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Who is Your WHO? – Richard’s Commentary
Rosemary’s question this week is:
WHO is it that you are serving?
My first reaction to this question is to think about my Qigong students; they are my clients and I do feel that I am serving them when we are in class together, when I am leading them through a form, focusing on breath, gathering and storing Qi for health, well-being, and peace. The beauty of my “who” is I am serving myself as well. I am doing the research into Taoism, the basis for the effectiveness of Qigong. I am going through the form with my students, leading myself to health, well-being and peace. And I am working with the forms on my own as well, practicing the forms every day. I continue my research and reading on the subject to go deeper so I can take my students deeper.
In response to Rosemary’s statement:
If you don’t take care of your own health, no one else can do it. You know this. You accept this. But what about your spiritual and psychological health? Your emotional health? Your mental health? Are you serving yourself by taking care of yourself in those areas?
I can feel pretty good, right? Qigong covers all these aspects of my life. Qigong contributes to my health. And the study of Taoism supports my spiritual and psychological health. Reflection on the Five Elements, the basis for Traditional Chinese Medicine, helps me work through my emotional and mental issues. Through all these levels I am serving my students and I am serving myself at the same time!
If only it were that simple!
Everything I’ve written above is true. And Qigong does help my students and me work through issues. But what about others I serve?
What about Rosemary? She is my client as well. I support her business,TheScientificMystic.com, through managing the technology to operate the business, handling the finances, and helping her with the messaging and marketing of her services. How am I doing with that?
Here I can’t be quite as glib with my answers! Sometimes I grow impatient that Rosemary doesn’t work to my schedule! Whose business is this? Sometimes I get frustrated with the procrastination. But I am a great procrastinator! And too often I get bogged down with the technology rather than focusing on what drives the business – Rosemary’s talent!
So, I need to take Rosemary’s advice here:
My work is to build a relationship in which I support them.
My work with Rosemary is to create the best possible business relationship we can have in order to best serve her, as my client!
And I need to do this analysis for all of my relationships. Everyone is a “client” of everyone else. It is important to nurture client relationships and it is vital to nurture all of our inter-relationships.
Who are your clients? Are you nurturing them? Are you nurturing every relationship with others as if they were your client? Are you nurturing the relationship with yourself?
What a world it would be if this were the case!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Who is Your WHO?
WHO are you serving?
When you do whatever you do, are you conscious of the person or people for whom you are doing that? This isn’t just about your job or career or business, but even the family for whom you are cooking dinner, or the person you hold the door open for at the mall, or the charity that you are supporting with your donation.
WHO is it that you are serving?
There are plenty of answers when you look outside yourself at the examples above. But in all of those, are you serving yourself first? Remember that the airlines instruct you to put your oxygen mask on FIRST and then turn to help a companion or child. What good are you to that other passenger if you pass out from lack of oxygen before you can help them? Take care of yourself first so that you are better able to serve.
We think of that on airplanes but the same principle applies all throughout our days and our lives.
If you don’t take care of your own health, no one else can do it. You know this. You accept this. But what about your spiritual and psychological health? Your emotional health? Your mental health? Are you serving yourself by taking care of yourself in those areas?
If you are an entrepreneur or you work in an office, are you clear about the customers or clients that you serve? Are they real people to you or are you focused on tasks and not people?
As an entrepreneur I am very focused on the clients in my business. My work is to build a relationship in which I support them. If I were a secretary, I would be supporting a boss and needing to accomplish certain tasks for her. How much use would I be if I weren’t taking good care of myself and if I was thinking about the computer instead of the project that creates info that she needs? A teacher who thinks only about what he is teaching and not about the kids and what they are learning is not a very good teacher. A musician or actor or artist who isn’t thinking about how the audience is receiving their art isn’t sharing much of themselves.
We’ve all heard that ‘Energy flows where attention goes.’ If your attention is on accomplishing your to-do list, on everybody else’s to-do list, on getting things done and over with instead of on the people and the relationships, what do you think will happen to the people (including you) and the relationships?
Take some time this week to ask yourself the question, “Who is my WHO? For whom am I doing this? And have I taken care of myself first so that I can serve at my best level?”
Entrepreneurs are taught to identify their ‘target market’ or ‘audience’ early in their training, but most of us don’t get this lesson and broaden the perspective into everything that we do. Next time you are fixing food, ask about your ‘Who.’ Next time you hold a door, think about the person walking through it and smile. Smile before you answer the phone because there is (usually) a human being on the other end of the line. Think about the tasks on your to-do list in terms of the person/people impacted.
Who is your WHO?
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Who Do You Serve?
Rosemary’s “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: Who Do You Serve?
