Intentional Bleeding

So earlier this month I did something I had never done before. I donated blood. I friend of mine is a regular donor and invited me, including the incentives that we will get a long-sleeved shirt (way more valuable than a t-shirt, she indicated) and a chance to win a car.  That's enough for me!

The phlebotomists were friendly, the pain minimal (though the finger-prick iron test caught me off guard - that's the worst part), and you can't leave without feeling good. I watched as other donors bags filled up while they occasionally squeezed a padded tube in their fists and sipped on juice.  Then I got in my chair and looked away when she put the needle in. Once it was going I started to check out the scene and felt really proud of myself that I made it there.

I only felt the true weight of what I had done once it was all over and I could see the blood, my blood, distinctly outside of my body.  That little bag right there of my life juice could be a crucial part in saving another person's life.  It is truly amazing when I think about it.

Kind of like when I started to learn about birth and realized how it is this incredible thing that our bodies do.  We can grow people inside of us (at least most of us who are female). It blows my mind. What blows my mind about giving blood is the fact that I give away blood that my save someone else and my body will just make more of it.

There is this balance that must be understood with blood.  We have plenty to give away (the blood bank says you can come back every two months). But it our bodies lose too much, like in an injury, we might die if we don't restore it.  When I think of that I figure giving blood is one of the best things I can do.

Believe

This year I received multiple cards that featured the classic animal rivals, dog, cat and mouse, as all living in harmony.  One was a card I got from my Dad (pictured below); the other was an interactive email card I got from a client where you help these animals build a snowman.

It may very well be that these cards appear every year around the holidays or that animals working together is just a general theme of cards in general. I'm not saying that it is not. But this is the first time I have noticed it and can't help but feel that now more than ever there is this message that we all ned to put down our predatory instincts and just get along.  We need to believe it can happen or else get swallowed in our own fear or someone else's.

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Note: This is how studying years of literature can affect one's perception of life as it presents itself.

Proof

Maybe instead I should title this post, "Poof!" because that was what it seemed like.

So, it's been a slow month business wise.  I hear I am not the only one, but I also know people that are thriving and so I refuse to get stuck in, "It's the economy..."  Maybe it is partly, but its also me.

I hadn't had bodywork in months, which was ridiculous because I work in the same building with therapists I trade with and had multiple credits with them.  I even had a few gentle nudges to complete the trades because they were ready for more bodywork.  But something was holding me back.

My rationale was that I didn't want to schedule something at a time that a client may then want...sounded reasonable.  Last week I finally got worked on by one of my trade buddies and expressed this to her and she immediately set me straight.

"No, you've got it backwards.  If you take the time out of your schedule to get worked on, then your clients will take time out of their schedule to get worked on.  And they will schedule around your sessions."

Oh yes, that makes since.  If I am not taking out time to get worked on (and when business is slow it is not like I don't have the time), then how do I expect my clients to do the same.

So that night, in a very determined fashion, I scheduled my remaining bodywork credits.  Within a few hours I had a new client on my books for that week. The next day I heard from a few returning clients and had more business call than I had had in a week.

Poof!

Jus' sayin...

Strategizing

I'm starting to get real serious about utilizing the internet for its full networking potential.  I'm posting more frequently on Facebook, started my LinkedIn profile, and even begun tweeting.  And I am not allowing myself to begrudge any of it (at least, not for consecutive moments).  I've started realizing that I better change my attitude if I want to keep my job.

An advertising professor friend of mine sat with me last week and gave me a list of questions to help me better understand how to create a campaign.  I already have a structure to work from but since I branched out a lot this year, creating three distinct companies under the Upward Spiral umbrella (see sidebar links), it was definitely time to regroup and strategize.

In a conversation with another friend of mine probably 6 months ago I was given some great insight into my business that is providing great inspiration for questions like, "What do I stand for?" or "What makes me stand out?" My friend explained to me that I'm not selling bodywork, or healing, or anything like that. I'm selling positivity. People come to see me because they want to feel good, because I help them believe that they can get better.

Since I started this business in 2009, my slogan has been: Embody Your Potential.  I say that I help others be more of who they really are.  But now I see that it is also about learning what we are capable of.  One of the reasons I decided on the name Upward Spiral is because the acronym is US.  I firmly believe that my work helping others to become more is directly related to myself becoming more.  I want my business to be a source of personal growth more me as well.  So far, it has.

And I guess while I am exploring all I am capable of, I might as well pursue my potential at online marketing.

The Game

I follow Seth's Blog and though I don't always read it, I did yesterday.  The title was, "Four stages of the game," and he writes:

• You don't even realize there's a game. (And any contest, market, project or engagement is at some level a game).
• You start getting involved and it feels like a matter of life or death. Every slight cuts deeply, every win feels permanent. "This is the most important meeting of my life..."
• You realize that it's a game and you play it with strategy. There's enough remove for you to realize that winning is important but that continuing to play is more important than that. And playing well is most important.
• You get bored with the game, because you've seen it before. Sometimes people at this stage quit, other times they sabotage their work merely to make the game feel the way it used to.
• And then a new, different game begins.

I love how it is titled "Four stages..." and he has 5 things listed. This connotes the cyclical nature of the game, similarly as explained by explained by Alan Watts in "Game of Black-and-White":

I have this saying, which was surely said by someone else before:

When we are all one, we've all won (the game, that is).  Remember, you must be present to win. 

The Example of Monks

I thought I would close out November with a poem I discovered this month. Oh how I love Billy Collins and his sense of sacred in the everyday.  I feel so light and unconcerned by the end of the poem that the weight of the ending almost goes unnoticed. 

November

 

After three days of steady rain -
over two inches said the radio -
I follow the example of monks
who write by a window, sunlight on the page.

 

Five times this morning,
I loaded a wheelbarrow with wood
and steered it down the hill to the house,
and later I will cut down the dead garden

 

with a clippers and haul the soft pulp
to a grave in the woods,
but now there is only
my sunny page which is like a poem

 

I am covering with another poem
and the dog asleep on the tiles,
her head in her paws,
her hind legs played out like a frog.

 

How foolish it is to long for childhood,
to want to run in circles in the yard again,
arms outstretched,
pretending to be an airplane.

 

How senseless to dread whatever lies before us
when, night and day, the boats,
strong as horses in the wind,
come and go,

 

bringing in the tiny infants
and carrying away the bodies of the dead.

 

-Billy Collins

Live Your Life

A few weeks ago I was driving home listening to the radio and was reminded why I love interviews so much.

This episode of Fresh Air with Terry Gross features Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are and many others, and is one of the best radio moments I have heard. The 20 minute interview brings out the ancient wisdom within Sendak as he discusses his life and work. Much of it focuses on his relationships with others. His lover who's crossed over, and more recently, two close friends. He has aged as well and reflects on this experience with awe and delight mixed with deep grief.

At least listen to the last few minutes. There is the purest exchange between Terry and Maurice in which their sincere friendship and love for each other rises up. I could feel it, could you?

Listen Here.