Constant Joy

~ Have you been feeling enslaved to an emotion or circumstance?

~ Would you like to be set free?

Could Joy be the key?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joy gives you the power, motivation and confidence to achieve things
that otherwise seem too difficult to attempt. Better than a granola
bar – joy is pure energy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you remember the thrill of hitting a home run? Getting out on the last day of school? Riding your new bicycle? You jump with joy. Fantastic!

Joy gives you energy and makes you feel great. You can achieve all kinds of things that otherwise may seem too difficult to attempt. With joy, you’re not afraid to talk to the guy sitting next to you on the plane. No problem! You’ve got energy, buoyancy. You’re alive!

Learn to differentiate between real joy, which generates the power to accomplish, and illusory joy, whose burst of energy fades into a let-down. True joy comes from the pleasure of growth and self-actualization – when we conquer a difficult challenge, or experience a moment of clarity. When your team wins the World Series, or when you win the lottery, the joy is a delusion. Why? Because you did not change or grow. Joy is solely the result of your reaction to life, your commitment to turning every moment into a growth experience.

You’re not reaching your potential unless you have joy. So whether you’re studying, touring, working or relaxing, first get into a state of joy. It will give you a big boost of power and confidence.

For more meditations like this one click here for the entire collection of “Counting the Omer” meditations. (Series of days between Passover and Shavuot (Pentacost))

The following video not only wells up Joy in my heart but I think it could very well be what anyone might sing as celebration once they have been freed from bondage. I hope you enjoy it and feel a release from something that has been enslaving you.

What I Did Over Summer Vacation

It’s that time of year. Childrens’ summer vacations and camps have ended. They are back to school writing essays entitled “What I did During Summer Vacation.”

I too went to camp this summer. Enlightened Warrior Training Camp. But, unlike children who look forward to camp I was like Garfield the Cat on the window – arms and legs extended out to block myself from being pushed through the door. I was having a quiet, and sometimes not so quiet tantrum, whining “I don’t want to go!!!!!”

The “I don’t want to go” began nine months ago, when I first signed up to attend Warrior camp. I knew it was going to be in a form that wold take me out of my comfort zone. And, being a person who likes to avoid emotional as well as physical pain the last thing I wanted was to go out of my comfort zone. However, the true part of me knew I HAD to do exactly that. The true part of me thirsted for the transformation. Frikin’ true me! But, man… look below at the things we were going to learn there. How could I not want that?

WHAT I WAS ABOUT TO LEARN
• How to consciously observe yourself so that you respond to circumstances from choice instead of reacting from conditioning and habit.
• How to tap into your intuition and know when it is giving you direction.
• How to move gracefully with the flow of life instead of struggling against it.
• Simple secrets to peace and happiness in everyday life.
• How to create “focus with balance” in your life.
• How to avoid struggle and overwhelm.
• How to expand your ability to concentrate and stay focused.
• How to dance between your body, mind and spirit in everyday life.
• How to quiet your mind and attain inner peace.
• How the “process of manifestation” works from our inner to our outer world.
• That you are greater than you “think” and that you can be and do much more than you ever imagined! You will finally get to meet the “real” you.

As it is with all the Peak Potentials seminars and camps we never know any of the details beforehand. The reason for that is because the camps and seminars are so experiential if we knew in advance what we’d be doing, well, heck, we might chicken out and not go. Like when I was checking out the website of the ranch the camp was at. On one of the website’s pages there was a photo of a log to walk across about 20 feet off the ground. I didn’t know if we were going to have to do that. Part of me said of course we aren’t doing that because there’s a picture of it on the website and because Peaks courses are so hush hush they would not allow that photo to be up there if we were walking the log. The other part of me freaked out that I was going to have to walk the log. I was more scared seeing that log than when I was only imagining what we might be doing.

