Is your life very full, but not very full-filling? Does happiness seem like a whole lot of hard work? Are you running the rat race, but tired of running, racing, and being a rat?
If you said "yes" to any of these questions, you've come to the right place! My name is Roger Kenneth Marsh and I invite you into a whole new world: a world where life is fulfilling, happiness is natural, and you're no longer running, racing, or being a rat.
You see, a number of years ago I would've said "yes" to all these questions too, and "yes" to this one as well: "Do you sense there is something more to your life, that this isn't it, and that there has got to be a better way?"
At that point in my life I had done everything I was supposed to do and was very "successful" from a societal perspective. However something, something terribly important, was missing, and I had no idea what it was. What I did know was that it wasn't going to be found in "more of the same." It wasn't going to be found in more money, more stuff, even more relationships or more free time. I had it all and it wasn't enough. That feeling, that gnawing sense of anxiety, that suffering, and that depression, sent me on a journey.
Perhaps you are at this point in your life too? You're no longer satisfied with the "status quo," and you know if this is all life is about, perhaps you'd rather not live it. Some call this a mid-life crisis. I had mine at age 25, more than 15 years ago, and I'm glad I did! Breakdowns lead to breakthroughs, and there is truly opportunity in every crisis! And I'm here to help you. Read more >>
Come join Aline Boundy and me for a FREE Telesummit on Monday, April 1st.
In her own words, here’s a special invitation from my friend Aline:
The focus of this series of interviews is “Real Lives.” I’ll be asking our special guests about their life path and their career path. We’ll hear where they started in their careers, and follow the path they took to become clear about their life purpose.
But how does this relate to you? And how do you go about
Aligning With Your Purpose?
Since I began looking into what is for me the BIG QUESTION OF LIFE, I’ve come across many different perceptions and definitions of Life Purpose. There are those who believe we each have a unique purpose to fulfill in our lifetime, and that it is our duty to find it and follow it.
Others are happy to stick to a simpler concept and follow the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” However you understand Life Purpose is just fine, but what if you’re not sure? How do you tell what your purpose is, how do you know? This is probably the most common question I hear about the subject!
Here are Some Clues That You ARE Aligned With Your Purpose:
You jump out of bed in the mornings!
You love your job or your business, you feel valued and appreciated!
You are “in the flow”, full of joy that you are making a significant contribution to life!
You face life’s challenges with calm and equanimity.
You feel grateful for everything you have in your life.
You have a sense of personal fulfillment.
You feel a deep sense of spiritual connection with the universe.
If this does NOT describe how you feel about your life, then I invite you to join us as we journey along the path to:
On Monday April 1 I will be interviewed by Aline Boundy on her Telesummit Series “Real Lives.” This is a great new telesummit series focused on illuminating the back story, or the REAL story of REAL people’s paths to success. See below for your free registration.
Consider the definition of success as “Getting up one more time than you get knocked down.” There’s a lot of truth to this! Because we so often hear the polished or glossed over version of someone’s life story, it can be hard to appreciate the challenges, determination, luck, preparation, practice, and synchronicity that are at play in most stories of success. Bringing life to this back story is the purpose of the “Real Lives” Telesummit.
In this issue of Major Good Mojo we look a little closer at the problem with some of those inspirational “Rags to Riches” stories. How are they applicable to the less sensational, more typical, average life – like the one most people are living?
Read on and enjoy!
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR “Real Lives” Telesummit with me and Aline Boundy
The Problem With Rags To Riches
We’ve all heard the Rags-to-Riches stories of people rising to amazing levels of success from incredibly challenging places: bankruptcy, homelessness, drug addiction, depression, disease, and hardships of all kinds. These can be very inspiring. However, there is an element to these stories that is rarely appreciated: when life sucks that bad, there is an incredible amount of motivation to do just about anything to get out of it! People in these situations have nothing to lose and to not change could mean death (or at least significant ongoing suffering). This unusually high level of motivation causes them to do things they never would have done.
Unfortunately, a lot of these “Rags-to-Riches people” tell us their stories in this context:
“If I can come all the way from THERE (incredible challenge and suffering) to here (a level of success)…. then you can certainly come to HERE from where you are (because you are not nearly as bad off as I was), and I will show you how!”
Now, as logical as that may sound, it’s not exactly true. The problem with this for the average person is that, unlike those who were forced to initiate their change from the bottom of the pit, we, as much as we may want to change, are pretty damn comfortable where we are. AND we have something to lose. Because of this, we do not have access to the same level of energy and motivation that they had from their suffering. Pain and suffering are VERY motivational. And since we actually do have something to lose, our risk is higher. These two things are rarely, if ever, recognized.
In the Rags-to-Riches transformation, the literal physical deprivation (“I didn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of”) is extremely motivating. The challenge today is that we have five pots to piss in and ten windows to throw them out of! My point is: finding your purpose at this time in history – when the standard of living is at an all time high for the largest number of people ever – is MORE challenging. We are less motivated because it is pretty easy for us to just “plod along” in our day-to-day lives doing the same habitual things over and over again. Our pain level is not dramatic enough to propel us to change. This is what I call “Dead Man Walking.” You’re not alive in any real sense of the word, but you’re just too damn comfortable to do anything about it. That is until you aren’t. And there’s the rub.
In addition, our comfortable situation itself can intensify this mental/emotional suffering; because while you may have everything you need to be comfortable, you still aren’t happy! That’s a bit of a mind-f*ck (please excuse the word, but strong language is required) because you think you should be happy given all that you have, but you aren’t, so what’s wrong with you?
