Category: Intuitive Living


Stuck in Poetic Mode

I have a cold and I am not sleeping well. When I woke, I woke late, heavy, unrested and lethargic. The voice that spoke was by comparison brisk and business like

‘I know how you feel, I know how bad, ugly, rotten to the core you are’. The truth cut deep, a slash of self pity and the start of the slow bleeding slide into another day of dull depression. Sweet relief just a sandman’s whisper away but my soul is stuck in poetic mode.

‘I know how you feel, I know how bad, ugly, rotten to the core you are’.
 
And again
 
‘I know how you feel, I know how bad, ugly, rotten to the core you are’.
 
A chipper little voice, this Jimney Cricket of a character wasn’t going to let me put my head under the pillow today. THIS was a soul baby knocking at my door. There was nothing to do but write. And so:
 
I know how you feel
I know how bad, ugly, rotten to the core you are
How you want to rip yourself away from the flesh that is you
Raging, roaring, kicking, punching against the fibre of your being
I know how you drown, smothered, gagged, suffocated, suffocating
Writhing, clawing, tearing at the walls that are who you are
 
I know how you feel
I know the rage, spitting, livid, firey ire
Burning runways of smouldering fury through your soul
Destroying, exploding, killing love, kindness, compassion
Those mealy mouthed mother fuckers
I know how you are consumed
Inside the cage of your humanness
A twitching, flickering, putrid mass of toxic oozing pus
 
I know how you love to hate
I know how you despair
I am the evil bitch, the bully boy
Who wants to punish and obliterate all sign of milk and honey
Who wields a whip of righteousness and snuffs out unbecoming joy
I know the realness of this place
A landscape of the mind
Where goodness is a rag to the raging bull and destruction holds its sway
 
I know how real it feels
When those demons come to roost
Hideous heads and flickering tongues, devouring my flesh alive
I don’t know if I have been here before or if I never left
I don’t know if this is how it is supposed to be or if I am an aberration bereft
I don’t know if this is real, a dream, a play, a game or nought
I don’t know if I will survive, if love will save the day
I only know these words have come to grace the page and say….
 
I know

Paradigm Shifting, Paradigm Twisting, Discombobulating Times.

Uncertainty is bumfuzzling, it brings up fear, it shakes the cage of our knowing and shows it to be an illusion. Goals and dreams that we have been so confident about shimmer and dissolve like a mirage and instead we find ourselves coddiwompling through life, to a destination disappeared.

And there is immense liberation. Things are not how we think they are. ‘How it is’ shatters and its shards and fragments are flung into infinity. I am just a dust mote floating in limitlessness horrified at being blown to smithereens and then through a clink just wide enough I glimpse the wonder. The wonder of what else is possible, the elasticity and power of our connectedness, the mobilisation of ideas, the leveraging of technology. Brain freezing, heart expanding times. Truly exciting times.

Leaning into the exhilaration of expansion is what is calling me now. I itch to be in that sandbox. My best contribution is creative service. I am offering 5 free no strings attached, discovery sessions* to explore an idea waiting to be born.

*45-50 mins available until 31 March.

#crossingfrontiers #theimaginationtechnologist #openforbusiness #letsgetcreative #liberation

Photo of the day on Unsplash.com Subtle Cinematics

Our Home Is On Fire

‘Markets that deal in human futures are inherently pernicious’ Shoshana Zuboff – very interesting and considered observations on a new type of capitalism emerging as our experience becomes a commodity.

I, for one feel threatened by this scrutiny of my experience but Shoshana’s message is that it isn’t personal and we don’t have to be powerless when we understand that we are in ‘a moment of discontinuity’. Rather than thinking ‘our house is on fire’ understand that the very essence of who we are has now been commoditised and turned into data, data used to predict behaviour and shepherd our experience. We can be afraid because we do not know how to deal with this or be present to the bigger landscape turning our attention to deeper questions of awareness, responsibility and our collective vision for the future.

Let’s not be tinkering with the deck chairs on the Titanic rather consider a new paradigm of the future together.

I was prompted to write this post after listening to Shoshana’s webinar on Surveillance Capitalism as part of the Presencing Institute’s webinar series on Dialogues on Transforming Society & Self, (DoTS). Her book is available on Amazon.

My peer group On A Mission will be hosting a Pura Vida, a Creative Summit in Costa Rica in September 2020 to consider exactly that; new possibilities and paradigms to foster collaborative synergy based on consciousness, evolution & celebration. Watch this space for more information or email [email protected] if you want to know more.

And It Is A Happy New Year From Me

I am exhausted, an existential exhaustion. It hits me every year, this last two weeks of December is like walking through treacle. I sleep and I sleep and when I am not sleeping I am feeling sleepy.
 
The bright lights of Christmas cheer wane and fade leaving a charcoal smudge on my memory making way for a cacophony of completing, resolving, resetting, rebooting. There is an I in me that rebels, resists, defies the collective ceremony of the end of the year. Every cell in my body cries out to hibernate, to sleep, to dissolve, to disappear – a gravitational force that has the power to suck me off this merry go round of life. It is a familiar shadow particularly amplified at this time of year. Aha old friend. We can rub up companionably on the sidelines, observers & watchers of celebratory shenigans, out of the glare of effusive joy and optimism – by ourselves but not alone.
 
