Back to the Om...

I am embracing it I think... finally, but especially in when it is in mantra form. I am admittedly still not so impressed with it in solo form, however. Specifically, I think I'm particularly unimpressed when it seems like certain teachers try to "OM" for 20 seconds longer than anyone else in the class... to the point where their voice is crackly and scratchy... and especially because I thought it was a sound to bring everyone in the room together, not practice solo opera singing!!! You know who you are, yoga teachers! I personally prefer the togetherness of the OM but even more so the symbolism of the mantras that are often involved.

The mantra I was just reading about is Om Namah Shivaya, probably the most famous (?).

ॐ नमः शिवाय

I read a bit more about what it means after a bit of chanting that I unknowingly got myself into the past couple Thursday evenings in an Anusara mixed levels yoga class that completely, 110% empowers me. Just ask Natalie and Alice because I could not shut up about it last Thursday, and the Thursday prior, Natalie got an SMS from me exclaiming that I can do anything in the world. Anyway, I embraced the OM, finally, and it was because the whole "song" (what is it called when a mantra is sung?) that my favourite Michael Lau leads us in for Anusara class. There is a lot more to it, but it does start off with "Om Namah Shivaya" and then follows a bit about gratitude to your teachers, their teachers, and their past teachers, and so on.

Essentially, the mantra, if you break it down, represents the elements that govern the chakras, such as earth, water, fire, air, and earth. Then each piece of the sounds contained in the mantra mean something as well. They each represent a part of our "body" (referred to as mayakosa in Sanskrit). For example, "Na" refers to the whole physical body (also referred to as annamayakosa). The "ma" component refers to the prana or energy (pranamayakosa), "Shi" or "Chi" refers to the mental acumen (manonmayakosa), "va" refers to the intellect (vignanamayakosa), and "ya" refers to the blissful body (anandamayakosa). Again, the "OM" or perhaps more importantly, the silence beyond the sounds of the three syllables that make up the "OM" refers to the soul or the life within oneself.

But what does this all mean? Apparently I'm not the only one who finds the ideas behind this mantra hard to interpret.... but it has been done and is perhaps what most closely resonates with me the most broad, most general, and most appropriate for me:

Peace and salutations to that which I am capable of becoming.

So behind... or am I?

I am longing to blog, to write, to think, to focus on my thoughts and funnel them into a collection medium of some sort. So why don't I set aside the time to do it? Why am I so distracted? I have spring fever I know. I realized that yesterday while sitting on a patio having such an incredibly thought-provoking conversation with a fiction (non-fiction inspired fiction, I'd call it) author (friend of a friend who was also there and engaged in the convo) called Adrian Tilley sipping a glass of pinot grigio. Well I can't say I'm not thinking or even communicating my thoughts, as I am... maybe even more than usual. I had some really engaging dialogue with Fanny while having a fantastic brunch at my favourite Life Cafe in Soho and then again with both Adrian and Fanny on aforementioned patio. I had a fantastic meeting on Saturday with my supervisor -- fish physiologist and comparative physiologist extraordinaire, and while generous and fun to be around can be kind of a big-headed, insensitive guy sometimes -- along with my collaborator who is visiting here for a year from the University of Xiamen. So, it was a really great weekend for communication, and I came off of both days, Saturday and Sunday, feeling really positive and articulate. Take note, I came out of my science-based meeting on Saturday feeling SMART!

Actually, I have had some incredible conversations over the past few weeks... too many examples to even name, perhaps, now that I am trying. The experiences that are most profound

centred around my visit with Kelly. She is my very, very good friend... I

call her my soul sister, was in town visiting for 2 weeks (see last post on Maintaining). I would say that we had several opportunities where inspiration was inescapable, and the mood fostered some great dialogue. For one, we spent a day on Lantau Island to see some fishing villages as well as the world-famous Tian Tan Buddha, the largest outdoors free-standing buddha in the world. I challenge the person that isn't inspired by at least a bit when hiking up to a buddha that stands 25m and is surrounded by some of the most beautiful tropical vegetation and seascapes you could imagine. This photo is actually my own... yes... it is that incredible!

