Photo by Katie Stephen
Hello, wonderful Lab community,
My warmest greetings from Crete!
As our two-week summer residency unfolds, we continue to explore clarity in presence to enhance our ability to act.
Through our Lab tools and exercises, we delve into exploring what I refer to as our 'Inner Life'.
When I refer to "Inner life", I am talking about the rich, often complex realm of thoughts, emotions, impulses, and experiences that exist within each individual.
While observing this inner life, we also notice that not all thoughts and experiences are consciously chosen by us. Sometimes we choose to focus on a task, but other times thoughts and experiences simply arise. The mind often follows its own path, similar to when we sleep and dream, where we merely watch a movie play out.
While exploring the richness of our ‘Inner Life’, we also begin to raise awareness of the 'Observer', who notices all our inner experiences and provides us with the incredibly useful power to choose whether to act on an impulse or not. We can also decide the best way to transform an impulse for the wisest management and delivery. This is a meaningful process that we can cultivate for ourselves and experience moment by moment, both in everyday life and in performance.
Try this with me:
- Take a few minutes and just breathe.
- Begin noticing the thoughts, feelings, ideas, images, sensations, impulses, and experiences that exist within your body, heart, and mind.
- Observe the power of your inner life.
- No matter the intensity, try to witness this inner life without acting on any of the impulses.
- While choosing not to take action, ask yourself: Who is the part of me that can notice all this life without taking action?
- And since it’s possible not to act on any of my inner experiences (though sometimes challenging), there is 'more to me' than just my thoughts, feelings, and inner experiences.
For clarity in this article and our practice, we will refer to that entity as the 'Observer'.
My invitation is that our Observer becomes our best friend. We may acknowledge that it is our wise adult that we keep cultivating every day as we go through life and our experiences. This part of us has the skill to notice all of the possibilities without taking action, and in this way, we gain the power of choice.
In acting, when we become aware of the suggestions from our mind, body, and heart, we can choose to experience what our Yvonne Maiher calls a 'Sliding Door Moment': At that precise instant, we have the opportunity to make a choice. Within that fleeting moment, we can select the most fitting course of action based on the skills and talents we have developed.
In personal life, as we practice this inner contemplation, we better understand our conditioning and our attitude towards life and others, allowing us to change our attitude for a more meaningful existence rooted in our cultivated essence.
The process of observation creates space for inner contemplation, serving as a golden key for personal management, empowered performances, and cultivating presence.
All my love,
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