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During "Being-Dissolving-Creating: An Evening of Core Wisdom" in Corte Madera, CA on September 16th, we did some demonstrations of dissolving and creating with participants. People were invited to volunteer to come to the front of the room who had issues, blocks, or limitations that they wished to dissolve, and who were willing to dissolve them as a demonstration for the whole group.
One of the people who volunteered was Ken C. In addition to being a successful and respected member of the legal profession, one of Ken's passions and avocations is playing the mandolin.
When Ken came to the front of the room, he said that he was going to be playing his mandolin with his folk group before a large audience the following night, and he was experiencing (in his words) "stage-fright", and specifically, the fear that he was "going to blow it." What was present for him was tension, tightness, self-consciousness, and concern, rather than openness for the unexpected to occur. Not a great recipe for flow, play and inspiration to arise!
Ken allowed me to guide him through some Core Wisdom dissolving steps, and within 10 minutes he had dissolved the stage-fright and fear of "blowing it". Ken followed that up by creating the intention to have his upcoming performance flow with intention, passion, joy, and grace no matter what happened. At the end of his demonstration, Ken's body was relaxed, and the concern was replaced with a sense of enthusiasm and anticipation to share his music with others the following night.
Right now, your mind may be wondering, "That is all well and good, but how did it turn out when and where it mattered --- at the performance? Did Ken and his mandolin flow with the music? Did Ken get rattled by any surprises, unexpected occurances or errors?"
Well, below is Ken's report, sent to me via email a few hours after the he and his group had completed their performance. He invited me to share it with you as a way of pointing out how when we allow what is to BE, we can bring passion, intention, and joy to each moment of life no matter what occurs, creating spontaneously in the moment and continuing to "go with the flow."
In Ken's own words, here is what happened:
Hi Hal:
It was so great to be with you last night and thank you again for the dissolving process we did on my performance today. Right now, I have a huge grin on my face.
Here's the story: Our performance was, from my perspective, quite hilarious. We hardly kept to our practice plan at all. We made mistakes and did things wrong and yet, somehow, it all worked. The second to the last song we did was "Take It Easy" by the Eagles and I had a mandolin solo on it. Just before I was set to go, the microphone for the mandolin just fell over and split into 2 pieces! So, I shrugged and sang my mandolin lead ("neer neer neer neer neer, etc.") and the crowd cracked up. Quite a comedy of errors. the last song we did was "Peaceful Easy Feeling" also by the Eagles. I switched microphones with one of my band mates and absolutely NAILED the solo, which the crowd applauded during the song.
The truth is that I was really BEING without misidentifying, or more accurately, observing the misidentifications when they would arise, acknowledging them as such and allowing them to dissolve into the background while engaged in the unfolding of the songs. It was a lot of fun and after the performance, all of my band mates were laughing at our departures from our rehearsed "ideal" performance. It just was what it was, and we all had fun.
Thank you so much for who you are in my and Barbara's lives. We look forward to learning more about the next Core Wisdom conference call.
In resonance,
-- Hal Isen
From Core Wisdom On-Line Number 104 - Sep. 30, 2009
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