The challenges of being grown up…!

In preparing for delivering at an upcoming conference in April, I was asked to send in a short video of 20-30 seconds so that conference participants could get a flavour of what they might experience if they were to join in the session I am to host with the three Pioneer Practitioners of the P6 Constellation… 60 mins later, finally I end up with a finished cut!  Ironic as the the conference theme is “A cut above the rest”… and in that regard my attempts at video recording clearly needed a lot of support, feedback, chiseling and polishing…

I hope you enjoy these two cuts which emerged part way through when hysteria usurped my early dry, cardboard cut-out attempts!

Beyond the hilarity, I realise there is profound point here…. NONE of us begins being really good at anything that is new to us! We have to learn by failing and falling.  We have to try and try again and again. Ask any artist, expert, sports person or sophisticated practitioner/ facilitator and you will get a similar response.  Our best performances, presentations and service come only with years of dedicated practice.  A wonderful elder and teacher of mine – Brad Brown – used the phrase “practice, practice until it becomes your practice.” It resounds in my mind almost daily.

This is a commitment that we in the P6 Constellation ‘Community in Practice’ (CiP) embrace wholeheartedly as we come together in community gatherings, in group supervision sessions and in supporting the trainings we run for people new to the P6 Constellation.  Just as my little experiment with this video demonstrated to me (again): reaching levels of fluency and artistry in our chosen fields or disciplines comes through practice. Artistry comes not only by repetition but by succumbing to the wild, haphazard learning processes that evoke the full range of human emotions. Yes ALL our emotions have a place; all serve a purpose and to deny any of them is to deny ourselves the delights that come from fully accepting all that makes us who we are so that we can become all we have the potential to be.

So, when things don’t quite go according to plan – yes let the tears of disappointment and rage roll; because soon the tears that accompany your laughing with childlike abandon will also flow. This is what it means to be human.  This is what it means to be more fully ourselves, learning to be even more fully ourselves. And when we are, we can quite literally be part of changing the world around us; bringing it into the kind of balance that attends to the well being of all… as did these wolves, when reintroduced to Yellowstone Park.

My message to you is simply this:

SHOW UP

and

BE MORE FULLY AND WHOLEHEARTEDLY YOU!

and be ready for all that might flow to and through and from you.