Many of you value Carolyn Myss’s groundbreaking work in personal and spiritual development as much as we do, weaving together as she does, studies from Christian mysticism, archetypal psychology, energy medicine and intuition. We will continue to highlight her free media talks, CMED and Wisdom University workshops, as we have here, here, here, and here, as well as listing conferences and other upcoming events in our monthly newsletter.

Specifically, AHP is recognized by the following boards and departments to offer qualifying courses for Continuing Education Credits: California Board of Behavioral Sciences for California, LCSWs and MFTs; National Board for Certified Counselors, for Nationally Certified Counselors; and the California Board of Registered Nursing, for California.

While they are not suggesting this proves happiness protects the heart, they do suggest the belief that people are hardwired to be naturally happy or not has been replaced in recent years by studies in the science of happiness, or the field of positive psychology. There are numerous strategies that can help naturally negative people become happier, including

* A daily schedule of at least 15 – 20 minutes doing something enjoyable
* Express gratitude on a regular basis.
* Practice being optimistic.
* Engage in frequent acts of kindness.
* Visualize one’s best self.
* Savor joyful events.
* Practicing forgiveness.
* Regular exercise, sex and sleep

The course takes you through a: chakra-by-chakra self-diagnosis, and healing with imagery, to the scientific evidence from medicine and physics, how our past lives affect our present health, and decoding archetypal information. You also learn to:

* Develop an intuitive rapport not just with your body but with your entire life
* Work with archetypes, imagery, and symbols—the language of the psyche
* Use “spiritual alchemy” to engage your struggles as a source of transformation and wisdom
* See how your personal history gets encoded in your chakras
* Focus on the higher powers of your own “jewel of potential”—the seventh chakra
* Cleanse and “rewire” your own energy system
* Control—or even reverse – the single cause of 75% of all illness in two 20-minute sessions a day

From time to time, many of us tend to experience an occasional insight. An insight is simply the ability to change our filter and look at things differently. In moments of insight, there’s a sudden burst of clarity where there had previously been static; there is an epiphany of movement. It’s the a-ha moment. When we are firmly entrenched in our beliefs and rooted in our certainty, we’re not typically open to insights. To have an insight we need to temporarily suspend our beliefs and open to new possibilities. We’re not so much working on the insight as we are creating the groundwork for it to come forth. In other words, we’re getting out of our own way, and opening to new considerations. Without insights we’re shackled to a fixed and stagnating reality in which little changes. It tends to look as if life is just replaying itself, day in and day out.

Today’s insight becomes tomorrow’s faded memory

The more that we move out of old, habitual patterns of belief and thought, the more inclined we are to have insights. My work as a therapist is highly motivated toward catalyzing insights. Insights are the initiators of change, but only if we pay homage to them. Although enlightening for a brief period, insights tend to fade and wither over time. Today’s insight becomes tomorrow’s faded memory. That is precisely why we struggle with change and stay stuck in the old groove.

I believe that insights are the forerunners of our growth and personal evolution. But only if we treat them with the value they deserve. If we diminish an important breakthrough, we’re devaluing ourselves. If we don’t take the new thinking and highlight it as a guide to our self-actualization, we are impeding new learning and growth. We’re simply not taking ourselves seriously enough.

What is a defining moment?

In my personal life and in my work, strongly believe in making a commitment to insight. A commitment to insight might sound like, “My life is changed because of this insight. I am committed to this change, as of this moment.” Although this might sound awkward and perhaps corny, it is actually the foundation for an increasing self-esteem. When we make a commitment to an insight, I refer to that as a defining moment.

Defining moments occur when we direct our lives onto a new pathway, borne of an illuminating insight and an expanded awareness. Defining moments stand out in singularity and literally redefine our lives. This process moves us from the mental breakthrough of the moment into a state of action. Sustaining the defining moment requires a foundational shift in our lives. There is ordinarily a state of inertia at work, whereby we tend to slip back into the familiar zone. Therefore, making a commitment is truly essential to maintaining the change.

