Recently we have been advising you to go inside to search for answers to problems and to shift your perspective to help make the changes you wish to see in your life. Today’s “throwback video” offers a few tools to aid you in this inner work:
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Who are the Dream-Makers in Your Life?
June 24, 2014 — RosemaryMy “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: Who are the Dream-Makers in Your Life?
What’s Your Umbrella? – Richard’s Commentary
June 18, 2014 — RichardMy “umbrella” has always been work. When I was in the corporate world I worked hard. I traveled a lot. I had responsibilities. I shouldered them well. As I look back on those 40 years I realize that I was often running away from the lessons, the real part of life I needed to learn.
Oh, sure, I needed to earn a living, keep the family secure, move ahead, up the corporate ladder – that’s what we do, right? But at what expense? How many of us escape into our work with these very rational motivations and miss why we are here in the first place, miss our real purpose?
I am retired now, still working hard, enjoying the work a great deal more and, yes, sometimes I still continue to use work as my umbrella. Why? Rosemary hits on one of the reasons:
All you have is NOW. The lessons don’t go away. The Universe wants you to have that success, satisfaction and fulfillment and puts lessons on your path so that you can clear the blocks and achieve your dreams. Why delay that?
It’s usually fear. But the rewards of doing the work, of learning the lessons, are so much greater than the pain of getting there that it’s worth it to start now.
Yes, it’s usually fear. I wrote about this in a post just last Friday, the 13th when I commented on the blocks we face:
I think the main one is fear – fear of letting go completely and relaxing into full awareness.
I believe my main purpose in this life is to become fully aware, to become enlightened. This is not an ego thing; I believe this is the main purpose of every human on the planet. I, at least on some unconscious level, have known this for a long time. And I have escaped from this, from the lessons that would bring me closer to enlightenment, and worked on all the other things humans do: job, family, earning corporate merits, duty, …
But the Universe wants me to have that “success, satisfaction and fulfillment…” The Universe wants us to become enlightened! The lessons are all there, strewn in our path to bring us into the light.
The ego doesn’t get this. The ego would rather escape into work and feed itself with the rewards of a job well done. So the Universe continues to offer the lessons. And I am beginning to listen. Sometimes the lessons are loud; we can only miss them if we continue to distract ourselves with our umbrellas. Sometimes the lessons are whispers. I’m learning to listen more closely.
I’m following the advice I wrote for myself in the June 13 post (link). And I am ready to “happily dance in the rain!”
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: What’s Your Umbrella?
June 13, 2014 — RosemaryOr, to look at it another way, what are you using to protect you from the storms of life?
As I look out at the heavy rains that are falling, I wonder how often we rush to our raincoats and umbrellas to make sure we don’t get rained on. Metaphorically, we do the same thing. We rush to protect ourselves from whatever is happening around us so that we don’t have to deal with the depths of the implications or meanings.
Sometimes this can be as simple as avoiding making a painful phone call or finding an excuse to procrastinate on handling something complicated. But I also find that it is easy to stay on the surface and avoid digging deeply into the personal growth work that is available to us in the midst of a storm of life.
For example, have you ever had the experience of being in the middle of turmoil in your life and you find yourself searching for the quick fix, the way out, the end to the pain instead of seeking the deeper meaning and the personal lesson that is hiding inside the situation? We’ve all done this, but as we move along our spiritual journey we learn to seek out the deeper lessons and to get those lessons learned before they return in a more insistent way.
That is what they do. The lessons are there for you to learn what you need to learn to grow into your highest self. They are presented in different guises so that you have plenty of opportunities to figure out how to grow from them. And they don’t go away until you really get what you need to learn.
So your choice is always to learn it now or learn it later.
May I give you a piece of advice, based on personal experience? Learn it now. When lessons return because we’ve been hiding out from them they usually come in a more powerful way so that they are sure to get our attention. I jokingly say that I am focused on finding the lessons and learning them when they are subtly appearing without waiting for them to turn into two by fours to the head!
