Tag Archives: Universal Love

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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Where is Wisdom? Why is it So Hard to Come By?

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

“We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.”  Marcel Proust (1871 – 1922)

Wisdom is deep inside each and every one of us. If wisdom is right here, right where we are, why are so few truly tapped in?

Today I am attending the Wisdom 2.0 Business Conference at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. This is a conference dedicated to exploring and developing the role of wisdom in the world of work. This is a topic I am keenly interested in, for I know there are untapped depths to be plumbed in each and every employee in the working world today.

In the working world of the past we have been asked to “check our souls at the door,” or said another way “to sell our souls to the corporation,” and blindly follow their lead, performing like automatons for the glory of a bigger bottom line. There was no place in this old working world for passion, heart, love, and dynamic solutions that address and fulfill the whole of human existence.

But today is a new day. And what used to work is increasingly failing us. The successful companies of tomorrow will have figured out how to employ ALL of their employees’ being – not just their minds, but also their bodies, hearts, and souls – and to employ those powerful and unique resources to truly meet the needs of the communities they serve. This will be divine work that includes the bottom line, but goes far beyond it.

In this blog we explore why wisdom is so hard to come by. Being able to access your own wisdom is a major outcome of the Major Good Mojo System.

Read on and enjoy!

Where is Wisdom? Why is it So Hard to Come By?

Wisdom comes from a deep place inside us, where most people rarely visit. Wisdom can be defined as thoughts, feelings, concepts, and ideas that are bigger than you and facilitate the greater good of the whole. The only way to have and experience these types of thoughts, feelings, concepts and ideas for yourself is to connect with something bigger than you. We can call this God, Universal Intelligence, Great Spirit, or Source.

This is no longer about religion, or faith, or philosophy. Today’s world demands we go beyond these limiting mental constructs deep into the felt experience of true wisdom. This depth, this experience, this wisdom, is available to each and every person willing to let go and surrender their “smaller self” into this larger “bigger than you” reality.

Both my book NexGen Human and my ´”10 Step Major Good Mojo System” are all about establishing a strong partnership with God, Universal Intelligence, Great Spirit, or Source. I see this as THE most critical skill to survive and thrive in the 21st century. With the amount of change, information, and choices exponentially increasing in our lives, it’s ESSENTIAL we connect with the changeless, infinite, wise guidance inside.

While Spirit communicates with us in many ways, one of the most powerful and effective ways I have found to partner with the power of the Universe is to tune into my own body. 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 and guidance.

So why aren’t more people doing this? If wisdom is available to each of us, inside us, why are we not tapped into it? Well, 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; 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, and those in the stomach have been named the belly-brain.

In addition, 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. And those neurons in the gut, they produce the familiar “gut instinct.” We haven’t really understood these things until now.

Someone once said “There is more wisdom from the neck down, than from the neck up.” This is an amazing thing to truly realize, and starts to turn our brain-centered, head-centered western way of thinking and being “on its head.” The bottom line here is that there is wisdom, insight, and intelligence coming from other parts of ourselves!

So why don’t we hear the wisdom from our body? First of all the head is so dominant with its screaming and yelling and nonstop fear-based messages that the subtle aspects of ourselves get drowned out; you just can’t hear them. The voice of wisdom coming from our body is the often-talked-about but seldom heard “still small voice.” It really is still and small. You have to want to hear it, get still, and really listen. If you don’t do this the head continues to dominate you with fear-based, survival-oriented commands. This is unfortunate, because with your head running your life, your life becomes a death march that’s all about avoiding pain, seeking pleasure, and controlling as much as possible. This is called survival and it’s completely void of God-like experiences including joy, unconditional love, compassion, inspiration, deep peace and serenity.

Here’s an interesting insight. Spiritual practices are pretty much ALL about one thing: connecting to Source. That’s it. In one way, shape, or form they are ALL doorways to connecting with Source. Chanting, meditating, prayer, postures, mudras, mantras, etc. etc. etc. Anything you can think of. Every single one of these things is A MEANS TO THE END. Mostly they are about calming and quieting our mental, physical, or emotional distractions. Why? So we can finally connect, hear, and EXPERIENCE that still small voice that is the God Inside each and every one of us.

