The Difference a Be Makes

Be Focused

I was the guest speaker on Thursday night at the Meetup of my friend and fellow Martha Beck coach Keisha Gallegos.  She hosts a monthly East Bay Life Coaching Group.  Keisha has created that perfect blend of social connections and creative content for each gathering. She has attracted the most amazing group of women and I made some really wonderful connections.  I have a hunch that this South Bay girl will be heading east at least once a month.  

I was talking with one of the aforementioned amazing women on Thursday night, Shelia, who is a self-described emerging artist.  She made a comment that went something like this.


"I'm having a hard time focusing.  I have to get focused."

When she said this, I could feel how draining this thought was for her.  I wondered if it might take so much energy  to 'get focused' that there wouldn't be any energy left to do the things she desires. Now, instead of directing her energy into her amazing artwork, (see blog link below), the inability to focus  takes center stage.  Now there are two problems (I can't get focused and therefore I can't create artwork until I can get focused) and what feels like no solutions.  These loops in our thinking show up all the time. This becomes one of those syllogisms and the energy gets blocked in one part of the equation.

Let's solve for X.  

Here is how the intuitive mind works.  As Shelia is speaking, I feel the drain of the energy of this thought, this creative block and I see in a blink this image in my mind:  a stage with spotlights.

Ah, center stage. Front and center and in the spotlight.

I have a great deal of experience with center stage as a metaphor.  Another of my life passions is the theatre.    I have been a lifelong performer, actress and in the last 20 years, I have worked on countless musicals and plays as an associate director.  So, one of the ways intuitive bytes show up for me is the all the worlds a stage metaphor.  So, as I listened to Shelia share what she was feeling and the images pop in my mind, this is my cue as a creative catalyst to redirect the energy of the creative path BLOCK to the creative path FLOW.

In this case, the image on the stage was the spotlight.  Now, for an emerging artist, being in the spotlight can feel intimidating, especially if we don't feel focused or clear about what were creating or who were creating for?  Now, an audience shows up and pretty soon, it all feels out of control -  too big - too fast.  So, when the spotlight showed up, the insight was instead of being the spot operator and trying to direct where the energy goes, become the spotlight. Be the light. And be directed to shine.  Be focused.

So, instead of the original thought as the spot operator, "I have to get the light focused," the spotlight says "I will be focused."

Can you feel the shift?

Can you feel the change with that little be?

Shelia did.  She said, 'Wow, that is a real change in perception.  I feel a weight shifted off my back." Now, the energy is free to create again and as Seth Godin says in his book Tribes "commitment comes before success."  Be committed.  Let the light be focused by desire, by curiosity, by passion.  And when the energy is moving again, and in Shelia's case it literally brings on more choices, more possibilities, more fabulous color on the canvas, the energy can be focused in unlimited, infinite ways.

Let Your Light Be Shined

This is the be-ing part of the human experience.

So, whenever you are feeling that sense of overwhelm, confusion, lack of focus or low energy notice where the energy is directed.  Do you  think you have to think about getting focused? That phrase alone makes my head hurt.  Or do you just start something - anything that sparks -  and  discover where you are focused by what you are doing.   Ah, the freedom to be the light and to be all different colors and be flexible and moved in all different directions.

And sometimes, one of the places the light shines,  is right on center stage.

Thanks to Keisha, Shelia and all the awe-inspiring women I met at the Starlit Path East Bay Life Coaching Group.  Talk about being the light...here are a whole bunch of stars.

Keisha's Find Your Starlit Path-East Bay Life Coaching Group:
http://www.meetup.com/Find-Your-Starlit-Path-East-Bay-Life-Coaching-Group/

Shelia's Blog:
http://sheilatajima.blogspot.com/