If you can’t identify defining moments in your life, you’ve likely lived by the rules of conformity and have been influenced by fear. Defining moments speak to the deeper underlying questions and struggles of our lives. When we react in habitual and formatted ways, we don’t penetrate beneath the surface of our existence. Fear and anxiety typically corral us into this formatted type of thinking and behavior, whereby we’re in a reactive mode, not quite operating from the deepening awareness that insight can evoke.

Defining moments are those in which we take full authorship of the script of our lives. Creating the defining moment is achieved by shifting the insight to the foreground of your attention and illuminating it with full intention. The deepening experience of awareness and presence enables the profound shift into the realm of defining moments. Defining moments are the peak experiences of our lives when we come to recognize them as such.

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Mel Schwartz is a psychotherapist, author, educator and founder of the Emergent Thinking® process which enables people to transcend their struggles with today’s challenges. He introduces and integrates many discoveries of the emerging sciences, synergizing them into a practical protocol to catalyze change.

]]> http://www.aheadofthecurveatmidlife.com/2010/02/28/defining-moments/feed/ 0 http://www.aheadofthecurveatmidlife.com/2010/02/26/letting-go-ritual/ http://www.aheadofthecurveatmidlife.com/2010/02/26/letting-go-ritual/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:11:41 +0000 Kathleen Daniel http://www.aheadofthecurveatmidlife.com/?p=7795 While you’re reviewing your intentions for the year and deciding what you want to let go of and what you want to take with you this year, releasing a hurt, thought, injury or old issue may well be on your agenda. Use this simple process as a tool to help you. A ritual is a series of focused actions taken with a specific goal in mind. Use this process to analyze, specify and release a hurt, thought, injury or issue in your life. Part of the extensive site of the Love and Forgiveness campaign by the Fetzer Institute, its series of beautiful panels set to music takes you through a powerful ritual of focused questions and thoughts with the goal of helping you to let go and forgive. Leave the past in the past and free more of your energy to help shape an open future of possibility.

But her later description of “wants” seems to skim the surface, overlooking deep desires that we have that are based on driving values rather than on the simple pain-pleasure principle she suggests.

What about those hard, active choices we are sometimes called to make? What about wants that are based on authentic values, i.e. those that point to passions that motivate us to fulfill a deeper kind of purpose? For people in midlife, it’s very possible that choices that were authentic in an earlier stage of life are no longer the leading forces in our nature. Healing happens. People learn. Life changes, as does our understanding of ourselves, life and the limits – and possibilities – of both.

Yes, to the necessity of accepting ‘settling’ for what we now have as perhaps exactly the deeper level of self-acceptance we need to follow as the next growing edge of our lives. But what about when ‘settling’ is settling for a past that no longer feeds what’s emergent in our lives as we perceive it, and want it? It’s certainly ideal when we can create bridges in all areas of our lives, bringing the present and past forward towards a new future direction of our choosing. But sometimes it happens that you are both grateful for your life AND it’s time to leave some things behind.

What do you think?

It’s not coincidental that, instead of celebrating the new year a week after the winter solstice, the Chinese calendar falls nearer to the spring equinox, when life underground begins to stir. Western cultures prefer to bypass the limits that winter rest represents, interfering as it does with lives based on continual growth. But continual activity loses its footing when it’s not rooted in periods of reflection and integration. And winter isn’t empty rest, it’s teeming with life under the surface.

As a long-time and unrepentant holistic thinker, I have always found sanity and intuitive common sense in wisdom traditions that emphasize seeing ourselves as natural creatures influenced by changes in the annual cycling of the seasons. Life is change, and change is stressful, correlated with accelerated aging and increased incidence of every type of chronic illness. Reflecting on the meaning of the Tao, meaning the Way, provides a frame for living in balance by taking our cue from observing nature.