So, now I’m getting closer and closer to the camp date and I’m getting more and more freaked out. I decided it didn’t matter if we were walking the log or not. I would use that as a symbol of the scary things we would be doing. I began to do energy work on myself to clear my fears and get me to where I saw walking the log as something easy and enjoyable. It took me several weeks to go from freaked out to excited. Thinking about the deepest transformational exercises at the other Peaks seminars I’ve been to that were so multi-dimensional, that helped me get excited. I wondered what kind of unique approaches they would be using at Warrior Camp.

I also remembered how I used to be afraid of spiders until I became a mom and had to defend my children against the evil spider crawling up their bedroom wall. In one instant I went from afraid of spiders to a superhuman spider killer and protector of children. That made me realize I could move from fear to courage in a split second. So, at warrior camp, if there was something fear inducing that I had to do I would simply think of my children being there and I would be the role model, leading the way so they would see how easy it was, that they could do it too.

The day before I left for Warrior camp, when watching some Rob Riggle stand up comedy on TV about Riff-Raff Airlines he said repeatedly “That’s how I roll.” Now, Riggle is a big guy and a former marine. When I see him I see a warrior. He’s been through a warrior camp much more challenging than the one I’m about to go to. When he says “That’s how I roll” you know not to mess with him. He says it with the grounded confidence I want to tap into. He exudes warrior vibe from every cell of his body.

So, to anchor in that I’m a role model AND the confidence of Riggle’s “that’s how I roll” I found a small river rock to keep in my pocket at camp and painted onto that rock “THAT’S HOW I ROLE.” Finally, I was mentally prepared for Warrior camp.

The 5 days were AMAZING! It was challenging physically, mentally,
and emotionally as well as, surprisingly, spiritually expanding.

On the first full day, half way through the main exercise for that day, I had a breakthrough realization that instead of being other centered, and focusing on being a role model for my children, that I am a role model for myself – that’s like the little me being afraid and the big me leading the way “don’t fear little Barbara, big Barbara will demonstrate to you how to get through this confidently.” By shifting my focus from doing the work for others to doing the work for myself I regained energy. I felt fuller and decluttered.

Each of the daily main exercises was challenging in different ways, clearing crap, bringing profound personal realizations and deepening my connections through the support the members of my “tribe” gave to each other. Sometimes I was the one receiving support. Sometimes I was the one giving help and guidance. In one exercise done with a partner my partner and I looked deeply into eachother’s eyes silently speaking “I’m 100% there for you AND I’m 100% connected to you. We were so locked in to each other it felt like we had unlimited ability. After the event was over we said to each other “wow, we were rock stars!”

In another event I stopped short of complete. My mind and spirit were willing but my body was saying “we’ve left the building.” My teammates were cheering me on and  I did not want to disappoint them but I knew I had to stop or I would hurt myself. My body could not do any more. The next day one of my teammates told me how inspiring that was, that I was courageous enough to admit what was true for myself, though it was not what the group wanted for me.

To be on the other side of all the challenges is nothing short of exhilarating. Knowing that I am a frikin’ incredible person who can do way more than I imagined as well as stand up for myself though it’s an unpopular position, is the most deeply empowered I’ve ever felt.

Final evening of camp with Aaron G from my Tribe

As I walked back to my cabin for the last time I was sooo glad the intensity of the 5 days was finally over. I would get on the plane in the morning, catch up on some much needed sleep and relax. I wondered how different my regular life would be when I got home. It turned out I got to find that out sooner than I expected.

When I boarded the airplane to go home I surprisingly discovered my seat was in an exit row. I took a big gulp and said out loud “no, no, no, no, no!” I did not want the responsibility that came along with sitting there. I sat down because I knew before the plane took off the flight attendant would ask me if I was comfortable handling the exit door. I could switch seats then. Then I “woke up” and thought to myself “Sheesh Barbara, you just finished warrior training camp where you became more confident in your leadership skills, and you don’t think you can handle the exit door? Suck it up princess! You’re in this seat because you CAN handle it! You are being given a gift by being in this seat. The universe is telling you that you can handle this and maybe you’re the best prepared person on this plane to handle it.” That made me feel pretty good.