Think of the mind, or your head, as the manager, and think of your body, and especially your heart, as the leader, as the visionary. Without a divinely inspired 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 mind, and disconnected from their body-based wisdom, that the mind is dysfunctionally running the show. With these insights your practice becomes about getting connected to your body and accessing ALL your wisdom.

To develop your felt experience of true wisdom, your strong connection with God, Universal Intelligence, Great Spirit, Source I invite you to engage The Major Good Mojo System.

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

Sit in a comfortable position with your feet flat on the ground and your hands resting on your thighs. Take several deep belly breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. Close your eyes and feel your awareness draining down from your head, down into your body. You can literally sense this energetic shift of awareness-energy coming down from your head, down into your body. Imagine your awareness just melting down from your head down into your body as you breathe deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth. Do this for a minute or two and longer if you want.

Once you have moved your awareness down into your body, just sit calmly in that state for a few moments and notice the quality of your thoughts and feelings. If you have truly succeeded at moving your awareness-energy down into your body, your will likely notice your thoughts are more peaceful, calm, confident, courageous, loving, inspired, and actually wise.  More, one might say, “God-like” in their quality.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Open Up and Bloom – It’s Your Choice

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| Leave a comment

It has been said that human beings are the only creatures privileged with the ability to refuse to bloom and open up. Why is that? Why are we privileged in this sense and why do we resist?

We are privileged because as conscious beings we have the power of choice. You can say yes to things or you can say no. You can say yes to Divine Guidance and Wisdom or you can resist and say no. It’s your choice. Consider this quote by Rumi: “Who says the eternal being does not exist? Who says the sun has gone out? Someone who climbs up on the roof, and closes his eyes tight, and says I don’t see anything.” You see, you CAN go to the rooftop and close your eyes tightly – it’s your choice. Buy why would you do that? Well, there are a lot of reasons, but a big one may be having been hurt by past experiences of trusting and opening up.

And why do we resist? Because we’ve been hurt in the past, or experienced other “flavors” of hurt like disappointment and failure. We close down and resist blooming and opening. This is a normal human mechanism for safety and protection that can of course be helpful. We’ve been hurt before and we don’t want it to happen again so we create strategies to prevent it. However, things are always changing, and these automatic mechanisms and strategies can become outdated over time and become more hurtful than helpful.

At some point the resistance to blooming can become so painful that we must choose to bloom! However, before reaching that point, we can help the blooming process by proactively looking at those things that are keeping us closed and resistant. We can look for the outdated strategies that are no longer helpful, and begin to dismantle them and their grip on our life. Doing this important work is the topic of this blog and is Step 7 of the Major Good Mojo System “Let Go of Old, Negative Stuff – Beliefs, Habits, and Patterns.” 

NOTE:  An easy and powerful tool that will help you address and clear negative beliefs and blocks is a short guided-meditation audio program called “Shift It.” Check it out here!

Read on and enjoy!

Open Up and Bloom! – It’s Your Choice

Step 7 of the Major Good Mojo System is “Let Go of Old, Negative Stuff – Beliefs, Habits, and Patterns.” As soon as someone steps onto their new path toward their new life, what they typically run into are all their old beliefs and habits that have been holding them back. It is vital to understand this and be able to address it. If you are not able to see, work with, release and transform old beliefs and habits that hold you in place, you will very quickly return to your old life and be even more resigned. You may say to yourself that you “tried” and it just didn’t work out. You will resist your blooming.

I have dealt with this a lot in my own life and, frankly, I still do. Often I would go to an amazing and inspiring seminar or workshop, come out ready to take on the world, only to find my old habits and ways of being creeping back in over the next few weeks. A month or more out from the workshop it was as if my brain was asking, “what workshop?”

Getting insights and inspiration is important, but is only the beginning. One of the down-side problems relating to weekend workshops and seminars is the lack of long-term support. There is often no process in place to work out the old ways of being that participants took with them into that workshop. There’s typically not even an acknowledgement that these things even exist!  I’m sure you’ve experienced this in your own life and know it to be true. Lots of people are offering fascinating and inspiring programs, but what is missing is the follow up. Old beliefs and habits have far more momentum and are far more ingrained than any new idea or inspiration. Without the follow up, most of the new ideas will die on the vine.

