Minimal Viable Commitment

  We have grand plans. We have huge visions. We are ambitious. There are so many things we want to do. At times it has a momentum all of its own, other times we feel overwhelmed and internally feel more like a deflated balloon than a rocket ship.Reaching our goals, we know, is about sustaining momentum and building good habits. But how? There are many ways, but is little trick is one I have used with developing my home yoga practice, which applies across the board, to business and beyond. I call it, Minimal Viable Commitment. My promise to myself that at a minimum I must step onto my yoga mat each day. That is all. I must step onto my yoga mat each day. It is so little it is almost comical. But what happens when I do that. My yoga mat represents more than just a mat- it represents the mental and emotional space of practice, of calming of the mind and offers a safe space in which to explore and connect with myself. So when I step onto the space of the mat, I am also entering into the psychological space of practice. To me that mat is sacred, and my minimal viable commitment means that I get to enter that space each day.  And more often than not, I will do more than just step onto the mat; I’ll practice for 5 min, 10 mins, 30 mins, 60 mins, 90 mins… depending on the day, and depending on my mood. My commitment is easy to keep, and because it is easy, it means I do it. And if there is a day where all I do is step on my mat, I don’t go down a big guilt trip, because that is all I have committed to and it makes it easier to commit to again and again and again.I’m all for big goals but I am also realistic. What does it take to break those goals down into smaller, manageable, bite sized chunks? What would your equivalent of ‘stepping onto the mat’ be for whatever goal you are setting? Maybe it is writing one line of your book a day, or picking your paintbrush, or taking one photo on your camera phone a day, or reaching out to one potential client each day. Something doable and something you can easily build into your daily routine.What is your minimal viable commitment? ... which before long will become a habit, which before long transforms us…...For those of you interested using an app to track your habits, my friend Mic Fizgerald has built a tool for you. Mic is a serial tech entrepreneur (he has also built One Page CRM)- he is an avid fan of habit keeping and so Habi.io was born to help you keep yours…(only available on iPhone at the moment)

The Magic of Tidying

 I have been converted. To a tidy person. Which, believe me, is a mighty revelation.For years I have walked around with the label of ‘untidy’, which at times edged its way into the realms of ‘disorganised’, ‘scatty’ and even ‘lazy’. I have carried these internal labels like little scars, marking out some internal gauge of moralistic cleanliness and taking on the outer mantel of their meaning.Since as long as I can recall, I have been untidy. My room often looked like a bomb had hit it, with clothes piled up on a chair, a cluttered desk and warren of cables, books, art supplies and random bits and bobs. But it always bothered me. I would occasionally go on a tidying binge and for a few days my room would look ordered and beautiful, and with that order came a calmer mind. But the untidy demons would soon creep back in again, the bomb would explode and with it came a sense of unease in my own space. I could never quite get a handle on it. The label of ‘untidy’ didn't sit well with me but I could not seem to shake it.Then along came a book. I had seen the book in the shop on many an occasion but had walked by with resistance. I had read reviews and thought the converts sounded smug. But one day, about a month ago, I was in the bookshop and without really intending to I found myself purchasing a copy.The woman at the counter was a convert too. It took about 10 minutes to buy the book because she started to explain all the ways it had changed how she interacts with her home, and subsequently, her life. Now I was both intrigued and scared. Really? Do I really want to do this?I took the book to a coffee shop and started reading. I was immediately hooked. This simple little book, written by a tidying zealot, had some clues I had been seeking. Something clicked. Suddenly I could see a way for the untidy demons to be banished and with it the label, and the scars.The book? Well, many of you may have heard about it already- ‘The Magic of Tidying’ by Marie Kondo. Marie, from Japan, takes her lifelong love of tidying and has created a system of decluttering and sorting every item you own and then putting it back in its own designated place. She starts with the premise that we hold on to too much, and the things around us are mirrors to our lives. She asserts, strongly, that we must first discard items, starting one category at a time- clothes, then books, then music and making our way to the more sentimental- love letters and photos. Holding each item we ask it, ‘Does this bring me joy?’, and if not- out with it.I finished reading the book while I was in Morocco recently.  Upon returning, I had two days between another trip and I immediately jumped into the process. Never before had I been excited about tidying. Bags were filled for the charity shops. Papers were recycled. Other items repaired. Books given away. And space emerged. I now own about half of the things that I used too, my room looks like a miracle and I find myself actually enjoying folding things! And after all these years of thinking of myself as an untidy person I can finally let go of the blemish, knowing that lifelong habits can indeed change.The process has deep subtlety too. Our things tell a story of us. Our clothes give a message of how we are to be perceived; the things around us say much about how we value ourselves and our space; and the shape of our space speaks of how we nourish ourselves.I found myself looking at my clothes and realising they were carrying an old Clare around, one which I have outgrown and no longer identify with. I discarded the majority of them. And my underwear- well let’s just say, 90% of it was binned, and in its place I have bought myself some beautiful items which feel lovely on the skin and are a joy to wear. It changes things. My sock drawer has never looked as well and my wardrobe has an order which makes me enjoy choosing what I will wear each day because only items that bring me joy are waiting for me. I have a lot less but am a lot happier with what I have and feel grateful for my choices.Beyond ordering the physical space, I found that there have mental shifts too- and there continues to be. Arising out of the question, ‘How can I tidy my physical space?’ came, ‘How can I tidy my mental clutter?’ I have found myself diving deeper into my meditation practice, which is also having implications- healthy ones- on my creative practice. And there is more space around my heart. During the tidying process I cleared away some old letters and trinkets from past relationships; letting go with thanks and gratitude, but knowing that they are not serving me now. Something deep seems lighter.Similarly I found myself asking, ‘How can I clean up my business, my finances, my diet,  my thought patterns and other habits which are no longer serving me?’  Now, the more I keep my physical space tidy, the more I have space for these shifts too. It has only been a few weeks but I know the untidy demons have been banished, and in their place, somethings calmer, steadier and more spacious is arising. I have more time and mental energy to create, unweighed by the static of the holding on to things which have lost their valence and energy.This is powerful stuff and yes, I am indeed a convert. But now a tidy one. And I can barely believe these words are coming from me. My mother would be proud. I can't wait to show her my drawers!‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up’. The ‘magic’ is there for a reason.

