I woke this morning with the  thought:
“Life either goes the way I  think it should,  or it gives me another opportunity to release my resistance to the flow of Life.”

Then  I ran into a quote by Joss Whedon who is a popular writer and director. This was taken from a 2006 speech he gave to the organization Equality Now. He was discussing the fact that reporters often ask him why he writes such strong female characters.  He stated that the real question is why don’t other writers produce more strong female characters.  Then he said the following:

“Equality is not a concept.  It’s not something we should be striving for.  It’s a necessity.  Equality is like gravity.  We need it to stand on this earth as men and women.  And the misogyny, (hatred of women – which is really rooted in fear of their power), that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition.  It is life out of balance and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who is confronted with it.  We need equality. Kinda Now!” – Italics added –

Another of my favorite sayings comes from Guy Finley –
“We all have wings that only open in Mid-Air.”
This ties in with the ‘age-old’ observation that the Universe rewards action.  So that, especially when I have no idea how I am going to accomplish something that seems to be the right thing to do, I need to just start!

Another thought which came to me today was that sometimes people ask me how I accomplish all that I do, and sometimes people ask me why I am not doing  more.  I don’t know how to answer either question.

Last night the Mindshifters group in Woodstock, IL watched the first half of Dr. Michael Ryce’s lecture titled: Purpose, Personal Power, and Commitment.  This is a powerful talk which helps outline a way to define one’s life purpose and then use that purpose to focus and intensify one’s creative energy.  The process and the rationale for doing this are clearly laid out by Dr. Ryce in the first hour of this lecture.  It is based on identifying what you are naturally good at doing and what you love to do and then dedicating yourself to using those things to help make the world a better place.

After the video we opened the group for questions and several members had been deeply moved by the process outlined in the video.  One member in particular found that she was in agreement with most of the teachings in the video and stated that she had felt that way most of her life, but did not have the specific tools for making these things a reality in her life.  She stated that she was grateful to have found this work and these tools.  She also raised a difficulty she was having related to the idea of trying to stay in the space of Love, when people around her are being unreasonable or even abusive.  This led to some comments from different group members  who were all genuinely trying to offer support for this member.  Different people made it clear that there is nothing in this work which tells people they have to just sit back and take abuse from others,  in life or in relationships.

This did not really get to the point for the person raising this issue, so we asked her to be more specific and she got very emotional and told a brief story about how her mother had recently gotten ill and when she took her mother to the emergency room, the staff there said they could not help her and suggested that she put her mother in a nursing home.  She knew  this was not the thing to do and found another hospital where they treated  her mother for a urinary tract infection and things began to get better.  However, this person was still visibly upset and had great difficulty telling this story without breaking down in tears.  As we helped her identify what she was feeling and continually reminded her to use her breath to soften the tight and rigid places within her, she began to identify her deep sadness.  As the group supported her in doing a modified version of the Reality Management Worksheet process,  she was able to identify several goals she was holding which were fueling her anger, fear and sadness.  As the group supported her in canceling those goals and looking to see what was beneath them, she got in touch with memories of being three years old and being  sick and in the hospital and being separated from her mother for ten days when she was “in isolation”, during which time all she wanted was to be with her mother.

As she cried and breathed and got in touch with the deep pain and fear that she felt at age three, she began to realize that the sadness and fear she is feeling as an adult today are just echos and the stimulation of energies she locked away in her mind and body when she went through these traumatic events as a child.  The group worked with her for about forty minutes of processing, breathing, identifying goals, canceling goals and asking to be shown the hidden parts of her mind which were causing  her pain.  At the end of that time we asked her to think about the recent events with her mother and all the trauma they had just been through to see if she could get in touch with the deep sadness and fear which had been so overwhelming just forty minutes prior.  She was  calm and relaxed and stated that she felt none of the upset with which she began the process.

This was a powerful session of processing, integrating, and healing for this person.  The rest of the story is that this session happened in our group where twelve other  people were present and holding the space of Love and breathing with this person.  Of those twelve other people, no less than six spoke out about how powerful the session was for them because of their own issues with children age three, or their own traumas from age three.  One member revealed that she currently has a three year old who is being treated for cancer and that this session helped her realize how important it is for her to dismantle her anger and fear so that she can just be present and Loving with her child,  who  is too young to understand why the energy of fear and anger would be radiating from her mother.  Another member related that she almost lost her daughter at age three.  Another  member  related that she had significant traumas and losses in her  life when she was three and that the processing in the group was very significant for her to understand where she has more healing work to do.

