After the summer or Kalo chimona (Greek for wishing you a good Winter)

It’s been some time since I have posted anything on the blog and I mainly blame the summer. After Easter everyone starts to get ready for the summer months and then between July and August you lose touch with people (unless you go on holidays with them) and finally re-unite in September.

So what have I been up too? I gave some workshops, coached old and new clients and re-designed my website. In August we (my husband Steven and I) decided to go camping with friends. It was great. It was only the second time that I camped and I just loved the feeling of being in the middle of so many people, listening to all the different conversations, discussions and of course music. No Greek fun time would be complete without music. It is strange how the things that may bother you at home (llike hearing noise from the neighbours) enchant you when you are on holiday. We ate lots of wonderful food, spend most of the day on the beach and played Beriba (Greek card game) at night. Eventually after a week of enjoying feeling totally Greek we returned home to our island and started to re-connect with our various projects.

Unfortunately we returned also to the news of many devastating fires, which was heartbreaking. As a result a lot of people started demanding better environmental policies and to think about what they can do to act more environmental friendly. We started a movement here on Spetses and I am going to write about our progress regularly and also publish suggestions of what we can do in my Newsletter.

In September a friend of mine came from Miami and invited me to give a talk there in November as well as a workshop. We decided to join our forces and create and run the workshop together. We both love coaching people and sharing our experiences, and we always have a lot of fun together, one inspiring the other.

That brings me up to date and I promise to keep on sharing and posting ideas, insights, knowledge and leads on a regular basis.

Socrates' wisdom

Have you ever observed how many times we voice views and opinions on subjects or people we really know very little about? Often our information is second hand (we read or heard it elsewhere) and we make assumptions based on our own believes and concepts.

The next thing you know you are defending what you have heard with great passion. And while your opinion at that moment is not actually based on something you have observed yourself, you end up identifying so strongly with what you have heard that you defend it with all you have got. You may even end up arguing with anyone daring enough to challenge it.

And this is the point where a bit of Socrates wisdom provides an inspiring alternative:

.....after the Oracle had answered there is "non wiser than Socrates", Socrates was surprised and thought this was a riddle. He went off to speak to all the clever men in Athens and questioned them on a variety of subjects. After spending days and weeks doing so, he finally realised that they indeed knew very little. Contemplating his findings he came to the conclusion that he was wise only in so far as he was AWARE, that in essence he knew nothing. He impressed his listeners by openly stating "I don't know".

Try it and experience the relief you feel when you can just relax and listen without feeling the need to provide an answer. Celebrate not knowing while enjoying finding out!

One of my favourite quotes

"Freedom will not come to you by knocking at the door to love and waiting for someone else to open it. Freedom comes when you open the door. In fact there is really no locked door. Your mind and your qualities are independent of the actions of others" - Manuel Schoch from the book "Healing with Qualites". http://www.tune-in.ch/en

Enjoying life and having fun

It was about 10 days ago while sitting down and looking at how I was dividing my time between, work, friends, husband, community work and recreation that I suddenly realized that something very important was missing in my life most days; feeling joy and having fun!

There seemed to be a sense of heavyness and duty about everything I was doing which often expressed itself as anxiety and impatience. I sat back on our sofa and took a good look inside, asking myself 'How long have I been feeling this way?" Slowly I started to realize that this heaviness and this tendency of taking things too serious had been present on and off throughout my life. So what was I to do? How could I re-introduce fun and joy into my daily existence?

I started to take my mind back to all the times I remembered having fun, wondering if I could figure out what they had in common and what I did then I was not doing now. A friend suggested to take some time out and play like a child, to buy some toys or do anything else new that came to my mind.

So I went off on a search for a toy shop and while looking around started to remember my favorite games I played as a child; painting with water colors and playing with plastic toys of cowboys, Indians, knights or anything else on a horse. I finally purchased two shining knights on fabulous horses and some watercolors and went back home to play. It felt wonderful, just like when I was 6 years old. What a treat. It made my day and suddenly all kind of new creative ideas came into my mind, ideas for my workshops and the community work I was involved in and I felt light and adventurous.

For the next few days I made it a commitment to do something fun, something different every day; I danced with my husband in the street while passers by were cheering us on, we played catching an imaginary ball on the beach and I went running over fields catching butterflies made out of air. And even though I was engaging in having active fun for only a few minutes every day, it changed my attitude and feeling about everything else I wanted to do that day.

I enjoyed it all. Eventually I understood that I could bring this sense of fun to everything I was doing. It was all about attitude. Instead of thinking of a fun activity every day I developed a fun attitude to everything I wanted to do. Cleaning the house, ironing, writing, working with others, teaching, relating to people - was much more fun when approaching it by looking at it in a new way, a new light each time. Instead of remembering the way someone or something was yesterday I now keep an open mind and look at how the same person or thing will be different today. Nothing and no one stays exactly the same; everything is changing all the time. Approaching everything with an attitude of curiosity and " what can I contribute to this work, this situation today" keeps life fresh and enjoyable; and yes - it's ok to make mistakes - it's fun, as long as you don't take yourself too seriously.