I hope this finds you well. It's Spring! Thankfully, not even a global pandemic stops new life from emerging. Nature, as ever, is showing us where we belong and how cycles of life really work.

After nearly two months of global pandemic response measures, what changes are especially impacting you - for better and for worse? As the reality of an emerging "new world" order starts to take shape around you, who are you becoming, what are your new priorities, and what are you creating?

"Kind Connection, Vision, and Candor" were themes of my prior Bridging Lives Notes. Continuing the inquiry into Leader as Creator, I'm curious about the conversation to "open up" again.

A big question is: "When is it safe to be open?" For the moment, let's set aside the national argument about transitioning away from our crisis response and toward what keeps us healthy as we revitalize the economy and our social connections. For now, let's focus on what each of us actually can control: SELF.

When you take stock of the various ways you are adapting to what's asked or required of you, what do you feel open to now?

What do you need so you are more open and more resourceful even if the situation where you are doesn't change for the better in the ways you would prefer?

You know what to do to train your body to be stronger, more flexible, and healthier, right? What do you do to train your mind?

Daniel Siegel, MD (Author of Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence) talks about the three pillars of mind training:

• Focused Attention
• Open Awareness
• Kind Intention

Dr. Siegel and other prominent researchers have found that how you focus attention, open awareness, and guide intention toward kindness and caring also increases a

• sense of well-being,
• connection to others (in the form of enhanced empathy and compassion),
• emotional balance, and
• resilience in the face of challenges.

Somatic centering practice is a form of mind training. You're training your mind to redirect attention, awareness, and intention and you're rooting this in the felt sensations that keep you fully present. I am daily reminded that the Soma - our body in its integrated wholeness - moves towards "yes." How do you listen for your own inner felt sense of "yes?" This is a foundation for genuine resilience. Especially when things stop making sense or you're navigating the unknown, your inner "yes" shines light for sensing your way forward.

What will be better for you when you practice?

The practice for opening ourselves again can many forms. Here's how one author put it in the context of what we're all struggling with in some way now:

"Instead of waiting, longing, hoping, praying for this crisis to pass -- which it will, as all things do, though we don't know when, or how, or what our world will look like when it does pass -- sit with the whole grievous, gorgeous, terrifying truth of it. Sit with it as you would sit with your sick child who's throwing up all over your hair at 3 am.

Get to know who you are, in this pandemic. Get to know the fissures and fractures as well as the wound-binders and creative makers, both within yourself and in your world.

There is an opportunity here, not to be more productive or the most resilient, most brilliant, most anything, but rather, to be on intimate terms with the many shades of your own being. And the many shades of your community, your nation, our global family. …

What are the ways in which the life you've been living is unsustainable? What price are you paying that you're no longer willing to pay? What price is being paid by the earth and the millions of species who depend on her for their lives?

Define your No. And clarify, focus on, and devote yourself to your Yes." (anonymous)

Leader as Creator means opening to life. It means recognizing where we experience ourselves as victim and then letting go of that as "truth." Call on your powers of awareness, imagination, intuition, willpower, reason, and compassion to create your next step. They are more powerful than fear, anger, or desperation ever could be. Breathe and connect with what empowers you see with new eyes and risk a next step.

What are you open for and choosing to create, especially where it's hard? Where are you finding and appreciating even more aliveness?

You are invited to Center & Connect

This offering has been extended. Join us any Wednesday in May 2020. Each week since I began this in March, we've had a wonderful group of leaders from the U.S. and Europe. We're finding new energy, resilience, and richness in this simple practice. For more details, look HERE. This is my gift to you in support of our wellbeing so we can lead well in these extraordinary times of crisis and change. As you are called to your “next edge,” engage for practices that bring you to a more open, present, and connected self.

For ease, here's the Zoom link.
https://zoom.us/j/787193413
Wednesdays through May 2020 - 9-10am MT