tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-93391912024-03-18T02:14:06.890-07:00Dar KushSteven Barnes, Author Teacher Screen writerSteven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.comBlogger2743125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-41664631300406928982014-10-09T07:40:00.001-07:002014-10-09T07:40:05.747-07:00Our first virtual Screenwriting Workshop!<b id="docs-internal-guid-1feab0f4-f559-8475-9e3f-4b7fb8003eb2" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">T woke up on Monday with the idea, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bubbling with notions, and I think it's</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> a fabulous way to explore the new</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> media potentials for a virtual classroom.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> We can teach these things at UCLA </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or The Learning Annex...but sharing</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> them with the whole world? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wow. That's my baby!</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;">#################</b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">VIRTUAL SCREENWRITING WORKSHOP Nov. 1-Dec. 1: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are you working on a screenplay, or do you</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> have a screenplay idea you’re not sure</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> how to start? Do you want input on your</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> screenplay or idea? Are you an author</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> who would like to learn to adapt your</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> own work to film?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the FIRST TIME, hubby </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/steven.barnes.7127" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steven Barnes</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and I are offering a 30-day ONLINE </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">screenwriting workshop Nov. 1-Dec. 1.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Because this is an inaugural course, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">we’re offering the workshop for the low</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> introductory fee of $200 for early </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">registration. Take this workshop from</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> anywhere. SPACE IS LIMITED. We</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> may repeat this workshop in early</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 2015, but not at this price.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here's more info, or you can inbox me:</span></div>
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<a href="http://tananarivedue.blogspot.com/2014/10/join-hollywood-revolution-30-day.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://tananarivedue.blogspot.com</span></a></div>
<a href="http://tananarivedue.blogspot.com/2014/10/join-hollywood-revolution-30-day.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">/2014/10/join-hollywood-revolution-30-day.html</span></a>Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-54228723454338310732014-10-06T07:49:00.001-07:002014-10-06T07:49:39.445-07:00Using the Ancient child<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">###</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-1feab0f4-e5e0-1c8d-2355-0aae7b57c8d8" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve been working and testing the “Ancient Child” technique for about five years now, and what people asked for was a fuller explanation, as well as a “plug and play” approach to using it. I’ve done that, and it will be available very soon, on the new blog I’ve been creating with Wordpress guru</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lorelle VanFossen. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s discuss one application of the technique: emotional abuse. Especially if the abuse originated in childhood, this can be devastating. A parent who damages heart and body, or fails to provide protection for same, changes the profoundly important relationship with your core self, affecting:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ambition</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Self-love</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ability to find honest healthy relationships</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Self-discipline (why bother if you aren’t worth it?) </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Co-dependency</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Creativity</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Artistic success (which is a balance between “creative child” and “marketing/agenting adult)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Body composition issues (obesity and anorexia)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Self-damaging (cutting, etc.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Drug and alcohol abuse</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sexual issues</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And much much more. The “Ancient Child” technique can have a powerful effect here, because the “child” image you create is, specifically, a representation of the child you were BEFORE the abuse began. (Note: if you have serious abuse issues, please seek therapeutic assistance. Your therapist should be aware of what you intend to do here)</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> What you have to do is:</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Enter a state of deep relaxation. Meditation or self-hypnosis.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Connect with your own heartbeat and “source of love.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Visualize the child self.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Connect with the child self: visualize holding, hugging, playing with. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remember the first time you held your own child, or held a baby sister, brother, or cousin. Find the “protective” door in your mind, even if it was only for a puppy or kitten. It’s there. You have the wiring. Or: remember/imagine being held and nurtured in infancy. EVERYONE was, whether you can remember it or not. Human beings who are not nurtured in infancy DO NOT SURVIVE. You may have blanked it out...but it happened. Find it. Meditate and search within yourself until you can find this strand of love, unbroken through the generations, back to the beginning of our species.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Commit to being your own mother/father. To DIE before you let anyone else hurt that child again. To protecting her dreams and hopes. To spending every day loving and nurturing. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tell her/him. Say the words. Speak them aloud: “You are the most precious thing in all the world. Daddy is here, and I will never leave you alone again.”</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listen to what that “child” self has to say in return. See if there is a conversation to be conducted.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After you have emerged from your relaxed state, use your non-dominant hand (your left, if you are right-handed) to write a letter FROM your “child” to your current, adult self. Read it aloud.</span></div>
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</ol>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This process can be of stupendous benefit. Please, please--even if you are “healthy” you will find it useful to connect to your creativity and aliveness. But if, like most of us, you’ve been banged up by life or have issues with parents, it is close to miraculous.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The process was given to me by a succession of phenomenally wise men and women. And now...it is yours.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Namaste</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span>Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-83390537266125883862014-10-03T07:49:00.002-07:002014-10-03T07:49:42.886-07:00Ancient Child: Evolution<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">About twenty-five years ago I adapted</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to the process of designing your life. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> And called it “Lifewriting.” Since </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that time I’ve taught Lifewriting to </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">thousands of people in person and </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">through audio and video courses, </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">lectured on it at the Smithsonian, at</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Mensa, on radio and television, at</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> universities and workshops, and </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">have been blessed to receive countless </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">letters and emails and hugs and</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> tearful thanks that the technologies</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I grouped into that very special </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pattern have changed and saved</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> lives.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But there was a limitation to “Lifewriting”,</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> something I always saw but wasn’t</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> wise enough to improve. You see, </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the limitation (I won’t call it a “problem”)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was that it was a mental technique, </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a strategic syntax for organizing </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">resources into an optimal pattern. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It works, no doubt about it.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But...the greatest path in human </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">life is that of evolution, of awakening, </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">of becoming an “awakened adult”, </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and my great spiritual teacher Sri </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chinmoy taught that that path can</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> be approached by opening your </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">heart OR awakening your body…</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">but never by creating mental models.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That was what I’d done, created </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a wonderful mental model. That </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">meant that it was great for navigating</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “the dream”, but not so much for </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">going beyond. What I needed was</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> something that did both. Having</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> a great time in consensus reality</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is no mean feat. I may consider </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that just the beginning, but it’s </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nice to pay the bills, be popular, </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">win athletic awards and all that </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">good stuff. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But...it’s just the beginning.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What I needed was something</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that rooted there but went way</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> beyond. That healed but also</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> supported growth. That was </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">simple, very simple--or rather </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that was “complex” rather than</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “complicated.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In essence, something that was </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">smarter than I was. And I couldn’t </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“create” such a thing. But began</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> opening myself to the possibility.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Going more deeply into my </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">own process, listening to what</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> every teacher or student taught me. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And spent time every day for over</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> a decade going “into the silence”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to find something deeper and truer.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the seed came. I was the </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">beginning of the “Ancient Child”. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Yesterday, I created the overview</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> audio explaining exactly how it</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> grew, and how to use it. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tomorrow, I create the visualization </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that will root this in healing your </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">heart, and move from THERE to</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> loving self and others...and then </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">re-discovering your deepest </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">dreams and values...tapping </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">into your intuition on a level you’ve</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> never experienced...and using </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">all of this to support your daily </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">actions so that they have a power</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and clarity that will carry you </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as far as you are capable, in </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">alignment with everything good </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and true within you.