Day 6 of interesting ways to use the InterPlay Inspiration Deck.

We have a saying in InterPlay…Change your practice, Change your life or is it Change your life, Change your practice?

I think the meaning is the same. If you wish to change your life then you must change your practice because if you do not the practices that are not working will continue to not work and your life will not change. This is not rocket science, right?

The real question is: Why is it so hard to change your practice? Experts have written many books on this subject; google it and you will find many videos, articles, etc., or just read what my friend Practice has to offer you. (She is one of the principles of InterPlay brought to life in the InterPlay Inspiration Deck.)

When Practice gets a hold of you, watch out! She is a goddess and knows what is best for you. Practice believes in self-improvement through the power of daily affirmations and repetition. Every morning for six months, she bought a beautiful amber colored mat to her friend’s house to do Pilates because the friend wanted more strength and flexibility. Practice is committed and dedicated. She knows that to change your life, you just need to change your practice. And she is willing to take your hand and walk with you every step of the way.

Some of the things I have learned from Practice:

• get clear
• show up
• feel the fear
• get help
• walk the talk
• keep going
• affirm yourself

There is so much that could be said but as I stated earlier: this is not rocket science, so find your practice, stick with it, and you will change your life!

I promise.

…..the money will follow.  Day 5 of interesting ways to use the InterPlay Inspiration Deck

I think that was the title of a book I once read or a quote I once saw somewhere and I have been carrying it around in my head ever since.

It is a beautiful concept and something I wish to aspire to (I know you sense it too? There is a BUT coming, right?) Let’s list some of the But’s:

1. I don’t know how.

2. It doesn’t come with benefits or health insurance.

3. I don’t have time to do what I love because I am too busy working my “regular” job.

4. The laundry needs to be done, house needs to be cleaned, bills are due, the family needs come first, I have to waterproof my boots (you get the idea)…

Making time for what I love is scary. Alright, there I said it. It is scary. Scary because (see numbers 1-4) if i go beyond the distractions of my above list I find number 5: I may fail, or at least become so vulnerable that I may not be able to function.

Since this is just a blog post (and the experts tell me not to go beyond 500 words), I will stop there and bring the tool of the day into the foreground.

Here is how I will use the Inspiration Deck today: I will start with a single focus for doing what I love and having the money follow.  My desire is to find ways to sell more decks and get more people interested in InterPlay as a life practice.

My questions (along with the cards that I pulled):

• What can I do to calm my fears right now so that I can move forward? EASY FOCUS
• Is there something that I am overlooking in my present approach? FOLLOWING and LEADING
• Where can I get more advise for my next steps? BABBLING

Depending on how much time you have you can keep going and going….

Today it makes sense to me to see what InterPlay teaches about these concepts and to take the wisdom from there.  In order to do that I have to go to the instructional booklet that comes with the deck. Once again, read on if you are interested in my process and how I make sense of these messages and apply them to my focus.

my first question is about calming my fears and the card i chose was easy focus. in the booklet i read, “easy focus allows our body to relax, helps us engage more of our senses, and puts us in the middle of our experience instead of observing it from the outside…” this helps me to see that the tension in me and the fear is coming from the place of hard focusing on the outcomes and not really being present to what it is the i am creating and working on. doing this blogging for a week has been an amazing and wonderful experience for me and the comments i have been getting awesome. i want to be able to breathe all of that in instead of just “zooming” to the next piece of productivity.

the second question is about something i may be overlooking in this approach and i chose following and leading. the line in the booklet that catches my attention is,”on occasion we get to have that wonderful experience where we are not sure who is leading and who is following…” because i have engaged easy focus right now i am able to see a bigger picture. i am not sure if i am leading and you are following or if you are leading and i am following. right now that produces a wonderful sense of anticipation and excitement. where will this blogging lead? how might this produce more interest and intrigue out in the world?  also, i want to acknowledge that i am following my own desires and leading myself on the path to manifestation.

the final question is where can i get more advise and i chose babbling. babbling is also free flow talking where we don’t have to censor ourselves (one of the gifts of blogging for sure!). “…we end up sharing information about who we are and what is important to us.” what is so great about this card is that i see that in the process of doing this week of blogging and babbling i have really learned more about how much i love this deck, love this life practice, and love sharing about it. AND i love hearing what YOU have to say about it.

I WANT MORE! more of you, and your process and what it is like for you to use the principles and practices of InterPlay and ideas about how to spread the word (and alright, i admit, sell more decks!). This is life changing, I swear it is!  But don’t just believe me, try it for yourself!

I know, I know, I am just a broken record going around and around playing the same song!

Easy Focus/The InterPlay Inspiration Deck

I guess when I like the song I can hear it hundreds of times and never get tired of it.

The song that is playing for me right now is EASY FOCUS

Just in case you forgot the words, here they are:

Soften your gaze and grab that scrunched up place between your eyebrows. Now throw your hand up into the air and yell, WHEE!

This song is playing for me right now because my Hard Focuser is working overtime. Too many things piling up. Too many feelings crowding my space. Too many thoughts racing around in my head.

When my peripheral vision is engaged I really can see more. My breath deepens. My shoulders drop. My mind clears. I feel calm.

