Blog

The Experience…Hikers have a saying: “The trail provides.” As we ventured further into the wilderness — over 100 miles now from our starting point at the Cottonwood Lakes trailhead — this materialized in both everyday moments and significant events. 

We left a freezing cold night at Evolution Lake camp irritated and sleepy. Aching feet, a dry granola bar, and a bad attitude don’t make for much of a start. We clambered slowly down the trail to meadows below, feeling sorry for ourselves. As the morning wore on though, the trail flattened out. What was rocky and uneven, became sandy and relatively smooth. We joked that the trail turned into a high altitude freeway jetting us ahead at nearly 3 miles per hour. When you are carrying a 40-pound pack at 10,000 feet, 3 miles an hour feels like flying. By lunchtime, we were well in range to arrive at Muir Trail Ranch. “MTR” — as hikers like to call it — was one of the few places on our route where we could resupply food and equipment. We were hiking too far to be able to carry all of our food and water. So MTR was an oasis.

As we neared the turnoff for MTR, we met a young woman fresh from the resupply shack a mile or so below us. She greeted us cordially and mentioned in passing that MTR had cabins left for rent. Our pace quickened in anticipation. Arriving at MTR was like entering a high sierra Shangri-La. The shack mistress greeted us warmly and showed us around the grounds. She previewed the cabin rental package including hot soaking mineral baths, two warm meals, and a place to wash and hang dry clothes. She said with a grin that this was the LAST night of the year to rent cabins. They closed for the season the next day! We couldn’t say YES fast enough. I nearly wept when we entered our spartan log cabin to find grandmotherly sewn quilts and the first flushing toilet in almost two weeks. The day after a bitterly cold night, when we needed it most, the trail provided. It was like being visited by angels, just in time. After that night, they visited more often. Time-Angels started showing up in unlikely, sometimes strange, and in desperately needed places. Fear and judgments drove them away, while a mindset of abundance increased the chances that they would visit. For sure, I needed to be on the lookout to make sure I didn’t miss them. This abundant attitude enabled me to embrace whatever came my way.

Relevance: Abundant Attitude

Groups get very messy at times. Conflict between people, differences about which direction to take, and tough personalities are common. It can feel stifling and raw. It is easy to resist these difficult situations because they can be unpleasant. Shutting yourself off to the unpleasant situations also shuts you off to potential gifts. It is a package deal. As a group leader, holding the space for all these conditions to be welcomed will allow you to be available for whatever shows up. Bringing an attitude where all things have value translates into greater openness, awareness, receptivity, and growth. I like to relate to this as holding an abundant attitude.  

Practice:  Responsive Stance

Stand up and place your feet shoulder-width apart. Gently bend your knees. Lift your hands slightly above your waist and open them as if you’re going to catch something. This is a responsive body stance; the stance of abundance. Before people gather for a group meeting or any kind of engagement with others, strike this pose. Have a fun time with it. Practice being fully receptive to everything that will come your way. Picture the people who will be there, review the topics and purpose for gathering. Now you are both mentally and physically ready to embrace whatever happens. Your practice is walking with the tough stuff as well as receiving the gifts of the time-angels.

The Experience…

In the high country, it can get cold. Fast. The weather changes without much notice and it is the constant subject of passing hikers on the John Muir Trail. On day 10 of our hike, we summitted Muir Pass, the namesake of this famous route. As we got close to the nearly 12,000-foot peak, we saw a band of dark clouds moving toward us. By the time we found the top and entered a rock-domed shelter called Muir Hut, half the sky was dark. We decided not to wait out the storm, but to hike through it. We left the shelter and headed straight for the storm. Pellets — neither hail nor snow — fell from the sky for the next two hours, blanketing the ground.

After 17 miles and many hours of climbing and descending, our bodies couldn’t go any further than Evolution Lake – a place that sits exposed and wind-swept with high passes on all sides. That night as the storm blew over the temperature dropped. We pitched our tent between two lonely trees on an otherwise rocky hillside desperate for relief from the cold. It didn’t help. My hiking buddy and I put on all of our clothes, including down coats and thick hats, and climbed into our sleeping bags. By 2:00 a.m., I was shivering. I curled into a fetal position, sat on my hands, covered my entire head with the top of the bag. Nothing worked. Hypothermia didn’t cross my mind, but it wasn’t out of the question under these conditions. Glancing over at my friend, he looked peaceful in his sleeping bag. So I waited for dawn: freezing cold. My eyes teared and my jaw clenched. I hit the wall, totally naked with desperation. Then something unexpected happened: I surrendered. My breathing slowed and my belly softened. All of my attention narrowed and I gave up on the flood of thoughts about being cold. In the hours that followed, I slept soundly until clear daylight entered the thickly frosted tent.

