Aikido of the Mind
In This Issue...
Notes from Neale
The CwG Reader
The Calendar
Notes from Neale...
My dear friends...
Continuing our ongoing discussion, last week we concluded with this...
So if you find yourself in a "negative space" about something, think about what your thoughts are showing you right now. Make the commitment right now to do that --- to think about what you are thinking about --- whenever you feel less than totally joyful, totally peaceful, totally content. THEN...
...apply the discipline of refocusing. This is a discipline. It is an art. It is Aikido of the Mind.
Going on from there this week, I observe that this discipline of the mind is about taking the incoming negative energy that may be assailing us from the world around us and redirecting that energy in a positive way.
Wikipedia tells us that the physical art of Aikido is often translated as "the Way of unifying life energy" or as "the Way of harmonious spirit." The goal of the creator of Aikido was to come up with an art that practitioners could use to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker from injury. Aikido is performed by blending with the motion of the attacker and redirecting the force of the attack rather than opposing it head-on.
This falls perfectly in line with a prominent CwG message: What you resist, persists. Therefore, when negative thoughts or emotions assail you, do not resist them. Go ahead and think about what you are thinking about --- but think about it in a new way. Redirect your mental energy. Refocus it.
Using your knowledge of the Mechanics of the Mind and the System of the Soul as given to us in When Everything Changes, Change Everything, enlarge the databank from which you are extracting information about the Present Event by importing data from the place of Pure Being in which your Soul resides.
Moving to this place, you will notice an expanding of your Consciousness, which will, in turn, increase your Awareness, which will, in turn, produce a new Perspective, which will, in turn, alter your Perception, which will, in turn, result in a new Belief, which will, in turn, produce a new Behavior, which will, in turn, bring you an entirely different Experience of the Present Event.
Joining this different Experience that is provided by your Soul with the Experience that you have been provided by your Mind will produce an extraordinary opportunity to create and live a new Reality with regard to your Present Event (or any other Event in your life).
How to make this adjustment in the Line of Causality is carefully explained in the book When Everything Changes, Change Everything, and the application of these ideas is explored every day at the Changing Change Network website (www.changingchange.net), a place on the Internet devoted to creating a Compassionate Community of people from around the world who are committed to partnering with others in the Human Family who are encountering life changing events in their lives.
The important thing is not to resist, or seek to avoid, the negative moments in your life, but rather, to transform them. This can be done by meeting them head-on, looking at them and seeing them for exactly what they are, acknowledging them and even honoring them for what they are (rather than "shaming them" into non-existence --- which will not work), and then working to re-shape them, thus to produce a new Reality with regard to them, and the events that brought them on.
I want to say that if we consider life's events using only the data of our Mind, we are using limited data, to be sure. The data of the Mind is not to be ignored, but it is also not good if it is considered exclusively. By combining the data of the Mind with the data of the Soul we enrich our perception by shifting our perspective, and that gives us the ability to move into the Ultimate Reality, rather than dwell in the Distorted Reality regarding those events.
Love and Hugs,
Neale.
P.S. Last week here I told you about the special Collector's Edition of Conversations with God-The Movie, which has just been released. With your permission I will tell you about it again, because not everyone reads this Bulletin every week, and I don't want you to miss this!
The new Collector's Edition of the movie contains a Commentary Track on which I offer my personal observations on every life moment of my life that is depicted in this film. It also contains --- and this is so important to the mission of our Foundation --- an exclusive interview in which I reveal the Ten Most Important Messages I received in Conversations with God. Finally, this new DvD contains the world premiere of the documentary, The Making of Conversations with God-The Movie.
You may have already heard that this is an extraordinary film that so many CwG readers have been talking about. It is the story of how this entire experienced happened in my life, beautifully produced by filmmaker Stephen Simon (What Dreams May Come, Somewhere in Time).
If this film is not part of your home library --- or if you have heard about the movie but never had a chance to see it --- you will definitely want to spend 90 seconds to watch the video preview. Then you can decide for yourself whether you'd like to bring this powerful keepsake edition into your home. Just follow this link, then click on the film trailer. I know you'll be as excited as I am!
The CwG Reader
Further explorations of the Conversations with God material from the author
Neale Donald Walsch through the years has given hundreds of talks and written scores of articles revolving around the messages he received in his Conversations with God. Now, every seven days, we will present in this space a transcript or reprint of those presentations. We invite you to Copy and Save each one of them, creating a personal a collection of contemporary and uplifting spiritual thought which you may reference at any time. We hope you will find this a constant source of insight and inspiration.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
This week's offering: The other side of goals.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Incredible Question
It awaits your answer now
What lies on the other side of goals?
