Tag Archives: life force

Heart-FULLY Living

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

A few weeks ago I was fortunate to spend the weekend with some good friends in Pacific Grove, California. It’s a beautiful place by the ocean with the Asilomar Conference Grounds and Facilities located there. The picture above is me at the entrance. Asilomar holds many world-class conferences throughout the year. In 1913 the word Asilomar was made up by a Stanford student and entered into a contest for naming the grounds. Asilo is Spanish for retreat or refuge, and mar is Spanish for sea. Put the two together and you get “refuge by the sea.”  Which it definitely is!

In our lives there are many places we can take refuge. For me, time and time again, I am amazed at the refuge I can take in my heart. You see, if you’re like me, you lead a very full life with lots going on. All of this attention and energy on doing tends to move “me” up into my head and away from the peace and wisdom in my body. With all the tools and practices I have, this still happens to me! This is one of the myths of transformation and enlightenment: once you arrive you never leave. The truth is, it’s a practice – we expand and we contract, we go up into our head and we come back into our body, we are super busy with lots to do, then we are deeply peaceful and relaxed.

One of the cornerstones in my daily practice is HeartMath.  Many of you reading this newsletter know HeartMath is an institute formed more than 20 years ago in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. Over the years they have done world-class research and created amazing, simple practices for connecting to the power of your heart. You know, A LOT of religions, philosophies, and wisdom traditions TALK ABOUT coming from the heart, but have you ever noticed no one ever tells you exactly HOW to do that? I think they don’t tell us because THEY DON’T KNOW! So, it’s really not their fault. They know the heart is a good and powerful thing, they just don’t know how to reliably and consistently bring that power alive in day-to-day life.

Well, HeartMath does, and so do I as a Licensed HeartMath Practitioner. In this blog we’re going to investigate a little further into this power of the heart and explore some of the challenges the average person will have in bringing this wisdom alive in their life. While the practices are simple, there is reason why someone once said “The longest journey a person will ever take is from their head to their heart.” 

A wise person will enlist support for that journey. You don’t have to go alone. A strong, reliable connection to your heart is one of the main things the Major Good Mojo System can build and create for you. And with that, you always have your own built-in “refuge by the sea” restoring and inspiring you to Heart-FULLY Living.

As I transitioned to living more from my heart than my head, I experienced just how loud and dominating the messages, thoughts, and voices from my head can be, and how quiet and unassuming those from the heart can be. No wonder most of us don’t live from the heart – with the head screaming so loudly we can hardly hear it! The head is loud because its job is survival. It perceives everything as a threat and must therefore, absolutely, get your attention! Because as far as it can tell, in its isolated, separated view of the world, if you don’t do what it says, you will die (or at least something bad will happen)!

Listen to your head-based messages closely and I think you will find most of the messages have fear of something bad happening as their motive for action. These can be big fears or small fears. Let’s take getting to work on time as an example. Most people get out of bed and get to work on time to avoid a negative consequence. Acting out of a fear that “something bad will happen” is a sure sign your actions are coming from the head. The fears may be of something as small as a look of disapproval from a coworker, or something as large as a notice of termination for tardiness. Being motivated by this fear may get you to work on time, but your experience in the process is not one of choice; “you” are being run by a fear-based machine, worried about what will happen if you don’t do what it says.

Take a look at what your experience is like when your actions are based in this fear. Are you waking up with a sense of joy, purpose, and excitement for the day? Or do you feel tired, grumpy, rushed, and thinking about all the things you have to do that day? Just look and make a note. The problem with living from the head all the time is your life experience is based on, and is all about, FEAR and avoidance of bad things happening. Which sucks (to put it bluntly) even if you avoid those bad things happening!

There is another way. And that way is the heart. As I was learning to live from my heart, and experiencing challenges in doing so, my coach had me stop and check in with my heart on what the root of the challenge was. As I connected with my heart and asked this simple question, its response was “Go ahead and listen to your head. Then stop, and take the few moments it takes to settle down and listen to me. After listening to both, then choose which path to follow and action to take.” Like most heart-based wisdom, this made total sense! And it’s exactly what I do.

The head will dominate you with fear, but living from the heart (like putting God, Great Spirit, or Universal Intelligence at the center of your life) is a CHOICE you make. God/Universal Intelligence/Great Spirit/Source will never dominate or force you to do anything. Partnering with the Power of the Universe is a CHOICE YOU MAKE that doesn’t happen automatically. Being run by your head happens automatically and is not a choice. This is the default. I cannot overemphasize this point: Being run by your head happens automatically and is NOT a choice. Living from your heart is a CHOICE YOU MAKE – and one that you will make over, and over, and over again….until it becomes a habit.

When you live from your heart, your life experience becomes based in trust, love, and creation (rather than fear, control, and survival). These two experiences are completely different universes. And as you practice living from your heart, seeing the magical results it produces and how amazing you feel, your mind tends to relax a bit. It still has its job to do, but as the voice of your heart gets stronger, the voice from your head will tone down a bit.

The Institute of HeartMath has developed the most reliable, repeatable, researched-based SYSTEM of tools and processes that brings heart intelligence alive in day-to-day life. Because of its impact in transforming my life, four years ago I became a Licensed HeartMath® Provider to deliver their 1-on-1 coaching programs and bring the power of heart-intelligence alive in life for others to access Heart-FULLY Living.

Many people and programs talk about coming from the heart, but no one provides a tried and true SYSTEM of tools and processes that has been proven to work in day-to-day life, for anybody, at anytime, anywhere. HeartMath is truly unique and amazing in this regard and it’s a key component of the The Major Good Mojo Coaching Program.

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

When you are REALLY in your body, connected to your heart, you will find that your fears, worries, and concerns – even your childhood programming – have no sway. Notice throughout your day today “where your awareness is.” Part of the HeartMath practice is bringing awareness to your heart. Notice that you have control of “where your awareness is.” Right now, it is most likely over here on this page with these electronic letters and words and likely “up in your head” as you interpret and filter the meaning they have for you. Put your hand on your heart and see if you can shift your awareness to its location in your body. Perhaps close your eyes as you do this. Notice if anything changes for you. Do this throughout your day today.

Congratulations! You are one step closer to Major Good Mojo!

 

 

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Those Who Give the Most Get the Most: The World of Both/And

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

Those who give the most, get the most. And, if you’ve noticed, “It’s all about me” just doesn’t work.

Let me give you an example. As I mentioned in the last eZine, I have joined a Business Networking International (BNI) group. This is a group of professionals who meet each week to support the success of each other’s business. One of the foundational tenets of BNI is “Givers Gain.” What this means, and what they see time and time again, is that the people who GIVE the most support and referrals, really do GET the most support and referrals. And those that come just wanting to get referrals – who have the mindset “what’s in it for me” – eventually burn out and quit, having received very few, if any, referrals. Isn’t this interesting?

This is the Law of Reciprocity at work. One simple way to think about this is “If you want heat out of the stove, you gotta first put in some wood.” I think this takes some time to learn; like many spiritual laws, it doesn’t at first make logical sense. The mind thinks “Hey, if I give all my time, money, and energy to OTHERS, then I’ll have none for myself.” And on one level that’s true. The reason the mind thinks this, is because it looks out on the world as a separate and singular entity focused on survival and does not see or experience the web of connections and energy CIRCULATING and always seeking balance.