Learning how to let go of old negative beliefs, habits, and patterns is THE difference between success and failure. In my opinion this is why people became frustrated with the movie “The Secret.” They went out and asked for and believed they could have something. But what they were not told is that there is a huge part of them that does not believe they can have it, or should have it, or deserve it, or that it’s even possible. That’s what a friend of mine has called “The Dirty Little Secret.” The dirty little secret is that when you truly desire something and commit to having it, what comes up for you are all the beliefs or constructs that kept you from having it in the first place.  These must be released for true fulfillment to take place.

I know how hard it is to let go of negative beliefs and habits. That is why I created an audio program called “Shift It.” This is an easy and powerful tool specifically designed to address negative beliefs and blocks. Check it out here.

I have experienced and worked with MANY different tools and processes for releasing and transforming beliefs and habits we no longer prefer to uphold. The tools and processes that really work have these three things in common:

1) They make you stop and notice what is happening; you become a conscious witness to the FACTS about the situation(s),

 2) They invite you to embrace all aspects of your experience of the situation: physical, mental, emotional. You must embrace and allow the truth of your experience – the only way out is through. 

3) Once you’ve gone into the uncomfortable aspects and felt and allowed them, you then open up to new insights and possibilities for your life.

You can think of this generalized process as a bridge between two lands: your current, limited reality/experience, and your desired, expanded reality/experience. The bridge between these two lands is courageously built by embracing and allowing your truth and the full-body experience of the issue, situation, or challenge. Basically, you are consciously embracing all your “fears of what might happen.” Once you’ve done this, it is like magic! New insights and possibilities automatically begin arising.

When you engage the Major Good Mojo System I will walk you through several very powerful processes to open new doors in your life and embrace your blooming. And, even better, I will teach you these processes so you can do it for yourself for the rest of your life. To experience the power this can provide in your life, I invite you to engage the The Major Good Mojo System.

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

Where are you “tightly closing your eyes” and afraid of seeing the rising sun? Where are you resisting your blooming?  

Think of an uncomfortable or frustrating situation in your life right now. Write down one or two sentences that simply describe the facts of that situation. Then, write down how you feel about it; what are all the thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations you experience when you think about this situation? Do you feel angry, mad, tired, resigned, or perhaps sad? Where in your body do you feel these feelings? Point to and describe the physical feelings you are having. It might be tension or tightness, a “sick to the stomach” feeling, a numbness, or perhaps heat or hotness.

Allow yourself to notice and experience these feelings. Fully go into them with an open curiosity, with an attitude of “Wow, look how irritated I am” or “Wow, look how much tension I have around this situation.” Just notice and allow whatever is there for you as you think about the situation. This should only take two or three minutes, but take as much time as you need.

Then, once you have embraced and allowed your experience, begin opening up to new insights, ideas, or thoughts that may be arising. Just turn your attention toward “new ways of holding or moving through the situation.” You can even ask, “In what new ways might I hold this situation.” Then listen quietly for your intuition and insights to arise. In the beginning, a process like this is best engaged with a skilled facilitator. However, with some courage, compassion, and gentleness, you can certainly make some headway on your own.

Congratulations – you are choosing to bloom and are building bridges to new lands of Major Good Mojo!

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Top 10 Reasons to Get Divinely Connected

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Roger Kenneth Marsh| 2 Comments

Some of you may recognize the two men in the picture above. One of them is me! The other is Neale Donald Walsch, author of the Conversations with God book series.  These books were life changing for me when I read them more than 15 years ago.

While there are many thought provoking ideas and concepts in those books, what impacted me most was the concept that I could actually HAVE a conversation with God. In most traditional models this is considered blasphemy. You see, not that long ago (relatively speaking) “God” was taken out of the world and put up on throne in the sky – separate from us and separate from this world – with some very specific (and controlled) means for accessing “him.” Like everything (thank God!) things evolve and new models and approaches have emerged that bring God/Universal Intelligence/Great Spirit much closer to home!  