Believe it or not, this is a question that no one ever asked me, ever -- much less answered. And this is going to turn out to be the most important question of your life.
I promise you.
When I was a young man it seemed to me that everyone and his brother was taking pains to point out to me "the importance of goal-setting." I came of age in the days before hand held personal computers and Blackberrys and all that. The Big Thing when I was an Up And Comer was the Franklin Planner. They were all the rage, and you could tell the Serious Ones Intent On Success from the Flakes and the Going Nowhere's by who walked around lugging a big fat leather-bound tabbed book and who did not.
The Franklin Planner had tabbed sections for everything: Today's Appointments; Current Projects; To Do List; Short Term Objectives; Long Term Goals; Memos; Contacts. Strategies. A flick of the wrist and you could tab to any thought you had ever recorded on any subject, or put your fingered on any data that you could ever need to get through any moment -- and, indeed, if you used the Planner correctly, your entire life.
The Planner was your entire life, and if you accidentally left it somewhere -- like, God forbid, on a bus or the subway or someplace where you could not immediately go back and get it -- you were in Full Disaster Mode. "Ohmigod!", one could hear people exclaim. "My whole life is in there!"
Over and over again in those ancient times (I'm talking about the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties. You know, last century...) people Older and Wiser than I were telling me that I must set goals. I must set goals. Without goals I was going nowere. Without goals I was simply floating down a river on an inner tube, headed wherever the current was taking me. I needed to get it. It was all about
Goals and Objectives
Setting Intentions
Now, as an older man, I want to tell you that I think this was good advice. As far as it went. I mean, I think that it is important to have a clear idea about the things you want in life, and some well thought out, step-by-step plans about how to get them. And I think that Intention Setting is a major tool...a major tool...in the creation of your own reality.
So whether you have your check-off lists and contacts and daily appointments in MSOutlook or on a Blackberry or in your cell phone, I think it's good to have a personal organizer of some kind, and to have a set of long term goals and objectives as well.
But, as an older man, I want to also tell you that you are going to be missing something very big, something huge, if you do not ask -- and answer -- what I now consider to be a Key Question in Life:
What is on the other side of Goals?
Or, to put this perhaps somewhat more directly: What do I do when I "get there"?
You see, I'm 66 -- an "older man" for sure, but still relatively young by most contemporary measures, still in my active years, still very much on the playing field. They haven't carted me off to the Old Folks Home yet. And I've got a problem. I've already met all of my goals. So now what -- ?
If my life wish was to be loved by a wonderful woman and have wonderful children and grandchildren...well, okay, I'm lucky enough to have had that happen.
If my life wish was to be a home owner... I'm lucky enough to have had that happen.
If my life wish was to be on radio or television... I'm lucky enough to have had that happen.
If my life wish was to be a newspaperman --- a reporter, then maybe a managing editor... I'm lucky enough to have had that happen.
If my life wish was to be in the movies...been there, done that.
If my life wish was to be on the stage...been there, done that.
If my life wish was to be a best-selling author...been there, done that.
If my life wish was to be a professional photographer...been there, done that.
If my life wish was to be deeply involved in politics...been there, done that.
If my life wish was to be a musician...been there, done that.
If my life wish was to be a world traveler...been there, done that.
...I just don't know what else anyone could ever hope for or ask for.
Gosh! A person could wish for any ONE of these things and, if he got it, feel fulfilled...
I even got to live my dream and become a radio sportscaster, doing live baseball and football games -- high school and minor league, but still, sportscasting! Man, oh, man!
...and...if my life wish was to be a Messenger of God...I have been blessed to have been able to do that, too.
I am sooooo blessed. So incredibly, astonishingly blessed. I have achieved all of my goals. I have lived all of my dreams. I have accomplished everything I set out to accomplish and experienced everything I wanted to experience in life!
If you look back on your own life, you, too, will be able to come up with a loooong list of things for which you are deeply grateful. (In fact, that may not be a bad idea. What a wonderful little mental exercise for today! Why not do it?)
But then what?
Let that be the question for the day. What's on the "other side" of goals? Is it more of the same, just bigger and better? Naw. There must be something else.
And there is.
