Tag Archives: consciousness

Free Telesummit – Monday April 1st – “Align With Your Purpose” series!

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

 Discover How Successful People Have Got to the Point Where They Live Their Dream Life!

And you can too!

 SIGN UP HERE


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:

 Align With Your Purpose.

See you there! SIGN UP HERE

 

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The Mysterious Power of Doing Nothing

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

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!

 

 

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Is Your Unconscious in the Driver’s Seat?

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

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 step into the next and newest you I invite you to engage The Major Good Mojo System.

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

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!

 

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Experience the Magical Energy Field Around Us!

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

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!

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How Deep Are Your Roots?

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

The picture above is a Samadhi brand Floatation Tank, also known as a sensory deprivation tank. While I have been meditating for many years, I have just begun exploring this world of “floating” as it’s called. My first two floats have been amazing!

In the tank there is 10 inches of water with 800 lbs. (yes, that’s right 800 pounds!) of Epsom salt dissolved in it. When you lie back you float like a cork. The sensation, or lack of it I should say, is surprising and very unique; you lose track of where your body ends and the water begins. You float in total darkness, and noise from the outside does not reach you. The outside world is gone, and amazing things happen.

The idea behind floating is to remove the stresses our mind and body must deal with each and every moment: sights, sounds, pressures on the body, and even the effect of gravity. The mind is kept very busy constantly processing and managing all of this input and stress. When you remove all of this, the mind and body are more free to do other things, for example, thinking clearly and deeply, without distraction, about high priority, important things. Or not thinking at all, and moving into a blissfully quiet, other-worldly state. During the experience, the brain pumps out dopamine and endorphins, and your body gets to rest, de-stress, and heal. It literally is the most relaxing thing I’ve ever experienced.

In this week’s blog, we explore the importance of “Having Deep Roots.” Deep roots into the source of your being, into the source of life, into the core of your nature. In each and every moment you are sustained by a life force energy that is beating your heart and breathing your body. With conscious intention and practice, we can create a powerful partnership with this loving, generous, life force. We can move and create with this life force in our lives in ways unimaginable without that connection.

Read on and enjoy!

All spiritual practices have at their core one purpose: to connect you with the Divine. In fact, the original definition, or root of the word religion, is to re-ligament, or re-connect. This is what a “religious experience” is, an experience of reconnecting to the one and all, the source of life. However, because these profound and life-changing religious experiences are relatively infrequent, we have “practices” we can engage which help connect us, or re-ligament us, to our Divine Nature. Floating in a Samadhi tank is one such practice.

Everything you experience while floating comes from within yourself; it’s the perfect time to reflect on your life. Reports of creative and personal insights abound. In fact, while floating, I crafted the majority of this blog! It was quite easy to get clear about what was going to be in, and what was definitely out. Up until that point, I was not sure. This kind of clarity and clear insight comes from having deep roots. Deep roots into the Infinite Intelligence which KNOWS your next Divine Right Action. It’s just a matter of quieting down all the distractions, opening up, and deeply listening.

One could say this is an aspect of intuition, and I would agree. One definition of intuition is: the appearance in the mind of accurate information about the external world, which can be shown to have come not through the five senses, nor through a rearrangement of stored memory contents. When in a SENSORY deprivation tank, the clarity, knowing, and insights are not coming from “the external world.”

Another aspect of having deep roots is synchronicity. The deeper your roots, the more synchronicity you will experience. Synchronicity is the occurrence of two or more independent events having no apparent causal connection, but which seem to form a meaningful pattern. For example, I have recently been reading more and more writings of Buckminster Fuller. When I went to the floatation tank center, sitting there in the waiting room on the coffee table with only three other books – the same three that were there the week before when I was there – was a new book, Buckminster Fuller’s Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, as if to say, “Here, you need to read this book too!” I got the message, and smiled knowingly.