In this blog we’ll explore the Top 10 Reasons for Getting Divinely Connected. We’ll take a closer look at the benefits, explore why it’s important, and why someone would even want to do it! Getting Divinely Connected is something that can be learned, practiced, and developed. In fact, it is a key piece of the Major Good Mojo System. Since the Divine literally IS the source of your life, quite frankly, I can’t think of anything more important and powerful than getting Divinely Connected.

The Top 10 Reasons to Get Divinely Connected

When you think of “The Divine” or “God” or “Great Spirit” or ”Infinite Intelligence,” what do you think of? Do you think of love, compassion, wisdom, inspiration, and miracles? In my experience, these are all characteristics of The Divine. The more I get connected to The Divine, the more these characteristics become a part of me, and the more I experience them in my life. One could say that getting Divinely Connected is about becoming “more like God” in your life. Pretty cool, yes?

Here are the Top 10 Reasons to Get Divinely Connected. These are not in any priority or order – they are ALL incredibly valuable and important. I’ve found that their relative importance tends to depend on the particular life experience and situations one is in.

1) Peace. No matter what.  When Divinely Connected you KNOW everything is always OK, no matter what, and no matter how it may look.

2) Wise guidance for life choices. When Divinely Connected you have access to the most wise and informed friend, which is hugely beneficial and an amazing stress and time saver! Also, invaluable for those “tough times” in life.

3) Unconditional love.  Some people say that “getting the love you want” is what life is all about (at least that’s what everyone is subconsciously trying to get) – “All I want is to be loved!” When Divinely Connected, you already got all the love you want – unwavering, always there, and supremely satisfying. There is no substitute.

4) Synchronicities, miracles, and magic. This is one of my favorites. When Divinely Connected the Universe is always “winking at you.” Things happen (far beyond coincidence) that you could never have orchestrated on your own.

5) Power. This is somewhat related to number 4, but different. When Divinely Connected you can trust in a “power greater than yourself.” This means you KNOW you don’t have to do it all (and you can’t anyhow!). You can “share the burden” and have everything turn out.  This GREATLY reduces stress.

6) You’re never alone. When Divinely Connected you’re always with the most loyal, loving, supportive, inspiring, compassionate presence. The ideal friend/spouse/companion!

7) Wonder and awe. When Divinely Connected you can see beyond the flat material world into the animating energy of it all. This is related to the Einstein quote “Either everything is a miracle, or nothing is.”

8) Compassion for others. When Divinely Connected you see the bigger picture and know that everyone is doing the best they can, with the consciousness they have, inside the circumstances of their life. Instead of anger, your heart goes out to people since you know that if they were Divinely Connected they wouldn’t be doing some of the things they do. (One definition of “evil” is simply “absence of the Divine”).

9) Gratitude and humility. When Divinely Connected every moment is a gift. You’re present to the undeniable beauty of the world and amazed and humbled by it all.

And last but not least:

10) No fear of death. When Divinely Connected you see, experience, and KNOW the infinite, eternal nature and reality of life. You know there is no death – only transformation and transitions. This provides a huge degree of freedom to simply live!

All of this can be had with practice. Without a practice, without intentionally and consciously looking for the Divine, without actively creating your Connection, it will remain a mysterious fantasy, a non-reality, perhaps even as a “crutch for those that can’t handle the real world.”

However, the more you look and have faith, the more you see. The more you see, the more you believe. The more you believe, the more you experience. And the more you experience, the more you KNOW. You don’t “think” and “believe” in God, you KNOW God. You are Divinely Connected!

Getting Divinely Connected is something that can be learned, practiced, and developed. In fact, it is a key piece of the Major Good Mojo System. If you want to get Divinely Connected, I invite you to engage the The Major Good Mojo Coaching Program.

Your Major Good Mojo Assignment:

Explore your current connection and relationship with God/Universal Intelligence/Great Spirit/Source. How strong is this connection? How clear? How free and empowered are you in that relationship? Is there an opportunity for you to strengthen this relationship?  Then make yourself comfortable, take a few deep breaths, close your eyes, and ask yourself “How might I increase my connection with the Divine?”  Then listen to what comes forth.  Perhaps you’ll start a meditation practice, or journal, or sit quietly in your garden in the morning, or maybe even engage The Major Good Mojo Program!

 

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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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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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