The time to answer these questions is NOW, while you’re still in your right mind.

The Advance Health Care Directive: a Work of Genius That Could Save Your Life or Make It Worth Living

You’ve probably heard about Advance Care Directives, legal documents which you sign (while you are healthy) that allow a family member or other friend to speak for you when you can’t speak for yourself.  Like after an accident or in a very serious illness.

Your doctor, insurance provider, or a state office can give you a great directive that meets the requirements of your state. In addition, go to Kaiser Permanente and search the site for “Advance Care Directive Forms.”  On the search results page, select  ”Northern California” on the left. This should take you to CA_advance_directive_forms.pdf.

Pages 12-14 help you determine exactly what choices you want made for you, including when life is no longer worth living, and how you want your spiritual needs met. This is a brilliant addition to any legal directive in any state.

Do Your Directive Now, and Do It Right!

Filling out the paperwork isn’t hard, and in most (if not all states), you usually don’t need an attorney if you can find the right form and fill it out correctly. When in doubt, always consult an attorney!

The big problem is to get past emotional or spiritual issues and make the right choices:

1. Who can you count on when you need them? Your spouse or sister might be the logical agents, but can you count on them to a) remember where they put a copy of your directive; b) stay calm enough in an emergency; and c) stand up as necessary on your behalf as they work with the medical system?
2. Exactly what do you want done? It’s terribly scary to face the fact that at least once in your life you will need someone to be there for you when you can’t speak for yourself.  But if you don’t make these choices now, someone else may make the wrong choices later.
3. What do you do with the directive once you’ve completed it? First, give copies to those who will stand up for you, to your medical practitioners and your attorney.  If you’re a Kaiser patient, the medical secretaries will scan your directive into your records.  (For more about what to do with your directive, see an upcoming post.)

Resisting Doing Your Directive?  Here’s Help!

It’s always easier to get emotionally loaded or spiritual issues handled well if you have the support of a trusted friend, clergy and/or attorney.  Recently, my husband and I found that doing an Advance Health Care Directive with friends can be an amazing catalyst for a richer life, individually and together.

By request, I’ve created a new workshop on Advance Health Care Directives for those who live in the SF Bay Area.  Also by request, I will be scheduling a teleseminar/webinar soon. In the meantime, add your questions and comments below. As always, many blessings,

Pat McHenry Sullivan

copyright 2012 by Pat McHenry Sullivan, t/a Visionary Resources

Think of it:  there you are, divested of your usual social masks, so you’re not worrying so much about what others think.  You’re just focused on coming clean.

You’re probably more present, more attuned to your senses.  All you have to do is stay alert enough not to fall, then stand there and enjoy the fruits of others’ genius (thank you to all you inventors of plumbing, heating and great showerheads!).

As the hot water pours over your head, mental cobwebs get cleared away.  Whatever tension you normally carry in your shoulders and neck lets go.  Without thinking about it, great ideas can flow naturally, almost as easily as the water flows over your head.

It’s Harder to Block Great Ideas When You’re Naked and Vulnerable

As mindfulness practitioners know, most of us keep our minds so overloaded with chatter that we can’t notice or hear the quieter, more solid wisdom that’s always available to guide our minds.

Then there all the psychological and spiritual issues that block the reception of potential visions.  Fear is probably the best known visionary inhibitor but pride and self-will are equally potent.  So are belief systems, idealized self images and all the other things you may carry around with you, without even noticing it.

Take those off, and you become mentally, spiritually and emotionally “naked.”  In such a state, you’re better able to receive new ideas.  Or even old ideas that you’ve been ignoring.

How to Be “Naked” When Fully Clothed And Out in the World

A huge barrier to vision is the common tendency in our culture to rush decisions, as if not knowing the answer to something is weak.  In truth, we’re strongest spiritually and emotionally if we can also be vulnerable and open to help from others.

That’s why all great spiritual and therapeutic traditions require us to be naked emotionally and spiritually to ourselves, and often with others.  Indeed, one of the most powerful preludes to great wisdom is the spiritual practice of what St. John of the Cross called the dark night of the soul.