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is my very best work, applicable</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to every core aspect of human</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> life. Generative, rather than </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">specific. I did not “create it”, </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I merely let my teachers, </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experiences and meditations</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> point me toward greater truth.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And it is almost available. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I can’t wait to share it.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Namaste,</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve</span>Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-44492950885596066652014-07-12T10:35:00.001-07:002014-07-12T10:35:10.427-07:00The Wounded Child<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="http://acestoohigh.com/2012/10/03/the-adverse-childhood-experiences-study-the-largest-most-important-public-health-study-you-never-heard-of-began-in-an-obesity-clinic/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://acestoohigh.com/2012/10/03/the-adverse-childhood-experiences-study-the-largest-most-important-public-health-study-you-never-heard-of-began-in-an-obesity-clinic/</span></a></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-40468e56-2b99-ccd6-8a68-594b9fc90258" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I 100% agree with what this article says: that behavioral dysfunctions are a form of PTSD, often related to childhood trauma. This is one reason that the “Morning Ritual” concept incorporates both the “Ancient Child”, heartbeat meditation, physical motion, and focus. Why I believe so strongly in dealing with the fear that lies at the base of all negative emotion. Sigh.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I can tell you the first time I realized how bad it was, and how I needed to trust instinct rather than the surface or presenting stories. I was a GOH at a convention in Texas, and teaching a morning Tai Chi workshop. There was a lady on the periphery of the workshop, trying to do the movements. She was extremely obese, and more, her teeth were rotted out. My first impression was that she was like one overweight person pushed into the middle of a second one, a very sweet small face and bright eyes in the middle of a puffy cocoon of fatty tissue. Over 300 pounds.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am always very connected to the people in those workshops. All kinds of odd subliminal information pops into my head about them, their emotions, sex lives, all sorts of stuff. It isn’t esp. It is that our bodies reflect our histories.They store our emotions.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I worked with her a bit, and in adjusting her body, something horrible happened, horrible because I didn’t know how to handle it. Suddenly, I saw the sweet face as a trapped child within the massive protective cocoon. The bright eyes calling out to me from within a prison of flesh: HELP. A fear of being seen sexually, combined with a deep, desperate hope that someone could see her, and love her, and help her free itself. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And I knew. The teeth. The body. This woman had been terribly, horribly, serially abused as a child. And her brain had done what a brain is supposed to do: do everything in its power to prevent her from ever being seen as a sexual being again, to obscure the secondary sexual characteristics. Yes, I know it is illogical. But that’s what I saw.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Too damned clearly.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After the work shop I went to my room and cried. Just...sobbed. Something had opened inside me, and I felt like I was watching personal histories, not just physical bodies, in that convention hotel. Millions of individual behavioral choices arising from values and beliefs connected to emotional and physical pains and pleasures. If I respected them, I had to believe that they were doing the best they could. There was no laziness, no lack of wish to be healthy and strong and happy.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was something very different. Post-industrial society has unteathered calories or immediate survival from physical performance for the first time in our evolutionary history, and we are seeing something extraordinary. In a few generations we will have figured it out, but right now...dear God.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wanted to leave that convention, and if I hadn’t been GOH I would have. So I put on my face and went back down.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And...she followed me. Showed up at panels and signings. Always on the periphery. Smiling shyly at me. And finally, on the last day, she asked me if we could talk.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had coffee. She said that she didn’t know why she was talking to me. Just...that there was something about me. She felt that I had seen HER, not just her body. And was driven to speak to me.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And there, while I sipped my latte, she changed my life. With only a tiny bit of reassurance and coaxing she described a history of abuse that precisely matched what I had seen. Her stepfather. Her stepuncles. A mother who pretended it wasn’t happening.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Abusive relationships. And a near-suicidal threshold that led to a solution: to become invisible in plain sight. Years of being unseen. And now a heart-wrenching urge to find a way out of the prison she had built for herself. Was it too late? She wanted to know.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And I remembered something that Leo and Diane Dillon, the great, great artists had once said to me when I asked if I had lost my way as an artist: “if you can even ask the question, it’s not too late.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That was twenty-five years ago. I had nothing specific to offer this lady except hope, and love, holding her hands as we both cried.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But I changed that day. I knew that I saw things that were contrary to social narrative, and needed to trust my instincts more than the popular wisdom. And I knew that I had to find a way to understand what we are as human beings that we can be smart, and good and decent and still hurt each other and ourselves so badly, and remain in denial about it.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That was, in many ways, the beginning of my awakening. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t remember her name. I don’t know where she is or even if she is alive. All I can say is that I hope I touched her as deeply as she touched me.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whereever you are, my love, I see you. That perfect little girl who deserved to be loved, and held, and cherished, is still within you. And I pray you found a way to both keep her safe, and let her free.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Namaste,</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve</span>Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-80002786251310001992014-07-10T09:00:00.001-07:002014-07-10T09:00:50.795-07:00It's Never Too Late<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the last 24 hours, I’ve dealt with four different students or clients where the core issue is one of self-love. Deservement. The following things were triggers:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) Childhood abuse, both sexual and psychological. Being touched inappropriately, told they are worthless, used as “things” rather than people before the full development of ego walls.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) Perceived betrayal of childhood ambitions. Either giving them up, or doing things to achieve them that were in violation of core values.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3) Abusive adult relationships. “Crazymakers” who bond to you powerfully economically, emotionally, or sexually. And then...gaslight you. If you don’t know the term, see the movie. Basically these are people who are either emotionally imbalanced or have some drive to unbalance you, keep you from leveraging your intelligence and emotions, with an end to domination. To do this, they either criticize or terrorize you, until you have twisted yourself into a knot to please them, and no longer know where “north” is on your personal compass. At that point, you are infantalized, willing to do whatever it takes to keep them happy so that you can escape the pain. Brutal.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4) Physical injury or dysfunction. A serious injury or disease, or your body “not working as it is supposed to”--inability to perform in some expected fashion. Inability to sustain a pregnancy, sensory or motor issues, chronic pain, sexual non-performance, etc.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5) Making terrible relationship choices. Our relationships are mirrors--they were the best we believed we could do, at that time. When our partners turn out to be crazies, monsters, abusers, habitual liars, druggies or alcoholics, rage-beasts and gaslighters we fear our own judgement. How could we have..? What does it mean about us..? Will we ever find happiness..? Are we too broken for anyone to really love us..?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are more, of course. But this will get you started.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">THE MORNING RITUAL</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For two years now, I’ve worked on a “Morning Ritual” with Jason. A year ago I decided the results were so impressive that I decided to create one for myself. It was a matter of creating a complete daily practice that touches on every aspect of raising, directing, clarifying and refining our emotional, mental, and physical selves. And it had to be healing and generative--had to deal with issues you don’t even know that you have. But in addition, it had to be capable of focusing in on a specific problem once you have detected it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The above problems can be addressed with the “Ancient Child” technique, your “set up” behavior done the moment you wake up in the morning. It is a way of “wiring around” whatever damage has happened to you in life. The theory is simple: there is a part of you that is still untouched by the pain of existence, whatever it has been. Make contact with it, and you are connecting to the best and healthiest part, and can receive its “aliveness”. But also, by making contact with the symbol of this “inner child” you can affect a healing process just by imagining holding, hugging, playing, and soothing, as you would with a “real” child. Simply saying “I love you. You are beautiful, and wonderful, and as perfect as any star in the heavens” again and again, will have a cumulative positive effect in the same way that saying the opposite (or hearing it said to you, especially in an emotionalized context) has a negative effect. The feedback loop goes both ways.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you see a parent screaming curses at a child, you KNOW this is damaging. Why, then, do we resist the notion that positive words and deliberate positive thoughts and images can have a POSITIVE effect? Why?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This morning, I started by connecting with my heartbeat, and then gathered the light within me to create my usual 8-year old boy. We sat on the edge of a pier, fishing together (oddly, one of the few memories I have of good times with my Dad was fishing. Hmmm) and while we did, I asked his opinion of my current activities and progress.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He was happy. Felt I needed to put more time into the book I’m finishing, and that I needed to be sure to tell Jason how proud of him I am. “I’m happy to be home”, he said, and leaned his head on my shoulder. We watched the sunrise together. “Another day, daddy. I love you.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The sun melded into my heartbeat. The light contracted and then diffused. I was ready for my day.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">###</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Decades ago I ruptured my relationship with that little kid inside me. It took me a year of constant, daily work to rebuild the connection, and it was the best invested effort of my life. If I’d had the technology I have today, I suspect it would have taken about a month.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whatever happened to you in your past, whoever hurt you, however you may have sold out your dreams, I invite you to spend thirty days, just one month, to see if this approach works for you.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) Wake up. Sit up. Listen to/feel your heartbeat. Find the light inside you and dwell within it for a few minutes. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) Form the light into the largest human form composed of solid lumination. Be very quiet, and see if it has words for you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3) At the crown of your head, imagine the “older” you on your deathbed. Listen quietly to see if he or she has something to say.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4) Draw a line of light from the “Child” to your heart. Then, down from your “elder” to your heart. Sit quietly and listen if they have a conversation. When they are done you may ask questions. Thank them</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5) Take five deep breaths and get up. All of this can take less than three minutes!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6) Perform your Daily Ritual. While moving dynamically (walking, sun salutations, tai chi, Flow Fit, calisthenics, running, etc) speak four incantations, each for 2-5 minutes:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a) “Every Day in Every Way I’m getting better and better”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">b) “I’m so grateful for--” (past and present blessings)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">c) “I’m so grateful for--” (future goals)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">d) “All I need is within me now.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Be sure that you are covering all elements of the “Secret Formula”: Goals X Faith X Action X Gratitude = Results.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You have done two steps of your “Five minute miracle” practice. Three more times during the day become aware of your breathing for sixty seconds. Quickly visualize/emotionalize your goals and actions. Just “check in”.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Total daily practice: about 10-30 minutes. If you believe you don’t have the time, start with just the “Five Minute Miracle” of five sixty second “breathing breaks”. Chance are very very good that you won’t be able to discipline yourself to do this without heroic effort. You have found your ego resistance.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You can’t control what happened to you in your past, but as they say...it’s never too late to have a happy childhood.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Namaste,</span></div>
<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve</span>Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-30047790066842458472014-07-07T08:47:00.001-07:002014-07-07T08:47:30.322-07:00Stress and the 30-day<div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; padding: 0px;">
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In life, they pay you for how much stress you can take without cracking. One of the participants in the Challenge mentioned that stress is increasing in his life as he hits his 14th Day. Some thoughts:</div>
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1) 100% predictable that you will hit stress points. Moving from one level to the next in your life requires energy, and piercing any veil of illusion frees it...and some of that energy will spin you. The better balanced you are, the easier it is to “roll with it” and in fact you can actually measure your balance or lack thereof by the amount of dizziness or stress you feel.</div>
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2) It isn’t stress that hurts you, its “strain”. Stress is just the amount of pressure you’re under, while “strain” is the degree to which that stress warps you out of true.</div>
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3) Psychological stress causes physical effects. The good news is that physical motion controls psychological stress as well. The Triad of “Breath, Movement, and Structure” is one way to look at this: if you breathe as if powerful, move as if relaxed and hold your posture as if confident, you will begin to feel that way. There’s more: your facial expression, your self-talk and the things you say aloud, the things you focus on, ALL influence stress level. How you use your body, what you focus on. </div>
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4) Your “Morning Ritual” branches into the “Ancient Child” (connection with core aliveness and deep values, self-healing) and the “Five Minute Miracle” (five sixty-second `breathing breaks’ during the day). That means that, ideally, you begin your day by getting in touch with your instincts and values, then take that energy into your day. You move your body, connect with your belief that today can be better than tomorrow (Heck, sing “Tomorrow” from “Annie” if that works for you!), fill yourself with gratitude, seek that same feeling in connection to your daily and future goals, then reinforce your confidence that you can and should do these things, and have all the ability you need. Then at least three more times during the day (the ‘Ancient Child’ can be 5MM #1, the “Morning Ritual” #2) you check your breathing. IF YOU BREATHE AS IF YOU ARE CONFIDENT, YOU BEGIN TO FEEL THAT WAY.</div>
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5) Infusing all of this is the Secret Formula: Goals (did you connect with your childhood dreams and deathbed values?) X Faith (do you see that you’ve already accomplished wonderful things? And have the internal resources to accomplish more?) X Action (do you see what you need to do TODAY to take another step toward your goals?) X Gratitude (are you happy for another day to seek, to strive, to live, to love?).</div>
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Can you see how all these things are wrapped together?</div>
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6) Have you chosen physical motion that is nurturing, invigorating, and will take you to your destination? Yoga, Tai Chi, a good calisthenic program, Sun Salutations, Five Tibetans, Joint recovery, FlowFit...the possibilities are almost endless. TWENTY MINUTES OUT OF EVERY DAY BELONGS TO YOU. If you think not, check to be sure you are taking your Five Minute Miracle. If you aren’t, and think it is because you lack time, YOU ARE LYING TO YOURSELF.</div>
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7) Separate what you “need” from what you “want.” OMG, is this important. Our “wants” are endless. Our “needs” are relatively simple and sane. The inability to do this relates to an imbalance of the Child and Adult personalities, and can be addressed with the “Ancient Child”.</div>
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Which takes us back to the beginning. Are you grasping the shape of this? The way the different pieces fit together? The redundancy built in? The infinite uses and applications? I hope so...this is your life, and you deserve to create one filled with passion and joy, contribution and growth.</div>
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Life is not a dress rehearsal. And you’ll be taking a bow all too soon.</div>
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Namaste,</div>
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Steve</div>
Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-19333687943249457112014-07-05T09:56:00.001-07:002014-07-05T09:56:49.102-07:00Pay Yourself First<div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; padding: 0px;">
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Taking another look at what we’re doing with the “Morning Ritual.” A question: why the physical motion? Isn’t it enough to sit quietly, meditate and visualize the results you want? A few thoughts:</div>
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1) The “Secret Formula” idea (Goals X Faith X Action X Gratitude = Results) arose from studying one of the core source materials for “The Secret.” I had friends who loved “The Secret” but I found that while it seemed to work for some of them, for most people it didn’t. And what was missing was dynamism. Action. If you aren’t sufficiently emotionalized to get your own butt off the couch, what in the WORLD makes you think “the universe” is going to respond to you? That seemed to violate basic laws and principles that control everything I’ve ever experienced. On the other hand, people who are already dynamic, already taking MASSIVE action, can seem to just “want” something, and it is like someone driving a Mercedes down the freeway--a slight “twitch” of their finger and the magnificent vehicle responds, and you change lanes and destinations. To an observer, you did almost nothing, because they didn’t notice the twitch of the finger. DO SOMETHING. And for most people, the addition of 10-20 minutes of physical motion is a huge change over their usual patterns. You are literally moving in the direction of your goal, even if only a finger twitch. And once initial inertia is overcome, things get easier.</div>
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2) There are a few things that affect obesity most: habit patterns, knowledge of efficient/effective movement/intake patterns, and emotional baggage/protection mechanisms. There’s been no massive genetic shift in America in the last century. But the post-industrial world has severed the connection between input and output that has governed human behavior for 250k years. This is a MAJOR shift, and will take another generation or two to sort out. It isn’t at all surprising that we’re having problems. The Hawaiian Huna idea that our bodies are “black bags” where we store our unprocessed emotion applies here, as does the Sufic idea of “Nafs”, our emotional/spiritual issues putting “chinks” in our wiring. Unkink the wiring and you release energy. Balance the energy you’ve released, and it changes character and becomes potentially tranformative. And that of course challenges the ego, which explains why it is so damned difficult to raise and channel such energies, and why anything that genuinely leads to this will be HELLA hard to do...at first. I could speak on this, and its implications, for a month, but the proof is in the pudding: do this practice for 30 days running. If (or more likely WHEN!) you fall off the wagon, note the weapon your ego used to stop you. Give it a label. Start again. The next time, your ego will use a different technique (guilt, blame, and shame are GREAT for this!) Usually, it will use a different technique each time.</div>
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3) Physical motion changes mood. You can’t feel depressed while expressing a dynamic physiology. Want to change your emotions? Change what you focus on, or change the way you use your body. If you can consciously force yourself to move, you are stepping out of your “normal” state. You’ve already started shifting the mind/body connection for the better.</div>
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4) Raising energy allows you the chance to ANCHOR that energy to the desired state. Physical energy becomes emotional energy (fake it til you make it!) ACT AS IF you feel positive as you chant “Every Day In Every Way I’m Getting Better And Better.” FIND something you feel genuinely grateful for in your past and present. I promise you that no matter what your circumstances there is something in your life that OTHER people have prayed for, have thanked God for, dreamed of, and cried with gratitude for...or cried with sorrow and grief when they lost. Find that thing. Move your body while you imagine it. </div>
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5) Bringing body, mind, and emotions into alignment is like training your stagecoach horses to pull in the same direction. Most of us have our physical hungers going in one direction, our emotional needs in another, our intellects in a third. As they fight, you get friction, value conflicts, cross-wiring “burn outs” (nafs! Engrams!), and fantastic amounts of wasted energy. In fact, depression can result from major value conflicts: security versus freedom. Self-expression versus financial abundance. If the house is burning, and you can SEE the way out, and BELIEVE you CAN and SHOULD, you will move. Period. If you do not see a route out, many of us will simply crouch in the corner and hope for rescue.</div>
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But no matter what, you CAN take 10-20 minutes out of your daily life, move, visualize, and chant. And that creates a moment, just a moment, when YOU are in control. When your body, mind, and emotions are ALL working together just a little better. Just a hair. A single glowing moment when you become more aware of your process than you may ever have experienced previously. For ten-twenty minutes you feel what it feels like to commit to balance, to coherence (as in “a laser is coherent light”). You may not have the energy you had twenty years ago. But most of us are like light bulps, throwing energy in all directions. Some few of us are like magnifying glasses, able to focus the sunlight to burn a hole in paper.</div>
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But if you ALIGN your aspects instead of just “focus” your energy, that same energy can punch a hole in diamond. I would guess that 99% of people want all of the following. And those who don’t will understand why I assume that they do, and grasp that I’m using a blunt instrument because I don’t have the individual experience of each reader’s life.</div>
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Body: have enough energy to work hard all week, and party on the weekend. A body that would be attractive to YOU, in alignment with your values. And no matter where you are in life, this is possible if you change either your habit patterns, knowledge base, emotional health, or value hierarchy.</div>
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Mind: to find a career that is in alignment with your values and dreams, or supports them. To do what you love, or love what you do. The capacity to embrace every aspect of your existence is ultimately up to you (and by the way, anyone who says you should embrace your suffering as a way of avoiding responsibility to help others, or avoiding their responsibility to be humane and compassionate is twisting this principle. There is no such thing as a simple statement that can’t be twisted by someone looking for a way to justify their fear and greed and ego). To create goods and services of sufficient value to your community that they are willing to exchange their energy (in monetary form) for yours. To have the self-respect and courage to demand to be paid what you are worth. </div>
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Emotions: to love yourself such that you don’t need the attentions or approval of others...however much fun it can be to get them. To banish fear enough to expand your ego-identity to include a Soul Mate...a family...your community...perhaps ultimately all of life and all of creation. Expanding out from that center. Get this wrong and co-dependence becomes a real threat.</div>
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Finances: Protect the money you have earned. The “child” aspect of you can MAKE the money, but it takes a ruthless “adult” self to protect it. The simplest, easiest “truth” connected with this that I’ve seen (and my own Achille’s Heel, one I’m now working on) is: Pay Yourself First. Ten% of what you earn should go into a stable investment that you are saving for retirement, or to pass to the next generation. Just learning to live on 90% of what you earn is PRECISELY the same as allowing yourself to be a little hungry when you get up from the table, or “paying yourself first” by meditating every morning rather than jumping into other people’s needs.</div>
