Inspirited Conversations Archives

Inspirited Living’s BeComing You Intro Course: Do you See What I See?

BeComing You Intro Course We are uplifted this week by a website that asks you how you see the world? Do you remember that internet famous dress—was it gold and white or blue and black? Both? The Perception Census gives you many similar images and asks: what do you see? It’s a fun website, and it reminds us of a much bigger idea. Our perception colors our world. What could our world look like if we shift our perception? How much creativity, joy, and connection could find right in front of us, when we shift our perception? Join the Inspirited Living Becoming You Intro Course this week. It can be the first step to shifting perspective on your path of self discovery.

By Lynne|Categories: Inspirited Conversations|Tags: BeComing You Intro Course|Comments Off

Inspirited Living’s Guide to Navigating the Change in Seasons: Curiosity and Compassion

As the seasons change and we shift our routines from summer to the busyness of autumn, it’s easy to lose track of what grounds us and connects us to all living things. This is especially true if we are starting a new job, moving, or starting a new school. The natural world around us is changing, too. The light changes, the plants shift to fruiting, and gathering and harvesting is forefront in nature as preparations for the dormant months ahead ensues.

As humans, we can see these changes but we sometimes forget to tune in to how we feel about them. We get distracted by all that needs to be done. We can lose the awareness that guides our intuition and helps us make healthy, inspirited choices.

Inspirited Living’s founder, Lynne Bryan Phipps, is talking this week about how we can navigate these changes. By starting with curiosity and compassion, we can hold space for ourselves to ground and stay connected to the marvels all around us in nature.

1) Being Curious: Notice How the Light is Changing

Starting to notice the change in light is one of the first steps to comforting ourselves about the change in seasons. When we take a moment to notice, we can feel the changes all around us in the daylight. In the Northern Hemisphere, daylight takes on a different quality. It can become golden, somehow deeper, and richer than the sparkling light of summer or the first rays of spring.

This light is a signal of the natural world that it is time to shift from the growth and expansion of the spring and summer to the fruiting and maturing of the harvest season. The deciduous trees change the color of their leaves—from yellow, to orange, to red—because of the change in the sunlight. Scientists can tell us how this happens—first, the trees are triggered to stop producing the chlorophyl that makes the leaves green. That gives our trees their shimmering golden leaves. Think about the aspens in Colorado with their carpets of golden trees bathed in autumn sunlight.

Then the trees protect themselves by producing hormones that deter bugs from eating their leaves. This natural shift in hormones produces the gorgeous oranges and dark reds that inspire artists and photographers to flock to Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Those inspirational forests have cascading tapestries of yellow, orange, and red foliage as far as the eye can see. And the trees signal to all of us that the change of the dormant months is coming.

2) Being Curious: Notice How Nature Prepares for the Changes

Given all the powerful cues in nature, it is no wonder that we start to pick up on the changes, too. We may notice the shorter days, we may notice the golden light, and we may notice how the sounds of autumn are different from the sounds of summer.

The birds are in on this seasonal shift, too. We may notice the chattering small birds on telegraph wires, assembling their flocks for a swooping migration to warmer climates. Many animals harvest berries and nuts, digging holes to save their bounty for the winter months. If we look closely we may even notice animals small and large packing on the pounds in preparation for the leaner months ahead.

At Inspirited Living, we know how important it is to notice these changes and acknowledge that nature has a plan. The change of seasons, the change of light, and the change of sounds signals to shift activities into the busyness of gathering supplies and huddling together. With this much powerful energy swirling in the world around us, it’s no wonder we start to feel restless and feel the need to change our schedules and routines, too.

3) Being Curious: How do Seasonal Changes Make Us Feel?
Given all these cues around us in nature—the changing light, the changing sounds, the foods available to eat—we can perceive at a very deep level, that seasons are changing and that we should be DOING something differently.

We can also feel, at a very deep level that the playfulness of the summer months has shifted to the busyness of autumn. Our social cues tell us that it’s time to go back to school, back to work, start new projects, delve deeply into connectedness and relationships.

At the same time, the change in seasons can create a feeling of anxiety or sadness. Anxiety that we haven’t finished all we planned, or about starting something new. Sadness that the warmth of summer and the relaxed pace is changing. We can feel that time is precious, warmth is precious, life itself is precious. Just putting a name to these feelings—seasonal shifts—can be helpful to turn towards our natural cues to notice the world is changing around us. And when we bring our awareness to the seasonal change, we can choose to be compassionate with ourselves as we experience that change.

