Transformation

There are some things about us that just are the way they are. And of course, that's true of everyone else. So if we're gonna give ourselves some slack, because we are who we are, and we have the tendencies we have, then that's true of others.

I read a really great article recently about the measure of happiness in most cultures around the world. What if the secret is not in pursuit, but in a shift or our expectations? What happens when we alter our thoughts about the purpose of life and living?

Regardless of how we may decide to navigate matters in our lives and world, there is great power in the ability to accept or allow the terms that life and living offer. That does not for a moment mean we don’t act.

Let's talk about speedbumps. It's not easy to decide to be different, often prompted by things that have gone awry, but instituting a speed bump, as simple as taking a breath when agitation arises, can make a significant difference.

How might our lives transform if we dared to explore and fulfill the purpose that our wild and precious journey calls us toward?

In the face of life's challenges, the common question arises: "How can I be okay with this?" Explored throughout the ages by philosophers, it touches on a universal struggle often concealed by coping mechanisms.

If there is a single factor which underlies my practices across time and across fields of play, it is the realization of potential. As long as I can remember, ideas about our ability to learn and grow have captivated me. I imagine the best description is that it is a “calling.”

Seeing differently changes our relationship to something. I don't know if we can change the world, but we absolutely can change our perspective and relationship to the world, and that changes everything.

Anytime we make something special or distinctive, we set into motion a whole cascade of events that negates others, and can turn the world in some disturbing directions.

It was one of the moments of being gobsmacked into awareness. However, it was preceded by a series of heartbreaking experiences.

This idea of emotional sobriety is so easily misunderstood. While it emerged from the twelve-step recovery community, it’s gained much wider adoption in our culture, which includes the misunderstandings.

There is a great phrase in the recovery communities and they call it the “language of the heart. " It is when we set aside a lot of the superficial things that many of us spend our time in: the small talk and all those things.

Ron returned to Unity Renaissance, his sometimes spiritual community, to carry the message of The Dark Side of Grace. While it is the title of his latest novel and the second in the Chronicles of Grace Series, it is also a most powerful part of his own spiritual experience and practice.

In the past few years, I've been writing an online saga of Ron Quixote. Yes. And his sidekick, Sancho pug. Yes, a pug on a donkey. It's really humanizing and right-sizing, as it allows me to get on with the business of navigating this world.

What if it's all normal? What if it's all just perfect based on time, place and circumstances that might cause us to be a little bent? What if we could see everyone and everything through that eye, through the lens of non-judgement?

After we can imagine, or even see, that we are swept up in things often beyond our awareness or control, even when we are being victimized, or when it is biological or physiological, that we somehow have a part in things, then we can turn to healing.

While these stories are not biography, they are much informed by my own lived experience, in this case and in the exploration of Post Traumatic Growth. Yes! The same tragedies that can wreck people lives can transform them. Yet, there is so very much darkness and ugliness to explore. 

It is both difficult and important to navigate conversations in an attentive environment like a live stage. This requires the speaker to be aware that something one may say could unintentionally offend those present. Therefore, it pays to remain conscious and reflective about the potential for such offenses.

Not long ago, in a conversation with a woman who is a long-time and avid student of inner growth and development, a pretty remarkable summary of our path for psycho-spiritual growth emerged.

One of the great disruptive Tibetan teachers once said that all real awakening is an experience, not a thought or even voiced. In the meantime, each day is a practice space. Always there is much with which to practice. 

Really great organizations, and I would extend to include really great people, do four things really well. This is a set of key principles of becoming great with your life, with your profession, with your world.

Some years ago, I had one of those great learning opportunities that come to us as people, professionals, etc. What that opportunity taught me was that maybe sometimes just listening really is the best value we can offer. I realized that's a little harder for those of us who think with our egos.

How does one choose the high road when a current reality may be horrible? Therein lies the great and strange conundrum we all face. Because we have not found our way to our own inner place of reconciliation with ourselves, we carry frustrations, resentments, prejudices and condemnation into our attitudes, actions and lives.

In my professional human development world, I spend a lot of time working with psychological assessments. One of the things I really like about the Enneagram is the way it thinks of us as humans. It doesn't think you ought to be different. It knows that you are who you are, you're baked the way you're baked.

Recent interactions with a few acquaintances has captured and focused my attention on the aging process, and whether we are continuing to grow and thrive, or contracting into a slow disintegration. Our psychology and physiology that are like sunlight to the psyche and body. Literally, meaning and relevance awaken and invigorate us.

Sometimes I come across research that I am enthralled by. That happened not too long ago, about two years actually, when I saw some incredible data. The data said that the best developmental interaction is interaction that allows the recipient a relationship of seven to one positive experiences to negative.

On life nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine, you have to forget everything you've learned in order to learn the final lessons of compassion…or whatever.

For the longest time, like many of us, I thought problem solving was largely to be focused on the external world. Then one day, I realized that many of our challenges with problems in our lives are internal ones.

“Ignore the callings of your soul at your peril.” It struck with such a resounding chord that I was catapulted into a deep reverie. While I’d love to provide some clear formula/approach/technique, my experience suggests there is no such cookie-cutter to be found where the Soul’s work unfolds.

Clearly we do not have control over what life brings, and the truth is we often don’t have any power over our feelings, attitudes, or reactions. It’s a human vanity to think we can choose, when in fact, choosing is simply not possible.