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The “Morning Ritual” is “paying yourself first.” Body, Mind, Spirit, Finances: moving, visualizing, chanting, feeling. My theory: you CANNOT do this for 30 days straight without experiencing at least one day when you experience a different quality of life. And once you experience it, you have to use real energy to pretend it’s not true. It will “crack” your ego shell in a way that opens the door to a more authentic self.</div>
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I would estimate that most people will experience it between 10-15 days in. I look forward to hearing about your experiences.</div>
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Meanwhile...pay yourself first today, and for the next 30 days. </div>
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Then...if I’m wrong, for God’s sake tell me!</div>
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Namaste,</div>
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Steve </div>
Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-74494287131931071472014-07-01T09:46:00.001-07:002014-07-01T09:46:20.945-07:0030-Day ChallengeSo...what are people experiencing with the 30-Day Challenge? Some of you would be around 10 days in. Others just starting.<br />
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Most essential parts:<br />
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1) Daily exercise: walking, running, calisthenics, Tai Chi, joint mobility, etc. for 10-20 minutes.<br />
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2) First 25% of time chant: “Every Day In Every Way I’m Getting Better and Better.”<br />
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3) Second 25% of time chant: “I am SO grateful for X” (past accomplishments or present states)<br />
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4) Third 25% of time chant: “I am SO grateful for Y” (future goals)<br />
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5) Fourth and final 25% chant: “All I need is within me now.”<br />
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Once you have this integrated, you can integrate the “Secret Formula”: Goals X Faith X Action X Gratitude = Results.<br />
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And Once you have this, you can integrate the “Ancient Child” meditation: visualize your child self. And then your “elder” self. Align your adult actions to be in synche with your childhood dreams and deathbed values.<br />
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The overall effect will be as simple or complex as you can handle. At full complexity you’ll feel a little like a Paramecium, with various “organelles” floating around you if you choose to focus on them, representing various aspects of your emotions, intents, actions, resources, and so forth. But...only if you stop and concentrate. Most of the time, you simply move toward what feels “good” and “right” and will find, at the end of the day, you have accomplished everything you needed to do...and had fun in the process.<br />
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EXPECT to “crash” out of this a few days in. That is normal and natural, despite what the voices in your head try to tell you. <br />
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So...what has your experience been, so far?<br />
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Namaste,<br />
Steven BarnesSteven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-66874707298302936582014-06-14T09:40:00.002-07:002014-06-14T09:40:35.926-07:00Diamond Hour Today!<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.285714149475098px; line-height: 20px;">Again, I'll be answering questions and diving into Joss Whedon's ten rules of writing, as they apply to life itself. ANY TIME you have a chance to study someone operating at world-class level, their beliefs and thought patterns are gonna b</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.285714149475098px; line-height: 20px;">e fascinating. Success leaves clues! Join us!<br />Diamond Hour June show - Saturday, June 14, 2014, 1:00 PM Pacific Daylight Savings time (4:00 PM Eastern)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/77111" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/77111</a><br /><br />Connect via phone or VoIP (Skype, etc.)<br /><br />(724) 444-7444</span>Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-31021554546634133762014-06-11T09:00:00.001-07:002014-06-11T09:00:40.217-07:00The June Diamond Hour is here!<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m what Swiftdeer called a “Twisted Hair”, one who draws from multiple traditions to create my own “path with heart”. Note: there is a living energy within every spiritual tradition or transformative approach that has lasted more than a generation or two, so far as I’ve been able to investigate. Some, of course, have more than others. In some cases MUCH more, and in some so little that it isn’t worth going through the b.s. to find it. Another subject.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But I’m also a synthesizer, testing these approaches in my own career, relationships, and physical body, seeing where they connect, and trying to find a way to express the things I learn so that others don’t necessarily have to go through the same experiences to have the benefits. “Lifewriting” was my first creation, the observation/theory that world myth and story pattern relate to actual human experience, and that the storytellers of the world have been trying to communicate to their tribe, and to the next generation, what they will experience in life and how to interpret and prepare for it, and use your travails to move to the next level of perception and adult responsibility.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have all the evidence I personally need to believe that this is true, but enjoy presenting my ideas for others to argue against, or experiment with. Had over twenty years of feedback from thousands of students, and the comments have been overwhelmingly positive, whether applying this approach to writing, the process of writing, or the process of living creatively. Excellent.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I see a comment about writing process from someone I admire, it is fun to apply what they say to the Lifewriting idea: can these thoughts about writing apply to life? Recently, I came across a series of ten comments about writing from one of the most successful writers of all time, who has an audience of hundreds of millions human beings around the planet, whose works have earned billions. I’m speaking of Joss “Buffy/Avengers” Whedon, and when I looked at his suggestions, everything fit so beautifully I jumped on the chance to apply his wisdom to life.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whether you respect Whedon as an artist or a businessman, you would be well advised to look at what he says, and listening to my take on it will help you understand more deeply what I have, with humble awareness of my limitations, been trying to say for almost thirty years. Join us?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Diamond Hour June show - Saturday, June 14, 2014, 1:00 PM Pacific Daylight Savings time (4:00 PM Eastern)</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-40468e56-8ba4-6871-b9c9-55f50ab8a2e3" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/77111</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Connect via phone or VoIP (Skype, etc.)</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(724) 444-7444</span></div>
Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-84636842952698271022014-05-22T07:03:00.002-07:002014-05-22T07:03:55.646-07:00Joss Wheden and Lifewriting #1: "Finish It."<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Frankly, I think Joss Wheden’s “Avengers” is as re-watchable as “Star Wars”. His orchestration of these iconic characters was simply superb. It is easy to forget how easily it could have turned into puree of bat guano, and instead, was as pure an evocation of the experience of being 12 years old and reading a Marvel Comics Annual as I can imagine. What a gift!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The “Lifewriting” principle is simple: to treat your life as if it is a story that you are writing. This enables you to gain perspective, take life less seriously, and transfer conceptual/creative tools from one arena to another. Also, because the “Hero’s Journey” contains a syntax of action and thought that can be applied to story, the process of writing story, and life itself, it is a lovely way to simplify life if you are a writer: a writing structure that can structure your life! </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When the creator of a massively popular and successful film shares his hints on how to create scripts, there is a wonderful opportunity: to apply Musashi’s “Know the Ways of All Professions” principle and see how said thoughts apply across the board. Let’s apply Wheden’s 10 principles, and see how they work, shall we?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. FINISH IT</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Actually finishing it is what I’m gonna put in as step one. You may laugh at this, but it’s true. I have so many friends who have written two-thirds of a screenplay, and then re-written it for about three years. Finishing a screenplay is first of all truly difficult, and secondly really liberating. Even if it’s not perfect, even if you know you’re gonna have to go back into it, type to the end. You have to have a little closure.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yeah. Finish “it”. Do it, even if your first draft, or first effort is imperfect.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) Body. Finish your written plan to transform, heal, and nurture your body. There will NEVER be a “perfect” diet or exercise program that works for everyone, that all the “experts” will agree on. Ultimately, you will be responsible for selecting and testing your theories and practices. And you will have to live with the results. But get started, notice your results, keep your eyes on the goal, keep studying people who have gotten better results from you. Finish the week’s workouts and eating patterns. Record your results. Polish, polish, polish.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) Career. Finish your plans to align your career and your core values. Finish your daily tasks: do all you can do, every day, to move toward your goals, and the years take care of themselves. Finish designing your “Secret Formula” plan. Finish reading that book: you need to be constantly learning new techniques and principles. The “gods” in any profession are often considered “intuitive geniuses” by those who are outsiders. The more knowledgable you are about ANY field, the more you see the actual work and sacrifice involved. Finish your 10,000 hours. If you aren’t willing, find something you ARE willing to spend 10,000 hours on. Those hours will pass, whether you have invested them, or wasted them. It’s up to you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3) Relationships. Finish your daily meditations, even if they are imperfect. Finish your “Soulmate” pattern, clearly defining what your heart seeks in a partner. Finish getting your initial feedback from the closest examples you can find: don’t let your fear of hearing bad news stop you. Actually ask for dates outside your comfort zone. Clarify your perceptions. Deal with your fear and blame and resentment that the opposite gender makes demands of potential partners--just like you do. And they probably aren’t the same demands you make...but that doesn’t mean they are any less reasonable. Understand the foibles of humanity without placing yourself above them, or having the irrational reaction that if we aren’t BETTER than animals we must be LESS. Jeeze, that tweaks me.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4) Finances. Finish your basic financial plan. Balancing your checkbook weekly. Actually establish a percentage of EVERY DOLLAR YOU EARN that you will put into an untouchable account BEFORE you pay your bills. And watch the results you get. It will be murderously hard to do this, harder than establishing a pattern of exercising BEFORE you eat breakfast, doing your 1000 words first thing in the morning, or loving yourself as a primary position. We are trained to take care of others first. Programmed to do the imperative rather than the generative. If you don’t break those habits, you’ll be hanging on by your fingernails all your life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finish it. Do it. Make the commitment. Then polish, tinker, research, redo, compare, consult, create, and repair. Do it. Perfectionism is procrastination masquerading as quality control.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do it, damn it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Namaste,</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve</span>Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-51441743591500248182014-05-16T08:37:00.002-07:002014-05-16T08:37:28.264-07:00Goals<span id="docs-internal-guid-71bbf5ff-05ad-193d-ea5f-27e06a7d394b"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Goals. “Goals are dreams with a deadline.” Do you know what you want, when you want it, what you are willing to do to get it? Have you studied what others who have succeeded did, and committed to paying the same price? Is the realization of your long-term core goals worth investing 10,000 hours? Yes? Then See it, Feel it, Touch it, Taste it, Hear it. Make it real. Invest yourself. Say “if it’s to be, it’s up to me.” What do you want in 10 years? 5 years? 3 years? 1 year? Six months? 3 months? 1 month? 1 week? Tomorrow? What do you need to do today? Do the actions, emotions, beliefs and values all line up along this entire ‘time line”? If they do, you have the absolute best chance of reaching your goals. No one can promise you external success...but if you START with gratitude, you’ve got the world mastered.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.diamondhour.com</span></div>
