One of the best motivational movies I’ve seen in a VERY long time is with DeWitt Jones, a National Geographic photographer, called Celebrate What’s Right with the World. I can’t recommend this movie strongly enough. I’ve seen it over a dozen times and still find it heart- warming and inspiring. The photography is amazing and DeWitt’s quotes are so memorable. I use this movie regularly in my training programs on Appreciative Inquiry.

In one scene DeWitt has been assigned to take photographs of a field of dandelions and wasn’t excited to do it that day. He comes back a few days later and the dandelions had all turned into puff balls. He is about to leave and a little voice in him said, “Come on DeWitt, I know this isn’t how you planned it. But what’s here to celebrate?” He stays to take a bunch of photos and when he shifts his angle looking up at the sun, he captures a beautiful shot of a puff ball silhouetted in the sunlight.

I really like the phrase from the video “What’s here to Celebrate?” I have that question posted on my bulletin board by my desk and it’s helped me on more than one occasion. When I feel tired, overwhelmed, bored or worried, I stop and ask ‘what’s here to celebrate?’ I’m amazed at what I find within a short period of time that is worth celebrating or giving thanks. Some days it’s an unexpected phone call, other days it’s someone who’s got information I need. Frequently I find that if I shift my perspective just a little bit, as DeWitt does with his camera, I see the world from a different angle or through a different lens- more open, receptive, perhaps even hopeful. We all carry multiple lenses to see the world. Which lens do you use? hopeful, welcoming, joyful or cynical, angry, and skeptical.

As you plan or attend various celebrations this season, celebrate the small stuff too. What has gone right in your world recently? How do you celebrate the small things that are working in your life? During this time of Thanksgiving reflect on all the ways you are supported, guided, blessed or loved.

For the next week, take time each day to ask yourself – what’s here to celebrate? Then do something to celebrate, even if it’s giving yourself a pat on the back. Better yet, celebrate the accomplishments of someone in your office and you both will feel better.

Bright Blessings to you. Here’s a trailer to the movie – enjoy!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGOMoLV0nxk[/youtube]

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN-LgN19-Cc[/youtube]

Greg Law is a long time friend and one of the many people awakening now on our little planet. Greg has worked as an I.T. person most of his life, while quietly offloading a very persistent ego. He hopes to interest medical researchers in making the egoectomy procedure the next big thing in medicine. He says it makes a great pre-requisite to any other medical procedure you might be considering.

Greg is a guest blogger this week and offers his thoughts below about the crying (and laughing) need of our time.

1. Definition of ego
   Ego is the false self. It is the thinking mind, the voice in your head that is constantly labeling, criticizing, and making up strategies – pretending all the while to be you. It’s main concern is “What’s in it for me?”. It says “I am [your name]. I am a pure spirit, and I have this body and mind. I have this history, these beliefs, these likes, and these dislikes.” You generally believe what it says and let it speak for you. It seems rational, objective. It seems to make sense.
2. Egoectomy
   Egoectomy is the removal of ego, the unseating of it from the driver’s seat of your life. This is accomplished by simple observation.
3. Why remove ego?
   That is certainly ego’s first question! The short answer is that ego makes trouble. Whenever things don’t go the way ego wants them to go, you can feel it rising up to resist. If things do go the way ego thought it wanted them, it soon finds that too unsatisfying. Thus does ego create unhappiness, problems, and all manner of conflict. In short, ego brings suffering upon its host and generates hardship for others in the process.
4. Trying
   Trying to remove ego directly is very trying indeed! What tries IS ego, and its survival instinct is very strong. Ego may even say “Ego is now gone from me!”. This is frequently experienced in the early days of an egoectomy. Ego disguises itself as you, and everyone believes it IS you. Even you believe it!
5. The real you
   The real you is what notices and not what is noticed. You locate things in space and events in time, yet you cannot be located in space and are eternally present outside time – without beginning or end. While ego runs your life, the real you stays in the background – mesmerized by ego’s drama – lost in the show – unconscious. Read this point again, please.
6. Noticing nastiness
   Nastiness is a very strong clue that ego is acting out. At first, the real you will probably notice ego in you AFTER you said something really nasty to someone you love. Soon, you’ll be noticing that reactive force rising up BEFORE you begin to actually act it out. You stop identifying with ego very naturally by noticing it in action, because it is very obviously ‘not right’, not you, though it defends its rightness and its ‘me-ness’ at every turn.
7. Noticing unhappiness
   Less obvious is ego as the quiet critic. Notice how frequently your thoughts find fault. Pay attention. Notice the words “should” and “shouldn’t” in your thoughts. Notice what this feels like in your body. If there’s agitation or tension, ego is at work. Now see how your merely noticing turns agitation to peace and tension to relaxation. When you notice you have a choice, you naturally choose peace.
8. Biomedical research
   Ego’s direct effects in the body are felt, for example, as increased heart rate and sweaty palms. These and other biomedical indicators are easily measurable through non-invasive means.
9. Why research?
   Verifying reduced egoic functioning through biomedical research will make evident the pervasive benefits of the egoectomy procedure. It will take ego-free living out of the realm of philosophy and mysticism into the practical everyday life of the individual. Yes, it’s about marketing.
10. Purposeful living
    With ego removed, your purposes are universal rather than selfish. With the false “I”, “me”, and “mine” gone, the “What’s in it for me?” is gone as well. Free of ego, what flows through you is that universal intelligence that keeps all things in order everywhere: the planets, the stars, the galaxies, the cycles of nature, the many processes that keep our wonderful bodies functioning. You start truly purposeful living.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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I was recently introduced to the work of Barry Johnson and his book, Polarity Management, in my professional coaches group. Johnson distinguishes between having a problem to solve vs. a polarity to manage. Most of us are familiar with problems- budget reductions, cost overruns, pressing performance goals. Johnson defines problems as those things that are time bound and have definite completion or end points. Polarities are those things that are continual and don’t have definite endings. They are often competing but equally important values or priorities. For instance, you may want to perform well at work and be home with your family. These will be continual struggles that don’t need to be resolved or completed so much as managed well.

