It seems like the whole world is in transition. The old ways are being swept away, to make room for the new. Which isn’t here yet. In Z 2 A times we often feel lost, confused and uncertain. Yet the seeds of the future are there.
In the west we know how to do A to Z. We know how to be goal oriented, productive, efficient and focused. There are tons of books on the subject ‘how to manage’ your project, career, life or whatever from A to Z. What we lack are instructions how to negotiate, navigate or be in that space in between. I’ve tried to fill that gap with Z 2 A.
Whenever you’ve lost your footing, or sense of direction, when life has turned topsy turvy, you are in Z 2 A space and time. Learn how to make the most of it with this book.
Z 2 A © 2011 Eva Dillner
Publisher: DIVINE DESIGN
Perfect Bound
6″x9″, 200 pages
Digital Audio 6 hours
E-book in pdf, epub and Kindle formats
Illustrated in full color with over 60 pieces of original art.
Available from Amazon and other internet retailers around the world.
Not Yet
Press
- Book Review: Z 2 A BookWorm 11/19/2011
- Book Review: Z 2 A BooksAreMagic 12/17/2011
- Interview with Eva Dillner: Author of Z2A BooksAreMagic 12/22/2011 BookShelf Confessions 2/27/2012
- Book Review: Z 2 A BookShelf Confessions 2/27/2012
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An UN Period
A normal project flows in a natural direction. The Z 2 A period, on the other hand, is discontinuous. It appears there are lots of dots, but they are not necessarily connected. The thoughts skip, the activities gap, the emotions have no apparent logic.UN-rest is common, swinging from boredom, doldrums, to high speed chaos. This is life in the UN period. It’s as it should be. How in the world will something new be able to form, if there isn’t an UN space where it can enter?
Hmm…
The UN’s are important. Perhaps even more important than the DO’s. It’s from the UN’s that the impulse forward comes.
Empty space is of course not really empty. It is full of possibilities, unlimited choice, paths and ideas. Tap into the UN and you may just become wise. Or full of it. Discrimination, the ability to sort, becomes even more critical as we learn to tap into the UN. What is key? What is next? What feels like it feeds my soul? Now, in this moment?
Living moment to moment in a planned world is not easy. I have not mastered the task, as I’m sure you’ve already observed. But by letting each thing or thought have its due, I move forward, in my own way. The movement may not be movement, more an awareness, that life trudges on, even when it appears to be standing still.
Here in Sweden, in the November darkness, that inward withdrawal, slowing down, hibernating impulse makes itself known. The bare trees against a winter sky, stillness, you can almost smell the approaching snow in the air.
Soon…
With candles lit, we sit by our windows and gaze at the snow falling gently, so quietly, outside.
RE-Evaluate, RE-Member, RE-Think, RE-Consider
Before we can move forward into something new, it is appropriate to pause and do the RE-words.
RE-Evaluate what has worked and what hasn’t. How did it feel? Did it work? Did I get the results I wanted? Have I learned something? Just because something was the right thing to do last year, doesn’t mean it still fits. Stopping to review and reevaluate is necessary for progress. Life is so much about change and growth, well at least for me. If anything defines the Z 2 A period it is just that, the time to reflect. To pause. To let the thoughts drift and meander.
RE-Member where you have been. Maybe this is why we pull out the pile of photos that have started to gather dust, and finally take the time to go through them. We sort and put the pictures into albums. We share them with friends. While we do this we remember what was. All this helps us in getting a perspective on where we have been, what we have done, and perhaps a glimmer of insight into what we may want to change for the future.
RE-Think your options. Turn them around. Try to look at things from another perspective. Rethink your approach. There are many ways to accomplish the same things. I’ve been looking at my marketing strategy for my books and services. The last few years I have done some pretty extensive tours, doing talks and book signings for small groups. It’s been a lot of fun and has satisfied my travel urge, but they take a lot of time and effort to organize. Maybe I would rather focus on fairs for a bit. In a few days of intense work, I get to meet more people than I do on my tours. It’s still on the rethink list, but already I am booking fairs, having just signed up for the London Book Fair and the Harmony Expo in Stockholm in the spring. In the next few years, I may want to spend more time writing and doing seminars than travel to do small presentations.
RE-Consider your options. Allow yourself to think outside the box, to look at alternatives on the opposite side of where you are. This is essential at mid life, when many people switch sides, so to speak. It’s time to explore the other side of the street. The stay at home Mom goes back to school or starts a business. The hard driving executive starts to explore the softer side. Counselors and therapists all of a sudden take a year or two off to study computer science. Or the engineer switches career and becomes a healer.
Life has handed us a space, a stop, a pause, an ending for a reason. Whether it’s an illness, a move, a job that’s ended or a relationship gone sour doesn’t really matter. The abrupt, or soft, demise of what has been is a signal that a Z 2 A period has landed in your life. Take advantage of it. Stop, pause and reflect, before charging ahead to rebuild what was.
