I personally love that there are New Years sprinkled throughout every annual cycle. The Jewish new year, Rosh HaShonah, is now, The Islamic new year rotates through the seasons, as do all the Islamic holidays, the Chinese new year is in late winter/early spring, and there are the solstices and equinoxes, and many, many other cultures with their reminders for us as well.
I love the strength and richness of the diversity of our humanity. I love the beauty of the diversity of so many different heart-centered small businesses, like a permaculture landscape, or food forest, where many different types of beings are in cooperation helping each other thrive.
It reminds me of how cyclical time is, how the seasons keep arriving in due course, and how every culture takes turns reminding us that we are beginning anew. That it’s important to reflect on the past year, to digest and integrate all that happened, and to move into what’s to come.
This is especially important in the face of our current culture, which is relentless in pushing us to be productive always, in every moment, to always be expanding, to always be conquering, to always be taking.
It’s also amped up the assault on our humanity, and the planet as a whole, our intertwined path on this planet with all other beings.
It’s exhausting. It’s not healthy. And it’s one of the reasons I believe that our culture is so unsustainable and will be replaced by something else.
Thankfully, we don’t have to buy into it. We can lean into these cycles. You can pause and digest and integrate before discovering in your heart where next you might be led in your business, or in your life.
I want to emphasize that although this pausing and digesting seems like a “nice to have,” it’s not.
It’s central to any kind of success. Stepping out of the relentless stream of push-take-push-take, and stepping into the stream of life and awareness and mutual care is how our businesses can most easily succeed, because it’s how anything on this planet succeeds.
Today, maybe take a few moments to:
- Just stop.
The Sufis say that the only power the small “s” self has is to cover over the truth. That’s a huge teaching that needs explaining… but for the moment, know that it’s about using will power to Remember the Divine. In this instance, use that power to stop ourselves in the pushing. - Notice.
Notice how you feel. Notice how your business feels. Notice nature, the weather, the beings and creatures around you, from the tiniest to the largest. (In this moment I’m aware of a fly that got in, and the changing leaves on the trees outside the window.) - Listen.
This seems similar to noticing, but it feels different to me. Noticing is a witnessing of what’s around me. Listening is more interactively-relational, where my body, my heart, and the beings around me may be trying to get my attention in ways I hadn’t noticed before I stopped, noticed, and listened. - Trust.
We get all kinds of subtle information this way. Even just noticing warmth in our heart, or a tightness in our belly that lets go a little bit. Or sometimes more clear and direct information or direction. Can you trust what you get when you listen? Even when it doesn’t seem to make sense in the face of our fears, our deadlines, our imposed schedules…
I’m inviting you to trust.
In Sufism, it’s said that the Divine is closer to you than your jugular vein. That there is a deep intimacy with the Oneness, and that our situation is already understood. And so if we get guidance, it’s already taking into account all that’s going on within and around us.
Are you willing to, right now, for just a few moments stop, notice, listen and trust?
And, if you can risk a few more moments, can you do that specifically with the heart of your business?
I’d love to hear what you noticed, what you heard, and if you could trust it.
And, if this is your new year, L’Shana Tovah. May it be a surprisingly sweet year of deep care and miracles, for you and your business.
with love,
Mark Silver, M.Div.
Heart of Business, Inc.
Every act of business can be an act of love.
P.S. Trusting your heart, and your timing.
You know that you are sustained by your paying clients, and that sustenance is part of a circle of deep care that you give to them as well.
This course, Heart-Centered Copywriting, comes from a deep wellspring of care in my heart. I love our clients, I love anyone who is bringing their heart, compassion and presence to their work in the world.
Unfortunately, that presence sometimes gets lost when folks step into “business” contexts. Like describing your offer on a web page.
That break in presence doesn’t work well if it happens while you’re working with clients. I will also say that it doesn’t work well when it happens while they are considering becoming your client.
Like when they are reading your sales page.
I want you to have a deeply healing and caring expression of your offer and presence and strength within your sales pages. And I want you to feel supported in creating those pages so that it doesn’t feel strange, or broken…
It can be easy. It can be full of love. Join me?
We start Tuesday next week, and, in fact, the nourishing pre-work is already available to those who are enrolled.
Take a look. Ask questions. Jump in if it’s right.