Some songs never get old!

when i saw stan’s blog post i thought, “what is a word cloud?” since i was staring at one i decided to change the questions to, “what can one do with a word cloud?” the first kind of question makes me go into that scrunched up place between my eyebrows, the hard focuser as we call it in InterPlay, as i become busy trying to figure it out.

the second question makes me relax that hard focuser, soften my gaze, and see the cloud as a beautiful shape on the page, full of color, texture, and intrigue. it truly is a mandala!

i notice that i start to burst with enthusiasm and ideas: i could turn it into a jewelry piece, or do a dance about it, or sing the edges of it because i notice there are alcoves where my voice can hide or bellow……since this is a blog and i have words to play with, how about a big run on sentence using what pops into my field of vision in no particular order?

okay, here i go!

why shrink with insignificance and write small always when Facebook creates tension at the center of forgiveness and a loving embrace shows Anita an instance of now.

give it a try, it is totally fun!!  remember, keep an easy focus!

….between your eyebrows with your fingers, throw your hand up in the air and say, “WHEE!”

This is the gift of letting go of my hard focuser and taking a soft or easy focus.  The peripheral vision has to be engaged and more of what I am looking at invited in. When I see only what is in front of me I am extremely limited. My fears can run rampant and make me believe that, nobody likes me, everybody hates me.

remember that childhood song? it ends with, “I’m gonna eat some worms…big fat juicy….ok, you get the idea.

My time at the InterPlay Leaders’ Gathering was an amazing exercise in letting go of fixation and my belief that the world is conspiring against me.

well, maybe just a few people, but “world” sounds so much more dramatic!

While at the gathering, I decided to use my tools and apply them to myself: noticing, witnessing, body wisdom, and incrementality.  I let go of a bit of fear, allowed myself to be vulnerable, and  wonderful things began to happen:  people showed up to support me, meaningful connections were born, and The InterPlay Inspiration Deck found a whole new audience.

The principles and practices of InterPlay work, if you use them!  When I make them more than just words on the page, or concepts that I study and memorize to spew out at appropriate times, especially to show how “wise” I am, then life shows me its magic!

hmmm, maybe life is conspiring for me and not against me.

Like all the other wonderful things that I have learned, read, and studied over the years, I am finally at a place of truly  living and embodying the teachings I have spent years studying.  It is a daily practice as some days flow and some days don’t.  Many times I am in awe and just as many in tears.  I see myself behaving in new ways and also see the same old me, doing the same old sh_t!

As Easy Focus says,” Good noticing Anita. Now, get on it , get off it, and get over it!”

Okay, here I go.  Wanna come along?

Somehow it all comes together, and keeps coming together.  My past, present and future.  The chance to share my art work, my ability to practice and teach Reiki, the deep need to stay connected with dear friends, the desire for jazz.  Feels so complete, familiar, safe.  But let’s not forget the humidity, the allergies, the poison ivy.  The reality.  It’s all here in Delaware Water Gap, all around me.  All OK.  Somehow it works.  Four times a year.  Coming back.  Time after time.

When sun glints off snow
It is a
Brilliant
Moment of
Creativity.

This creative force
Does not have to “think”
For a moment to
Make such
Wonder.
There is no gigantic
Effort required.

All of the requirements
Were already
Around — available, if you will –
And at a moment’s notice
Become — are made into — a
Bright
Beacon.

All we have to do
Is open our eyes.

~ by Stan Stewart

Copyright © 2011 by Music for the Moment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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it’s easy to not understand

that seems to be the simpler of the two options

to simply protest that the other is
not coherent or understandable

and so often i hear this approach
used as the end of the argument
though it has nothing to do with
arguing and more to do with writing someone else off

“you didn’t do it”
“you didn’t say it”
“you forgot something”
“it was your fault”
“you don’t make any sense”

you’ll quickly note that one important element
in this sort of discourse
(oh dear, there i’ve gone and given it the credence of being part of discourse!)
is the pointing of the finger at the “other”

i’m sure that i forget as quickly as the next
person that each time i point the one finger at the
proverbial “you”
i’m pointing  at least three fingers back at myself

there is another option

maybe it’s just as simple
too

understanding
hearing the other’s story in a way that i can at least
grasp and acknowledge
even if it may not be “my way”

this is the option for which
i am striving

more and more

and as i strive to understand you
and you and you and you
i find to my surprise that what i’m really learning and understanding
is me

~ by Stan Stewart

Copyright © 2011 by Music for the Moment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Something beautiful is happening between Anita and me: we’re falling in love again. Maybe it’s the seven year itch finally bearing fruit — we’ve been together for about nine years. Maybe it’s that we’ve actually managed to practice what we preach by using the tools we have learned over the years in our own day-to-day relationship. We’ve even remembered to pull a card from Anita’s own InterPlay Inspiration Deck or role Gretchen Wegner’s MuseCubes a few times recently!

Mostly, I think it’s been about each of us learning to be more playful — both individually and in the ways we relate with each other. One of our playmates is our “rescue dog,” Scout. In addition to loving to hike, run in circles (usually around Anita or me), and play games with his stuffed toys, Scout likes to sing and talk. Sometimes these vocalizations just sound like grunts and sometimes they form random melodies. However they may sound, they always draw our attention to him.

A few days ago, we were involved in this deathly serious discussion. Anita was getting focused — I could tell because of the furrow in her forehead — and I was getting sad — and showing it. Suddenly, Scout stretched and performed one of his delightful little vocalizations right between us. We both laughed. And the moment was transformed.

So — unless you have a dog or a child to shift the mood — roll the dice or draw a card and relax into your life. Join us on a Monday night to experience the tools we use.

Playful blessings!