Now, with that said, YOU DO have to be smart about educating people how to give to you, and you do have to be willing to receive. This is not a martyr thing we’re talking about here. What we are talking about is our soul’s path and service in the world – that place where we light up and the world lights up. Where giving IS receiving. The irony is that on the way to discovering this place, IT IS ALL ABOUT YOU. It often takes some serious introspection to get to the real heart of why you are here and what there is for you to do. However, eventually the tide must shift as you discover what difference this authentic work of yours makes in the world. At that point, it becomes about others AND you. It’s not either/or, it’s both/and.

Finding and giving your gifts is a major part of the Major Good Mojo System – it’s about finding your unique place where giving truly becomes gaining. Welcome to the world of Both/And.

Those Who Give the Most Get the Most: The World of Both/And

We live in a community of many levels from the family, to the neighborhood, to the town, to the city, to the state, to the nation, to the planet. We all have a role in the functioning of the community, at one or many levels. It’s essential we each play our authentic, inspired role, while allowing others to play theirs, whatever that may be and however that may look. We are giving of ourselves in this role, and getting back everything: contentment, fulfillment, joy, inspiration.

Fundamentally my role is to point toward, awaken, and facilitate the experience of Eternal Spirit in the lives of others. I help others bring alive this aspect, this Major Good Mojo, in their lives. It’s my job. How do I know that? Because when I do that for others, it brings me the most joy of anything I ever do! I am inspired – filled with Spirit inside – when I am doing this. I am inspired right now as I write this, because I am aligned with and am fulfilling my highest purpose and mission. Whether one person reads this or thousands read this, by allowing me to be the instrument I am for the expression of Universal Life Force, Evolutionary Energy, I am fulfilled, and my life purpose is fulfilled. I can feel that and know that. And so can you, for yourself, on your own unique mission and life path. 

Life Force Energy can be expressed and transmitted in an infinite number of ways, the question is: What is YOUR way? Find that, embrace that, and I guarantee you will be more than happy. You will “get” by giving of your true self in your true role.

There is an old story that exemplifies this aspect of being who you are and the power that comes from it (please note I am paraphrasing this ancient story for illustration purposes). In an ancient town in India the Ganges River threatened to flood its banks and completely devastate the surrounding town. The King of this town went to the River God to plead for mercy and stop the flood. The River God said to the King, “Show me one person in your town who is living and expressing their authentic self and I will subside the river.” 

So the King started searching for this person. He first presented his high-priest, and the River God said “No.” Then he presented his top magistrate, and the River God said “No.” Then he presented his top physician, and the River God said “No.” Exasperated, the King put out word to the town that to save themselves from the impending flood they needed to present one person to the River God who was living his or her authentic life purpose. Person after person presented themselves, from all walks and disciplines, and to each the River God said “No.” Finally, there was only one person left, the town prostitute, and while the King thought for sure she was not it, out of desperation he presented her to the River God, and the River God said “Yes.” And the river subsided. She was the only one, including the King, in the whole town who was living her authentic life purpose.

I tell you this story because it illustrates two very important lessons when it comes to living your authentic life purpose: #1) don’t judge your, or anyone else’s, purpose, and #2) there is real power in living your authentic life purpose – you can save a town and stop a river from rising!

We’ve all experienced souls that are engaged in their most authentic and soul-inspired mission. They come from all walks of life. From the janitor you see sweeping the halls with a knowing smile on his face, to the restaurant where the meals are cooked with love and are beyond delicious, to the musicians who bring a tear to your eye when they play. From the architect who creates a space inside which your soul feels free, to the attorney who compassionately helps you through and out of a mess, to the airline pilot who takes pride in transporting people safely and efficiently from city to city. From the elementary school teacher who treats each and every child with love and respect, to the 1,000’s of people who go to work in 1,000’s of roles with a smile on their face making their difference and contributing the essence of themselves and who they are.

ALL WORK CAN BE SOUL WORK. It makes no difference WHAT you are doing. What matters is that it is YOUR WORK TO DO. 

Finding and embracing your soul’s work is a major aspect of the Major Good Mojo System. If you want to get clarity on this once and for all, I invite you to engage the The Major Good Mojo Coaching Program.

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

Spend a few minutes right now reflecting on how you are spending your days. How many of the moments in your typical day do you truly enjoy? Are you enthusiastic, lit up, and inspired? Or are you going through the motions looking forward to the weekends? Reflect on those moments where you are enthusiastic, where time stands still, where you feel relaxed yet excited. What is it about those moments that you love so much? Write it down, and then commit to doing more of that right now – you deserve it, and so do the people around you!

Congratulations! You’re one step closer to your Major Good Mojo!

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The Truth About Lying, Cheating, and Stealing

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

I recently joined a local Business Networking International (BNI) group.  This is a group of independent professionals who gather early in the morning one day each week to network and support each other’s business success.   It’s a referral group – we learn about each other’s businesses and then we refer clients to each other.

There are currently 32 members in the group I am joining, each from a different profession.  So there is no competition for referrals, there is only one of each profession allowed in a group.  If I come across someone needing a particular service, I don’t have to pick who in my group to give the referral to – there will be only one person who offers that service.  So there is one attorney, one accountant, one real estate agent, one chiropractor, one interior designer, one dentist, one insurance agent, one massage therapist, etc.  I am the one Spiritual Life Coach.  

As you can imagine, one of the key elements for this referral group to work, is Trust.   As one of my mentors, Fabienne Fredrickson says, “Before people will buy from you, they must first KNOW you, then they must LIKE you, and then they must TRUST you.”  Trust is the foundation of ANY rewarding relationship – business or otherwise.  Think about it, as soon as you can no longer trust someone,  whether friend, lover, or business, that relationship is doomed.  As the old saying goes “Screw me once, shame on you. Screw me twice, shame on me.”  Most people are willing to give people a chance to prove their trust-worthiness. But once that trust has been lost, it’s usually lost for good.

So where does trust come from?  Trust is something that is built up over time by keeping your word.  By doing what you say you will do.  In this manner, you become predictable and reliable in the eyes of others.  We like predictability and reliability, and we tend to avoid that which is unpredictable or unreliable.  

In this blog we take a closer look at trust and the things that destroy not only trust, but something even more important!  Yes, lying, cheating, and stealing destroy trust and our relationship with others.  However, they destroy something even more important than that (Hint:  this “something even more important” is one of the main things the Major Good Mojo System can build and create for you.  And once you have it, you have no need for lying, cheating, or stealing)

Let’s take a closer look at these “bad” things that tend to destroy trust and relationships: Lying, Cheating, and Stealing.  Why do we think these things are bad?  Common answers would probably include things like: because they hurt others, or because we would not want people to do them to us, or because they cause more problems than they solve.  I would agree with all those answers, however, there is a far more important and powerful reason to not engage these behaviors.  Can you guess what that is?

Let’s first establish that people lie, cheat and steal because they think they will personally gain from doing so, right?  People will have perfectly good reasons (to them) why they need to lie, cheat, or steal.  From an evolutionary survival standpoint, it looks to them as if the benefits are greater than the costs.  And for many people who engage in these things, that is probably true – in the SHORT term.  What they are not seeing (at least initially) is the long term, DEVASTATING effects, of these behaviors.   

