Lamplighters 2

LAMPLIGHTERS 2

Many years ago before electric street lights, the lamplighter was a man who was employed by the town to go round lighting all the street lamps at the onset of evening, and minding them and keeping them lit throughout the night. He would also put them out in the morning.

This book is a metaphorical look at lamplighting, and instances where we can take steps to keep our mental lamps alight and the streets of our life well lit. It takes a closer look at some of our cultural myths, preconceptions and superstitions. It examines some of the "young wives' tales" that sneak, via parlance, into the fabric of our understanding of our world - that world that our perceptions have, often while we were looking the other way, fashioned into being 'the real world'.

I am delighted to announce that "Lamplighters" - which I wrote back in 2012 - is now available as an Audiobook, narrated and produced (or as I like to put it, REALISED) by Ana Clements.

Transformation

When I use the word 'Realise' in the way I have mentioned above, it encompasses so much more than just 'produced by', let's say. I actually use the meaning of the word in French -réalisation -
which encomapasses meaning such as achievement, accomplishment; or,
in performance terms - fulfilment.

Indeed, I would say the intention and meaning of what I wrote more than
five years ago has now been fulfilled, in an utterly magical way,
by Ana Clements' reading. 

In truth, for me as the author, I discovered so much more about my own
creative writing when I heard Ana's interpretation of my words. I heard things,
I noticed meanings, that I could never have heard via my own voice - which is
the way we hear things when we read to ourselves. We "hear" via our own
"internal voice" - and my own voice, reading my own words, was clearly not
capable of conveying all the substance, the meaning, I had embedded 
within my own text.

Alchemy

This was an alchemy that I had not expected nor had been prepared for. I had
encountered a whole new layer of understanding that brought spontaneous
tears, laughter, smiles, nods of approval, and occasional sighs of amazement.

That was how it was for me.

It is my sincerest wish that you will, as I have, hear something new, essential
and relevant for you in your Life and experience going forward. The book is - as
I have announced it - a metaphorical look at Lamplighting; an invitation for you
to rub your eyes, to blink and see things in a new light, to shift certain aspects
of the mindsets and patterns you employ in your Life, and to notice how once 

we set out to transform our thinking, alter our perspective, that we are, 

quite often, presented with a future that is altogether more compelling.

The book itself is available in paperback and Kindle versions. However, I would
invite you to use these as mere backdrop to the real REALISATION that Ana 
Clements brings to the words.

It is a collaboration I have enjoyed hugely and one that I hope we can continue
in some of my other titles! 

If you would like a free Promotional copy then please "follow" me on this blog
with your email, and I will forward details of how to obtain your Promo copy!
Numbers are limited!  

You will also find below a link to 30 day free trial on Audible and snap up a copy of
Lamplighters for a price as next to nothing as one can get!
http://www.audible.com/offers/30free?asin=B06XJC86FP 

Dashing away with It

“Phew!” I said to myself as I’d just finished a mammoth ironing stint, comprising a dozen handkerchiefs, six shirts, a couple of pairs of chinos, some pillowcases, et al. Actually, the “et al” bit was the stuff we don’t iron of course – the stuff our ‘public’ never sees – and NO, heaven forbid, I don’t waste valuable time on the invisibles!  

They say ironing is one of those tasks that can be a chore for some, relaxing for others, and a neuro-pathway to wisdom for those familiar with Zen and the Art of Smoothing Cloth.
Yet, for most of us it’s a marmite thing – you either love it or you hate it.

Modus Operandi

So when you set out to iron your mammoth, whether you view it as a chore-bore, or a pathway to enlightenment, there are - assuming that you ARE an ironer of course and not just a receiver of the smoothly finished articles - a number of givens.

There has to be a level of attentive engagement, even if only for safety's sake. This attentive engagement links the ironer into a level of concentration that's up there with finely chopping onions. Pay less attention and fingers – or worse – will get scalded, or burnt! So the caveats really should be minded and applied at the start of the mammoth stint, when we’re tuning-up our concentration, so to speak!

Now concentration, of course, is a blend of attention and focus.
And once into the ironing session, our mind can almost allow our focus to occupy the conscious foreground whilst our attention can drift into contemplation or reverie.
With reverie we’ll be off on a daydream, a transport of delight, borne on gossamer wings to Shangri-la.

With contemplation, however, there’s a degree of structural direction to our trains of thought. It is much less of a mystery tour when things go along these lines. We board at the stations, and alight at our destinations.

