Jul 19, 20232 min read

Create the Conditions for Transformation

I ate a lot of roughage this past weekend. I took a weekend course at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in western Massachusetts. If you’ve never been, the food is so good that you are inspired to eat your vegetables and go back for more. Kripalu is housed in a monastery-like structure perched on an enormous hill. The building itself is not beautiful, but the view from front lawn is picture perfect: an unobstructed 180-degree view of the Berkshire mountains, with a large lake at the center. I’d been there at least four times and I’d never been down to that lake. From the vantage point of the building, the lake seemed too far to get to in between workshops, and by the time my weekend workshops ended, I was always ready to go home. But this time was different. I was there for a workshop called "Creating Transformational Workshops." Baked into the design of the workshop were more breaks than other workshops I'd ever taken there. I swam in that lake. I napped in their hammocks. These were the external conditions that created the container for a workshop on creating my first multi-week course based on my first book, Braving Creativity. But inside of the workshop we created other conditions for learning. And those conditions were just as as important. The question we considered was this: How do we create the conditions for transformation in our lives? This is the fundamental question of all change. My book talks about three big change catalysts. Crisis, Opportunity, and Desire. (If you have’t read your excerpt - dive in! Your free e-book will follow in August) But change itself does not create personal transformation. In everyday life, as we progress from week to week, we must be mindful of the choices we make so that we can create the conditions to ensure and then sustain our growth. This is not so easy to do. We are wired to root ourselves in status quo beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors even after a big life change and despite our best intentions. The only way around that is through. We must CONSCIOUSLY CREATE the conditions for our own growth and transformation. My challenge to you is to consider what choices you might make to create such conditions. Perhaps you commit to: