Spirit in the Village

Food for Thought Fridays - Fun & How Do You Combine Two Worlds?

Posted by Kevin Boon. Follow me on Twitter.

This week has been an exciting week for personal growth with some fascinating insights that have helped me to understand more clearly how to get what I want and what holds me back. Sometimes the most important pieces are not explainable until after you go through the experience and understand the teaching.

Here are some tidbits from my learning for the week:

Listening to our Instincts & Having Fun

Last Sunday afternoon I was planning to do some writing and preparation for the week but the writing was feeling heavy. Suddenly this thought came over me to go skating. What a great idea! I checked out the website of the local ice rink and noticed they had public skating that afternoon. I got in my car, drove to the rink, sharpened my skates and for two hours was in a place of bliss and total enjoyment.

Image from Miskan on Flickr

The funny thing was I hadn’t been skating for 10 years and I realized I missed skating (and playing hockey) so much. So where did that thought come from? I have no idea. What I do know is as adults we tend to get locked in to our responsibilities to earn money, focus on our careers, raise families and we forget to have fun. Life becomes all work and no play.

Why hadn’t I been skating for 10 years? Because I forgot what it was like to be a kid and have fun.

The Lesson: Having fun and doing the things you love is important; especially for adults.

Your State of Mind & Feeling is Important

My good friend Deb (who I met on Twitter) reminded me of one of the important lessons in life. Our quality of life depends on how we feel.

She said always go for what feels good. I listened to her message and the skating example is one the outcomes but I applied that idea to my whole week. What I discovered is when you go for the good feeling you really do feel good.

Could it be that simple?

How do you Combine Two Worlds?

For years I have been fascinated with the human mind and in my own personal and spiritual growth. From my blog I talk about meditation, inner growth and how to find balance. At the same time I work in the world of business and technology where I find the overall experience to be out of touch with the personal or spiritual side of life.

Although most executives put on a good face and talk about balance for the media in my experience in the boardroom life balance seems secondary. Workaholism abounds and in my observation people seem stressed and frustrated with their careers.

I have always felt the need to wear two hats. One is my corporate self that talks about profit, ROI, value and uses all the good corporate words that business people like to hear. The second is more real side that wants balance, harmony, cooperation, fun and quality relationships.

I am starting to see the bigger picture that as we create balance in our lives it is critical to feel you can combine all aspects of yourself into your career. This is a work in progress for me and I don’t have all the answers but I do want to find a way to combine the two and not feel I have to wear two hats.

As I look around the business world I know there are people who are balancing their real passions with their careers and I am looking forward to figuring this out for myself.

Susan Boyle, Memories and Why Empowering is Better than Judgement

Posted by Kevin Boon. Follow me on Twitter.

My sister sent me the video of Susan Boyle that is going around the internet. Like many I was amazed at her voice, her courage and especially the response of the audience who seemed to dismiss her at the beginning. She has become a phenomenon overnight and I hope that she is able to use her abilities (and new fame) to find a niche, earn some money and live her dream.

Why are we so quick to judge?

As a society we tend to judge harshly on appearance, success, status and other factors. Her song brought for me memories of grade 6 where I was in the school choir, performed solos and duets and had one of the better (tenor) voices in the class. I was 11 years old, incredibly shy with no confidence and my grade 6 teacher asked me and another boy to go on stage in front of the class.

He asked us to both sing separately.

The other boy had a cracked voice and kind of an airy, forced tone that could hurt the ears. Mine was pretty smooth with a nice tenor sound. He said to the class, "Who do you think will have the better voice when he gets older?" Most of the class looked at me and then were amazed when he said the other boy would have the better voice because often a cracked voice changes and improves, whereas a tenors can lose their range.

Same Words - Different Outcomes

As an 11 year old boy those words from my teacher were devastating and I felt embarrassed standing on that stage that day. My confidence was shattered and eventually I stopped the choir and in grade 7 quit music altogether. It took almost 30 years before I eventually picked up the guitar, learned to play and brought music and singing back into my life.

Back in 1990 I was in a pub and recognized the name of the singer as that boy with the cracked voice. I'm sure the words from our grade 6 teacher gave him great confidence to continue singing and pursue his dream.

Those same words took away my confidence and set me on a completely different path.