Many years ago a friend of mine was laid up with a concussion for a few months. She said it felt like her brain was being rebuilt, kind of like a computer. I asked what changes were being programmed into her new brain.
– Oh no, my brain is being rebuilt just like it was, she quipped.
There was no room for even discussing the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the concussion was there for the very purpose so she could consider other ways to see the world, like an opening to change her consciousness. To get a new lease on life. Just because you are handed an opportunity to change, does not mean you take it.
Another friend was in a very serious car accident, that also brought chaos to the brain. Ten years after the accident, she’s a totally different person. She chose to allow the change in consciousness, to allow a new her to emerge. She’s softer yet stronger, more creative and more in tune with the world. The journey was not an easy one, yet she has no regrets. She was done being the old her. As a healer she’s gained incredible insight into how the life energy builds a new structure from the ground up.
Not Yet
Not yet, has got to be the ultimate Z 2 A expression. Waiting. Biding your time. It’s not ready. All the pieces aren’t in place yet.
My psychic friend stopped by the other day. The one who sees me moving to the US. Every time she talks to me she sees container ships, crossing the ocean.
– Not yet, she said. I see you tying up loose ends, like you are tying ribbons on all these bags. One by one, you are preparing. When the time comes, it will move swiftly. Then all the groundwork will be laid.
I already knew it wasn’t yet. My inner guidance in meditation showed me that writing this book is next, and that is all I need to know right now. I’ve often wondered what the value is in knowing that you will be moving on. In a way, nothing lasts. Eventually we all die, or move on.
This is not the first time I’ve been told that I would be moving, only to go through a very long waiting period. So does it help? I’m not sure. Would I live differently if I knew I was staying here? Does knowing there is change in the air (when isn’t there, in my life) help me live better, here in this moment?
In Z 2 A time doesn’t exist, so how come it feels like waiting? It all comes back to ‘now I do this, now I do that’ and as I go along I live and learn. Life goes on. What is a bit tricky is relating to what is around me, knowing I’m about to pull up the stakes. But you can’t sit with your bags packed for several years. I’ve experienced frustration in being told this is what is around the corner, only to discover the corner is a VERY long ways away. Or that corner doesn’t arrive. The prediction isn’t even correct.
You can’t predict exactly. The future is dependent on all of us, on all the decisions that we make. So when someone sees a future, they are seeing the most likely future. And the folks over there, or up there, or wherever the bodiless entities hang out, are notoriously poor in giving time coordinates, since to them all is now. Of all the predictions I’ve heard over the years from psychics, very few have been right on.
One was from a friend of mine who very occasionally gets a message. In all the years I’ve known her she’s given me two predictions. The first one she was right on.
She saw me moving to France and that it would be very important that I know the nuances of the language. At the time I was in the corporate world working in the USA. It was a totally off the wall prediction as our company had no presence in France. A year later I became the on-site Purchasing Manager for the construction of a new factory in Orléans, France. Learning the language turned out to be key in our success.
The second prediction is still out there waiting to be fulfilled. She said ‘I don’t know when, I don’t know how, but you have an absolute bestseller in you.’
We’ll see. When the doubts creep in, it helps me keep on writing.
Not yet.
Table of Contents
We Know How to Achieve • 1
The Writing Begins • 4
My Plans Were • 6
Then Comes a Receding Wave • 9
The Michael Teachings • 14
Playing with Titles and Subtitles • 16
When in the Fog Stand Still • 18
What You Resist Persists • 20
Uncorked • 24
Not Enough Space? • 26
Hanging Loose in Networks • 29
Missing a Piece of the Puzzle • 31
Insight Rolls In • 33
In the Meantime • 37
Magic Hour? • 39
Imagine my Surprise • 40
Blue Notes • 42
Annecy, France • 43
Preparing for Takeoff • 47
Bugs Show the Way to Completion • 50
Disciples in My Future • 52
Present – Future Exercise • 54
What about Tenerife? • 57
A Healing Center in Hawaii • 59
It Doesn’t Make Sense • 62
Head in the Clouds • 64
Do the Experience and Trust the Universe • 66
Choices • 68
Working with Resistance • 70
Take Nothing for Granted • 73
Master Mind • 76
Expand Your Thinking • 78
Every Place is Good for Something • 80
Savasana – The Death Pose in Yoga • 85
Swedish Hibernation – Where Creative Genius is Born • 86
Indigestion • 89
Confusion as Healer • 91
Fear of Failure • 93
Divine Synchronicity • 96
Turbo Times • 98
The Courage to Fail • 101
Going Full Circle? • 103
The Reluctant Shaman • 106