In this practice, we dare to go beyond all we know, or think we know, into the darkness of not knowing.  Here, we’re like travelers who have gone far enough from a city not to hear its noise, not even to see the afterglow of its lights.  Once we get attuned to the darkness, we can see more stars, more faint lights in the distance, and even the light of our own hearts.

Being naked out in the world doesn’t mean spilling all your beans to another.  But it does mean being bare of illusions or pretenses or beliefs that keep you from being fully present to yourself and the world around you.  Naked this way, you’re more attuned to what’s true about you and the world.  In this state, you’re more relaxed, better able to notice what calls you for work, for business, for service, and even for just having a great day today.

How Do You Get “Naked” So You Can Invite a Vision?

Do you actually hit the shower sometimes just to clear your head?  Do you meditate?  Do you have a spiritual director or friend who helps you strip away your pretenses and illusions so you can come clean to your true self?

Does a walk, or dancing or hanging out with a two-year-0ld help you get out of your own stuff so you’re more receptive to new perspectives?

Feel free to share your comments below.

As always, many blessings to you,

Pat McHenry Sullivan

Prime example:  the whole US Congress and our often spineless president, who have managed to lock us into a totally non-visionary plan aimed at avoiding default that in truth seems to make no-one but cable news pundits happy.  And for these pundits the only happiness lies in the fodder it gives them for more ongoing commentary.

Now I know the Congress isn’t totally to blame for this mess.  We’re all part of the culture that demands quick fixes and is addicted to fear, unfounded reporting, and blame.  We’re all at least partially the creators of an economy that puts our undiscerning trust into things like forever increasing housing prices and the big gambling casino masquerading as the stock market instead of finding a better way to discern what’s truly valuable.

Pride, Self-will and Fear Prevent Us From Having a Great Government

And we’re all part of an electorate who are anything but the visionaries we were born to be when it comes to electing our officials.  Instead of carefully assessing who gets our vote, we tend to make unstudied decisions based on our biases and a whole lot of emotional/spiritual distortions caused by pride, self-will and fear.

According to the Pathwork™ almost all human failings come from the innumerable manifestations of these three faults.  Each is a distortion of something wonderful about being human.  Each can readily be seen in politics, though it’s usually easier to see it in the “other side” than in our own.

Pride distorts our true self-esteem and self-respect into idealized self-images or beliefs “that we are better than others so we have a right to our self-importance and specialness.  … The antidotes to pride are honest self-confrontation and humble self-acceptance out of which real self-esteem comes.”

“Self-will says we must get what we want when we want it, thereby justifying our egotism: ‘I want what I want when I want it’. Self-will is distinct from free will, which is simply the capacity of the entity to choose, to direct, to activate. Self-will occurs when free will is used in the service of the little self, the limited ego consciousness, in an attempt to control others and life.”

Fear distorts the brilliant instincts and information systems that warn us of potential danger.  Fear instead comes from attitudes that say, “‘I will not trust’, and often also ‘if I am not special, or do not get my way, then something terrible will happen’. Fear both supports and results from the attitudes of pride and self-will. Fear keeps us restricted within the narrow boundaries of the little ego-self. The attitude of fear often makes us justify negative thoughts and acts which we never face directly because we are lost in the disorientation caused by fear.”

(The preceding quotes were taken from notes from the Pathwork™ in Texas on “Facing the Lower Self,” Chapter 6 of The Undefended Self by Susan Thesenga

Yes, I know it’s fun to assess all the fear, pride and self-will in various “them” categories.  A more productive path is to look at our own stuff, so we can see how it’s blocking our clear sight of what is, our tremendous possibilities to imagine something better, and our ability to discern the difference between truth and illusion.  The better we do this, the easier it is to work with others who also get stuck in their own pride, self-will and fear.

Without Vision, The US Wouldn’t Even Be Here

So much US history is truly visionary.  The dreams of freedom from a motley crew of scattered ordinary people led first to the vision of freedom from colonialism, then the creation of a constitution and bill of rights that can still work today.  Over the decades, various individuals and groups have faced down various manifestations of pride, self-will and fear — like racism, a hurting environment or massive impoverishment — and created visionary approaches to big problems by bringing out the best that is in us.

We very much need such visionary leadership now. Especially now, in the wake of the debt agreement that sets us up for so much ongoing disagreement.  Especially now, when we are so divided, so overwhelmed by information and so starved for due diligence or the quiet time we need to discern either what we truly need as a country or how to get it.