I’m guessing most working mothers know this dilemma. You work with the polarity of being home with the kids while they are young and also being a contributing employee or fulfilling your professional dreams.

Have you struggled with any of these polarities?

listening and speaking	tasks and relationships
planning and remaining flexible	patience and action
controlling and allowing	faith and doubt

What about your spiritual life and your professional life? Do you feel they are a polarity for you, perhaps separate but equal? Separate and unequal priorities? Do you strive make these interconnected rather than mutually exclusive?

The Yin and Yang symbols represent the Taoist understanding of polarities as natural flows of life. The poles or competing opposites aren’t so much tasks to be managed as life qualities to be recognized and appreciated, both being integral for life.

If you are feeling stuck now in some course of action at work, it may be that the polarities of two opposing desires, goals, values or commitments are pulling at you simultaneously. Knowing when to shift from one side of the polarity to another takes discernment, experience, and sometimes just plain trial and error.

Think of some aspect of your work where you feel torn between two values or commitments. Here are some clues as to when you need to shift attention to the other side of your polarity:

1. Are you feeling strain from going so far in the one direction?

2. Do you feel out of balance by what you are doing/what’s going on in your life?

3. Do you feel tired or irritable from what you are doing/your current focus?

4. Have you forgotten what it was like to be connected to the other polarity?

May you find peace in the shifting between your polarities. Let balance and flow be your guides.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon.

This is my favorite time of year. The trees look spectacular here in the Appalachian Mountains and everything is ablaze with color. Fall always gets me thinking about what needs changing, what needs to be dropped, and what needs to go dormant for a while.

It’s a good time to take an inventory of your busy schedule and see what needs to be changed, dropped, or let lie for a while.

• Are there tasks you’ve taken on that you really need to let go of?
• What commitments do you need to finish so you can rest more during the darker winter months?
• What about your office- is it cluttered with stacks of papers that need to be filed or sorted?
• Are you squirreling away things that you don’t need to save?
• How can you make a change with your desk or office so that you make some more space in your life?

The squirrels are busy collecting their nuts and people are busy preparing for holiday feasts. Same activity, different species.

Being a mammal you are more connected to the sun and seasons than you may realize. Your body may need more sleep or you may need more stillness through the winter hibernating months. This is a great time for you to figure out how busy you want to be as the holidays loom on the horizon. If you find this a stressful and hectic time, be intentional to do things differently, slow your pace and welcome the hibernation.

• Choose one thing you want to do differently this fall to prepare for winter.
• Choose one thing you want to drop to simplify your holidays.
• Choose one thing you want to go dormant for a few months.