In his book, Critical Path, written only a few years before his death and therefore representing his lifetime of knowledge and experience, Buckminster Fuller said, “…human continuance now depends entirely upon the intuitive wisdom of each and every individual.” It was this book, out of hundreds and hundreds, which came off the shelf and into my awareness last June while on my Spirit Quest. Another synchronicity. I nod and say, “Thank you.”

Life is far too complex to think it all out on your own. Everything, literally everything, is interconnected. You cannot isolate anything.  As soon as you draw a boundary around something so you can focus on it and learn something, you have disconnected it from everything else. You are therefore no longer studying and learning about that thing, whatever it may be, as it actually exists in the world – connected to everything else! The key is to get connected yourself, to establish your own deep roots into the ONENESS and interconnection of ALL things. Only from that place can you truly operate freely and with that sense of knowing that does not come through the five senses nor through a rearrangement of stored memory contents.

Just as everything in nature has a built-in, inherent blueprint deep within itself guiding its unfolding, so do you! So does each and every human being, and humanity as a whole. It is from this energetic Source, or Divine Blueprint, deep within you, that you can access, express, and live the best that you have to offer. It is from this deep energetic Source that your highest levels of Integrity, Inspiration, Courage, Love, Peace, Compassion, and Wisdom flow – effortlessly! When you are truly tapped into your unique aspect of this Divine Energy, into your own Divine Blueprint, there is a Divine Right Knowing that emerges for you. It inspires and guides your own Divine Right Action that results in Divine Right Outcomes (the highest and best outcomes for all concerned).

It is to this Divine Connection, Divine Blueprint, and Divine Knowing, Actions, and Outcomes that I am committed to realizing for myself, for you, and for all of humanity. I invite your commitment to this also. Our future just may depend upon it.

If you want support and a clear path to become Divinely Connected and a channel for Source Energy, I invite you to engage The Major Good Mojo System.

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

Ask yourself “How deeply connected am I? How deep are my roots? How free and independently am I operating?” Then look to see what some next steps might be for you to become more deeply connected. Maybe you’ll want to find a floatation tank center near you, or meditate more, or increase your time for reflective writing, or engage the Major Good Mojo System to really take your connection to whole new levels! Whatever it may be, do it now, you and the world will be better for it.

Congratulations you’re one step closer to Major Good Mojo!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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What are you addicted to?

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment


As you  may know, I went on a Vision Quest in the Arizona Desert back in June. In the picture above I am standing on my sacred piece of land upon which the quest took place. I’ve engaged several such events in my life, as perhaps you have. Although they are not easy, I have found each one very rewarding and worth the challenge.

One of the biggest challenges of a typical Vision Quest is giving up what you think you need. On a Vision Quest you give up food: fasting for at least a day and as many as four. You give up comfort; you are sleeping outside on the ground with just the very basics. You give up entertainment: no cell phones, newspapers, TV, internet, or books. There is just the sound of the wind and the stars in the sky to entertain you. You give up companionship; a Vision Quest is done solo. You are alone and isolated (at least from people). And you give up safety; it is just you alone out there with the wild beasts, creatures, and creepy crawlies of the night.

One of the major breakthroughs on a Vision Quest is this discovery: you don’t need these things as much as you THINK you do! The key word here is THINK. If that THINKING is not challenged, it tends to go on running our lives… for better or worse. What you can learn on a Vision Quest, by challenging your BELIEFs, is that you are whole and complete, safe and empowered, inspired and cared for, with far less stuff than you think you need. With this new knowing comes peace, true freedom, and your authentic power of choice. These are things worth “Questing” for.

In many ways what we are talking about here is addictions, things we think we need, or have to do, or can’t live without. What are you addicted to? What is running your life? In this week’s Major Good Mojo blog we explore the nature of addiction, what’s underlying the drive, and offer some keys to restoring your authentic power and true freedom of choice.

What Are You Addicted To?

