I Can’t… I Can!

Recently Activate Us presented an online Bridge workshop for Life Force Canada (LFC).  We were excited & grateful to have the opportunity as we feel LFC is aligned with our beliefs about wanting to change the world to something better.  Here are a few sentences from their website:

“Life Force is the Essence, Source, Substance of ALL LIFE that binds humans, animals and the earth. We are here to assist in liberating and empowering every man and woman by co-creating a free and prosperous future for all.”  Life Force Canada

There are 3 main aspects to The BRIDGE:  Aikido Economics, Coordinated Effort & Wakie Wakie.  Ray Bretzloff the main architect of The Bridge facilitated the Aikido Economics portion, Karen Klassen from LFC facilitated the Coordinated Effort portion while Rebecca Gretz and I facilitated Wakie Wakie.

Wakie Wakie is about personal development which includes Intuition (our guidance system), Human Mechanism (how it works) & Monkey Wrenches (disrupting conventional thinking). 

From previous experiences, both Rebecca & I felt Wakie Wakie is not something to skip over.  It can be tempting & we may even sometimes convince ourselves that we will get to it when the time is right, but it is just as important as Aikido Economics and the Coordinated Effort, and from our perspective, it is foundational.

Now that you know what we were up to I want to share something that years ago I would have felt too uncomfortable to put out in public.  I haven’t been diagnosed with this, but I am guessing that I have social anxiety to some degree.  So, on one hand, the thought of presenting to a group excited me, but on the other I felt fear about it, especially on the subject of personal development. I mean, shouldn’t I be confident in talking to others about this if I am presenting it! 

What to do?  I decided to use some of the tools I had learned to help me.  Instead of focusing on the fear around it, I started telling myself that I would do my best & that I have many years of experience doing my own personal development work as well as all we have learned over the past 5 years developing The BRIDGE.  Personal development is something that I am committed to in this life, creating positive changes and working through many of the childhood traumas that I experienced.

I also remembered people would tell me that when they were nervous they would use that energy to their benefit.  I never really understood how they could do that and had never tried.  However, this time I decided I would, and instead of fear feeling heavy like it had in the past, it created excitement.  What a transformation that was for me!  It showed me the power of my thoughts and how I can use them to change how I feel.

In Teal Organizations one of the tenets is Wholeness.   It’s about being our authentic selves, inviting us to reclaim our inner wholeness and bring all of who we are to work.  This is presented in Frederic Laloux’s book entitled Reinventing Organizations. I thought about that and the importance of creating a new world where we don’t have to wear masks (I am not referring to the ones over our face) to work or anywhere anymore.  I needed to be okay with how I was feeling and show up anyway.  If I want to create a new world, I need to start now with myself. 

I am thrilled that I facilitated the workshop.  Is there room for improvement…yes.  The important thing is that I not only followed through on something that can be quite challenging for me but also that I was able to be kind to myself. I stepped out of the old way that I would have been and decided not to do the old critical self talk and nurtured myself enough to feel good about it.  How liberating!

Life from this perspective feels so much lighter and freer.  Imagine a world where being our authentic selves is normal and natural.  A world that allows us all to feel how we might around dogs or children.  For me, when I am around them, there is no mask, I easily stay centered in my heart and in the moment. I’m not wondering what they may think of me, how I come across, or am I good enough. I am just me and that is all I need.

Presenting Wakie Wakie to LFC has been a gift to me and gave me a deeper appreciation of Wakie Wakie and The Bridge. I’m excited about future workshops that we will be presenting. If you would like to be part of a future workshop the way to get started is by participating in one of the webinars on our Events Calendar.