Judging Less and Encouraging Everyone

As a society, as teachers and as people we should learn the power of our words and responses to people. We should learn to judge less, encourage and look for the positive in everyone. Our world would be a much richer place if we did.

Susan Boyle Interviews

Here are a couple of video interviews since YouTube doesn't seem to allow embedding for original performances. If you want to see her performance click here for the video.

Turning Up the Light!!

Posted by Kevin Boon. Follow me on Twitter.

Alright I have a confession to make. I’ve been spending a lot of time writing and blogging lately. There’s good reason for that. Back at the end of January I was downsized from my job. In fact it was January 22nd the day I did my first complete post on the Meditation Project.

Coincidence? I’m not so sure.

I’m always a believer there is reason for everything that happens and this was no exception. I wasn’t the only one. There were others downsized and the reasons given were due to the economy. Millions of people in the past year have either lost jobs, had work cut back, are in fear of losing their job or know of someone who has. These are uncertain times for business and people as our society navigates our way out of this. What’s interesting about this economic slowdown is there are sectors that are performing well while others have suffered. Time will tell how it all unfolds.

Losing my job has been a blessing because it’s given me time to write, blog and learn about social media and networking tools like Twitter and Linkedin. The last 1-1/2 months has allowed me to lose weight (about 15 lbs), re-start my stalled exercise program, and focus on the Meditation Project. This time has also helped me gain clarity on the important question, what is it I want from life? This is exactly what the doctor ordered.

The time is right for me to find a new career, this time a little wiser and more aware of what I want.

Blogging and Finding My Authentic Voice

During my time as a blogger (2-1/2 years) I’ve been trying to find my authentic voice. What is it I really want to say? This blog started as a travel blog telling of my wife Karen and our honeymoon to France, Italy and Switzerland. As much as I love traveling we haven’t done much since and blogging about my recent trip to the grocery store would probably be a little boring.

Other topics I have written about include the environment, current events, and talks and while I find all these topics important too many people take sides and because we’re either left or right, green or oil, conspiracy or non-conspiracy. I’m not interested in discussions of who’s right or wrong. Personally I think these debates are pointless and do nothing constructive for our society.

Obama came along with a new message about unity. He impressed me so much with his message that like millions of others I became a fan and wrote about him.

Whether we make our home on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, our blog or wherever I’ve discovered, all anyone really wants to do is tell their story.

Blogging for me is like a painting, you create a sketch, throw in some colors and before you know it begins to look like something. My blog is my painting and it’s my opportunity to tell my story.

The light of authenticity is now fully turned on and I'm looking forward to sharing a lot more.

Observations, Mind Stuff, Visualization, Goals & People

Posted by Kevin Boon. Follow me on Twitter.

The last few days have been interesting. In my post on Monday I spoke about 6 steps for letting go of our mental resistance. Yesterday I spoke about Anger and how it can be a motivator to help us to move forward. There has been so much going that I thought today’s post could offer some tidbits from what I’ve been learning.

Mental Resistance

Remembering the old adage what we resist persists. When we hold rigid opinions, judgments or beliefs about ourselves or others we are in resistance. The way to let go of our resistant thoughts is to become flexible in our minds, identify those thoughts that limit us and then shift our perception toward a more positive thought. When you let go of your judgments, rigid opinions or negative beliefs your mind relaxes and you feel great.

Here's the link to the 6 steps.

Negative & Positive Emotions

Positive and negative emotions are part of our experience as human beings. When we experience negative emotion it’s okay to sit with the feeling, meditate and know that like the flow of life this too shall pass. Contemplate what is bothering you, meditate and move your mind toward the positive thought. Staying in negativity too long can harm us. Sometimes we need triggers to bring us back into the positive, friends, family, books, music, words… whatever it takes… reflect and bring your mind back into the positive state.

Positive thoughts and emotions are the only way to go.

Meditation & Visualization

Sometimes our dreams and desires can seem elusive. We have our goals, we know what we want but at times it may feel like a pipe dream if it hasn’t yet happened. Some will give up and say this impossible, move into a negative mind state and stop the pursuit of their dream.

Let’s say you have a goal for your career. Here are some tips: write it down, let it come from your heart, start to see it happening in your mind, meditate and when you meditate visualize and see yourself in that place, in that position, working with those people, networking and having those positive experiences. Do it everyday for just a few minutes. Keep your goal front and center, focus but at the same time let your mind relax and see yourself doing and experiencing what you love. When negative thinking or negative resistance comes in just know it’s temporary and do what you can to get back into a positive frame of mind.