Creative Islanders: Mari Kennedy

Photo: Clare Mulvany

The Creative Islanders is a new interview series showcasing some of Ireland’s brightest creative talent and enterprise. It is about people who are stepping into their dreams, purpose and possibilities and embracing their one wild life. The interviews give a rare ‘behind the scenes’ glimpse into creative practice, motivations and mindsets- shining a light on what makes people tick, and how, collectively, Ireland is alive with creative possibility.

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Transformational leadership coach, yoga and mindfulness teacher, and facilitator, Mari Kennedy has been a pivotal friend and colleague in my own life, and in the lives of many. Her creativity spans many ventures including The Ireland Iceland Project, The Yoga Salon, and my own collaborations with her through Be Retreats.Mari has a special knack of sparking fresh conversations and insights, and creating learning spaces for rich and lasting change. She is always real, ever honest and just through her being inspires creative responses to life. She is great craic too and has been the brightest treasure of a friend anyone could wish for. It is such an honour to be able to include my creative collaborators in this interview series. So, go make yourself a cup of tea and dive into these rich words from the radiant, Mari Kennedy....(All photos by myself, apart from Cliff of Moher Retreat Centre, by Mari)

What keeps you in Ireland?

I ask myself this question all the time. Certainly for the first 30 years of my life it was a combination of being very close to my family and fear of the unknown. I was a funny mix of someone who dreamt of travelling and new experiences and a total home-bird, safety junky. The latter always won out. Deep down I was afraid of change and loss. Life threw me a few curve balls over the last 10 years, reminding me there is no such thing as safe, and ensuring that I understand that change and loss are the very essence of living- rather than fearing them they are to be danced with. Now I choose to stay here with a willingness at any moment to leave. I am in Ireland today because I am excited by what I see around me – friends, colleagues and clients who are asking bigger questions, choosing to live in a more courageous conscious way, desiring a different future for this particular corner of the earth and its inhabitants.

 (Mari speaking at Body & Soul Festival, Trailblaze event)

What makes you tick? What motivates you?

