Many years ago as a young Catholic I used to go to early morning mass at a Carmelite Convent.  The Carmelites are a cloistered order.  They do not interact with the public.  Their focus is contemplative prayer.  That’s right–all they do is pray.

And I remember thinking, at age 16, “What a waste!  Surely they could do more.”

Well, I am older and more widely-read now and I believe in the power of prayer.  I believe that holding positive intention for someone helps them.  And there is fascinating research that suggests this is so.  Come with me now into the world of quantum physics.

You’ve probably heard, “What you focus on becomes your reality.”  It is the genius behind Appreciative Inquiry.  Thoughts matter.  Furthermore, thoughts ARE matter.  They are waves (or particles–I forget).  They are energy.  So, can we imagine that the energy is real and perceived in ways we don’t yet understand?  Can we imagine that positive thoughts help and negative thoughts hurt?  I can imagine that.  It’s still in the realm of ‘New Science’ and the science is catching up to the work of the Carmelite nuns.  For some fascinating research I recommend the Intention Experiment where you can become a part of the unusual research.

So what about that ‘love at the office’, Maggie?  Here’s my advice:
1) Hold your colleagues in positive regard.  It cannot hurt and I believe they will know it on an unrecognized level.  As one of my professors once told me, “I always find something to like about each student.”  Find the thing to appreciate, send them positive energy and you both benefit.
2) Hold your arch-enemies in positive regard.  The more you focus on the negative relationship, the more you may tether yourself to that unhealthy dynamic.  “Release them to their higher good“, forgive them, do whatever you need to do to free yourself from the struggle.

Call it whatever you like but strive to have love in every action.  I guarantee you will work more smoothly with your colleagues and you will be happier for it.

Nuns photo credit

Like many of you I am working to increase my activity for all kinds of reasons.  While I was clearing my office clutter with feng shui I came across an excellent list published by Oprah a few years ago:

12 Get-You-Off-the-Couch Reasons to Exercise
1. Physical activity helps you lose weight by burning calories, boosting resting metabolism, and buffering you from bone and muscle loss that can result if you diet alone.
2. High levels of physical activity can decrease your risk of colon cancer by 40 to 50 percent.
3. Exercise helps you get better sleep. In one study, people who walked more than six blocks a day had one-third fewer insomnia problems than their less active cohorts.
4. Walking 30 minutes five days a week can increase your life span by one and half years. Make that running, and it may add up to four years. That’s the conclusion of a 2005 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, which showed that it’s never too late to increase longevity.
5. Half-hour aerobic sessions three to five times a week have been shown to cut symptoms of mild to moderate depression nearly in half. One study suggests that exercise can be as effective as drugs in treating major depressive disorder.
6. Brisk walking for just an hour or two a week can reduce the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women by nearly 20 percent. And for those who already have the disease, walking three to five hours a week may reduce the chance of dying from it by as much as 50 percent.
7. Aerobic exercise, such as a half hour of rapid walking five days a week, has been shown to cut the risk of catching a cold nearly in half in postmenopausal women.
8. People who work out have more energy than nonexercisers, according to researchers at the University of Georgia, based on a review of 70 studies. That boost, on average beats the effect of stimulant drugs.
9. Working out – resistance training in particular – helps maintain, and even modestly increase, bone density to reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
10. An active lifestyle halves the risk of developing heart disease. Walking up to 12 miles a week (translation: 30 to 50 minutes a day) significantly improves heart health, according to a Duke University study. And if you’re at high risk for diabetes, working out only about 20 minutes a day, combined with a low-fat diet, can reduce the chance of developing the disease by 58 percent.
11. Just working out 15 minutes three days a week may reduce the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease by 30 to 40 percent, according to a study last year in the Annals of Internal Medicine. For healthy older adults, a six-month program of exercise can reverse the age-related loss of brain tissue that begins around age 40 by two to three years, especially in regions responsible for memory and higher cognition.
12. Working out improves your sex life – by not only enhancing self-esteem but also strengthening the cardiovascular system. One study found that women who cycled vigorously for 20 minutes before watching an erotic film had significantly greater vaginal response compared with when they were inactive.