In what ways you are avoiding the work that can advance you on your journey? Are you thinking about doing some journaling but can’t seem to find the time? Would you like to meditate but you don’t want to learn how just yet? Do you know that you are not being as successful, satisfied, fulfilled as you wish and yet you don’t feel ready to get the help that might bring you that success, satisfaction, fulfillment?
All you have is NOW. The lessons don’t go away. The Universe wants you to have that success, satisfaction and fulfillment and puts lessons on your path so that you can clear the blocks and achieve your dreams. Why delay that?
It’s usually fear. But the rewards of doing the work, of learning the lessons, are so much greater than the pain of getting there that it’s worth it to start now.
Get the help. Do the work. Learn the lessons.
And, when the next storm comes, you can happily dance in the rain!
ROSEMARY’S THROWBACK THURSDAY VIDEO: It’s Time to Release the Blocks
June 12, 2014 — RosemaryThe theme for our posts this week is “blocks” – blocks in our lives that are impeding our progress, our personal development, our movement toward “living our richest lives.” Today’s “throwback video” is from last fall. And again it was on the eve of a full moon. Our moon is full again tomorrow. It is a good time to dig down to examine the blocks holding you back and release them into that fullness.
Rosemary’s “2-minute” video: It’s Time to Release the Blocks:
Blocked? – Richard’s Commentary
June 11, 2014 — RichardIt was a bright, sunny day with low humidity and a light breeze – a lovely June day in Maryland. I stopped at the bank on the way home to get some cash for the farmers’ market the next day. Because it was a sunny, bright day I wore my new “reader sunglasses” – sunglasses with a bifocal area for magnification to aid these aging eyes when reading in bright light. I needed to take them off to see the ATM screen at the bank; I placed them on the handy ledge below the machine.
I was halfway home when I realized I wasn’t wearing my sunglasses – my route is shady and the light less bright. I quick search of my many-pocketed vest – my alternative to carrying a purse – turned up empty. Reverse, dash back to the bank – no sunglasses on the ledge. Inside the bank the teller I know by name is free – “did anyone turn in a pair of sunglasses in the last few minutes?” She looks at other tellers and in their lost-and-found area – “no, sorry.”
I am disappointed – mostly in myself. Why these lapses? And when will I listen to my unconscious mind, my intuition? You see, when I placed my sunglasses on that little ledge under the ATM I had a brief glimpse of forgetting them there – just a flash. And I may even have muttered to myself – “don’t forget your sunglasses there.”
If I listened to that voice my unconscious mind heard “forget your sunglasses there.” The unconscious mind does not process negatives. It only hears and processes positive statements – I learned this in hypnosis and NLP training when I went to a few classes with Rosemary when she was earning her certifications.
So, how am I blocked from listening to my intuition, changing my language used in “self-talk” to make only positive statement and become more fully aware, in every moment, of what is going on within me and all around me? And, what do I do about it?
Here’s what Rosemary writes in her post about this subject:
Be grateful for your unconscious mind. It keeps your heart pumping and your brain functioning and your lungs breathing and a whole lot of other processes operating in your life without your having to consciously make things happen. However, that same unconscious mind is operating in ways that can cause patterns and blocks that you might not know consciously, and might not have chosen if you did know, and you struggle with understanding why you can’t get things done or why you seem to be blocked from your successes.
Yes, that seems true for me and does explain the blockage to becoming fully aware so that sunglasses are not lost. Is there a solution to the blocks; a way to move into full awareness?
Rosemary writes: …if you are reading these words, then you are called to continue forward on your path. Take a step in the direction of your dreams. If you feel blocked, if you stumble, rejoice that you are growing. There are ways to see beyond what is holding you back. There are tools to help you and people to support you in your growth.
Another lesson, another growth opportunity. Is this what my lost sunglasses episode is telling me? Here you can imagine hearing a loud groan!
It was just about a year ago (June 28, 2013, as a matter of fact) that I wrote a similar post here titled “Awareness.” In that post I told the Zen tale of Nan-in and Tenno. The master, Nan-in, asked Tenno when he arrived on a rainy day to which side of the door he had placed his umbrella and clogs on entering Nan-in’s house. Tenno could not answer; he studied at the feet of Nan-in for 10 more years to become fully aware!