Rest When Tired, Do When Inspired • 109
How Does It Feel? • 111
Life Task and True Work, Study, Play and Rest • 112
An UN Period • 114
RE-Evaluate, RE-Member, RE-Think, RE-Consider • 116
Not Yet • 119
Snow Fairies • 122
I Had a Plan, God Had Another Plan • 124
Change of Plans • 126
Clarity • 128
Crashed Dreams • 130
Time to Explore • 131
When a Door Opens • 135
In this Moment • 138
Saving for the Future • 139
Disruptions • 142
When You Least Expect It • 144
Life Is a Treasure Hunt • 151
There Is a Job for Everyone • 154
Life without Television • 157
Stepping into the Unknown • 160
Escape Velocity • 164
When Old Structures Crumble • 167
The Fine Art of Staring into Space • 171
Uncertainty • 175
Breaking Patterns • 177
Flogging a Dead Horse • 180
Delhi Fog • 182
Illness • 183
Learning to Swim Through Molasses • 185
In God We Trust • 187
More Books • 188We Know How to Achieve • 1
The Writing Begins • 4
My Plans Were • 6
Then Comes a Receding Wave • 9
The Michael Teachings • 14
Playing with Titles and Subtitles • 16
When in the Fog Stand Still • 18
What You Resist Persists • 20
Uncorked • 24
Not Enough Space? • 26
Hanging Loose in Networks • 29
Missing a Piece of the Puzzle • 31
Insight Rolls In • 33
In the Meantime • 37
Magic Hour? • 39
Imagine my Surprise • 40
Blue Notes • 42
Annecy, France • 43
Preparing for Takeoff • 47
Bugs Show the Way to Completion • 50
Disciples in My Future • 52
Present – Future Exercise • 54
What about Tenerife? • 57
A Healing Center in Hawaii • 59
It Doesn’t Make Sense • 62
Head in the Clouds • 64
Do the Experience and Trust the Universe • 66
Choices • 68
Working with Resistance • 70
Take Nothing for Granted • 73
Master Mind • 76
Expand Your Thinking • 78
Every Place is Good for Something • 80
Savasana – The Death Pose in Yoga • 85
Swedish Hibernation – Where Creative Genius is Born • 86
Indigestion • 89
Confusion as Healer • 91
Fear of Failure • 93
Divine Synchronicity • 96
Turbo Times • 98
The Courage to Fail • 101
Going Full Circle? • 103
The Reluctant Shaman • 106
Rest When Tired, Do When Inspired • 109
How Does It Feel? • 111
Life Task and True Work, Study, Play and Rest • 112
An UN Period • 114
RE-Evaluate, RE-Member, RE-Think, RE-Consider • 116
Not Yet • 119
Snow Fairies • 122
I Had a Plan, God Had Another Plan • 124
Change of Plans • 126
Clarity • 128
Crashed Dreams • 130
Time to Explore • 131
When a Door Opens • 135
In this Moment • 138
Saving for the Future • 139
Disruptions • 142
When You Least Expect It • 144
Life Is a Treasure Hunt • 151
There Is a Job for Everyone • 154
Life without Television • 157
Stepping into the Unknown • 160
Escape Velocity • 164
When Old Structures Crumble • 167
The Fine Art of Staring into Space • 171
Uncertainty • 175
Breaking Patterns • 177
Flogging a Dead Horse • 180
Delhi Fog • 182
Illness • 183
Learning to Swim Through Molasses • 185
In God We Trust • 187
More Books • 188
About the book: Crossing the Chasm of No Data
In the West, we know how to achieve – in spades! We know how to plan and execute. We know how to set goals and objectives. We know how to live life from A to Z. But how do we get from Z to A? What do we know of navigating that space in between? When life as we know it ends, before we see a new beginning, there is a creative void where all things are possible. That’s what this book is about. I call it Z 2 A.
Sometimes it takes an ‘earthquake’ in our lives to make the change happen that is good for us. I’ve had many discontinuances in my life. Perhaps the universe thought I should have more practice than most, so I’d know what I was talking about in writing this book.
Z 2 A is ever so much about the unexpected. New solutions. A different path. Seldom the one logic dictates. Not a straight line, but more a connect the dots experience where you have no idea what you are doing as you mosey from point to point.
The space in between is that moment when all things are possible. It’s the creative void that artists work with. It’s the moment of surrender where healing can take place. It’s the instant of inspiration where new ideas are born. It’s the crack in the wall where change can seep in. It’s the chink in the armor where old patterns can be dismantled.
To further deepen the experience, I have chosen to illustrate this book with my own art. The images are there to assist your mind to access Z 2 A space and time. Breathing spaces for your mind so to speak.
Print, audio and e-book editions
Includes over 60 original pieces of art in full color
Eva Dillner is a writer, artist, therapist and teacher specializing in creative and therapeutic processes for inspiration and transformation. She started the company DIVINE DESIGN in 1998 to work with therapy and personal growth, then meandered into writing, painting and publishing. Divine Design publishes her books, calendars and art as well as audio and e-books through distribution partners on the leading edge of the digital age. She has traveled far and wide to present her work, been featured in the press on a regular basis, and was one of fifteen Swedish artists selected for the TellusArt project in India in 2010, doing exhibitions and workshops with leading artists from Asia and Scandinavia.