A few minutes later two big guys came up the aisle, stopped at my row and looked at their boarding passes…. turned out I had misread the seat numbers and my seat was really one row forward. The flight attendant came while the men took their rightful seats in the exit row and I moved to mine. He asked them if they were comfortable sitting in the exit row. They said yes and then the flight attendant said “If for some reason you aren’t she’ll (pointing to me) help you.” Knowing that was absolutely true, I laughed, the attendant laughed, and the people in the row behind the exit, who heard me say “no, no, no, no, no!” laughed.

Once in the air I recalled how I had chosen this particular flight so I wouldn’t have to take a tiny 20 seat plane. A few years ago I released my flying fears but flying in a tiny plane was still an issue for me. I wondered if the processes I went through at warrior camp changed that. So I thought about being on the ground in front of a tiny plane with someone standing there inviting me to get in the plane. My immediate thought was “Bring it on!”

The next surprise came during a 2 hour layover before my final flight home. Usually during these layovers I’m bored, tired, and probably having some negative thought about how sucky it is to have a 2 hour layover. I started to go to that place but what immediately came into my head was a firm “What is your objective? – – – To get home.” Suddenly everything else disappeared. I became laser focused on my mission to get home. My energy level increased, I had less muscle stiffness and my attitude was positive. Though I was operating on about 3 hours sleep I stayed alert and focused all the way home and into the evening.

A warrior does everything at 100%. When I got home I followed through on that. This is what I wrote on Facebook the next day: “I am a warrior. A warrior does everything at 100% Today I am sleeping 100%. A-HO!*” And that’s exactly what I did.

=> See Comments, below, for a passionate description written by one of our youngest Warriors after her return from camp.

AN ENLIGHTENED WARRIOR …
… is self-confident, strong, and honorable.
… is in tune with his or her higher self and uses the power of intuition for guidance and direction.
… enjoys inner peace and fulfillment in life; he or she finds joy in simplicity.
… knows his or her purpose; is clear about what they want and where they are going.
… is a master of money, not controlled by it.
… goes with the flow of life instead of fighting against what life is trying to offer.
… accepts him or herself and others for where they currently are on the path of life.
… has learned to be happy whether he or she gets what they want or not .
… is centered and balanced.
… is clear and focused, not confused and scattered.
… lives with ease instead of struggle.
… lives in the present not the past or future.
… does not yearn for approval and recognition from others; approves of them self.
… appreciates and feels part of nature and the spirit in all living things.
… lives with integrity; their word law.
… is fun-loving and free-spirited.
… has the courage to take action in spite of fear, doubt and worry.

A-HO!*
Barbara

* A-HO is Lakota and means “as it should be.”

A Turn of Events

2:30pm boy oh boy, having a flight canceled is sure an adventure. Thank God I was at home when I found out and not at the airport.

3:00pm Found out that because my flight was canceled my friend who was going to drive me to the airport could now get in to see the chiropractor, whom he really needed to see after his daughter plunked down on his back when they were swimming yesterday.

6:30pm Around the time my plane was to have taken off, there were 600 lightening strikes in one hour (and 60mph winds plus rain.) All flights at O’Hare and Midway were halted. How fortunate am I that my flight was canceled hours beforehand so I could work things out from home.. a good example of how what seems to be a bad thing is not necessarily bad.

I’m thinking All That Is cleared a ton of old energy out of the way so when I leave for Extreme Health Intensive tomorrow it will be in a fresh, clear field of forward movement.

FOLLOWUP:

I’m back from this way-beyond-expectations workshop. My rescheduled flight was delightful and easy. I arrived at the hotel just after the group of 700 people broke for lunch. And get this, as my shuttle drove up to the hotel’s front door the friend whom I was meeting there happened to walk by.  I had time to check into my hotel room, and get to the seminar just in time for the beginning of the afternoon events. AND, the first speaker that afternoon addressed a health issue approach for clients that I have been pondering for months! It couldn’t have worked out better.

