Be Thankful by Dianne Shaver

Having a cold or anything that takes us out of our routine is something to be thankful for. When you feel so punk that you can’t focus on anything but can only be exactly where you are in the moment. This could be a new form of meditation with the added benefit that you can’t jump right back into a busy day. You are just there. Not fit to be anywhere else. You can’t find the energy to worry. 

Even when you are on the mend and are back in your usual routine there is still a different energy. There is a kind of awareness that stays with you. A different perspective. An appreciation of feeling good again. Also, it’s the one time there’s no guilt about taking time off in the middle of the week. Instead it’s a time to shift deadlines, meetings and even podcasts. Things we would never think of doing when we are in the land of the healthy.

But, maybe, as we re-enter our usual life, it’s a chance to assess if we are doing what we want to be doing. If our daily activities express what we really think and feel. Because we have just spent time with ourselves that has been unscripted and without obligations. That changes awareness. We could jump right back into the old pattern of life or we could use this reconnecting to our usual lifestyle as a time to evaluate. 

I think it’s good to do a monthly assessment of where we are and where we want to go. That’s usually a New Year’s Day activity, but what if it was something we did constantly? Would we stop ourselves from getting caught up in something we no longer believed in? Would we be more authentic and happier? 

Awareness is a very precious thing. It’s usually not a high value for many. But what could be more valuable than asking ourselves what we want. We usually set up a task and go for it. That task usually leads to another and then logically to another, etc. So, we end up quite a way down the line from the original task and the reason for its existence. 

Answering the question if something is what we want to be doing doesn’t mean we have to scrap everything and just stop dead in the water. However, it does mean that we might see a way to do things differently and more in alignment with who we are right now. Since we are constantly growing and evolving shouldn’t that mean how we lead our life, conduct our business, live in our relationships should also evolve? Wouldn’t that make life more interesting? I would think we would also feel more alive and more ourselves. Everything changes which is just part of life. When we refuse to change we miss out. Evolving is a really great thing. It means we are more than we were and that we will continue to be more. Not want more, but be more. They are vastly different. My sense is that often people confuse the two. By acquiring more they feel they are evolving, but that is definitely not true. Having more can be a trap because it is never ending. It is never enough.

Going back to feeling better after an illness. Everything feels new. We are grateful for feeling better. We are happy to be outside again and re-joining the world. We have a profound appreciation of simple things. Maybe we can find a way to keep those feelings. If we actively allow ourselves to evolve then we are always in that new place. Life looks different with new insight. We see things afresh. We have deeper appreciations. And, the good news, we no longer have to have been ill to be in that state of renewal.

Happy evolution

Dianne J. Shaver, M.A.

www.transformationspodcast.com

More of Dianne’s podcast with Self Discovery Here

All Patterns Are Not Equal

by Dianne Shaver. Success Development at “Entrepreneur Mind World”.

Being human means that things do not always go well. It’s easy to feel successful and happy when everything is humming along. But what do we do when things go awry? Most of us get angry at circumstances or at ourselves. “How could you be so stupid?” is not an unusual response to either small or large disasters. Or, we feel guilty or inadequate, or that we are a failure. In severe cases, suicide might be considered as an alternative to deeply hurtful feelings.

But what if there is another approach? What if we could tie the things that seem to go wrong for us to patterns that play out in our life? What if instead of blame we became interested in why this particular thing is going on. The proper question would be – “What is this teaching me?” or “Where has this or something similar happened before in my life?”

For some, the pattern would be when things are going along smoothly, the proverbial wrench gets thrown into their life. As if they don’t deserve to have things go well. Which probably started as a pattern from childhood, when at play, someone stopped them and scolded and joy turned to upset. Or any of a hundred scenarios. Or as a child being accused of something of which you had no knowledge. Those things will set up a pattern and until it gets healed it will keep repeating. Healing in this context means that the pattern is seen for what it is – something from the past that has gotten incorporated into a precise and repeating format when certain parameters are met. Once it’s recognized and understood it loses its power and does not need to keep happening. You’ve gotten the message and healed it.

There are as many patterns as there are people. What’s interesting is each person’s pattern is very precise and the circumstances have to fit. The ingredients need to be exact, although until examined they may not seem so. But they are. In fact, there is a discipline in the counseling world called Systems Theory which describes these occurrences. Families as a whole also have patterns which can be recognized and healed as well.