I know it’s not easy to create a vision, but we can do it.   The first step I’d like all Congresspeople to take is to kneel by the Washington National Cathedral’s statuette of Abraham Lincoln kneeling in prayer.  Like all of you, he needed guidance to deal with a country at odds with itself.  And like I know many of you have found, as Lincoln did, “I have often been driven to my knees by the knowledge that I had no place else to go.”’’  You can see the photo of Lincoln kneeling here. http://dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0001484.htm

In fact the sculptor of this statuette, Herbert S. Houck, was the grandson of a man who saw Lincoln kneeling in the woods just before delivering the Gettysburg Address. Notice how this only 38” high statuette manages to portray strength, courage and a lot of humility.  We need that from our leaders.

Please, dear Congress, President and other leaders, go past your own belief systems, to what Meister Eckhart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meister_Eckhart#Eckhart_today calls “the god beyond God,” to the truth that is bigger than any pride, self-will or fear, so we imperfect people can work better together.

Please, help us break free of the crippling idealized self images like America First of “Greatest Country in the World, Always!.” Help us see our true gifts so that we can not jus deal with the challenges of economy, but find our rightful, humble, truly self-respecting country among other great countries.

Please.  Please be the best self we elected you to be so you can help call out the best in us.

And thank you for being willing to be out there in the public eye, daring to take on the challenges.  Let us know how we can help you.

Comments are welcome.  Many blessings as always, Pat McHenry Sullivan

Without vision, we perish

Without vision, we perish or at least waste a lot of time and energy.  Guided by vision, we flourish and help others do so. 

Want Economic Turnaround?  Create It!  Wall Street is too untrustworthy.  Government is too partisan, and media are too obsessed with who’s sleeping with whom to envision an economy that works for all.  Fortunately, fellow citizens are creating a variety of breakthrough ways to create a better economy. 

Some trends you might want to join:  

• Liberate your perspective so you make your wisest decisions around earning, spending and investing money. Top books in this field are Barbara Stanny’s Overcoming Underearning and Geneen Roth’s new Lost and Found: Unexpected Revelations About Food and Money.  Both offer powerful stories plus loads of tips and food for your creative mind.
• Create community around money issues.  Check out the free literature and connections to meetings (some by telephone) for Underearners Anonymous. Create book group that uses Stanny’s or Roth’s books to deal with current challenges around money.  Add reflection time to generate new visions that are anchored in your best values.
• Share!  Sharing reduces costs, builds community and supports the environment.  For inspiration, information and a good laugh, check out the website of the Sustainable Economies Law Center.
• Spend and invest locally.  BALLE, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies is your best starting place for information on cutting-edge ways that people are rebuilding local economies that are more sustainable and socially responsible.  With local spending and investing, more money stays in the community, creating more jobs.
• Learn more about current reality, then dream big.  A great starting place is “Vision: As the American Capitalist Economy Craters, Promising Alternatives Emerge.” It includes ways to think about “an economy that is increasingly green and socially responsible, and one that is based on rethinking the nature of ownership and the growth paradigm that guides conventional policies.”

Got ideas?  Stories and tips to share?  Send them to pat@visionary-resources.com and we’ll share them.

Look no further for inspiration and guidance than the mockingbird, an ordinary looking grey bird with white wingtips who can shift tunes at the rate of about eight a minute.

With Its Ever-changing Repertoire, the Mockingbird Is a Great Role Model for Human Creativity

Some mockingbird tunes are imitations of other birdsongs, or riffs and variations on them.  Mockingbirds typically mix these usually pleasant tunes with imitations of less pleasant neighborhood events, like cat fights or ambulance sirens. Some tunes seem to be each mockingbird’s own inventions, for the sheer joy of it.

Mockingbirds have been known to sing for hours.  Many bounce up and down as they sing from the highest local treetop or TV antenna, thus projecting their music throughout the neighborhood.  Their ability to sing so continuously once royally bothered Thomas Jefferson, who thanks to a lousy mattress and a really great mockingbird outside his window throughout a night, slept little one night.

