Simply Authentic...Your Soul Voice is Calling. The Myth of Multi-Tasking

The Myth of Multi-Tasking

I interviewed Meggin McIntosh (www.meggin.com) a while back for a Wishweaving Word newsletter. I remember her saying that in this day of perpetual busyness, none of us can multi-task (unless you’re doing something really mindless like folding the laundry while watching television) – the best any of us can hope for is rapid serial-tasking.

 

I thought of that this morning while I was on my way to the office and saw a woman on roller skates pushing a stroller with a child in it, while holding her dog’s leash – the dog was running alongside the stroller. Now that is multi-tasking! And I wonder how attended to the woman, or the child, or the dog, felt in that moment.

Then came to mind something my boyfriend said recently while quoting an acquaintance (I am loosely paraphrasing here)… “Yep. I woke up this morning. I organized the tool shed. Then I gave both dogs a bath.  Then I finished the garage painting project I started yesterday. Then I built a retaining wall by the front garden plot. Then I sanded all the woodwork in the studio and stained it… And that was all in the five minutes before I got out of bed.”

Which brought to mind something Sara Wiseman (www.sarawiseman.com) wrote in WRITING THE DIVINE. She was talking (and I am even more loosely paraphrasing here) about how so many mothers/parents are so busy running their children from soccer practice to dance lessons to softball games to band rehearsal that most of the time what the children see of their Mom is the back of her head from the back seat of the car.

 

 

This, people, is insane.

If we never take a moment (better yet, an hour, or a day, or at the very least 15 minutes) to breathe, have down time, and listen…how can we hear our innermost, authentic voice? I daresay we can’t.

You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the moments when you really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love. –Nikhil Saluja

The Voice
There is a voice inside of you
That whispers all day long,
“I feel this is right for me,
I know that this is wrong.”
No teacher, preacher, parent, friend
Or wise man can decide
What’s right for you—just listen to
The voice that speaks inside.
-Shel Silverstein

Authentically Yours, Laura

Simply Authentic...your soul voice is calling. The Authenticity of Language (Cussing)

The Authenticity of Language (Cussing) 

I’ve never been a big swearer. Seriously. There have been periods in my life wherein I cussed more than others. I’m not sure why, really. Maybe at times when I was feeling stressed or when I felt more free or when I just didn’t give a f***.  Bah ha.

Just recently – I would say in the last year or so – I’ve started saying sh**-fu** (those two cuss words strung together) in certain rare circumstances wherein I could just as easily have said wow-really-seriously-can-you-believe-that? But that’s a lot more syllables.

Mostly, when I hear people swear - even in movies or music – when every other word seems to be the F bomb or something else – I basically tune out. It doesn’t feel good to my heart, and as a result I really don’t hear the other messages that might want to be conveyed.

But I gotta tell ya… Recently, while I was on my stomach in bed, relaying a frustrating phone conversation from my work day to my boyfriend, I whacked my forehead downwards three times while saying Jesus f****** Christ. 

George asked if that was the sound of my beating my head against the wall and I said yes and immediately apologized while looking up (like Jesus was hanging out there on the ceiling) because I had just seriously taken the name of the Lord in vain. And while it was meant to be funny (and kind of was, while repeatedly smashing my face against the pillow on the mattress) I didn’t like the way it felt.

So, I immediately suggested that we come up with some other way of expressing this particular form of frustration, one that would have nothing to do with Jesus Christ combined with the F word, but would sound similar enough to have the same feeling.

George said cheese and rice. (We both really like Mexican food.) I said but there has to be something in the middle, like duck. But I really don’t care for duck. (I mean the meat, not the bird. I am quite fond of our waddling, swimming, flying feathered friends.) And he said something that sounded like “Cheese is stuck in rice.”

That wasn’t exactly what he said. But it totally works. And it makes me giggle. Maybe not anyone else, but we get a good laugh out of it.

When in doubt, in a frustrating scenario, remember…cheese is stuck in rice. 

Authentically Yours,

 

Laura

Simply Authentic...your soul voice is calling. The Authenticity of Being of Service

The Authenticity of Being of Service

My boyfriend, George, said something recently, during a coffee break at my office, which bears repeating. I needed to get back to work and he had a client scheduled at the top of the hour.

Neither of us wanted to end our time together and head back to the desk (me) and massage table (him). But the way he worded it was, "Now we go back to helping people."

He has reminded me before (at times when I was majorly stressed out, or unhappy in my work that particular day, or in that particular situation, or with that particular client) with such earnestness in his face and belief in me in his heart, "Just think about all the people you are helping, all those people who need your help."

This goes into my authenticity model because it is such a simple shift in thinking to change your attitude.

When I was first introduced, years ago, to Neale Donald Walsh's CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD trilogy, I listened to the audio books in my car over and over. I remember hearing, over and over, whatever it is you desire, give to another.

Virtually any activity any of us take part in can be looked at as a way of being of service to another. If you run out of milk in the middle of making banana bread and rush out to get some, you are supporting the dairy farmer and all the people and businesses which got the milk from the Holstein into your shopping cart. And you can strike up a friendly conversation with the cashier.

It's easy to remember that you're being of service while planning a dinner party for six of your favorite people; not necessarily so easy when you're going in for a root canal. Yet this slight shift in thinking can work miracles in the way we feel about the daily tasks ahead of us, particularly if we approach the opportunity to be of service with joy. I love this! I certainly don't manage it with every single task every single day, but I love the reminder!

Authentically Yours,

Laura

Simply Authentic...your soul voice is calling. Be the Best Version of Yourself

Be the Best Version of Yourself

I dated a (very talented) musician for a few months back in 2007. He told me a story about the time he was recording an album in Nashville and someone came racing out of a recording room, saying “You gotta hear this guy! He sounds just like Kenny Rogers!”

The response?

“We already have Kenny Rogers.”

Always be a first rate version of yourself, and not a second rate version of someone else.
–Judy Garland

Authentically Yours,


Laura