Sunday, July 12, 2009

Creating a Circle

As I joined an estimated billion people to watch the Michael Jackson memorial service on television last week, I was reminded of the power of coming together as a group.

All the drama surrounding his relatively short life aside, people came to L.A.’s Staples Center to say “goodbye,” to the King of Pop, and others to simply say “thank you,” but it is likely that everyone present and watching was there to honor his talent and cement a memory. And with all that talent assembled under one roof, it was an undeniable success — there is comfort and strength in a group, and energy far more potent than an individual could muster.

In our every day lives filled with work to satisfy external needs (
housekeeping, grocery shopping, child rearing, television time and never enough sleep) we often forget to tap into the support of a like-minded group to nurture our “insides.”

It’s no secret that we’
ve become an isolated people. Oh, we have friends, but more often than not, thanks to cell phones, text messaging, e-mail and the Internet in general, we rarely meet face-to-face with anyone anymore — least of all those who are on the same spiritual or self-development path. Life has become so cluttered that there’s no time for the maintenance work, it seems — who has time for all that backburner “feel-good” stuff when there’s only a handful of free hours this weekend, right?

Well, you do. That is, if you’d like to see changes in your life. How many times have you set a goal quietly to yourself and forgotten it by morning? If you are like me, lots. But when a goal is declared to a supportive group, there’s nothing like leverage from the outside to keep you honest, that’s for sure.

I’
ve always been the type to lobby for change if I thought a situation was problematic or stale… “No use complaining if you can do something about it instead,” is the way I try to look at life. Positive energy, aimed directly and long enough, yields great results.

Several years ago, after a
conversation with my friend Mary Beth about the women’s circles held at the spiritual center I was attending at the time, she suggested I read Jean Shinoda Bolen’s “The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and the World.” When I’m feeling a bit “useless” in life, or stuck in a rut, I turn to either volunteering or some sort of charitable effort like raising money for animal welfare groups. But this time I craved something entirely new.

The idea of a circle appealed to me greatly: learning from wiser women, cocooning with new friends, challenging my own beliefs, and being supportive of another’s goals. Best of all, I wanted to renew my faith in the human ability to create, and wanted to feel the thrill and magic of seeing imagined dreams come true.

I chose several spiritually like-minded and positive friends, and invited them to start a circle. Three replied, and a couple weeks later we held our first circle at my house.

The rules were simple: Everyone had to start by reading
Bolen’s book, so we are all “on the same page;” I would get the circle started and coordinate the dates, times, and locations for meetings, but we all had an equal say and level of contribution to the meetings, which usually lasted about 1.5 hours, every other Sunday. We kept in touch on topics via e-mail and opened the circles by each choosing a random word/page for ourselves from “Words of Wisdom for Women,” by Rachel Snyder and reading it aloud. Each of us took turns hosting and choosing a main topic to share and everyone brought something to snack on for the group.

We read from
“If at First…How Great People Turned Setbacks into Great Success,” by Laura Fitzgerald, talked about Edwene Gaines’ prosperity work, made vision boards/treasure maps, read inspirational quotes, listened to taped lectures from Caroline Myss, Wayne Dyer and Marianne Williamson, and did a group meditation. It was an excellent way to super-charge goals, gain encouragement, and tap into the power of the group, who often believed in me more than I believed in myself.

We went on for less than a year, but during that time, I witnessed two wished-for
relationships blossom, and a new hobby/business rise up from the ashes of Mary Beth’s imagination.

I had the least amount of tangible results out of anyone, but the
satisfaction it brought me was immeasurable, and success therein was my reward.

“In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.”
~ Flora Edwards


For more information on group work, such as a circle:

http://www.amazon.com/Millionth-Circle-Ourselves-World-Essential/dp/1573241768

http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/vvcfeatures.php?id=15945

http://stanford.wellsphere.com/stress-relief-article/starting-a-spiritual-circle/3908

http://www.essortment.com/all/womenscircles_rvzl.htm

Monday, July 6, 2009

The wonderful world of podcasts & Internet radio

Once I was spit out of a corporate machine back in December 2008, I began to really question what I had been doing with my life, and what I should be doing from here on out.