I guess this means I have another nine years to go, another nine years of practice and study and “lessons in lost sunglasses”!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Blocked?
June 6, 2014 — RosemarySometimes the hardest thing to recognize is a block or a pattern that is holding us back from manifesting our magnificence. We don’t know what we don’t know.
So often clients come to me for help with a certain issue or problem in their life or business or relationship and the REAL problem is a block somewhere else. When that block is cleared, the other issues improve.
We don’t know what we don’t know because it is the unconscious mind that has so much power and it operates, well, unconsciously.
Be grateful for your unconscious mind. It keeps your heart pumping and your brain functioning and your lungs breathing and a whole lot of other processes operating in your life without your having to consciously make things happen. However, that same unconscious mind is operating in ways that can cause patterns and blocks that you might not know consciously, and might not have chosen if you did know, and you struggle with understanding why you can’t get things done or why you seem to be blocked from your successes.
Understand that THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU! You are not broken and you do not need to be fixed.
But if you are feeling stuck or blocked or have patterns of behavior that you want to change but can’t seem to do this on your own, it’s a signal that you are ready to do some personal growth work. You are ready to leap forward and clear what is happening at the unconscious level so that you are free to move into your conscious choices, your conscious dreams.
Do you have a pattern that you have tried to change but willpower alone isn’t getting you to your goals? Are you stuck in ideas that maybe belong in someone else’s life or time but they are somehow cropping up in yours? Do you have trouble seeing possibilities because the problems block the view
These are signs that point to the way forward for you on your path of growth. Nobody moves forward without moving through obstacles. Some are small and others are huge. Sometimes the path is smooth and we lull ourselves into a sense of security about having ‘arrived.’ At other times, the path seems to us as if it is totally blocked, that there is no way to move forward. How easy it would be to turn around and go back to the comfort of the familiar, or to stay stuck and play the victim!
But, if you are reading these words, then you are called to continue forward on your path. Take a step in the direction of your dreams. If you feel blocked, if you stumble, rejoice that you are growing. There are ways to see beyond what is holding you back. There are tools to help you and people to support you in your growth.
Find the help that you need. But don’t go looking for the steps AROUND the blocks! They won’t get you far.
In these days of the 21st Century we don’t have time to delay. We are called to live our Purpose. Staying stuck or blocked doesn’t accomplish that.
Be who you REALLY are. Ask for help if you need it. Move through the blocks and grow.
Blocked? You can choose not to be!
You Are Being Lied To! – Richard’s Commentary
June 4, 2014 — RichardI don’t know about you but I lie to myself all the time. And part of “growing up” is to catch myself doing it, question why, and the underlying beliefs that trigger the lies, and then digging down underneath the beliefs to work on rewiring the neurology or filling in the ruts in the neural pathways that entrenched the beliefs underpinning the lies.
Here’s an example: I use the word “never” a lot! “I will never win that prize.” “I will never figure out a way to stop misplacing my glasses.” “I will never get published.” The “nevers” go on and on.
There seems to be a negative trench in my brain that too often goes to the improbability of something happening rather than to the possibility! Part of this is the way I came into the world, my genetic wiring. And part of it was the way I was raised, the environmental wiring. We all have these vestige neural pathways carved into us; some more deeply than others.
But there is good news here; neuro-biology is examining the “neuro-plasticity” of the human brain and discovering that we can change the way we think. Ruts in the plastic can be worn deeply by repeated thoughts, beliefs, lies. But they can also be modified, filled in, redirected through conscious choice.