Ad-dict: from the Latin addicere, to give assent. 1) to give oneself up to a strong habit, 2) to make become addicted; addiction.

When we think of “addiction,” we typically think of the people who are abusing drugs, i.e. the drug addict. However, in reality, addiction is a far more prevalent and widespread challenge. Look carefully at the definition of addict above. To be addicted, you only have to give yourself up to, or over to, a strong habit. Drugs are just ONE of the habits we humans can give ourselves up to.

The problem with addiction lies in this notion of “giving oneSELF up” to something. You are literally giving up to and giving your POWER over to, something that is apparently “more powerful” than you. In this manner, the addict makes himself or herself powerless. Ouch! Every time you engage your habit in this manner as an addict, you reinforce your powerlessness and weaken your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies. This is the pain, and this is the loss, experienced by an addict.

So what are you addicted to? How about Starbucks? Are you one of those millions of people who “can’t start your day” without your morning cup of Joe. Really? You CAN’T start your day? Notice the powerlessness in this statement and the giving over of one’s power. You feel you “have no choice, you have to do this.” These are the words of an addict. Whether addicts consciously realize it or not, they are suffering because of it. A small (and sometimes large) part of themselves dies every time they engage their addiction.

How about TV? Gaming? Alcohol? Shopping? The Internet? Or email? Oh, there’s one for the masses: email (or put in texting for the younger crowd). I recently heard on the radio an announcer say “Studies show that decreasing time on email can significantly improve productivity, but changing that habit is very challenging because it is an ADDICTION.” People feel powerless. Can you relate?

Even so called “good habits” can become detrimental addictions if we become powerless in our choice to engage them or not. Take, for example, work. You’re called a work-a-holic if you’re addicted to work. What starts out as a good thing – being productive, serving others, and doing a good job – becomes detrimental when you lose your freedom of choice. People in this boat will say things like “I have to work late, I have no choice.” They are affirming they are powerless. We can put exercise, sleep, sex, eating, and all kinds of things into this category that are good and healthy when freely and appropriately engaged and chosen, but then become detrimental and even damaging when they move over into the category of addiction.

So why do we do this? What is underlying our addictions? Good question. My answer: FEAR. Fundamentally what is driving the addictive behavior is a fear of something. For the email or text addict it might be something like “I’m afraid I’ll miss something important.” For the work-a-holic it might be something like “I’m afraid my boss and colleagues will not approve of me.” For the caffeine addict it might be “I’m afraid I will not have the energy and drive to think fast and succeed.” For the social drinker it might be “I’m afraid of people; I may be awkward and rejected.” Afraid, afraid, afraid. Fear, fear, fear.

Addictions are challenging to overcome because to achieve it you must FACE YOUR FEAR. To restore your peace, freedom, wholeness, and authentic power of choice you must embrace and face your fear, whatever it may be.

I am very intimate with this process. For me, addictions cloud my channel with the Divine. My tolerance for my addictions has been greatly decreasing over the years. When I give my power over to something outside of me, I am saying to myself, “The Divine in me is not powerful enough to overcome this addiction,” and “This thing outside of me is more powerful than me.” When I engage my addictions I am saying no to the Divine power within. I am saying “I need this to feel good, to be OK, to be safe.” And on the flip side I am saying “I do not feel good, I am not OK, and I am not safe” (therefore I must engage this addiction to fix that). These are affirmations I am not interested in affirming!

As a social drinker of alcohol for most of my life, I have given up alcohol for all of 2012. I’m nine months into my challenge – and doing just fine. It is a spiritual practice for me, a sacrifice to the Divine in the greatest of ways. Each time I wish I could have a drink – usually weekend social events – I embrace the Divine within affirming “I feel good, I am OK, I am safe, etc.” without alcohol. And you know what, I am! Plus, I’ve discovered a whole new world of fabulous non-alcoholic drinks.

