Walking the Visionary Road!!

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Rod's World

Had an inspiring weekend crewing on my dear friend Emeli Paulo’s True Grit workshop. Twenty brave souls and Ten crew inquired into what does True Grit mean for them to fulfil their dreams and purpose.

The highlight of the weekend for me was the two times we did the process that saw people move from their current reality to embracing their vision by seeing what they needed to let go and what support they needed. I have called it Walking the Visionary Road because I forget the actual name used and I like mine better.

I got to play the current reality in one of them and saw so much out of it, primarily how I hang on to mine and how my vision is normally in the distance but without structures in place to get there.

So what do we as a society say about why we need and the power of having a vision. Fifteen quotes and yes Tony Robbins is in there, how could the big guy not be. Here we go –

1. And the rhythm of life is a powerful beat, feel the tingle in your fingers and the tingle in your feet. Having your Vision powerfully in presence is a truly creative act, take it today.

2. What is your position in Life, an oft asked question at parties as social chit chat. Who gives a flying rats, I wonder what that expression means. But what inspires is people speaking about their passion in Life, what turns them on and gets them hot under the collar. Cute little duckies by the way.

3. As a child I remember watching the old American series, The Invisible Man. It was mesmerising to a young child living in Country Victoria. A bit like our powerful vision is to others who cannot not see it and often become the naysayers in our life. Don’t listen to these folk.

4. I am old enough to remember when Muhammad Ali was named Cassius Clay. Here is his take on living from Vision and the forgettable song that was written about him : The Black Superman.

5. Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deaf and blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. Here is her take on living an ordinary life.

6. Debbie Ford was an inspiring author who wrote on how our shadow world inhibited our chances of fulfilling our vision. her work had us look at our excuses and re aligning with our life’s vision. Unfortunately she died young, her fans have continued her insights at Debbie’s Work.

7. The legend goes that Thomas Edison broke 1 million light bulbs before he discovered the ones that worked. If this is true that definitely makes him an expert in the arena of execution.

8. Alice Cooper’s first hit was Welcome to my Nightmare – Alice in Action. The Japanese are very succinct and direct, with their sayings. Here is their input to the importance of action in our daily lives and the consequence of the lack thereof.

9. Nelson Mandela had one of the great Visions if our time. He attributes the power of being about to hold a huge Vision through your imagination as the reason for him succeeding.

10. In business there is a requirement to provide the Tax department with your Income statement and Balance Sheet. How many of us include our Vision in our assets list. Really it is the greatest one we have.

11. How many of you have been to Disney World. I have, it a place where our dreams and fantasies come alive. This is Walt Disney’s vision for the children of the world. Awesome, if I don’t say so myself.

12. I sing in a choir, The Moons a Balloon, our leader is my Friend Kavisha Mazzella, she is an award winning Singer Songwriter, here’s one of her songs Invisible Indivisible. I pay more to go and dance to recorded music that hear her sing her beautiful words.

13. I recently went to a public talk on healing the wounds of Love. The focus was not on making up a better story about them but Waking Up. Jeremiah kept stating our job is to Wake Up. This was a profound moment for me.

14. Saving the best nearly to the last. The Get it done man Tony/Anthony Robbins. Why Vision holders are special people. Combined with commitment and willingness to act, the world is your oyster.

15. Another way to sneak in another list of Possibilities, but this is a beautiful one, it included all the ingredients for an awesome life.

It was an extraordinary weekend, opening up a sense that we will fulfil our Visions, one step at a time, some taking fast steps even running towards it and others one solid step at a time, with periods of falling backwards. Remember we are now officially a member of the Collective Potential tribe, welcome aboard.

Namaste until Thursday, my dear friends.

Am I Perfect?

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Rod's World

Went to this fabulous talk last night with my good friend Karen by Leyolah Antara and Jeremiah Abrams called Healing the Wounds Of Love. Leyolah is my teacher so hearing Jeremiah talk on the power shadows have on our love life was kind of inspirational really. He says on his website –

“There are many offers of help out there for the lovelorn and lovesick: programs and how-to methods for self-improvement to love yourself more, to find love, to attract a soul-mate, to strengthen your will and determination, to think, act or be certain ways that will succeed in satisfying our deepest longing. But most such enterprises engage in what amounts to spiritual by-pass, an avoidance of the core of the wounds our souls have sustained in love.” Here is the link to it : Jeremiah’s Website

He spoke of how we each have stories and that the younger we have catastrophic events happen in our life in the area of Love the greater control these stories have over us later in life and our purpose was not to replace them with a more empowering story but to wake up from them and be in the present. Jeremiah said that allowing yourself to be vulnerable was a key access to this state of Awakeness.

So what do we as a society have to say about being vulnerable. As I promised last Blog I would go to our sisters predominantly this blog and I have kept my word, one could say this is a subject they are more practised at. Here we go –

1. Who has not watched Brene Brown’s TED talk on Vulnerability. Millions of people over the planet have been inspired by her forthright views on how we are affected by not being vulnerable with our loved ones.

2. And from that talk there are some magical one liners or quotes. This one particularly calls to me as it is a birthing process of all that we desire in our lives.

3. I love the line from Avatar I See You, its in the dictionary now. Brene does too.

4. Get Up , Stand Up for your Rights – The opening line for an iconic Bob Marley and The Wailers song. Bob wrote a lot of songs about Love because he believed in this.

5. Yes, Brene makes it back in again, I promise there are other women later on. Once again Brene makes a valid point that its not about the suffering but the opportunity to birth that which we seek most in our lives.

6. As Jeremiah is a Jungian therapist I thought I had better seek some scientific evidence of how vulnerability affects our mental health. His good friend Sigmund sates that never loving is where not being vulnerable leaves us.

