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PULSE Level 2 and other thoughts on learning in the new world

Today I had a call from someone interested in taking our PULSE level 2 course. It is the second 40 hours of mediation training using the PULSE Frame. We haven’t had much call to offer it lately so it is exciting to see some renewed interest. Anyone with a basic mediation course could register and if we get enough interest we will offer it sometime in late November.There is some flexibility for us to set up the first 2 days as an online program though Jig saw box and have participants come to the St Albert Office for the 3 day intensive practice sessions.

Please send an email to me at nancylove@pulseinstitute.com if you are interested.

I find myself looking for ways to help individuals get what they need lately. Coaching and one on one teaching and training conversations provide me with the kind of opportunities to share ways to improve social exchanges in real time. Our society is moving that way. Everything is on demand. Why not training? I like it. Individualized learning is not new. Tell me what you need to learn and I will help you. If you are working toward credentialing as a coach or mediator, I can help you with that. If you want to improve your leadership skills I can help you with that. If you want to improve relationships and conversations at home or at work I can help you with that. If you want to become a well rounded confident, courageous, competent, compassionate person I can help you with that. If you and I can’t figure out how to get you to where you are going then I will help you find someone who can.

Teachers have been providing individualized programs for students for years. Always a teacher, I am moving toward providing that service to my grown up clients. It’s exciting and practical. Client directed learning. Contact me today!!!!

A Sharp Mind

Thursday is the 4th. The 4th of each month I have scheduled a free webinar for PULSE people which includes anyone who is interested in what PULSE is and how it works. This months Webinar is on a Sharp Mind. It deals with the magnificent brain, neuroscience and many other amazing things that help us maintain and increase our mental capacity and our intellectual strength. Of course in forty minutes we can only scratch the surface. I invite you to join in the conversation especially if you have an interest in what research is saying about brain function and capacity or the difference between “mind” and “brain”.

This will be the first in the SHIFT series of Webinars. Sharp Mind, Happy Heart, Independent Spirit, Fit Body and Trusting Soul make up the series and are scheduled on the 4th of each month at 10:00 am Mountain Time for the next five months. Join the discussion. You’ll find more info and a link below.

Event: ‘A Sharp Mind’
Date: Thursday, September 04, 2014 – 10:00 am
Duration: 40 Minutes

One of the measures of wellness in the SHIFT process is a Sharp Mind. All of us have days where we feel dull, where the words we are searching for are just out of reach, where our brain feels sluggish and not always engaged, like it is slipping gears. Then we have other days were the focus is crystal clear and we know the answers and we can solve any problem, where we are witty and thoughtful and ON. What are the skills that we can use to increase the likelihood of a having Sharp Mind every day? What makes it sharp or dull and how can we measure on a scale from dull to sharp where we are now?
Join us on September 4th to talk about intelligence of the mind!
Click the Link Below to Join the Webinar:
https://pulseinstitute.adobeconnect.com/_a935439986/sharp/

The Maritimes

Good friends. Cousins. Good food. Great music. Home.

I am sure that most people have a place that they go to where they immediately feel at home. For me it is here in the Maritimes. Of course I was born and mostly raised here so it is familiar, but there is more than that. It’s the salt air. It’s the friendly chatter at the Walmart. It’s the cadence of the language and the stories in the songs. It’s the laughter and the smiles and the people that share them with each other.

I had a chance to attend a show at the Tidnish Community Hall this week. “The Elderly Brothers” was a story and concert performed by local musicians and actors worthy of the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton. The Everley Brothers would have been proud of the harmonized vocals, the guitar riffs and the gently told story of their life.

Everywhere in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI talented people play to small audiences on a regular basis. For twenty dollars you can be thoroughly entertained. For another twenty you can have an absolutely magnificent lobster meal, chowder and all you can eat muscles and salad bar and a medium sized lobster. Don’t forget dessert. Pies and crumbles to die for.

Today it is time to go home, back to Alberta, back to my family. I am taking with me wonderful memories that will sustain me until next time. When I return it will be familiar again. Not much changes here and I am glad it doesn’t. The ocean waves, the wind in the trees will be here forever calling those of us who have had the experience back for more.

The Territory is more, much more than the Map.

Aloha – Back to the big island

My girls and I are back on the big island for our mother daughter trip. It is beautiful here. It is relaxing and each time I come I feel more at home. My goal is to learn a few more hawaiian words this trip.

We head home today. Those of you following my girls on face book know we had a great time. WE hunkered down for Iselle but aside from a little wind and rain this side of the Island was spared any damaging impact. It wasn’t so bad. I learned a new card game.

It isn’t just the beauty of Hawaii that calls me back. it is the feeling in the air. The negative ions I have written about before. It has the right recipe for relaxation … equal parts sunshine, salt water and air, palm trees and a sprinkling of birds.