Taking Away Pain

This video is from an Into This Moment 1 workshop. It’s a sample of how to use the ITM process to clear the energetic causes and experience immediate relief from physical or emotional pain.
Our next workshop is July 24-25, 2010 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Find out more about this workshop

Frikin’ Spiritual Growth

A few weeks ago I got an idea for an article and began to write about its connection with this year as “The Year of Being In the Present Moment.” But as I was writing I began to think about how most of the year was very pleasant and then suddenly it all changed. Then I thought, “Hey, it’s February. Last year was the Year of Being in the Present Moment. We’re in a new year now. So what the heck is the title for this year? It feels like I’m going from the frying pan into the fire. OH MAN, the title for this year is “Frikin’ Spiritual Growth.”

That reminded me of the process of annealing silver, which I learned to do in a jewelry making class I took in college. We worked with sheets of silver that we sawed to the desired shape, mainly for earrings pendants and bracelets, and then hammered into its final form. Because a certain amount of hammering makes the silver brittle the only way to avoid it cracking was to heat it up past red hot, to the point where it flashed white. The silver would then be dropped into cold water. After that we could begin hammering it again.

Annealing re-crystalizes the silver, softening it, relieving it of internal stress and refining it to improve its cold working properties.

So, this is the year where the hammering of our ego temporarily stops and we get thrown into the fire that heats us beyond red hot, until we re-crystalize in a flash. Of course the end result is a thing of great beauty but until then it may help to get through the fire and the hammering by repeatedly saying “Frikin’ Spiritual Growth!” It’s what I do.

Calling to the Divine

Man, it’s interesting how you follow an impulse to do something and over time, a zillion amazing things unfold as a result.

~ Join a certain choir because after 6 years of nothing calling to me I finally find something local that appeals to me.
~ Become friends with someone in the choir
~ She invites me to a “tupperware” type party about cookware. While I generally dislike these sales parties I decide to attend.
~ Re-meet a woman there whom I met at a workshop last year.  (my friend met the woman a couple months earlier when her dog ran away.)
~ Attend the woman’s baby shower
~ Meet a couple at the baby shower who know my cousin, a swami in the Krishna movement. The wife has been thinking for a couple weeks that she wants to meet relatives of my cousin so she can be of service to them as an indirect way to be of service to my cousin. She meets me. Cool!
~ Go to the couple’s home for dinner/socializing. They are Russian Jews who have become Krishna devotes. My grandparents were Russian Jews. The couple tells me there is someone doing Hebrew Kirtan. Fascinating!
~ Google Hebrew Kirtan, find some beautiful music, AND a fascinating article about Calling to the Divine. Here’s one section of the article that wowed me.

(About singing the Kirtan) The operative phrase here is “as best you can.” You don’t have to be a singer to sing. You only have to sing. The quality of your intention is key. WHEN YOU MAKE FOR ME AN ALTAR OF STONES DO NOT MAKE THEM HEWN. [Exodus 20:23] The altar of God, the place you come to connect to that which is truest about you and the world, is to be built with unhewn stones. An unhewn stone is natural, raw, and hard to use. It is not fashioned into a conventional shape. It is as God created it. Torah is saying that your worship of God must be unhewn, natural, raw and not neatly shaped, fashioned, and convenient. The unhewn stone conforms to nothing but itself. It is what it is, and it is exactly what God wants as the building blocks of worship. Click to read whole article

How powerful is that! So affirming that I can be as I am. That God WANTS me to be just as I am. Reminds me of a great Poco song “Rough Edges” where a  guy is asking for a girl not to pass him up.  “I’m not a stone that’s been polished and shined, I’m not the diamond that you had in mind. I can’t hide it, you get what you see. I’ve got a lot of rough edges on me.” If you’d like to hear a clip of the song click here. I think the whole album is great…listening to it now.  🙂

I’m pretty sure the amazing things in this chain are continuing. Something tells me this Kabbalah Kirtan info and music is going to teach me something that will make its way into my third manual on energy healing. I’ll keep you posted.