Unlike Mockingbirds, Most Of Us Have Learned To Repress Our Creativity, Not Use It

Though humans are born with the potential to be far more creative than mockingbirds, the high creativity that bubbles in us as five-year-olds is mostly repressed by the end of second grade.  One of the easiest ways to recover that creativity and develop it is to imitate the mockingbird:

1.      Temporarily suspend all judgment, premature practicality and other human habits that kill imagination.

2.      Dare to try something new at least once a day.

3.      Get around and notice what others are doing.  Then comment to yourself through writing, dance, art, etc.

4.      When you like something, copy it shamelessly unless it is copyright or patented.

5.      Feel free to mix, match and alter what you learn from others.

6.      Give your imagination time to play without focus, so it is free to generate possibilities for your consideration.

7.      Learn to tolerate dissonance and ambiguity, to weave harsh challenges into sweet thoughts to create a rich and satisfying symphony.

8.      Express yourself with exuberance and joy … forever.

Imagination is Just One of Many Creative and Visionary Potentials.

Whatever you imagine as a possibility will need to be fully fleshed out so it can become a true vision.  It will need grounding in reality and a lot of careful research before you can discern whether a new idea is likely to work or not.

In coming posts, we’ll explore other visionary potentials and how you can engage them.  In the meantime, have fun imitating the mockingbird’s prolific creativity!

As always, many blessings for your life and work, Pat McHenry Sullivan

Note:  this post was originally written as “The Mockingbird Solution To Almost Any Problem” in 1994 by Pat McHenry Sullivan.   Your comments are welcome below!

copyright 2011 by Pat McHenry Sullivan, t/a Visionary Resources

Here’s my favorite autumn inspiration ritual, inspired by the Jewish New Year:

1.    Collect an apple, some dried fruit and a few nuts.   Go to woods you love, preferably some with a stream.

2.      As you walk, reflect about the past 12 months and what you are ready to release:  excess weight, perhaps, or pettiness, or habits that keep you too busy to enjoy life.

3.    Pick up a fallen leaf, preferably one with brilliant autumn colors.  Imagine releasing your “old stuff” into the leaf as easily as the leaf has let go its branch.  Then release the leaf into a stream and watch it float away.  (If there’s no stream, bury your leaf into a pile of other fallen leaves.)

4.    As you walk again, imagine everything around you has a message for you, like the multi-legged insect that once “told” my husband John that he needed to get out into the world more and wave his equivalent to the insect’s feelers in all directions.

5.    Savor the apple slowly, reflecting on the many delights of your world that are meant to nurture us, not hoarded or consumed thoughtlessly. Vow to create more savoring time over the next 12 months.

6.    Look at the nuts and raisins, symbols of the bounty of the world, the power of the human mind to discover things like how to preserve food, and the human habit of lovingly passing on wisdom through the ages.  Reflect on the gifts you have given through your life and work, and the gifts you have been given the past 12 months.

7.    Pick up a small rock. Invest it with the memory of how it feels to be here, slowed down and connected more to all that is.  Make it a touchstone to remember your deepest yearnings to live more fully, and do more of what you are called to do with your one precious life.

8.    As you walk back to your ordinary life, choose to see more clearly who you are and what you are called to do.  See how long you can keep alive the spirit of your walk.  When you forget, hold the touchstone and remember how simple it can be to reclaim your place in a wondrous universe.

John comments:  all this may be too much to do at one time, especially if you get really involved in one of the steps.  So do that one to your heart’s content, and save the other steps for another time.

What about you?  What are your favorite ways to be more connected to yourself and the world around you?  How can you adapt this ritually to better suit you?

As always, comments are welcome.  Many blessings, Pat McHenry Sullivan

Look no further than the legal field.  Case in point:  Scott Rogers, creator of The Mindful Lawyer,” and his delightful “The Mindfulness Memo: the Motion for an Extension of Thyme.”  Here’s just one tidbit that is useful for any job:

Thoughts like “I don’t have enough time,” or “I’ll never get this done in time” have both a factual quality and a “fear-based” quality.  While it can sometimes be the case that poor planning or circumstances result in a genuine rush, more often than not, the perception of “not enough time” is a conditioned thought that arises and, when believed, creates a “false” sense of crises that undermines performance.”

