Breakthrough
Newsletter
VOLUME XV ISSUE NO.8 | AUGUST 2023
Breakthrough
"Productive insight; clear (often sudden) understanding of a complex situation." Free Dictionary

Pop the bubble of conditioned thinking and emerge into the creative realm of "no absolutes," continuous change, uncertainty and unlimited possibilities.

Then, there can be innovation, adaptation and optimal performance.
Performance and Open-minded Mindfulness
Open-minded: questioning everything, accepting diversity and uncertainty.  

Mindful:  consciously aware; concentrated. 

Foundation for blending process, project, engagement and knowledge management into a cohesive approach to optimize performance.
Wellness from the Inside Out
By George Pitagorsky
"The body will go where the mind leads." 
Manhattan Sports & Manual Physical Therapy
 
While it might not be 100% guaranteed that the body will go where the mind leads, the message is that you can use the mind to guide and heal the body, to overcome physical obstacles, and to accept the ones that can't be corrected.
 
There are two ways to sustain a healthy body and mind: inner work, and working from the outside with medication, diet, and physical exercise. Inner work and treatment from the outside complement one another. One without the other is far less effective.
 
This article focuses on inner work and its role in physical wellness. It continues a theme set by earlier articles, including Do the Inner Work: Experience "Flow" "Body Awareness at Work", Body Awareness.
 
As more of us become aware of the power of the mind and the subtle body, Western culture is increasingly adopting inner work as an effective approach to wellness. Neuroscientific studies have made the use of meditation, breath control and other methods acceptable to skeptical medical professionals, pharmaceutical and nutritional supplement companies, athletes, performers, and body workers.


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Coaching – Wellness, Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, Performance

If you feel that you can be happier and more effective but something is in the way, consider coaching by George Pitagorsky.
 
Whether it is a session or two, or a longer or more structured program, George can help you breakthrough the barriers and transform you life.
Wellness
Wellness is complex. One model has eight kinds of wellness[1]with each influencing the others. Here we focus on physical wellbeing, exploring the body/mind connection and how to use the mind to influence healing and sustain optimal health.
 
Optimal health is making the best of your condition. If you are hale and hearty, optimal health is being able to move about gracefully and vigorously, free of the limitations of chronic aches and pains, disease, and disabilities. But our bodies, being the perfectly imperfect vehicles they are, suffer from accidents, manufacturing flaws like debilitating genetic and prenatal conditions, disrepair, and old age.
 
Optimal health is maintaining the best possible conditions for your body given its limitations. Regardless of your condition you can promote wellness by finding the right combination of exercise, diet, and attitude.
 
For one 89-year-old who was unable to stand due to a fractured femur, optimal health was sustained by using a positive mindset, breath work, and mental imagery along with physical therapy. He imagined an erect and relaxed body within his broken physical body. He was able to let his body heal by letting go of unnecessary tension, promoting a free flow of internal energy in his subtle body. After several months he was able to walk. The inner work enabled and enhanced the physical therapy.
 
Another person I know has learned to accept and breathe through her chronic arthritic pain, letting the pain be a background sensation that she could live with and using her inner energy to moderate the pain and promote healing.
 
Internal Energy and Wellness
Let’s define inner energy, also known as life force, chi, or prana. It is a subtle energy that flows through a network of channels and centers (your subtle body).
 
While not yet scientifically verified, thousands of years of yogic tradition, traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and ayurvedic medicine, along with contemporary personal experience, point to its presence. In Chinese medicine, martial arts, and hatha yoga, Reiki healing, and other modalities this internal energy is used to promote healing and optimal wellness.
 
Inner wellness work uses the breath, mental imagery, mantra, and physical exercises to promote a free flow of subtle energy to bring healing to areas of injury or disease and to invigorate the body and mind. 
 
Ideally, you can get acupuncture treatments or other energy work to both relieve distress and promote greater energy. But these are expensive and there are as many poor practitioners as good ones. There are free videos[2] that you can view for a sense of how to come in touch with and work with inner energy.
 
Mindset
While doing inner energy work, maintain a positive and realistic mindset that is founded on acceptance, practical action, and letting go.
 
When you accept that you cannot change what cannot be changed and take meaningful action to change the things that can be changed you relieve the unnecessary stress of trying to accomplish the impossible. You let go to allow life to take its natural course. You do what you can to influence the outcome and make the best of whatever you experience.
 