The mystery of life and attempting to show up to the adventure and the crazy complexity of being human. That excites me and terrifies me. I have learned to love the fact that everything is always changing, transforming and evolving. Everything! Think about it - in the utter bliss of kissing someone for the first time is the loss and ending of that relationship, whether it happens a day later or at the end of a lifetime of kisses. Isn’t that amazing and painful and beautiful all rolled up together? That’s what we have to deal with as humans.I love working with others developing and designing transformational experiences, events, programmes, retreats. Collaboration brings me alive. And yet it’s the most challenging thing I do because it always brings up shadow (the parts of me I prefer not to see or more significantly don’t want anyone else to see!).  It also demands that I stop trying to control people and situations. When we collaborate we are invited to stop relying solely on our own intelligence and trust in the bigger collective intelligence. Its pure magic but it is guaranteed to unearth the small self. My first attempt at collaboration was with Kathy Scott in the ireland:iceland project in 2011 and we’ve been playing with collaboration and learning ever since. More recently we created The Yoga Salon which allows us to bring other great creatives and yogis together.Inquiry and questioning is also something that makes me tick. Both self-inquiry and asking questions of how we are living as a society are essential to our evolution. I became a coach because coaching provides a place to safely question and open up new possibilities. The world I grew up in did not encourage questioning and it’s taken me a long time to relearn the questioning that was so natural as a 2 year old.The change I see happening in the world motivates me. It’s really exciting. One thing that really struck me in the last 12 months in my work in Leadership and Mindfulness is how mindfulness and wisdom practices are been taken on by organisations. I have been amazed at how deep people are going in the practice of meditation and how committed they are even in the middle of a busy office and hectic work load.

Photo: Cliffs of Moher Retreat Centre, Mari Kennedy

What does the creative process teach you?

Perfection is overvalued, impossible to sustain, and ultimately cold and clinical. Imperfection and brokenness are rich with potential and full of beauty.Play, curiosity and kindness are some of the forgotten portals into creativity.Mistakes are part of the process and to be celebrated as opportunities to encounter my small limited self (who hates them!). It teaches me to respect and revel in cycles, make friends with the unknown, listen and celebrate.That loss, confusion, discomfort when given space give rise to hitherto unimaginable possibilities.There’s a time to listen and there’s a time to act - and that is the process.

How do you get unstuck? Any secret tools?

Sit in the stuckness, stay close into the stuckness and inevitably it will open up. As our Celtic ancestors knew, everything begins from darkness. 

What do you do just for the love of it?

Jump off rocks into the sea. For the pure joy freedom and craic of it!My morning meditation- it connects me to larger belonging every day, keeps me close to my heart and to what really matters.I love words and I find myself collecting them like beads with the hope that some day I will string them together into a couple beautiful pieces.Making food–put me in a kitchen with music to sing along to, a fridge full of fresh beautiful food and I’m happy out.Reading poetry -Rilke, David Whyte, Hafiz, Rumi. I just got introduced to Marie Howe when someone recited “Annunciation” to me, standing in a field during Body and Soul and it blew my heart open. 

Where do you find inspiration? Any hidden gems?

Amazing women and men in my life who are stepping up, dealing with their shit, taking personal responsibility for their lives and speaking their truth. Having them accompany me at the edge of my own comfort zone as my friends is a daily inspiration. (You know who you are!)My Dad’s legacy of gratitude and seeing the good in all situations.Clients who sit opposite me and say “I’m lost” or “something needs to change in my life and I don’t know where to start”. I celebrate those moments of honesty as doorways to potential.Integral Theory makes sense of this complex world for me, and Theory U and the work of Otto Scharmer at MIT inspires me to live in the unknown.The research and work on mindfulness, empathy, compassion, neuroscience and the heart by people like Tanya Singer, Kristin Neiff, Richie Davison, Dan Segal, and The Institute of Heart Math inspire me to believe that we humans are evolving our capacity for compassion and empathy which potentially could enable us to create a caring society.

How do you get through tough times? What sustains you?

I recently read a quote “When somethings goes wrong in your life just yell “plot twist and move on". I found myself smiling and wanting to yell. I recently lost my home and that was really tough. I had to face fear, vulnerability, grief and shame. I was so grateful to have a practice that allowed me to meet and face all those feelings and allowed me to catch my tendency to fall into, 'poor me, nothing ever goes right...' You know the script!My practice of sitting with myself in meditation and inquiry got me through – it helped me to ultimately see that I have a choice to be the victim of this 'plot twist' or turn it into a jumping off point to a new and different life, one that is more real I suspect. One thing I know there is always gold to be mined in the challenge of plot twists. The steadfastness of my family, the extraordinary generosity, support and love of friends, and uncovering some shocking limiting beliefs are some of the gold I continue to mine. 

What key lessons have you learned about doing business or being a creative practitioner along the way ? What have you learned from your 'failures'?

Pausing is one of the most creative (and courageous) acts you can perform. We are so conditioned to be busy and always in our strategic mind. Pausing summons our creative mind.Right now I am experimenting with just that. I’ve been testing my capacity to press pause - and failing often – since I first realised, eleven years ago, that I was perpetually over-functioning and never ever stopped. When I first tried to stop back then I saw that I actually didn’t know how to even slow down. So here I am now, down in the West of Ireland, without a schedule, without a plan, with the intention of not filling up time with busyness. Sounds quite idealistic and dreamy but it’s actually excruciating at times not to reach for some distraction but to be in the nothingness of nothing to do. In that nothingness I see the panic that drives the busyness. The more I have learned to stop the more creative my life has become.Over-achieving and trying to be perfect or create perfection is exhausting. The more you allow yourself to be human and stop worrying about being right or “the expert”, the more innovative and creative you become.Through my failures I have learned how hard I am on myself and how that unconscious self-rejection has hijacked my life. Self-compassion and friends with a sense of humour REALLY helps.I have learned that curiosity keeps mind and heart open and that the capacity to take multiple perspectives creates connection and invites possibilities that otherwise would have been missed.Collaboration is immensely difficult for us humans at this stage in our evolution but hugely rewarding and essential for the future of humanity.

Do you have a morning routine? Or other creative habits or rituals?

Yes - I try to spend 60-90 minutes practicing. I pour (but don't always drink!) a litre of hot water with some cider vinegar, and I always sit. Then I do one or two of the following depending on time and what’s going on - yoga, dance, running hills, journaling, inquiring.Silence, setting intentions and checking in are some creative practices I also use. Silence connects us to something bigger, attention as a rule follows intention, and checking-in inspires empathy and connection.

What books have inspired you? Or what websites do you turn to? 

These days I listen and watch as much as read. I think Ken Wilber’s Kosmic Consciousness changed my life and my perspectives and I loved his dairy One Taste.Rilke’s Love Poems to God.Emily Bronte's Wuthering HeightsRoger Housden's Ten poems to Change your LifePema Codron's When Things Fall ApartDavid Whyte's The House of BelongingI love the writing of John Moriarty but I have yet to finish a book of his.Integral Life for all things Integral and the work of Ken Wilber.Tara Brach Darma TalksSounds True Insights at the Edge - some of the great leading edge thinkers in evolution.Yoga Glo -  great for home practice.The Love Revolution - Matt KahnMystic Mamma for bite sized pieces of wisdom and great images. 

What advice would you give to your future self?

I suspect my future self would have more interesting and useful advice to give my present self than other way around. So if I can turn it around my future self would ask me four questions:

What's asking for your attention?

What really matters to you?

What do you want to create?

What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?

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Thank you so much Mari! xx

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Mari's links:

The Yoga Salon

Cliffs of Moher Retreat Centre (Regular Guest Teacher)

Limits & Liberation: On learning to push the comfort zone.

