Monday, March 26, 2012

Let the change BEgin!


Day 4 of a 10 day course on Leadership – or on How to come into BEing your authentic self, step up as a person, BE a Human BEing. Collectively and individually daring to lift off the lid, look inside, ponder, practice, feel, learn, observe, integrate over and over again. Iteration brings a new appreciation of our ever more awakened self. The group offers the lens of collective perception; peer to peer feedback is an effective means to see ourselves from different angles, a prism providing insight and pushing us to open ourselves.

Starlog – To date, 32 hours of wondering through a labyrinth, daring to jump through flaming hoops, gazing into the petri dish of life and undressing our emotional self in this new age nudist camp - are some of the metaphors that spring to mind to explain the theoretical and practical activities and exercises over the past 4 days - Experiential learning at its finest. So far I have chosen my animal totem…or it has chosen me. I represent Vitality, I read that I have laid the foundation to greatness, all preliminary work is complete, it’s all going to happen, I will reap the harvest. I can sit back, BE confident.

Second personal sound bite of the day, wonder struck, I realize after completing one of the cringe worthy exercises, that one of my core values is change, I need it, in everything.
I’m surprised!?... Why? This is what I do for a living?
Because, repeatedly I witness each one of us experiencing our “Ah-ha” moment, when a chunk of wisdom materializes and offers guidance with astounding clarity around our uniqueness, illuminating our mind and empowering our potential to BE. So astounding is this revelation to self, it may be blinding. Our inability to see and accept the insight is our blind spot to greater personal awareness and leadership. Is it a question of timing? A hearing disability? While we profess to hear that which is being suggested, we are completely convinced of our own idea of self, the taste and smell of these new ideas seem too foreign, they shake up the order of things, so instead of embracing and opening a space to the new, we resist, over rationalize, deny, waffle or ignore… and the insight blows right by.

What are the conditions that enable our ability to learn - when it comes to seeing ourselves? Time and again I hear people say they are willing and able. I think of the saying – You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink – Why do we resist quenching our thirst? We squirm when we hear truth, deny, make excuses, wriggle a little more, rationalize, and refuse to integrate newness. Yet we know that we suffer from the consequences of the behavior that creates the circle of repeated choices that brought us here in the first place. Oozy, creepy, queasy, sticky, fluttery weirdness displayed in Nano body language signals- eyes averted, fluttering lids, head nodding in the opposite direction of the words being spoken, sighs, dry mouth sounds, long pauses, creased foreheads and way to many deep breaths.

So we go through another exercise and another and the issues being avoided keep coming up in a variety of shapes and shades, iteration until we face them, until we create the space to embrace them, only then can we begin to learn. Only then will our layers of coping behaviors fall away like velvet rose petals, with delicate discernment. Let the change begin!  

I look forward to Six more thoroughly challenging days with my fellow groupies and guides.

Nadene Canning        https://twitter.com/#!/Madnadness

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