Are you conscious at work?
We believe that consciousness is practiced. It is not earned or even taught.
Here are a few signs you are conscious at work.
You are kind to yourself and to others.
You focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking is not in your vocabulary.
You are not thinking about work when you’re not at work.
You rarely rethink conversations and reread emails.
You feel calm and present at work- physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
You are not attached to the outcome of what happens.
You trust in the process.
You take in all of what is happening before making decisions.
You feel connected to a great universal spirit.
This past week our good friends at CRIHB asked us to come back for another visual healing methods workshop (check out the ahha moments from last year here). The goal of this workshop was to elevate the consciousness of people through art and experiential activities. We also wanted to demonstrate non-traditional types of data collection and storytelling.
Why art? Why not.
The biggest reason doing art helps us become conscious is that we slow down, tap into our right brains, and relax our central nervous system. Here are four activities we planned for our art workshop.
Sacred hoop
Watercolor circles of gratitude
Life graph
Gathering Gifts from the outdoors
The workshop was at a hotel right next to Disneyland. The vibe was anything but conscious. People everywhere, neon lights, big sounds, and oodles of distractions… how do we create a space to tap into consciousness at Disney?
Start early. Find out what kind of art is feasible and plan purchasing payments and processing early. Find out how many people will attend. We expected 60 and 39 people to show up. We had lots of extra supplies we donated after the event.
Prep and ship items to your location to save time and stress.
Ask for help. Think about what you want people to experience. Before we started our workshop Jill Campoli (AKA Clinical Consultant) invited our ancestors to join us. She rang a bell and described how the sound was similar to her grandmother hitting the soup bowl at dinner time.
Go with flow. Not everyone at a professional conference will want to engage in a life graph exercise and share their deepest traumas or successes. Create the space for everyone and force nothing.
Become a conscious participant. As the facilitator the best way to connect with participants is to sit down with them and create something. You don’t have to speak- remember, silence is the language of God.
Save time for the close. Bring people into a circle, offer words, encourage people to share, and close out in a good way. We asked an elder to pray.
The energy of the room shifted. People started to visit and create gifts for relatives. Smiles… focused awareness… consciousness.
It’s been 24 hours since our workshop ended. There are things I would do differently next time… but overall, it was a tremendous success. Our experience tells us that art can be created anywhere and it is everywhere. Art is a physical expression of our consciousness.
Creating opportunities where people can tap into this consciousness is what we seek to do. Our prayer is that people will take this experience back to their homes, work, and communities, so they can practice being aware of this one beautiful life we get to live.