Day 280: Diane Trieb
“… it just goes on and on. Groups of people and individuals who have been oppressed, who have been down, who look like they’re on their last, you know, piece of life, and they rise up again. They rise up again. They find that “enoughness” inside them. They have enough belief in themselves or they open to guidance and find their way back.”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Diane, for agreeing to be part of the Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Diane Trieb: Yes. My name is Diane Trieb, and I am a spiritual counselor teaching the art of emotional problem-solving.
Toni: Oh, I like that … emotional problem-solving. Well, Diane, when you think of the word inspiration, who do you inspire, and how does that happen?
Diane: Who do I inspire? Well, I probably first of all inspire myself. I spend a lot of time reading and thinking about how to integrate our humanity and our divinity – our emotions and our spirit. And so through my reading and thinking and opening to inspiration from Creator and creation, I self-inspire, and then I write about it and then I use it in my counseling practice and with my friends and family. I feel like I am inspired, and I owe my gratitude to all that is and to a handful of spiritual masters that I believe are present on this planet, and then to all the people that I spend time talking with – with clients, with friends, with family. I’m inspired by so many people’s stories. Their stories of … their failed stories and then their rising from the ashes of their failed story; that inspires me. But that wasn’t the question, was it?
Toni: No, but that’s okay because where it leads – and we need to get more into that – but for this particular question as far as who you inspire and how, it sounds as though it’s the learning that you go through that you inspire others by that learning – is that what I’m hearing?
Diane: Yes, that’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. I feel inspired and then I feel like I am an inspiration to others as they’re inspiring me. It’s always a give and take. I’m always feeling this give and take of inspiration.
Toni: The work that you do, Diane, how does it help people to explore their potential?
Diane: Well, let me just give you an example of what happened with me right now, because what happens with me when I have to do something public like doing this phone interview, I get nervous and this fear starts kind of niggling at me. And what I am teaching and what I am learning myself is how to say yes to everything. In fact, my new project that I’ve been inspired to go forward with is called the Yes Project, and the Yes Project is working with spiritual principles. But to get it down to its very simplest form, it’s saying yes to everything.
So as I’m anticipating doing this interview and I’m feeling some fear, I allow myself to embrace that fear with a yes. Ten minutes ago I was saying “Yes, this is happening and the fear is okay, and I know that I’m going to …” My yes, I don’t even have to go into any words. It’s just saying yes and accepting what is, accepting the negative as well as the positive, and then those two integrate and allow me to go forward. And that’s what I teach and inspire in my practice.
Toni: Well thank you for sharing that. What a great way to manage that, because I know we all get that way. We get those butterflies in our stomach and go “Oh man, I could come up with a hundred million excuses not to do this right now.”
Diane: That’s right, exactly.
Toni: And that creative avoidance sets in, doesn’t it?
Diane: Yes, yes. Absolutely, absolutely. And our power … the thing is, we’re such powerful beings. The yes taps into the essence of who we are on a more spiritual level. You know, I think it’s on the human level, it’s on that doubt and fear and feeling not enough that gets us into the more negative states, and where human and divine … the divine part of us knows that we’re enough already. We’re enough already. And that’s what the yes taps into. The yes taps into “I’m enough already, and I know that on some level,” you know?
So which am I going to identify with? Well, you don’t have to choose. You can hold both in the same space, because we’ve got both in the same body. We’ve got humanity and divinity in the same body, and part of what I see my work is – and all of our work is – is integrate that … is to integrate feeling not enough with “enoughness.” And the “enoughness” will always win out. The yes will always win out, because it’s more powerful.
Toni: It’s interesting – it reminds me of sustainability, and to be able to know that what you have is enough. And when you realize that what you have is enough, there you have sustainability times a powerful factor, don’t you?
Diane: Yes, yes. That’s a very good way to put it. I’m a Virgo, and I tend to be very perfectionistic and nit-picky. I mean, if I was left to my own devices when I was creating my website, I would have changed it forever and never have published it, just because it’s not good enough, it’s not good enough. There has to come a point when we say “This is good enough for now. This good enough,” and move forward, yes.
Toni: Absolutely. Well, let’s go a little bit with what inspires you now and what you need to be inspired. You said that you are inspired by other people’s stories and people that have overcome adversity to rise up. Can you give other examples of what inspires you?
Diane: Nature inspires me. Every morning … I live very close to a lovely park. It’s a forest. The way I begin my day is I go for my walk in the woods. That is my inspirational beginning. Nature is totally a yes experience. Nature is in acceptance of everything that happens, and when I walk into that woods, I feel it. It just … it’s all around me, and it’s also inside me, and so that is a primary place where I get inspired, from nature.