Then we took a side trip to Malaysia for a long weekend. Of course we were traveling together, which elicits some interesting conversation regardless, but we were also in several situations where thoughts came up that may not have under other circumstances. We tried new food, we learned a couple words of a new language (Malay), and of course we saw new countryside and experienced new cultural traditions. There was a moment at the Sri Mariamman Hindu temple in town where music was playing and we were both nearly in tears, as it was so beautiful. On another day, we took an hour-trip out of the city centre to see the world's tallest Murugan

statue situated in front of the gorgeous Batu caves, an all encompassing Hindu place of worship, solace, comfort, inspiration (see photo to the right, also my photo!). Murugan is perhaps the most popular Tamil Hindu deity of all, which says a lot because Hindus have so many deities! There is a long-standing thought that Hindus "worship" 330 million gods, which makes Christians and those from other monotheistic faiths not too happy. I don't think they'd be called gods, for one... deities more appropriate. And many scholars will argue that there is no way they could even have named 330 million! Have you seen the names to some of these? Lots of letters! I've read that the number 330 million was simply used to give a symbolic expression to the fundamental Hindu doctrine that "God" lives in the hearts of all living beings, which is most beautiful. Furthermore, I think this is an ideology that most can appreciate, respect, and embody regardless of professed faith/religion or lack thereof... if everyone just took a moment to really think about it. As you can imagine, Kelly and I were compelled (at one point in particular) to discuss how we were completely, 100%, and thoroughly overwhelmed with how vast the Hindu faith is and how neither of us knew even an ounce of it.

I guess I've been blogging in my head... definitely about the past two or three weeks of life-altering, once in a lifetime experiences. I have had some really interesting thoughts about yoga and other life happenings as well, one of which has led me on perhaps a wild goose chase to find a sculpture of the chin mudra... I'll save that for another post.

Regardless of the schedule I keep, I am, right now, at this moment realizing how freeing and exhilarating it is to take everything from my head (crazy place) and make some sense of it on the screen or a page. Thank you for inspiring me... for your comments (keep 'em coming, they FUEL ME!!!)... and for your support!

Continuing the theme of strengths

In my last long post, I left off wondering how to effectively identify our natural talents. We are told as children and young adults what our talents are. There were things I was "good" at, like ballet, long-distance running, teamwork-related activities, a bit of art/creative stuff, etc. Yes, these were things I liked to do but I was also told that I was good at them and should further pursue them. Told by whom? Do these people, regardless of how close they are to us (friends, family, teachers, etc.) really take into consideration how we are reacting and feeling about a certain said talent? Maybe. Sometimes they do have a bird's eye view. Furthermore, do these "talents" change as we enter adulthood? Everything else changes as we enter adulthood, as we start to make it our utmost priority to be functioning and influential adults in our families, communities, career fields, etc. How do our natural "talents" influence how we function in these respects? How do our "talents," which we can develop into "strengths" help us become good leaders in said aspects of our lives? That is what I'm hoping to figure out.

So far, I've learned a few things about how to discover talents, but I'm still unsure if my talents have always been or how they've changed throughout my life. My brilliant wife reminded me a while back to pay attention to activities I'm doing where I completely lose track of time because I am so "in to" whatever it is I'm doing. I can think of many, such as:

1. some types of art projects,

2. analyzing data,

3. developing a really neat research idea,

4. cooking,

5. making graphs and figures for a manuscript,

6. working on a presentation,

7. developing a lecture or seminar,

8. hanging out with friends, talking, playing games

9. going for a hike

10. writing my blog

11. exercising or talking about exercise and nutrition.

This list names a few of these types of activities that, in my life, I can get carried away and

completely lose track of time. However, I wonder a bit, as some are not consistently like that, e.g. meaning that I consistently lose track of time enjoying what I am doing. For example, sometimes I'm doing yoga and wondering when it will be over! Ha ha!! Does that mean that yoga is not a talent? Hmmm... I realize that this strategy is only a start to figuring things out, however. I've read to pay attention to five distinct themes regarding an activity, hobby, sport, etc.

1. Yearnings: you feel as though an internal force leads you to that activity or environment over and over and over again.