Restoring your power can become addictive! I’ve now moved on to caffeine. Having been a black tea drinker for a number of years, I am moving to herbal choices and other no or very low caffeine options. In this process I must face my fear of “I need caffeine to be sharp, energized, and productive.” Instead I affirm “I am sharp, energized, and productive” without caffeine. And you know what? I am.

Releasing your addictions is about restoring your power. It’s about restoring your connection to Source and knowing yourself as whole and complete (without whatever you feel you must have). And that’s the real truth for each and every one of us. Your wholeness, completeness, freedom, love, and inspiration are always inside waiting for you to choose and embrace in each and every moment.

If you want support and a clear path to become Divinely Connected and a channel for Source Energy, I invite you to engage The Major Good Mojo System.

 

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

Become aware of things you might be addicted to. Jot down on a piece of paper a short (or long) list of these things to which you are giving over your power. As you look at that list, for each one, ask yourself “What fear would I have to embrace if I were to stop this addiction?” Write down whatever fear comes up for you.

Next, take one addiction, and for a minute or two, just embrace the fear you identified for it. Take a deep breath and just let it settle in – do not resist it. More often than not, the fear is not as scary, or real, as our minds make them out to be. If you “stand up” to that fear, very often you’ll find it melting away, sometimes slowly over time, sometimes quickly.

Then ask yourself, “What would be available to me if I were to stop this addiction? What are the potential benefits of not engaging this anymore?” And make your list of benefits if you were to release your addiction.

Finally, perhaps ask yourself “Which one of these addictions am I ready to release and evolve beyond?” If none, that’s fine, perhaps a time will come later. If it is time, then start moving in that direction. Take the first step, whatever that may be for you to gently, awake and aware, day by day, restore your authentic power of choice.

Congratulations you’re one step closer to Major Good Mojo!

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Two winners! Great responses to our survey, “What are your next steps to align with your purpose?”

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

We have two winners!  Laura Young and Maria Franconi, are the winners in our survey, “What are your next steps to align with your purpose?” We are sending them out a free signed copy of my book NexGen Human – A Modern Age Path to Fulfillment.

Laura wrote:
“I have been listening to speakers online, trying new better ways of “being” and working at putting them into practice. I am gaining new perspectives, clearing blocks, and sorting out what is true for me. I am getting out of fear from the doom and gloom of the old paradigm and into my heart living more in love and joy. Spreading the word God is love and will provide, and sharing my new ways.. I am serving others, many of which are needy, despite being between 2 houses in 2 states trying to get moved.”

Nice, Laura! You are very much on the path, doing your work (both internal and external) and serving others.  To acknowledge and further support the great work you are doing I am honored to send you a free signed copy of my book “NexGen Human – A Modern Age Path to Fulfillment.” 

Maria wrote:
“My next step in aligning with my purpose is actually asking people to work with me. It is so essential to moving forward, the dang ASK. How much more aligned can you be? Yes, always more, but ya gatta ask people if they would like your help, if your purpose is to help them. I’m doing a workshop tomorrow night and I’m going to ask to people to work with me. Programs I had in place ages ago are rusty, because I haven’t asked people to work with me. I’m going for it anyway. As uncomfortable as it may be, I’m aligned and asking. Yah!”

I love how you are being more bold and courageous in getting your gifts out into the world. Reminds me of the saying “You already have the no, therefore you have nothing to lose by asking!”

Congratulations to you both, and thanks to everyone who responded!

Namaste and Blessings,
Roger

Roger Kenneth Marsh

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Free Telesummit “Align With Your Purpose”

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

I so enjoyed the interview yesterday on the free telesummit: “Align With Your Purpose.”  I talked about the concept of the hero’s journey and the vital importance of connecting with your higher self.

It’s not too late to sign up, and then you can hear the recordings. Sign up here, and check out my interview! “Align With Your Purpose Free Telesummit”

This wonderful series continues today with Laura Lawson Boatman, who teaches us her version of EFT, Positive Energy Psychology; another tool to help you eliminate the blocks in your way. 