The Celtic tradition of Samhain marks the cross-quarter holiday between the Fall Equinox and the Winter Soltice, often celebrated with bonfires to light the dark sky. Believed to be a time when the veil between the living and the dead was thinnest, people wore costumes to commemorate the dead along with the dying of the trees, and to honor their ancestors and celebrate the end of the fall harvest. The tradition has been carried into America as All-Saints Day on Nov. 1^st and Halloween (all hallow’s eve) on Oct. 31^st.

As you look towards the winter holiday season, the darkness calls forward your inner light to glow brighter. What warmth can you bring to your co-workers? What will help you remember your inner light in the midst of the busy-ness of your squirrel activities?

Here are a few quick suggestions as you prepare for winter:

1. Take time to walk and enjoy the fall colors

2. Light a candle each night and reflect on who helped you get through your day- thank the electrician who wired your office, the grocery store clerk who stacked your food, the truck driver who brought the gas to your local station

3. Cook a simple meal of locally grown vegetables or make a soup of the fall vegetables to celebrate the end of the fall harvest

4. Check on someone you haven’t talked to in a while to see how they are doing.

In this life we cannot always do great things, but we can do all things with great love.

Mother Teresa

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon.

Excerpted from Linda’s forthcoming book, “Staying Grounded in Shifting Sand”

A colleague taught me an expression I really like- “You are a perfect expression of who you are at this moment in time. You can be nothing other than that.” If you continually judge people based on their worst behavior, you won’t find the gift that they offer. Rather than staying stuck in your judgments, shift to see a troublesome co-worker as capable of being kind, caring, or compassionate. Even if they don’t exhibit these qualities in the moment, see through their behaviors to what lies beneath- a soul being experiencing life.

Accepting others’ frailties and faults requires patience. We all have things to learn. And we encounter those who help us learn our spiritual lessons. Imagine a co-worker you really would like to change. What are they there to teach you? What are they mirroring for you that you need to see in yourself? They have been brought to you at this divinely inspired time for your growth and learning.

For example, if you are supervised by someone poorly skilled, there may be a lesson in there for you on patience or tolerance. Rather than stewing in frustration at someone’s incompetence, especially if there is nothing you can do about it, remind yourself, “We’re all doing the best job we can at any moment.” I also like this quote “Have patience with me, God isn’t done with me yet.” What a great reminder that we are all a work in progress!

When you get frustrated with someone who seems to learn their lessons more slowly than you would like, look back at times when it took you several dozen or several hundred attempts to master an important life skill or spiritual lesson. Honor and bless their journey of learning, as you deepen your own. Find patience and forgiveness in that moment and practice letting the rest go. Staying attached to your frustration or resentment doesn’t do you or anyone else any good.

If you can find ways to help someone learn skills they seem to be lacking, then provide that assistance. Just remember, people generally receive help only when they are ready to shift out of their past patterns. You can’t teach someone who isn’t ready to learn. Instead of worrying about what the other needs to learn, focus on the spiritual work waiting for you. Till your own fertile soil and see what you can get to blossom there.

I love this quote as a greeting for others. Imagine how different our work environments would be if we saw each other in this way every day:

I greet that place in you wherein resides the Center of the Universe

I greet that place in you wherein resides Truth, and Beauty, and Peace and Love.

I greet that place in you where, when you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me,

We are One.

Namaste

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her first book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon.

Many people move through life without stopping to think about where they are going. And as we learned in Alice in Wonderland, ‘if you don’t know where you’re going any road will take you there.’ With a clear vision of what your highest dreams are you can start to put the pieces of your life together to build it . It may take years for that vision to be realized. The important piece is that you have a vision. You can always update or refine your vision as new life experiences unfold.

Everyone can experience the magnificent expression of who they are by answering their soul’s deeper calling. A quote attributed to Martin Buber “where you heart’s deepest yearning and the world’s deepest hunger meet is sacred ground.” In order to get clear on what you can envision for your life you have to step beyond where you are now. Suspend for some period of time “what is” in your life and open your horizons to what can be.

What is your greatest expression of your heart’s desire?

