Inspired Leap - You are far more brilliant than you think you are!

January Inspired Leap™ "Ah-Ha!" Newsletter
January 15, 2007

Topics Covered This Month
• Quote of the Month
• Upcoming Speaking Engagements
• Pay Attention to Find the Answers Your Seek
• Successful Visualization: Attention to Detail
• Stronger Relationships: Are You Paying Attention?
• Observing Versus Seeing
• Final Thoughts on Paying Attention

When I work with people to develop their intuitive intelligence, one of the things I stress repeatedly is to pay attention. This simple—but not always easy—advice can lead to a dramatic improvement in feeling empowered about your work and your life. There is more information and wisdom available to you than you probably realize. Tap into it and see your relationships, decisions, and creativity improve.
Read on to be inspired to pay much more attention to what goes on around and within you.

Quotes of the Month

When our attention is split, we tune out a bit, missing crucial details—especially emotional ones. Seeing eye to eye opens a pathway for empathy.

—Daniel Goleman, Social Intelligence, p. 30

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

An Intuitive Intensive at Lake Austin Spa Resort: January 25, 2007, 9:00 am – 3:00pm, with spa treatment immediately following. If you want to make 2007 your best year, take the time NOW to go within to discern the right focus and the ideal next steps. (Visit Inspired Leap to SIGN UP NOW.)

Envision 2007: What Will You Create For Your Business, Career, and Life?: POSTPONED DUE TO WEATHER (look for new date soon), 11:00 am – 1:00pm, at The Work Shop, Austin, TX. SOLD OUT!

Pay Attention to Find the Answers You Seek

Our ancestors lived and died by how much or how little they paid attention to the sights, sounds, and smells around them. They learned to trust their gut, or intuition, in order to avoid danger and survive. Unfortunately, many of us have lost our ability to heed the subtle messages our nonconscious mind and the world around us gives us because of lack of use or development of this natural ability.
Redeveloping your ability to pick up subtle information and combining it with the highly evolved and trained logical left hemisphere of your brain can lead to tremendous success and a strong inner confidence that you can handle whatever comes your way. It's simply a matter of paying attention.

In many of my workshops, I offer an exercise to help participants find the answers they seek to pressing questions. I ask them to write a letter to their nonconscious mind asking for the answer within the next 48 hours. One of the crucial points of the exercise is to have participants pay attention to hunches they have and information they pick up over the next 48 hours. This is important because our powerful intuition does not communicate with us via emails or in a logical, analytical method.

Your intuition uses symbols and images from dreams, nature, books. magazines and more; physical feelings or reactions in your body (especially your gut, back, and heart); fortuitous conversations with friends or strangers; or hunches to do something out of your ordinary routine, to deliver important information to you. Yet; you won't receive, or pick up, these subtle messages if you're always busy thinking or doing—if you're always in action.

A simple reminder to yourself early in your day to: 1) pay attention and; 2) take a few minutes of quiet before any big decision to listen to your inner wisdom, can lead to achieving your goals with much less effort than usual and fewer mistakes. In other words, take only inspired action or inspired leaps—first check in and pay attention to what your inner guidance is telling you before you leap.

Successful Visualization: Attention to Detail

As I've discussed before, one of the keys to achieving our dreams and goals is to spend time imagining or visualizing them already happening. We now know that our nonconscious mind does not discern between real and imagined scenarios. Create a strong visual of something occurring, attach strong emotion to it (give it "juice") and repeat it again and again, to manifest the scenario happening exactly as envisioned.
Unfortunately, most of us are quite rusty when it comes to using our imagination to visualize an event, especially creating an image with us in the picture and evoking the emotional response as if we were actually there. We're so used to movies and TV doing it for us that we've gotten out of practice.

One way to regain this ability is to take time to develop the details of your image. For example, if you plan to visualize receiving a bonus check at the end of the year or a check from a new client, take time to get all of the details locked in. What will the check look like? Could you actually draw it? What will the amount be? Go for an amount that is a stretch, but is not so far outside of reality that your logical mind balks each time to try to visualize it. Will someone hand it to you? Will it come in the mail? The more you can pay attention to the details in order to make your visualization as real as possible in your mind, the more likely it will occur.

Building Stronger Relationships: Are You Paying Attention?

In his book, Social Intelligence, author Daniel Goleman shares some fascinating information about the discovery of "mirror neurons" that pay attention to every nuance of movement, emotion, and thought of people we interact with. The reason we enjoy conversing with people who give us their undivided attention is because they are mirroring back to us (consciously or subconsciously) our posture, emotions, and—in some cases—our thoughts.