This week provided a stark reminder of what might happen if the weather changes. The south side of Hawaii got hit. It reminded me of last year in Calgary. People without power or water living in shelters. I wish a shorter recovery time for the Hawaiians. I know that many people in southern Alberta are still licking their wounds even a year later.

Sending Aloha to everyone.

Connected….

Today I had the internet access installed at the lake. I thought I would be able to leave connectivity for a while…even a year but it’s no use.I have succumbed to the threat of 3G bills and installed something on my roof that ensures that I can see the world and the world can see me. Even at the lake. I guess that’s alright.

It was nice to be “offline” for a couple of weeks. At least in my own mind I was off-line and feeling pretty self-righteous about it too. I found myself bragging about not having internet. How weird is that? Our society has shifted so much in the last decade or so that you are odd if you are ‘offline”.

We are a connected world. I’m not sure how much that is helping us though. A hundred years ago we were not as connected and yet there was a “shot heard round the world” that resulted in a world war. Now every shot is heard around the world and there are so many on a daily basis that we are becoming numb to the destruction and the loss of human life. It all seems hopeless and we feel helpless to do anything except stay connected … at least to our friends and family and to those we care about.

Although I can get TV programming through my internet I have unplugged from my daily fix of CBC news. In my apartment in St Albert the CBC news keeps me company. Here at the lake the birds and the wind in the trees keep me company. I have all of the conveniences of home here and yet … as those of you with cottages and cabins can attest … a home away is both of those things…home and away. There is a different pace and a different feel here. I like it.

It is not as if you can forget that world is once again on the eve of destruction. It’s just that it seems further away and not so immediate. I hold out hope for mankind. Songs of the sixties are ringing in my head and I realize how much they influenced my stance on war and sex and drugs and rock and roll. I am encouraged when I hear remakes of those old tunes and see the fashions of that time coming back. I so hope that the thinking comes back too. Bring back the revolution. “Give Peace a Chance”

We are connected. We are the world. Let’s make a difference.

Another year ….. Warning : melancholy to follow…

Last year I turned sixty. Today I am older again. Where does the time go?
So much has happened in the last 12 months. Its hard for me to imagine that I would be living in St Albert full time with a beautiful cottage at the lake. I am happy to be back in northern Alberta with friends and family although there are special people that I miss in Calgary.

It has been a beautiful month here in St Albert and at the Lake which is only 40 minutes away. The weather has been great and I have been very busy with the move of furniture etc from Canmore to Lac St Anne. My new writing centre is now within driving distance. Work on the books in progress is actually progressing!!

Golfing with friends and family, birthday celebrations for grand kids and children, gatherings around the back yard fire pits and wahshooo tournaments has made for a relaxing and fun filled summer so far. I love being where my daughters and their families can drop in or request help or invite me for lunch.

Next week my daughters and I take our annual trip. Last year we went home to Halifax to celebrate my birthday. This year we head back to the Big Island for a week of mother daughter sister bonding. I love our time together each year. It means a lot to me. This year especially I understand the importance of creating memories together. We lost my mum this year which was hard on all of us.

Birthdays are an opportunity to look forward and back and assess where you are on your journey. I am where I ought to be and headed in the right direction … reason to celebrate. Thanks for all the wonderful wishes.

New Digs = New Perspective

I bought a cottage at Lac St Anne. I have been here for one week. I love it.

Moving is always stressful and busy but you know when a move is right. I have been so very relaxed since I got here that I don’t really know how to explain it.

At the moment I am sitting at my breakfast bar watching a family of geese float by on the lake. It is quiet except for the birds and the breeze in the poplars. WOW.

For the past couple of mornings I have been working on the new book on the deck. It is so great to have a place to do that and the energy and motivation to work. The work is somehow easier to get to and easier to do.

The history of Lac St Anne is also fascinating. St Anne is known as a healer and this lake attracts pilgrims from all over western and northern Canada to walk in the healing waters each year at this time.

As I write my book “Mapping the Space Between Us” I am reminded that a change in place can mean a change in perspective and I am encouraged to continue, to finally complete a manuscript that I have been working on for almost five years now.

Although I still have a place in St Albert, this place already feels like home. Please come and visit sometime.

Keep Moving – The secret to youthfulness

I attended a concert last night. Cyndi Lauper opened for Cher. Cyndi is 60 and still having fun and entertaining others. Cher is an icon. She looks Fabulous at 68. These ladies love what they do. Cyndi had a lot to say to the old folks who remembered the things she was talking about and to the young ones in the crowd she said “Look it up.” in her delightful Queens’ NY accent. It was a great evening.