Let’s start with lying.  What’s the real reason someone would tell a lie?  They tell a lie because they are afraid of the truth, whatever that truth may be.  So, when you tell a lie, you affirm, whether consciously or subconsciously, “I am afraid of the truth, I cannot handle the truth, I am afraid and not big enough or strong enough to handle the truth, I don’t trust myself, others, or the Universe.”  To sum this up, when you tell a lie you affirm “I am afraid and weak.”  Ouch.

OK, how about cheating.  What’s the real reason someone would cheat?  Once again, they cheat (on their taxes, on bills, on their spouse, in games, on services provided, on whatever) because they are afraid of losing something, whether money, pride, time, love, whatever (once again, notice fear at work here).  So, when you cheat, you affirm, whether consciously or subconsciously “I cannot win with integrity, I am not good enough to win fair and square, I am weak and must make up for that weakness somehow, I cannot win on my own and need special help and advantage.”  To sum this up, when you cheat you affirm “I am a loser.”  Ouch.

OK, how about stealing. What’s the real reason someone would steal? (You’re probably starting to see a pattern here).  Once again, they steal because they are afraid, afraid they cannot provide for themselves (again, notice the fear at work here).  So, when you steal, you affirm, whether consciously or subconsciously “I am poor, I cannot afford what I want and need, I cannot provide for myself, the Universe is not abundant, there is not enough for everyone, especially me.”  To sum this up, when you steal you affirm “I am poor.”  Ouch.

Through all these examples there is FEAR underlying the motives for the actions, and when you do not face and embrace your fears, you affirm your weakness.  You affirm that you do not TRUST YOURSELF OR THE UNIVERSE (to be strong enough, big enough, and to provide for you).  This is the real reason you do not want to engage in lying, cheating, and stealing.  You are undermining the most fundamental aspect for true power, freedom, and fulfillment in life:  The fact that relationships are ruined is only a symptom, it’s only a mirror reflecting back to you that you’ve destroyed your most important relationship – the one with yourself and the Universe. So, Trust in yourself and the Universe.  

The more you avoid your fears, the more you affirm your weakness.  The more you face and embrace your fears, the more you affirm your power and strength.  It’s that simple, folks.  And this is true not only with lying, cheating and stealing, but with all our choices in life.  Are fear, worry, and concern running your life?  Or are love, trust, and power running your life?  If you’re like most people, it’s probably a blend, and depends on the area of life we are talking about.  Just know that moment by moment, in ALL areas of your life, you get to choose. And with each choice, you affirm something about yourself, about others, and about the Universe.

God, Great Spirit, Universal Intelligence, Source wants us to live from love, trust, and power.  That’s why when we choose, act and affirm from there we get stronger (and when we choose, act, and affirm from fear, we get weaker).  And, the beauty is, the more you practice choosing from love, trust, and power, the easier it becomes. 

Affirming that you are strong enough, big enough, and provided for is a major aspect of the Major Good Mojo coaching program.  If you want to establish trust in yourself and in the Universe, I invite you to engage the The Major Good Mojo Coaching Program.

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

Bring awareness to your everyday choices and actions, especially those where you are inclined to cheat a little, tell a white lie, or even take or keep something that is not yours.  Ask yourself, “What is the source of my actions?  Am I coming from fear or love?”  If you are coming from love, awesome!  Embrace that choice and action and move forward. However, if you are coming from a fear of some kind, see if you can identify what that fear is, e.g. there is not enough to go around, I’ll get hurt, I’ll hurt others, others will take advantage of me, etc.  Choose instead to come from love and trust, choose instead to hold yourself (and others) higher and more capable.  Choose to affirm “I am strong enough, I and everyone else CAN handle the truth, and there is enough for everyone, including me.”

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

 

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Finding Your Wisdom Within

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

This is a picture of me with Michael Beckwith, Author, Visionary, and Founder of the Agape International Spiritual Center in Southern California.  During some of my Advanced Passion Test Certification Training I was fortunate to spend some time with Michael in some relatively intimate settings.  This man is one of my heroes.  Why? Because he is one of the most amazing, clear channels for Divine Wisdom I have ever seen.  This man knows how to put his “small self” in service to the Big Self and let the Big Self come on through -him clearly and powerfully.  If you ever have a chance to see Michael speak, definitely go!

Michael is a wise man full of wisdom.  But how do I KNOW that?  How can any of us know real wisdom from plain old psycho-babble B.S.?  The only way we can KNOW it, is because it’s in US too.  The reason anything Michael says makes sense and “rings true” for me is because I have that wisdom in me too.  Michael will even say that.  In fact, the best spiritual teachers will always say something like this at the beginning of their talks, “I am not going to tell you anything you don’t already know.  I am simply going to be the vehicle that re-minds you.”   

Here’s a nice analogy for this: picture two guitars sitting next to each other.  When you pluck a string on one guitar, the corresponding string on the other guitar will start to vibrate.  It is “resonating” with the vibration that is “already in it” as potential. It is then “activated” by the external source.  This is what happens when someone is giving voice to a truth or wisdom that already resides in us, but just needed a little “coaxing” to come into our consciousness.

In this blog we take a closer look at where real wisdom resides and how we can learn to coax it into our awareness (Hint: this is what Key #1 of the Major Good Mojo System is all about – learning to consistently and reliably access your innate wisdom).

If it’s true that we and Great Spirit are one, then we need look no further than right here, right where we are, to tap into divine intelligence, wisdom and guidance.

In our western paradigm of living, we are accustomed to thinking of intelligence arising, or coming from, the head. Familiar terms like “Use your head” and “Get your head in the game,” exemplify this way of thinking. However, what science has discovered in recent years is that intelligence actually exists all over the body – and that in fact there are neurons, similar to those in our brain, that exist in the heart and as well in the stomach. The new field of neuro-cardiology has called this bundle of neurons in the heart, “the heart-brain.”

Studies have shown there is more communication going from the heart to the brain, than from the brain to the heart. The brain does not run the heart – in fact, in a fetus, the heart is formed and starts pumping before the brain is formed. And if you know anything about heart-transplants, you’ll know that a heart removed from the body can continue to beat with no connection to the brain. There are also neurons in the gut – we’re all familiar with “gut instinct” – but we haven’t really understood it until now. So there is wisdom, insight, and intelligence we can access from other parts of ourselves. However, we have to pay attention, and this is the key.

There’s an old saying “The longest journey a person will ever take is from their head to their heart.”  While it’s only a foot or so in actual distance, why do you think it may be the longest journey a person will ever take?  It’s because the head wants to run the show.  The head can be so dominant and loud with its fear-based warnings, worries and concerns that the subtle aspects of ourselves (like our heart-based messages) get drowned out. You just can’t hear them.  This is why the heart, or your deeper body-based wisdom, got the name “the still, small voice.”  It’s quiet and unassuming, waiting for YOU to choose to hear it.