I was, and am still, in awe of the quality and commitment of the people who gather each week for this Loving and Healing process and the powerful benefits  they are creating for themselves, their families, and their friends.

For more information and FREE access to these tools visit Dr. Michael Ryce’s website at www.whyagain.org

We Come From Love, We Are Made of Love, We Are Love!  Everything else is false.

The Mindshifters support group in Woodstock, IL last night watched the DVD presentation by Dale Allen Hoffman titled: The Word.  This is a collection of pieces of presentations Dale has made over the years about different interpretations of the words from ancient Aramaic scriptures which have been attributed to Jesus or Yeshua.  The gentle and loving way that Dale presents this material clearly had a powerful impact on the group, which sparked a lively conversation and many questions about a variety of topics.

Some of the key concepts Dale presented included the idea of using the breath to soften  tension and resistance in any moment and to allow the flow of creative energy and the expression of Love,  which  is our true nature.  Dale reported that his research indicates that the vast power of Yeshua’s teachings were lost when the word breath was translated by the Greeks as the word spirit.  Dale suggested that one can take most current versions of the bible and substitute the word breath in most places where the word spirit is used and find a whole new level of meaning in those teachings.

Dale highlighted the fact that these ancient teachings were about a spiritual practice, not about a dogma or religion and that following the spiritual practice which is described is the only way for someone to begin to have the experience that Yeshua was teaching people to create for themselves.  The ancient texts and Yeshua’s teachings were about how to have the same kind of experiences Yeshua had.  Yeshua even said, “The things I have done,  you can do and even greater things that this will you do.”  The only way to achieve this is to make it a habit to practice the very practical skills that Yeshau spoke of in his teachings.  Those teachings however, have been hidden behind the translation difficulties which arise when moving from one language to another and from one culture to another.  The point  is made in the video that the ideologies become a barrier to experiencing the very thing the ideologies are talking about.  If an ideology does not inspire action and active spiritual practice it begins working to prevent the very thing it claims to promote.

Dale makes it clear that we are not meant to change the message but the message is meant to change us.

He also says that The Law is not something we need to learn to live within, but rather it is that thing which lives through us.

He talked about how the scriptures have been translated to say that the one unforgivable sin is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.  Many religions use this to shame people into praying a certain way, or into believing  that “bad” things are happening in their lives because they have not been pious enough, or pure enough in their thought, or prayed hard enough to God or the Holy Spirit.  Dale offers that the true meaning of this is to be found by revealing the definitions of the original Aramaic words.  The word that the Greeks translated as Holy Spirit was the word Rookha D’ Koodsha in the Aramaic.  One valid way to interpret this name is as follows – the all-encompassing breath of God.  When you combine this with the ancient meaning of the word blasphemy, “to cut off from” you get an entirely different meaning.  When you cut yourself off from the all-encompassing breath of God,  you initiate your own death by refusing to allow the breath of life and creation to flow through you and heal you.   The next time something “bad” or unwanted happens in your life, watch what happens with your breath.  Chances are you will either hold  your breath or breathe in very shallow breaths which do not allow for proper oxygenation and relaxation within your body.  You will have cut yourself off from the breath of Life, or God which is trying to flow through you.  Watch what happens when you slow yourself down and take some deep full breaths and keep them flowing.  I believe you will feel what ever it is you say you don’t want to feel and you will feel it more fully.  The good part is that you will also begin to integrate and “heal” those unwanted feelings and energies within you.  You will be restored and the breath of life will be restored to you.

Again, this is yet another teaching from the ancient scriptures which was meant as a set of instructions for removing anything that is less than Love from your mind’s and body’s energy system.  More tools which help this process are available for free at www.whyagain.org  click on the link that says “Start Here”.  You will be able to print out and use a wide variety of worksheets that are all designed to help you uncover and then remove any energies in your system which are less than Love.

We Come From Love, We are Made of Love, We Are Love!  Everything else is false.