Visualization can have huge benefits in helping you to move in the direction of your goals.

People, Stories & Gratitude

Last night I had a chance to attend a song writers competition at a pub in Guelph, Ontario. Although I wasn’t participating (here's my song page) the talent was amazing and I couldn’t help looking at the musicians who got up on stage and being awed by their creations. Some of them were nervous, others seemed more relaxed, some already rock stars in their own minds but each one of them had a story to tell.

Over the past few days I discovered each one of us has a story to tell and the real essence of our lives is our stories. Finding our true passions is part of the story we tell and part of life’s journey. For some reason last night time stopped for me as I realized...

Finding our true passion is the only real truth in life.

Someone asked me a similar question at the site Divine Purpose Unleased and I didn't have an answer. Today I feel I have that answer.

5 Tips to Un-clutter your Mind and Focus on what’s Important

Posted by Kevin Boon. Follow me on Twitter.

Back in January I started the Meditation Project as a way to let go of some of the distractions and stresses in my life. During this time I’ve learned to prioritize, clear my mind and focus on what’s important with respect to my career, relationships and health.

Here are some tips that have helped me to let go of the clutter in my mind.

Ask Questions

• What do I like / dislike about my life?
• Where is my stress level? How am I sleeping?
• Am I feeling balanced or overwhelmed with my life?
• Are there some tasks or activities that waste my time?
• What am I passionate about? What is important to me?
• If I didn’t have to work for a living what would I do?

Write it Down (Keep a Journal)

• Write down answers to all the questions above.
• Write down a paragraph or so outlining what you want in the following areas:

1. Career & Income
2. Relationships
3. Health
4. Personal Interests
5. Other

Keep the journal close by and write down new insights, ideas or information. The habit of writing will help you get clearer on what you want.

Listen to your Intuition

There are a number of ways to listen to your intuition.

• Meditate – connect with your thoughts, feelings and your body.
• Exercise – Weights, Cardio, Sports, Tai Chi, Yoga – all can be meditative.
• Record your Dreams – Dreams often have insights. Check out the Inner Noodle.
• Become aware of your thoughts or ideas. Write them down.

Listening to your intuition allows you to become clear on what’s important and where to direct your focus.

Organize & Prioritize

When you start asking questions you will start to observe those activities that take you off track and away from what’s important. For example, if you’re text messaging your friends for 3 hours a day, addicted to Facebook or talking on the phone with your mother-in-law about what her sister did 50 years ago, you’ll soon realize some of these activities are not important. Make a decision to let them go.

When your organize making a list is good as long as you don’t get too attached to getting it all done today. Make your list focused but flexible giving you options should your schedule or circumstances change.

Take some Time Off

In our fast pace society we often neglect our own need for downtime. Give yourself a break. If you can manage it take a day or a few days off work. Turn off phones, computers and forget about the goals or to-do lists.

There’s a great Beatles song lyric Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream.

My FREE E-Book on the Meditation Project will soon be available.

Stay Tuned!

Finding and Living your Passion - An Introduction

Posted by Kevin Boon. Follow me on Twitter.

Last night a friend invited me (last minute) to an open mic night for song writers. It was Monday night and my wife and I were planning a quiet evening but I thought why not. So I drove down to the restaurant, met my friend and we had a chance to mingle and listen to some awesome guitarists, piano players and song writers.

The songs started at 8pm and we were last on the list so didn’t actually get up to play until 10:15. By then being a Monday night most of the early crowd had left but I still got to play a couple of my songs, Love is Free and New Day.

You can check out my song writing page to take a listen although I did a much better version of New Day last night.

Playing on stage is fun and although I’m still not fully at ease with what to say when I’m up there I’m rarely nervous when I play. I simply put my songs out there and hopefully someone will like them. Driving home I thought about writing songs, blogging and the things I love to do. What if we could all have a career that allows us to do those things we love? What if we could live our passion and at the same time earn good money?

Over the next few posts I’m going to write about finding and living your passion.

Here are some of the topics.

• Discovering your Interests & Passion in Life
• Personality Types – Being Real About what we Want
• Meditation, Visualization and Focusing on your Life’s Passion
• Branding You and Your Message to Align with your Passion
• Using Social Media to Find and Live your Passion

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