Think of the mind, or your head, as the manager, and think of your body, and especially your heart, as the leader and the visionary. Without a divinely sourced vision, the manager (or your head) is just spinning its wheels doing busy work. Your mind is there to serve your heart. However, most people are so in their head, and disconnected from their body-based wisdom, that their head is dysfunctionally running the show.  This imbalance is the source of much of the suffering people experience in their day-to-day lives….and it does not have to be this way.  This is why I became a Licensed HeartMath Provider.  The HeartMath Institute has created the best path I have ever seen for bringing heart-based wisdom alive in life.  It’s a practice, and HeartMath has shown the way.

Through the heart you can access WISDOM, far beyond what your head alone can access. (In fact, I will go so far as to say that no true WISDOM arises from the head at all!).  When living from the heart there is a tangible experience of being guided by and serving something far larger than your self (small “s”). This wisdom could be called God, Infinite Intelligence, Great Spirit, or Source. Ultimately it cannot be labeled. Nonetheless we can have a direct EXPERIENCE of it, through the heart, and ultimately through the entire body itself.

If you’d like to learn how to reliably and consistently access your heart and body-based wisdom and guidance, get started with the The Major Good Mojo Coaching Program now.

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

In a nutshell, your assignment is to connect with your body and pay attention to the messages it has for you.  You can start right now, right where you are by simply using your breath.  The breath is an incredibly powerful instrument for cultivating awareness. Because of this, many spiritual traditions use the breath as a cornerstone in their practice. 

Try this:  Sitting comfortably in a chair, put your feet flat on the floor, place your hands on your lower abdomen, and breathe deeply, down into your abdomen, so that you can feel your hands moving outward as your lungs fill with air. While forward is the most obvious expansion, see if you can also feel your lungs and abdomen expanding downward toward your pelvic floor and sacrum, backwards into your lower back, and sideways into the lower part of your rib cage.  Do this at least three times then notice how your experience of being alive changes.  How does your body feel different from before doing this? Notice if your thoughts have changed, and perhaps your emotions, too.  Have fun with this and do this simple practice throughout your days.  

Your body is a wise and well informed teacher– literally the wisdom of the Universe resides inside. By consciously choosing and cultivating your practice of listening, you can bring this wisdom alive in your life for more peace, power, and Major Good Mojo!

 

2011 © Beyond Belief, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

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Soul Filled Living – The True Source of Satisfaction and Fulfillment

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

As part of my ongoing exploration and development, a couple weeks ago I was at a cmonference where the featured speaker was Esalen Co-founder Michael Murphy. This picture is me with Michael at the conference.  Michael is a modern day pioneer in the exploration of human potential and this Universe we live in.  A real inspiration!  The  conference was “Integral Transformative Practice and the Evolution of the Soul.”  Michael led the group on an exploration of how the soul may be evolving through lifetimes and is an essential element in the evolution of the Universe itself.  The inquiry and question we were exploring was “How can we partner with our soul and become ACTIVE participants in both our individual and collective evolution?”

I am keenly interested in this aspect of “the evolution of the soul” and specifically how it relates to OUR evolution as a human being (as a body, mind, heart, AND soul) right here, right now. From the Webster’s Dictionary, the definition of evolution is:  an unfolding; a process of development or change; a movement that is part of a series.  Yes, this makes sense.  An unfolding, a process of development or change, a movement that is part of a series.  One could say that evolution is the process of the unfolding of the soul into and through the world.  So how is the unfolding of your soul going?  I think that’s a pretty important question.

I’m plugged into a lot of “transformational” work, processes, and people. It’s MY passion, so I engage and follow these things.  Typically, marketing messages are  targeted at one of a few things; weight loss, more money, or better relationships.  At business training seminars we’re told these are the top things people are looking for and that if you want to sell your stuff, we must target our messages at one or more of these things.  That may be true, but for me, these things are not the end in themselves and doing that (selling those results) only adds to the problem.  It further feeds the false belief that “if I just had XYZ THEN I would be happy” (more money, less weight, better relationships).  Well, maybe for a moment, but not for long.

In my experience, lasting happiness (joy) and true fulfillment can only come from your soul. This is living from the inside-out.  You START with what your soul wants – this is your personal inside guide to your ideal life – your compass for navigating the terrain of YOUR life and living the life that is most fulfilling for YOU. Trying to lose weight, get more money, or have better relationships – as great as those things are – is living from “the outside in.”  This means trying to fill an emptiness inside with something in the “outside” world.  It will feel good for a moment, then you’ll be on to the next thing, and the next thing, and the next… never experiencing the satisfaction you really desire.

I recently tweeted a quote by Robert Collier “Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.” The key is to focus your efforts toward the success that you REALLY wish to create and experience – your SOUL’S desires.  Until you tap into THAT place of desire, you’re like a hamster on a treadmill going from one thing to the next, never satisfied.  Until you are tapped into your soul’s desires, you’ll be grasping at straws like losing weight, getting more money, or having better relationships. If you’re ready to discover your soul’s desires and live a truly fulfilling life from that deep place, I recommend engaging The Major Good Mojo System.

So how do we know what our soul wants for us?  How can we live that  deeply satisfying Soul Filled Life? Well, there are many aspects to it, but in this short article I’ll share one of the most important:  follow your bliss.  This is the guidance we have often heard from author and teacher Joseph Campbell. Unfortunately, it is rarely appreciated or truly lived.

One of the keys to knowing what your soul wants for you in this lifetime is to pay attention to and engage things that you enjoy! This may not be easy at first, as many of us have gotten very good at “working hard and suffering to survive and feel deserving.” However, we can begin choosing activities that provide the greatest likelihood or probability that the experience it offers (the people, the places, the conversations and words you use, the ideas, the actions, the impact and results in the world, the overall environment you are in, and as well as both the present and possible monetary rewards, etc.) will have at least SOME enjoyable aspect(s). As you do this, if you practice this time and time again, the fullness of your bliss will unfold over your lifetime like a beautiful flower coming into its own.

I want to further emphasize and support this notion of “following your bliss” and engaging activities where you experience the most joy. Joy is life-force filled. And what people want most on this planet (including yourself) is life-force. The more you embody and become a channel for life-force energy, the more you become of SERVICE to others – you are giving them what they most want and need.

This is the key to success. Becoming a channel for, and access to, what people want most:  life-force energy. The most powerful way to do that is to follow your very own bliss. Isn’t that divine?! And here’s another reason to follow your bliss – when you do, you become more and more unstoppable. Another word for Joy, and for Bliss, is Inspiration. When you are inspired you are connected to the divine flow and intelligence of the Universe. Your personal energy is optimized, solutions and ideas come to you “from beyond” and your overall experience is amazing. When you are inspired, you have “spirit inside” – and when you have spirit inside you bring spirit and life-force energy to others.

This is operating from your soul – this is Soul-Filled Living. The person who operates from the soul and allows their truth to flow through them is inspired in the deepest sense. Such a man or woman is a rare and treasured gift for all of us. When an artist is touched by Spirit and creates something from that authentic place, we are all touched. It’s like looking at something here in the physical world that came from and represents the beauty, mystery, and magic of the metaphysical world.

Wherever there is success AND joy, there is inspiration. You can have success with no joy or inspiration, but you cannot have joy without success because joy in and of itself is success! So are you going for the success “hoping for the joy” or are you going for the joy hoping for the success? If success in a material sense is important to you, I suggest doing both. Follow your bliss with a plan for manifesting material success.

