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April, 2006 Greetings, Welcome to your fr*ee monthly e-newsletter about living the solution...not the problem! Written and published by: Dr. Toby Silverton & Dr. Bev McLagan Sent to subscribers in Canada, U.S., U.K., the Middle East and Asia. Many thanks to everyone who forwards the newsletter on. We grow through your recommendations so please keep up the good work and forward this newsletter to a few friends and colleagues.
In This Issue: Go anywhere in this issue fast by clicking on a topic.
Each morning, as I’m trying to get back to normal, I grab my laptop, a cup of tea and stretch out on my bed. Write, I think, just write…anything. But my brain simply won’t cooperate. It shouts, “right!” or supposedly “write!” and then dives into a dumpster where it madly grabs stuff and throws it out at me… “how ‘bout this?” Nope, no creativity in sight. Years of academia and paper writing made me very, believe me, very familiar with the fear of the blank page, otherwise known as writer’s block. Usually this is quite overcomable (is there such a word?). A great client, a screenwriter, told me the best way to overcome the blank page is to start editing something you’ve already written. Great advice – a safe, noncontroversial way past my unconscious critic straight into my right brain and before I know it I am writing. Not this time. I’m talking total brain block. Tried it all, opened every file I could think of to find something that, inspired me or just seemed familiar to me! I resorted to surfing the net. It was pathetic, couldn’t even think of sites to surf. Later, I headed to my office – currently a total mess. Sat at my desk and thought, “right, get to work” …nothing…couldn’t think of what file or paper to pick up. Turned to the computer, and went straight to emails, a safe haven (don’t we always hide in our emails?) – nothing, no “bings” – now what? Time for a soap opera…seriously. I told Bev about my aimless wandering through my computer and my office, my inability to focus on any task, my sudden lack of knowledge of the english language, my desperate desire to really know who the characters are on General Hospital. She came to me later and said, “of course your creative energy is blocked, look at what you are dealing with, a death, the estate, selling a condo, keeping up with work, not to mention you haven’t even had time to deal with your emotions, write about that”. So here I am, writing about being brain blocked. I should never have written those words, cause it just set off another episode of dumpster diving into my psyche. This is where I stand poised on the edge of my consciousness, good form, but then do a major belly flop straight into my unconscious, only to come up gasping into my subconscious where my psyche starts madly thrashing around trying to find something that makes sense. Finally I surface into the daylight of my consciousness where I simply rearrange the pens on my desk. All of us will experience this phenomenon at some point in life. Overwhelmed by life events, or a specific worry, or a hugely onerous task you too may have succumbed to brain block (whether or not it is accompanied by dumpster diving is up to your psyche). So what do you do when you’re brain blocked and need to get out of the dumpster? It’s really a good idea to talk to someone who doesn’t live in your psyche! So, I put myself in Dr. B’s capable hands, and she pointed me in the direction of a piece she had written about staying focused, staying current and her take on handling stuff when you hit brain block, more commonly known as overwhelm. Read on. I was watching a major news station, and got caught up reading the tickertape that repeats news bites over and over again during a day. You know the one. Well that got me thinking, what if we could program a certain amount of thoughts or problems or issues or goals in any given day and have them keep running through our own tickertape just for that day? Which got me musing even further….isn’t that all we really can contemplate, do something about, or problem solve…what we have on the tickertape today? After all, yesterday’s news is just that, old news. Tomorrow hasn’t been programmed for viewing…stay tuned. If you think about it, life is a tickertape. Sooner or later the same issues, problems, and celebrations wind their way around the tape and past my vision another day, another week or another decade from now. Life is a spiral, so things come into view time and time again…even when I thought I had finished with them (or wished I had!). Some return in more pleasant ways, others not so much, and still others I revisit at a deeper more satisfying level of understanding (I think that’s called growth). Whatever…I have to acknowledge and accept that there will always be a tickertape with loads of life options to choose from. To avoid becoming overwhelmed, discouraged or frustrated, I remind myself at the beginning and end of each day…..I can control only what’s before me to the very best of my ability. For me, the tickertape approach makes life more simplified and focused. I start my day with a lighter heart because my focus is on today, the now, the present, what’s real and right before me. Whatever I put on my tickertape today is what I have to focus on, clean up and prepare to let go of as today moves into yesterday and tomorrow comes into view. Here’s the long and short of it. My brain, any brain, Dr. T’s brain can successfully and coherently handle only so many circumstances, situations or things for the day without hitting brain block (more commonly thought of as being overwhelmed). If I worry and drown myself with yesterday and tomorrow I will only become lost and unproductive. I can decide NOW, not then….not when….just now. Now that’s a great mantra! And because I programme the tickertape for today I can choose to do the best damn job I can. I will worry about tomorrow only at that moment it becomes today. I think this could get me the closest to Nirvana I’ve been. So here’s the best advice I gave to Dr. T: You’ve got stuff you want to accomplish today, stuff you need to focus on. Stop getting caught up with what you “should” have done yesterday or “need” to do tomorrow. There is no quicker route to brain block or overwhelm. Stick with your tickertape and get today’s stuff done. Dr. T’s strategies for handling brain block:
Dr. B’s solutions:
Just begin… If you want to continue living the solution, scroll down till you see the icon for the Free Companion Tool (the little hammer), then it’s simple - just click on the underlined link which will take you directly to the Free Stuff page on our website. There you will see the link to this month's companion tool, a great resource each month that you can collect. Choose to download it in either a Word document or a PDF. This month’s resource is called Today's Tickertape Option.
Before you go, don’t forget to click onto your Free Companion Tool for this issue called “Today's Tickertape Option.”
We thank you for being out there. We thank you for reading what we put forward in the world. There is lots of new stuff to come this year and we invite you to join us on this journey toward equilibrium and prosperity. If you would like to share any thoughts with us, we’d love to hear from you. Till next month…Embrace Life Toby and Bev You are free to use material from Live the Solution!® in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution including our website and email link. The copyright notice should read: "By Toby Silverton, PhD. and Bev McLagan, PhD. of Silverton McLagan Coaching. Contact: coach@livethesolution.com. To unsubscribe or change your email address, just go to www.livethesolution.com/lwiezine.html Did you enjoy receiving Live the Solution? If you did, please forward it to your friends and associates. We would like to hear from you, email us your comments and ideas. T: 604-241-0810(PT) or E: coach@livethesolution.com. Visit our website at www.livethesolution.com. |
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