 

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We are All Connected! Literally!

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

Last weekend I spent a blissful 2.5 days at The Esalen Institute in Big Sur on the beautiful California coast with my ITP (Integral Transformative Practice) Mastery community.  As you can see from the picture above, we were literally glowing from the experience. If you’ve been to Esalen, you know what I’m talking about. If you have not, I highly recommend you go.

One of our objectives for the weekend was to activate and explore the “unified field of practice.” This is a basic concept of Gestalt theory, best described as a “web of interconnection between person and situation, self and others, organism and environment, the individual and the communal.[i]

There is more and more evidence being produced which indicates everything is connected – literally! And some of the experimental evidence indicates that these connections can be strengthened or weakened in various ways. We intuitively know and experience this; the more time you spend with someone the more connected you become. However, this is happening in a far more profound way than we might at first imagine.

There are far-reaching implications involved in really grasping the knowledge that we are literally connected to all things. All things are truly affecting one another. With a deep knowing and experience of this invisible truth, your life can be transformed in the most beautiful ways.

In this blog Major Good Mojo we’ll explore this unfolding reality and knowledge of our deep connection to all things. Coming to know and experience this connection for yourself is a major outcome of the Major Good Mojo System.

Read on and enjoy!

We are all connected! Literally!

“The most definitive experimental support so far for the idea of nonlocality in human brain-minds was performed by neurophysiologist Jacobo Grinbert-Zylberbaum and his collaborators. In this experiment two subjects are instructed to interact for a period of thirty or forty minutes until they start feeling a “direct communication.” They then enter separate Faraday cages (metallic enclosures that block all electromagnetic signals). Unbeknownst to his or her partner, one of the subjects is now shown a flickering light signal that produces an evoked potential (an electrophysiological response produced by a sensory stimulus and measured by an EEG) in the light-stimulated brain. But amazingly, as long as the partners in the experiment maintain their direct communication, the unstimulated brain also shows an electrophysiological activity, called a transfer potential, quite similar in shape and strength to the evoked potential of the stimulated brain. (In contrast, control subjects do not show any transfer potential). The straightforward explanation is quantum nonlocality: The two brain-minds act as a nonlocally correlated system – the correlation established and maintained through nonlocal consciousness – by virtue of the quantum nature of the brains.”
The Self Aware Universe ~ Amit Goswami

The Self Aware Universe was published in 1993. At that time this experimental evidence was ridiculed and dismissed by some as random chance and trivial. However, in the time since then, the study has been replicated by other research centers lending far more credibility to the results. This data indicates we truly are connected in a metaphysical reality beyond our normal senses and everyday awareness.

 As a Licensed HeartMath Provider I am well aware of the scientific data indicating our connections to one another via an electromagnetic field. This field has been measured up to 10 feet away from the body. And, when two people are together their heart and brain waves (measured by EKG and EEG) become synchronized; they become entrained. This alone is an amazing fact and it’s powerful to realize the power of your heart and its effect on your environment.

However, the data presented by Amit Goswami points to an even more stunning revelation of connection, a field of connection we have not measured, a field of connection where we see only effects indicating its existence. This is a field beyond our sense capacities, yet impacting our normal day-to-day lives. As a species, we are only just now beginning to comprehend this reality and grapple with its far-reaching implications.

In ITP, when community members are not together, we say they are in the “long body.” The long body is a concept indicating we are all connected through a larger entity of which we are all a part, a body if you will, a long body that covers any distance that may be between us. And, as connected practitioners, how we are (or are not) practicing, affects everyone in our community, through this long body. Others benefit from my strong practice, and I benefit from theirs. And this applies vice versa, with respect to not practicing.