On top of that, it looks to you like everyone else out there is happy. They may simply be putting on their to-the-world-happy-face, but this leads to depressing questions of comparison like, “How come they’re happy and I’m not? And “What do they have that I don’t?” Do they have a bigger house, nicer car, better job, more education, more loving spouse and family, etc.??? Chances are they really aren’t happy, either. But you’d never know that unless you were able to dig down and see inside the reality of their life. Just like somebody would never know that YOU aren’t really happy (unless they got two martinis in you and were willing to really listen to how your life ACTUALLY is).
So, bottom line: it IS a bit more challenging to really step out into new ways of living and being, because for a large majority of us we’re just “comfortably uncomfortable.” It seems like there is too much to risk. But the truth is, there is far too much to risk by not consciously choosing and stepping into your most authentic life – literally YOUR LIFE is at risk.
“Those who seem to be most alive, most in touch with life and their own creative powers, are individuals who are demonstrating what it means to live on the edge of their own potential. They may be musicians, artists, writers, politicians, engineers, scientists, philosophers, or mystics. Living on our edge is really, really important, especially if we don’t want to live a life only half-lived—a life lost in mediocrity, ambiguity, and existential confusion. In the way that I see it, the full glory of what it means to be alive only begins to reveal itself when we are actually on that edge. That’s when we are truly alive—consciously alive, creatively alive. When we push towards that edge in ourselves, we allow Spirit’s true face, the creative force in the universe, which I call the evolutionary impulse, to reveal itself right now through you and through me.” —Andrew Cohen
Realizing and affirming your choice to live authentically and freely is the first step into joyous, delicious, juicy living. Into your Major Good Mojo.
Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:
If you desire to live joyously, with deep passion, excitement, and love, rather than numbed-out living for shallowly pleasurable moments, repeat right now after me, “I choose to consciously engage my Hero’s Journey.” Go ahead, say it out loud: “I choose to consciously engage my Hero’s Journey.”
Thank you. Now say this: “The suffering of not living is far greater than the suffering of truly living. I choose to truly live.”Go ahead, say it out loud: “The suffering of not living is far greater than the suffering of truly living. I choose to truly live.” Nicely done. It may feel a bit scary, but doesn’t if feel “good-scary”?
Congratulations – you’re one step closer to your Major Good Mojo!
Spring is in the air. Don’t you love to see the trees beginning to bloom and sense the weather beginning to warm? It feels good, doesn’t it? Well, at least this is the case in California – those of you in colder climates may have to wait a little longer.
This past week I attended the Wisdom 2.0 Conference in San Francisco. What an amazing and wonderful conference. This is a conference about living mindfully, consciously, and heartfully in our high-tech modern day world. It’s wonderful to be surrounded by like-minded souls interested in some aspect of this same objective. There’s Major Good Mojo at that conference!
While the attendees and speakers were hopeful, inspirational and even loving and compassionate, I reflected on why we even have a conference of this nature. Why, because much of the world is not hopeful, inspirational, loving and compassionate. Why is much of the world (and even you and I sometimes) not hopeful, inspirational, loving and compassionate?
Read on and enjoy!
Have you ever noticed the mind automatically focuses on what is bad, wrong, or a threat in your life? It does this because its job is survival, to keep you alive. The default position of the mind is to chaos, is to the negative, is to what’s wrong, scary, and worrisome, because these it interprets as threats to your survival. Running unchecked, this automatic way of seeing the world completely colors your experience in life, with fear at the core and suffering as a result.
Fear is a major indicator of separation from Source and Universal Intelligence. When you are experiencing fear, or even worries and concerns, you are not then experiencing trust, love, and certainly not joy. You are not connected to Source, to the Universal Love and Intelligence that is always flowing and always available.
In our experience, we feel that the fear popping up in our lives is totally justified, totally normal, and usually totally automatic! It’s very sneaky this way. In fact, much of the typical cultural conversation we are exposed to each day is steeped in fear. If you do not inoculate yourself against these energies and influences you can easily become swept up in their persuasion: “Watch out because something bad might happen to you” or even worse, “Watch out because something bad IS going to happen to you.”
When the fear-based message is coming from outside of you, first notice that much of the time the messenger is someone looking for one of three things: attention/fame, power/control, and/or money. These are all relatively immature ego-based needs that simply further perpetuate our separation from Source. When hearing fear-based messages coming from another, reflect on these things and what their true motivations might be.
When the fear-based message is coming from inside you (and ultimately they are all coming from inside you) the key is to be conscious and aware; conscious and aware of the “automatic” thoughts popping up in your head in reaction to your experience in the world.
This is a practice of cultivating consciousness. Awareness of the thoughts in your head – as THOUGHTS… and not necessarily as the reality or “truth” of the world you’re in. The key is to notice your thoughts as they arise in each moment. As you notice them, as you observe them, you then have them rather than them having you! Now you’re in a better position to CHOOSE them – and to choose thoughts that create more joy, love, and fulfillment in your life. More Major Good Mojo! Remember, the job of the mind is NOT happiness and fulfillment, its job is survival.
Now don’t get me wrong, it’s good to have a part of ourselves focused on survival. Thank God for that. However, the truth is, we have already survived. And, in modern life and times, the need for this survival-based mechanism is hugely reduced. This mechanism has us focused on the problems in our life as if they are ALL life-threatening and must be solved before peace, relaxation, and happiness (never mind joy) can be experienced. Well, news flash, there will always be “problems” in your life, and to the extent you allow this mechanism to run unchecked, you will rarely, if ever, experience deep peace, relaxation, and happiness.
You must inoculate yourself against all the fear, worry, and concern in our world today. How do you do this? With spiritual practice. I refer to a practice of connecting yourself to the infinite source of divine wisdom, love, intelligence and guidance which is always available to you in each and every moment. When you send your roots deep into that well of wisdom and live your life from there, the waxing and waning of the fears of the world have hardly any sway over you. You can therefore best serve the world as the beacon of trust, compassion, love, and inspiration that it so sorely needs.
