Friday Musings—06/10/23

If you haven't read it yet, in this week's post I share tips and techniques for grounding and recentering yourself during stressful times, accompanied by personal examples. As always, share any insights or questions you may have in the comments, or send me an email—I'm always happy to chat. You can also book a free call with me.

Now onto my weekly musings 😎

A gratitude practice

Among the practices we may adopt for our growth and wellbeing, it's good to cultivate some gratitude practices. I recently came across a short and easy one I really enjoyed and I'd like to share it with you.

To begin, take a seated position. Start by rubbing your hands together to create a bit of heat, then extend them down towards the heart and name a few things from the earth that you are grateful for (the grass you walk on, the river that flows in your city, the berries you enjoy for breakfast...).

Now stand up with your arms up, open up your chest to the sky, and name one or two things you’re grateful for from above (the stars, the clouds, rainbows...).

Now bring your arms down and extend them out to either side, and name one or two people (or pets) you’re grateful for. 

Finally, bring one hand to the chest, give your heart a little bit of a rub and make out loud one or two things you’re grateful for from yourself (courage, vulnerability, generosity…).

Be listening

I don't think I've shared this with you yet, but I love theatre and I love acting. In fact, I did a little theatre in school, and loved it so much I wanted to go to drama school and become an actress. Alas, that wasn't to be, for several reasons. However, a couple of years ago, I decided I could at least do it as a hobby.

This week, I tried some classes in a new school. I especially had a lot of fun when we did improv exercises, and I found the teacher's advice to be really valuable and applicable to life in general. She said the number one quality for an actor is to be listening, at all times. Sure, you need to work on your acting chops, but you can be extremely skilled and still be a mediocre actor if you're not a good listener, because being on the stage involves a constant exchange. All of the exercises required us to be inventive and resourceful, and to portray our character with conviction. But above all, we needed to be in sync with our partner(s) and with the rest of the group. The best bits occurred when we maintained constant focus on our classmates' actions and built upon them.

When one of us wasn't actively listening and went their own way, the improv sequenced stalled and became less interesting and less convincing as a result. This led me to ask myself, how many times in our daily lives are we truly paying attention to the people around us and what they are trying to tell us? How would our lives improve (and how would society at large improve, dare I say) if we all became better listeners and learned to truly work together?

Labeling ourselves

This week I also took my first driving lesson. As I've shared already, I stopped driving when I moved to Ireland over a decade ago, and now that I'm back in Italy I find myself quite scared to get behind the wheels again (doesn't help that Italian drivers aren't exactly known for their patience!). My first experience with driving classes when I was 18 had been a rather negative one—the instructor had very little patience and would often yell at me for any mistake I made. I quickly labeled myself as a bad driver, and even after I got my driver's license this belief stuck with me and I did little to challenge it.

As I discussed in a previous post, I now believe (and science agrees) that you can teach an old dog a new trick. I found a small driving school near home with excellent reviews and explained my situation to the owner, who decided he would assess and train me himself. Our first class went pretty well—he said that I'm better than how I had described myself, and he promised that I'll learn how to parallel park. We'll see, but I'm feeling much more confident than I was just last week. And the fact that the guy understood my fears, and found a way to put me at ease, is further proof of how important it is to take the time to really listen to what the other person is trying to tell you.

Quote of the week ✍️

"The art of conversation lies in listening". (Malcolm Forbes)

That's all from me today. Don't forget to share this with someone who might be interested, enjoy your weekend and TTYS

ML