Creativity Tips Newsletter

The Newsletter of Lifespace Coaching ™

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

June 18, 2004 | 209 subscribers

CONTENTS

>>Article: What is the Gift of 'No'?
>>Off the Bookshelf: Creative Visualization
>>Special: Keep Yourself Inspired with Creativity Cards
>>Copyright and Subscribe/Unsubscribe

>>Article: What is the Gift of 'No'?

A few weeks ago, a client came to me with a problem. "I'm having trouble saying no. All these requests for work keep coming in, and I keep saying yes to everything. The truth is that I can't do it all."

My client seemed unhappy, tired and frustrated. Since humans are inherently good, we want to help everyone. At the same time, our desire to be helpful can be at the expense of our own needs.

When we say "yes" to every request and project that comes our way, our "yes" begins to lose meaning to the people asking us for help.

I asked him "what does saying 'yes' cost you?" He replied that he was so busy working on other people's projects that he had no room for his own. In short, he no longer had the space to create, and his mind was stuffed with other people's problems.

When we first started working together on this problem, he was not able to get the word "no" out of his mouth. When I asked him to say no, he would start laughing instead.

Allow me to take a moment to explain the Observer. The observer that we all are (the person that we are and how we see the world) is made up of:

Language + Body + Emotions.

Since he could not yet implement the language, we worked on the Body of No. He was all smiles (Emotion) and sheepish grins when we started. His smiles and sheepish nature were not supportive of his no, so I asked him to become an inventor. . .

I asked him to invent his Body of No. He created the Body (it’s different for everyone) and discovered a facial gesture to go along with it. When his body disposition and his facial gesture were aligned, he was able to start working on adding the words.

Through doing this work, he achieved coherency between Language, Body, and Emotion and, with practice, was able to say no to what he didn’t want to do and to make time for how he really wanted to spend his time.

>>Off the Bookshelf: Creative Visualization

I'd been wanting to read this book for a long time and then stumbled across it in a thrift shop, so I couldn't resist. In this book, Shakti Gawain writes about how to visualize what you want to create in life. (Can you see why I want to review this book?) She includes meditations and visualizations suggestions and lets you know the best times of day for visualizing are just after waking and just before going to sleep. Our minds are most receptive at those times. The best way I found to read this book was in small doses, so that I could fully digest each rich chapter before starting on the next one.

>>Special: Keep Yourself Inspired with Creativity Cards

Keep yourself inspired and on track with these fun, colorful reminders. http://www.lifespacecoach.com/resources.html

Deborah, thank you for the wonderful gift of the creativity cards. I have cut them up and placed them in a pretty antique vase. I draw a new one out every day and do what it says. I may even add Some of my own to the jar. This was a great idea! Thank you! --Liz Shaw, Wings to Soar http://www.sperience.com/

>>Copyright and Subscribe/Unsubscribe

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>>Copyright (c) Lifespace Coaching ™ 2004. All rights reserved.