In a remarkable study where a laser-thin electrode monitored a single neuron in an awake person, the neuron fired both when the person anticipated pain—a pin prick—and when merely seeing someone else receive a pinprick—a neural snapshot of primal empathy in action. [p. 41]

Social skill depends on mirror neurons. For one thing, echoing what we observe in another person prepares us to make a speedy and fitting response. For another, the neurons respond to the mere hint of an intention to move, and they help us track what motivation may be in play. [p.42]

However, as noted in the opening quote, if your attention is divided you are unlikely to pick up on all of the cues the person talking with you is sending, so you won't be able to respond back in an ideal manner. Practice giving your undivided attention to the next person you talk with. Even if you can only do it for the first three-to-five minutes you will make a positive impression and will pick up valuable information that you intuitively need in order to handle the conversation in the best manner.

Finally, these mirror neurons are also important because they are responsible for why rehearsing (or visualizing) a movement can be a powerful way to improve performance.

When we mentally rehearse an action—making a dry run of a talk we have to give, or envisioning the fine points of our golf swing—the same neurons activate in the premotor cortex as if we had uttered those words or made that swing. Simulating an act is, in the brain, the same as performing it, except that the actual execution is somehow blocked. [pp. 41-42]

This is the data your left-brain might need to convince you to take the time to mentally practice important activities. I do this with my writing. I will "write" my newsletters and other key documents in my head for a few days before I actually sit down to write them. I find that when I give myself time to do this, everything flows so much better. What can you mentally rehearse this week to get your mirror neurons firing?

Observing Versus Seeing

Webster's Dictionary states that to "observe is to: a) notice or perceive (something); or b) to pay special attention to." When we "see" something; on the other hand, we likely simply make note of it visually. I might see and look into your eyes when we talk, but it is only with observation that I note the green color of your eyes. I can certainly improve upon my powers of observation. Is this true for you too?
You can't put the necessary details into your visualizations, create the rapport you desire with another, or catch many of the subtle clues your intuition is sending you if you don't slow down to truly observe the world around you. The most powerful example of this for me is in nature. When I am walking and truly paying attention—observing—the scenery, I notice all of the fascinating and beautiful birds, turtles, and other life around me.

One chilly winter walk in the woods in Seattle I looked up at just the right moment and had the rare treat of seeing a beautiful, small owl. She was sitting in an upper branch of a Douglas fir tree looking down on me. As my mother had loved owls, I felt a strong connection with this bird and felt my mother's presence. Can I prove it? Of course not, but I don't need to. The connection had a memorable, positive effect on me. Who cares whether anyone else believes it? I would have missed this powerful moment if I hadn't paid attention to the inner nudge to look up. What wisdom are you missing out on when you rush from activity to activity?

Remember, your intuition and Higher Self or Soul speak to you in the way you are most likely to receive important information. However, you can't receive those messages if you don't take the time to listen, look, and observe. Start challenging yourself to notice and remember details of people you meet, places you go, and walks you take. Imagine for one day that every connection you make with people, places, and things has a message for you. Can you stay focused long enough to receive the message? Don't overthink this. Just have fun with it and notice how your intuitive intelligence begins to improve and become more clear.

Final Thoughts on Paying Attention

Imagine that you have thousands of unseen helpers giving you guidance in every facet of your life—from a huge investment decision to where to go to dinner tonight. Depending upon your beliefs, you might think of these helpers as neurons within your brain, molecules and atoms of energy vibrating in the universe, or angels whispering in your ear. Whatever way is optimal for you, know that you cannot receive the information and guidance these helpers have for you without paying attention.
May 2007 be the year you shift your focus from the past and future to the present, so you can truly observe your life as it unfolds. May it also be the year of more inspired action from moments of quiet, observation, and checking within for guidance.

With encouragement to leap ahead,
Dianna Amorde
President,
Inspired Leap Consulting Inc.
Comments or questions about this newsletter? Email me at damorde@inspiredleap.com.
I look forward to hearing from you.

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If your company needs help with inspiring employees to reach new heights in productivity, creativity, morale, and integrity, please contact us at inspiredleap.com or 512-236-0090. If you need some more inspiration or more regular nudging to practice these steps, check out our website to see what's new to inspire you (a visit to The Quiet Room may be just what you need!).