To send your roots deep into your well of wisdom and inoculate yourself against the fears of the world, I invite you to engage The Major Good Mojo System.
Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:
How much do fear, worry, and concern run your life? Over the next two weeks watch to see how often these type of thoughts come into your awareness. Pay attention to what triggers these thoughts and see if you can allow them to pass before coming to any conclusions or taking any action. Ask yourself, “Am I coming from fear or love?” And work to move toward coming from love. Let the fears, worries and concerns melt away and practice consciously choosing your thoughts, staying connected to Source, and keeping the Major Good Mojo flowing!
Congratulations – you’re one step closer to Major Good Mojo!
I’m a busy person. I’m sure you are too. It’s the bane of our existence in this modern world: so much to do and so little time to do it.
As I continue to settle into my new home, I’ve been noticing the powerful draw that “doing something” has on me. My “to-do” list seems never ending and the feeling of overwhelm is easily available. Projects needing doing are constantly making themselves known and niggling away at my awareness.
What is it about doing something that is so seductive and alluring? In this week’s blog let’s take a closer look at doing something and the mysterious power of doing nothing, to see if we can create a bit more freedom, peace and ease around this aspect of our lives.
Read on and enjoy!
The Mysterious Power of Doing Nothing
“On the path of spiritual evolution you do less and less achieving more and more until ultimately you do nothing and achieve everything.”
Deepak Chopra
Getting things done in life is a good thing. We are creative creatures and there is so much to experience in our relatively short lives. However, the drive for doing and accomplishing can be excessive. In the interest of finding a healthy, productive balance, I’d like to point out some of the less healthy (and likely unconscious) drivers of our never ending to-do lists: addiction, fear, and ignorance. Let’s take a look at these one by one.
ADDICTION: Getting things done is so satisfying, isn’t it? You see something needing done and you do it. Ah, the sweet victory of accomplishment. You get to check it off your list. From the very large to the very small, it all feels good, so good it seems we have become addicted.
It’s really no different than any other high; it’s a fleeting moment that must be repeated in order to regenerate the good feeling. The drug wears off and you need another fix. Hence, we’ve become a society of doers getting things done. Socially the behavior is highly encouraged, supported, and even applauded; a full schedule means you are important, you are worthy, you are somebody. While we may secretly yearn for luxuriously lazy days and an open, flexible schedule, we dare not go there. Why? Because we believe anyone with spare time on their hands must be a loser “with nothing to do.” So we are driven, we are addicted.
FEAR: Now let’s look at fear. Parker J. Palmer wrote a fabulous little book called Let Your Life Speak.He outlines a behavior he calls “Functional Atheism.” Palmer described this as a belief that ultimate responsibility for everything rests with us. As he says, “This is the unconscious, unexamined conviction that if anything decent is going to happen, we are the ones who must make it happen. This belief leads us to impose our will on others, stressing our relationships, sometimes to the point of breaking. It often eventuates in burnout, depression, and despair, as we learn that the world will not bend to our will and we become embittered about that fact. It drives collective frenzy as well and explains why the average group can tolerate no more than fifteen seconds of silence: if we are not making noise, we believe, nothing good is happening and something must be dying.”
This is the fear of bad things happening, and it goes something like this: “If we don’t get busy making things happen, then bad things will happen!” The unexamined, fear-based belief underlying and unconsciously driving this behavior is “doing nothing = bad things happening.”
Where did we learn this? That’s right, probably in childhood where if you didn’t clean your room, bad things happened. If you didn’t do your homework, bad things happened. If you didn’t eat all your vegetables, bad things happened. We learned we have to do something to keep bad things from happening. And we continue on with that belief and behavior today.
But is this true? Do we have to beat our hearts? Digest our food? Grow the grass? Make the sun rise each day? Make gravity so we don’t fly off the planet into space? Make the rain fall so we don’t die of thirst? All of these good things happen without our having to do anything. In other words, ladies and gentleman, it is possible that doing nothing = good things happening.
IGNORANCE: And this now leads us to our third driver of the human-doing: ignorance. This is a huge one! Because we are ignorant of the amazing life-force energy that is on our side wanting the best for us, we are all stressed out doing-doing-doing since we believe we are alone in our actions. We are ignorant of the “mysterious powers and secretly decisive influences of existence.” Consider this quote by Sri Aurobindo:
“There has been a great and ordered classification and mechanisation, a great discovery and practical result of increasing knowledge, but only on the physical surface of things. Vast abysses of Truth lie below in which are concealed the real springs, the mysterious powers and secretly decisive influences of existence.”Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo is basically saying that, yes, we have come a long way and lots of helpful knowledge has been developed and helpful things have been created. But all of this discovery and creation is NOTHING compared to the VAST ABYSSES OF TRUTH lying beneath in the metaphysical world. AND – very importantly – that in this vast abyss are the real causes and powers that are determining and creating our existence. It is these mysterious powers about which we know very little. We are ignorant.
Michael Bernard Beckwith puts it this way “Consciousness always precedes form.” Consciousness arises from the vast abyss, and then puts on clothing in the physical world for the duration of its existence, whatever that form may be. If we can really understand this creative process and come to KNOW it to be true, we would spend a lot more time cultivating our sixth sense. More time navigating the vast abysses of truth. More time surfing the winds and waves of those secretly decisive influences of existence.
Cultivating this sixth sense has many aspects to it; it is the essence of personal transformation and spiritual evolution. Becoming a clear channel where “doing nothing” produces results might require emotional healing work, a regular meditation practice, visualization, contemplation, deep reflection, or any number of other transformational practices and processes. In the external world this work of cultivation might look like doing nothing. However, as you walk the path you will come to know, trust and love this mysterious power of doing nothing, doing less and less while achieving more and more.
To develop your partnership with the secretly decisive influences of existence, I invite you to engage The Major Good Mojo System.
Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:
Take five minutes and do nothing. Just sit and notice all the good things happening without you doing a thing. Notice that your body is being breathed, notice that your heart is being beaten, notice that your food is being digested, notice that the grass is being grown, notice that the sun is being shined, and notice that the breeze is being blown. What other good things happening do you notice while you are doing nothing?
Congratulations – you’re one step closer to Major Good Mojo!
I’d love to introduce you to my colleague, Kathy Pescador, who used to change jobs every year and addresses many times a year while she wondered, “What the heck is wrong with me?”
Like you, Kathy was hungry to live to the fullest and allow that to nourish her intellectually, physically, and spiritually. She knew she was self-sabotaging, but didn’t know how to stop it. Most of all, she wanted to bring joy to herself and others.
Then she found the secret.
It’s so simple yet so amazing, she wanted to share it with everyone! So, she put together the Elevate Consciousness Summit featuring these 20 global leaders (my slot is on February 6th) :
Christie Whitman, Craig Meriwether, Blossom Benedict, Joe Rubino, Kimberly McGeorge, Adam King, Laura Silva, Noah St.John, Bernie Siegel, Peggy McColl, Mark Waldman, Alan Seale, Craig Hamilton, Simran Singh, yours truly, and many more...
Imagine if you could change how you view the world in only 5 minutes a day?What if you could rewire your brain after 21 days? What if you could make a life habit out of anything once you understand how to change the neuropathways of your brain?
Register for the Elevate Consciousness Summit for free and you will discover how to do just that. I am thrilled to be involved, and you will hear me on February 6th.
With action steps in every session, we will also answer your questions at the end of each session. We’ll invite you to choose one habit you want to cultivate so you will be transformed, and experience…
*Authentic living *Deliberate happiness *Spiritually charged success *and refreshing freedom
When you awaken to the power within, all hell breaks loose, all joy breaks out, new things come from old things, old things fall away, and life will never be the same.
This past weekend I was leading a portion of the ITP (Integral Transformative Practice) Mastery program at City Aikido in San Francisco. I was talking about the power of affirmations, the theory and philosophy underlying this power, and in particular the two elements of consciousness and transformation.
There are many ways to define consciousness. However, for the purposes of the teaching it was best defined simply as awareness. If something is not conscious, it is unconscious, or un-aware. This definition fits very well for the work I do with ITP as well as with my individual clients, for much of what we are doing on the path of transformation is making the unconscious aspects of ourselves more conscious. Said another way, we are simply becoming aware of that which we were previously unaware.
It has been said that awareness is the first step in any spiritual transformation. Once you become aware of something, you can then begin to work with it. Until then, it’s just running the show without you. Carl Jung said “Until you make what’s unconscious conscious, it will run your life and you will call it destiny.” That’s powerful stuff!
In this week’s blog let’s take a closer look at this mysterious aspect of ourselves, our unconscious, and explore ways we can begin to work with it for our positive transformation.
Read on and enjoy!
“God can do for you, only what God can do through you.”
Michael Bernard Beckwith
If God can only do for you, what God can do through you, what’s limiting God? Well, that’s right, you. But most often it’s a particular part of you: your un or subconscious. Therefore this “work” is most about getting yourself out of the way. This is your self with a small “s”. Life force energy, big “S” Self, wants to flow through you but we tend to block it up with resistance, dis-belief, and fears of all kinds, from large to small. Some of these are conscious, but many are unconscious.
It helps to look at these unconscious parts of ourselves as old commitments that we originally put in place to protect us, back when our mental, emotional, and spiritual capacities were not developed enough to be capable of withstanding some of the circumstances we were experiencing. Hence, we created automatic protection mechanisms to shield us from the pain. And they worked; they kept us alive and safe for the most part.
However, now that we are older, more mature, with much, much larger perspectives on the world, these childhood protection mechanisms typically create more pain than they prevent. We’ve simply outgrown them and it’s time to thank them and let them go. This is the essence of shadow work: discovering, acknowledging, embracing, integrating, and releasing old commitments and old thoughts about ourselves and the world, then creating new ones.
We could call these parts of ourselves Subconscious Limiting Beliefs (SLBs), or Previous Commitments Becoming Conscious (PCBC), because we typically made these decisions about the world and ourselves long ago in our lives. We then reinforced those beliefs over and over again, and kept our commitments with integrity, until they went subconscious and became just the way the world is (for us).
It’s important to note that a belief in and of itself is not limiting, it only becomes limiting when you are inspired to grow beyond it. So you are, on the one hand, inspired to a greater vision of yourself, but on the other you are limited by old beliefs, habits, and patterns. As you might imagine this can be a frustrating and conflicting place to be. But on your Hero’s Path, your path of evolution, this will be a common experience. However, over time, it’s an experience that you’ll eventually be able to powerfully navigate with grace and ease.
There is no one and no thing to transform but yourself.
What we are up to here is no less than the transformation of ourselves from victim to creator. We are freeing ourselves in all areas of our life, even from our own subconscious. It is a huge shift. Access to the world of the creator is through evolving yourself. Evolving yourself means clarifying a vision for your life, then watching yourself very carefully as you step into that vision.
Your unconscious beliefs (and limitations) will make themselves known through your behaviors. You have an opportunity and a moment of choice each time you see yourself doing something out of alignment with your vision. In that moment you are conscious, and in that moment you can make a more authentic choice for your behavior. One that is more aligned with the new vision of your Self.
Taking this moment of choice opportunity over and over again is the path of transformation. This leads you to the next and newest you – the one you desire to become!
To get a sense of how much your unconscious may be limiting you, and limiting what God can do for you, ask yourself the following questions:
How free am I? In all areas of my life.
How joyful am I?
How loving am I?
How much love do I experience each day?