One pattern that’s fairly prevalent is when there is a disruption every precise number of years. For instance, someone changes careers every 10 years or a person moves every 8 years, etc. These patterns will keep repeating until there is a recognition of their origin and what the original event was. Then the “spell” is broken.

Being curious about why something repeats in our life is more productive than blaming ourself or others when things don’t go as planned. It’s the time to step back and start looking to see what circumstances keep coming up. What are the similarities each time? Then asking the question, “What can I learn from this?” “How can I use this to understand myself and my life better?” It might take some time for the answer to come, but you will find it Then it moves us out of victimhood into a position of power in our life. It means we understand ourself better.There is the added bonus that we begin to see patterns in other’s lives and we can be more compassionate because, just like us they are trying to understand and learn.

Have fun looking for your patterns and changing them.

Dianne

www.transformationspodcast.com

www.transformationspodcast.com

www.entrepreneurmindworld.com

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The Biggest What If, by Dianne Shaver

Ideas can come from some pretty unexpected places. I was reading a Patagonia catalog which, these days is filled with stories about the outdoor way of life in a very philosophical, insightful way when one hit.In this particular article they talked about those who ski real mountains, not the groomed trails, the really hair-raising sheer drop ones. The people they talked about were farmers in the warmer months and skiers when deep snow arrived.

But, the thing that got me thinking was when they spoke about how we are so insulated and isolated from nature. We do everything we can to keep it at bay and seldom in it when it’s raw. Then it hit me – what if the climate crisis had a really positive effect? If you think that everything happens for the ultimate good, which I do (even the hard stuff, even when I lose sight of it), then there is good that will come from this crisis.

It went further.  What if the climate crisis existed to bring us back to interface with real nature again, not quite as when we had just started to walk upright, but still in the earlier days of humanity?What if the gift of this is to help us remember that we are animals. Maybe highly developed for the most part, but still animals. And that as such we are meant to interact with the natural world, not insulate ourselves from it. I think what’s going on in our climate is a combination of many things, but here we are, whatever the cause. And, now we have to deal with it. No government, no organization can insulate us from it. It is here. It reminds us that nature is larger and stronger than we are. We have to learn to live with her. It might mean that we move from the place we have lived for a long time as is happening in some countries. That maybe we go back to being nomads, in a sense. Obviously, as the coastlines change (they already are here in South Carolina and in Rhode Island and other states) and we begin to move to live in areas not affected by the rise of the seas we will leave the place we grew up in or the place our family has lived for generations.  We also need to move from places that are becoming arid so traditional crops will not grow. Mother Natures is having her say and we cannot ignore her. She reminds us of our place in the world. We do not dominate or subdue her, we are part of her and need to relearn how to live within her limits.

 The irony in all of this, is those who could teach us how to do that and those who have done it for many generations are the very ones whose land we have taken and whom we have placed on reservations and sought to integrate into our ways. The Native Americans and all indigenous peoples. They knew the secrets of living with nature that we so desperately need now. Our solutions usually create more problems because we have not learned how to live with nature. We seek to keep her at bay or subdue her. That is no longer working. And, it will only become more obvious as time goes on.

But, if we are wise enough to learn a new way (actually the old way) of living with nature, we might just be okay. If we continue on the course of thinking humans know better and nature is there at our command, we will learn the hard way.

 One of the ways humans are seeking to deal with this crisis is not to deal with it. The idea of moving to other planets where we can repeat our pattern of ignoring nature is coming up. But even there we will have to deal with a hostile ecosystem. In the end we will learn we are just part of a much larger pattern. We are not the central focus and we never were.

 Have fun learning from nature.

Best, Dianne 

www.transformationspodcast.com

www.entrepreneurmindworld.com

COME SEE DIANNE’S SHOWS ON TRANSFORMATIONS

T19-17 Ocean Crusaders: Cleaning Waterways and Educating Children

Transformations with Dianne Shaver and her guest Ian Thomson, on air from April 23rd

OCEAN CRUSADERS  Australia’s Waterway Cleaning Team  Ian Thomson, Founder

What inspired founder, Ian Thomson to turn his attention away from sailing races and starting a non-profit cleaning waterway and the ocean in Australia. Ian is a sailing racer and has sailed around Australia single-handed.