And then as the watery winter sun rises on a new year, on a new decade that shadow will fade; slowly at first but fade it always does and my energy will return; in fits and starts but splutter into life it will.
 
So as I energetically ebb into this New Year’s Eve I share the Rumi quote that lifts my heavy heart like feather weight across the Julian rubicon of endings and beginnings. May it lift yours too if lifting is required.

True Collaboration Calls For Carbon Offsetting

Photo by Cristina Cerda on Unsplash

I experience an increasing tension about the impact of my convenient lifestyle. Over 25 years I became accustomed to the fast pace of growth driven business at the heart of the disposable consumerism of big city London.

In the past 3 years I have come to question the primary drivers of business that gobble up our time, our joy, our spirit and our planet. I let go of living in London and of sacrificing my wellbeing and talents to a vision that didn’t belong to me.

I have found living directly connected to the elements of nature e.g. by the sea or in the mountains grounds me in a different rhythm, I think about light switches, own a bag for life and a reusable coffee cup, I choose zero air miles vegetables over world traveller imposters, cringe at plastic packaging, have nightmares about water bottles and the decimation of our oceans, walk more, spend less and sleep better.

I choose to live in the creative orientation, beyond the normal constraints of survival e.g. 9-5 job, regular income, a fixed abode. It is a wild ride at the extremes of existence that few people purposefully choose to do. I actually and metaphorically choose to voyage in unknown domains.

I choose to tread lightly on this earth; the call to be a hermit is seductive. I am passionate to leverage the genius of our collective creativity but I cant be bothered with kudos, conferences or the whitewash of feel-good collectives. I embrace the achievements of science, technology and innovation but don’t know where to begin to use them to transmute and transfigure life on earth.

I believe that we are better together, contributing the best of who we are to receive the fullness of who we can be. I believe that every human being has the potential to be part of the global synergy.

From the bottom of my heart I believe true collaboration is simple and it is the biggest challenge we are being invited to face at this time.

There is maverick community of early adopters out there, those with their toes in the water. I am called to join them and thanks to technology I can find and connect to them on line but is no avoiding the truth that the substance of collaboration is love and love calls for intimacy and vulnerability, for physical as well as ideological closeness, for kinship, sharing, eye to eye connection and the ability to be with and hang out in the messy entanglement of humanness.

I would happily stay at home – as I said earlier the call to be a hermit is seductive – especially when flying and many forms travel have such a polluting impact on our environment. Fortunately I have a friend who has a mate who has founded a company that helps those of us who caught in the carbon/climate predicament https://www.clevel.co.uk/flight-carbon-calculator/

An Oldie But A Goodie

#TheImaginationTechnologist #BeTheChangeInBusiness #CrossingFrontiers

Conversations On Change


I love taking photographs and using them on my posts and website but it isn’t my primary focus so unsplash is a treasure chest for me. There is always a photo to capture the essence of what I would love to share.

If you don’t know who unsplash (obscure name) are you found out here – Unsplash is a community where anyone can share high-resolution photos for anyone to use freely; open source for photographyI have been using this site for over 2 years and unlike most sites I subscribe too I receive very few emails and the ones I do receive are gentle reminders of this cornucopia of creativity that I might like to visit. Crediting isn’t required but is appreciated – and why not.

With a focus on connecting & sharing rather than competition & profit it is impacting the industry, Mikael Cho, founder, writes ‘We didn’t start Unsplash to reinvent an industry. We started Unsplash because we thought it might be useful.’

And it is useful – not just for me who wants to use photographs but also for photographers who want to get their work out there BUT there are cautionary notes. Unsplash has grown rapidly – there are mixed feelings from photographers, despite downloads work is often not credited (it can be easy to forget). Zero financial exchange may feel like a new way of doing business but it brings up mixed feelings on both sides; receiving something for free isn’t always reciprocal receiving. As an occasional user I dont mind being an anonymous ‘client’ receiving occasional email but as a contributor with 50K downloads anonymous or soliciting emails don’t cut the mustard (see online stories from disgruntled photographers).

The razors edge for unsplash has to be the line between the kindness, consideration & reciprocity of community and insatiable growth for growth’s sake which is part of the old paradigm of business. I don’t know how unsplash intends to evolve but evolve it will; the challenge is to direct that evolution always tweaking and adjusting.

I congratulate people & companies that are changing the way WE do business, not by changing the way THEY do business but by choosing to create from the source of a passion or a dream.

I work with entrepreneurs and change-makers to master and direct evolution. Feel free to contact me if you want to have a no obligation conversation about your business and how to stay on track and true to your original intention & vision.

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

#TheImaginationTechnologist #CrossingFrontiers #BeTheChangeInBusiness #BusinessReimagined

Be The Orchestrator Of REAL Change In Your World

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash
Orchestrated change fails not because of lack of passion, determination or intelligence but because of our individual and collective orientation to the past, to what we already know and believe to be true. It fails because of our inherent efficiency as humans to base our responses and actions on embedded sense making patterns.
 
