Look at What’s in Front of You

I have been thanking the world for Transformation recently, particularly after being a presenter at a conference about child malnutrition in Barcelona. As I arrived at the venue, I was feeling a little nervous and then something I have heard Ariel and Shya Kane say at their Living Made Easy seminars ran through my head: “Look at what’s in front of you.”

As the conference got underway I found myself able to look at each person as they spoke and truly listen, rather than run over my own presentation in my mind. Every individual had 10 minutes and the presentations were really interesting, each coming at the question of how to better prevent child malnutrition from different angles. But I also noticed that each presenter ran out of time towards the end and had to rush over their last few concluding slides. As I listened, I didn’t even notice myself feeling calmer until I stood up to take my turn and realised that I was. And as that happened I suddenly had the idea of telling everyone my conclusion at the start, and then use the rest of the time to talk through the “why.” The people in the room got bright and everyone laughed as I said, “Now the pressure is off as we all know the conclusion already.”

Funnily enough, half way through my presentation I got a sudden heavy nose bleed (effect of the change of weather, I think) and had to stop. I excused myself and went out into the hall with some tissues someone had quickly magiced up. I was so impressed when, as I moved to leave, the next presenter jumped up and said we could switch to him. Fifteen minutes later he had finished and I was back up at the front of the room, bleeding stopped, completing my talk. It didn’t even feel like an interruption in the flow of information as our presentations seemed to complement each other. I know something like getting a nosebleed in the middle of my talk could have been dramatic or upsetting but it just wasn’t. And although I had the thought that this might not have been the best presentation I had ever done, Transformation has given me the ability to see that this was just a recurring thought.

Later that day, one of the other researchers whom I had not met before but whose presentation and questions during the conference I had been particularly impressed by, asked me to come and present to his team of environmental health researchers in London. It will be an opportunity for our nutrition work to reach a very different group of people who also strive towards preventing child malnutrition but look at it from a really different perspective that we can learn from. I’m excited about it. Bleeding not required!

Finally on the way home, as we shared a beer at the airport, I got to thank the presenter who had jumped into the moment earlier that day. We chatted about Transformation. As I once again looked at what (and in this case who) was in front of me, I was inspired to share one of Ariel and Shya’s Being Here podcast cards and I also invited him to attend one of the Kanes’ Living Made Easy Seminar. I don’t know if he will come but it felt really good to share.