Bringing ideas to life
Brainwaves turned tangible
This post comes in two parts, one to find our center and then next we think about thinking. Here we go!
Part One: Find Your Center
How do we set forth on a path that feels right. It begins in stillness. Allowing our focus to shift inward — away from work, our people, responsibilities — and spending some time looking in.
Once we’ve settled in, we can notice our thoughts, feelings, wants/desires.
We can also notice any sounds that come into focus.
How about our breath?
Try to notice — where do I feel my breath most? My nose, chest, belly?
It might be worth pausing here for a moment of stillness before we move forward. Go ahead, nobody has to know (but I’ll tell you, I did and it felt nice).
Part Two: How do ideas come to life?
Idea
Ideas are little clouds in our minds. They could be cute little fluffy clouds as they float by. Or dark and stormy as they linger and block out the light. Ideas seem to come from nowhere — like a spring feeding a river, the flow can feel endless. Like it’s coming from nowhere, and going somewhere. Like bubbles in a carbonated liquid — forming from nowhere, sometimes stuck to the side, or floating to the top and popping.
Ideas are formless till they take shape. And that form could present itself many different ways. So our “idea” could then be called “action”.
Action
An idea, noticed or not, can become something. It can become action. It can also affect how we feel, what we say, and how we behave in our world. We could turn our thoughts or ideas into words on a page. A comment on an internet post. Inviting a friend to visit. Collaborating with others on many more ideas!
(I like the feeling that brings up for me. I see this now in a positive way. I see productive ways to use ideas straight from the source. And I see deciding what to do next. Sometimes, my experience clouds an idea. Sometimes it’s hard to see things in a positive light).
Where we may encounter challenges is in judgment.
Judgment
How we evaluate an idea is judging. Judging ourselves, others, our ideas — is this good, bad, other? That judgment can be a helpful tool, but it can also be a challenge. we’re continuously deciding if an idea is “good” or “bad — or maybe not all of either — somewhere on a spectrum. We’re grading our experience, we get to decide.
Much of the time I find myself bouncing between GREAT IDEAS!! New — bounce — shiny and fun! — bounce — Different! — Louder!! — bounce —
Maybe an idea was planted here by others, the internet, our environment.
Who’s to say?
It’s all well and good till I get carried away and chase an idea down a rabbit hole. I might lose myself for a time — coming back and judging with hindsight if maybe that wasn’t the best course of action. Sometimes we call that judgment “regret” — taking action, or not. Saying, or not saying — in a particular moment, about a particular idea. Not all of my ideas are inherently good. They require vigilance on my part — deciding how to proceed:
Write and process?
Write and say?
Say and share?
Say and DO.
Life
An idea becomes tangible. Doing is how thoughts come to life as action. Picking up tools, gathering other doers, and letting the idea take its next form (and potentially a life of its own).
Another point of caution here is that we don’t know the inner experiences of those near/far from us. Our people, others who might encounter our idea — we can’t anticipate how we’ll be interpreted or understood. We can’t know how others will use our energy, ideas, presence. We also can’t know if our ideas are entirely “good” for ourselves or others. So the other piece of bringing an idea to life is questioning.
Reflecting
It’s gotta start inward, like we did at the beginning. We need to look IN. What could the consequences of this idea be for me, my people, my community, my world. How might in envision this coming to life? We can unbundle it. Sitting in silence, journaling, praying, etc.
Outwardly, it might look like having a dialogue with others about this idea. A safe space to discuss, process, and poke gentle holes. Thinking forward together. It’s a hard thing to trust other people with our ideas. Like cracking our brain open, letting others have a look.
Be gentle!
Reflecting needs a mirror and light.
The mirror of others looking back at us, and ourselves peering inward.
And the light so we can see clearly.
We can look at this idea and ask: does this carry weight? Is there value here? Is this good? What work does it need? How can we fine-tune it? Tweak it a little?
Many of us are learning to give/receive good feedback. It is so hard. It continues to take work for me to accept and give good feedback.
What helps me is trying to separate my self, my feeling of worth, and the importance that I’ve put on this idea — separating all of that from the idea. I am not my thoughts or ideas. And when someone provides feedback on it, it could be positive/negative/neutral, but acceptance of it is on me, not them. I can’t control their opinions or their delivery. I can work toward understanding. I can give the benefit of doubt that others, like me, are coming from a place of light, hope, good. Our experience might be darkly clouded, making it difficult to see clearly. And that might impact our/their delivery. All of this is up to me how to receive it, accept, and move forward.
Feedback/Input
A gentle reminder: An idea may be freshly alive. When you think it, or when someone shares it with you, that idea is probably tender, vulnerable, and easily squashed. Like a seedling — so delicate — easily smashed back into the soil, or plucked from existence and devoured. We need to take great care in evaluating and tending to ideas. It could’ve come from a lot of quiet, shadowed, self-work before it came to your awareness.
Come back to your breath
your center
before you respond.
Ask open-ended questions. Seek a deeper understanding.
Or let it flow over you till the next wave comes (not every idea has to stick around).
Some ideas come to us, we look, evaluate, and off they go. That’s okay!
Some ideas come, and pass.
Others are a ripple of air across the surface.
And others still become a wave across time and space.
A wave of conversation.
A wave to a friend.
A wave of collective action.
An idea made tangible — visible — hopeful.
Tread lightly around ideas; you never know their potential.
Love,
Jessie