How peaceful am I in my life?
How present, in each moment, am I?
How much awe and beauty do I experience each day?
Am I fulfilling the highest vision of my life?
Your transformational opportunity is to become that stillpoint at the center of all creation, with complete and total freedom to move in any truly authentic and Source-inspired direction. When you are fully connected to this aspect of yourself, with no intervening unconscious beliefs, naturally flowing through you will be deep levels of joy, peace, presence, and the needed power to fulfill your highest and most authentic life path.
Get your unconscious out of the driver’s seat!
Congratulations – you’re one step closer to Major Good Mojo!
Stuff. Most of us have a lot. We think we are blessed, and indeed we are. However, the more you have, the more you have to care for, think about, manage, maintain, move around, worry about, etc., etc. In other words, you can become possessed by your possessions!
For many, the holiday season can become a season of consumerism with too much focus going towards what is being given and gotten. If you’re like me, you already have enough stuff, and getting more is more a burden than a blessing! Too much stuff can create more stress than joy in your life.
Last week I moved to a new, larger home and was faced with the challenge of moving all my stuff. I’m sure you have encountered this challenge. For me, moving is always an opportunity to take stock of what I have and “clear out the crap.” At its core this is a letting go process that takes real courage; all kinds of feelings can come up when sorting through your stuff. Each and every item was purchased, received, or created at a particular time for a particular reason and purpose. To let something go you must suffer a little death of that thing dying – whatever it is – as you release it from your life. If you can navigate that little death, wonderful lightness and freedom is found on the other side.
In today’s world there are so many ways to enjoy the benefits of something without the burden of ownership. For example, I have always wanted to drive an expensive sports car. In this week’s Major Good Mojo Moment, you can take a ride with me in a $260,000, 480 horsepower red convertible Ferrari Spider! We’ll take three spins around a test track in the parking lot of San Francisco’s Candlestick Park (home of the San Francisco Forty Niners), at speeds up to 100 MPH! For a reasonable fee I was able to experience the essence of this exotic car and drive it really fast on a closed course with no worry of getting a speeding ticket. And I did not have to deal with any of its care and maintenance. This was a very high benefit to cost ratio and I wasn’t possessed by it at all!
What’s behind our drive to keep buying things? Why do so many people have so much stuff that they can’t even fit their cars into their two-car garage?
Read on and enjoy!
Do You Have Too Much Stuff?
So far, it appears our time here on this planet has been about getting things, controlling things, and having pleasurable experiences. Why? I propose it’s because we are empty inside and we are afraid. That may be a bold statement and perhaps a bitter pill to swallow, and yet, our commitment to full self-expression (and deep joy, peace, and satisfaction) demands we take a closer look. Accumulating stuff stems from our drive for survival, but leaves us exhausted and ultimately dissatisfied. We are constantly running on a treadmill.
And the truth is, getting things, controlling things, and having pleasurable experiences are all transient. All of these things come and go, and are outside of you: relationships, possessions, jobs, money, etc. And when things “go,” what are you left with? YOU! Eventually, like the 60 billion that have come and gone before you, all things will be gone, all control will be gone, and all experiences will be over.
Consider that many of us are living in fear afraid that if we don’t “stock up” and have everything under control, then bad things will happen. Certainly bad things do happen, and sometimes even to good people, right? And if we don’t watch out, we might be next. That’s fear talking – a fear that is at the core of the human experience right now. This fear drives a collective frenzy and sense of dissatisfaction. This is a life based on survival, speckled with moments of pleasure here and there, to make it more bearable.
Where does this fear come from and how is it so many of us are run by it? To be alive as a human being here in the 21st century is to be inundated with messages about how you should live, about what you should be/do/have/believe/and experience. We are constantly barraged by manipulative messages written and concocted by others interested in getting your time, attention, and money … by others living in fear trying to get things, control things, and have pleasurable experiences.
You may think you are thinking for yourself, but you’re actually only responding to a long-standing propaganda machine perpetuating a social hypnosis of the worst kind. It’s mostly fear-based and needs you to stay that way for its own survival. No other human being before us has suffered such a constant barrage of brainwashing messages. It’s practically impossible to avoid – have you ever caught yourself singing the jingle to some commercial selling a product you couldn’t give a damn about?! (Where I live it seems mattresses are ALWAYS on sale! – it seems I can’t escape the ads for Sleep Train, Mattress Discounters, and Mancini’s Sleep World!) It’s literally drilled into our heads, on both a conscious and subconscious level!
It’s important to note that it’s not the amount of nor the means by which information coming at us. No, it’s far more to do with the content of the messages. For the most part the media is either entertaining us with mind-numbing bullsh*t OR putting us into a state of fear: “Watch out” because “this might happen to you.” We ping-pong between states of distracted drama, the pursuit of pleasure, and the avoidance of fear-based worries. This is no way to live, yet this is the state our typical cultural conversation and our media will put you in, BECAUSE YOU PAY THEM FOR IT. You pay them with your time, your attention, your energy, and your money.
It takes a conscious, proactive decision to shift your time, attention, energy and your money, and focus it solely on what you truly desire to create and experience.
Commercials are constantly selling you messages that your life could be better and that others are enjoying life more than you; this can drive you to buy those things in hope of achieving some promised fulfillment. However, the joy is short lived, the purchase soon becomes a burden, and off we go looking for the next holy grail of happiness and fulfillment.
A major evolutionary opportunity of our time is the realization that material acquisition and consumption does not result in deep joy, peace, and satisfaction. When you look closely, you’ll see that these intangibles are what we are trying to find – what we are trying to buy. What we’re missing isn’t “out there,” it is inside. As a society we’ve thoroughly tested (and disproved!) the “happiness can be bought” hypothesis, and yet we keep on trying, and buying, and buying, and buying. Consumerism is just another form of addiction with the drug being stuff we think we need. We all know the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. But it appears that won’t stop us from trying!