PS: Do you know who you are here to serve? Do you serve yourself first? Rosemary is offering a very special “spring cleaning” opportunity to help you answer these questions: What’s your big why? What is your message? Who do you serve? This offer is only available through May. Please send her an email to explore: Rosemary@TheScientificMystic.com
MONDAY’S POEM: Forgiveness
This is an area I continue to work on in my life. It’s likely an endless task. Of the five elements from Traditional Chinese Medicine, wood is my dominant one. An aspect of this is I am quick to anger. The balance for this is forgiveness. And it starts with me!
So, for all you wood-type people out there:
Forgiveness
It can only begin inside;
Self is forgiven.
And what is inside?
The mirror of All.
It extends to the other;
She is forgiven.
Is She inside?
Om, Namaste.
It flows to the beloved;
Yes, They are forgiven.
Can the truly loved do wrong?
The very heart of All.
It moves to the murderer;
Even He is forgiven!
Is He inside?
Oh, yes, my son.
Even He is you.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A FRIDAY POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – Wounded Man
This is an interesting poem I came across for today. I wrote it in the Spring, four years ago. It seems to fit the Rhythms & Cycles collection as we all go through the highs and lows of life.
We are all wounded in some (or many) ways. So I write. And perhaps I’m feeling a little wounded now because I haven’t been writing enough lately. How are you wounded? And how do you treat that wound? We have to take care of ourselves; then each other!
Wounded Man
Wounded healer,
Heal thy self.
Recover that lost piece
Which bleeds in some far place.
Wounded warrior,
Come home now.
Soothe thy fevered brow
And sing songs of peace.
Wounded High King,
Rule in peace.
Strengthen thy green land
And love your people free.
Wounded poet,
Write thy verse.
Create the song of peace
To heal the Warrior-King.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
What’s Your MESSAGE? – Richard’s Commentary
One of the catch phrases we heard at the Suzanne Evans’ Be the Change Event a couple of weeks ago is “turn your mess into your message.” This can be an interesting approach to answering Rosemary’s question! What does this mean?
If we examine our lives we will no doubt find some “messiness” under the surface. We all live with stuff. These messes, this stuff, is what Rosemary and I have called “lessons” over the many years of writing these articles, and publishing Rosemary’s Ezine. In fact we are here on the planet to learn lessons, right?
So, as we learn these lessons maybe it’s important, even part of our purpose, even our whole purpose, to share what we learn from our lessons – our messes! Our mess can become our message. This is story telling with a purpose.
But this advice needs to come with a warning: “Be sure your mess is cleared up, and be sure you have learned this lesson well, before you share the message you have gained”!
There’s a corollary to this approach to finding your message: we often learn what we are to teach; and the best form is mastery is to teach what we are working to master.
When Jeff Primack certified me to teach Qigong, his advice was to go out and teach the forms as soon as possible. “The only way to master the forms is to teach them.” Now, I was still shaking from the experience of being watched, judged and corrected as I “taught” the form to my little training group. Picturing myself teaching a group of strangers, even friends, was not a scene I was ready for! But I was soon offered the opportunity to lead a group and I have been teaching regularly for over a year now. Have I mastered the forms? No. But I am moving in that direction! I turned my messy form into my message.
Rosemary’s questions are the place to start to find your message:
Sit with yourself for a few minutes and ask yourself these two questions:
1) What is MY MESSAGE to the world? And, then,
2) Am I living MY MESSAGE in my daily life?
Or backing up a short step you could ask: What is the MESS that I have worked through in my life that would be helpful to share with the world as my MESSAGE. But only share that message if you are living that MESSAGE in your daily life!
The real trick is in the answer to that second question; you must be living that message to be effective in sharing it. In my case I practice Qigong almost every day. I am currently teaching three classes a week, attending a fourth and practicing in between. I am “living Qigong.” And Qigong is only part of my message!
So, look at your messes – the ones you have worked through, learned, even mastered – and ask if the world will be a better place if you share that mastery. Your message is there!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: What’s Your MESSAGE?
Each of us is put on Planet Earth for a reason. We have someone important to BE. Our Soul agreed with the Souls around us to play a certain role in every interaction. When you figure out who you came to Earth to be, your message to others grows out of who you are BEing.
How often have you been caught up in DOing so much that you haven’t have time to think about anything except putting one foot in front of the other and getting through the day? Happens to everyone occasionally. But if you are living your daily life like this you are missing your own message, to yourself and to the world.
Sit with yourself for a few minutes and ask yourself these two questions:
1) What is MY MESSAGE to the world? And, then,
2) Am I living MY MESSAGE in my daily life?
Bob Sima, a transformational musician, has a great message for his latest CD – Put a Little More Love in the World – and Bob lives his message as he travels around the world sharing his amazing music. Everyone who encounters his gifts knows that he is living this message.
Are you clear about YOUR MESSAGE? Do you know what you want to tell the world? Think about what you would say if you knew this were your last day on Planet Earth. What would you broadcast on a radio show to the world that day? What would you want the rest of the world to know, to ponder, to act on?
What do you feel about the gifts you have been given and how you are sharing those in the world? Are you living your message?
When you ask yourself these two questions you start to glimpse how you fit into the bigger picture of what is going on in 21st Century Earth life.
You HAVE a message to share, based on your gifts, talents and purpose. Your responsibility to all those other Souls is to crystallize that message and get it out into the world. You don’t have to write songs to share your message. Live it first!
You don’t have to be famous or have a radio show or write books to share your message to the world. I think of our daughter who is an Occupational Therapist and who works with infants and toddlers with challenges, coaching the parents on how to interact with their children in the most beneficial way. She LOVES those kids with all her heart. Her message to the parents is to bring out the best in the children through love and knowledge of what to do.
Every one of us is a child within an adult and we are looking for someone to help us to be the best we can be. If your gift is to help another person and you continue to hide or to avoid reaching out because you aren’t sure of your message, then you are not serving in the highest way that you are meant to serve. If you are seeking help and don’t know where to find it, look inside yourself to your own purpose, gifts, and talents. Share your own message and you will attract others who have the very message that you are seeking/needing to hear.
Live your message this week. Ask for help if you need to get clarity on what your message, purpose, gifts and talents are. Other Souls are waiting for you.
PS: If you are struggling with your “message” why not ask for some help to seek clarity? Rosemary has a special offer running through May to help you find how you “fit in to the bigger picture”! Send her an email to explore options: Rosemary@TheScientificMystic.com
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: What’s Your Message?
Rosemary’s “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: What’s Your Message?
PS: Do you know your “message”? Are you looking for clarity? Rosemary is offering a very special “spring cleaning” opportunity to work with her. This offer is only available through May. Send her an email to explore this opportunity: Rosemary@TheScientificMystic.com
A FRIDAY POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – Lessons
I wrote this a few years ago when I was in the middle of the ebb and flow of life lessons. I guess we are always there; part of the rhythms and cycles we live within. Happy weekend!
Lessons
Endless chain,
Link by link,
Event by event;
A measured life,
No start, no end.
Continuous flow,
Then to now,
Now to when;
A lessoned life,
No start, no end.
Unbroken stream,
Spring to river,
River to sea;
Consciousness rising,
No start, no end.
Rising sea,
Spring fed, river fed,
Rain drenched, windswept;
Lessons to learn,
No start, no end.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Ask Yourself… – Richard’s Commentary
So, why DO you get up in the morning? My answer to this question has changed over the course of my long corporate career. I had the opportunity to work on and lead a number of exciting technical projects, from space and earth sciences exploration to commercial software development and logistics planning and management. I always enjoyed my work, its challenges and rewards.
But for all that time I had a bigger “why”…family. Rosemary and I raised three fabulous kids, now in their 30s; they are off doing their own “family things” now. Yes, we have grandkids – a wonder! But they are their parents’ responsibility and their “why” now.
So as my family dynamics have shifted my “big why” is also shifting. Of course I still have family responsibilities to Rosemary but she is fully capable of taking care of herself. It is true that I am taking care of much of the “back-office” obligations of managing our businesses together, Rosemary’s The Scientific Mystic enterprise and our church and consciousness study center, Church of A New Alliance. And these efforts are fun and fruitful. But they are not up there with a “Big Why.”
I love to write. I write lots of things, including blog posts, like this one, poetry which I share selections on this blog, morning pages, sales copy for websites…I spend a lot of my time writing. But writing is not up there with a “Big Why.”
I love bodywork. Currently I am practicing both yoga and several forms of Qigong. In fact I am teaching three classes of Qigong now and really enjoying the sharing the physical “energetic” of the forms, the breath work and the Taoist philosophical underpinnings of Qigong.
This gets at another love: my love of world religions and spirituality. I am an ordained “Interfaith Minister” – by a seminary of Pebble Hill Church, Doylestown, PA. And since my ordination in 2000 I have continued to study, absorb and practice many of the world’s spiritual traditions, from Taoism, to Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Sufism to Judaism and Christianity, not to exclude indigenous cultures and their spiritual traditions. My emphasis in understanding these traditions is to gain insight through practice, not just learning the beliefs and reading the texts. It is through practice that we truly get in touch with one another.
I love community. I enjoy the dynamics and give and take, the yin and yang of community, of people sharing their gifts, their understanding and wisdom. How else can we get in tune with the world around us than through community.
I guess the bottom line of what gets me up in the morning is love. I’ve said before in this space that my highest value is PRACTICE –> LOVE. I’ve also mentioned that my fingerprints tell the same tale; my 10 loops for prints point to my purpose: LOVE.
So, yeah, love gets me up in the morning. It keeps me going through the day. And it’s often the last thing on my mind and in my heart as I drift off to sleep.
Big Whys are important. If you don’t know yours do some soul searching. Get your hand and fingerprints read by a Scientific Hand Analyst. Get help eliciting your Big Why if you need it. Knowing makes it fun to get up in the morning!
Men and The Goddess 