 'Yes, of course I will do that', I said, receiving the phone call.I put down the phone and immediately wondered, 'Why on earth did I just say yes to that?'In the past, 'yes' has been a brilliant tool for enabling opportunities but on this occasion it nearly pushed me right over an edge; the edge of my comfort zone.'Yes' felt scary, big, and I didn't feel ready for it.It? Well it was an opportunity to paint at a festival alongside a musical score by Jim Moginie (formerly of Midnight Oil) with his electric guitar orchestra to a piece called 'The Colour Wheel'. The idea is beautiful- live performance, live audience and painting in response to the music. However, whether I could actualise that beauty was an entirely different conversation...My challenge was that I had never done anything like this before. In saying 'yes' the critical voice raised a very loud roar, bringing up so many of my vulnerabilities. 'Me? Painting in front of an audience? In response to music? With everyone looking at me? What if the painting just looks like mud? What it someone starts to heckle? What it I f**k it up? What if... 'I have known these voices before; they visit frequently. Thankfully, with experience, I have learned to name them and have figured out that we can reposition to critic too: 'This is fear speaking, how can I help you?'Fear can teach us many things. When we lean into it, fear can expand our capacity to act by gradually, gradually, pushing our comfort zone into new territories and calling us to investigate our edges further. On this occasion the fear was dense. About five days before the festival I was on the brink of ringing up Cornelia, the event organiser, to say that I was not able to do it. I had started to make excuses in my head. One of those excuses even went so far as, 'Well, I'm only five foot tall- how on earth will I be able to paint at scale?' Seriously! Fear really can make the most comical of augments.Luckily I realised that indeed this was fear speaking. So, I asked myself, 'What can I do to minimise the fear and bring it back to 'yes'?'Two main solutions presented themselves. Firstly, the idea of boundaries- 'Simplify and reduce your options; create restrictions'. And secondly, an understanding that this is not going to be an exercise in perfection but an experiment with process.I rang an artist friend for advice too (thank you Eimear). Her kind words of friendship were a balm.So, with the solutions in mind, and Eimear's friendly cheerleading, I decided to limit my colour palate and choose a motif to work with- in this case circles (since the piece was called the colour wheel). In setting some ground rules for myself, suddenly came freedom. 'With those parameters, what can I do? What patterns can emerge? And how can I push the motif to create something new?'Over the next few evenings I experimented a bit at home- first making small quick drawings in my sketchbook, then larger colour experiments to test my palate, and then creating large scale drawings while playing Jim's music in the background. On the third evening a pattern or idea began to emerge, one which I knew I could transfer to the real event, and a sense of the possible emerged again. We were back to yes.As in art, so in life.The whole experience served a huge reminder to me: when we place some boundaries and restrictions, creativity can flourish and freedom arises.It seems contradictory to limit ourselves to liberate ourselves, but somehow it works.  It was a reminder too of why I continue my own practices- that daily route back to my yoga mat, whether I am in the mood or not, if only for a few minutes. The practice is a boundary to create the freedom and is an enabler for creativity to flow. Practice, you come to realise, does not make perfect. But practice does lead to a place beyond it all, where there is no such thing as perfect, which is in fact perfect in and of itself. This is the circle of things.So there I was on Sunday, painting in front of an audience. What I produced was no masterpiece, in my mind it was far from 'perfect', but it was me showing up with all my vulnerable and stepping right up to the edge of my comfort zone. In doing so I stepped across it and will, I hope,  have forever expanded it, with fear and imperfection at my five foot nothing side.I'll raise my hand and confess that I don't love what I created but I loved the experience, and I love too that I did not let fear take me over. Rather I let fear have its own rightful place, as an aid and an ally.Plus I got collected that day by a rock star. And I'm pretty cool with that too! Merci Jim.(Special thanks to Jim Moginie and Cornelia Mc Carthy for facilitating this experience- my edges are grateful and my comfort zone is relishing in its new found sense of space!)Photos by Cornelia Mc Carthy.

'Mindless' Photography

I've fallen in love, and out of love, many times. With my camera that is. (The other love is another story- or many!)

Last weekend it took a lake and a quiet moment to turn the love back on. At the best of times my camera and I feel as one – showing up to each other to capture something special, if just for a moment. And last weekend it felt like the best of times again.

The weekend took me to the shores of Lough Derg where my friends Kieron & Sue were hosting a party. They live on the lake shore. It being a full house, I opted for camping, excited that the lake would be the first thing I would see in the morning and the last thing at night. I had spent some chunks of my childhood on that lake, boating with parents and hopping in for swims. The memories were back as reminders of the best of times too.

Early morning, the light was rising. The party goers were still snoozing but the birds had me up with their cheer and dawn insistence. So me and camera went to the lake for a while, first to swim and then just to be.

Then came the click, physically and metaphorically.

There are moments as a photographer where meditation and that very moment merge. The image is all absorbing and the camera merely becomes a vessel through which that moment is amplified and, by virtue of grace, you happen to be there to capture it.

It can take you elsewhere in an instant.

First you are separate and in a click you are one- you, the object, the light, nature, the breath, the presence and the mystery of it all. In a way, the image captured is irrelevant- you aim for beauty but if the moment is beautiful then that is art in itself. The image is icing.

Which is where the love comes back. Some call it mindful photography. But it could equally be called heartful and mindless photography, for when you can allow the moment to arrive and swell the heart with love, the mind is elsewhere, absorbed into the expanse and otherness, the nothingness; that meditative place which can sometimes seem so illusive when trying to get there sitting on a cushion or stretching in a yoga pose.

Click.

Just that moment is enough to give a taste of what art opens. My camera forever changes me, for the heart remains swelled, expanded and more capable of capturing it again, experiencing that sense of openness, and timelessness, and love.

My camera teaches me many things: to sit, to be, to listen, to wait, to observe, to sense, to intuit, to investigate, to be open, if only for that moment, to the magic of it all. But perhaps most importantly it teaches me to love, breaking the heart open again, and again, and again, for an expanded sense of presence and expanded sense of being, mindlessly. Click. Click. Click.

On Flipping Fear

First up, thank you all for the thumbs up, support, and shout outs about my new ventures- so very much appreciated. I can only do this work with the cheerleading support of others who help to spread the word- so again THANK YOU. My beautiful friend Sas sent me some flowers too- it was a big surprise and greeted with much glee.

Launching anything is a complex and interesting process- especially products, services or art that is so close to your heart. In the creative world our hearts and values are so often exposed that it can feel tender and oh so very vulnerable, so much so that it can stop us in our tracks out of fear of criticism, ridicule, rejection or failure.

I am coming to realise more and more that those fears are a natural part of the process- to deny them is to deny the very nature of what it takes to create. However, it is how we navigate them that makes all the difference.

Fear can be fuel too.

Yesterday, all those fears and vulnerabilities were there for me, louder that I had originally anticipated. The negative 'what if's' started to be voiced. 'What if people don't 'get it', 'what if the website crashes', 'what if it won't work out for me'.. and so on (blah blah!)

But if we give into those voices, nothing gets done and the creative process itself is denied its full expression and the opportunity to run its true course.

So what to do? How do we find space between the critical voices to find room to push onwards with an open heart?

For me, it is about returning to my practices, to ground and settle into the deeper knowing, the one beyond the critical voices and the crippling fear factor.

Firstly, I set the space. I light a candle, remove clutter, and carve enough clean room around me to lay a yoga mat. Sometimes I use intention cards- yesterday Elena Brower's Art of Attention cards came in handy, as too some beautiful and wise words from John O'Donohue.

Then a yoga session, calling in my highest intention, the spirit in which I created the work and a sense of generosity. This is the grounding and the place to, always, come home to myself. Yesterday, wide-legged postures (with firm bases), and supportive seated poses were what was called for, so that I could imprint this sense of stability and grounding into my body to carry me through the day. I was imagining a flowering tree (it was Bloom's day after all), with its roots firmly and widely planted, a strong robust trunk/spine which together created enough of an internal infrastructure to enable the optimal flowering and blossoming. Nature metaphors work wonders in yoga practice!

Next- a short meditation to quieten the critic and invite in again the bigger picture, and the mystery of it all. Yesterday, I needed about 10 minutes- enough to still the fizzy energy and bring it back to centre.

And then, what I call the flip practice. This one is essentially is about flipping over the critic voice in my brain and entertaining the opposite motion/ emotion. So, in my case yesterday, 'What if people do get it, what if the website runs smoothly, what if it works brilliantly for me...' With the opposite motion installed in our cognitive brains, fuel is given to our creative fires, fear is put in its proper place, and we can press go.

And so we had lift off.

Once again, thank you all for your support and encouragement. We are in this together.

Now to keep this ship a sailing....(and what fun it is to be blogging again!)

Thank you.

Clare xx

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