Yet until we ask that question...and give ourselves the answer....and LIVE that answer...all that we have experienced and all that we have achieved will mean nothing.
Next Week in this Space: The Answer.
Your Soul may be calling you now...
We are into the final weeks of 2009 (difficult as it is for me to believe that!), and there could be no better time for all of us to assess how this year went in terms of our own spiritual growth, and to set some new intentions for 2010.
Has it been a good year for you? Have you experienced your soul expanding, your heartspace increasing, your mind opening even more to the wonders and the mysteries of life?
How is your relationship life going? Is your life purpose being expressed in your daily activities? Are you in touch with your deepest and highest self? And how are you doing with all the changes in your life?
I am so deeply committed to bringing forward the messages of Conversations with God in a helping way, in a way that can bring real and vital new energy to your experience of life. That is why in the 14 years since publication of the groundbreaking spiritual text Conversations with God, I have presented an Annual Holiday Retreat from Dec 28th to Jan 1st.
From the beginning it has been our most popular and most attended event each year. Once again this year we are offering this event here in Ashland, Oregon.
In a very special mind-expanding, spirit-awakening 4 day presentation, I will offer you the opportunity to truly celebrate your life just as it has occurred, and then to recreate it anew in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held about Who You Are as you move into the New Year.
Wrapped in the soft and gentle poetry of my wife, Em Claire (www.emclairepoet.com), this is a highly experiential event filled with personal sharings and emotional healings, imbedded in deep discussions of the Conversations with God material.
The wonderfully evocative and joyful musical artistry of recording artists Cathy Bolton (www.cathybolton.com) and Don Eaton (www.small-change.org) will add to an inspiring and uplifting encounter with Self, with God, and with Life that you are not likely to ever forget --- and that others have told us has changed their lives for the better.
The program ends with a very special Resolution Ritual in the final moments of 2009, with participants publicly declaring their intention for the 12 months ahead. Then we'll usher in 2010 in grand form with a traditional New Year's Eve party.
You took the first step when you read Conversations with God. Now, take the next step...
You already know you if you want wish to be there.
If you do --- if your soul is calling you to spend this very special time with the Conversations with God material and with me (something that you may have been promising yourself you would do one day!), please contact Will Richardson at 352-442-2244. He'll answer any questions you may have.
There are still spots open for this year's spiritual renewal retreat. I hope you will give yourself permission to treat your heart, mind, and soul to this wonderful experience!
Love....Neale.
The Calendar
A look at events at which Neale Donald Walsch will share the message of Conversations with God in the weeks ahead. You can learn more about the work of the ReCreation Foundation at these events...and on its official website, www.cwg.org, as well.
NOTE: Not all events are sponsored by the ReCreation Foundation, but because all of the events move forward the message of Conversations with God, which is the mission of the Foundation, the Foundation is pleased to inform you of them.
Click on each event for more information:
A one-day intensive workshop Dallas, TX - Center for Spiritual Living |
||
Workshop St. Lucia, West Indies Contact: (758) 468 4520 or (758) 456 0155 - gate503@yahoo.com |
George-Lebrun |
|
A one-day intensive workshop Miami, FL - Embassy Suites - Miami Airport |
||
Phoenix, AZ Contact: 877-300-7352 - www.MishkaProductions.com |
Productions |
|
Ashland, OR Contact: 352-442-2244 - willemail@aol.com |
Foundation |
|
Changing Ideas About God, Religion and Humanity: Creating Global Coherence UMC Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA Contact: 208-344-2682 - linda@schoolofthenewspirituality.com |
University |
|
A Retreat with Neale Donald Walsch and Mary O'Malley Molokai, Hawaii Contact: 206-550-2524 - sumara1@verizon.net |
O'Malley |
|
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii Contact: 808/447-9228 - willemail@aol.com |
Being Expo |
Quick Links...
Current Bulletin
CwG Home Page
Life Education Program
CwG Online Store
Last Weeks Bulletin
Geek Squared, LEP Graduates and other friends.
If you enjoy this FREE bulletin, and feel that you get great value from it, please consider making a donation to help us continue to offer services like this. The CwG Foundation is a non-profit organization and any donation amount is greatly appreciated.
Please click here to make a contribution
NOTE: If you would like to send a comment or a question to Neale here at the Weekly Bulletin, you may do so by addressing an email to: weeklybulletinresponse@CwG.org
Please note that we do our best to see that all letters get a response, if not directly from Neale, then from a CwG Foundation staff person, or LEP participant.
