Over the next few weeks millions of children are making preparations and will be returning to school for another year of learning. Many will be dragging their behinds, complaining all the way. While others have had their new school bags packed for weeks and can’t wait to get back at it. This whole process and time of year has always excited me and still does; the new school supplies, the new clothes, a new schedule, a new routine, and a chance for personal growth.

Why not take advantage of the thrill of learning that is currently in the air and put it to good use? This “Back to School” feeling doesn’t have to apply to just children or even students. This is a great time for anyone to start anew; set a new goal, learn a new skill or maybe brush up on an old one, take a tiny step toward achieving your dreams or your life purpose. The curriculum is only limited by you.

It’s never too late to discover something new. Let these “Soul-Searching Questions” jumpstart your personal learning program:

What are your greatest strengths?
What is the greatest vision you have for your life?
What are you willing to do about it?

You’re already enrolled in the School of Life where opportunities of learning are around every corner, but sometimes we need a little more support, structure and encouragmeent. That’s where Soulspring Groups comes in; it’s an inspiring learning program like no other! 

As the kids head back to school, embark on a powerful journey of learning and self-discovery of your own by joing a Soulspring Group or starting one of your own. With the right support network it is possible to make your goals and dreams a reality!  Soulspring Groups can help!  Visit our website to learn more.

The Soul Sisters

One of my favorite shows on television is The Office. The show pokes fun at the very things so many of us encounter with co-workers every day. For any of you who also like this show I’m sure you’d agree the wedding of Jim and Pam has to be one of the best episodes. Fans of the show rallied for Pam and Jim to become a couple from day one. Then six seasons later we all cheered (and maybe shed a happy tear or two) while they finally married!

If you’re a fan too then you’ve probably seen the episode: At the beginning of the show Jim and Pam started taking “mental pictures” of the day to guarantee that these moments would forever be a part of their memories. They’d take these pictures by raising their hands as if holding an imaginary camera and then to capture a moment they’d push the shutter button. During the show I just thought it was a cute thing they were doing together but then I got to thinking, “By using your hands to actually take a ‘mental picture’ would that help the memory stick?” I think it might.

We’ve all been reminded time and time again to “stop and smell the roses” and still we forget. So maybe the trick is to get into the habit of taking mental snapshots of the things we’d like to remember. I believe the action of stopping and “taking a picture” of something might just offer the pause in our busy day to recognize the simple things that we take for granted. And maybe with each “push of the shutter” we can trigger our brain to think, “Hey, this is something important and I’d like to file it away!”

So, what do you say? Let’s each turn ourselves into “memory photographers”! Give it a try and report back! We would love to hear how it works for you!

The Soul Sisters

As children we are taught to wait our turn. Toddlers as young as 2 or 3 are reminded of this simple concept of good manners every time they budge in line to go down the slide first or grab a toy from a friend. As we approach preschool age and our verbal communication develops, we are then taught the very important rules of the classroom: Only one person should be talking at a time, you must not interrupt, and you must sit quietly and listen. Now let’s fast forward 30 or 40 years. How are we doing with those classroom rules now?

I heard an interesting statistic the other day – immediately after we listen to someone, we only recall about 50% of what they said, and long-term we only remember 20% of what we hear. I was shocked, have I really been missing 70% of what’s been happening?

It wasn’t too long after that I caught myself…I was guilty! While having a conversation with someone in my office, I was only half listening and the other half (if you could call it that) was replying to an email. Shame on me!  I realized what I was doing and immediately took my fingers off the keyboard and turned slightly to face the individual. As I was trying to catch up with the conversation I was stunned to catch myself again a short time later, but this time not just once…twice!

I was anticipating the end of the conversation and felt the need to hurry things along. Instead of listening to this individual make his final point and move on with my day, I interrupted him and finished his sentence by incorrectly stating his position. Yikes! I not only just added another 10 minutes to this conversation simply because I couldn’t sit quietly and listen, I took away this person’s power by trying to finish his thought.

In our fast paced life we think in order to stay ahead and be competitive we must be proud of the fact that we can efficiently “multitask”. This buzz word became popular several years ago as a positive thing and everyone soon added it to their resume. But the fact is Wikipedia defines human multitasking as the performance by an individual appearing to handle more than one task at the same time. New research is showing that humans aren’t as good as they think at handling many things at once. Not only that, but we are finding we’re also damaging our relationships because our interpersonal skills are waning.

Possessing good listening skills can benefit all aspects of your life. It can create strong teams, resolve conflicts, and build trust and respect. It may take some practice on your part, but by simply going back to those once upon a time classroom rules you can become a good listener again.

The Soul Sisters