And the four seasons as well because you have the cycles of summer, which is light and life and production, and then fall which is letting go and surrender; the life looks like it’s ending. Winter looks like death because there doesn’t appear to be any life, but then we have spring. Spring always comes after winter, and spring is rebirth and awakening, and life coming back when you thought there was no life. And so, I’m just … I’m very inspired by that whole cycle, because I think it’s a mirror of our cycle as human beings. We all have the birth/death cycle. The crucifixion and the resurrection cycle. So nature inspires me.
Like I said, other people inspire me. I’m a fan of American Idol, and my favorite part of American Idol is when they’ve told one of the young people that “I’m sorry, you have to leave the show now,” and then they ask them to get up and sing one more song. That so touches me, that in the middle of their disappointment — and often it’s tears and sadness and a loss of something that was important to them — they get back on that stage and they sing their heart out. That inspires me.
Toni: I have to agree with you as well. It is really a visual representation of resilience at its best, isn’t it?
Diane: Yes, yes, yes. To get up … you know, and so many great stories and novels and plays and movies are about that, about someone or some group who is down and out, you know, I mean … and we can look at our culture. I mean, look at the Native Americans, look at the black people in this country, look at, you know, the oppressed, the Jews … I mean, it just goes on and on. Groups of people and individuals who have been oppressed, who have been down, who look like they’re on their last, you know, piece of life, and they rise up again. They rise up again. They find that “enoughness” inside them. They have enough belief in themselves or they open to guidance and find their way back.
Toni: Oh, absolutely. And they are incredibly inspirational stories – and that message seems to be hidden in most movies, really.
Diane: Yes, yes. Absolutely, yes.
Toni: When you find yourself maybe on a day when you need some inspiration or you’re looking for … you maybe just kind of need to be filled up a bit – do you find yourself reaching for the same type of tools or resources on a consistent basis?
Diane: Yes, yes, I do. One of my favorite inspirational people – and I think he’s an enlightened master on this planet – is Eckhart Tolle, and he’s written … the most popular book that he’s written is A New Earth, and I go back to him over and over again. In fact, I have a DVD of his that I have in one television permanently, and it’s when he was speaking at Findhorn, which is an awesome garden spot in Scotland, and so it’s very inspirational speaking that he’s doing. And I’ll sit down and I’ll put that on for five minutes. Just listening to him for five minutes, no matter what he’s talking about, brings me back.
Also, looking at my own writing. I mean, I write a lot to inspire myself as well as other people, so I’ll read something that I’ve written. Often, I’ll write something and after I come back from my walk in the woods, I’ll write something about how I felt inspired. And then, sometimes I carry it around with me all day and refer back to it.
It’s amazing how our mind can take over from that inspired place that we may be starting our day out with and then we get into our day and we kind of get lost in our day. And sometimes we get lost in our own emotions and negative feelings and to go back to “Okay, now how do I get back to how I felt this morning?” Well, I carry my little paper around, which is just a very short kind of a self-inspiration.
Toni: That leads so beautifully into the final question of the Project, which is, what do you do now to explore your own potential? You’ve talked about starting a new project, and you talked about the affirmation that you carry around with you – are those the things and the tools that you use to explore your own potential, and what else do you do?
Diane: Yes, yes. What else do I do? Well, I’m always … like I said, always looking to integrate humanity and divinity. Looking to integrate that yes and that no. Looking to integrate my feelings of “not enoughness” and my knowing that I am enough already. And so having this project, this Yes Project, because this is new, I just kind of put this together last week, that’s going to pull me forward. So every day, I think about the project, and I try to put something into it that adds to it, and that’s going to expand it.
And every day … you know, we’re body, mind, and spirit, and so if I just sat around and thought all day and wrote all day, that would not be balance. So I think about my body, too, because I want my body to feel good, because that’s part of my inspiration. So I pay attention to, you know, getting enough exercise and eating right, and there’s always room for improvement there. So that’s inspirational to me.
And then spirit; to take quiet time, to do some breathing, to do some giving, to do some service. You know, it’s trying to balance the body, mind, and spirit.
Toni: You have just given us so much information in this small amount of time. I’m always amazed at what can be said and taught in 15 minutes, and so thank you so very much for sharing your perspective on inspiration — not only who you inspire, but also what you need, and I think that it’s really created such a balance. We thank you very, very much. We will have your website at the end of the transcript so that people can learn a little more about you, and for showing up today, Diane, we really appreciate it.
Diane: You are so welcome, and thank you for having this inspiration project.
Toni: Thank you very much, and thank you for saying yes.
Diane: Thank you.
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For more information about Diane Trieb: www.dianetrieb.com
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