Spend some time every week focusing on this question. You may want to do some journaling around this question. Other ways to open up to your heart’s desire include movement or repetitive exercise such as jogging, swimming, or dancing. Guided imagery or visualizations are good techniques to still the mind and call forth the deeper wisdom within you. Meditation or breath work are also good methods of clearing away the chatter and letting the deeper truths of your life emerge. Sometimes just listening to really inspiring or beautiful music will move you to a sensation or insight that opens the door for greater clarity. There are almost infinite ways that you can open yourself to allow the deeper stirrings to come to the surface. The main point is structuring some time in your week and life to pay attention to the messages from within.

Let us know what bubbles up for you this week.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon.

I want to follow-up on my post from last week about taking down your house board by board. Before you can re-build your house, you’re left in the Void. Many people can’t sit in the place of the void. It’s too scary, too lonely, too unsettling. Why is that? Some people resist change (at work or in their lives) because they fear what the new outcome will be. Others resist change because they fear the nothingness before the new form takes shape. I heard an interesting quote recently, “In order to make changes stick, you have to transition through fear more than you fear transition”.

I. The Void

In order to move from what once was to what can be, you have to go through territory of the Void or in some spiritual traditions it’s been called The Wilderness. Those times when we are without home, without moorings, without a sense of direction or purpose. Living in the emptiness, the nothingness. Yet in that emptiness is spaciousness- space to grow, space to plant new ideas, and space to explore new possibilities. It can be a time of fear or a time of opportunity.

Someone bravely shared a comment on my last blog about taking steps to recognize and accept portions of himself that he hadn’t wanted to own. I suspect from his comment he knew the change would be for the better and so he was able to navigate through the void. For those of you experiencing change that you didn’t ‘volunteer’ for, here’s a framework for you.

II. Change Process

Kurt Lewin, the famous social psychologist, described the change process in 3 basic steps – unfreezing, change, re-freezing. Ahhh if it were only that simple. There is a missing step, the void. Between the unfreezing and the change, you have to leave the old familiar ways and step into the unknown before the change can take place. The void is where fear germinates, where our doubts linger, our ‘what ifs’ mess with our mind. That void can last for a week, a month, several years. A wise friend once said, “Change happens in an instant. Getting ready for the change may take a lifetime.”

You must transition through your fears to keep going through the void. If you fear transition too much you won’t make it. And many people don’t ever ‘unfreeze’ precisely because of that fear. Change, especially meaningful and lasting change, doesn’t happen overnight. We have to have courage and faith to make it through the void before the change takes place.

III. Faith

Most change in organizations take 3-5 years for ‘re-freezing’ of stable, sustainable new systems, structures or culture. If you are going through a change now and feeling in the void, don’t panic, breath into the spaciousness, stay open to receiving the new. Sometimes you just have to be in that void with nothing else to support you but faith. One definition of faith I love is ‘going to the edge of what you know and taking one more step” – Stepping out into that void and knowing that when you step, something or someone will support you or guide you to your destination.

What changes have you gone through lately where you didn’t know what your next step would be? How have you transitioned through your fear so that you could make your transitions?

If you are in the middle of such a transition now, with work, at home, in relationships, take heart and have faith. Ask for guidance and support on your journey. It will appear, perhaps in ways and places you would least expect.

I love this quote from Mother Teresa – “God never gives me a task I cannot handle. Sometimes I just wish He didn’t trust me so much”.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon.

A professor in grad school used to take pride in humiliating students, presumably to teach the students how to handle tough questions they may be asked about their research. It was a brutal process to watch. Perhaps you work with bosses or co-workers who do this. We run into various sharp objects in our work and life. I recently ran across Rumi’s poem, The Pickaxe*. It provides a re-framing for sharp barbs or blows to our ego self.

Rumi speaks of demolishing the house of our false self to find the real jewels hidden below. Often to find our more authentic self, our Divine Essence, we must take out the floor boards that are warped, moldy, not serving us any longer. You may have recently found your foundation shattered or your sense of self-worth demolished. If you have recently lost your job, you may be in such a state, not sure how to pick up the pieces or where to rebuild your foundation.

I once knew a guy who lost his lucrative bank job in a merger and after some time landed another job with less pay and that was less interesting. He felt desperate so he took the job. After he was in his new job a couple years he noticed some shady accounting and brought it to the attention of the General Manager. Instead of getting support for finding the questionable accounting, he was terminated. Turns out a partner was embezzling and somehow managed to make it look like someone else was at fault.

