August is well underway, and we've got another very rich edition of the Ivy SeaZine for you. We hope that you'll find insight, inspiration and ideas that energize and propel you on your vibrant, joyful, authentic path.

This edition focuses on vision, deep listening, and creating the space needed for creativity and wisdom. Here's the brain-and-soul-food that you'll find in this issue of Ivy SeaZine:

** Wisdom and Mastery: Do you live the question, or fret the outcome?

** Inspired Vision: Releasing "small vision" limitation

** Big-Vision Enterprise: What "strange attractor" organizes your activities?

** Conscious Communication: Creating "space" for rewarding dialogue

** Tele-consultations and E-workshops: Guidance to help you find your way

** Ivy Sea Online - August Features: Embracing the perfection of imperfection; four keys to conscious growth; corporate psychos - do you work for one?; engaged listening and inquiry; using inquiry in tense conversations; five tips for being more conscious at work; getting clear with yellow; strategies for skillfully authentic communication; "Tailored to you" E-workshops, color wisdom, and more.

** Great Quotations: Wise words for the journey

** About Ivy Sea, Inc., the SeaZine, subscribing and unsubscribing

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Wisdom and Mastery:
Do you "live the question" or fret the question?

For many people these days, the reasons for worrying seem legion. We seem to get barraged throughout the day with negativity, concern, limitation, and terror. Is it any surprise that these same feelings create the parameters of our thinking about more immediate things in our homes, workplaces, and businesses?

Since the dawn of time, there have been reasons for people to be concerned, and even to fear for their safety. Such concerns are not new. Though the details of the concerns may evolve with each generation, what rests at the heart of the concerns remains the same as was the case for our ancestors of millennia past.

And yet we do have a choice. We can choose to live the questions (which involves faith, willingness, and a sense of adventure), or we can choose to fret about the outcome (which usually includes some degree of nay-saying and myriad doomsday scenarios). The external circumstances don't change, but our mindset, and perhaps how we experience and interact with our life and all in it, changes considerably.

We have this choice — living the question, or fretting the outcome — when we think about how to create a nourishing home; how we'll pay our bills; what opportunities exist for us to do decent, ethical work; how we might follow our heart towards the fulfillment of a deeply held dream; how we can surrender in trust to the love that is possible in relationship; how we can know our truest selves, and be that in the world; what happens behind the mysteries of life and death; and many other scenarios.

Living the question, or fretting the outcome. One opens and expands, the other closes down and contracts. Living the question explores, fretting the outcome limits. Living the question can include being curious about potential outcomes, but fretting the outcome does not allow us to live the question. You can sense the difference between the two, yes?

Reflection Questions:
** Where do you fret the outcome, where you could choose instead to live the question?
** Do you have questions right now that you might choose to explore, living them with a sense of adventure?

For more tips on personal and mindset mastery, start with our Ivy Sea Online Wisdom and Mastery Portal.

Big-Vision Entrepreneuring:
What 'strange attractor' is organizing your activities?

In chaos theory, a 'strange attractor' is the hidden pattern or order at the heart of what seems to be complete chaos. Think of pictures taken in space, by the Hubble telescope, featuring myriad galaxies that contain swirling solar systems with shining suns around which matter organizes.

We as a culture, and thus we as individuals, often tend to fear chaos, because we fear what we don't know, what we don't understand, and what we can't comprehend. We fear the primordial chaos that precedes creation, and thus rush through the void where creation gestates because we're easier with doing, even if the doing is habitual or even mindless.

And yet recent scientific discoveries tell us that, at the center of that which seems chaotic, there is a pattern, or a point of natural order — a 'strange attractor'. Proponents of "new thought" emphasize that even our "thought patterns" create a type of 'strange attractor' as well.

For entrepreneurs, a clear and deeply aligned vision acts as a strange attractor, allowing resources, opportunities, and daily activities to organize around and in support of it. In the absence of a clear and compelling vision — whether an entrepreneur has never really defined one, or because an old vision is giving way to a new one — a 'strange attractor' will take its own shape, based on whatever the most immediate concern or thought pattern is.

Our 'strange attractors,' like everything else, are in constant flux and evolution, folding in new material and new experience, so it's important to always allocate some time to assess where it is, and what pathways and explorations it might offer. After all, you don't want a default vision taking shape around every crisis or out-dated habit, or organizing all things around it in a way that is neither compelling nor of service, do you?

In everyday life for an entrepreneur, the high-level guiding vision is a 'strange attractor', and each segment or area of focus for the day or week can be a kind of micro-strange attractor — kind of like a mini-vision or guiding intention that clarifies what, why, and how we're doing what we're doing, and what is available to help us do that.

Reflection questions:
** What is the 'strange attractor' that organizes your enterprise? Your days?
** Do you take time to know what your 'strange attractor' or vision, or guiding intention, is?
** How might you benefit from a closer relationship with your 'strange attractor'?

For more tips on big-vision entrepreneuring, start with our Big Vision, Small Business Portal

Inspired Visioning:
Releasing "small vision" limitation

Who would purposely limit possibility, or nip a growing vision in the bud? Well, you've done this yourself, and you've no doubt heard other people do it as well.

Think of a possibility, a vision, a dream, an idea — no matter whether it's large or modest. And then what comes immediately after it? For many people, what follows the initial excitement and awe of the, "I wonder if..." is usually something like "Well, that could never happen," or "I shouldn't get my hopes up," or "Well, I don't have the money (or time, or whatever else)", or "Oh, but people who do that are (fill in the blank with some horrible judgment)," or some similarly limiting auto-statement.

Needless to say — and you can probably tell this just from thinking about the scenarios above — these statements reflect deeply seeded, and incredibly limiting, beliefs that we have in our minds. Some people say that such beliefs are also wired right into our cellular memory, which means we might not just develop our own limiting beliefs, but we may well inherit them, too!

We can choose to allow our beliefs to close down and limit our possibility, our potential for joy and service, or we can "put a watch on them," root them out, do the work required to over-write them, and open ourselves up to new and more expansive beliefs and habits.

Trust me, this isn't just "willy nilly" warm-and-fuzzy New Age-speak. Look back honestly over your life — as I have seen when I look at mine — and you'll see the truth in action of this concept. You'll find it reinforced in the lives of people whose accomplishments were recorded by history. Limiting beliefs and thought patterns limit. Expansive beliefs and thought-patterns expand.

First we can see ourselves, or hear ourselves, when our self-limiting beliefs and statements make themselves known. We can take note of them. And then we can begin to write beliefs and statements that over-ride the limiting ones. "I could never&Mac183;" becomes "How might I do that" and "What might make it possible for me to try that?"

It's true that your joy and your accomplishments — those that register by your own standards as most important (not standards of success dictated by society) — are only as possible as your ability to see them done.

Reflection Questions:
** Where do you allow "small vision" to limit you?
** What would you like to do, try, develop, become that requires a more expansive vision?
** What limiting beliefs and thought patterns would you like to replace, and how might that open things up for you?

For more on inspired visioning, visit our Vision, Inspiration, and Creativity Portal

Conscious Communication:
Creating the "space" for dialogue and listening

Space makes a lot of people uncomfortable, if we're to judge by the pace by which we develop open spaces, fill spaces in our schedules, and fill quiet spaces with noise. In conversation, our discomfort with quiet may lead some to quickly fill the empty space with more talk. Within ourselves, our fear of quiet and spaciousness leads us to over-schedule our time and stay busy or surrounded by people and noise.

The problem with this aversion to space, of course, is that we can't hear — we can't hear others, we can't hear ourselves, and we can't hear God (or, if you're more comfortable with it, Spirit). Wisdom and creativity come out of the void, out of quiet, out of space. The more we avoid and fill space, the more we distance ourselves from the wisdom and guidance and creativity we seek.

This is even more important as people feel more strained, more stressed, more "teched out", more stretched thin. We need space; we need quiet; we need to listen. To do so nourishes and connects us with what's most important, whether that be vision, creativity, Sacred Guidance, beauty, deep relationship, or other's perspectives.

In dialogue, and in certain Native American and Quaker practices that inform dialogue, there is the concept of "allowing space" for everyone's voices to be heard, all perspectives to be shared, and solutions or pathways to arise from out of the space (versus solutions to be engineered or forced by the most domineering person in the group).

Instead of rushing and talking, we "allow space" so that we can listen, and from that listening, we can inquire more skillfully, and then listen again. We don't just listen to the voices of others; we may also be listening for our own authentic voice, or the voice of Divine Guidance.

Spaciousness and listening are as vital to our wellness, and to the genius that lives within each one of us, as are air and water and food. We just don't see the importance as immediately as we would if we were starving, yet we are starving, albeit slowly, from our lack of spaciousness, from our distance from what we listen for.

Commit to allowing more space in your conversations throughout the day, between your activities of the day, and within yourself, so that you can listen for all that is being said.

Reflection questions:
** Do you feel like you allow enough space in your conversations, or are your conversations forced and rushed?
** Do you feel that you have enough spaciousness in your own day, or do you feel perpetually rushed and busy?
** Do you feel like you have no time to vision, or no time for "deep connections" with others?
** What might emerge if you allowed yourself to create — and be more comfortable with — the space that is necessary for creativity, for deep listening, for guidance?

For more tips on conscious, skillful communication, start with our Wisdom and Mastery Portal.

Tele-Consultations and E-Workshops:
Helping you to stay focused, inspired, and on track

Building and working from a place of clear and authentic vision, marketing authentically, leading confidently and honestly, feeling that your work is aligned with your deepest values and priorities — these are the foundations of conscious, big-vision enterprise (be it nonprofit or for profit).

For these types of needs, it's optimal to have an idea-and-dialogue partner with whom to discuss challenges, ideas, options, skill-building tips, and possibilities — and from whom to get skillful questioning, encouragement, inspiration, and a valuable independent perspective.

If you'd like to explore how we can assist you as you deepen skillfulness, explore self-employment, envision and maintain an existing enterprise, and market yourself authentically, connect with us for a dialogue about what might work best for you and your budget.

We welcome your inquiry.

Wise Words for the Journey

** "Where there is no vision, the people perish." ~ Proverbs 29:18

** "May our hearts guide our vision that we might clearly see Your hand at work in our lives and in our world. Thank You for vision that moves beyond mere sight." ~ Renaissance Unity 8/12/04 daily prayer

** "We must allow for ample silence between speakers, so that what another has said can deeply enter us, and so that we can listen closely to our own evolving thoughts and feelings." ~ Mary Watkins, "Liberating Soul Sparks"

** "Man's mind once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimension." ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

** "I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen." ~ Ernest Hemingway

** "If we are too busy, if we are carried away every day by our projects, our uncertainty, our craving, how can we have the time to stop and look deeply into the situation-our own situation, the situation of our beloved one, the situation of our family and of our community, and the situation of our nation and of the other nations?." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

"The world we are experiencing today is the result of our collective consciousness, and if we want a new world, each of us must start taking responsibility for helping create it." ~ Rosemary Fillmore Rhea

Ivy Sea's Skill-Building PDF Tip Kits and Workbooks

Along with the many feature articles, tip sheets, and resource portals at Ivy Sea Online, we've also got several new PDF Tip and Skill- Builder Kits in our PDF Resource Store for you to use for you own or your group's skill development.

** "Tailored to You" E/Tele-Workshops
** Workplace Communication for Managers Tip Kit
** Big-Vision Livelihood & Conscious Enterprise Workbook and Tip Kit
** Vision-Energizing Value Pack
** Skillful Listening Essentials Tip Kit
** Big-Vision SOHO's Quantum-Leap Tip Kit and Workbook
** Custom-created PDF guides and workbooks to suit your unique needs.

Check out these and other Ivy Sea skill-building PDF guides and workbooks at our Resource Store.

Until Next Month

Thank you for reading with us. Wishing you a wonderful, skillful, spacious, and visionary month ahead.

Sincerely,

Jamie S. Walters
Founder, Ivy Sea, Inc.,
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Ivy Sea Online &
Author, Big Vision, Small Business

This Ivy SeaZine is protected by copyright, and is offered as food-for-thought rather than customized counsel. As always, the most effective strategy is one that's specifically tailored to your unique organizational culture, group personality, and individual needs. Have questions? We welcome your email inquiry.

Make your quantum-leap with Ivy Sea's Inspired-Leadership and Conscious-Enterprise resources and consultations: We can help you: (1) discover how to define your inspired-leadership and conscious-enterprise principles, (2) clarify and make progress towards your vision, (3) make the most of your individual and organizational strengths, (4) identify ways to "get there from here," including effective communication and change-management strategies, (5) rise to greater levels of mastery, success and meaningfulness as an individual, group or organization; and/or (6) benefit from having a "thought-and-idea partner" with whom to evaluate options and challenges, and from whom you can gain ideas, a fresh perspective, and inspiration. We welcome your inquiry.