Present Moments
Thoughts from Susie Ascott - on
living your Perfect Life
Welcome to April 2009 Issue of Present Moments!
Present Moments includes tips
for living your perfect life, an update on what I’ve been up to and news of
upcoming events.
You are
receiving this because you have partnered with me in a coach-client relationship, you have attended my yoga classes or expressed
an interest in coaching. If you would prefer not to receive these (infrequent!)
newsletters, then please let me know, susie_coach@bigpond.com
Special
Offer: 6 week ecourse for only $40A for the
first 5 people to email me with the correct answer to the following
question:
Question: Who wrote “"A musician must make
music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at peace with
himself. What a man can be, he must be. This is the need we may call
self-actualization ... referring to a person's desire for fulfillment, namely to
the tendency to become actually what we are potentially
..."
Hint: the answer can be found by
reading the feature below.
In this
issue:
Feature – Beginner’s
mind
What’s
been happening?
Here
in the Southern Hemisphere we are at the start of autumn. I love the cool
mornings with the moon still up as we walk the dogs, and the spectacular sunsets
over the ocean as I drive down the coast to teach evening Yoga classes.
The
Raised Vegetable Beds are doing well. I lost my first crop of eggplants to some
kind of predator (I choose to call them mice though I suspect they were actually
rats). I crushed chillies around the plants in the
hope of deterring our furry friends and have been rewarded with a second crop. I
am amazed at the pleasure I am getting from growing and eating my own produce;
pumpkin, capsicum, eggplant and potatoes with onion and garlic, Yum! Anyone know
how I can grow my own rice?
The
branches of the orange tree are skimming the lawn now with the weight of the
fruit. Looks like it might be time to make marmalade.
A few
days before Christmas a place became available for my Mum in a dementia-specific
hostel. She has settled well and is
enjoying the company, care and gardens with fish pond,
fountain, chook pen and aviary. Some days she is distressed and angry and on
others it is such a pleasure to see her happy and living in the present, no
longer worrying about the future nor getting frustrated as her memories of the
past elude her.
I am
enjoying my freedom from responsibilities and am taking the opportunity to
attend art classes, work with more clients and teach and practice more yoga. I
feel blessed to be living such a perfect life!
My
clients are doing exciting things. Warning: If you have a lucrative but
unfulfilling corporate career and are thinking of working with me, be prepared
to quit your job and follow your dream!
Over the last 6 months I have been working with 3 such clients. This
month, one is off to
Whilst
not wishing to dismiss the difficulties that individuals may be facing as a
result of the recent events in the financial market, I am finding it is giving
so many more of us the incentive and opportunity to discover and focus on what
is really important to us. As one friend put it “I may have lost half a million
in shares; but I have retrieved my fitness, gained a daily sense of achievement
and met so many kind and interesting people through running my own Handyman
Business.”
The
Life the Life You Really Want ecourse is
proving popular, and it is great to be able to offer this worldwide. If you are slightly interested in Life
Coaching but not sure whether you want to invest the time and money right now, I
suggest you check out the 6 week ecourse under Events below. It will take about an hour a week of
your time and works out to $15A a week (about the same as 4 cups of coffee). Or
email me with the answer to this month’s question and the price drops to
$40A.
Isn’t it nice to be a beginner?
You turn up at a drawing class, with fresh new charcoal, a clean eraser and a roll of butcher’s paper, still in its wrapping.
No-one expects you to be able to produce a work of art, no pressure. You listen
eagerly taking it all in, watching with all your attention, you follow the
instructions and “yay!” you produce a drawing which
really isn’t too bad at all, “for a first attempt.” Being a beginner is
fun, even if that sense of adventure also contains an element of fear.
By the time term 2 comes around
you listen less, you watch less intently, you expect more of yourself and …you get my
drift…..
We often hear the advice to
adopt a beginners mind, and we most likely all have our examples of “beginners
luck.” What does
this really mean? And how do we do
it?
What is going on in the mind of
the beginner?
We are courageous, we are willing to risk
failure
We have no urgency to achieve, we do the best we can.
We are eager to learn.