At first the accountant was shaken pretty hard- down to his foundation. With a couple kids in high school, it was tough going, both for his ego and his personal finances. However, a few months later I talked to him and he said it was the best thing that could have happened to him. He realized how much he resented having to play bad cop. He took the opportunity to switch careers and follow his passion for business ethics. He found his jewel in a new career as professor helping students enter the business world with a solid grounding in ethics so they are prepared when faced with tough business situations.

How have you handled the pickaxes you’ve encountered? Have you taken the time to re-build your foundation or have you merely patched up the hole with plaster, not clearing out the rubble underneath?

Rumi reminds us that our house is only leased, we don’t own the deed. Look for the Owner, whose jewels lay waiting to sparkle, buried beneath your foundation, if only you will search for them. Tear open your house, board by board, and be sure you have a solid foundation to support your work.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon.

* The Pickaxe (from Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, pg 113-114)

I heard a man say that he doesn’t like to tell his wife his small concerns because, “I don’t want to incite her creative ways to worry.” When was the last time you took a small thing to worry about and turned it into a catastrophe in your mind? We humans are very creative beings. We can imagine all sorts of dreadful things occurring. I love Mark Twain’s quote – “I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”

When you find yourself worrying about things – Let the Fish Swim in the Deep Pool. In our vast dark ocean of thoughts, imagination and creativity, let your worries swim where they are. No need to fish for them and bring them to the surface.

When you find yourself stressing over something that could go wrong, ask yourself, “What do I know for a fact, right now?” If you find you are getting yourself worked up about something, pay attention to what you know to be true and what you are just creating in your head. See if what is bothering you is a story you are telling yourself about the situation. Stop to reflect on whether you are using your creativity to develop a calamity in your mind. If so, catch yourself and take a good laugh at how imaginative you can be. Another phrase I like to use is “How do I find Peace now?” This may be enough to stop you from jumping into your pool of worry, panic, or distress.

Serenity and inner peace come from seeing through the illusions of doubt and worry to what is really in front of you. Remember – you are Diving Being having a human experience. Reconnecting with your Divine Essence, knowing that you are supported and guided at all times, you can ask in prayer for assistance to see you through a worrisome situation.

I recently felt out of balance over a pending job change. Going to bed I looked at the moon and realized it was the Fall Equinox. I usually do some ceremony to mark the Equinox as a time of balance so appreciated how out of balance I felt. I asked in prayer for support to find balance in my life. The next night, after a really rough day at work, I decided to read some Rumi poems. Out of my book came a card that I must have placed in the book some months ago. On one side of the card were the words “Harmony and Balance”. On the other side of the card was the message “I am fully supported.” I asked and received.

Pay attention to what you fish for. You can fish for worry and doubt or you can fish for guidance and support. You get to choose where you throw your hook and line.

…when all is said and done, the one sole condition that makes spiritual happiness and preserves it is the absence of doubt. – Mark Twain

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon.

“When you work, you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music” Kahlil Gibran

It’s been said in various faith traditions that God works through our feet and hands. Every day you get an opportunity to express God’s gifts through your work. As you share your gifts with the world, you are manifesting the Divine expression of Who You Are.

• Do you see your work as an expression of your Divine gifts?
• Do you see yourself as a Divine Being moving in the world?

You may find yourself caught up in your mundane tasks, the daily busyness, the time pressures or your performance goals that you pay more attention to what your hands and feet are doing (or your mouth and mind) than what your heart is doing. Our heart is what helps us connect to others and share our Divine Essence here on earth. Your ability to care about others, to deeply listen to someone, to offer acts of kindness are simple ways that God moves through you out into the world. Your feet and hands do the work, but your heart is what makes it all matter.

Here are some tips you can practice this week to engage your heart while you are working:

1. Listen when someone is hurting

2. Tell someone what you appreciate about them

3. Sit quietly and radiate loving kindness

4. Breathe deeply when someone criticizes you

5. Offer an apology when you react out of stress

6. Forgive someone who takes credit for your work

7. Forgive yourself for being less than perfect

8. Be patient with someone who unfairly judges you

9. Look past someone’s shortcomings to see them as a Divine Being

10. Build a temple of peace in your heart

I offer this revised Passover blessing for you to remember how to use your hands and feet and heart at work:

‘May I remember to use my powers to heal and not to harm,

to help and not to hinder,

to bless and not to curse,

to serve You O Spirit of Life’

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon.