We are passionate people. We connect to our work in a passionate way. We commit and we get involved! We have that passion with those around us in personal and profound ways. We also share our space and within that space we share our energy. When one of us gets excited, energized or angry, we can transfer and share that energy with others. There is a positive side to being amped up- ready to go- ready to take on the cause and ready to step up to the bat. There can also be a negative charge- when someone else’s energy sideswipes you and you feel charged but have nowhere to go with it.  Like when we walk into a room where people have been arguing just the minute before, there’s that feeling that we get. What do you do with it? When we get charged up in an angry way, the first thing is we try to download some of it. The place to go is often those closest to us- like in the next cubicle or in the manager’s office.

One of my interests is how to handle this energy so it doesn’t swamp us.

I reencountered a book the other day- Find a Quiet Corner. A friend gave me this book many years ago and this is an updated version. The author Nancy O’Hara calls a quiet corner “a moment in time, a place in time, a breath. A quiet corner can be found anywhere and can be created any time. It is an attitude and an outlook. A quiet corner simply needs a shift in perspective to emerge. Once you learn to identify this state of grace, you can learn to create in on your own. All it takes is a decision and a resignation. Give up your usual practices, leave expectations at the door of your quiet corner and be prepared to enter a world where anything is possible.”

Martha Beck, Finding Your Way in a Wild New World, says that sometimes it takes a radical event to reawaken you to the inner voice that is always telling you what decisions to make what to embrace and what to avoid and how to steer through various inner and outer situations. She describes a woman who had a stroke and lost her verbal ability but “found herself knowing that she lived in a universally interconnected universe in which we are perfect, we are whole, and we are beautiful. Martha says that  this state which she calls wordlessness allows us to see our true nature and to heal from the violence of a thought system that cuts us apart, destroying our compassion for ourselves and for others. Moving into this state allows the brain to be in its rest and relax state. This affects the whole body, releasing a flood of hormones that helps repair and heal your body, relaxes your muscles and puts you in a deep stillness. There are many ways to get into this place meditation, running, massage. There are a couple of exercises that  we might try

Close your eyes and hold up one hand so it is not touching anything but air.

Ask your thinking mind   Without opening my eyes, how can I know that my hand exists?

Feel your mind’s attention go inside the body to answer the question, activating a nonverbal part of the brain. Now hold up both hands (eyes still closed and feel the inside of both at the same time. Your awareness will slide out of left hemisphere verbal thinking and into both hemispheres- wordlessness           You won’t articulate this until it’s over. The point is to feel it. As people team we have the ability to influence each other. When you are getting worked up tell yourself- Breathe. Just breathe and we can do that also  for each other. After all we are  beautiful people and we deserve it!