To this excellent list I will add two more reasons:

13) Your brain works better when it’s oxygenated. Christin Anderson, MS, wellness and fitness coordinator of the University of San Francisco, explains that exercise affects many sites within the nervous system, “This is pure science — stimulate your nervous system and function at a higher level.”

14) You get to be smug because YOU exercised.

I was rather surprised by the data from this study by Healthy Companies International.

Does your office have the ‘just the right amount of tension’?

But when experts at MarketWatch dig a little deeper the news is not quite so happy:

In recent quarters, however, productivity gains have mostly stemmed from a big decline in the size of the American workforce during the 2007-2009 recession. In the fourth quarter of 2010, for example, the U.S. economy generated the same output as it did three years ago even though there were 7 million fewer workers

It gets worse:

Compensation per hour rose 2% at an annualized rate. Yet real compensation per hour, which adjusts for inflation, fell 0.6% in the fourth quarter.

Sheesh!  These figures simply confirm what many workers already know.  Times are tight and, while jobs are scarce, there’s plenty to do for those who have jobs.

Are you feeling pressured?  Of course you are.  That’s why it’s more important than ever to take care of yourself as you take care of the work.  In the next two posts I’ll be sharing notions of ‘Flow” and “Self-Compassion”.

Life is long.  Now is a great time to rebalance your load.

And here’s a lovely example of how technology is opening possibilities.  This woman was born in 1911 (yup, 99 years old).  She received an English Literature degree from Reed college in the the 1930′s but her glaucoma has made reading extremely difficult.  With the iPad she can read more easily because the screen is so bright.

Delightful.

I hope when I am 99 years old I, too, will be open to using new technology.

So, this week, on my second round of antibiotics and hopped up on vicodin for cough suppression (whee!), I am pondering the gifts of inaction.  What am I to learn here?

Fallow Time

Farmers let their fields rest.  My body has enforced rest upon me.  I don’t think I was stressed or burning the candle at both ends.  Still, my life is FULL.  I like to take big, gobbling bites of life and maybe it’s time to slow down and pare the To-Do list a little.  I feel completely guilty watching multiple versions of Jane Eyre.  I am catching up on TV via Hulu in my sickbed.  Modern Family had me laughing aloud (again, love the vicodin).  I feel better when I rest.

The Essence

I have had to cancel things left and right.  Some wonderful events I could not attend.  Others have been pushed out.  The only thing I am doing this entire week is showing up at family Easter dinner.  What’s most important rises easily to the top when choices are narrowed.

Incubation

Hours in bed, wandering around in my head, is giving me time to ponder.   I am making notes in my journal about my delayed plans.  The Incubation process is a well-documented aspect of the creative process.  My dreams are gaining momentum with the forced stillness.

Reflection

I have also taken my own advice to reflect on the first quarter of the year and ask big and small questions: What have I harvested and what do I still want to accomplish in 2010? Here are a few of the things that popped to the top of the Harvest list:

• Fed kangaroos and petted a koala in Australia!

• Managed to sustain the first three months of weekly newsletters.  The public commitment compelled me and, what do you know? I LOVE writing it.

• Initiated external work on our home.  We have a new roof and the primer paint is going up!

• Made a really cool travel journal (a la Mary Ann Moss)

Meanwhile, I leave for Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday.  Oh La!  Living La Vida Loca….

I began my corporate career as an Employee Health Coordinator.  It was the 80s and their was a lot of support for wellness and fitness programs.  As it turned out most of my clients were those who were already well and fit but in receptive spots we had fun implementing new programs. 

(photo source)

One memorable program had an entire department committed to taking little stretch breaks three times a day.  Once in the morning and  twice in the afternoon they would all stand up and do some reaches and stretches together.  They laughed and, goofy as it was, they enjoyed the break from their terminals.

Just last week I spent a few days in Marrakech.  What a stimulating city!   There was so much to take in and the very scent of the air was spicy.  Most notable to me were the calls to prayer.  Several times a shopkeeper or guide excused himself and said he’d return in 5 minutes.  He would then slip off to the nearby mosque or join others in a central area to focus and pray.  Lovely.

Whether you work from home or in a cube it is easy to stay tethered to your work.  And I’m all for focus and concentration.  But there is a diminishing return.

So, this week I am practicing DISENGAGEMENT.

Every two hours or less I am stepping away from the computer and doing some office stretches.  Or lying on the grass and contemplating the clouds.  Or petting my dog.  Anything that resets my brain and gives me perspective.  Because I can return to my tasks with oxygen in my brain and a little less cortisol in my system.

Employee Disengagement?  I’m all for it.

I am also designing my AUTUMN CREATIVITY SPA.  What’s this you say?  Just a day-and-a-half of time for your creative self!

We’ll start Friday afternoon with a little exfoliation and shedding of the current cares.

Then we’ll peel away a few layers and get to what’s most meaningful just now for you.

Then we’ll nourish and restore your natural glow.

We’ll finish with a little gilding of the lily that is you.

You can expect: a potpourri of activities to delight you, support from kindred spirits and your own swag bag.  By Saturday night you’ll feel refreshed and energized.

Please.  Join us!

Earlier I introduced the FEBI as a tool to understand your Body and Mind connection.  I cited a client who is an Idea Machine.  This woman works in a traditional organization and has a well-deserved reputation as a highly creative person.   She also struggles with accuracy and follow-through.  Discipline to do the ‘boring’stuff is preventing her from being the whole package.  Occasionally, she was shooting herself in the foot as her good work gets lost amid an impression of sloppiness.

This woman had little access to her Organizer energy.  She might have made changes with cognitive discipline and grim determination but she opted to use her brain AND her body.  For a three month trial she enrolled in yoga classes at her health club.  Initially, they seemed excruciatingly slow and dull to her.  But she stuck with it.  And after three months she came to crave the quietude and opportunity to be still.  She learned to pay more attention to the little things, the value of mindfulness.

As her body gained access to the Organizer energy her mind did as well.  She was able to pause appropriately and attend to aspects of her work in a more methodical way.  It will never be her ‘home pattern’ but she’s no longer sabotaging her creative work with lack of accuracy and follow-through.

She is more versatile in her job now.  And she does powerful Warrior pose!

(photo credit: http://www.yogatic.com/)

This week I was traveling for a little business and a lot of pleasure and it got me thinking about Stocking the Pond.

Deep Reflection

One morning of my trip I sat in the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria hotel and spent two full hours making notes about my business:…ideas…next steps…lots of lists.  The last time I meandered the hallways of my imagination like that was waaaay too long ago.  That deep reflection was quite foreign.  Usually, I’m just reacting.  Sitting there in my comfy chair I was very patient and my Brain responded with some intriguing ideas that I hadn’t reached in my normal routine.

Stimulating the Imagination

The first night in the city I saw a cabaret show at the Algonquin Hotel and the next day I saw Blithe Spirit with Angela Lansbury.  I visited the garment district–including Mood where Project Runway shops (!)–and I bought back issues of graphic design magazines at a shop across from Bryant Park.  A poor understanding of the city’s address system took me the extra-long way to my intended address and I saw neighborhoods I’d never visited before.  Aside from the design magazines none of these had any direct correlation to my work.  Yet my Brain was firing with ideas triggered by the novelty I was encountering.  “Ooh, I haven’t seen that before” said my head as I wakened her from the typical home patterns.

Overfishing Lowers Creativity

In a time of global overfishing I believe that we are also overfishing our own ponds.  When was the last time you gave yourself the gift of empty space?   If it’s been a long time I suggest you make a date with your Brain.  Make it a surprise and don’t tell your Brain what you’ve got planned….otherwise she may try to break the date so that you can do something you should do.   Take yourself someplace new.  I recommend hotel lobbies, neighborhood libraries or, best of all, a coffee shop in another town.  Bring a blank pad of paper and do some Deep Reflection.  Take an hour.  Take two!  Then go for a walk on a street you don’t know.  Notice what you notice.  Notice what your Brain likes.

The next day you may find that dis-engaging from your routine, even for a few hours, has the net effect of greater productivity.

Oh wait.  I think that’s what they used to call a ‘day off’.