Tag Archives: creativity

What Is Your Big “YES?”

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We cannot overestimate the power of our “YES.” As life constantly presses out against us from within, ever wanting to express in some greater way, our most powerful response to that divine impulse is “YES.”

In their book, Thoughts Are Things, Ernest Holmes and Willis Kinnear write, “One of the greatest vitality tonics is a mental attitude that is interested and enthused about doing something that is productive and allows an opportunity for self-expression.”

Some years ago when I was in ministerial school, in a quiet moment of meditation, the words “on Sundays I speak” came forth in my mind. It was a clear exhortation regarding me engaging in public speaking. It was such a clear statement, although it startled me a bit because, at the time, I had done very few speaking engagements and had none scheduled on my calendar.

It was so clear, however, and it awaited my response. I said, “YES.” Soon after I said “YES,” I began to align my actions and way of being with this new reality that was wanting expression. I started conceiving a marketing and promotion plan. I kept my ear open for places that were wanting speakers and placed phone calls indicating my availability. Within a short period of time, I was speaking nearly every Sunday.

An important part of what occurred here is that rather than ignore what seemed to be a strange impulse moving in me at the time, I paid attention to the clear exhortation and said, “YES.” And that’s all the Universe needed to bring this forth into manifestation – me as a willing vehicle.

Holmes and Kinnear state further in their book, “There is always the greater possibility available to you. There is a Divine Strength and an infinite Wisdom at the center of your being, ever waiting to be released, that will enable you to put more into life and living and to take more out of it. A limitless Creativity exists and expresses through all that is. It is always seeking a fuller channel of expression through you. Recognize that It exists, and accept its action in your life.”

The invitation this week is to consider, what is your big “YES?” What is it that Life is wanting to express in some greater way through and as you? Are you ready to say “YES?” In saying “YES,” what are you called to release and let go? And what quality or qualities are you called to embody and express more fully to align yourself with this YES? What actions align you with the YES?

Your answers to these questions hold the key to ushering in this new reality that awaits you. During some quite time, I invite you to write your answers to the questions here in your journal or on a notepad. Then align your actions and way of being with your responses. The result is certain to be something new and exciting.

I’d love to hear about your YES and what unfolds for you on our Somseva Facebook group page.

Enjoy the journey.

Gregory Toole offers spiritual coaching to individuals and groups who want to create and live extraordinary lives. For more information, go to gregorytoole.com.

Getting Unstuck: Start That New Project

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by Gregory Toole

There are so many reasons why we might procrastinate starting a new project, despite the fact that it excites us and inspires us. Here are a few:

  • We’re afraid we’re not quite up to the task.
  • The perfectionist in us wants the conditions and timing to be just perfect.
  • We might succeed, and then we’d have to step into a larger sense of ourselves.
  • We’re spinning our wheels on something else (i.e., we’re in a rut).

Being stuck is a state of mind. We’re usually not really stuck, unless we’ve stepped into some industrial-strength glue. The mind, however, is powerful enough that it can work us into a sense of being stuck that can feel as real as any physical bind. Conversely, the mind is also powerful enough to free us.

For many years I wanted to study Spanish. However, every time I thought of studying Spanish, the thought that immediately followed was, “But I still haven’t mastered French. I ought to master French first.” It was a good rational argument, so I would put off my study of Spanish once again. On a positive note, it would usually get me inspired to practice my French language studies more persistently.

Last year, I really became in touch with this pattern and asked myself if it was serving me in the highest way. I realized that it was not serving me. I still hadn’t mastered the French language and yet I hadn’t even started on Spanish.

This is one way that the mind can keep us stuck, by putting up false barriers. In accepting that perhaps I’ll never “master” French and letting go of that as a reason to not study Spanish, last year I was able to begin studying Spanish. It has not interfered in the least with my intention to keep improving my French proficiency.

It’s so easy to get stuck, yet there are some simple ways to get unstuck. Here are 10 simple steps you can take to get unstuck:

  1. Get quiet and still. Take a couple deep breaths. Tune into what you’re feeling. Allow what you’re feeling to be okay. Accept it. Embrace it. Be gentle with yourself and see what you can learn from your feelings about what you’re needing right now.
  2. Realize that, whatever you’re feeling, the feeling itself can’t keep you from taking action.
  3. Write down, in a journal or on a piece of paper, everything that is rattling around in your mind. This gives you a chance to look at it objectively and perhaps to organize it so that it’s not just mental clutter.
  4. Take what you’ve written in the last step and see what things need your attention and what things can be discarded. This is likely to provide greater peace of mind and to dispel confusion, now that the thoughts are sitting finitely before you on paper and no longer rattling around in your mind.
  5. Write down some positive affirmations or empowering statements about why you want to take on the project, how you’ll feel when it’s complete, and what impact it will have on others and the world around you.
  6. Allow yourself to feel excitement about taking on the project.
  7. Let go of worry about how the project will turn out and instead see it as a creative endeavor and enjoy the process of creation.
  8. Take a step, any step, in the direction of what you want to do. This starts to break through the mental and emotional clutter that might be blocking us. It gets the energy flowing in the direction we want it.
  9. Praise yourself and celebrate each step forward. Avoid self-criticism.
  10. Each day, continue to take steps, remembering that no step is too small. Anything that moves you forward is positive. Eventually the momentum of taking these steps will move you forward, and before you know it you’ll find that you are no longer stuck.