It’s time to wake up and break out of this cycle of insanity. It’s time to move on and evolve! It’s time to trust something larger and come to know that deep inside each and every one of us is a “Divinely Inspired Being” whose capacity for fulfillment goes far beyond simple happiness to deep joy, peace, and total life satisfaction. In partnership with our unique essence of the Divine, the pursuit of happiness becomes the actual experience of happiness. This is the journey of a lifetime. This is the journey of our time.
To establish your connection to your deepest source, and to create your own authentic practice for maintaining that connection, I invite you to engage The Major Good Mojo System.
Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:
To what extent has your life been about getting things, controlling things, and having pleasurable experiences?
Pick an area of your life that could use some cleaning up and clearing out. Where have you accumulated too much stuff that is now more a burden than a blessing? Go into that area of your life and pick up into your hands the various objects, materials, and items in question.
As you pick up each item ask yourself “Do I love this item? Does it bring me joy, inspiration, and good energy? Or does it feel more like a burden, a drag, or like something I “should” keep around? You will almost always immediately know which camp an item falls into.
If you love an item and it does bring you joy, inspiration and good energy then keep it. If not, then choose to sell it, give it away /donate it, recycle it, or trash it. Watch out though, for your mind may speak up after you’ve decided an item is a burden and is ready for release. It may chime in with all kinds of reasons why you should continue to keep it (even though you haven’t touched it for years!). Just notice that these “reasons” are usually based in fears, worries, and concerns. Just thank your mind for sharing and move into the good energy that is waiting for you as you release these burdens that are truly ready to go!
Congratulations – you’re one step closer to Major Good Mojo!
Can you believe it! The long prophesized day is here! 12-21-12. Can you feel the energy expanding and contracting at greater rates than ever before? The Silent Pulse of the Universe is speeding up. There is definitely an energetic shift taking place on the planet.
With the energy picking up speed so intensely, what we need to do now, more than ever before, is drive our roots deep into the field. Getting yourself firmly connected to your deepest energies will allow you to hold the expanding energies and consciousness that is coming through to you now. As one of my teachers George Leonard is famous for saying “A balanced and centered posture leads to a balanced and centered life.” We must get more balanced and centered, and grounded, than ever before!
And, for a truly spectacular Global Event and a profound opportunity to get tuned in and turned on this auspicious day of 12/21/12, I highly recommend connecting into the free livestream Birth 2012: Empowering the Movement to Birth a New Era. Check out the calendar of events here – http://birth2012.com/birth-2012-broadcast-schedule/ I’ll be there in the field with you!
In this blog we’ll explore how important it is to get connected to the deeper aspects of ourselves during these dramatic and highly energized times.
Read on and enjoy!
“There has been a great and ordered classification and mechanisation, a great discovery and practical result of increasing knowledge, but only on the physical surface of things. Vast abysses of Truth lie below in which are concealed the real springs, the mysterious powers and secretly decisive influences of existence.”
– Sri Aurobindo
Just as everything in nature has a built-in, inherent blueprint deep within itself guiding its unfolding, so does each and every human being. If we are going to get divine wisdom into the bottom line results of our life and onto this planet, we must get connected to our own unique energetic blueprint and divine wisdom. This is where we can access, express, and live the best we have to offer. From this deep energetic source flow the highest levels of integrity, inspiration, courage, love, peace, compassion, and wisdom of which we are capable.
From this divine connection flows a divine cascade: divine feelings lead to divine thoughts, which lead to divine actions, which lead to divine results, results that produce the highest and best outcomes for all concerned. Our challenges lie in two areas: First, the sad truth is that our default state is disconnection and second, that state of connection must be cultivated, and takes effort.
There are many ways to establish this connection. One of my chosen paths for connection is called Integral Transformative Practice. Check out www.ITP-International.org for more information on this incredible practice for getting tuned in and turned on. This practice was co-created by George Leonard and Michael Murphy – both long time leaders in the human potential movement.
“Though all the information in the universe is ultimately available ‘in’ each of us, the amount of it we can encode and express – a tiny amount, indeed – is limited by our particular history, culture, language, and nervous system. For now, it is enough to say that we are completely, firmly, absolutely connected with all of existence, and that the next evolutionary step will involve, at the least, our realizing that connection.”
George Leonard, The Silent Pulse
In my new video on the MajorGoodMojo Channel on YouTube I talk about this connection and how it is missing – at least in any conscious, intentional way – in so much of life. I created this video for the Wisdom 2.0 Conference coming up in San Francisco in February. I am proposing to lead a workshop to explore how we can get connected to Divine Source energy and intelligence, and that coming from that place is the key to creating the changes we all want to see on this planet.
We cannot “think” our way into solutions, we must deeply feel the solutions into existence. We are evolving beyond thinking alone, such that our thinking will be guided by a far deeper wisdom – a wisdom that cannot be taught, but must be accessed.
To establish your connection to your deepest source, and to create your own authentic practice for maintaining that connection, I invite you to engage The Major Good Mojo System.
Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:
Sit comfortably with your feet flat on the floor and your hands resting on your thighs. Take a few deep belly breaths and feel your abdomen expanding. Release your breath fully on each exhale and allow your body to relax more and more each time. Close your eyes gently (after reading this and as you do so, imagine a beam of energy coming up toward you from the center of the earth. Imagine this beam of energy entering your body through the bottom of your spine and anchoring in your heart area.
Next, imagine a beam of energy coming down through the top of your head from the center of the galaxy. Anchor this beam of energy also in your heart. Now, while maintaining your energetic connection to the earth’s core and to the center of the galaxy, imagine gently radiating loving, light-filled energy out horizontally from your heart center in a full 360 degrees.