The activity of rest

Taoist thought equates winter with the time of deepest yin, of the activity of rest, if you will. Contrasted with on-fire outgoing yang of high summer as its polar opposite, yin’s action is receptivity, actively taking the time to tune in after a full and creative year, to listen to how we feel, now, in our lives. Winter isn’t so much about creating resolutions – yet – that’s putting the cart before the horse – but more about creating internal order, aligning with what’s emerging, and gathering the resolve to bring it into being come spring. As you might imagine, getting this backwards, that is, strengthening your resolve before making resolutions, will save you a lot of energy expended on half-baked plans, and time spent going after things that it turns out you didn’t want after all.

So how do you be receptive? Taking our cue again from nature, winter is likened to water in the way it flows around and wears down obstacles in its path. Water seeks its own level and flows towards its destination propelled and bounded by banks that prevent it from dissipating its force in aimless meandering.

Among the things we can learn, and ask ourselves, are

* What have I learned about my limits?
* What direction is the river of my life flowing?
* Is this the direction I want to be going?
* Can I support what I need to do with the resources I have?
* What boundaries do I need to have in place so I don’t get distracted?
* If I want to shift direction, what actions will I need to take?

Taking the time to re-root yourself in what’s deepest and most potent in your nature has payoffs besides keeping your clear, oriented and focused. It preserves your energy. It strengthens your will. It strengthens access to your intuition, as well as to synchronicities, so you’ll be alert for them when they arise to guide your path. And tuning into yourself brings deep peace.

The rest of the story ….

Perhaps not surprisingly, the emotion associated with winter is fear. Sometimes, if you’ve been too busy to check in with yourself for a while, you may become acutely aware of a torrent of negative self-talk or chatter without discernible center or direction. Where is this underground stream of insight and comfort, you ask?

You actually feel stripped bare, like branches silhouetted against the winter sky. You”re frozen, paralyzed, rather than flowing and your first impulse is to keep moving! You may mistake this for depression or worse, as useless. True, some of your ‘symptoms’ can be likened to SAD, seasonal affect disorder, and strategies (like light boxes) are useful. You should do what you can to keep your physiology balanced. But the fact is that it can be hard, and sad, to face disappointment, failure or missed opportunity. Those are the facts of the matter.

If that’s true for you, the best strategy is to let them be. Take your cue from winter: Be still. Learn to observe the contents of your mind and emotions. Let them blanket you like a quiet cover of snow, and know that they are just emotions, they aren’t the totality of who you are. Let go of struggle. Let yourself be sad, angry, disappointed, frightened, empty, alone, or …fill in the blank. Keep breathing, crack a lopsided grin, shed a tear, or wince if you must, and let your breath remind you of the transience of thought and feeling.

Yes, water can harden into ice. But the opposite of fear is courage. Facing your deepest fears of inadequacy or emptiness builds courage. Other payoffs, ones that gives back in buckets, are increased self-esteem, calm, deepened wisdom, and increased ability with time, to flow without fear with whatever comes your way. Know that what emerges from this steaming compost heap, come spring, will be little sprouts of naturally inspired creative solutions, directions, and actions that will surprise and inspire your life.

Balancing receptivity and action – 5 steps to setting your intention

In case you have the mistaken impression that winter’s emotional weather is simply a detour into passivity, strengthening your resolve means turning your insights into intentions. Briefly, there are five very focused steps to setting your intention. Do them each and you’ll naturally produce what you intend.

1. Get clear about what it is you want. Be specific. Write it down – as what you want – not what you don’t want

2. Envision in fine detail, using all your senses, how you will feel and what you will have once you’ve accomplished that intention

3. Share your intention with someone in a way that will supportively hold you accountable to taking action

4. Do something today to demonstrate your commitment to your intention, even if only a baby step

5. Acknowledge that you did what you said you would and then, take the next step. And then the next…