Meaningful Trainings offers simple skills development resources. Behind all of what we do are a few basics: consistent tools that if used provide results. Tools provide results if picked up and used.

One of the most basic tools that support just about all of our work is - TA DA (drum roll please...) - kindness. There it is, our secret ingredient. Simple enough...the real question is how?

How? Motivational Interviewing and Active Listening. These two skills combine to offer the perfect context for facilitating kindness. To be heard, affirmed, acknowledged are demonstrations of kindness and in return point to pathways of possibilities. At home, at work, on the subway, in a hot air balloon...anywhere, with anyone.

As opposed to not listening. Not asking a question. Not affirming. When adults interact the power of a question offered upon the inflection of curiosity - genuine seeking - is powerfully, effectively positive. Suffice to say I often buoy myself with musings of what the world might look like amidst these demonstrations of kindness.

Math was never my best subject. Just about the time I moved into algebra & geometry my attention waned. The addition of letters to a numeric landscape was too much for this Taurus!

I'm more of a metaphor person. I enjoy collage and assignment of concepts to imagery. Contrast and questions seem to support my learning as well as my means of communication. Easy for me...not so much, yet eventually effective, for those I explore with...and a perfect segue for this post...;-)

When does the obvious not apply? When does 1+1=3, or 2+2=8 or even 46+87=1,398? Things become more than they seem all the time. Linear thinking asks us to proceed accordingly. Imagination, curiosity can be checked at the door - you won't need those here. Adhering to linear thinking all the time can cover up insights that offer us leverage in our daily tasks. Be those tasks quotidian or complex, concrete or ethereal if we view them in one dimension there can be a shortfall in our results. Often times linear thinking curtails our efforts before we even begin! We know the answer (1+1=2) so we don't proceed down that road. Only to find it wasn't the road it was our steps that needed a reconsideration.

Anyone who works with us quickly realizes we are practical as described in our process,  Frame>Build>Sustain. For us, it needs to work. That's because our partners come to Meaningful Trainings for practical applications of timeless knowledge; Ancient Knowledge is our common term. One of the foundations of our practice is being present. Whether it's Active Listening, Storytelling, Meditation - being present, actually in the moment & in the space you find yourself, is hard. Then to do it for more than a glimmer - virtually impossible without cultivated practice.

So - a practical application of 1+1=3; if you eat a meal it may take 25 minutes > the energy provided by the meal may be upwards of 3 hours. The time invested (25 minutes) creates more than the investment (180 minutes). (Of course my tenacious fact checkers will note the lack of production time and other contributors to the meal but I asked you to check the linear mode at the top of the post...;-)

This leveraging effect applies to the practice being present, in any form. If I practice for (5) minutes I get a benefit of more than the investment. Your results will indeed vary from mine as mine vary from mine! What I have found is the sustained benefit of any present minded practice is profound and significant. More on that later...

Long ago I gave up on math. I've rekindled my interest with a realization that I had only to change the way I looked at it to become a fan again!