Congratulations! Your creativity is freed and you are once again able to be of full service to yourself and the world.

How to Be A Master Change Agent

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by Gregory Toole

Once when I was about to take on a leadership position with a global spiritual organization, a veteran of the organization congratulated me on my new role, then said, “You won’t change anything.” Upon hearing that, I was a bit perplexed as I have never been anywhere that I didn’t change something. In fact, my experience is that just the presence of someone new in a group changes things.

Ironically, by the time I left the position, we had changed so many things that many felt we had made too many changes. But that’s what happens when we embrace change – we are able to navigate major change as a regular course of things, albeit change may still bring about some feelings of temporary discomfort.

Being a ‘master change agent,’ in many ways, is something to which we are all called. After all, who among us is immune to change? In fact, who among us isn’t constantly experiencing change? Rather than resist this ever-present phenomenon, our spiritual journey is really about mastering it.

How do we master change? The first step is to acknowledge that change is the natural order of things. The next step is to embrace it. With these two steps, we are 80% of the way, if not more, toward mastering change. The last 20% involves practice and seeing more deeply into the nature of change.

The practice is simply continuously returning to steps one and two: recognizing that change is the natural order of things and embracing change as it is happening.

Looking more deeply into the nature of change, we see that its true purpose is to further our spiritual growth. Change moves us out of our comfort zone, out of our place of inertia. It causes us to reach deeper into our inner resources to discover those that we previously did not know existed. It calls on the infinite divine creativity within us to bring forth newness of form, which is in alignment with our evolutionary nature as spiritual beings having a human experience.

As we are moved out of our comfort zone, we discover that we are bigger than we formerly realized. We find that our gifts can be given and received more fully than previously.

Here are the ten essential traits and behaviors of a master change agent:

  1. They embrace change as natural and good.
  2. They are continuously inquiring into what is moving within them that is wanting more outward expression.
  3. They look at how what is moving in them is connected to what is moving in the world around them.
  4. They acknowledge and address underlying feelings of fear and resistance that might block effective change.
  5. They constantly push themselves out of inertia and into newness.
  6. They acknowledge their biases and then honestly consider other points of view and perspectives.
  7. They look beyond “comfort” to discover a greater good that can be served by change.
  8. They use their own sense of clarity and wisdom about the nature of change to support and guide others through the change process.
  9. They get help in areas where change takes them beyond their current skills or competencies.
  10. They focus their creative energies on new and original ideas that take themselves and their organizations into bold evolutionary directions.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to be a master change agent. You have what it takes, and the world needs you!

Enjoy the journey.

Letting Go Into Your Greater Possibility

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by Gregory Toole

So often it seems as human beings we are waiting for the right moment or the right opportunity in order to step into something greater. Yet, metaphysically we know that we co-create our own experience.

Creating that great new opportunity is as much about letting go as it is about accepting the new. In order to create the new, we must let go of the old. The Christian scripture guides us not to pour new wine into old wine skins.

Right now, for the third time in my career, I am releasing a position without a clearly defined next position in sight. Many people look very surprised when I tell them that. Some even look like they are about to administer me a sanity test.

In my experience, however, I find that sometimes I need to let go of what is, before I can discover the new, that it’s a challenge to hold on to the old, while at the same time bringing forth the new. As I write this, I am imagining an interesting visual of someone carrying around a big sack called “the past” on his back, laboring under its weight, while at the same time attempting to be nimble in navigating the newness that is calling him. It’s not a very graceful picture.

In holding onto what is, we get to feel safer and more comfortable, but perhaps that is a false sense of comfort since nothing in the outer world represents our security and all temporal experiences can change. What if we put our sense of security and comfort in our inner power and creativity, our ability to co-create our experience?

Then we’d be able to move as Spirit moves us, rather than as human comfort dictates. Then we wouldn’t be holding so tightly to things and experiences of the world. Grace would be our experience. Change would not concern us very much at all because we’d be in the flow of change, welcoming it, trusting it, knowing it is always a movement toward greater good in our lives.

I would suggest this way of being is what we are being called to. It is a more natural way for us to live in alignment with our spiritual nature.

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