Tag: Breathe

Breathe before making that call

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Being able to have and express different points of view is what makes our country so wonderful. We are given the freedom to create and develop our own thoughts and then, we usually find like-minded people and gravitate towards them. We learn who shares the same views and whether we can have a friendly debate with those who do not. You know the rule – never discuss religion or politics with friends and family if you want to avoid conflict.

What if that individual is a donor?

I recently had an interesting conversation with an Executive Director (ED) that shared how she referenced a bible verse with a donor because she knew that donor greatly valued her faith. Had the ED not known this fact – that could have offended the donor. Instead, the donor found the conversation particularly meaningful and stated she would be increasing her support.

The ED also shared with me that she had recently meditated for the first time in a long time. Could there be a connection?

The only way to have clarity and to hone into the interests of your donors, is to create space in your mind to allow those thoughts to come through. Take a moment before making that donor call to take a few deep breaths. With each breath reflect on what you know about your donor and what is important to them.

Provide the space and you too will have meaningful conversations.

Create clarity in your mind

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Other than checking in with family members, I totally disconnected last week while on  vacation and it was wonderful. I highly recommend it for everyone. I was surprised how easy it was. Of course, it helped that we were in a very secluded area (see picture – beautiful right?) with no television . We did have wifi but I resisted the urge to look at any social media or check emails.

There were many benefits for me from disconnecting but what I noticed the most was having clarity – having a clear mind. This gave me space.

Try this exercise to understand what I experienced:

Visualize your mind as an empty oval. Now fill one-third with all the letters of the alphabet. This represents your emails  and other correspondance that you are reading and replying to on a daily basis. Fill another third of the oval with dollar signs $$$$. This represents your income and expenses. The last third of the oval is filled with stick figures. This represents family and friends.

Now take a deep breath. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.

As you breathe out, visualize the letters, the $$$, and the stick figures being blown out with each breath. With each breath out, you can see more space becoming available in your oval. Eventually, it will be an empty space. Do you feel peaceful? Hopefully you do.

If not, try the exercise again and concentrate on the visualization. When you can visualize the space in your mind – that is clarity. When you have clarity, you have the opportunity to dream. This is where questions may be answered, solutions to problems may be provided, and revelations may appear.

Create space in your mind and opportunities will present themselves.