2. Rapid learning: while doing this activity, you find as though it is easy for sparks to fly and you really understand what is going on, are able to acquire any new skills associated with that activity or gain new knowledge associated with the ideas of the activity

3. Satisfaction: you feel a sense of great achievement when participating in these activities, when you take on and successfully meet challenges, they are extremely energizing experiences , fuelling you

4. Timelessness (close to what I was referencing above): you become so engrossed in this activity you completely lose track of time

5. Glimpses of excellence: you or others observe moments of outstanding performance in these activities

I can think a bit more about these five themes and the aforementioned 11 talents I think that I have, based on timelessness. Do they fit for the other four criteria as well? Yes and no. Having said that, I have also been going through the first module of Level 1 of Susanne Conrad's goal setting and leadership program. Part of this module involved interviewing people that are very close to you about their perception of you (me). I have interviewed 7 of the 8 people in my life that I definitely wanted to interview. I'd like to interview a few more that are close to me, but this has been a good start. The hard part for me has been that it has to be via voice at least, if not in person, which would be ideal because this module also dealt with communication, specifically listening. Being 8, 14, or 16 hours time difference to almost everyone on this list made that logistically challenging, but with skype I have managed to make it happen. However, I'm still waiting to work out a time and day with my sister, who has been ill. Germane to the earlier rhetoric on talents and strengths, the majority of the nine questions request your friend/family member/colleague, whomever you are interviewing to describe your strengths and talents. For example, "What do you see as my key strengths?" "When am I most powerful?" and "When am I most inspired?" I'm finding this most helpful... incorporating perceptions of me by others that are extremely close to me, on one level or another. This is equally important, in my mind, as figuring out things on my own. Because these people are being lead by me, influenced by me, and/or inspired by me in some way or another, by seeing ME inspired and feeling great about what I am doing. It is that kind of back-and-forth reciprocity that is the whole point of this!

I'd like to talk more about others' perceptions of me relative to my talents (that I have developed into strengths), but given that I committed to including my sister's thoughts, I really want to wait and thus will save that information for a post a little later in the week. Meanwhile, as I am hugely supportive of Strengths based Leadership and Strengths Finder, which are Gallup-based survey protocols to help people sift through the nonsense of every day life and identify their strengths and talents. I highly recommend this to anyone and everyone, especially if you are in this transitional-type period of your life. This has really given me a foundation to further explore my talents and hone my strengths as a result. Furthermore, I am more cognizant of those with which I surround myself, not only on a personal/friend day-to-day basis, but also in my professional life and eventually the laboratory and research team I am establishing during my career as a scientist.

So, I started reading the the Strengths based Leadership book last summer (2010) and a lot of the content really resonated with me, leading me to take the very long strengths-finder test that they offer online if you own the book. The overall theme of the book was that knowing your strengths and investing in others' strengths, getting people with the right strengths on your team, and understanding and meeting the four basic needs of those who look to you for leadership is what being a good leader is all about. Again, at the brink of a major transition point in my career, I thought that there could be no better time!

Four basic domains of leadership (needs of those that look to you for leadership):

1. Executing: a good leader needs to be able to put an idea into motion, they take an idea and make it happen

2. Influencing: a good leader can take charge, speak up, and yes... influence people

3. Relationship building: good leaders can create groups and organizations that are much greater than the sum of their parts, they are likened to the glue that can bind ideas and people together to work even better as a group

4. Strategic thinking: good leaders can easily absorb and quickly analyze information while determining how it will affect future actions and make better decisions

Every leader will have their strengths spread out between these four domains differently. It is the domains that don't get filled by the leader that raise the awareness as to the type of people he/she wants to attract to his/her team. This is what makes me think that I will be a good academic supervisor (graduate students and supervising large projects and communicating huge ideas) because my strengths, I've found, fall into every category except the first domain (executing). In other words, I'm just not strong at actually doing the project. I can get it going, get the team together, get the information and planning done, and get everyone motivated, but when it comes to collecting the data... that's where I need my team!

You can't imagine how validating that is! For years, I've thought something was wrong with me. I'd love getting a project going but actually doing the experiments... nah! Well, let me back up. I love doing the experiments the first few times, but once they get to be routine... I'd prefer to move on! But then when it was time to sort through the data and determine how to communicate it all and get everyone excited about our findings... I'm back! This sounds kind of bizarre, I'm sure.

