Power to Pack Up – Part 2…

Hi everyone, how are you all going with the Power to Pack Up?… This power reminds us to keep things practical (to not get pulled down by emotion). The basis of this power are the Virtues of Practicality and Letting Go – which must be applied practically in our attitude if we are to see positive results in our life. When we become emotional our practical skills are lost almost immediately…

My experience this week with ‘packing up’ has been extremely helpful – reminding me to keep things light and playful. When running presentations and workshops as a ‘one woman show’ – ‘living on the road’, I need to keep things very practical or else I lose my ability to focus. Having presented 7 talks in 4 weeks, organised and ran a one day program for women to celebrate International Women’s Day, as well as giving many individual ‘Virtue Scopes’ – is like doing 6 months work in a month. Though totally worth it, I needed to stay clear on my purpose – learning and gaining much along the way. A huge lesson and ultimately reward, was regarding expectation. I needed to apply my Power to Tolerate as well as Power to Pack up, to prevent myself from becoming frustrated.

The 2 weeks leading up to the ‘4 Faces of Woman’ workshop, I had to keep my powers close by as there was so much to prepare and organise. Though I sent clear instructions via emails and several reminders via texts, for the day of the event – I received many emails, phone calls and texts asking questions – I could feel the frustration build as I wondered if anyone even read their emails and began to worry about “will there be enough food” etc. I even considered cooking extra but realised I simply couldn’t do it all without running myself into the ground (a very old deep addiction) – so I ‘packed it up’ and stuck with what I had planned… In the meantime, the participation list was going up and down like a yoyo – at one point the program was booked out with a waiting list and the next we were down to 20 – many didn’t show courtesy to cancel or confirm, leaving me guessing. Now I began to doubt about “will there be enough participants”. Again, I had to be tolerant and packed up the negative thoughts and turned worry into playfulness – I decided “what will be will be” enabling me to let go of the outcome. As it turned out, we had 33 amazingly courageous participants… And for the food? There was more than you could imagine :)…

I also re-learned about compassion for the self (an old destructive habit of wanting to ‘do’ and ‘give’ too much). I was even in the process of writing commentaries to read on the day but ‘catching’ myself, I packed it up and stuck to ‘ready-made’ commentaries – which worked out beautifully. Everything fell into place as it does when you allow it to be – those who were meant to come, came. Tolerating and Packing Up any limiting, destructive behaviors throughout my week enabled me to let go of expectations and outcomes, allowing me to stay light and easy, and trust that everything is perfect as is… And it was!… Everyone had a wonderful day and it wasn’t at the expense of my own health and wellbeing – allowing me to fully enjoy and take as much benefit as others from the day.

Thank you to those who participated – you each contributed such amazing power – I feel extremely privileged to have been a part of it 🙂

Questions to churn on today:

— Where in my life can I use the Power to Pack Up – am I actually doing this or am I giving-in to negative thoughts, habits, people or situations?…

— Do I place even the slightest expectation on others?

— How can ‘Packing Up’ help me to stay true to me while ‘giving’ or ‘doing’ for others?…

Keep up the amazing work everyone, looking forward to hear your stories (if you wish to share, please send by this Friday)

Love as always, Annemarie xx