Rogers’ solution: mindfulness or meditation practices that can “help provide greater clarity of mind, focus, and ease in dealing with procrastination and time deadlines.” For tips you can use right now to turn your day from harried to happy, click here:

For More Peace and Productivity At Work, Imitate Some Lawyers

“The Motion for an Extension of Thyme” is just one of 500 pages of tips and resources in J. Kim Wright’s Lawyers as Peacemakers, which has been a best-seller since it was published by the American Bar Association last spring.  It’s chock full of information on how to bring more creativity, problem-solving effectiveness  and spirit to any job, legal or not. There’s even a reprint of an article I wrote on how to create a sanctuary at work!

At least a dozen mainstream law schools like Harvard and Yale offer courses in meditation as part of a mindful lawyering practice, says an article on meditation in the October 2010 California Lawyer.

For information on contemplative practices and how you can bring a variety of contemplative practices to your work, see also the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society,  Cutting Edge Law, and Idealawg.

What Can You Learn From a Lawyer to Improve Your Work and Life?

What kind of hope and inspiration can you take from lawyers who meditate?

How can you bridge the need to be focused, clear and absolutely practical with your own drive for meaning, purpose and joy?

How can you create more productive time and pleasure in your life and work by being more conscious?

As always, comments are welcome!

Best wishes, Pat McHenry Sullivan
Appreciator of Lawyers

Check out my latest project:  a continuing education program for the California State Bar, “From Stress Burnout and Exhaustion to Energy, Resilience and Insight”

Coming soon, a workbook for anyone on this topic. Want a presentation on this topic?  Call 510-530-0284

Mother Theresa: The Seller Who Changed the World

by Carol Costello in The Soul of Selling (Benbella Books, page 183)

My personal inspiration for selling is Mother Theresa.  She had a vision based on authentic personal values, and overcame everything in the way of realizing that vision.  She discovered how to energize her resources and speak effectively to people about giving her money to help the poor.  She saw everyone she contacted as the Christ, and she kept going until she got the result.  That is compassion, combined with clarity and commitment, in service to others.  That is spiritual practice.

What if Mother Teresa had just sympathized with the poor of Calcutta?  What if she had felt very sad about them and talked about them with her friends over lattes, but rejected any real action because the scope of the problem was so large?  Or because going around asking people for money wasn’t “spiritual”?  Or because she didn’t want to rock the boat and question the system?  Or because she might be uncomfortable, embarrassed, or rejected?

Instead, Mother Teresa became a force of nature.  She sold her vision, raised a great deal of money, and made the world a better place because she was in it.  You can do those things, on as large a scale as you please.

How Are You Called To Sell What Matters To You?

This is Pat Sullivan again, the usual author of this blog. Even if we don’t have to sell a product or service in order to make a living, we’re always selling.  At the least, we have to sell ourselves on saying yes to exercise, no to un-nurturing food; yes to patience and thoughtfulness, no to the latest fear-mongering “news” or excess consumerism; yes to real pleasures that enrich our lives, no to cruelty or titillation that hurt others and take us away from who we really are.

There’s so much in Carol’s quote to ponder.  What could you envision to benefit yourself and others if you anchored into your most authentic self and listened to what your heart and soul are saying right now?  What courage would you find to move from just feeling sorry for the pain in the world to action that enriches you as well as others?

If selling is part of your paid work, what can you learn here about selling from your heart and soul?  Will it require you to say no to selling what is not true and moving on, even if it costs you a well-paying job now?  Will it require you to have more courage, if you are selling products of services with true value, so you can connect compassionately and respectfully with those who need just what you have to offer?

I’m very grateful to Carol for introducing me to the concept of selling as a spiritual practice. To me that means I can only sell that which I know to be anchored in integrity, serving a useful purpose, and offering joy or at least the alleviation of suffering.  And it means I can only sell in a way that is anchored in integrity, authentic, and purposeful.

What does it mean to you?  What tips do you have for people like me who are just learning to do this, and who want to sell with more integrity, purpose and the capacity for joy?

As always, many blessings to you, and your comments are most welcome.

Pat McHenry Sullivan

1.    When you’re relaxed, it’s easier to see new options, discover new allies or resources.
2.    When you’re away from home, trying new things, meeting new people, your perspective broadens.