Purposeful change succeeds when we respond from our connectedness to ALL THAT IS possible and from our ability to dynamically evolve our sense making from the future that is emerging in the moment.
 
To change from a reality that we do not want to one that we do requires us individually and collectively to disengage from our embedded patterns of understanding and sense making, to sit in the space of ALL THAT IS and cultivate a quality of inner spaciousness to listen to the whisper of the emergent future.
 
After 30+ years in the transformation business – systems, structures and people I have distilled my knowledge into a model that guarantees REAL change, change that nourishes the individual, fosters flourishing relationships, promotes thriving communities and is the foundation for business in service to sustainability, re-invention and regeneration.
 
It is a model that serves the agenda of connectedness and heart centred creation:
 
* Based on our human capacity for developmental learning and our capacity to imagine.
 
* requires no special training or upskilling
 
* makes for an effortless shift from reactionary to creative responses in all areas of life the more it is used and applied
 
* can be applied at the individual, group and collective level.
 
* provides immediate insights and results can be apparent in as little as a couple of hours.
 
The model is based on my study and experience of structural dynamics, hermetic philosophy, alchemy, intuition and business transformation methodologies e.g. Agile, Lean sigma, Theory U, Systems Thinking.
 
There are no intellectual property or trademark restrictions and although there is no training required as such to use the model it’s efficacy and the integrity of results are inextricably linked to the interior quality of the Teacher, Leader, Coach or Facilitator – their level of self-awareness, self-responsibility, self-mastery and their agenda of intention.
The quality of change – or not – is a direct reflection of the quality of s/he who orchestrates that change. Whether the reality that is created is the desired outcome or not it becomes the starting point for the next iteration of creation and the teacher for the student who wants to learn.
The key themes of the model are:
1. Inner Sense
2. Structural Integrity
3. Creative Tension
4. Devotional Action
5. Learning & Adjusting
6. Leveraging Momentum
 
Are you a change-maker with a business, product or project that you dearly want to succeed? If you have read this far and you are interested in how to orchestrate successful change I am available for a no obligation consultation on line.
 
Email me on [email protected]

An Invitation: Halcyon Days In Corfu

Halcyon Days is a restorative retreat in Corfu from 26th June – 1st July 2019. 

The invitation is to enjoy 5 relaxing and stimulating days on the stunning island of Corfu to sink into who you really are and what matters to you. This will be a magical restorative time in a simple unspoilt part of the island. The gift of time and the ease of relaxation in the rugged beauty of Corfu will restore you to that which is forgotten but is inherent within you. It is all within us, rich layers of gifts, talents, resources and ideas. Much of this is lost or dismissed as we fulfil the busy demands of modern life. Our focus narrows and we forget how to expand again. Daily creative sessions will connect you to your inner wisdom and light the path to your future. A wonderful time of revival to remember and learn to prioritise what is truly important to you.

Our venue is in a delightful, simple boutique bed & breakfast offering heartfelt hospitality. We will have private use of this Durrell-style villa in the unspoilt mountain village of Magoulades in north western Corfu with easy access to beautiful beaches and the sapphire sea.

Myself and my co-facilitator, Thea Allison, share a passion for the freedom and wonder that follow when we ally self-responsibility and awareness with the liberation of imagination to expand our life choices.

The price of £695 covers 5 nights of twin-share B&B accommodation, all facilitation and our welcome meal on the evening of 26th June. Single room options are available on request.

If this invitation resonates for you please do get in touch.  We would love you to join us in June or, if you really can’t make these dates, later on in the Summer as we plan dates in August and October.

Feel free to spread the word if you know of anyone who would love to ‘receive the richness of life ‘

Click here for more details Halcyon Days.

Easter Rising*


Perhaps it is the emergence of Spring, the coming of Easter, perhaps it is all of us, or just my desire for new life and emergence but my radar is picking up a farrago of metaphors about the cycle of life and death.

And just in case I dont notice it in this bucolic muddy, bole of countryside that I am living in then it shows up in my mail box and my twitter feeds.

Courtesy of Sharon Blackie of The Hedge School’s newsletter today:

Now, arriving in magic, flying,
and finally, insane for the light,
you are the butterfly and you are gone.
And so long as you haven’t experienced this: to die and so to grow,
you are only a troubled guest on the dark earth.

From The Holy Longing by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated from German by Robert Bly

Photo by Suzanne D. Williams on Unsplash

*Being Irish – the juxtaposition of the words Easter AND Rising is poignant and particular and has a singular meaning. Also known as the Easter Rebellion, it was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week, April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans to end British rule in Ireland and establish an independent Irish Republic while the United Kingdom was heavily engaged in the First World War. It is has a personal impact too as a great uncle of mine, Walter Scott, was probably the last child to die in this struggle. This is not the topic I wanted to talk about here but it is part of the mythic struggle to reach the light.