This is Rosemary’s whole point in her article about the lies we tell ourselves. And here’s the paragraph that helps me the most:
Now LAUGH!!! Feel how good it feels. You DESERVE to laugh, no matter what is going on in your life, no matter where you are, there is something to laugh about. I just looked out the window at a squirrel trying to get into a squirrel-proof bird feeder. Do you think the squirrel thinks that, just because he can’t get any birdseed out of it, there’s something wrong with him, that he’s not ‘good enough’ to be worthy of food? Heck, no! That squirrel goes around the corner of the house, climbs the tree to the non-squirrel-proof bird feeder, hangs upside down, and eats his fill. Only we humans compare ourselves to some mythological standard and find that we don’t measure up.
There is nothing wrong with me. We all have negative thoughts about ourselves, but these are lies buried in the beliefs we carry that no longer serve us.
I once had an Enneagram teacher ask me: “what if the world is perfect just the way it is?” I was stunned at first. Then I laughed; and I relaxed! Yeah, the world is perfect and I am perfect. The lessons come to help us become more perfect.
One of my lessons is to replace “never” with “sometimes” in my thoughts about myself– and every time I do I get to laugh! Through this practice maybe that “never rut” will begin to fill in. And when it is gone, when that lie disappears maybe I can replace “sometimes” with “always”!
How are you lying to yourself? How are you catching yourself doing it? Find a practice to rewire your neurology; pave over the old ruts and believe in your inner light!
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: You Are Being Lied To!
June 3, 2014 — RosemaryMy “Three-Minute” Video for this Week: You Are Being Lied To!
Mystic Messages 
Dream-Makers or Dream-Takers? – Richard’s Commentary
June 25, 2014 — RichardThis past Saturday Rosemary offered a Possibilities Playshop to celebrate the Summer Solstice. And once again we all had a wonderful time exploring Possibilities. In a way this Playshop is like exploring our dreams, or exploring what our unconscious mind would like us to be doing! It is a “dream-maker” for us.
And during the Playshop we do use our unconscious minds, our intuitive minds to create a Playbook that we can use to guide us along our dream-paths. Rosemary’s process is very effective in getting our egos and our conscious thinking minds out of the way for a short while in order to get in touch with our dreams. She invites participants, after several exercises to quiet the ego, to make “bodacious wishes” for ourselves. Wishes are then planted on our timelines, set as goals or destinations out ahead so we can move along toward wish fulfillment, that place where we can live our dreams!
In short Rosemary, through her guidance during the Playshop, facilitates our dream-makers and we then capture those dreams and build roadmaps toward fulfilling them.
It is a lot of fun to participate in this Playshop in a group. We all support each other in the process, commenting on how the Playbooks come together, the meanings or interpretations of various components as they are added to the books. We come together as a support group and can then help one another through the months as our dreams unfold. Our intention is to come together again around the Winter Solstice to extend our Playbooks, add to our dream timelines and continue the support. It is good to have others supporting our dreams. As Rosemary wrote in her post:
There will be people who want to be your champions, your cheerleaders and who want to help you make your dreams come true. There are others who, for whatever reason, don’t want that. Choose consciously those you allow to surround you. Dream-Makers or Dream-Takers?
All the participants in our Playshop group are my champions. That feels good!
I don’t share my dreams with just anyone. Often they are “bodacious.” And I don’t need anyone to tell me how improbable they might be! No dream-takers for me! The fact is I am enough of a dream-taker for myself.
I think this might be true for a lot of us. We can often be very effective in sabotaging ourselves and derailing on the path toward dream fulfillment. After the Playshop it is back to “reality.” Our egos kick back in. We start questioning. We begin procrastinating. We get wrapped up in the routine of living. We start making excuses, choosing an interruption or a side-track to re-route us around the dream. Yes, I am my own biggest dream-taker.
The solution? Rosemary’s sums it up nicely:
Own your vision. It comes from connecting to your Purpose, to your Soul Mission on Earth. Continue to Dream Big and the support you desire will show up. Stay committed no matter what or who around you tries to take that dream away.
Choose and commit! Then surround yourself with support for your dreams, your dream-makers!
Stay courageous. Move in the direction of your dreams, no matter what. If you look around you now and can’t find friends to support you, seek out new friends. Find those who uplift others and hang out with them. Speak to loved ones and share that you want their support as you go ahead to pursue your dreams.