And there are lines on the cloth for the iron to smooth away; and there are lines in our contemplative attention as well, where our rolling stock goes over points, slows for signals,  passes through and sometimes arrives at stations.
And we might, possibly, change trains here too ... somewhere else ...
That’s how it is with trains of thought.

Rushing

Now if we see the ironing process as a chore-bore, we will – inevitably – want to get it over with as soon as possible. We’ll rush the consciously-focussed smoothing the cloth bit – and will actually miss the entire alternative universe that is going on here. A universe that can bring us back in tune with ourselves; a universe that can bring rest and renewal; a universe where something insightful might arrive and be noticed!

The other by-product of rushing is that there will be flaws in the ironing. It will be a bit slapdash.

“But who cares?” You may well say! “I’m very busy! I haven’t got time for all that woo-woo, mind stuff. I just want the clothes to look as if someone has taken a bit of trouble to do the wretched ironing. Just so the world can see that someone in this house actually cares!”
“Ah – so there’s your answer to who cares! YOU do!”

And here’s the thing –
We seem to be doing the ironing, albeit in a rush, not for ourselves but for THE WORLD?

Really?
Does the WORLD care whether we do the ironing or not – really?
No, the world doesn’t care at all. As far as the world is concerned, we are not obliged to do the ironing. The sun will come up tomorrow whether we do it or not!

Do it with Care

So perhaps if we ARE going to be doing a bit of “Dashing away with a smoothing iron” then we should remember who it is we are doing it for.

It is a bit like chadō, the Japanese Tea-Making Ceremony.
It is almost devotional - and the alternative universe bit that is going on with the ironing, is there for no other purpose than for us to merely be present with.
It is a gift, let’s say, from the universe to Us, as the ironer.

And perhaps the greatest irony when we do it with care rather than at a rush is this -
we will do a better quality smoothing job, in the same time, with far less conscious effort, feel more renewed and less tired, and feel a real sense of fulfilment.

We’ll turn our sad-rags into glad-rags!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is going to be unique. 

There will not be another 13th March 2017.
Of course this is just a label we have given tomorrow using our human system of calendar dating.
Yet of course we know that the word "Tomorrow" is also a label and - if we were arguing semantics - "Tomorrow" is repeated for all eternity whilst 13th March 2017 will be replaced by another "uniquely" labelled date when a certain period of "time" has passed. 


So tomorrow is not REALLY going to be unique though is it?

Or is it?

Like any other day, we know it will comprise only as many NOW moments that our Consciousness will provide for us.
And if you wake up and then get up earlier than me, your Consciousness will provide you with more NOW moments than MY Consciousness will provide ME. 


This means your 13/3/17 will contain more NOW moments than my 13/3/17. 
However, my Consciousness may very well be MORE engaged with every one of my NOW moments than your Consciousness is with your NOW moments.
Which means that I will, quite probably, experience a higher quality of engagement with my NOW than you will do with your NOW.
And the simple conclusion here is this:-
It is through the QUALITY of our Conscious engagement with our NOW moments that we get to optimise our experience of any day.
Now the key question to remember here is this:-
Who chooses the QUALITY of our Conscious engagement with our each and every NOW moment? 

Answer:-
Why, WE DO of course!
Have a NICE day!

The Yellow Bucket

Brainy

One of the amazing things we humans are born with is our analogue brain. Within that Innate hard wiring that is always with us YET we need to cultivate and utilise, is the power of connectivity; our ability to make connections in the area of “joined up-edness”; what at times can seem like creative alchemy.

There’s nothing particularly clever about this, and I mean clever in the sense of “a learning and then a using of that learning” within the intellect. It is very much more about cultivation and utilisation of what is innate, is in our nature, in order to tap into a deeper understanding that we have labelled Wisdom.

Wisdom

Now wisdom, too, is Innate. It has an intangible beyond-ness, in as much as we cannot specifically point to where it is or where it has come from. Yet, when it arrives in Mind we recognise it instantly. We might call it a light-bulb moment, and we might use a word to describe its arrival such as “Eureka!” And it is intertwined with our hard-wired ability to utilise the power of connectivity.

Another thing that sets wisdom apart from learning is that we cannot gain a Degree in Wisdom. Yet through applying our wisdom we might achieve degrees of profound conclusion far beyond anything we might have learned in the course of gaining our Degrees.

Metaphor

As a final part of this overture before I start to tell the intended story here, I’d like to shine a torch in the direction of metaphor. 

Essentially, metaphor is our ability to use – within our verbal language – the power of descriptive connectivity. Whilst I apologise for that bit of word play, it shows our brainy ability to describe something in terms of something else, and thereby be instrumental in making a connection.