His mission includes educating children and the need for cleaning up plastic pollution.  He empowers children by organizing them into clean-up crews, giving them the direct experience of putting knowledge into practice to make a difference. His foundation is growing and he now has branched out to Fiji.

I am passionate about educating people about the issues our oceans face so founded Ocean Crusaders as a tool to do this. It morphed into an online education program for young children and we now have an additional focus of beach and waterway cleaning in SE Queensland.

Every day we have a choice of what we buy and choosing items in plastic is taking its toll on our oceans. What you do today will affect tomorrow so make a choice to say no to as much plastic as you can, reuse it if you have to use it and recycle it when done.


JOIN DIANNE AND IAN AS THE SPEAK TO CLEANING OUR OCEANS AND EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN

VIDEO


Ocean Crusaders is a charity organisation that specialises in waterway cleaning on a large scale.  The entire campaign is run with a passion for the ocean having seen the issue our wildlife is facing first hand.  Looking into the eyes of a dead turtle and wondering what killed it, to later find out it was plastics, drives this campaign to ensure that our oceans, waterways and beaches are clean and safe for all animals.

We operate a Social Enterprise that sees us working for government organisations and large corporations to clean waterways on a regular basis with our core crew.  This sees us go places many wouldn’t and remove items many think are impossible to get.  This Social Enterprise helps fund our community programs that involve our Paddle Against Plastic campaign and major beach and island cleanups.

Clean Oceans make us all winners!!!!

Only that he is a sailing racer and has sailed around Australia single-handed.

There are many ways to become involved from coming to one of our community events, to sponsoring us.  We’d love to hear from you and see you soon.

http://oceancrusaders.org

facebook.com/OceanCrusaders

linkedin.com/company/ocean-crusaders

 

 

 

T19-15 Architect and Sustainable Cultural Designs

Transformations with Dianne Shaver and her guest, on-air from Aril 9th

How Art Combined With Function Can Solve Problems for Refugees and The Homeless

In this Interview with Abeer  Seikaly where we discuss the intersection of architecture, art and function for solving world problems of refugees and the homeless.  Her background with a mother who came from a nomadic tribe and her father who came from Syria inspired her to use her degree in architecture to create beautiful woven houses that can be easily collapsed and transported.  The design keeps out wind, rain, sand, heat and cold.  The interview takes place in Jordan. To test the viability of her design, Abeer spent the night in one of them on Mt. Everest.


JOIN DIANNE AND ABEER HERE FOR A TALK ON “Weaving a Home”

VIDEO


Abeer Seikaly is a young Jordanian architect who has been featured on several global and local media platforms because of her innovation “Weaving a Home” that was shortlisted for the 2012 Lexus Design Award.

She is an architect, artist, designer and cultural producer. And received her Bachelor of Architecture and Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2002. Over the span of 10 years, she has built a foundation of interdisciplinary skills that span architecture, design, art, fashion, textile design, and curation. She joined Villa Moda, a lifestyle and luxury retail concept in Kuwait and the Gulf as a senior architect and project manager in 2005 and directed the first contemporary art fair in Jordan in 2010. In addition to her independent practice, Abeer is also the production manager for Adel Abidin, the internationally recognized Iraqi/Finnish video artist. In 2012, Abeer’s design, “The Chandelier,” was selected as the winner of The Rug Company’s Wallhanging Design Competition and she was selected as a winner for the Lexus Design Award for her work, “Weaving a Home”.

According to Abeer Seikaly, architecture is not about the building itself but more about getting into it and experiencing its metaphysical nature with time. “Ordinary architects nowadays are inclined to use computer software to design buildings while sitting in closed offices. This is only dragging them away from people and nature. A real architect needs to be out there to feel, interact and test their designs”, says Seikaly. “Creating is about the process and not about the outcome.”

Participating in the Lexus Design Award was part of engaging fabric with people and nature.  Disaster shelters have been made from a wide range of materials, but Abeer turned to the solar-absorbing fabric as her material of choice in creating woven shelters that are powered by the sun and inspired by nomadic culture.

www.abeerseikaly.com

facebook.com/abeer.seikaly

www.linkedin.com/in/abeer-seikaly

twitter.com/AbeerSeikaly

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