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Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-47821215833407560132014-05-14T06:46:00.001-07:002014-05-14T06:46:38.781-07:00The First Steps<b id="docs-internal-guid-71bbf5ff-faf9-22b6-064a-055de6d4fec2" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Each of these DIAMOND HOUR pieces, of necessity, will address multiple arenas. It’s that “psychotensegrity” thingie we mentioned a while back--everything connects to everything. So if you commit to five minutes a day (and EVERYONE has five minutes) one of the first things you have to do is disarm the part of your head that says: “I don’t have time.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I taught writing at UCLA, one of the things that happened in one class is that the students complained of not having enough time to work. So the next week, I started by asking who had seen X or Y television show, discussing them in turns of character, plot, and so forth. Once I had engaged everyone in the room, I reminded them that every single one had confessed to watching at least seven hours of television a week. And that if they had seven hours, they had enough time to execute their projects. The average person watches MUCH more than an hour a day. You have time.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If not, that’s your first goal--to find yourself an hour a day to invest in personal development. You owe yourself that much. And your first step is that first five minutes. By breathing for sixty seconds five times a day (the “five minute miracle”) you begin the process of converting stress from strain to motivating force.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here are some things do do during that first five minutes (and don’t even TRY to tell me you don’t have five minutes, if you had the time to read this. That is simply a lie.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So...WHILE YOU ARE BREATHING DEEPLY for sixty seconds...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) Identify the three most important things to accomplish today.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) Identify three reasons to accomplish each of them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3) Imagine three people or causes OUTSIDE YOURSELF you will benefit by accomplishing these things.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4) Identify three new resources you can investigate to help you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5) Three people you can contact to brainstorm more efficient ways of accomplishing your intents.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6) Visualize your “end state” in your primary goals in body, career, and relationships.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">7) Imagine three times you succeeded in the past, and fully associate with them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">8) Three reasons to have faith you can and should do this.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">9) Three ways you motivated yourself in the past to do things that weren’t intrinsically “fun.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">10) Three ways you are in alignment with BOTH your childhood dreams and deathbed values.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write down your results. Review your previous day’s notes. Walk the Thousand Mile Road.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Namaste,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;">www.diamondhour.com<br /></b><br />
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Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-43960742551686755332014-05-12T07:09:00.002-07:002014-05-12T07:11:35.655-07:00Diamond Hour, Secret Formula and Energy<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: none; margin-left: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 0.853333314259847; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 9pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I feel that I want to look more deeply into the “Diamond Hour” concept--the universe seems to be nudging me in that direction. More requests for it, more sign-ups for that list. Probably more need to solidify my own practices, rooting them more deeply. The question is how to approach it. </span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-71bbf5ff-f0c1-e0ed-6f79-f0934d0bc7b8" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 0.853333314259847; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 9pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, I’m going to take a meta-position on this. I’m going to use my own “Diamond Hour” to create this new course, sharing the pieces of it as I go. So I woke up this morning at 5:30, fifteen minutes and meditated. (Ancient Child and Heartbeat). Up, made myself a cup of tea and checked my email and FB messages. Re-wrote my core goals, a statement of Faith (why I believe I can and should achieve them), the action steps today, and what I am grateful for.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then took a look at what I’ve been asked (or otherwise moved) to look at in terms of DH: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Time management, </span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">create, resilience, courage/proper assertiveness. nature and community. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> balancing </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">creative and financially rewarding work, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> time management, exercise money management, getting adequate rest, goal setting, </span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> study, relationships/love/sex, communication, Rest and energy.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">###</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: none; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wow. A lot of different things, and I want to simplify them before I dive in. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So...let’s say that </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) you have balanced goals (Body, Mind/career, relationships), the unfoldment of which will benefit not just you, but the world as a whole</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) your beliefs support their achievement, </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3) you know the steps you need to take and have at least three different routes to achievement that do NOT require “luck” or someone coming to save you. Tactics and strategies and</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4) You are focused on all you have to be grateful for RIGHT NOW.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Have those things? Yes, I could go more deeply into any one of those categories (and will) but want to be broad right now. If we assume you have these things, what else do you need?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, on a very general sense, you need ENERGY. Energy to move forward, to pick yourself back up after you have fallen down (and you will), to change habit patterns (behavioral modification) , change your mood, and even to help motivate the people around you.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remember: this is a dynamic sphere. I see and feel it but cannot pretend to “understand” it. But I’m going to try to pick at the loose threads and see what we can unravel and comprehend...an hour at a time.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If we generally separate the “Diamond Hour” into three chunks of ten-thirty minutes each for an investment of about 30-90 minutes a day, we’re starting to bring this into focus. The first step is to invest five minutes a day. This “Five Minute Miracle” is the gateway to all that follows. Let’s emphasize energy, and see what we can accomplish in five minutes a day:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Five Minute Miracle plus Increasing Energy. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Five sixty-second “breathing breaks”, one every couple of hours. The “Secret Formula” plus “Increasing energy” is our goal. This is assuming that you have ONLY five minutes a day. O.K….wow. What can you do..?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) First breathing break. Re-write your goals. Quickly. Top three. Split your attention so that you are breathing deeply and slowly as you do. Visualize your goals and FEEL what you will gain from achieving them as you do.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) Write your reasons for believing you can and SHOULD achieve your goals. Again, keep it very short, and split attention so that you are breathing. </span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This time emphasize your posture. While writing, you should sit as if suspended by a string hovering over your head. Be a marionette.</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3) Write your top three actions that must be done TODAY and TOMORROW to accomplish your goals. No begging, pleading, or luck. What can YOU do. If you are in sales, remember that sales is a transfer of enthusiasm, and aligning your needs with those of your client. What are you going to do for THEM? You don’t sell vacuum cleaners--you sell clean homes, and healthy families. You get what you want when you help someone else get what THEY need. Breathe. Concentrate on the EXHALATION. Then relax. EXHALE. Then relax.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4) Write out your reasons for feeling GRATEFUL for another day of life, another opportunity to help the people you love, to serve your community, for being strong and sane and healthy. For being able to BREATHE without equipment.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5) Joint mobility drills, allowing the compressions and releases to create your breathing. Energy is created by the interaction of diet, rest, exercise, and focus. Again, you could study each of these for a year, but just being aware of basic principles, you are cheating yourself out of your life. Some fast thoughts:</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) Eat today for how you want to feel tomorrow, and to recover from yesterday’s stress.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) If you get less than eight hours of sleep a night, and are fatigued, look no further for a MAJOR leak.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3) If you exercise less than two hours a week, you are VASTLY out of alignment with what your laziest ancestors could possibly have managed to survive. Look no further for a MAJOR leak.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4)If you don’t know the WHAT, HOW, and WHY of how you will use your energy to feed into the “Secret Formula”--how you will use it to create your dreams and support the people you love...you have another MAJOR leak. You may actually not have permission to be healthy! One of the most frightening things I’ve ever heard as a coach is that someone is worried that “if I have more energy, people will just want more from me, so why bother?”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These suggestions are both global and specific. I can’t be broad without asking more questions than I can answer, and can’t be specific without leaving out giant areas of importance. But I’m hoping that by moving between several different models but anchoring the discussions in a few simple concepts, I can both remind myself of what I know...and share with all of you. This is the first step.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Namaste,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve</span></div>
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Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-4511476840830842262014-05-10T08:03:00.001-07:002014-05-10T08:03:00.910-07:00Mother's Day<div role="article">
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}">Tomorrow is Mother's Day. The sacred bonds of motherhood extend beyond the biological act of conception and birth. It is the protection and healing, the shelter and love. The sharing of the feminine energy in the world. All humans have some of it, women generally have more, mothers specialize. But if you have a teacher, neighbor, co-worker, sister...anyone who has warmed you with their heart <span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">in this very special way, please reach out to them. You never have any idea how much a simple "thank you" can mean to someone who feels forgotten or unappreciated, who has given her heart to the world and wonders what it all means. Tell them it means everything. And if you are fortunate to have a mother in any biological, social or personal sense...and she is still here...treasure her, and be certain that she knows you do. I bless my own mother, Eva Mae Reeves, for giving me birth and raising me. My sister Joyce for loving me and teaching me to read. Nicki's Mom Toni for being so much more than my friend and love...for giving me hope when I needed it most, and a darling daughter to boot. For Patricia Stevens Due for giving birth to the love of my life. And to Tananarive, who brought me my son, for whom I'd waited a lifetime. And walks with me every step of this punishing, miraculous, beautiful journey called life. I love you all.</span></span></div>
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Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-3291656002483418302014-05-06T07:13:00.000-07:002014-05-06T07:13:01.184-07:00Applying the "Diamond Hour"<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I love letters. I don't have to think of the subject for today, which might be "cheating." I'd rather just take a look at what people would like me to look at, look at it, and allow you guys to tell me if my perception is awake today. I'm applying the "Diamond Hour" concept more precisely, and asking for areas of interest:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hi Steve, </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One thing that often occurs to me as I think about the structures that you present is that sometimes I would like to hear what you have to say about balancing between creative, but not financially rewarding, work and the work that supports us -- which may in itself be satisfying but not fulfill some self-expression needs. I wonder what advice you have to people in that situation. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rachel </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">###</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I would suggest that two different basic approaches can help such a person. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) My general pattern is to use Vin diagrams. In “A” are the projects I’d like to write. In “B” are the projects I believe can sell. Where the circles overlap, that’s where I write. So...I don’t write the things that won’t sell (generally) and I don’t write the things that could sell, but I have no interest in writing. In terms of the “Ancient Child” meditation, this is lining up the interests of the “Child” and the “Adult” personalities, harnessing the “Child’s” creative energy while still respecting her emotions.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) But there is another approach. And that is that you spend some time creating something sheerly for the love, contribution, practice, or self-expression of it. With no thought or consideration for financial reward. This means that the Adult or “responsible/productive/financial” part of your personality might have to work just for working, with less “fun” or intrinsic satisfaction involved--you are getting your “fun” separately. Balance. Play HERE, work THERE. In terms of the Ancient Child, this is letting the “kid” run off and play, while the “Adult” goes to work later or earlier in the day.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">##</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In terms of the Diamond Hour, you could easily dedicate ½ hour a day to pure self-expression artistic form, going deeply into flow for thirty minutes of painting, composing, writing, sculpting, drawing or whatever. It may not seem like much, but over the course of a year, that’s over 150 solid hours of pure pleasure invested in something moving your life forward, or deepening your sense of self expression.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now...if you also spend 15 minutes a day researching marketing, making connections, sending brainstorming emails to other artists and so forth, you can make serious progress, over time. The last 15 minutes should be your physical time: the Five Tibetans, FlowFit, etc. 15 minutes of “planning” time, and 30 minutes of “Flow” make for a great way to edge your way further toward your dream life: where body, mind, and emotions….or “child” and “adult” aspects of yourself are aligned together. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">More questions, please!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve</span></div>
