Tell It Like It Isn’t!

June 26th, 2010

man w megaphoneThis quote makes me chuckle because it took me a long time to make sense of it.  How about you?

“We practice the Art of Allowing. Which means reaching for the thought that feels best, not the thought that is the real thought, not the thought that is telling it like it is. Telling it like it is only holds you where it is: “Damn it, I’m going to tell it like it is. I’m going to tell it like it is, because everybody wants me to tell it like it is.” Tell it like it is if you like it like it is. But if you don’t like it like it is, then don’t tell it like it is–tell it like you want it to be. If you tell it like you want it to be, long enough, you will begin to feel it like you want it to be, and when you feel it like you want it to be, it be’s like you want it to be.”  – Abraham

Radical Forgiveness Experience

May 28th, 2010

brenda pic for mailI’m facilitating a workshop based on Colin Tipping’s book, Radical Forgiveness. It is a spiritual technology designed to allow each of us to let go of painful memories that inhibit our health, success, and relationships.

By participating in the Radical Forgiveness Ceremony or a Radical Forgiveness 7-Step Exercise, these old patterns of being a victim can be transformed into a new place of peace and understanding. Either process is largely non-verbal, preserving privacy and anonymity, quite likely to change your life—and will be decided upon by the number of participants.  If you’re in the Seattle, WA area, make it a must for yourself and anyone you care for on June 27th  from 2 – 4 PM.  The fee is $30, and you’ll get more than your money’s worth!

The workshop is at East West Bookshop:  6500 Roosevelt Way NE Seattle, WA 98115.  Call 206-523-3726  to register.

How to Change Your Beliefs

April 15th, 2010

man w megaphone“The thought that you think, you think, which attracts to it; so you think it some more, which attracts to it; so you think it some more. In other words, when you have an expectation, you’ve got a dominant thought going on, and Law of Attraction is going to deliver that to you again, and again and again. And you say “The reason that I believe this, is because it is true.” And we say, the reason that you believe it, is because you’ve practiced the thought. All that a belief is, is a thought that you keep practicing.” -Abraham

Wisdom Sits & Waits for Us

April 12th, 2010

My ImageOne of my daughters, hassled, and harried from  juggling  her busy life, was questioning if she’s lost her ability ‘to keep it all together’, as she puts it.   She wondered out loud to me, “where has my wisdom gone?”  My response was that her wisdom never leaves her; however, she has to create some quiet time for herself  in order to access it.

Inevitably when I discuss getting in touch with our wise selves, I call to mind The Secret Sits, by Robert Frost:  “We dance around the ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows.”  I  have never read or heard that Frost was referring to our wisdom when he wrote that poem; it’s merely what I make of it!

Fear of Failure Can Prevent Success

April 6th, 2010

Obstacles When Going for Success

brenda pic for mailOne of the greatest obstacles  people deal with when it comes to success is the fear of failure. The fear of committing to something, giving it your all and best effort and still failing is something people fear so much that it stops them from even getting started on taking action. Most people think that this fear of failure is unexplainable but if you really boil it down to its core you will quickly realize what it comes down to.

Fear of failure basically derives from the fear of embarrassment which then again derives from caring too much about what other people think about you. The easiest way to prove this is to point to the number one fear in the world and no its not snakes, the number one fear in the world is actually public speaking.

Public speaking is so feared be so many people because you are putting yourself 100% on the line and a lot of people are going to be judging you whether you like it or not. If you have never done public speaking I can actually recommend you to attend a toast master seminar and try to do public speaking, the feeling after you are done is indescribable.

But it is really weird that so many people do not even get started on working towards their goals because they fear what people might think if they fail. Start drilling it into your head that it doesn’t matter what people think about you, they can think all they want, you are the one taking action while they are sitting still and judging others. You can actually use this fear to give yourself a great deal of leverage and push yourself to work even harder than you would do normally.

 The way to do this is to publically announce to a lot of people what your goals for the next amount of time are, no matter how unrealistic they might seem.

People might laugh at you or support you, it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have now publically committed yourself to achieving these goals, and the fear of what people might think if you don’t achieve these goals is going to push you and drive you harder then you could ever do yourself.

Just remember that life is short, way too short to be wasting on what other people might think about you.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1486671_24.html  

Memorial to My Brother Brian

April 1st, 2010

brenda pic for mailThe Gift of Forgiveness is a video I’m posting in memoriam to my brother, Brian, who took his life one year ago today.  He was a lovable and loving, kind, and sensitive man.  He was a physician who did not have the power to heal himself emotionally.  Brian was unable to forgive himself for just being who he was.

I miss him! 

Meditation Class: Week 6

March 28th, 2010

                                     brenda pic for mailLast Week of Class & Beyond

By now the last class is a blur in my memory.  I remember thinking at the time that there was nothing significant that occurred to write about that was different from the previous classes. Then I was off the next day to a restful and relaxing vacation in sunny Mexico for twelve days.  In Mexico I did not do any formal type of meditation practice.  Instead, I chose to be mindful of being mindful as often as I could.

Now that I’m back home and meditating each day, here’s my report regarding the value I’ve gained from practicing up until now: 1) It’s ever present on my mind to be aware of what’s happening in the present moment;  and 2) I’m becoming better at working the process of detaching from being sucked into being my emotional state.  For example: when I feel sad, I can more easily detach myself from the feeling by recognizing that I feel sad, let my thoughts, including judgments about the feeling float away, and then simply be in the present moment  Then sadness becomes a word with no energetic charge. I realize that I was not sad; I was merely thinking thoughts that caused the emotion of sadness to arise in me.  I find it helps to change my language to I had thoughts that made me feel sad  instead of  I am sad.  [This process of detaching from any emotion requires – first of all - that I desire to feel better. I’ve learned that there’s a part of me that likes the sadness, as melancholy as it might be. Soooo, part of why I have the experience of sadness at all is that, at some level, I enjoy it.]

Voice Dialogue Session

March 10th, 2010

brenda pic for mailVoice Dialogue is a great  tool for assisting us to bring balance and peace  to our lives.  View this clip in order to get a picture of what can happen in a session.  It’s truly worth a thousand words!

Being True to Yourself Pays Off

February 25th, 2010

A video that went viral – so perhaps you’ve already seen it – was passed along to me.  Through the story of a service dog we get to see the value of following your heart to be who you are meant to be. What an inspiration!

Meditation Class: Week 5

February 22nd, 2010

This week I was more astonished than ever before by the power and determination of my mind to keep me from showing up in the present moment –moment by moment.   Part of me has deep respect for this determination, and wishes that I could exhibit similar conscientiousness to other activities in my life –like exercising, or writing.  Another part of me wants to know when I’m going to get my mind under control so we can get some real mindfulness going.  And still another part of me interjects with the conversation to remember not to judge myself about how my thoughts can easily whisk me away from my focus of attention, and that’s normal, natural, and to be expected.

I’m still waiting for the practice to become more appealing.  I’m being diligent, and hopeful. 

 Tonight will be the last class in this series.  I’m leaving for Mexico tomorrow, and will be gone for eleven days.  I probably won’t post again until I return. That’s okay, though.  I’ll tell you then how the last night of class was, how I made out with practicing while on vacation, and what’s next for me regarding meditation.