Relevance: Collaborative Destruction
Surrendering means accepting what IS. As the adage goes, the truth of any situation can “set you free.” Working in groups, it’s natural to come with a plan and an agenda. You want things to go in a particular direction. Often, however, they don’t. Surrendering allows you to give up or change significantly what you are currently doing. Surrendering looks like starting clean. Unlike improvisation, which is more playful and fun, surrendering burns down the understory. It’s a form of destruction.

Practice: Resetting
When difficulty shows up, try resetting by surrendering. Slow down. Breathe from your belly. Bring your attention from the thoughts in your head to the middle of your body. Try to completely and fully lean into what is happening. Embrace without pre-judging, blocking, or resisting. Look at the situation as you would through the eyes of a child. Let the initial waves of anger, fear, self-pity, and assumptions pass by. Now look again…and then again. Keep resetting, surrendering, to allow for a clearing away of the debris. Surrendering in this way leads to fresh possibilities…and the chance for opening.

The Experience…

Above 11,000 feet the landscape is nothing but rock… a barren, Martian-like terrain that excites and haunts. I’m perched on the top of a pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, hiking the famous John Muir Trail. It’s a physically demanding venture, where my hiking pals and I traverse thousands of vertical feet every day up and over the passes to make sure we can break camp in the safety of the alpine meadows below. We maneuver around all manner of obstacles: roots, rocks, boulders, slippery sand, water, and the occasional horse droppings. Good old road apples! Still, no matter how many trees or clear lakes come our way, the rocks stand out: mysterious and powerful beacons.

I’ve been hiking with quite a bit of pain. For the past week or so, my feet have swelled, and now press against the top of my leather boots. Blisters on my toes have ballooned to twice the normal size. Every step makes me wince. And we are hiking 15 to 19 miles a day for eight or more hours. So I have a choice: either I can dwell in the pain or find another way to work with it.

Through the hours of silent, strenuous hiking and mountain passes, I become aware of the power of rocks. It’s an energy that is easy to miss: giants in the shadows. As I writhe away in self-pity, the rocks send an eerie, persistent signal. Worn out and with little else to grab on to, begrudgingly, I turn my attention to focus on the rocks, boulders, and solid features. The rocks vibrate with energy. They are calm and strong. And the pain starts to shift. I am gifted with wonder and mystery. Somehow the pain breaks free and I become solid, grounded, and strong. Supported. I am rocked.

Relevance: Grounded for collaboration

One way to think about collaboration is connecting with another in a way that makes you available to fresh possibilities. It’s like a dance. To allow for this connection, grounding yourself is foundational. Without it we can be taken away by physical or emotional pain, conflict, internal mind-chatter, and other distractions. We become unavailable for collaboration. Coming from a place of solidity — sometimes called centeredness — is a moment-by-moment practice: a muscle we build that helps us return again and again to what is taking place in front of us. While we may not always have rocks around, our feet and bodies can nearly always find this ground. And when we find our center, we are available for the mystery and wonder of what may come next. We unveil the limitless potential of collaboration.

Practice: Finding your rock

Focus on your feet. Really attend to them on the floor. Feel the balls of each foot. Feel each toe. Plant them firmly, but not rigidly. This rootedness connects you to the earth. Throughout your day keep returning to the feeling of your feet being planted on the floor. When distracted or taken away by strong emotion, physical pain, mental checklists, conflict with co-workers, or anything else, practice returning to your feet being rooted and connected — as solid, aware, and wise as a rock!

Guest Blogger Julie Swanson is the owner of What’s Possible Now, dedicated to helping individuals and groups build capacity in communications, strategic narrative, visual thinking and emergent learning design. Julie brings over 25 years of experience in adult education and communication to her work of creating change for a better future for all.

1. Leverage Human Strengths.

Visuals capture our attention. They help us make sense of the world easier and faster.   With visuals, you can create conditions so participants say “I see what you mean.” [Read more…] about 5 Reasons Facilitators Need to Add Visuals to their Practice