To make this more vivid, consider the analogy of white-water rafting. Think of a raft with eight people in it, navigating frothy, fast-moving, white water. Everyone in the boat benefits from each person’s active paddling. Each person contributes. AND everyone suffers when even just one person stops paddling and “goes along for the ride.”

As George Leonard so eloquently wrote in his book, The Silent Pulse:  “A world of connectedness, potential, and evolution turns us toward a vivid sense of community along with the acceptance of personal responsibility; toward a de-emphasis on competing and winning along with reemphasis on participating and experiencing; from aggression toward gentleness and enjoyment; from dominance of nature to blending with nature; from exponential growth in production and consumption to a more moderate, more ecological standard of living along with a powerful intentionality toward social justice throughout the world.

Perhaps more than anything else, the new world offers us the thrill of novelty and surprise. Can we call it Transformation?”

To develop your knowing and felt sense of connectedness to all things, I invite you to engage The Major Good Mojo System.

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and sense into your connectedness with all things. If it’s true that you are connected, literally connected, to all things (and experimental evidence is demonstrating this is so), what does this mean for your life? How might you live differently? Jot down a few notes and continue to contemplate and live into this new reality for the next few days (or the rest of your life if you so choose J)

Congratulations, you are one step closer to Major Good Mojo!

 

 

 

 



[i] http://www.gisc.org/gestaltreview/documents/TheUnifiedFieldinPractice.pdf

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Wisdom Part 2: True Wisdom Takes Real Courage

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

 

“Wisdom is not finally tested in the schools, Wisdom cannot be passed from one having it to another not having it, Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof.”

Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892)

 

A couple of weeks ago I attended the Wisdom 2.0 Business Conference at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. It’s a gathering of more than 500 people exploring ways to bring wisdom, consciousness, presence and mindfulness fully alive in the business context. It was a fabulous conference and I highly recommend you consider attending the next one in February 2013, I’ll be there! You can find more information here: Wisdom 2.0 Conference.

There was a great deal of positive optimism, hope, and inspiration present in everyone. However one of the things I found very interesting was also a sense of cynicism and skepticism. As we all know, “there is no crying in baseball” right? The world of business is a tough, dog-eat-dog world where you put your nose to the grindstone, don the flack-jacket and take no prisoners. This is no place for weak, mushy things like love, compassion, caring, appreciation, and whatever this thing “mindfulness” might be. Right?

Frankly, there is SOME truth to this. The business world is unique in its demand for efficiency and careful allocation of resources. The margins for error (think wasting time and money) are narrower in the arena of business than pretty much anywhere else. If you waste too much time and money, eventually you have no business. So it’s understandable why folks might believe you have to be an intense driver and make things happen. Hello! You can’t just be sitting around meditating! Time’s a wastin’!

But I want to go deeper into this belief – deeper into what’s really driving and underlying this “take no prisoners” attitude. People at the conference knew it would take a new level of courage to bring about this change we were all seeking. Why will it take a new level of courage? What’s this all about? Why so much resistance?

In this blog we’ll go a little deeper into this resistance and see why true wisdom takes real courage. Being able to access your own wisdom is a major outcome of the Major Good Mojo System.

Read on and enjoy!

True Wisdom Takes Real Courage

As a wise and conscious person I bet you can guess what is underlying the “take no prisoners” attitude about business. Yep, that’s right, fear. We are afraid that if we don’t MAKE THINGS HAPPEN AND CONTROL EVERYTHING, that everything will go to hell in a hand basket and everyone, including us, will be screwed. AKA “out of business, broke and on the streets, a loser in the world.” Right? We are afraid of that happening so we get very busy, trying to dominate and control everything.

Parker J. Palmer wrote a fabulous little book called Let Your Life Speak. At one point in this book he outlines what he calls the “shadows of leadership,” negative concepts or beliefs that we hold that can block us or render our path almost impassable. Examples are insecurity about identity and worth, the belief that the universe is hostile, and fear of the chaos of life. These are some of negative concepts that can block us. I’ve seen and experienced them in myself and seen them in others. But there was another that Palmer described, called “Functional Atheism.” This is a BELIEF that ultimate responsibility for everything rests with us.