4) Being Curious and Compassionate: Celebrating the Natural World
Many cultures have embraced the seasonal changes with rituals and festivals that invite people to notice and celebrate the natural world. In Japan, for example, the clear autumn skies invite moon viewing (tsuki-mi). It can be a powerful experience to find time to look at the full moons of autumn, admire the arrays of stars, and notice the grass and berries that sway in the autumn breezes.

The Japanese also love their bright-foliage viewing (momiji-gari) as a way to embrace the season. It brings city dwellers out to parks and in nature to eat seasonal foods including tempura maple leaves!

In New England, watching the changing displays of leaves is called “leaf peeping.” When people flock to the forests, campgrounds, and hiking trails to experience nature and marvel in the display nature provides they are embracing the change. And of course, pumpkins everywhere, and the whiff of spices and apple cider make our mouths water and our senses tingle.

By choosing to celebrate the seasonal beauty, the seasonal foods, and the seasonal smells and sounds, we can bring a compassionate and uplifting perspective to how we experience change.

5) Being Compassionate: Noticing How We Feel Helps us Choose Our Experience
Noticing how we feel when the season changes helps us choose how we experience the cues all around us. Autumn is the perfect time to practice self-compassion. It’s the perfect time to practice being kind and gentle with ourselves, as we navigate the powerful seasonal shifts we can see and feel.

How can we practice self-compassion? Start by taking time to be outside in nature without an agenda or a timetable. When we lift the constraints of “I must get this done” we can help ourselves find the joy in the changing light. Maybe you spend the time walking in nature with no specific destination to listen to the crunch of the leaves. Inviting friends who enjoy these activities will inspire, uplift, and support all of you as you soak in the glory of the season. Planning new menus or cooking seasonal foods invites the season as a friendly experience, rather than something to wish away or steer clear of.

We can also be curious and compassionate with ourselves when we notice feelings of melancholy, stress, or anxiety. If mother nature’s signals are powerful enough to change the color of entire forests, they are certainly powerful enough to spark changes in us too. Part of Inspirited Living is choosing to listen, appreciate and even welcome those shifts; celebrating that nature shapes us all.

By Lynne|Categories: Inspirited Conversations|Tags: Anxiety, change of seasons, compassion, sadness|Comments Off

Inspirited Conversations: Choosing How we Meet New People

Welcome to our Inspirited Conversations series in which we are engaging all of our inspirited senses in the experience of meeting, talking, and listening to people.

This week, we are thinking about what happens when you go to a new school, new job, new class, new congregation, new group of people…

We Get To Choose How We Experience Meeting New People!

This is a topic that can trigger feelings of anxiety, especially when we’ve had icky interactions with new people in the past (and who hasn’t?) When we are in a new situation, away from home for the first time, or moving to a new area, meeting new people can be especially difficult. Everyone can feel a little unsure, nervous, anxious, or just simply excited and scared as the same time.

Inspirited Living’s Founder, Lynne Bryan Phipps’ compassionate thoughts for starting a new school are here:

The good news is that each one of us can help ourselves to choose how we experience meeting new people and find enjoyment!

Tune-In: Grounding and Self-Awareness about YOU

The good news is that each one of us can help ourselves to choose how we experience meeting new people and find enjoyment. From an Inspirited Living perspective, when you bring your awareness to how you are feeling, you can discover some habits that might surprise you. For example, did you know that you can choose how you experience meeting new people? It can be quite a surprise to know that when you shift perspective from “I have to meet people…” or “this is my opportunity to make friends,” all kinds of new possibilities open up for how to enjoy meeting new people.

The first place to start is simply with yourself. At Inspirited Living, we know that sounds counter-intuitive! You’ve just googled “getting along with my new roommate” or “how to talk to strangers” or “I want to hide in the corner and never come out….” (well, maybe you just thought about the last one). Those are great questions and the best place to start is by figuring out how YOU are doing, how YOU are feeling, and asking yourself, what your senses tell you about YOU.

Tune-In: Inspirited Living’s Grounding and Breathing

Start in a comfortable position, and a place you feel safe and secure. It might be in your room, in nature, or tucked away in a quiet part of the library with your headphones on.

