Kim Hermanson's Blog, page 20

Teaching is a sacred cauldron.

In the sheer vulnerability of facing a group as “teacher,” we come face-to-face with our own personal issues, insecurities, fears and challenges.

Because when we teach—when we work with other humans—our own pain and issues come up for healing.

It can be messy.

In high school, I told my 10th grade math teacher that I would NEVER be a teacher because it would be boring to say the same things over and over again.

Boy, was I wrong.

My love for teaching grew as I realized that at my best, I was a learner with my students.

When I held that position, I was more impactful. I was also more alive.

Teaching is a sacred cauldron.

 

When we work with other humans, we’re not in control.

When we work with other humans, we’re not in control.

So what can we do? We can be learners. We can experiment.

We can throw away the model of what we THINK we’re supposed to do and create something entirely new.

We can investigate what is before us: “What is this situation asking of me? What, or who, do I need to pay attention to right now?”

Experimenting grows our work in new directions.

~ excerpt from Getting Messy: A Guide to Taking Risks and Opening the Imagination

 

When you teach or coach, be someone people can connect with. It’s not about techniques.

Even the most experienced teachers, coaches, and workshop leaders get caught up in the “how” of techniques, theories, information, and strategies. But creating the perfect teaching module won’t make you a great teacher.

Your work rests on WHO YOU ARE. Once you have that, the ‘how’ is easy.

As Brené Brown said in Daring Greatly, “What we know matters, but who we are matters more.”

Highly skilled presenters are boring when they hide themselves behind their techniques. (Even making jokes is boring when it’s just another “strategy.”)

YOU have to be IN your work. You have to be ALIVE with it.

If you’re not, your audience will know.

Great teaching, speaking, and coaching are about being someone people can connect with.

Not techniques.

 

Breakthroughs happen when we open spaces we didn’t know existed.

Many of my clients who’ve been called to do deeply creative work, get tripped up and frustrated because they feel that they need to be clear about what they’re doing.

But the Deep Creative doesn’t work that way.

Creativity isn’t a tool that we employ in the service of a vision.

IT’S A SPACE THAT YOU OPEN.

You DON’T KNOW what you’ll discover in that space. You have to allow it to show you.

It WILL take you somewhere.

Breakthroughs don’t happen through effort or thinking harder.

Breakthroughs happen when we open spaces we didn’t know existed.

“When the solution is simple, God is answering.” ~ Einstein

Metaphoric images have the ability to take us into an intelligent field of potent, Source energy.

But to take us into that realm of non-ordinary intelligence, the image must be SIMPLE.

Simple is powerful.

As Einstein said, “when the solution is simple, God is answering.”

Complex images, on the other hand, keep us in our thinking, trying to “figure it all out.”

For example, a complicated image is: “a house that has 2 floors, it’s blue with yellow trim, the roof is at a sharp slant, it looks old and shabby. There’s a dog outside on the lawn …”

And a narrative story like the following is similarly complicated:

“I went down a path and then I saw a castle. There was a dragon at the door and the door was red. Then I saw my father next to me and….”)

Embellished images and stories can be wonderfully insightful. But to enter non-ordinary knowing, we need to stay away from our thinking mind’s need to understand and analyze.

Our thinking mind can’t shift us into non-ordinary intelligence.

A simple image with no detailed embellishments (a tree, a waterfall, a cloud, a fork, golf ball, or a piece of grass) can allow us to enter a dimension that is not of this world.

Simple images connect us with the wisdom of the Divine.

For more, check out the free resources on my website.

 

Metaphoric images have the ability to take us into an intelligent field of potent, Source energy.

Metaphoric images have the ability to take us into an intelligent field of potent, Source energy.

But to take us into that realm of non-ordinary intelligence, the image must be SIMPLE.

Simple is powerful.

As Einstein said, “when the solution is simple, God is answering.”

Complex images, on the other hand, keep us in our thinking, trying to “figure it all out.”

For example, a complicated image is: “a house that has 2 floors, it’s blue with yellow trim, the roof is at a sharp slant, it looks old and shabby. There’s a dog outside on the lawn …”

And a narrative story like the following is similarly complicated:

“I went down a path and then I saw a castle. There was a dragon at the door and the door was red. Then I saw my father next to me and….”)

Embellished images and stories can be wonderfully insightful. But to enter non-ordinary knowing, we need to stay away from our thinking mind’s need to understand and analyze.

Our thinking mind can’t shift us into non-ordinary intelligence.

A simple image with no detailed embellishments (a tree, a waterfall, a cloud, a fork, golf ball, or a piece of grass) can allow us to enter a dimension that is not of this world.

Simple images connect us with the wisdom of the Divine.

For more, check out the free resources on my website.

 

Love is at the heart of genius.

Love is at the heart of genius.

When I was studying adult learning in the PhD program at the University of Chicago, I was fascinated by the lack of heart and soul in the research literature.

It was as if love had been divorced from learning.

Perhaps it was too mushy?

But love is not anti-intellectual. In fact, the opposite is true.

Our loves and passions INSPIRE our intellects.

Tolstoy said, “Everything I know, I know because I love.”  And Mozart said, “Neither a lofty intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love—that is the soul of genius.”

To my mind it’s very clear: the next step of human intelligence is love.

Love is the soul of genius… and revolution

Love is the soul of genius… and revolution

When I was studying adult learning in the PhD program at the University of Chicago, I was fascinated by the lack of heart and soul in the research literature.

It was as if love had been divorced from learning.

Perhaps it was too mushy?

But love is not anti-intellectual. In fact, the opposite is true.

Our loves and passions inspire our intellects.

Tolstoy said, “Everything I know, I know because I love.”

Mozart said, “Neither a lofty intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love—that is the soul of genius.”

Che Guevara said, “Let me say, at the risk of sounding ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.”

To my mind it’s very clear: the next step of human intelligence is love.

Your work rests on who you are, not your credentials.

I see so many people get hung up with certifications. They think that they just need the proper credential and then they can finally do the work that’s been calling them.

Most of my clients don’t have the proper credentials for the work that they do. They’re living their calling and a calling can’t be planned for ahead of time.

I myself have never had the right certifications. I teach graduate courses in the field of depth psychology and have never taken a graduate level psychology course, let alone a course in depth psychology. Years ago, I trained teachers at UC Berkeley. My course was titled “Instructional Strategies.”

I’d never taught a class before in my life.

Do the work that’s calling you. Walk through the doors that mysteriously open.

THOSE DOORS OPEN FOR A REASON.

You can get the certification later (or never).

Your work rests on who you are. Not your credentials.

We learn by doing.

Your work rests on who you are.

I see so many people get hung up with certifications. They think that they just need the proper credential and then they can finally do the work that’s been calling them.

Most of my clients don’t have the proper credentials for the work that they do. They’re living their calling and a calling can’t be planned for ahead of time.

I myself have never had the right certifications. I teach graduate courses in the field of depth psychology and have never taken a graduate level psychology course, let alone a course in depth psychology. Years ago, I trained teachers at UC Berkeley. My course was titled “Instructional Strategies.”

I’d never taught a class before in my life.

Do the work that’s calling you. Walk through the doors that mysteriously open.

THOSE DOORS OPEN FOR A REASON.

You can get the certification later (or never).

Your work rests on who you are. Not your credentials.

We learn by doing.