Breathe deeply and settle into this energetic state of awareness where you are grounded to earth, connected to heaven, and radiating your light here on the earth plane in service to others.
Congratulations – you’re one step closer to Major Good Mojo!
Not every day is blue sky and sunshine. Clouds move in, sometimes really dark ones. Life is dynamic and we’re all in practice. Are you afraid of dark clouds? Do you pretend they’re not there? Do you look away? Do you go out of your way to avoid them – maybe staying inside, closing all the doors and windows, and turning on all the lights? Life is to be lived, not avoided, and lived well you will engage some dark clouds.
I once had the feeling my life was like a big jet liner slowly losing altitude on a crash course with the mountains. There I was on this jet that was “going down” and I was doing all I could to relax, to feel good, to go with the flow, to release, etc. I was doing everything I knew to transform my experience, I knew all the tricks in the book, but nothing was working. The jet was on a crash course and there was nothing I could do about it.
What was I really afraid of? What was I trying to avoid?
In this blog we’ll explore how what we think we are afraid of really isn’t what we are afraid of. It’s something else.
Read on and enjoy!
Your Biggest Fear is Not What You Think
“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” Marcus Aurelius
It was a terrifying feeling, that my life was a jet liner on a crash course deep in the mountains. It was made worse by the fact I am supposed to be an inspiring teacher with my life “all together.” However, as this jet was dropping, I realized I am not the teacher that denies life can be difficult and pretends that challenging moments and times don’t exist. What I do teach is allowing and trusting, being there and being present. Being strong in your weakest moments by being weak, by being scared, by not knowing, and by just allowing.
Striving to escape the terrifying experience and feelings of impending doom is just old fear-based need for control. When we are afraid, we hate it, so we try to escape by gaining control. The fact we are afraid is a RED FLAG indicating an opportunity for transformation. The extent to which you can ALLOW and BE WITH the fear in the challenging times of your life is the extent to which you will powerfully move through these times. In a paradoxical kind of way, this is being weak in a powerful way.
If you are up to creating anything in your life that is truly challenging, for example your true life’s purpose and mission, you will face ups AND downs. There will be numerous challenges and some dark clouds on the path. Your ability to ALLOW and BE WITH yourself in the midst of these challenges, or down times, just may be THE most important and powerful life skill you can develop.
Here’s the key: It’s not the “thing out there” you are afraid of, you are actually afraid of YOUR RESPONSE TO THAT THING. This is important. You are afraid that you won’t be able to handle YOUR EXPERIENCE of that thing happening. The good news is that while you may not have control over what happens “out there” to you, YOU DEFINITELY HAVE CONTROL OVER YOUR RESPONSE AND HOW YOU EXPERIENCE IT.
The bottom line is: You will have times of weakness and fear, but don’t let them have YOU. Empower yourself and instead of fighting, resisting, or avoiding, choose to let them TOTALLY HAVE YOU. Choose to let them pass on through. It’s still scary, it’s still challenging, you will still want to escape it and change it, but there is a part of you that lives on a higher plane of awareness (especially after having read this!), that knows “this too shall pass.” The river of life is always flowing, the scenery constantly changing, whether you’re paddling or not! It’s a practice that gets easier each time; you become aware of those challenging moments of fear, and you can recognize and allow them.
And guess what? Somehow the jet magically got fixed, right in mid air. I took my seat in first class, knowing with confidence once again that all was well and I was right on course.
As human beings we love the excitement of varied and challenging experiences; few of us would be satisfied with a boring, simple life that involves none of the pain involved in growing. We may think that what we want is to avoid challenges, pain, and suffering, but what we actually want is the POWER TO BE WITH whatever may come, including great challenge, pain, and suffering.
Take a look for yourself right now. What do you REALLY want—no pain, suffering, or challenge? Or the power to be with whatever may come? Connect with your heart and look deeply. Which position resonates as the more powerful place to be? What resonates as a life well lived? What resonates more as the truth of the path rather than a hopeful fantasy?
I think if you allow yourself to look deeply, what you’ll discover is that what we want is to be the container within which these experiences can be held, to be big enough to allow and experience them, without shrinking away. The larger opportunity – and dare I say it, the reality of the path – is to embrace and allow, so that when they do show up (and they will), you can have the experience, rather than it having you. This is true freedom, and with true freedom comes true power.
To build your muscles to be with ALL the feelings and experiences of your life, no matter what, I invite you to engage The Major Good Mojo System.
Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:
Look into your life and make a list of the things you are afraid of. You can look at anything you may be putting off or procrastinating doing. These are signs of fear lurking in the background. Why are you putting off this something? What are you afraid of? Make your list.
Once you have your list, look at each item and ask yourself “Am I really afraid of this bad thing happening? Or am I more afraid that I can’t and won’t be able to handle it if it does happen? If I knew that I could handle this bad thing if it happened, would that decrease my fear of it happening?
Notice what you notice.
Congratulations – you’re one step closer to Major Good Mojo!
The above picture of me was taken IN THE FIELD of the Teotihuacan pyramid complex one hour north of Mexico City. On this pilgrimage to the site, our objective was to steep ourselves in the energetic fields of the complex. We were to sense into this place of great history and feel its messages for us. The guidance was not to “look at” the place, but rather to “be in” the place.
We were challenged to set aside our familiar tourist tendencies of snapping photos, reading signs, buying souvenirs, and listening to the nearby tour guides. Instead the goal was to remain totally focused in each moment, fully present, open and aware to the more subtle aspects available at this sacred and profound site.
Thanks to excellent group facilitation and each individual’s commitment to the process, over the course of a week we explored our depths and allowed the energy of Teotihuacan to have its way with us. We laughed, cried, walked, ran, jumped, crawled, danced, and hugged – indeed we may have been the weird “new-agers” doing some crazy things. However, through all of this there flowed an amazing energy and presence, working its magic on all of us, bestowing its gifts, answering our questions, and showing us the way.