Manifesting your soul’s desire is a long term partnership with Spirit that unfolds over time. You are the instrument that Universal Life Force Intelligence is playing. Mother Theresa said it this way:  “We are all pencils in the hand of God writing love letters to the Universe.” What is your love letter to the Universe? What does God want to write with you and your life? Only YOU know the answer.

PS:  The Passion Test ™ is one of the best ways to get clear on your passions, your bliss, and what it is you love. As a Certified Passion Test Facilitator I’ve included The Passion Test in The Major Good Mojo System, click here to find out more!

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

Look back over all the experiences in your life and see if you can identify your “Theme of Joy” – the common thread through all those experiences that attracted you to them in the first place. What is the common “Thread of Joy” that you loved about each of those roles and experiences in your life?  These are HUGE clues to your soul’s purpose and desires for you in this lifetime.

Congratulations!  You’re one step closer to tapping into your soul’s desires, following your bliss, and experiencing the true joy and satisfaction you desire. Now that is Major Good Mojo!

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Who You Are Changes With Who You’re With

Posted on June 11, 2011 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| 1 Comment

This past weekend I was at Esalen Institute on the California Big Sur Coastline co-facilitating an ITP Mastery program (Integral Transformative Practice). The picture is me with my awesome co-facilitator Georgie Weston in the garden on the grounds with the Pacific Ocean stretched out behind us.

It was an AMAZING weekend of transformation, community, magic, and fun.   The cool thing about a program like this is it has “a life of it’s own” when you gather the participants and begin engaging the materials.  You can do all the planning and organizing you want, but real transformation and magical moments usually happen organically.  You just can’t plan when you’ll have those super juicy, rich, ripe, authentic, potent moments – the best you can do is create the context and the container in which they can happen.

So what is it about the context and the container that encourages magical moments? Well, there are many factors, however one that I’d like to focus on in this blog is THE COMMUNITY – the people that are gathered.   Every person is their own unique vibrating energy field – some vibrating at higher frequencies, some vibrating at lower frequencies.  When you gather a group of people vibrating at higher frequencies, the GROUP energy is palpable – this was the case with our gathering this past weekend.  We were all there, fully present, open, and ready to go.

Science is finding who we are is different when we’re in a “community energy field” than when we are alone! Although this is an amazing fact, we’ve all experienced people and groups that inspire us, and people and groups that depress us. It’s obvious we are affected by others.  These are energetic fields that are affecting our own energetic field, the thoughts and feelings we are having, AND the actions we are taking. With this in mind, you can see why carefully choosing who you hang out with is a very important choice!

There’s an old saying “Where two or more are gathered, I am there among them.” To me, this is pointing toward the “group energy field” or even “The MasterMind,” and it only takes two to create it.  This is an active field of intelligence that we both contribute to and receive from as a member of a group.

This is one of the most powerful aspects of 1-on-1 coaching - you participate in a field of energy that brings new insights, inspirations, and ideas that you would never get while alone. See the “Raving Fan” testimonial in this issue for an example of a client experiencing exactly that within the “Major Good Mojo Program.”

While walking the path of transformation there are good days and bad days, and all kinds of days in between. However, I have found that walking with others not only makes it a whole lot more enjoyable, it also makes possible things that just aren’t possible when you are walking alone. We are on this planet with other people for a reason! If life was meant to be lived alone, you would BE alone. But alas, at last count, there are some 6 billion of us walking around!  For Major Good Mojo, finding your friends, the folks on your team, is essential.

One very interesting element of being with others is that who we are with others, is not who we are when alone. Think about it, who you are, the thoughts you are having, the things you say, the things you do, are different depending on who you are in the presence of. This is a very interesting characteristic of relationships. We’ve all been around people who make us feel good or who inspire us. And on the other hand, we’ve all been around people who depress us and suck the energy out of us. Clearly, we are affected by the people we are interacting with.

In the Spring 1996 issue of The Noetic Sciences Review, Margaret Wheatley (Organizational Consultant and author of Leadership and the New Science:  Learning About Organization from an Orderly Universe) wrote an article about the hidden intelligence orchestrating and organizing all things in the Universe.  In this article one of the things she points out is that who we are with others, or who we are in community, is different than who we are when alone. She stated, “You cannot understand the power of the individual by assessing or understanding who they are when alone.”  In our individualistic, lone-ranger society, this is a revolutionary concept!

To understand who someone is and the powers they possess, you have to look at them when in community and in relationship with others! Our gifts are designed for, and come foward, in the presence of others!  Margaret further pointed out that “none of the personality assessors or indicators (e.g. Myers-Briggs) let us know who or what we are capable of being when we are in community with one another.”  We are mistaken if we think we can understand what an individual is capable of by looking at them only when alone.

I almost always experience this phenomenon when presenting to or leading groups. Things I say and do are often emergent, in the moment, and something I’ve never said or done exactly that way before.  Often someone will ask “Can you say that again?” and I’ll be at a loss for saying it exactly the same way I just said it BECAUSE it was a channeled moment of non-thinking coming forth in the presence of others – not something I consciously and intentionally assembled in advance.  Another interesting aspect of this emergent capacity when in groups is that people will come up to me and say “What you said was so perfect for me – it was spot on for what I am dealing with in my life right now.”  This happens when I am in THEIR presence.  I could never have planned that in advance by myself.

Margaret provides a great example of 20-foot tall termite towers on the Australian savanna. When entomologists study the individual termite what they find is they are only capable of digging dirt piles. However, these 20 foot towers are amazingly complex feats of engineering, built on a north-south axis, with tunnels and arches inside designed to move air into a darkened interior where it is cooler. “The nests are also designed to move moisture in so the termites can farm a form of fungi they require for digestion. These are very sophisticated structures.”

Entomologists looked for years for the leader, for the engineer, for the “brains” behind the operation. But they never found one. What they found when they looked closer was an emergent capacity in the termites that was only present when in community. If you looked just at an individual termite, all you saw was that they could dig. But when they got together, new capacities for building began to emerge. “Isolated, they barely have any significance. But as a coordinated group they perform like a hive-mind. Like neurons, they emit chemicals for communication… they’re very tuned in… and they respond.”

The main take-away for accessing Major Good Mojo, is to realize that your capacities are different when you’re alone vs. when you’re with others. Choose wisely the company you keep!

 

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

Ask yourself:  Who and what in my life right now does not support my highest vision of myself? List out these people, groups, activities, and things. Decide right now to give less of your time, attention, and energy to these things on your path that are not serving you (nor is it serving them!).

Then ask yourself:  Who and what in my life right now does support my highest vision of myself? List out these people, groups, activities, and things. Decide right now to give more of your time, attention, and energy to these things on your path that are serving and supporting the highest vision of yourself.

Congratulations!  You’re one step closer to surrounding yourself with inspiring energy fields and accessing Major Good Mojo!

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You Are What You Practice

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| 2 Comments

Each day I consciously and intentionally practice. I have multiple practices I have learned, developed, and engaged over the years (and that I teach!).  I have shaped many practices so that they really work for me.  I havlife forcee a formal, spiritual practice I engage for 90 minutes each morning – a blend of yoga, aikido, breath work, deep relaxation, affirmations, meditation, and more.