A journalist at heart, I was happiest with a career built on bringing relevant information to people, and knowing that my efforts mattered at the end of the day. Over the years, my articles connected people, told them what they needed to know about their communities, and made them take notice of the good and the bad around them. While there were rewards, newspapers were demanding and unforgiving work in general, and eventually, I had to stand up for myself. Needing a break from the profession in 2006 for several personal reasons, I did what many in the journalism world would call “sell out,” and I went to work for a corporate marketing department. That job paid better and the hours were steady, but in the end it left me feeling insignificant, hollow and in a cold world where I didn’t speak the cut throat “language.”

When that two year experience ended, I was not centered, grounded, in harmony with my purpose, or any of the buzzwords and phrases used to describe living in that luscious state of knowing who you are and that what you do matters in the world.

In fact, I felt I had back-pedaled in my personal development and knowledge of who I was as a person and a "spiritual being having a human experience."

I was lost on a lot of levels, and I began to question whether that level of meaning in life was possible. I questioned and deconstructed the idea, and eventually remembered that I have been there before — during moments of service as a reporter and editor, and as a volunteer, and when I am being the best friend and daughter I can be. The answer was “yes, personal satisfaction does exist, and it
is possible to be in sync with your highest purpose" ... I just wasn’t in that space at the moment.

When you don’t know what tomorrow brings, you start to become even hungrier for meaning and a purpose. You cling to anything you can latch on to and trust in. When I found myself unemployed, there was no nine-to-five distraction anymore, no daily grappling with feelings of being out of place in a humorless environment, no pretending I was someone I am not … I was alone
and in charge again. What would happen next was up to me.

So, I decided I would recognize the gift in what I was given, and put the time to good use. I had fallen so far behind in my reading, and it had been forever since I learned anything new. My thirst for self-knowledge was insatiable.

To fill the hours and keep me company around this quiet house, I started downloading more and more free pod casts on topics that interested me, like the Law of Attraction, manifesting, raw food, energy psychology, and the like. I also tuned into
http://www.hayhouseradio.com/, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/, http://www.lawofattracttalkradio.com and http://www.themanifest-station.com/ to hear shows by my favorite new-thought authors, and listen to callers who were in the same boat as me. I immersed myself in information, bathing in it every day and sometimes testing what I had heard. I shoveled snow through a particularly nasty winter to "The Prosperity Podcast” and did the dishes to “The Indigo Room.” Suddenly, I had found a whole new world of “friends” who were seekers like myself, and the world didn’t seem so lonely.

Much of what I will blog about here is information and concepts introduced during those hours of listening. There will be pretty straightforward products and concepts, and also ones that are a little bit “out there.” I’ll let you decide which is which. Take only what works for you, and respect the rest, please. Remember, it’s “different strokes for different folks" — what clicks for one person is bunk to another, depending on your unique path and where you are in your personal development and your relationship with your Source.

As for me, I discount nothing and try everything, because I have nothing to lose!

Enjoy.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

And She's Off...

Like a growing percentage of Americans, I am out of work at the moment, and caught in “the meantime.”

I don’t know how long this “meantime” will last, but I’ve been making the best of it by gathering knowledge and resources on topics that interest me in the areas of self-development, energy medicine, energy psychology, green living, vegetarianism and raw foods, and health in general. These past few months may have not made me financially stable, but they have made me more knowledgeable, and this is where I have chosen to deposit much of the information I have found. Besides, I love to write, edit, and shape content, and if no one else will give me a job doing that right now, I will create my own "job" ... right here!

I live in Michigan, but my ultimate dream is to one day open a healing arts center in or around San Diego, CA, where others can go to educate and heal themselves, and make their own dreams come true. I fell in love with the city in 2001, and won't give up hope that I can call it "home" some day and be of true service there. As most of us know, wishes and hope without some form of action only amount to nice daydreams, so “in the meantime,” these are the seeds of my dream, scattered into cyberspace.