Mary Gow | ArtSpirit7

January 16, 2011January 14, 2011

What’s Your New Year’s Ritual?

This a continuation from my most recent post which was David Delp’s talk about connecting with what’s important. He has invented the Attentionometer, which will help you take a look at where your units of attention are going.

Delp said that he welcomes every new year with the same ritual. He meets with a group of friends who write out what happened over the past year, what they were embarrassed about, what they were proud of, and then they burn it. And then, they eat.

After the meal there’s one more step. They write what they want for the coming 12 months and complete the sentence “Before I die, I want to.” How to complete such a big question? Delp suggested looking at the roles we play in life, for example, “Before I die, as a father, I want to help my daughter find her strength.”

“Before I die I want to know my oldest brother,” Delp shared. And he said here is where we can look at one small thing to do, and the resonance comes from the tiny things. Delp said he made the small step and called his oldest brother.

So what are five things you want to do before you die?

My next post will talk about Delp’s Attentionometer.

January 14, 2011January 14, 2011

David Delp on Connecting with What’s Important

The energy of the new year inspired me to attend a zealous talk given by David Delp about connecting with what’s important.

A designer by trade and an artist by heart, Delp is creative director of Designing a Balanced Life. He teaches a 10 week course of the same title at a local college and has invented the Attentionometer and The Game of Goals. (See future postings for more about the Attentionometer and information about his upcoming workshop).

“Goals don’t make us happier. What we really want is feeling immersed in something important to us,” said Delp. He referred to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book, Flow.

“Our attention is our most precious resource. Yet we give it freely to strangers who also take our time, money and energy and give little back. Learn to focus your attention and everything else will follow. Learn to lose yourself doing something you care about, and the world is yours again.”

What we are striving for is resonance. And Delp said resonance is when our hearts line up with our minds. Our breath is what gets our hearts connected to our minds. So we took a long pause and a deep breath.

Read my next posting for more of David Delp’s inspirational talk.

January 12, 2011January 11, 2011

3 Key Words for 2011

As you may gather from my postings, I attend a lot of talks/lectures/workshops! One of the reasons I blog is because it quenches three interests at the same time: 1) writing; 2) sharing (with the desire to be of service and a source of inspiration); and 3) creativity and how to cultivate it.

Last week I went to a class taught by a friend who hosts regular helpful talks on how to live and love more effectively. In our latest class, which was last week, the topic was how to use your intuition to achieve your goals.

One of the many worthwhile things we went over this evening, was a message that the three most important things to cultivate and concentrate on are: 1) joy; 2) appreciation; and 3) gratitude.

The more we can focus on creating these qualities through people, situations, thoughts and feelings, the higher we will raise our own vibration. And what happens when you raise your vibration? What you wish for that matches that vibration has an easier chance of finding you!

Does there appear to be an affinity for sets of 3?

January 10, 2011January 10, 2011

Practicing the Mary Diet

I write about diet because it is intertwined with nurturing yourself. And creativity is influenced by what we eat. What to eat to be creative? Check out the blog entry at creativebits.org.

In my post on January 6th I mentioned three diets I have looked into and I also mentioned being a flexitarian. I’ve considered the vegetarian, vegan and raw vegan diets too.

John Robbins’ book, Diet for a New America, was released in 1987. I tried the vegetarian diet a few years after that. One of the factoids from Robbins’ book that stuck with me was that it takes 1300 gallons of water to produce a 12 oz. steak.

After my research on various diets my 2011 goal is to nurture my creative self by following the Mary diet – all things in moderation, what works for each individual’s metabolism varies. Eat with the mindfulness that one teaspoon equals 4 grams and attention and gratitude for the origination of whatever is ingested.

In case you don’t know about John Robbins, here’s a 2 minute video featuring him.