This “field” of energy we experience at magical places like Teotihuacan is actually all around us, everywhere, all the time. What is it? How does it work? How can you tap in? In this blog we’ll dive into those questions and explore some answers!
Read on and enjoy!
“Human beings and all living things are a coalescence of energy in a field of energy connected to every other thing in the world.” Lynn McTaggart – The Field.
Read that quote again. Do you believe it? Does it feel true to you? If so how do you know? What is your experience of this energetic field? These are important questions if we are to move into a conscious relationship with this energetic field. Even though it is in and through all things, including us, without our tangible, conscious experience of it, what difference will it make for us?
We look at the world and see a world of separate objects. “I am here, and everything else is over there, separate from me.” It sure looks this way, doesn’t it? However, what scientists have been discovering is that this separation between things is an illusion. Everything is actually connected at a very deep and profound level. As Lynn states, “There is no me and not-me duality to our bodies in relation to the universe, but one underlying field. This field is responsible for our mind’s highest functions, the information source guiding the growth of our bodies. It is our brain, our heart, our memory – indeed, a blueprint of the world for all time.”
An emerging theory is that consciousness is not something that arises from inside us, but rather from OUTSIDE us – it is the field we are swimming in. In research labs with magnetic resonance imaging technology scientists can correlate various brain functions with various reported emotional or physical experiences. In the scientific, materialist model, a researcher would conclude that brain states are causing the emotional/physical states and that the brain is the source of the person’s experience. However, we don’t actually know that to be true. All we can say is there is a correlation between areas of the brain that “light up” and the reported experiences of the research subjects.
Another possible model holds that the brain operates more like a filter, with a much broader range of possible energies and input. In other words, the brain is not the source of input; it is simply a filter. Think of your television set. If you were to look only at the TV you’d see a bunch of images being projected on the screen and you could naturally conclude that the TV itself is the source of these images. We know that is not the case! The TV set is simply a filter of the myriad signals coming from outside and beyond it. Imagine if this is in fact how our brains and bodies work; that we are simply tuning devices, or channels, for a far larger energy and information field. Whoa! What channel are you tuned in to?
On a path of personal evolution and spiritual transformation, you may come to know and experience this universal truth: you are an integral part of an infinitely larger field of energy and information. This is a HUGE paradigm shift not only for you as an individual, but for humanity as a whole. As we come to realize we are all connected, the health of every single one of us becomes personally relevant to us all.
This energetic field is the source of life. It is the same field that is beating your heart, digesting your food, growing your hair, breathing your body, and doing all the other billions of things needed for you to exist as the human being that you are. This is an absolute miracle!
To get more connected to your energetic field of life I invite you to engage The Major Good Mojo System.
Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:
This life force energy is on your side; it wants you to live and thrive. You can know this is true by the fact your heart continues beating. Take this deep trust you have in your heartbeat, and move it out further into your world. Start to relax a bit more and settle into this field and you will begin to connect with it. The more you hear and follow its guidance, the more magical your life will become!
Try this short visual exercise: Sit quietly in front of a favorite flower, such as a rose or a lily, in a vase, just before you on a table. Get quiet, still and center yourself. Study the flower quietly. Take in its lovely shape, its color, its perfect beauty. Feel its essence, its energy of peace and joy. Now feel that energy filling your body; let it flow through you from the top of your head to the bottoms of your feet, filling you and overflowing. See if you can feel at one with the flower. The more you do this, the more you will feel the connection.
Congratulations – you’re one step closer to Major Good Mojo!
"I was looking to work one-on-one with someone on a path I could resonate with. I especially needed tools and materials focused on the most important parts of my life – my heart and passion for living. I was poised for a transformational shift and wanted a personal connection to help facilitate, witness, and validate my journey. I should have put my seat belt on! When I came across Roger’s book, met him, and learned of everything he had to offer, I signed up for it all and am glad I did.
Working with Roger in all the arenas from coaching, to HeartMath, to The Passion Test, to author and teacher was a dream come true. Every aspect complimented the other and overlapped and integrated everything.
Immediately I witnessed the synergistic effect of joining with another who supports your highest vision. I felt more focused and noticed new opportunities presenting themselves in my life. Most importantly, I felt the courage to take action and follow through. As I worked with Roger I experienced amazing synchronicities and was alert and open to possibilities I would have otherwise been blind to, or too “tired” or “uninspired,” to take action on.
At one point I was very concerned about a problem I had been avoiding for a long time. I was very stuck, but on a call with Roger I had a moment of clarity and at his suggestion to take a small action step NOW, I made a call that led to a chain of events that unfolded amazingly and far exceeded any hopes or dreams I may have had for resolution. It even opened new doors supporting my passions and led me to discover latent talents and expertise I previously had little awareness of or no confidence in. It changed my life.
The work I did with Roger continues to be a rich resource that nourishes and inspires my dreams, my passions, and my vision. I am consistently reminded of what is most central, important and valuable in my life, and when I get distracted, confused, or overwhelmed, I have an anchor to come back to.
The experience was challenging, joyful, purposeful, fruitful and rewarding. I encourage anyone who feels the inner call of transformation, personal growth, and positive shift to work with Roger. I would be happy to share more of my experiences with anyone considering working with him. It IS beyond belief!" — John McElyea, Palo Alto, CA
This past weekend I was leading a portion of the ITP (Integral Transformative Practice) Mastery program at City Aikido in San Francisco. I was talking about the power of affirmations, the theory and philosophy underlying this power, and in particular the two elements of consciousness and transformation.
and as you do so, imagine a beam of energy coming up toward you from the center of the earth. Imagine this beam of energy entering your body through the bottom of your spine and anchoring in your heart area. 