The Accidental Energy Healer

An article I recently wrote has been picked up by a personal growth site. You can read it, and all the great comments people have submitted, here: http://blog.thehealersway.com/energy-healer-by-accident

Exclusive Ability – Not

“These things and more you shall do too.” That’s what Jesus said, after doing some miraculous healings. Dr. Kam Yuen just said in his May 19, 2009 mailing “There are many copy cats out there, pretending to improve your life by saying they can do the same thing as Dr. Yuen. Simply put, they can’t.”

If it’s true that only Dr. Yuen can do certain things then why is he saying he can teach you what he does? Wouldn’t it follow, if he is the only one who can do certain things that you will not be able to learn what he does? Also, what is the point of him certifying people as Yuen teachers if they can’t do what he does?

I’ve had people come to me after they’ve had an unsuccessful session with Dr. Yuen where he has not been able to help them yet I was successful at helping them. I know a number of his students who are quite excellent healers.

As far as his ability to teach, frankly it was his inability to effectively teach that led me to begin coaching and then developing and teaching Into This Moment Quantum Optimizations.

Going for the Gold

Passover began tonight. It is the commemoration of day when the Jews in Egypt were finally freed after 400 years of enslavement. For some time I’ve been feeling that this Passover is going to be more significant for me than in the recent past so I’ve been paying close attention to the various ups and downs I’ve been experiencing.

One of the things I noticed is that this year, the first Seder (first night celebration) falls on a Wednesday, which was the night of Jesus’ Last Supper. Seems to me that’s an indicator of this being a particularly auspicious day.

Another thing I found interesting is that as I was cleaning up my kitchen today in preparation for Passover the garbage disposal side of my sink got clogged.. and is still clogged. Maybe the disposal experienced a healing crisis, as I had just gone through everything in my kitchen to energetically clear all old energy still hanging on my dishes, pots, cookbooks, EVERYTHING there… if you have any insight on what happened please leave a comment below this post.

There is a very interesting 50 day spiritual journey that begins the second day of Passover. It is called the “Omer.” It concludes on the day the Ten Commandments were given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. This is also the time from Jesus’ crucifiction to the day the Holy Spirit was given to his disciples on Pentecost.

According to the Kabbalists we have 49 drives and traits of the heart. I’ve compiled a collection of meditations, one for each day, corresponding to those 49 drives and traits. As you read each meditation, one each day, you will take a step forward on your own unique and personal spiritual journey.

Download Omer Daily Meditations

The Terrible Two’s @ 30

by Amy Startari

Why is it that we can see someone else’s road, but when we look ahead at our own it just goes blank? I can shift someone’s life in two hours and they are never the same again. So why when I work on mine for 24 hours, it’s still a mess? Another healing. Another shift. Another method. Did it work? Sure, I feel better now about the muddy place I’m in.

The caterpillar bursts into the butterfly when it comes my way, but when I do the work for myself I end up with an extra caterpillar leg at best. And, well, caterpillars don’t need extra legs!

What the heck is going on? I feel like the kid whose mom says “Time to Go” and as she helps me put on my coat I start screaming, “NOOOOO. I’m tired.” When she continues to pull me, I do what two year olds do. I sit down and I don’t move forward, as if my life depends on it. Something should have happened by now after all the work I’ve done, so I’m not going anywhere. The problem is I’m in my thirties and I have the terrible twos.

I’m over it! I want my independence, but I want things to come easily. And I want it my way. My way or the highway, but guess who wins? Not me because I sat this one out.

The catch is when we give in and sit down, absolutely nothing changes. The world keeps on turning. You wake up the next day or week or month or year or life and have to face it all again. I realize I might as well sweep my soul or clean my closet now because tomorrow the stuff will only pile up and then there will be more to deal with later.

Maybe you set it up this way. Maybe you’re not like anyone else. Maybe your millimeters are larger than the yards other people take. Maybe you’re not a butterfly. Remember many butterflies only live for a few short days. Who knows what you’ve got planned.

To develop great abs we have to press against our own weight. We are developing spiritual abs, a spiritual core that will prepare us for things beyond our wildest dreams. But, only if we let it. So the next time you want to pout, give your 2 year old a few seconds, and refuse to give in.