 Palmer states:

“This is the unconscious, unexamined conviction that if anything decent is going to happen here, 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.”

Wow. And ouch. This need for control stems from fear and underneath that fear there is distrust. Or said another way, a lack of trust, and this lack of trust is ultimately in the Universe itself. Can you see that? We don’t trust the Universe, therefore we are afraid. Because we fear things are not going to turn out, we must dominate them and force them and control them in a mad frenzy. What fun. I have a friend, who, after regaling me with the troubles and stressors in her life, wailed, “Oh, if I could just get CONTROL, then I could RELAX!” When she realized what she had said, we both burst out laughing.

 So where did this distrust come from? Why do we have this underlying lack of trust in the Universe? Is it founded on good data? Do we distrust the Universe to beat our hearts for us? Do we distrust the Universe to provide us air to breathe? Do we have to make the sun rise each day? Do we have to create gravity each day so we don’t fly off the planet into space? Do we have to make the rain fall so we don’t die of thirst? ALL of life is ultimately a partnership with life itself. Even making money, making products, delivering services, any project or activity you can think of, is actually a partnership with life, with the Universe.

Fundamentally any effort-filled, forceful, tiring, stressful struggle is based in ignorance. It’s a lack of awareness of life energy itself. It’s based in fear (that the results will not happen), distrust (the Universe will not provide), attachment (that if the results I want don’t happen then bad things WILL happen), and separation (I’m the only one who can make this happen – just little ole’ me who must shoulder this burden). Fear, distrust, attachment, and separation…hmmm. We can start to see why there is skepticism and cynicism when it comes to bringing Wisdom alive in the workplace, and why a fair amount of courage will be required to bring it about.

The truth is you DO have a role, and effort is required, it’s just that it’s not ALL about you. What I’m talking about is awareness and partnership. It is about maximizing and optimizing your role and the role of the Universe. It’s a dance, a dance in awareness that you are part of something far larger than your self (small “s”). The truly wise person will partner with that something else, TRUST it and work with it to maximize the experience of being alive, (and yes, this is a practice that is engaged day-in and day-out, over time). Ultimately, you can maximize the results you have been inspired to create, even bottom-line business success.

There IS room for wisdom, compassion, mindfulness, presence, joy, trust, and even love in business. Frankly, these are all traits or characteristics of a spiritually grounded and connected person. Or instead of using the word spiritual (since business does not like that word) you could say awake, alive, and fully integrated human being. This is what is missing in most corporations today. There is a HUGE opportunity not only for each of us as individuals, but also for corporations in this. And it’s up to us to bring it alive

To develop your felt experience of true wisdom and a deep trust in the power of the Universe herself, I invite you to engage The Major Good Mojo System.

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

Our lives are so full of stuff. Not just material physical stuff, but sound and noise as well. How often during our days do we get to really experience a powerful silence?

Parker J. Palmer said the average group of people can tolerate no more than 15 seconds of silence. 15 seconds! This is how long most people can be quiet before someone feels compelled to “make some noise” and say something. He points out the belief that if we aren’t making noise then NOTHING is happening and likely something is even dying. So we get busy and fill the void with noise.

There’s some kind of discomfort that arises in silence, especially in groups – I’m sure you’ve experienced it, I know I have. We even have a name for it, “the uncomfortable silence,” as in “an uncomfortable silence fell over the room.” But we also have another term, “the pregnant pause,” that is pointing more toward what I’m talking about here: there is something in the silence that wants to be born.

Close your eyes, take a slow deep breath, and give yourself the gift of 60 seconds of silence and just notice what you notice. Relax into the arms of the Universe and make some space for GRACE.

The more powerful you become sitting in the silence, the more you can access Major Good Mojo!

 

 

 

 

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