So, drum roll... my strengths are as follows:

Within the "Executing" domain:

nothing

Within the "Influencing" domain:

1. Activator

2. Maximizer

Within the "Relationship Building" domain:

3. Harmony

4. Individualization

Within the "Strategic Thinking" domain:

5. Learner

There are 34 "strengths" in total, and the survey/testing is based on scenarios that are given and your responses to those scenarios. I remember it taking a long time, at least an hour to complete. But I am very intrigued with the outcome and integrating it into my plans for my future, both in my career and in my personal life.

I'm going to spend the next few blog posts to delve into what each of these "strengths" mean to me and how I will utilize them to the utmost potential in setting and achieving my goals and continuing to surround myself with the types of people that a) are in line with my values, b) will help highlight my strengths, and -- because of their own innate talents and strengths that I have learned to recognize and appreciate -- c) will make up for my weaknesses. I'm sensing my favourite word coming on... interdependence. I leave it at that for tonight!

To be continued...

2011 has a very inspiring feel so far!

1Jan11, 2:30pm Hot yoga with Michael Lau

2Jan11, 8:45am-7pm day filled with a long hike through the mountains in the Northeaster New Territories

3Jan11, 7am: Hot yoga with Michael Lau

4Jan11, 6:30pm: Hatha yoga with Shirley Wong

Wow, what a year so far, and I'm at this moment only 71 hours into it! I have so much rolling around in my head, as I have been thinking A LOT over the past few weeks, let alone over the calendar year transition. Some of it will most definitely have to wait for a future post. Meanwhile, I'll see what comes together here, right now.

First off, I want to mention that I am inspired... daily... hourly even! Just on this... the world wide web... the triple-w, ha ha, I am consistently inspired by my closest friends and family, by old acquaintances from years past, new acquaintances from last week, and even perfect strangers. I think I could read my twitter feed all day and barely have a moment to sip my coffee between connecting with recommended blogs, news stories, and viewing twitpics. I know everyone is on the internet and social media for different reasons. I, for one, am on the internet to stay connected with friends and family, as I've mentioned so many times when creating this blog, and that is probably the most common use. Ok. Secondly, however and sometimes primarily, I connect because to me my network is my catalyst... my network catalyzes my thoughts and actions through inspiration. All of you... you trigger great things in my brain, heart, and soul... you make me want to read more, write more, think more, talk more, love more... it's fantastic! So, thank you. Here are a few bloggers that have either been inspiring me for years or literally only a few days, respectively... thank you...

...for telling it like it is but in a mindful way, for concomitantly dissing and embracing yoga and yogis and unnamed black stretchy pants, for your honesty, for being damn prolific, and for posts such as "Confessions of a Buddhist Dumbass", you make me feel like the path to spiritual enlightenment (or whatever that means to me now and in the future), is possible... you know, for us every day people: Elephant Journal

... for pointing out the interesting, funny, and momentous in and around Vancouver, for your energy and vigour for life, your travelbug, your planning and goal-setting, your ability to celebrate your accomplishments and encourage others to do so as well, and last but definitely not least, your open love for Oprah: Gotcurls

... for digging deep into the core of yourself and others and trying to understand and give meaning to life, love, success... some via yoga and meditation, some via your innate healing and empathic self, for reaching for the stars and goal-setting, yet for also being ok with whatever the day brings: inspire.believe.embrace

... for having the courage to keep setting new goals, despite having everything you have always wished for and worked for, and openly admitting that, for being honest, for using your blog as an opportunity to explore how you can find new ways to make the world a better place, for reminding and covertly encouraging the rest of us to set goals in the most success-possible way, and most importantly to me, for reminding us how important it is to be happy, and what that might be: What to wish for next?

... for finding a creative way to combine you and your life partner's genius ideas to share with the rest of us in the blogosphere, for the great recipes obviously, for the laughter, for being light-hearted, yet curious and genuinely interested in life and happiness, and for being honest and true to yourself while maintaining a sense of humour: A Closed Mouth Gathers No Food

Others worth mentioning because they also inspire me:

Ecocentric

Care2

Dr. Weil

Intent

Good

Isn't it great that we are living in a world now where an inspiration can be merely a click away?