We do not make assumptions;
We are fully attentive to what
is actually happening;
We are attentive and conscious,
mindless habits haven’t had time to develop yet.
We are willing to listen to and
consider a viewpoint which is new or even in complete opposition to what we
previously believed, we have no need to defend our position.
We ask questions and listen to
the answers
Perhaps the best way to
describe this state of mind is to say we are Paying Attention.
“Attention is not
concentration, attention is interest. If you’re interested in something, then
you’re attentive. And if you are attentive, you discover many things.”
Vanda Scaravelli Yoga Teacher, died 1999
at age 91. (still teaching at age
88)
How can we practice behaving
like a beginner and paying attention?
Try something
new
Go back to basics, eg if you
practice Yoga, make a point of going to a beginners class whenever you can, if
you are a golfer, watch a DVD for beginners.
Teach what you think you know.
Notice your behaviour in business meetings or conversations with your
loved ones. Would it be more enjoyable and productive if you paid more
attention: made fewer assumptions, asked more questions, listened more? Can you
consider other people’s viewpoints without feeling a need to defend your own
Start making a mental (or
literal) note of the occasions where you assume or imply that you “already know
all about that.” If someone mentions Einstein’s Law of Relativity, or Global
Warming or Maslow’s Self Actualisation or CPR or GDP do you nod as if
you understand what it is? Could you explain it to
someone?
Before you dismiss a
(non-fiction) book with a thought such as ”I already know about that, ” take
a look at the contents page and the chapter headings. Write down what you think are the main
points the author is going to make. Now read the book and see what you missed,
forgot or didn’t already
know.
Be more curious. To get you
started here’s a link to a definition of Maslow’s Self
Actualisation
http://www.tribalmessenger.org/headlines/maslow-self-actualized-traits.htm
Recommended
Books I have enjoyed reading
over the last few months:
“The
http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780670073023
Amusing, insightful and
challenging. Brief
essays. Great for reading in the dentist waiting
room. Read while you are waiting and contemplate while “in the chair” to
take your mind off potential pain and discomfort!
I’ve been re-reading the old
classic “Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior” Dan Milligan. An
extract that particularly attracted me is “Plans are useful, but don’t get
attached to them; life has too many surprises. Preparation, on the other hand,
has value, even if the future you planned never comes.”……….”It’s not the way
to the Peaceful Warrior it’s the way of the peaceful warrior; and
the journey itself creates the warrior”
I’ve also been re-reading ,or rather, listening to, another old classic
“Think and Grow Rich.” Napolean Hill
http://books.google.com/books?id=wF74Hf7G0XAC
I’m finding that there is
rather too much emphasis for me on “struggling” for success rather than
co-creating it. No doubt that says
more about me than it does about the author.
Yoga
Classes
Venue:
Dates:
Tuesday morning
Thursday morning 10:
Thursday afternoon
Cost:
$15 casual class
$13 concession
$130 for 10 classes
1 hour classes $12.50 per class
At work
during the day? If you would like me to come to your home or office (daytime or
evening) then I am happy to run a class for you and your friends or colleagues.
Just give me a call
susie_coach@bigpond.com 9383 2497 ; 0413 822 870
Oil Painting for
Fun
Have
fun discovering or rediscovering that painting is fun. No experience is
necessary.
Cost:
$30 to include paints, canvas and use of easel
Bring
your own materials and the cost is $15
Dates:
Sat afternoons or Sunday afternoons
Live the
Life You Really Want – E-Course
A
simple, step by step process to take you closer to living the life you really
want. All you need is access to email and about 1 hour per week.
Cost: $90 for 6 week
class.
Dates: Running regularly every 6 weeks, contact
me for start date of next course susie_coach@bigpond.com
“All
my benefits keep on growing from this course. If I haven’t said it yet –
thank
you.”
“I really like
your course, thank you for providing me with the materials. They are very
simple, clear and easy to follow.”
“light bulb moments go off constantly in my head, so much that
I could light the city with it!”
“I
definitely would like to tackle one, but in a while, when I’m a bit more defined
and sure of what it is I want. “Ah.... but that will help me be defined
won’t it”... yes I can hear you through the computer!”
Thanks
for
Smiles,
Susie