7. And from one of the greatest story tellers of all time , Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī AKA Rumi, this is the effect of being vulnerable – Unmeasurable Joy.

8. Back in the day, I watched a grainy Black and White T.V. set with this man singing about Love doing one of the world first international broadcasts. He was so openly vulnerable in a time when people thought the world was going to end and where closing down. The clock got very close to midnight The Cuban Missile Crisis

9. I have met a lot of people in the past few years that I am willing to “Share” with. As is stated here, it has led to some amazing relationships and moments of pure bliss.

10. 7 things I definitely love having in my life, still working on it with some people. If we were truly awake could we do it with everyone in our lives?

11. The favourite saying of my friend Emeli Paulo, I am Enough. This beautiful quote from Molly Mahar, founder of Stratejoy.com – Molly’s Website, adds so much power and vulnerability to it.

12. Whip it, Whip it Good by Devo, an anthem to Vulnerability? Here it Is. Only when we reveal it all, all the way down is true intimacy available with another. Not easy, but worthwhile for what Joseph Campbell calls the Bliss.

13. Audre Lorde was a Caribbean-American writer, radical feminist, womanist, lesbian, and civil rights activist. In her own words, Lorde was a “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet”. She was visible as you could be in a time that all the things she was were extremely left of centre, true vulnerability.

14. When we grow up we are trained not to be vulnerable but secretive, ashamed and separate. Luckily there are conscious movements breaking out across the planet who are reversing this process.

15. A beautiful back, with words written on it that cut deep, Love comes at a cost, that of being vulnerable. Go on do it, its worth the effort.

Well I think there are some great insights in this list, when I am famous for my writing and can afford it I will follow Jeremiah to Bali and do some of his work.

Namaste until next time my dear friends

Doing the Honourable Dance!!

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Rod's World

I went to my friends Jules Mojo Trance Dance on the weekend. Its a dance where you change partners each song and dance to a theme. This month it was on being Honoured, not a subject that I think of much when it comes to Conscious dance. Jules is a beautiful, beautiful soul who’s commitment in life is to empower people’s souls and build community. Here’s the link to her Facebook page – Perpetual Mojo.

So how do you honour one another at dance. You follow the two signals, I want to dance with you, but I don’t want to be touched, there are a lot of Contact Improv people among the attendees who just love being touched and the other signal that I want my own alone time. You always get so much out of the night and the group Hug at the end is worth the money alone.

So what do we as human beings have to say about honouring one another. No Oprah again but some quality insights among the fifteen I have chosen. here we go :

1. We go way back to 400 B.C. for our first look at honour. Sophocles is one of the three surviving Ancient Greek playwrights, imagine out of such a prolific era that only three people made it through. His message is simple, Honour is all that matters, corrupt success is bad for the health.

2. Our school system seems to be focusing more and more on the three R’s, turning out corporate clones. What matters later in life is how you relate to others not your ability to know the 12 times table.

3. Samuel Langhorne Clemens is Mark Twain’s real name. He lived by this famous quote above, a true man of honour.

4. Remembered for saving England and smoking Cigars Winston Churchill was meant to be a man of simple tastes and it seems simple words – freedom, justice and of course Honour.

5. Back to the 400 B.C. time frame Socrates is held to be one of the founders of Western Philosophy. This cute and pithy quote points to how to live a great life, be who you say you are going to be, Astronaut or President or Postman. it doesn’t matter, the joy is in the honouring.

6. Winston again, He had a profound belief in the fact that if you kept your word that you could do anything, but that honour and good sense were vital ingredients in the recipe required. He helped save a country with this belief.

7. I have several of Martin’s speeches on audio. They go for over 15 minutes but you are riveted the whole time. One of the most honourable men of all of history he made a race of people believe they weren’t niggers, they were proud African Americans.

8. Balastar is a cool name, he is a Spanish Jesuit prose writer. He was also known for his insightful quotes, why say something with more words that necessary. Balastar points to the value of keeping your words in the face of pleasing others is what counts.

9. Looks like this has been taken off a graffiti installation, How many of us create our present moment to moment. I know I’m guilty of not doing this 24 hours a day.

10. The Law of Abundance, always remember that abundance does not mean more possessions. In fact most awards are given to those who have contributed the most to society, get out there and be abundant by giving of yourself.

11. Taking us back to the the fact that Honouring oneself not be so significant is well known screen hero Chewbacca. I could’t find the language on Google Translate but I’m sure it is profound.

12. Prepared to die, not many people live by this creed. Nelson Mandela was one such inspirational being. I remember singing Free Nelson Mandela in our singing group Soulsong and how much we were moved by it each time we sang it. Here is the Specials great version of the song The Specials.

13. Off to ancient Egypt for this one, 1300 B.C. Akhenaton was a Pharaoh. I suppose the Pharaohs words got saved before anybody elses. Interesting that the soul had importance way back when.

14. I have been a bit male centric this Blog, and unfortunately this is by an other man. But it is about our mothers. Sai Baba, eccentric Indian Hindu guru from the 1970’s made a promise that we would come to no harm if we honoured our mothers.

15. Misunderstood critical thinker Werner Erhard, founder of the Landmark Forum, the mainstreams rite of passage into Transformational work came up with this classic. I did his work back in the 80’s and 90’s when he was still around. We did courses led by out there Americans who shocked us naive Aussies, so much that I went to the States and did two of their advanced course and ran the Moscow Peace Marathon the year before the Berlin Wall came down.

So I promise that my Blog on Thursday will be focused on that the wild women of our society have to contribute. Namaste until next time my dear friends.