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Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-6142239158435563292014-04-28T06:50:00.003-07:002014-04-28T06:50:34.270-07:00Danger Word!<br />
We've been busy with multiple projects, but the biggest news today is that my short film DANGER WORD has finally gone public! There are so many different ways to look at this, from the stress-relief of working on a dream while living in a non-optimal situation (no, that wasn't the first term that came to mind) from the planning and organization and writing, to the family dynamic of working with Tananrive in a way I never had, to providing my darling daughter Nicki with her first IMDB acting credit (Jason is in there too, but blink and you'll miss him), to time-organization, to money-raising, to a blazingly powerful use of the "SECRET FORMULA", to the deliberate creation of a cultural meme directed at young girls...to the sheer fun of making a little horror film...from the "kid" part of me to the "adult" part, DANGER WORD was also the completion of a life's dream. My last remaining childhood goal was to sit in a movie audience and see and feel them react as a movie "written by" me went on the screen. And because I never said "how long?" or "how big?" I realized I got to consider this a major win, freeing me to do whatever comes next in my life.<br />
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And now I get to share it with you. So...if you like horror film, this little tale of a grandfather trying to protect his granddaughter after the Zombie Apocalypse might be right up your alley. Or the alley of a friend. Please forward this link wherever you wish, to anyone you think would find it of interest.<br />
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Ladies and gentlemen...WWW.DAN<a href="http://www.dangerword.com/">www.dangerword.com</a>GERWORD.COM.<br />
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Namaste,<br />
Steve<br />
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Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-87511974453136605392014-04-13T08:54:00.003-07:002014-04-13T08:54:15.751-07:00"Secret Formula" 4-13-14: Gratitude<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“SECRET FORMULA” 4-13-14</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-7ec4ddb6-5bc9-b92e-5025-690fb90e07ac" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All right, the last basic piece of the puzzle (we’ll discuss minor or supplemental pieces soon).</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">GOAL X FAITH X CONSTANT ACTION X GRATITUDE = RESULTS</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gratitude is the one that kicked my butt in Atlanta. How am I supposed to be happy about something causing me so much pain? I could see the trap: while it is possible to power yourself with negative emotions (fear, anger, hate) that is a different path. “The Dark Side of the Force.” I don’t deny that it works, but that was not, at all, what was being discussed in Wattle’s book.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not “THE” path, but certainly “A” path, and the one that called to me. Even if I could find things to be grateful for in this instance, could I apply this across the board? Can a person be grateful in ANY situation?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is going to be a delicate one, but I’m going to mention it anyway. One of the great teachers of my life was a woman named Dawn Callan, teacher of a fabulous self-defense/empowerment workshop called “Awaken The Warrior Within.” In two days, Dawn could teach women more about self defense than most instructors can in two years. She did this with a combination of simple techniques drilled endlessly for two days at high intensity, combined with spiritual therapy-group style introspection and sharing. Then, at the end, you practice your skils against a padded attacker, in a combat exercise that has to be experienced to be believed. INTENSE. Breakthrough stuff.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I watched hundreds of women go through this process, including some who had been raped or abused. And they came out the other side with a sense of power and possibility that was astounding. Dawn was, in the space of that workshop, an avatar of power and responsibility and pure Goddess energy, fierce as Kali. About five two on the outside, and seven feet tall on the inside. Amazing woman. I asked her what was the hardest thing she had to face in helping these women (and later, men) through this challenge.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And what she said blew my mind. With a woman who had been raped, her greatest challenge was getting her to take responsibility for what had happened. What? What the hell? </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She was very precise in her language. “Responsibility.” Not guilt, blame, or shame. Response-ability. The ability to respond. Without that, she believed, you were a victim forever. Taking responsibility for what HAD happened opened the door to taking responsibility for your future actions and behaviors and encounters.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With that, you tap into your deeper perceptions, intuition, and pure animal survival drives from a spiritual perspective. Without that, all you can do is plead for help or mercy. And that was most definitely NOT where Dawn was coming from.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And it was difficult, because the natural tendency IS to confuse “responsibility” with guilt, blame and shame. But if you remove those emotions, what have you? </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Commitment. A sense that, even if you cannot always see or understand the pattern, you have agency. But...but...how can you embrace a philosophy like that? What of abused children? What of people born into unbelievabl poverty? What of people born with childhood diseases? Can you ask them to take “responsibility” for any of that?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You cannot demand it, no. And it is totally understandable that saying this can be uncomfortable. Even worse (much worse) some people use such a philosophy to justify cruelty or neglect. “Why, they chose that miserable state…”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What the hell, indeed. And Dawn, a woman of titanic, ruthles compassion, understood that. So she would NEVER ask people to accept such a position until she had shifted their emotions to a powerful state in which they could view their lived out of the “victim” mindset.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a tightrope. Huge. But every woman I saw cross it found something that she thought she had lost: a sense of power in her life. She could not change what had happened, but by God, she could take every ounce of that pain and turn it into motivation. Strength. Resolve. She could define what had happened to her as the trigger to turn her into a tiger committed to protecting ALL women, ALL children, and that she was willing to die before losing her commitment.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Taking power like that, as hard as it clearly was, opened the door to a kind of power and clarity that was...unique. Never seen anything like it.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And if hundreds of women could do THAT, what was I being asked to do? To find a way to be grateful in the midst of pain. Was there a way? Could I even imagine looking back ten years from now and seeing ANYTHING to be happy about?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well...sure. Maybe .01% possibility, but…</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And if that was true, if there was only a single cold star in a bleak, black night sky, didn’t it behoove me to concentrate on that star, if doing so brought joy to my life, and that joy made me a better husband and father...and writer...and coach...and then made me a more attractive, dynamic person, drawing in allies and opportunities...which then could lead to me getting out of Atlanta and back to L.A.?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I could see the line of causality. I could “grasp” it. Could see how something analogous had worked in other circumstances. Had had the people I trust most in the world tell me, every one of them, that I had to find joy, peace, happiness...GRATITUDE...where I was, when I was, or I was on the wrong path.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I could have my pain and anger and despair...or I could have my life. I just had to step away from the damage, not define myself by my ego trainwreck. I was not “that.” My life was not defined by “that.” I had agency. Had made choices. Could MAKE choices...if not in what had already happened, certainly in my interpretation: what does it mean? Who am I? What is true?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And if I could line that up so that every event was empowering, even the negative ones...if for no othr reason than I HAD LEARNED THE LESSON AND SURVIVED...then everything that had ever happened to me in my life could be an empowerment. A doorway. A bridge. A motivator. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every enemy an ally. Every happenstance a miracle. Every day of my life a building block to the man I am today. And if I love that man...I must be grateful for all of it. To all of THEM. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Forgiveness is not a gift to your enemies. It does not mean forgetting, or allowing them to hurt you again. It is a way to unburden your heart. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you learn the lesson, you can release the pain and fear. And what remains...is love.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And gratitude. For another day of life. For a strong, healthy body. For the people who love and trust me. For Jason, and Nicki, and my beautiful, brilliant wife. For the chance to help one more person by embracing the truth of my own existence.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the only cost for this lightness of being is giving up the need to be right. And the fear that if I don’t dump my negative emotions and fear onto others, it will rebound upon me.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Could I be that strong? Could I? Well...if I was committed to being the man I’m committed to being, yes. If I am to be the father and husband I am committed to being, yes. The role model I’m committed to being. The friend. The writer. The coach.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It made sense, even if I couldn’t quite attain it. So I did what I have done before: I made it a prayer. To God, to my own Higher Self--you decide. I don’t care.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“God,” I said. “I’m going to give up my anger. I’m going to take the leap. I can’t see what is in front of me, it’s a leap into a fog bank. All I ask is that you either catch me, or, if there are rocks down there...let me hit them before I see them.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And I jumped, into a world of love, and acceptance, and...gratitude.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And was caught. And transformed.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Namaste,</span></div>
