels, hanging on the doors of some rooms. I've put these on my hotel door before, because I needed some extra rest or if I was working on something in my room. As off-putting as it sounds, I know from my own experience that I never meant anything bad by it. Still, the words can look like a wall.

I'm thinking that it's a desire for most of us to not be shaken out of what we are doing. But really, being disturbed can be one of the most wonderful things that can happen. Magical things can come from a chance meeting or phone call, things that can benefit us or benefit others.

I've been looking for someone or some thing to tap me on the shoulder and interrupt me for the last month. I have been focusing entirely on work and on "starting the year right" ever since the holidays and haven't written anything during that time. Now, that's not to say that I haven't thought about it. I've thought about it almost every day, but I haven't been able to break free of the immersion that I have been in for the whole month of January. But, last night as I was driving home I remembered a wonderful book that I read years ago. The thought seemed to come out of the blue, like a tap on the shoulder.

The book is Life's Interruptions - God's Opportunities by Larry Jones, the founder of Feed the Children. I will say that I am so sad to learn that Larry, his daughter and his son have all run into recent corruption issues within Save the Children, but in his beginnings as a missionary his heart was in the right place. In Life's Interruptions he tells of the time that he gave 20 cents to a little boy to buy a meal in Port Au Prince, Haiti and he realized that with so little money for a meal, he could personally make a difference. Through the help of  others that he connected with in the States, he laid the groundwork for a movement to feed hungry children all over the world.

You have to wonder, what can you accomplish by just being open to interruptions in your life, and not shutting them out because you are too wrapped up in the day-to-day, like I have been all these weeks? What miracles can happen in your life by stopping to talk with someone, or listening to a story on the radio? The more that we stop and pay attention (see Paying Attention post in October 2011), the deeper our lives become. Larry Jones didn't plan to have that little boy in Haiti beg him for money. The boy just appeared in front of him. How unfortunate it would be if a life-changing opportunity was right in front of us, but we were too busy to see it!

Let's take the sign off the door and see what happens! 

Flat as a Pancake

Today's one of those days that I just can't get it together. You know me. I try to keep my sights up and on the horizon, but sometimes life just catches up to me. I've had a winter cold for most of the winter, and I guess that I'm just kind-of wrung out.

There are times that I just wish that I could take a vacation from myself. You know, go off and do something and just leave my life behind for a while. I could teleport myself to a distant land and drift freely through Eden-like gardens and shimmering seas and not have a care in the world, because all of my cares have been left behind in this war-torn brain and body.

But then I know that tomorrow's another day for me, and for all of us. Who knows what interesting things wait there? To start, it's Friday - the beginning of an uncluttered weekend when we can putter around and clean our house from the remnants of Christmas. I get to hang out with my son Peter tonight (my Christmas Angel) and have what should be a relaxing dinner. I have an appointment with my chiropractor this afternoon. I should feel clearer after that. He does miracles.

I know that I'll get beyond this down place. When I was taking yoga classes, a trick that my instructor taught me is to focus on my breathing and look for where the pain or sadness is in my body. Once I've found it, I can actually "breathe it out of me". Now if I'm in a bad place, I'll focus on what bothers me the most, close my eyes and take 3 or 4 deep breaths while "looking" at the thing that is bothering me.

Pretty soon I've melted it away.

Huh, I feel a little better. Not so heavy. Not so stuck. I guess the little joys in my life are actually the big things that matter the most.

Healing Past Hurt - Our Evolving Language

It is wonderful to find something that simply must be forwarded in its entirety because it is so important to consider in our daily lives. What follows is today's DailyOM online message. DailyOM can be found at www.dailyom.com.

I send this message in honor of my brother David, who has suffered with the stigma of  schizophrenia for decades. Another reason to think twice when tempted to say that someone is "schizophrenic" when they are all over the place and can't make a decision.

-  -  -  -  -  -  - 

We can create positive change by choosing not to use these words and phrases as we come across them in our vocabulary. 

There are many troubling phrases in our language that we use without considering their full meaning simply because they have been accepted into common knowledge. Even as our ideals progress, our language maintains some phrases from our past that no longer serve us, for example: Boys don't cry; good child; boys will be boys; problem child; illegitimate child; and many more. While these phrases may be used without harmful intent, they are inherently negative. Children can be especially sensitive to such phrases, which may stay with them their whole lives, adversely affecting their self-image and wounding their self-esteem. We can create positive change by choosing not to use these words and phrases as we come across them in our vocabulary.

It is challenging to examine our habits in terms of the words we use to express ourselves, but it is also exciting. Language is an area where we can exercise our free will, creating positive change in the world around us by simply choosing carefully the words we use. It may seem like a small thing, but our words have a rippling effect, like a stone thrown in a pond. People naturally pick up on the way other people speak, consciously or unconsciously changing the way they speak in response. We don't need to actively try to influence people; it happens without our even thinking about it. All we have to do is choose to be more conscious ourselves, putting to rest words and phrases that are outmoded, insensitive, or harmful. We can also exercise our creativity by creating new phrases that carry positive and loving energy to replace the old ones.

You may already have some ideas about phrases you'd like to transition out of your language, and now that you’re thinking about it you may come across many more. As you consciously decide not to use these phrases, you may feel lighter and more joyful, knowing that you have chosen to drop baggage that was handed down to you from a less conscious time. As you do so, you elevate the language for future generations who would no doubt thank you if they could.

