The other morning I logged onto Facebook, and saw my dear friend Robin’s hilarious comment that she “humbly admits she feels like einstein after having successfully posted pictures on facebook.”

I commented back because I’m just so charmed by Robin’s humour and heart, and despite that fact that i pride myself on being a pretty tech-savvy gal of the new millenium, I haven’t figured out how to do that either!

It started me thinking about Einstein, Genius and e=mc2. The theory of relativity. Tapping into the dark recesses of whatever remains from Mr. McPherson’s 11th grade physics class, I frankly have no recollective understanding of what that really means. But what I do know about is The Theory of Givitivity.

Yeah, “Givitivity”= new language for what I’ve recently REALLY downloaded.

During a recent talk I gave on  Authentic Power in Leadership at The Alchemy Conference, I shared four alchemic secrets. Secret #4 dove unabashedly into this truth: Authentic Power – the kind of real power that’s outside of the paradigm of struggle, effort, and egoic validation – CAUSES miracles and magic. And, here’s the secret, it is born out of being motivated from a place of being of PURE SERVICE.

Once again, it’s paradoxical because we all want to be truly powerful, to have a positive impact on our world, and to create our destiny and the blissful life we are yearning to live. We also want to get enough sleep, be present and patient with our children, be effective in the boardroom, and still have vital energy left to maybe even have a date night once in a while, and not feel like we’re somehow failing and disappointing those who “depend” on us.

And yet the truth is that for most successful powerful women in the world, our success was really motivated out of an egoic need to be externally validated. Close your eyes and get really present to that. External validation vs. pure service. And here’s the PARADOX – when the motiviation genuinely shifts, you have INFINITELY more power in the world. You really do begin to be a bit of a DIVINE SORCERESS, creating magic and having levels of impact and creative brilliance simply because you walked into the room…

The Theory of Givitivity – GIVE IT ALL BABY! Truth is when you start giving from THIS place, you can’t give it away fast enough, because the universe replenishes and replaces it with exponential amounts of creativity, joy, bliss, and just plain good stuff.

Ask yourself daily, “Where am I motivated from?” And just listen…
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On Tuesday mornings, I go to this fantastic Hip Hop dance class.  Now I’ve always thought of myself as a  gal who could shake my  groove thing (sudden memories flood in of shimmying down to The Commodores’ Brick House in junior high school – I know, I know I’m dating myself!!), but who would have thought that 30 years later, I would discover a great spiritual teaching by saying yes to my friend Dana’s insistent urgings to join her at HIP HOP class?

After a quick warm up, Darrell -  our talented funk guru – starts right in on the routine.  He breaks it up into small, easy to digest pieces.  Half time to begin.  First the steps, then add the arms and hips, then the attitude. 

Okay, these moves are completely new to my system.  No muscle memory to rely on.    Then, crank the music and we practice it to real time. Yikes, harder to put it all together,  but hey, this is fun despite the flailing of limbs and bootie in completely uncharted directions – at the very least the music is rockin’, and I’m moving…

The process continues for the next hour: moving on to each new sequence, then adding it on, taking it from the top, each time getting more confident. Funk it up. 

By the end of my first class, we danced a full routine several times. I was HOOKED!! 

Later, I was reflecting on what made this learning process so fun and rewarding.  It was the attention to THE TRANSITIONS. 

After learning each new sequence, we wouldn’t go back to the top immediately. Rather, just back one sequence, practice it together with the new one through the transition.  The body and mind could grasp it much more easily.  Then back to the top.

Yes, learning how to GRACEFULLY MASTER THE TRANSITIONS. It’s a metaphor for life. 

We all have so many things we do that create the overwhelming activity of our day to day living.  How are you doing with the transitions?  Are you present, or Do you go unconscious as you shift out of finishing the dishes, and into getting yourself to the presentation that you’re about to give, to reading a book to your 5 year old, to getting yourself to the gym, to being available to your dear friend who really needs you right now?  

Of course our charge it to be fully present during each moment of each of these activities, but how present are you DURING the transitional moments? 

These are the moments that require as much attention. Why? Because it keeps us engaged in our commitment and practice to be present always.  But more importantly, learning how to transition from this moment to the next, from this demand to the next, from this meeting/activity to the next allows us to BECOME MASTERFUL AT FLOW. It’s about shifting out of framing your day as calendar or list of “to do’s” and TURNING IT INTO A DANCE. 

Can you get present and joyful to life during the transitional moments?  Can you be as interested in becoming graceful and excellent during those moments? 

If you can, I promise, something magical happens.  Life does become a fluid dance, where every step becomes part of your unique expression, and you step into greater co-creative partnership with the universe and ALL that is. 

Affirm often: I am a Master of the transitions. My life is a joyful dance, a contribution to the world, and an artful and unique expression of my innate joy, gifts, creativity, and divinity.

BUST YOUR MOVES TODAY, STAY PRESENT TO THE TRANSITION, and see what unfolds…

Recently my friend, Minister and fellow Spiritual Practitioner, Leon Campbell, took the pulpit at Agape Spiritual Center and delivered an absolutely beautiful talk. Not only was it a dynamic message but he delivered it in a way that was uniquely his, artfully weaving his amazing gifts as a powerhouse singer throughout.

One thing that really stayed with me was his particular take on the power of silence as an essential part of spiritual practice. “Be speechless for God” he encourages. As a singer, he explained it this way: “Without the silence, there would be no music.” Catch that for a moment. “Without the silence, there would be NO music!”

If there were no transitional silences between the notes, it would be a single unpunctuated, never-ending (and no doubt, irritating) note. There would be no music. Rev. Leon referenced the great Sarah Vaughn as a true master of silence. Not only did her dextrous expression of silence create her music, it infused it with greater meaning, richness and impact.

Ask yourself: Are you punctuating the notes of your daily life with enough silence?

Be still and know that all is well. I know that the power of your music rests in the silent spaces in between your sacred notes…

Yesterday, many Americans found their way to bountiful tables of food and festivity with family, friends and football (say that 10 times fast). The next morning, after the coma-inducing tryptophan, starch, butter, and sugar–laden meals have worn off,  Americans wake up to a day coined “Black Friday” – the biggest shopping day of the year and the first day that the nation’s retailers go from the red into the black.

The collective consciousness seems to instantly shift from offering authentic thanks for our many blessings to offering greenbacks in a pre-Christmas buying frenzy, often losing a hold of the very real gratitude in our hearts  just a day before.  For many, the kindness and generosity that was so easily expressed is lost the moment you hit the mall parking lot.

What if we were to reframe this holiday time starting with Thanksgiving Day through New Year’s Day, this approximate 30 day period, as the start of a intentional DAILY practice of gratitude?  Rather than focusing on merely ONE day a year, why not consecrate it as the FIRST day of stepping into a higher, more conscious STATE of gratitude for your life?  And actually making it a CHOICE.

Many of us have heard that it takes a month to create a new habit. I invite all of us into a sacred challenge to allow this holiday period – today through New Year’s Eve – to be YOUR time to forge a habit of gratitude.

So regardless of whether your day includes being at the malls for the early bird specials or finding yourself as FAR AWAY from shopping as possible, be inspired to find several daily moments to stop, become aware of what you can be grateful for,  and offer thanks to yourself, to others, and to your higher power.  By doing so, you actually shift into a different state, a higher vibration, that in turn informs more conscious thoughts, words, actions and responses.

Let’s agree to joyfully take on this challenge.  I know that by New Year’s Day, you will have adopted a new way of being, and created a whole new trajectory that will support and nourish 2010 and beyond in extraordinary ways…