What keeps them so youthful? I think it has a lot to do with attitude. They are very different people. If I were to observe for direction and orientation, and I did, I would identify Cher’s orientation as past. She talked about her past accomplishments and much of her show was spent reminiscing with video of her from the past. Rather than move toward the crowd, she moved away. I know that sounds strange but she didn’t engage that much. Between songs she disappeared to change costumes. She looked fabulous and reminded us that that was what she was there to do. Cher has always been a differentiator. She works at adding beauty to the world … her own. And there is a melancholy about her that she hides with costumes and fabulous acts on stage with her.

Cyndi on the other hand, is present oriented. Her album is remastered and rereleased to freshen it up. Although she talked briefly about the past, she responded to the audience in a very present kind of approach and she sang from her heart for us, songs we knew and songs we were less familiar with. She was sharing in the here and now. She knew where she was. She entered through the crowd wearing a red serge jacket and a tan hat as a tribute to the Mounties. She also did one or two songs in a Calgary Flames jersey. She moved TOWARD the audience. We could not escape her. She was in our faces and we all loved it. Cyndi is a take charge kind of girl who is going to make sure that girls and everyone else have fun.

In both cases the youthfulness comes from a strong sense of self and a willingness to keep moving, to keep doing what you did when you were young so that you can maintain that feeling. When it stops being fun I know they will stop. Cyndi does it because she can. She is doing musicals and taking shows on the road because she loves it. I think Cher does it for others … her fans … who adore her and remind her how fabulous she really is.

Thanks to both of you for crushing the ‘granny’ stereotype.

Six years of Blogging

I have been blogging now for six years. That is hard to believe. I do want to apologize for the inconsistent nature in the timing. Like most people I resolve to blog once a week but ….

I find the ideas come in waves and when I am riding one I can blog. When I am not it is better to keep my thoughts in a journal.

I have to admit that it has been a difficult 6 months for me. I lost my mum and I still have waves of sadness every day. And somehow I feel as if I have lost myself. I am relocating to St Albert on a more permanent bases and I have purchased a Lake Property near the shores of Lac St Anne. Here, further north, I am surrounded by close friends and family and I feel very grateful everyday to be a part of their lives. I missed a lot in the years I was away. Four years in Grande Cache and fifteen in Calgary is a long time. I did visit often but it is not the same as living here amongst them.

Establishing a routine when you have basically been a gypsy for so many years has its own challenges. I miss my Calgary people for sure and I do hope they understand my need to be here. The upheavals of moving again and losing a loved one AND turning 60 have taken their toll . What a year!
So who do I want to be when I grow up? That is a question I have been asking and answering for a lot of years. The answer is always author.

Here I go giving that one more try. Looking for a publisher and an agent. Two great books in the works. One is “Mapping the Space Between us” non fiction sociology based. The other is a novel set in 2025. It is a quest for meaning with a technological whimsy that can only happen in speculative fiction. It is entitled the Dylan Story. It will be the first in a series of “Love stories”. It is not really a love story. It is just a story written by Love.

Have a great day and thanks for your continued support these last six years.
Thoughts and comments always welcome…..

Listening to, for, with and on behalf of ….

Listening is a skill. You need to practice a skill if you hope to improve it. That was the premise behind the POWER listening webinar I delivered yesterday.

http://pulseinstitute.adobeconnect.com/p97u0vgopq7/ You can watch the unedited version by following the link.

Listening is so important as one of the main ways that we gather information from our world. We use all of our senses for sure. In listening though we seem to be part of all of the aspects. What I mean is that we are sender, medium and receiver. What we pay attention to while we are listening changes the other person’s story even when we are silent. they are watching for our responses and it will help them decide what to say next. When we receive a message we filter it through our own static. Quieting that static is a large part of the skill of listening deeply.

There are different ways to listening. You can listen to something. You can listen for something which is more deliberate and can be very effective in promoting good conversation. You can listen on behalf of someone else which is often what a mediator does as they help parties build understanding. You can also listen with others. Doing that is what I call deep listening. If you are with a group and listening together it is wonderful to share and hear their interpretation. Nothing demonstrates how we use our filters like a group listen.

In the webinar I talk about listening with HEART which is the more passive skill of giving others a space to speak into, one that is safe and caring. then I talk about POWER listening which is more about providing evidence of listening. i think both are necessary. If you listen politely and never provide evidence of what you hear the other person will not have the same sense of freedom from having been hear, acknowledged and understood.

Some days it is easier to listen than others. Distractions are everywhere in our world and they are the enemy of good listening. Listening intently and with purpose requires that we use our listening muscles to cut through the distraction and focus our attention on what is being said … and not said. Listening occurs with eyes and ears and body and it takes practice.

What kind of listening workout do you have planned today?

Author Archives: Dr. Nancy Love