It’s important to note I wasn’t automatically doing this every morning for 90 minutes.  It took several years for me to evolve to a place where NOT doing it was more difficult than doing it.  It’s now a habit that my body wants to engage – I’m very present to the power and benefits of my practice and really miss them when I don’t.  Over the past couple of years, what’s been happening for me is MY LIFE is becoming my practice. Yes, I still have my focused routines, but as I have become more and more aware in each and every moment, each moment becomes an opportunity for practice.  It’s WAY COOL.

Did you know that you already have a “practice” that you’re doing each and every day? People often say to me “I don’t have time to practice, I’m way too busy.”  You know what I say to them?  You already are practicing.  For starters you’re practicing being way too busy.  We are beings of choice, and as much as we might like to place that “burden” on someone else, we ARE choosing how we spend each moment of every day.

Someone once said “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” To practice or not to practice is NOT the choice.  The choice is WHAT to practice.  Most people make this choice unconsciously.  And I’ll be the first to admit it really takes something to “wake yourself up” moment by moment and become conscious of the choices you are making.  It’s a practice… J

What you are already doing each and every day IS your practice. And we become what we practice!  The question is WHAT IS IT you are practicing?  Think about that for a moment.  Are you practicing being too busy, tired, broke, irritable, stingy, fearful, worried, and concerned?  Or are you practicing being peaceful, present, joyful, inspired, rested, optimistic, abundant, friendly, curious and open?  Believe it or not, this IS a choice you’re making and a practice you’re engaging.  And the more you practice something, the better you get at it, for better or worse!

I cannot overemphasize how important it is to consciously choose a long-term practice for your personal transformation. Great Spirit really wants to express itself through us, but we’ve got to cultivate our container for that amazing energy to come through!  We have to do OUR part – it’s a partnership.  And it’s through our practices, day in and day out, that we can best cultivate our container (or channel) for the fullest expression of Life Force Energy.

Note, the practice of maximizing your ability to partner with Life Force Energy is not done overnight. It is in a long-term practice that your true transformation and evolution will be most powerfully facilitated – you have the time to experience what does and doesn’t work for you. You find out what is and is not efficient for you, and then you are able to tune and optimize.

As you may or may not fully realize, regardless of our hopes and fantasies for overnight miracle cures and magic, transformation tends to happen over time. You want to be on a path of regular practice that marks your way, guides and supports you, and keeps you and your evolution on track. It’s like creating a groove in a piece of wood with a rock, or perhaps on a piece of glass with a diamond – the first time you practice you just scratch the surface of the wood or glass. But, then each time you practice, over and over again, you deepen that groove. You deepen your capacity to experience what you prefer.

In the Major Good Mojo System, we practice connecting to Source and Heart Wisdom. We practice seeing the good in everything, going with the flow, transcending subconscious limiting beliefs, embracing the contraction and low energy times in life, and joyfully expressing and creating authentic life purpose.  All of these, over time with practice, eventually make up the natural path for divine energy flow in your life.

For your practice to have deep transformational value it must happen independent of what is going on in your life. Very often what happens is we get all excited to start something new, then when the newness wears off and the reality of the path sets in, we bail.  This is, typically, homeostasis at work.  Homeostasis is the tendency of life to maintain the status quo. Although a good and natural phenomenon, we must gently negotiate with this tendency in order to evolve and transform into the fullness of our vision.  One very powerful way to do this is to commit to your practice – no matter what.  Just remove your ability to question “whether you will do it or not.” You will.  If life rules you, you will soon stop your practice. However, if you engage your practice independent of the conditions in your life, or ideally along with the circumstances and conditions of your life, you can persist.

Also, don’t be afraid to try out different practices and do what works for you. I’ve engaged many different forms and my transformational practice continues to evolve even today. As I learn new things, I embrace what works for me, and let go of what never did, or no longer does. Something may work for you and be very powerful at one stage of your life, but then you grow beyond it and are ready for something else. Don’t feel like you have to select something and stay with it forever. Be free to evolve and engage and create what works for you.

A formal spiritual practice engaged each day is one of the best ways to efficiently cultivate our Partnership with Source and those characteristics of life we most deeply want to be and experience. However, we can begin consciously practicing in small ways wherever we are right now. The most important thing is to consciously create and engage a transformational practice.

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

 

Look in your life and identify what you are practicing right now.  Just make a list of the things you see you are practicing each day. The path of practice starts with waking up to where you are right now.  It doesn’t matter if you believe you have a choice to do these things or not – just write down what you see you are being and doing each day.  Are you peacefully productive each day, or often running and rushing from thing to thing?  Are you waking up with joyful anticipation of the day, or a sense of dread?  Do you smile and make eye contact with people you see, or do you look away and avoid them?  All these things are a practice and create our experience of being alive.

Now, consciously choose at least one, and maybe several, NEW practices you are going to engage each day. Choose practices that will cultivate the experiences in life you wish to be, do, and have.  Perhaps you’ll practice having moments of peacefulness (a one-minute moment of silence now and then), friendliness (saying “Hi” to strangers), optimism (upon awakening identify the things you’re looking forward to that day), presence (giving your full attention to each task), trust (allow someone else to do something for you), openness (listening deeply to others), or curiosity (asking more questions in your conversations).

Congratulations.  The choice is yours. You’re now consciously practicing.

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Mother is Missing You!

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| 2 Comments

This is a picture of me celebrating my birthday with my Mother! I know it doesn’t look like it, but hold on just one second.  I love my birth mother – she’s an angel on earth, but this is the Mother of all of us – Mother Earth!

Yesterday I took the day off and celebrated my birthday doing things I love – my ITP Kata at sunrise, hiking the Falls Trail in California’s Mount Diablo State Park (practically in my back yard), eating amazing sushi, and writing this blog.

My hike was very special – I made it a sacred journey by bringing my full attention (best I could) into every moment. Whenever I would think about the future, or something I had to do, as soon as I noticed I was doing that, I let it go and brought my attention back to the amazing world I was in.

I also gave myself permission to do some things I wouldn’t normally do: I gave a big oak tree a full body hug for about 5 minutes (yes, it hugged me back!); I laid in a beautiful meadow looking up at the perfectly blue sky listening to the wind, birds, and bees buzzing around; I sat on a rock outcropping Indian-style and meditated for 15 minutes; I walked very slowly and quietly for periods of time while activating all my senses; and I practiced Earthing.  Earthing?  Yes, Earthing.  Maybe you’ve heard of it.  I found a nice stream next to a small waterfall, took off my shoes and socks, and set my feet down into the sandy bottom, and for more than 30 minutes I connected myself – my entire energy field – directly into the HUGE energy field of Mother Earth herself.

Over the years I have heard a great deal about the benefits of connecting directly barefooted with the earth, and even practiced a bit of it. On retreat with John Gray (Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus) at his hilltop ranch in Mendocino California he talked a fair amount about it.  In the instructions for my Egyptian Healing Rods they suggest while using them you place your bare feet on the earth.  And guidelines for Sun Gazing also recommend connecting to the earth barefooted while practicing the method.  Now, a whole book on it (shown in the picture above and available on Amazon.com) recently came out called Earthing – The Most Important Health Discovery Ever? by Clinton Ober, Stephen Sinatra, and Martin Zucker.