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.diamondhour.com</span>Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-37298497558072659742014-04-12T09:05:00.001-07:002014-04-12T09:05:14.263-07:00The "Secret Formula" 4-12-14<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">GOALS X FAITH X CONSTANT ACTION X GRATITUDE = RESULTS</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “In every job that’s to be done, there is an element of fun. Find the fun and poof! The job’s a game!”--M. Poppins.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The third part of this deceptively simple formula is “constant action.” In truth, this is the major flaw I see in people who practice “The Secret.” The ones who fail, without exception thought that wanting something, visualizing it or chanting goals would produce a miracle.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No. YOU are the miracle. A farmer cannot pray over a field that has not been ploughed and planted, and expect wheat. Even if he does everything right, a tornado can tear up his field, the locusts may come, the rain may withhold its blessing. And he will have to dry his tears, stifle his curses, pull up his big-boy pants and try again. That’s the biz.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are no guarantees of success. But there ARE guarantees of failure. Taking no action, or insufficient action, is one of them. Let’s put it another way: if your goals aren’t exciting and motivating enough to get you off the couch, off your butt, and hitting it hard morning til night, what the #$%% makes you think they’re strong enough to make the Universe respond?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The bad news is that that Universe doesn’t care. At this very moment, wolves are ripping rabbits to pieces in woods all over the world...and all is well.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The good news is that the Universe doesn’t care. It isn’t going to go out of its way to stop you from getting what you want. In fact, with bizarre consistency, those who arrange their lives so that they don’t NEED luck (it’s nice not to have “bad” luck, but “good” luck isn’t necessary) are the ones who get stupendously lucky. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When you don’t have a job, you can’t get a job, until you’ve got a job, and then everybody offers you work. When you don’t have a lover, you can’t get one, until you’ve got one, and then your phone starts ringing. When you’re broke, you can’t get a loan, until you’ve got money, at which point everyone wants to extend credit.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is perverse. Get over it--it’s just the way it works.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So define your daily activities so that, if you work your butt off, you can accomplish steps that will lead you to your goal. Set it up so you need no “luck”, and ask for no “help” from others you are not willing to make fair trade for. Re-write and clarify your goals and motivations until you associate GREAT pleasure with accomplishing them, and REAL pain to failing to act.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Seek flow in your daily actions, so that you gain pleasure FROM YOUR DAILY WORK, rather than when you reach that distant goal. Right here, right now, pleasure. Every day. Every moment. THIS IS YOUR LIFE. If you postpone pleasure, you might get hit by a car on your way across the street to cash that check. And won’t you feel a fool, lying there realizing you put off your life, and now it’s over? But if you apply your intelligence you will find ways to take joy in every moment of the work, either for its own sake, or because you are learning and growing, or contributing to others.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ENJOY YOUR LIFE NOW. Bring 100% of what you have, every day, to the blissful effort of going deeper into your two questions: “who am I?” and “what is true?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every day. Divide your long-term goals into pieces, and fulfill 1% every week. How do you eat an elephant? One forkful at a time. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every day. Constant action. The person who makes ten times as many mistakes as you do, AND LEARNS FROM EVERY ONE, AND SEEKS NEVER TO REPEAT AN ERROR, will out-perform you so fast it will make your head spin.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You don’t have to whistle while you work, but you do have to work. And it is then, when you have a clear goal, faith in your efforts, and are totally flowing with constant focused effort…</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That is when the gremlins who mess up other people’s plans start saying: “damn! This girl is serious! Let’s go mess with someone with less grit.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And people will start saying: “wow! He’s lucky.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And you will laugh at them, and cry for them, just a little. And continue down your road. And it is often a lonely road. Most people think that magic is something outside themselves, something they can call on.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No. Magic is something you embody, or it is nothing at all.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Namaste,</span></div>
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.diamondhour.com</span>Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-81746297990798691182014-04-11T07:13:00.001-07:002014-04-11T07:13:39.258-07:00Secret Formula 4/11/14<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Secret Formula 4/11</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-7ec4ddb6-5120-e890-9a99-fe0528cdffd9" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Goals X Faith X Action X Gratitude = Results</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The term “Faith” is used in two different senses</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) the belief that your goal is POSSIBLE and APPROPRIATE, and that your efforts will bring you more pleasure and decrease pain.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) The belief that you have greater resources than those contained within your ego-self.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Both are critical, for different reasons. I don’t believe in lazy people (in the sense of “he’s too lazy to get a job/exercise/etc). I believe in people without motivating goals (there’s nothing I’d get out of doing that), conflicting values that paralyze, or conflicting beliefs that say the goal is out of reach, or toxic, or wrong in some way. Or, they believe that the attempt to reach the goal will cause more pain than pleasure. IF you can clearly see and feel the positive value of the action, if it matches your self-image, if you have an efficient and effective plan to reach it YOU BELIEVE IN, and you associate pleasure with doing it and pain with NOT doing it? I think you’d be doing it. And have never seen an exception to this. Ever.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second interpretation of “Faith” is more standard. In the Hero’s Journey, the way through the “Dark Night of the Soul” is called the “Leap of Faith”. The “Dark Night” is just the moment at which it feels that all of your skills and strengths and resources are insufficient to reach your goal. You have reached ego-limit.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Faith” here relates to one of three things:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) Faith in Self. In other words, even though you have “emptied yourself out” you trust that you can grow, or have hidden strengths, or that Tomorrow Is Another Day. You look back over your life and see countless times you saw no way to succeed, felt exhausted and depressed...and succeeded anyway. You will fight to the last drop of blood. People like that are VERY hard to stop.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) Faith in Companions. The only known way to compensate for lack of ability is the Mastermind. Friends, family, co-workers, coaches, etc. You trust that you are part of a team, and that they will be there to catch you when you fall.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3) Faith in a Higher Power. Typically, this is belief in a benevolent God. But it could also be a sense that the universe “makes sense”. Or that there are patterns of action in nature that reward the positive. Or the rhythms of life can be sensed like a surfer understands tides and waves. “For every thing there is a time.” It doesn’t matter. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You may have noticed that a disproportionate percentage of high-performing, champion folks, when interviewed, will attribute their success to something other than themselves. They thank their coaches, families, teammates. They “did it” for their dying mother, their country, or school. They “know” that they could never have done it but for answered prayers.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whatever you may think about the arena of Faith, it seems a very, very powerful ally in accessing deep wells of skill and energy and courage when all seems lost. And if you can find something to believe in that is bigger and deeper than your ordinary sense of self, you too will be able to keep going through the “Dark Nights”. And the combined wisdom of all world cultures suggests that on the other side of the “Leap of Faith”...is everything you’ve ever wanted, needed, or deserved.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Namaste</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve</span></div>
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Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-85926903900198501052014-04-09T08:04:00.001-07:002014-04-09T08:04:27.602-07:00Free Workshop today!<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 12.880000114440918px;">SIGN UP for the free virtual workshop "Storytelling through a Speculative Lens" I'm hosting through Spelman College with co-panelists </span><a class="profileLink" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=604520909" href="https://www.facebook.com/steven.barnes.7127" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 12.880000114440918px; text-decoration: none;">Steven Barnes</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 12.880000114440918px;"> </span><a class="profileLink" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=100000226318506" href="https://www.facebook.com/shereerenee.thomas" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 12.880000114440918px; text-decoration: none;">Sheree Renée Thomas</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 12.880000114440918px;"> </span><a class="profileLink" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=572425313" href="https://www.facebook.com/adriennemaree" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 12.880000114440918px; text-decoration: none;">Adrienne Maree Brown</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 12.880000114440918px;"> and </span><a class="profileLink" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=563563344" href="https://www.facebook.com/john.jennings.9659" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 12.880000114440918px; text-decoration: none;">John Jennings</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 12.880000114440918px;">. LIVE-STREAMING ON YOUTUBE AND SPELMAN'S WEBSITE. 7p ET / 4p PT Wednesday. You can also send questions from Twitter with the hashtag </span><a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/octaviabutlerspelman?source=feed_text&story_id=10203522981775712" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 12.880000114440918px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="_58cl" style="color: #6d84b4;">#</span><span class="_58cm">OctaviaButlerSpelman</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 12.880000114440918px;">. Here's the RSVP link:</span><a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/101199832807301263034/events/cn0qr9q0ijl04v3ua7vkl9jta10?authkey=CL-gssHh-JLAUQ" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 12.880000114440918px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/101199832807301263034/events/cn0qr9q0ijl04v3ua7vkl9jta10?authkey=CL-gssHh-JLAUQ</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 12.880000114440918px;"> (And don't forget about the </span><a class="profileLink" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=573377302754643" href="https://www.facebook.com/OctaviaButlerSpelman" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 12.880000114440918px; text-decoration: none;">Octavia E. Butler Celebration of Arts & Activism</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 12.880000114440918px;"> next week, Weds. 4/16. and Thursday 4/17. "Like" the page for details.)</span>Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-91107081838964716092014-04-07T08:32:00.000-07:002014-04-07T08:33:47.939-07:00Back to the "Secret Formula"<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Goal X Faith X Constant Action X Gratitude = Success</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-f3a6b5a6-3cce-d6dc-7525-665676c13f9e" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The above is the “Secret Formula” I extracted from “The Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace D. Wattles. It is so powerful, and so far-reaching in implication, that I wanted to come back to it yet again. I honestly believe that, IF YOU BALANCE YOUR GOALS (body, mind, emotions) it is the simplest expression of a whole-life success philosophy I’ve ever seen, and comes perilously close to “magic.” (especially in the Arthur C. Clarke “any sufficiently advance technology is indistinguishable from magic” sense.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s start by looking at the implications of this being a multiplicative as opposed to additive equation. What do YOU think the difference is..?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">THINK ABOUT IT BEFORE YOU LOOK AT THE ANSWER.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All right. The difference is that if you “zero out” in any one of the four categories, the entire thing becomes a “zero.” That’s it. Enormous implication.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No goals? Zero.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No faith you can and should do it? Zero.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not taking ferocious daily action? Zero.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not finding a way to be happy NOW, as you go? Zero.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But if you</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) have clear measurable goals, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) believe your efforts will bring more pleasure than pain</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3) Aim at constant useful action and improvement of skills</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4) Develop a sense of joy in Being Here Now…</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You cannot lose. No one promises me tomorrow. I could get hit by a meteor, or some thin wall in a blood vessel might go “pop.” We’re all handed a post-dated death certificate at birth. But if I know what I want, believe in possibility and the rightness of action, am constantly growing toward this worthy goal, and am whistling as I work…</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I not only maximize my chances of reaching my goals, but am having a hell of a good time along the way. I get to wake up every morning rarin’ to go, and go to bed every night giving thanks for another day doing the things I love with the people I love.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Life is good, even if I die before I wake. Even if external circumstances thwart my dreams. Even if I’ve misjudged my capacities. Who cares? I’ve had a hell of a ride.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And you know what? When you take responsibilty for your own fate, in a perverse way the universe seems to finally decide to cooperate with you, and “luck” begins to occur. It really is strange. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We’ll talk more about this very soon…</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Namaste</span></div>
