Last night the Mindshifters Support group in Woodstock, IL watched the first hour of the lecture by Dr. Michael Ryce titled: A New Beginning – A Lesson From A Course In Miracles.

I have written about this lecture in other posts, and here all I will say about it is that it is a wonderful tool for deciding and then creating the kind  of day one would like to have.  There are many difficulties and cultural trends which argue against the tools presented in this lecture and they are all centered around blaming others and events outside of us for whatever happens in our lives or within our minds and bodies that we don’t like.  As I was preparing to write this post I saw a headline on an Internet website which read: “Blaming others is a sign of good health” The article went on to say that people who blame others when they misplace their car keys will actually live longer and “stay younger longer”.

It is this kind of thinking which is presented to the public as though it is scientifically proven, (by using the words, “research suggests”.), that helps keep the garbage conditioning  in place.  This is the kind of conditioning which keeps us being good little consumers and good little soldiers and good little puppets of various kinds, because it keeps us focused on people and events outside of us, which we cannot change.  This keeps us chasing around wasting our energy on trying to change others and events rather than focusing on what is actually creating our experience of life in each moment.  The thing that creates our experience of life in each moment is the choice we make about where to focus our conscious awareness.  If we focus this conscious awareness on our True Nature as the energy of creation, or Love, this will be our experience in each moment.

This lecture on A New Beginning is all about learning that I am creating my experience in each moment and that if I choose to think  certain thoughts, those thoughts will produce a certain result or emotion within my mind and body’s energy system.  This process has nothing to do with what happens around me and what other people are doing, saying or feeling.  However, I can certainly create a picture in my mind of all kinds of rationalizations, and even hallucinations which will “prove” to me that others and outside events are causing my experience.  Perhaps it is time to wake up from our dreams of separation and our hallucinations!

The other point I wanted to make about the support group tonight comes directly from one of the thirteen people who were in attendance.  He made a special point at the end of the evening, while trying to breathe through his intense emotions, that the support group is currently composed of a wonderful mixture of loving and dedicated people who are creating such a loving and supportive atmosphere in that room, that it is unlike anything he has ever experienced. He said this at the end of the meeting, following yet another powerful, and intensely emotional Reality Management Worksheet process that was completed by another member in the group.  The Reality Management Worksheet Process is available absolutely FREE at http://www.whyagain.org/index.php/en/worksheets

I agree with his observation completely!  The quality of the people and the intention to support each other in integrating, and some would say healing, the energies which are less than Love is beyond my ability to express it in words.

Thank You One and All!

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

The Mindshifters Support Group met and watched the second half of the video lecture titled: Getting the Stress You Need, by Dr. Michael Ryce.  This lecture includes a lengthy visualization exercise led by Dr. Ryce for the purpose of reviewing and canceling any un-achieved goals from our past.  This process is important because once the human mind sets a goal, that goal continues running in the mind, whether in the conscious or the unconscious, until it is either achieved or consciously canceled.  As goals are running in the mind they are using valuable resources, our mind energy, which is then not available for our conscious activities.  After years of setting and then “forgetting” goals,  each of us has a large back-log of un-achieved goals running in our mind’s and body’s energy system, which makes it more difficult to function and be flexible and responsive to life’s demands.

The process of consciously canceling un-achieved goals is a simple but powerful way to restore our minds to ease and balance.  This lecture points out that it is a mistake to set a goal for anything that I cannot accomplish in the next waking period, because doing so ties up resources that are then not available for the things that can be accomplished during that waking period, and it increases the chances that the goal will continue running and using resources long after it has been consciously forgotten.  A tool is presented in this lecture which is called The Mind/Goal Management Worksheet and it is available for free at www.whyagain.org .

The idea of only setting goals for the next waking period is difficult for many people in our culture to understand, because we are taught to set short-term, mid-range, and long-term goals.  In this work, those “goals” would be called plans or intentions, and it is perfectly useful to have many different plans or intentions.  However this work realizes that unless one specifically commits with emotion to elevate a plan or an intention to the level of a goal, it will not change one’s behavior.   So, in this work we learn the benefit of canceling any un-achieved goals at the end of the day before sleep, and then “framing” some possible goals for the next day, and then getting a restful night’s sleep knowing that all goals have been cancelled and there is nothing to mentally distract the mind from a restful night’s sleep.  Then the next morning, one can review the goals which were framed the night before and choose whether or not to “set” those goals for completion during that next waking  period.

After the video, there was a discussion about the process and several people gave testimonials about how effective this process has been for them and the surprising results they noticed when they specifically cancelled goals before sleep and then set a few specific goals for completion during the day.  Then it was time in the group to do a Reality Management Worksheet and one member volunteered to work her process out loud in the group.  Once again, the process was intensely emotional and productive, and the entire group benefited from the willingness and honesty of this week’s courageous volunteer.