Here’s the thing:  in our modern world and lifestyle WE ARE INSULATED FROM THE EARTH! And it’s only relatively recently in our human history that this has been the case.  We are now coming to realize the detrimental effects of this insulation and disconnection from our Mother herself. There are many ways we can connect with the Earth and Nature – just going on a walk outside can transform you!  Connecting with the Earth is one of the steps in my “10-Step Major Good Mojo System – it’s part of Step 9:  “Feel good in your body – look after it!”

Next Sunday, May 9th is the American celebration of Mother’s Day and we honor and celebrate givers of life, including the ultimate mother, Mother Earth! It’s a whole new twist on Mother’s Day!

“We live on a planet alive with natural energies.  Its surface teems with subtly pulsating frequencies, a phenomenon unknown to most people. Who regards the sand, grass, sidewalk, or dirt beneath their feet as an energy field?  But that indeed is what the ground is and always has been.

“Put another way, your planet is a six sextillion (that’s a six followed by twenty-one zeroes) metric ton battery that is continually being replenished by solar radiation, lightning, and heat from its deep-down molten core.  And Just like a battery in a car keeps the motor running and the wheels turning, so too, do the rhythmic pulsations of natural energy flowing through and emanating from the surface of the Earth keep the biological machinery of global life running in rhythm and balance – for everything that lives on the land or in the sea.”

- From the book Earthing – The most important health discovery ever? by Clinton Ober, Stephen Sinatra, and Martin Zucker.

We have become a society of people who are focused from the neck up. Stuck in our heads, we are so often completely disconnected from the power and wisdom of the Earth, our body, and especially our hearts. This disconnect, created by high-tech systems and skewed priorities, leads us to think about the world, and to analyze and manipulate it, rather than be in it. Furthermore, this habitual way of being creates an experience of separation, so that we feel, “I am here, and the world is out there.” And since the world is “out there separate from me,” then we try to analyze it, understand it, and judge it. We try to control and manipulate it. All this we do to ensure our survival, satisfy our needs, minimize our suffering, and maximize our pleasurable experiences. How tiring!

We have been conditioned out of our bodies, away from the Earth, and into our heads, where we have been stuck, wondering why life is not more rich. We sense life could be more beautiful and yet cannot think our way into making it so. While thinking as a process certainly can be valuable, thinking about life is the booby prize!

As one part of my proprietary Major Good Mojo System I include a variety of powerful processes to reconnect my clients with the elements they are made of:  Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Right now we are talking about the Earth element.  In our world of rational, logical, thinking and doing, Earthing could be seen as a radical, even revolutionary action!  Earthing requires no thinking –  you just put your bare feet on the earth and sit there for 30 minutes or more.  Beyond that, you do not have to “do” anything else – you don’t have to manipulate anything.  Mother Nature, Mother Earth (and the wisdom of your body) takes care of everything else.  Isn’t that miraculous?  This is an EXPERIENCE, an experience of becoming connected to your Source, of becoming integrated back into the world from which you come.  It’s an experience of coming home.

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

This is real simple folks: take off your shoes and go connect with your Mother! Mother Earth!  Bare earth and dirt is best.  Find a place outside where you can clear a small patch of earth where you can place your bare feet in direct contact – you can use a lawn or patio chair if you like.  Slightly damp or moist earth provides the best connection; you can add water if needed.  Just put your feet there and sit for 30 minutes or more. See if you can FEEL the electron exchange and balancing taking place throughout your body. Like many of the most powerful things in life, it’s very subtle, but if you consciously direct your attention inward, you literally can feel it!

Happy Mother’s Day!

 

 

 

 

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The Secret to Success is….. Failure

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

John F Kennedy.

This is a picture of me with Robert Winn, founder of Spirit in Motion and creator of the Soul Breathing process and workshops. I spent this past weekend with him hosting his Soul Breathing Intensive in Berkeley, CA – and yes, it was intense!  In a very, VERY good way.  To sum it up, I would say we expanded our capacity for experiencing life – especially on the emotional and physical levels – opening areas we had closed down, and opening areas we didn’t even know we had.

I was impressed with the skill Robert demonstrated in his ability to facilitate this experience in me and the participants, and it brought to mind what I read in this month’s Spirituality & Health magazine about being with a good teacher.  Encounters with a good teacher should be: humbling, rather than humiliating; liberating, rather than enslaving; honoring differences, rather than demanding conformity; and more about the truth, rather than the teacher.

In addition to these characteristics, one of my litmus tests for a great teacher is his or her willingness to share “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” It’s true – the truth WILL set you free!  This is about authenticity and transparency.  It demonstrates courage, trust, and a well-grounded understanding and respect for the process of becoming FULLY human, FULLY expressed, and FULLY free in one’s unique life path.  If you look into the life path of any now powerful human being, you will see trials and tribulations, you will see a learning curve, you will see “failure.”  The good teachers admit this, others hide it.

Robert freely admits and talks about how he was emotionally retarded, completely disconnected from his emotional and physical body. How he suffered a divorce that was devastating. And all the other challenges on his path of becoming a masterful breath worker.

What is the nature of failure on one’s path. And how do we learn to appreciate the age old quote: “Fall down seven times, get up eight?”

Success is series of failures,

but nobody wants to believe this,

experience this, or talk about this.

We seem to think if we ignore this “fact of life” it will somehow go away, or “it just won’t happen to me.” I listen very carefully to successful people as they talk about their path to success and I haven’t heard a single person say they had no challenges or failures. However, almost all of them barely mention these experiences in their lives and very quickly gloss over their “challenges, frustrations, and failures” on their path and go right to the “good part” of success they are now experiencing. Why do they do this? Because no one wants to focus on and hear about the failures – people just want to hear about the success. No one wants to hear that they themselves may have to “fail” before they experience success. Do you? I don’t. But I’d rather hear the truth than be spoon fed some fantasy. Because of the unpopularity of “challenge, frustration, and failure,” these critical success elements get minimized and underappreciated as the MAJOR, CRITICAL and KEY stepping stones to success they actually are!

Due to our schooling and years of indoctrination we have an incredibly low tolerance for mistakes. As school children we learned that mistakes are bad and that getting a 100% on the test is good. If a context wherein mistakes are viewed as opportunities for learning is missing, they are represented as failures. Our education system taught us to memorize and then regurgitate facts onto a test. Perhaps as a measurement of our ability to memorize, this would not be so bad. But in the ever-changing real world, where memorized facts rarely produce the result you are looking for, this type of learning is not very effective. The REAL process of accomplishing anything will involve trial and error, with mistakes along the path being very common.

The classic example of this is inventor Thomas Edison. Depending on which source you look at, it took him somewhere around 1,000 attempts to finally invent the light bulb (which remains relatively unchanged to this day!). When asked by a reporter why he failed so many times, he replied (and I’m paraphrasing here) “I never failed, each trial taught me how not to make it and brought me one step closer to success.” Brilliant!

I discovered another great example of this in the bonus materials on the DVD of the Academy Award winning movie A Beautiful Mind. In the segment on “The Making of the Movie A Beautiful Mind” the writer discusses how he literally re-wrote a scene 75 times! Each re-write had fewer and fewer words, until he finally nailed it. The scene, only seconds in duration, moves me to tears each time I watch it, but you would never know the extraordinary amount of trial and error that went on behind its creation.