3.    When you’re away from irritating people at work, it’s easier to have compassion for them.  Nothing facilitates creativity and wisdom about how to deal with irritating people better than compassion.

4.    Vacation offers time to try new spiritual practices and turn them into new habits.

5.    As stress melts on vacation, it’s easier to see more clearly what matters to you and what doesn’t.  This sets the stage for visions and plans that support your values.

6.    Vacations can help you see more clearly the wonder and beauty of the universe.

7.    Vacations help you remember how essential laughter and play are to your entire body, mind and spirit.

Vacations Can Be a Great Catalyst for New Work Visions

It’s as if, while on vacation, you turn off your inner radio station that won’t shut up with the negative self-talk. Instead, you’re more receptive to the quieter, more profound messages from your heart and soul.

While walking up Ben Lomond in Scotland many years ago, I thought of my plans to apply for graduate school in urban planning when I returned.  Halfway up the hill, a quiet, inner voice said, “you know you’d rather study bioenergetics and other human potential disciplines.”  Immediately, I felt the truth of that thought throughout my body — though I had never consciously considered this path. Thankfully, it has led to my true life’s work, which now focuses on the full integration of spirit, body, and mind in life and in work and business.

Vacation Rituals and Prayers Can Have a Long-term Effect

Many people have told me that they do simple rituals like this one:  carry or pick up two stones or shells as you wander into the woods or on a beach.  Into one stone imagine putting all your frustrations about work.  When you feel empty and free enough to enjoy your vacation, leave the stone in the woods, or toss it into the sea with a prayer that you can always stay free of tension or worry, or whatever else you wish to release.

Into the other stone, imagine putting the essence of all the goodness you find on vacation … the joy of just lying in the grass perhaps, and watching the clouds shift, new perspectives and ideas, or the fun of trying something new.

I love to meditate on vacation with the question:  “what wisdom and insights can I bring from vacation to my everyday life?”

I particularly love this simple affirmative prayer:  Here in this relaxed setting, I easily see how my work and life can be more relaxed.  I gratefully welcome new ideas and visions for my work and life.

How can vacation mind help transform your workday reality?

As always, feel free to comment below.

Many blessings, Pat McHenry Sullivan

Just what is the work of our lives?

As babies our basic work includes learning to live in this world.  To crawl and eventually to toddle, then finally to walk and run.  To learn to communicate with others and to express ourselves.

Each year, the work of our lives grows bigger: to discover who we are and what matters most to us.  To find our way in this amazing universe.  To become self-responsible.  To balance conflicting needs and desires within ourselves (wanting to feel and be healthy vs. cravings for French fries and malted milkshakes) and with others (the need for self-expression versus the rights of others for privacy).  To learn how to live with gusto even when life is hard; eventually, how to die with grace, dignity, and as much consciousness as we can muster.

When life works, we bring the work of our life into our paid work, thus bringing the best of ourselves into every aspect of work, and vice versa.  Thus, as we learn to deal with issues around a boss, for instance, we learn to deal with similar issues in our lives.  As we discover more about who we are in a marriage or friendship, we are better able to have meaningful and effective workplace relationships.

Whoever we are, wherever we are, we always have the work of learning, growing, serving, and stretching.  Whether you’re being paid as a teacher of mathematics or patiently helping a grandchild learn how to drive safely, you’re engaged in the wondrous act of not only helping to pass on skills, but more importantly to help your student develop as a caring, competent person in all of life.

New Series:  LifeworkStories

In this blog, I have featured stories of many people who bring the best of their spirit and everyday life to work.  I’ll continue to do so.  Beginning today, I’m launching  regular stories from people who bring spirit to the work of everyday life, with a touching post by Tom Ratcliffe. http://spiritworkandmoney.com/let%E2%80%99s-preserve-the-senior-citizen-generation-gap-lifework-guest-post-by-tom-ratcliff/ For ease of finding these stories as their numbers grow, they will be tagged as “Worklife stories.”  Your submissions are welcome; send an e-mail to visionpat at aol [dot] com and put “Worklife Stories” in  the subject line.  (E-mails without this subject line or “no subject” may not be opened.)  As always, your comments are welcome.  Just click on the comments link below.

Very best wishes,

Pat McHenry Sullivan

Copyright 2010 by Pat McHenry Sullivan