At the end of the worksheet process the member who volunteered wanted to talk about how powerful the worksheet was as a tool, and how it “forced” her to look at her issues at a deeper level.  I corrected her and pointed out that the power lies not in the worksheet process but in her willingness to face and process out any negative energies and  emotions from her system.  The proof if this is that many people have been exposed to this worksheet process as a tool, and very few of them actually pick up the tool and use it to dismantle the false and dis-integrative energies they hold in their minds.  So, as my father used to say, “Let’s give credit where credit is due.”  The worksheet process is a very useful and potentially productive tool, however it only works for those who are willing to pick it up and engage the process with honesty and willingness!

Thanks once again to all the members who share the experience Tuesday night and who hold the space of Love and compassion for each other as we walk this path together.

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

In this week’s Mindshifter Support group we watched the first half of the lecture by Dr.  Michael Ryce titled: Getting the  Stress You Need.  This title baffles many people because  we have been taught that stress is a bad thing.  The primary point made in this lecture is that we don’t do anything unless we feel some level of stress.  That stress is the tension that is created within each of us when the picture of how we see the world is different from the picture of how we want the world to be.  The greater the difference between the way we see the world and the way we want  it to be, the greater the tension or stress we will feel.  This tension is also increased by the amount of conscious or unconscious energy we focus on the way we want things to be.

The key to this lecture is learning about what role goals play in the stress we feel and in managing those goals and therefore the stress we feel.  One of the main points in this lecture is realizing that it is the goals we set which direct our minds to show us the behaviors we need to do in order to reach our goals.  One example of this might be that as I sit at home on a Saturday afternoon,  I may be reviewing the various plans and intentions I had throughout the week  for  how I would spend my Saturday afternoon, and the things I would accomplish.  Then after a while of reviewing those things and noticing what time it is, I finally choose something to do and start moving toward that goal.  Let’s say that during the week I had thought it would be nice to do some yard work, visit an apple orchard, write some thank you notes, do several loads of laundry, get some shopping done,  and maybe see a movie.  Then when Saturday afternoon arrives and it is rainy and cold outside, I review the possible plans and intentions and decide to go to the theater and watch a movie.  Within minutes I have my coat on and I am headed out the door to the movie theater.

The only way this could happen is that I chose one of the many different plans or intentions that I held in my mind, and elevated it to the status of a goal in my mind, and committed the energy, both physical and mental, to the accomplishing of that goal.  I realized in that moment that I wanted to be at  the theater, and that I was not yet at the theater.  The difference between where I was and where I wanted to be created a tension within me, which we call stress.  This stress motivated me to use my mental and physical energies to change things until my image of how I want things to be matches my image of how things are.  This explains a lot about the stress and tension we each carry within us, and how things can be going fairly smoothly, or at least appear that way on the outside, and each of us can still create and carry a lot of stress or tension in the inside.

Let’s take the example of the movie experience.  Let’s say that  I call a friend who agrees to go to the movie with me.  I tell him when the movie is and that I want to pick him up at a time that will allow us to get there for the start of the movie.  He tells me that he will be available and ready for me to pick him up.  Then when I get to his house, I am waiting twenty minutes for him  to come out.  We make it to the movie theater and I am feeling very rushed and upset because it is now five minutes after the scheduled movie start time.  In my mind, this is not the way things should be, so I am creating tension and stress within myself.  As we get into the movie theater and get seated, we find that the previews to coming attractions are still playing and we have arrived in plenty of time  to see the entire movie that we paid to see.  However, as I sit there in the theater, I am focused on my thoughts that I did not like to be kept waiting and I do not like to be late, and I don’t think that was very respectful of my friend to tell me he would be ready and then not be ready, and my stress is growing by the minute.  For each of these situations, I am holding a goal that is different from the way things actually are, and yet I am holding goals about  things I have no control over.  So, I have created stress and tension in my life, for which there is only one solution.  I must cancel my goals!  Yes, I just said that I should cancel my goal to be on time.   I  should cancel my goal for my friend to do what he said he would do.  I should cancel my goal for my friend to respect me.

If you are like most of us in this culture it seems completely wrong to cancel a goal to have my friend treat me with respect.  It seems completely wrong to cancel my goal to be on time, etc.  However the key here is not the goal of the quality or validity of the goal.  The key here is how I am using  this goal.  If I am using these goals to help generate behavior which leaves me feeling loving and compassionate  to myself  and others that is a good use of the goal.  If however, when I hold a goal, I use it to generate feelings of anger, resentment, bitterness, hurt, confusion, sadness or fear, I should cancel the goal.

More on this process next week.  Thanks for reading.

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