Next, engage your senses. What can you smell? Coffee, tea, paper, or maybe perfume? Reach out and run your fingers along a surface—maybe it’s your clothes, maybe a soft blanket, maybe it’s a smooth table. What does that feel like to your fingertips? Smooth? Rough? Textured? Focus on the feel and the smells around you.

Then bring your awareness to the sounds around you. Maybe it’s your breathing with earbuds in. Maybe you can hear nature, birds chirping. Maybe it’s traffic, or people.

Take a deep breath and let it out; again, and again. Breathe deeply 3 times.
How does it feel to breathe deeply, listen, smell, touch, and then taste your drink in your mouth? What do you see and what can you choose to see that helps you stay here, in this moment?

Tune-In: Your Emotional Awareness and Your Expectations

Now that you’ve grounded, how are you doing? Are you really in the right mind-body-spirit place to meet new people? Often, if we aren’t ready, we skip this listening-in by feeling the urge to push through … we say things to ourselves like, “I don’t have a choice, I have to go.”

How would it feel if instead, we take those deep breaths and ask ourselves: “Do I want to go?” If the answer is a sick feeling in the tummy, or a sinking feeling in the chest, or a clear “no!” in the mind…. We can again, turn toward that still small voice and ask “Why?”

It’s a really brave and profound question to ponder.

Why do we socialize? Why do we meet people— in real life or even online?
Why do we push ourselves to do it when it makes us feel anxious and jumpy?
And how do learn to feel better about it?

We are designed to live together, not apart.

Our need to connect with each other, in communities, in friend groups, even to create families is hardwired into our systems when we are born. As helpless infants, we literally stay alive by staying connected. As we get older, we also find joy, companionship, new ideas, new fun experiences, a sense of belonging and purpose in these connections. Even when we find them difficult, we have so much to benefit from them.

Tune-In: Your Emotional Intelligence Starts with You

So now we have a sense of why we reach out to connect, we can frame social connection in an inspirited way. We can choose relationships that inspire, uplift, and support each other and seek out mindful and compassionate connections. Indeed, tuning in to your mind-body-soul awareness is starting to gain traction in mainstream job hiring techniques. When the Mayor of New York City advertised recently for new top-level leadership, he asked for “emotional intelligence” not just book smarts. And we already know that the first step in emotional intelligence is to understand the energy YOU bring into the room.

So, after you have tuned in and grounded yourself, you can ask: why am I going to this party and what do I want to experience?

Notice what feels comfortable and easy, and what feels uncomfortable?
Notice who are you drawn to and who feels uncomfortable to be around?
Spend more time with the people you are drawn to and move away from the people who you’re just not interested in, or even make you uncomfortable.
You have the power to choose who you spend time with and where you put your energy!

Tune-In: Keeping Track of Your Emotions and Expectations

A good way to keep track of your emotions and expectations is to ask yourself questions. Start with something like, “hmmm…I wonder who is interesting in this room?” and “I wonder if I’m drawn to this person, or that person” and even more fun “I wonder why I’m pulled toward this person?” and “I wonder why this conversation is hard work, but the other conversation is easy and fun?”

It can also be helpful to give yourself some boundaries and limits. If you know that being around loud groups or in loud spaces overwhelms you really quickly, then you can choose to socialize in a different place. Or maybe you can choose to join in part of the event—you go on the walk but choose to skip the rally; you have hot drinks after the game but don’t tailgate beforehand; you join a group at the event but not the carpooling?

Perhaps it’s been a while since you were in a large group and just going to the event is enough. If lingering feels like too much today, it’s ok to stop by and then go somewhere quieter. Next time you can do it differently if you want. You may discover that one of the people you’ve met would like to go someplace quieter, too!

Tune-In: Living Inspirited means Choosing to Inspire, Uplift, and Support Ourselves, too

Little steps are the key to keeping yourself grounded and connected to your sense of curiosity! And of course, be compassionate with yourself.

You can give yourself permission to figure it out by asking: Am I just testing the waters? How long am I comfortable in a new group? How am I most interested in making new connections that might one day, become people I trust, and even perhaps grow into friends? Is it in groups, or one-on-one meet ups? The most important thing to keep in mind is that only you know what feels right for you, right now.

You get to choose.

Living Inspirited—to inspire, uplift, and support– is about making conscious choices. When we give ourselves permission to choose what events, what parts of events, when, and how we participate in social interaction, we are being compassionate with ourselves and we are being authentic about what brings us joy.

By Lynne|Categories: Inspirited Conversations|Comments Off