© 2004-2011 DailyOM - All Rights Reserved

A Daily Dose of Inspiration

I don’t know about you, but sometimes just getting up and stating my day can be a challenge. I’ll hit the snooze button at least 2-3 times and put the pillow over my head thinking that it just can’t be the morning of another workday!

This is especially true now, in December when the sun doesn’t come up over the horizon until 7am at the earliest. Your body is saying to you, “I am getting up in the middle of the night to go to work. Why?” It turns into a mind over matter exercise, which is often not much of a battle because my mind is still dreaming!

Once I get through breakfast and start my 30-mile drive to work, I’m usually in pretty good shape. My brain goes from dreaming into the process of sorting through what needs to be done that day and prioritizing all of the many categories of tasks I have in front of me. Now, during Christmas week, the categories can stretch from mailing Christmas cards to writing a contract for a new client.

Through it all, I know that I can’t do all of this alone, that’s why I am so grateful in my prayers at night that I have God at the helm keeping everything in order. Still, I have to surround myself with an environment that promotes action during my day. In my office, I have filled half of one wall with motivational quotes from people as wide-ranging as Buddy the Elf to Leonardo da Vinci. I call it my “Wall of Inspiration” and I’ve invited people to come by any time they are feeling a little low in the motivation department.

One of my favorites is an Irish proverb that says, “You’ll never plough a field turning it over in your mind.” Any time I get stuck on something, I’ll look at that quote and convince myself to get the thought out of my head and act on it. Another good one is, “Obstacles cannot bend me. Every obstacle yields to effort.” That’s the one by Leonardo da Vinci. He accomplished a few things in his 67 years on this earth!

If you’re looking for more of these quotes, go to www.givemore.com. There are plenty of them surrounded by other good and practical tips.

No matter what technique you choose to use, I know that it has helped me to surround myself with positive words and images. You create an environment of energy that can support you just by being there. Just by you looking across the room and becoming renewed and inspired. Give it a try and see what happens!   

My Christmas Angel

Today's my youngest son's 18th birthday. It's amazing for me to think that it was 18 years ago that he came home for the first time and took his place as the youngest of three boys.

That was a tough time for me, right from the start. I came down with an intestinal bug when he was in the hospital and couldn't come and visit him until it was just about time to bring him home. I was also in what was the beginning of problems within my marriage that I was hardly even aware of. It was just a general sadness, which over time grew into an issue that couldn't be fixed.

Peter was my pal as soon as I saw him. He was actually due on Christmas day, but he decided that he couldn't wait that long. Still, I called him my Christmas Angel. He was a gift from above for me, and he's been that way ever since.

When Christmas arrives in a couple of weeks, look around the room that morning. Sure, you'll see your gifts under the tree and hanging from the mantle in stockings, but your real gifts are in the smiles of your family and in the loving messages from your friends.

Happy Birthday, Peter. I couldn't have done it without you. -Dad.

The Primal Gift of Music

As Christmas gets closer and closer, you hear lots of joyous music filling the air. Your hear in it malls, on the radio, in church. It makes you feel relaxed and happy, doesn't it? It brings back memories of Christmases when we were young and times were simpler. It even conjures memories of the delicious food that we have eaten at Christmas celebrations. The entrainment effect that music has on all of us is amazing, and we hardly think of it. We just experience it.

That's why I think of music as a primal gift. It has literally been in our bodies and brains since the beginning of time. We beat logs in rhythms to communicate, we chanted and sang stories as part of our oral history before the written word. These stories have been passed down unaltered sometimes for centuries.

You may be thinking how can music be in our bodies and brains? We remember songs that we have stored in our memories sometimes for a long time, that's for sure. But, I am referring to what music is made of - vibration - that has a physical and emotional effect on our thoughts and general well being. For us musicians, it sounds a little crude to think of our precious passtimes as "making vibration", but that's the way our ears receive it. Because music is vibration and vibration is converted to electricity, it literally reaches every cell in our bodies.

Knowing that the music we listen to affects our entire bodies, what an amazing healing tool we have right at our fingertips!

It's well known that classical music opens up our minds. There's has been discussion saying that babies that listen to classical music from when they are born are smarter. That's not exactly true. What is true is that classical music "primes" babies brains for complex tasks, like putting together puzzles and other spatial activities. If one of those activities is learning to play an instrument, that can improve their spatial tasks by up to 30%. 

Conversely, loud rock music has the opposite effect. I'm not saying that children shouldn't listen to rock music. Hey, I grew up in the 60s! It's just that rock music doesn't prime the brain for learning the way that classical music does. An interesting study took two of the same kind of plants and put them two separate aquariums. One had a speaker with classical music, the other had a speaker with rock music. The classically-fed plant grew toward the speaker while the rock-fed plant grew away for the speaker!

At its most fundamental level, we are made of music (vibration). Everything in our world vibrates, even things that we would never expect, like rocks and the earth itself. Eastern teachings say that the earth emits a determined tone - the tone of Ohm. This is why mediation and sound healing often use the sound of Ohm as a core part of the practices. These teachings go on to say that man, as part of the earth, is also tuned to the tone of Ohm, and that Ohm is the basis of everything, eventually evolving from its Sanskrit origins to the Jewish and Christian "so be it" - Amen.

So, this Christmas when you are listening to and singing "Silent Night" and "The First Noel", think about how these beautiful carols make you feel. Feel the peace that is within you and appreciate the gift of music that has been given to us all.

Credits:

• What is Healing Music? Amrita Cottrell
• http://www.om-healing.org/
• http://www.educationoasis.com/
• http://www.splashesfromtheriver.com/