Now metaphor is everywhere within our language, and because of the omnipresent nature of metaphor it has been sometimes referred to as being “How our unconscious communicates with our conscious Mind.” 

I see it as the vehicle that links knowledge with wisdom, moving around the hard wires in our brain – a vehicle powered by connectivity.

Coaching reflections

Reflecting on a recent busy day of cricket coaching, I noticed a number of revelations I was able to guide players towards. Some were technical, some tactical and some psychological – as is usually the way with this kind of working interaction.

I’ve described elsewhere what I call the 3 levels of Mastery of any performance skills as being Unconscious Competence, Consistency under Pressure and Conquering Ourselves.
Our ability in gaining these levels does not follow each other in a linear way, but they tend to run concurrently. And the real clue of joy in all of this progression of Mastery is that Number 3 – conquering ourselves – makes Numbers 1 and 2 so much more straightforward and accelerated.

We learn to get better at something far quicker when we get out of our own way. Or to put it another way, dare I say in a metaphorical sense, our gaining of Mastery is much simpler when we pay more attention to what we are doing than to what we are thinking.

I was talking with one of my players about Mindset in Performance; how our thinking can override our ability to direct our attention; and that getting familiar with how we are directing our attention in practice is how we can really get a handle on reshaping our Mindset for Performance.

Believing we can reshape our Mindset is just the start. The practice of directing our attention comes next. The putting aside of in-time self-monitoring and judgement is essential to this practice – for if we believe we need to keep checking-in with ourselves in the nature of “How am I doing?” and “How am I doing Now?”, then we will dilute our attention to task and increase our attention to judgemental thinking.

Our beliefs shape our Mindset for anything – they SET our Minds in stone. According to Linda Quiring, Sydney Banks said “If you seek via your own silly beliefs, you will never SEE or HEAR! You will hear only the echoes of your own mind.”

The Yellow Bucket

I must have spent well over an hour playing with my grandson, Arlo, who is two and a half. This was unfettered and unstructured play, directed by him and with me following. I was merely his playmate in all this, so wherever his Mind and his attention went ... there we would both be.

At one point he picked up a see-through bucket made of yellow plastic and put it over his head, and almost at once he started laughing.
“I can see everything yellow,” he said. “All my clothes look yellow.” He looked out of the window, “Ha ha! – the grass is all yellow! You have a look Grandpa!” And I did – and he was right. The grass was yellow. I gave him back the bucket and he looked at the table:
“The table’s yellow!” Then he saw the fruit bowl and really started laughing.
“Ha ha Grandpa – the oranges are yellow! Not orange!”
Then I asked him, “What about the bananas? What do they look like?” There was a slight pause and then he said,
“Oooh! They’re even MORE yellow now! Ha ha!!”

The laughter continued unabated as, something about everything being yellow, and oranges no longer being orange but becoming yellow, and bananas that were yellow anyway and now were even more yellow, just seemed to tickle Arlo all over!

Only Connect

So is there a link here between Arlo’s yellow bucket, my young cricketer’s Mindset and “Brainy – Wisdom – Metaphor” ... LIKE THAT?
Has my – and perhaps your – innate and hard wired ability been inducted with a little change in electric potential across the synapses?

Did Arlo’s excursion into the strange world-view of all yellow just become an amusing experience based upon curiosity rather than create a disturbingly jaundiced mindset, or challenge his beliefs about how he sees the world around him? Of course it did – especially since he is merely two and a half!
“Yes, Pete, but I’m older and wiser – and I know about beliefs and mindsets and how important they are. Arlo hasn’t learned anything about all that yet.”
To which I might just reply:
“And what will change for him when he does? Will it become better or worse? Simpler or increasingly more complex? Stay amusing and curious or become serious and worrying?”

PLUS – there’s another perhaps more suspicious question I would ask:

“WHO is going to teach Arlo about all that – about beliefs and mindsets or set minds? Has his innate and unsullied view of the world already collided with such things and created some curiosity, perhaps even confusion, within his growing conscious experience?

Conclusion

Arlo looked through the virtual reality bucket and just couldn’t stop laughing.

I wanted my young cricketer to realise that the virtual reality bucket of mindset and experience she was using was also not real – yet could be EQUALLY funny, once she lets go of those “silly beliefs” that Sydney Banks so described. 

And I knew that once I’d got her laughing every time I mentioned how much of an illusion she was operating from within, that she was starting to break up the tablets of stone upon which her Mindset and beliefs had been etched.