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve</span>Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-67025551787497247122014-04-04T08:23:00.001-07:002014-04-04T08:23:22.310-07:00A (mostly) non-revew of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" (2014)<br id="docs-internal-guid-818aeaaf-2d53-e433-0282-5dd04a6f8915" /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Apparently, Marvel rules the world. “Winter Soldier” isn’t the best Marvel Studio film (for me, that’s Avengers, followed by Iron Man #1) but it demonstrates that they have learned to maintain a spooky level of consistency. And no one has ever lived long enough to count all the money it’s gonna make by hand. Considering (what seems to me) a mis-fire with the recent “Man of Steel” and the cluster-#$%% that “Batman Versus Superman” threatens to be if they don’t watch out (trying to shoehorn the Justice League into that movie is a recipe for disaster if they aren’t very, very careful: “Avengers” was a genius-level juggling act) I thought that rather than review “Winter Soldier” (it’s great. Go) I’d make some comments on why I think that this is absolutely the best time in the world to be a Marvel geek.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1) It is interesting to note critics praising the Marvel Universe films for making different movies in different genres, but the truth is that the root of that is right in the comic books themselves. And the innate variation is probably true of any comic book company, but because so many creative roots within Marvel cross at one living man--Stan Lee, there is a consistency of feeling that you can’t get if the different books were each created by different creative teams. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2) Advantage #2 took a long time to kick in: for decades the technology just wasn’t there to present the kind of visions Jack Kirby or Jim Steranko created in the pages of those comics.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Look how much they trumpeted “You’ll believe a man can fly” for Christopher Reeves, and Superman’s flight is extremely simple and straight-forward compared to the flying effects we’re used to today. And Batman can be pulled off with primarily practical, mechanical effects, as Christopher Nolan proved three times.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Marvel Universe is just stranger, farther-out, and whackier. Spider-man just can’t be pulled off by stuntpeople without CGI--we can’t handle the gees without strain, and the ability to express Spidey’s joyous, blissed-out body language simply isn’t human. Stunt men end up looking like Tarzan swinging though a concrete jungle rather than a teen-ager expressing all the pent-up frustration of adolescence in a “look at me, Maw! Top of the World!” web-slinging version of the “Footloose” dance of freedom.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3) As I mentioned before, Stan Lee is still alive. And although he hasn’t really been a creative force for decades, he is still “Stan the Man”, super-salesman. And what is sales? A transfer of enthusiasm from one person to another. That means that the current creative minds at Marvel/Disney can sit in the room with Stan, and he can infect them with his vision of these characters, this world. So what if Walt Disney didn’t draw or write Mickey Mouse, and couldn’t even sign his own autographs? He was the human crossroads for everything that got done in his name, and as long as he was alive, there was a feel to everything that emerged under the “Walt Disney” brand.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I consider it so tragic that fans of the great “King” Jack Kirby feel it necessary to attack a 90-year old man to defend their favorite. What is even worse is that they want me to believe that Stan contributed little or nothing to the canon. I’ll say only this: I was there, a die-hard Marvel fan in the 1960’s and 70’s. I read everything that came out. And there was a common “flavor” to the writing, ALL the writing, that came out with Stan’s name on it. Artists came and went on all the different comics. But the stories and writing were pretty much the same. I refuse to believe that the artists were writing all this stuff, across two dozen books with artists swapping in and out...but maintaining the same writing flavor. You want to believe that? Go right ahead.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">With a few exceptional graphic storytellers--like KIrby--there was a special magic when they teamed up, and I can believe that something very very special happened with the “Marvel Method”, where the artists were hugely trusted to create--under Stan’s editorial hand, and expressing a “Bullpen” feeling for everything happening at one extraordinary moment of time, 1965-75 or so. My God, that must have been an amazing creative environment. And it is genuinely heart-breaking that billions of dollars are being earned and Kirby’s heirs aren’t a part of that cash stream.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But that doesn’t change the fact that having Stan alive is like having the living creators of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern all in a room at the same time, telling stories of how, and why, and who. That is an AMAZING advantage.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4) It doesn’t bother me in the least that theatrical cinema’s biggest movies are popcorn-munching, franchise-fodder genre stuff. It WOULD bother me if we weren’t in a Golden Age of television. But any particular outlet for media images is just that--an outlet. We have more product BY FAR hitting audiences, with theatrical film, broadcast television, VOD, cable, net-streaming, Direct-to-DVD and probably other stuff I’m forgetting about. The traditional hierarchical “four studios controlling 90% of the screens” model is falling apart, with people absorbing content on home TVs, computers, cell phones, Ipads, theatrical screens, dedicated viewers, and in the near future probably corneal implants. For those who miss the old model--well, I’m sorry for their pain, but the truth is that I was never a controlling part of that structure to begin with, and I welcome the new avenues and the fact that chaos brings opportunity.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And I don’t blame Hollywood for seeking some sort of guarantees to pull people into theaters. Movies are first and foremost “product”. So major stars, recognizable themes, bestselling novels, adaptions of television shows, comic book heroes, or sequels of successful past films all get center stage. And what will get the biggest budgets? The films that can’t be properly made for a smaller screen. “Ordinary People” looks just fine on a small screen, an intimate story of emotion. But...blow up the world? Hell, give me an Imax screen and 3-d. The fact that these gigantic, state-of-the ILM art images need no translation is icing on a very very profitable cake.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As long as I can watch five years of “Breaking Bad” on the small screen whenever I want, I really don’t care if half the stuff at the multiplex is popcorn b.s. Choose a random year of Hollywood films and look at the output. Except for the usual up-and-down of quality you see in any field, things haven’t ever been much better. And if you look at the output of other world cinema--not just the stuff good enough for export, but the general sweep of their product--I think you’ll hold your nose just as much.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">One of the fun things about having seen television in context in Europe, Africa, and South America, as well as having seen a ton of Asian cinema, is that it becomes very clear that Sturgeon’s Law is right: 90% of anything is crap. It mostly just people trying to make a living and put their kids through school married to other people trying to express themselves and tell a story that’s buzzing around in their heads. That anything really beautiful ever comes of that difficult union is a minor miracle.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">###</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Anyway, back to “Winter Soldier”. It’s big. It’s loud. It is also blessed with quiet thoughtful moments. It has great action and SFX. It also has some very nicely judged acting. It blusters and wears its patriotism on its arm. It also suggests that there are ways America has lost its way. And also celebrates the ways in which our ancestors got it wrong, without making a big thing of it. It is pure comic book, and also, in the combination of everything that Hollywood does like no one else in the world has ever been able to do, for good or ill. As said, it isn’t that perfect juggling act that raised “Avengers” into a kind of singular stratosphere--but it kicks ass all kinds of happy ways, and I cant’ wait to see it again. In the top 10 comic book movies ever.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Make Mine Marvel.</span>Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-83845775158188717082014-03-28T07:35:00.002-07:002014-03-28T07:35:41.741-07:00How To Pick Up Girls!<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> There is a story about two monks walking in the woods. They come to a stream. A beautiful woman asks them if they will help her across. They are of a sect forbidden contact with women, so the younger monk is shocked when the older one picks up the woman and carries her across, then sets her down on the far bank.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-12317b8e-0916-fd80-3b4b-01627ac4aa02" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The two walk on for several miles, and then the young monk explodes: “I can’t believe you picked up that woman!” he says.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The older monk smiles mildly. “I put her down on the river bank. I can’t believe you’re still carrying her.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">######</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We always do the very best we can with the resources we have. Today you have different resources than you had yesterday. A critical distinction is between "responsibility" and guilt, blame, or shame. Response-Ability is literally "the ability to respond." Without that, you are adrift, your agency destroyed by negative emotion. No one who has ever been born is better than you. The only “cost” for living in this reality is giving up the notion that you are better than anyone else. The only cost for forgiving yourself enough to drop your baggage and evolve is forgiving those who have damaged you. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Forgiving is NOT forgetting. It is NOT allowing them to hurt you again. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You don’t forgive others for their benefit, but for yours. The only reason you cannot is fear that if you don’t, you will be hurt again. That means there is no actual deep trust for your own soul and being. Start with love. Abandon the need to be better than others. You are enough in and of yourself, without comparisons to others. All comparisons to others are within the “dream” of life, not the reality. It is fine to play such games, but they must not be mistaken for reality. One of my mentors once said, “you can enjoy playing Monopoly, but don’t make the mistake of thinking you can live on Boardwalk or Park Place.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Love yourself. Forgive--but don’t take any shit, either. Seek truth, taking balanced goals within the “dream” of life, and notice the results without being attached to them. Remember: At every moment of your life, you’ve done the best you could with the resources you had.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And so has everyone else.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Namaste,</span></div>
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.diamondhour.com</span>Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-88507229582208596392014-03-27T07:21:00.000-07:002014-03-27T07:21:12.526-07:00What Is The Meaning of Life?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While I don’t think it can really quite be put into words, the Dali Lama came as close as anyone I’ve seen when he said: “The meaning of life is happiness.” </span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-12317b8e-03e7-8839-9f19-5b9d0a6dd9aa" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is, of course, no such thing as a simple, fool-proof philosophical statement because, as we all know, fools are so ingenious. Tell some one “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” some wise-acre will say, “well, what about a masochist? Huh? Ever think of that?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, let’s actually be kinder than that. The questioner might well be a philosopher’s greatest ally--so long as the questions are honest, and not purely a rhetorical game, filled with fictional straw men who believe this or that that real human beings can’t believe without massive internal inconsistency. Cheap thrills. Freshman philosophy 101.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Say “the meaning of life is happiness” and the same Ally will say: “well, should we just do anything that makes us happy? Should we just smoke dope all day long? Get laid every chance we get? What kind of idiot works a job, if the purpose of life is happiness?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And that is useful, opening a valid and critical expansion on the basic concept, a discussion of short versus long-term pleasure, child versus adult dynamics, reality maps and reality, values versus expedience, physical as opposed to existential pleasure. Individual as opposed to group welfare. Ego and expanded identity. Balance and obsession. Big “Self” and little “self.” Great discussions. All-day, life-long, multi-generational discussions. Good stuff! But they must ultimately relate to the Two Biggies: “who am I?” and “what is true?” Follow these questions until you find an unlanguageable place where they are two versions of the same question...and you’ve found the door. Now all you have to do is figure out if it’s marked “push” or “pull”. Heh heh. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anyway, the question “what is happiness?” Is a critical one to ask, so that you can begin with the meanings that actually touch your heart. Then...keep asking, until you get to the answer that aligns with your values, is short AND long term, honors BOTH your “inner child” and “inner elder” personalities, allows you to function in the adult world with joy and contribution (and financial success) and resolves the riddle of “do what you love, or love what you do.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here’s a thought to begin the discussion: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The Buddhists believe happiness is the inner calm that comes from meditation. The Jews believe that we are here to change the world. My own work suggests that happiness comes from harmonious relationships and giving to others. ”--Cloe Madanes.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #4e5665; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is happiness to you? </span>Steven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.com3