Flow In Action
  • Home
  • Solutions
  • Impact Stories
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact

A gentler, more powerful starting point in each day

4/22/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
“What do you do when you wake up and feel overwhelmed?” was a question I got last week when I was talking with Capacity Zurich’s start-up entrepreneurs. They are starting to turn the seeds of their ideas into self-sustaining businesses and we were exploring resilience for their ‘entrepreneur’s journey’. (They will be having their showcase on 21st June in Zurich, so save the date and go to be inspired, overjoyed and welcomed into their community).

My response went something along these lines, but shorter as time was pressing, so bear with me, as this is something of a love letter to them because they are such an amazing community.

Some days just start like this. And so, what to do to get past that feeling of overwhelm?

For a few moments, reconnect with the fact that you are unprecedented.

Admittedly the enormity of contemplating that there has only ever been a you, right here and now, not before and not coming after…does mess with your perception, a bit like a Max Escher staircase.

But I know of nothing simpler, gentler and more powerful a starting point than this, as a way to be present, let go, change direction, trust yourself to take a leap of faith and do things differently. You are a point of light in an unfolding cosmos, on this pale blue dot. A fractal of energy, rising and falling and rearranging.

It takes a nanosecond to practice, acting like a love-bomb filling you with colour and courage. The more you practice it, the more choices you get back, the more resilient you are – having the capacity to adapt in a constantly changing environment – softening into trust.

It gives you a different kind of courage because it’s not about ego (please note, feeling loved by feeling credible will frequently keep you trapped and get in the way of your best problem-solving). The best leaders and problem-solvers I’ve ever worked with and met, have been the humblest of people; and (from experience) the intra- and entrepreneur’s journey will take your ego and jump up and down on it, until you give in, let go, ask for help and keep on asking.

Reflecting on being unprecedented, is an invitation to think about how and where you want to show-up, to take the risk on allowing yourself the time to be deeply connected to others, to slow down long enough to be authentically you, which will fuel your unique engine of imagination and creativity. 

Not only are you unprecedented in this bend of time and space, but so is the person next to you, the blade of grass, this year’s Spring flowers, the butterfly, the baby just born in a warzone, the families risking everything in the hope of something better. Once you pause to see it like this, you realise how precious the unique web of life is and how knitted into it you are. You start to own your story. Make like Gerald in Giraffes Can't Dance.

Tell someone else today too, especially a kid and watch their reaction. This kind of Love is disruptive innovation, cutting through overwhelm to what is most important to focus on; and what is needed when we take action for people and planet.

Martha Graham in her letter to Agnes De Mille wrote, “There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.”

Don’t block it. Take a breath. Be you. Start with unprecedented. Love more.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Tweets by flowinaction

    Archives

    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    March 2016

    Categories

    All
    Agents Of Change
    ChangeMaker
    Children & Youth
    Design Thinking
    Event
    Innovation
    Resilience
    Wellbeing

    View my profile on LinkedIn
(c) 2020 Elaine France & Flow In Action. All rights reserved. 
Privacy Policy
  • Home
  • Solutions
  • Impact Stories
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact