Light and Silence
Kate Van Akin
Experienced leadership coach, facilitator, and change expert | McKinsey and Harvard alum
I received so many lovely messages about last week’s post – it seems many of us are palm trees in storms at the moment. If that is you, know that you’re not alone – and if it is NOT you, please enjoy this period of calm!
This week I have been reflecting more on the idea of choice. We often can’t choose what happens to us, but we can always choose how we respond. Are we thrown into a reactive pattern, or do we consciously choose to respond from a more grounded, centered place? How can we, to quote an over-used but still apt quote by Gandhi, be the change we want to see in the world?
As I was browsing through the beautiful book Poems of Awakening, the images in Anna Swir’s poem “There is a Light in Me” reached out and touched my heart. When faced with noise and turmoil, we can be more than palm trees surrendering to the storm. We can intentionally choose to bring light and silence when faced with noise and turmoil. This week, I’ve been actively NOT reaching out to people at work ad hoc. I’ve started every message I have sent with: “This is not urgent”. I try to talk less, listen more, and be a creator and holder of light and space for others. When we were both working at McKinsey, the very wise Rose Beauchamp said: “I try to make sure that, with whomever I speak, our conversation is the best conversation of their day.” What if that was the guiding principle by which we all lived? More focus on the experience others have with us, where content becomes secondary. ?That is a world in which I would love to live.
To be a bearer of light and silence, it helps to try and make your environment as conducive as possible to this way of being. Perhaps see what small shift you can make - maybe clearing up your desk so there is more space, or lighting a scented candle (I have a wonderful lemongrass and ginger candle on my desk, which keeps me awake while also reminding me to 'be the light'!). Maybe you can play classical music to soothe your nervous system. Or maybe, like the Queen of England, you can take an afternoon tea break every day. Small changes in your environment can really help shift your presence, so that you, in turn, can bring more calm to the world.
About Friday Pauses
We can all sense how a lack of presence in our daily life affects the quality of our relationships, our ability to form real connections – and yet we struggle to set aside distractions. In my Friday Pauses, I want to encourage us all to do just that – pause for a moment and feel what it’s like to be present by reading a poem.
If you’re new to Friday Pause, here’s what I suggest:
?? Coaching leaders, rebels and activists to spark and sustain social change ?? Organisational Cycle-breaker ? Fostering cultures of collective flourishing
2 年Light and silence. A rebel move if ever there was one. Thank you Kate Van Akin as ever for your words x
Experienced communications coach, trainer & facilitator, helping clients engage others in times of change | Ex-McKinsey
2 年Another great post Kate- thank you! I’d like to point out that I don’t think I *actually* managed to make their conversation with me the high point of everyone’s day, but it was (and still is) a great intention!
I coach leaders in the deeper ranges of their ways of being. This often involves a spiritual exploration
2 年Anna Swir’s poem rhymes with one of my favorites: If each day falls inside each night, there exists a well where clarity is imprisoned. We need to sit on the rim of the well of darkness and fish for fallen light with patience. Si cada día dentro de cada noche, hay un pozo donde la claridad está encerrada. Hay que sentarse a la orilla del pozo de la sombra y pescar luz caída con paciencia. Pablo Neruda What if we are that well? (pun intended)