By keeping hope alive and avoiding the fear, anger and depression that often accompanies poor health and injury, you eliminate unnecessary stress so you can let your body use its innate healing powers. At the same time, when there is an unpleasant inevitable outcome, you stop clinging to the impossible and let go, knowing you will be able to handle whatever comes.
 
You stop wasting energy.
 
Do It Yourself
Inner wellness is experiential. In the end, you work on yourself. For example, if you have an ache or pain, you can use your opposite thumb to press the acupressure point in the web between the thumb and forefinger, close to the finger's bone, and press it for a couple of minutes, rotating your thumb. Let go of any tension that is making the pain worse.
 
You can also imagine breathing in healing light and directing it to the affected part of your body. If you notice a tension blocking the flow, breathe into that place and imagine the blockage melting away as you direct the flow of light.
 
Keep it simple. There are many powerful teachings about specific channels and energy centers and the sounds, exercises, meditations, and images that activate them. There are hundreds of acupressure points. But you don't have to become an expert to work with your subtle body. Just find a few techniques, keep an open mind, and visualize yourself enveloped in and interpenetrated by healing light. Imagine your breath carrying healing energy to any part of your body. Let go of the need to know how it works.
 
There is no need to believe in the magical quality of inner work. Just stop believing that it doesn't work. Open your mind. Experiment. Give it time. See what works and keep it up if, over time, the way you feel and your overall wellness changes for the better.


[1] Emotional, Financial, Social, Spiritual, Occupational, Physical, Intellectual, Environmental. Dr. Peggy Swarbrick


Emotional Support for Ukraine  
       
To support people experiencing the horrors taking place in Ukraine, we have published and wish to distribute freely

"How to Manage Difficult Emotions and How to Support Others"

in English and Ukrainian. Please pass the toolkit on to anyone who can benefit from it or can distribute it further.


Emotional Support for Ukraine is a small ad hoc group of coaches seeking to help relieve the suffering of those under fire, refugees, and helpers across the world. 
How to be Happy Even When You Are Sad, Mad or Scared:

How to be happy...How to be Happy Even When You Are Sad, Mad or Scared is available on Amazon.com. It is a book for children of all ages (including those in adult bodies). Buy it for the children in your life so they can be better able to “feel and deal” - feel and accept their emotions and deal with them in a way that avoids being driven by them. You can order the book at https://www.amazon.com/How-Happy-Even-When-Scared/dp/1072233363
Performance and Open-minded Mindfulness
Open-minded: questioning everything, accepting diversity and uncertainty. 
 
Mindful: consciously aware; concentrated. 

Foundation for blending process, project, engagement and knowledge management into a cohesive approach to optimize performance.
By George Pitagorsky

Success is measured in how well and how regularly you meet expectations. But what exactly are expectations, and how do you effectively manage them when multiple priorities and personalities are involved?
Using the case study of a Project Manager coordinating an organizational transition, this Managing Expectations book explores how to apply a mindful, compassionate, and practical approach to satisfying expectations in any situation. George Pitagorsky describes how to make sure expectations are rational, mutually understood, and accepted by all those with a stake in the project. This process relies on blending a crisp analytical approach with the interpersonal skills needed to negotiate win-win understandings of what is supposed to be delivered, by when, for how much, by who, and under what conditions.
Managing Conflict in Projects
By George Pitagorsky

Managing Conflict in Projects: Applying Mindfulness and Analysis for Optimal Results by George Pitagorsky charts a course for identifying and dealing with conflict in a project context.

Pitagorsky states up front that conflict management is not a cookbook solution to disagreement-a set of prescribed actions to be applied in all situations. His overall approach seeks to balance two aspects of conflict management: analysis based on a codified process and people-centered behavioral skills.

The book differentiates conflict resolution and conflict management. Management goes beyond resolution to include relationship building that may serve to avoid conflict or facilitate resolution if it occurs.
 
The Zen Approach to Project Management 
By George Pitagorsky

Projects are often more complex and stressful than they need to be. Far too many of them fail to meet expectations. There are far too many conflicts. There are too few moments of joy and too much anxiety. But there is hope. It is possible to remove the unnecessary stress and complexity. This book is about how to do just that. It links the essential principles and techniques of managing projects to a "wisdom" approach for working with complex, people-based activities.