Now look at these two examples. Notice these are both successful people; one as an inventor the other as a writer. They know what they are doing! They are experienced in the fields they are working in, and their path to success was laden with “failed” attempts. Consider that when creating or engaging something new, THIS is the mark of a true professional. He or she “learns from each attempt” (what is and is not working) and subsequently makes adjustments and tries again. In this context you are not experiencing failure, rather you are experiencing a learning process.

One of my favorite trainers is T. Harv Eker (founder of Peak Potentials Training and best selling author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind). He says he failed at something like 17 different businesses before he found his niche and became a millionaire. He is known for saying “Every master was once a disaster.” This very clearly points out the learning process that all, eventually masterful, people go through. He also says things like “He who makes the most mistakes fastest wins,” “Fail forward fast,” and “Correct and continue.” All of these statements point toward the inevitable process of learning we will all experience as we engage our life path and passions.

Now, I can write about this with some authority because I have had ample opportunity to “Correct and continue” and to “engage my learning processes.” I’ve experienced numerous “failures” along my life path and to be honest, at the time, they did feel like failures. It really comes down to understanding and perspective, and these we only gain over time. Today, I can see how all of these experiences have contributed to my life path and have created who I am. Here is list of some of my “failures” and past learning opportunities:  internet dot com start-up, network marketing, real estate investments, stock market investments, transformational business leadership, small business purchases, small business creation, author (yes, I engaged the writing path several times), life-coach, relationships & engagement, to name a few.

Human beings 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 i s 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. It’s normal to avoid painful experiences and to wish them out of our lives, but 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 create.

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

List out all your “failures” – every single one of them, make a big, long list of your disappointments in life (just listing these out will create freedom and movement in your life). Now celebrate them! Think of all the learning these experiences have created for you. Know that, because of these experiences, you are better prepared and ready for success than ever before! Now burn that list and release any negative judgments you may still be holding regarding those experiences and allo w them to be the stepping stones on your evolutionary path of success they actually are.  You have fallen down seven times, now get up eight!

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The Most Important Spiritual Choice of Your Life

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

Are you present to the abundance of opportunities and choices available to you in each and every moment? It truly is amazing! From what foods to eat, to what people to connect with, to when to go to bed and wake up, to what you will do in this moment and the next – the choices and options are literally limitless!

We are making choices all day long in each and every moment. One could say that life is basically a series of choices. The choices you are making today not only create and affect your current moment experience, but in fact, are creating your future moments and experiences. Our “future” is basically the culmination of the series of choices we have made over the past. Just look around you – everything, every aspect of your entire life at this moment, you have chosen. Wow! We are very powerful.

As you reflect on this truth, it becomes clear that “wisely choosing” in each and every moment is the key to creating our life as we desire it. But how do we “wisely choose”? Since there is an infinite number of choices and options available to us in every moment, how do we know which is the right one?

The answer to this question is multi-fold, but a MAJOR factor is being connected to your body-based wisdom, to Source-based intelligence. This is how you will know. The “head,” by itself, has no vision and is simply a task-manager – I’m sure you know what it’s like when this task-manager is running your life – miserable! This head-based task-manager needs a leader; it needs a vision and some wise guidance. The “tasks” need to be informed by a larger context.

So, how do we “choose wisely?”

On the path of transformation and evolution it’s quite likely you’ll experience many moments of epiphany and enlightenment. These are fabulous moments and times in one’s life. One that I’d like to share with you from my life was particularly impactful because I received some insight that has made a big difference for me in my day-to-day life. I’m hoping it will make a difference for you too.

At this particular time in my life I was working very hard in a corporate role with a lot of responsibility. I had planned a 4 day silent retreat on the Big Sur Coast of California. I had reservations at a hermitage down there and I was going to spend three nights and four full days in silence; both in solitude and with the Christian monks that are in residence there. I had never done anything like that before and I didn’t know what to expect, but I was looking forward to it.

So I headed on down there, checked in, got to my trailer, and set up shop. I had taken only the basics: a couple books, my journal, and some warm clothes since it can get quite cold and foggy. While I brought my computer and cell phone, I purposely left them turned off and in the car – if I was going to do this thing I wasn’t going to cheat myself out the experience by doing stuff I was always doing.

Given the high-speed mode I had been running in, it took a little while to settle into the energy and rhythm of the place. If you’ve never been there, the Big Sur coast is one of the most spectacular and powerful places on the planet and I highly recommend you visit. On about the second or third day I decided to go on a walk down the winding, mile long driveway that connects the hermitage to Highway 1 that runs along the ocean (The Pacific Coast Highway). The hermitage sits high on the mountainside overlooking a huge expanse of the Pacific Ocean.

As I was walking down this road I started becoming more and more open to everything around me. The flowers that were blooming were brighter than I would normally see them. The trees and the birds and everything was coming into my awareness at a more intense level, and it kept unfolding that way as I continued down the path. It was the most amazing experience. I even wrote a short poem after this experience called “Look At That, Wow!” because everything I looked at was a Wow! experience. It was that impressive, it was amazing.

Eventually I came to this one particular bend in the road where there was a rock outcropping. As I stepped out onto that outcropping, I was grounded on that solid piece of earth. From there, the spectacular Big Sur coastline unfolded and laid out to my left as far as my eyes could see. And out in front of me was the Pacific Ocean going out as far as I could see, gleaming in the sunshine. And above me was the sky, huge and abundant, with these little white clouds floating in it. And I just stood there on that rock. And my heart broke wide open. I couldn’t contain the emotion I was experiencing, the love was just pouring down though me. That’s the best way I can describe it. I just opened up in that moment and had that experience of oneness. That everything is fine. Everything is OK. I have a place in the Universe. And this is it. There is nothing to do. Nowhere to go. Everything is whole and complete, right here, right now.

At that moment I was so FULFILLED and so connected to the energy of the Universe that I yelled out “Don’t ever leave me!” And what I instantly heard back was “We can’t. Only you can leave us.” And I started laughing, because in that moment it was so blatantly obvious to me that indeed, it’s ME that is coming & going, connecting & disconnecting. I am in the driver’s seat and I am choosing. Just like you are. It or They, or however you want to contextualize it for you in your experience – Universal Intelligence, Great Spirit, Source, God Energy – is always there. And it’s us that is moving in and out of connection with It.

God, Universal Intelligence, Great Spirit, Source is ALWAYS available. You’re NEVER alone. You can count on that and rely on that. And THAT is a beautiful thing.

Pay attention to the choices you are making. If you find yourself wondering “Where is God? Where is this Universal Love and Intelligence in MY life?” Consider that God, Universal Love and Intelligence is wondering where YOU are?” Your partnership with Source, with Life Force Energy, is something YOU must choose, initiate, and develop. You must take that first step.

Proactively CHOOSE to stop your life, your thoughts, and your “busy-ness” and create some space to hear that “still small voice” inside. Universal Intelligence is waiting for YOU to make this choice – “It” will not force itself upon you – YOU must willingly choose to allow “It.” This is perhaps the most profound and important choice of your life. Making THIS choice will provide new context and vision for your life and enable wise-choosing in your moments to come. Are you willing? The choice is yours.

 

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