Fired Up

“NO pain, NO gain.” Remember that lovely workout adage?

Do we still need it?

What if you were told that there is going to be a happy ending, for sure?--that every bit of your life, whatever your current concerns are, magically turns out better than you ever would have expected. How would you live? And what if you were told, in a way that you couldn’t ignore, that there was NO reason ever to worry? Would you keep making up reasons to worry? Would you need more proof? Why do we humans insist that life has to be hard? And why do we insist that there has to be proof?

Is it that we look back at human experience and it WAS? There are very few history books describing the beauty and spirit of our ancestors. It sounds like all they did was fight each other. Apparently the people who write history books are interested in stuff like that. It is so interesting to me that my homeschooling daughter has only a very passing interest in history; she has sat through enough of my yoga classes to hear me suggest: stay in the present moment. Don't put any energy into regretting the past or worrying about the future. And then create a vision from NOW.

If you need to look at the past, take a look at a history line and see humans' rapid development at a glance. We are amazing! Living in amazing times! Why look back at less conscious times? Many would say, to study our mistakes. Ok, I'll save time: anything that did not come from a place that honored the planet and its inhabitants...was a mistake. That would include creating far more trash than the planet can process. Let's create our world from a new place in ourselves. Not from lack, fear, or desire for power or money, all of which have cocreated the stress we live with.

There is no need to look back at the remains of our old perceptions, even in our own individual dramas. Let's look forward. Yes people used to think the world was flat. Guess what, we as a species are still that unaware. We just don't know what the next huge paradigm-shifting piece is, yet.

What if? What if we looked toward experience, and from this new vantage point, our future looked euphoric? Or even just placid? What if life wasn’t hard, out there in the future; what if food and shelter were easy to create in such a way that everyone was satisfied with their share? What if? Does the evidence around us prevent us from being creative enough to imagine that? If so, that means we are victims of that external evidence; it has us in its grip and we need to check in on it repeatedly to make sure we are still not free, or happy, or rich.

How can we train ourselves as a species to outcreate that? To create something new. It’s mere visioning! Physics has observed, says Corrie--that life is all in the eye of the beholder and where the beholder is positioning herself, that she is in other words an active participant in creation. Can we therefore create what we choose? Can we the people come to a few basic agreements that could change the world? Does change need to explode onto the scene because a bomb was dropped or a child was killed? Do we need to rally ‘round tragedy? Or can we rally around an amazing new paradigm, a great Creation, a vision that actually does change the world? Are we listening?

Anyway. Did I mention? I walked on fire last weekend.

“Real fire?” is the first question I’m asked. Yes--real fire that’s been baked down to a scrunchy perfection for three hours, chanted to, sung to, then spread into a glowing-charcoal sidewalk under the rich and infinitely starry New Mexico sky. An energy of fear and excitement mingle and check each other out...as is often the case where there's fire. The beauty of this gathering is that everyone is willing to feel the fear and transform it into excitement. The new moon that weekend made the sky extra dark and the lunar cycle perfect for intention-setting. Fifty people who were willing to do things differently were present to inspire each other to create great visions for the New Year. And most of us walked on real fire. For a few it was our second or third or fourth firewalk. My experience is: it doesn't get easier. But it does get more fun.

Once one has walked on fire, with no physical trace whatsoever (my feet were actually cold from the time they spent in the snow, not hot from the time they spent on the coals) it is absolutely clear that where we place our minds has a direct effect on the experience of our bodies. Once one has walked on fire, there is a sense that nothing is impossible. There is a sense of euphoria, both a personal “I did it!” and a Universal, “Life is magical!” It is very clear that we create our worlds, and that our minds can be put to much better use than worrying that life has a bad ending.

Not only is there nothing to worry about, but we can and are being called to create our own experiences--and a New Earth--from the highest place we have access to--our Spirits. Think it won't work? If I had considered all the reasons walking on fire wouldn't work, it wouldn't have worked.

I loved the "no pain, no gain" adage for ages. I worked it. So willing to go there--it felt genetic. But in recent years, my experience has shown: no pain, HUGE gain. And part of the gain is: the experience that life can be painless. Life—can be painless! No, really. Life can even be euphoric in the face of potential pain. I've lived it. I walk my talk. On fire.

Yes!

It’s all about where you put your mind.

Heaven on Earth

Blogging gets the word out as soon as possible. No need for a middleman. No editors. No publisher. No agent. None of that stuff that shuts us down, that makes us say, "I can't." The time between expression and publication can be seconds. It is practically like being psychic: experiencing the same thoughts as each other, almost at the exact same time. How synchronistic. It's cool to know I could send this out and reach a million people all at the same time.

Yes, I humor myself. Surely there are only a couple hundred thousand people reading this. But that's not the point--instant connection is the point. And jobs. We have just put...how many people out of jobs? by inventing blogging. How many people don't have jobs because the communications industry is slowing down...because it's becoming obsolete... And don't think I'm not majorly bummed out. I am! I love paper! I love ink! I love fonts! Some books are stunningly beautiful to me. But hey, maybe they'll keep creating the amazingly lovely ones, and they'll become art, having nothing to do with "getting published." No more mass published crappy paper tree wasting ink wasting millions of copies of books, but just a select, collector's type of object d'art. Hey, who knows? I don't.

But what I do know is, we have millions of people worrying about lack and scarcity. Yes, in our portfolios, and yes, on our Mother Earth as well. And what I know about that is, it drags us down. I have been learning about energy for years and years, and one thing I have learned is that your thoughts can either lift you up, or weigh you down, and it's your choice.

I can have $11,000 in my checking account and feel rich, or I can have the same sum in my checking account and feel broke. And life goes so much better when I feel gratitude, even and especially for the little things.

So instead of freaking out that there are dwindling jobs (because of course every adult needs to work 40 hours a week (unless you're really driven and work 50 or 60)), how about if we were joyful about the dwindling jobs, because it means In The Future, Hard Work Is Obsolete. Isn't that why our forefathers worked so hard? Didn't they tell us that? They said, "We are working hard so you won't have to." They essentially wanted to give us a better life, and they did.

But what if we could take a quantum leap, and not have to work so hard--on an outrageous scale? I mean...my daughter gets out of college and there is no job waiting for her...because we simply don't need to work that effen hard anymore! She will have time to enjoy her retirement right away! Doesn't that make so much more sense, in terms of living in the moment? Doesn't it make so much sense in terms of our health? Do you think stress diseases are epidemic by accident? No, it's a conscious creation, a belief that created the horrific: "work one's fingers to the bone." Oy!

I'm not concerned with HOW my outrageous proposition could possibly work. I'm just proposing a suspension of disbelief.
I highly recommend that we raise our sights, and imagine a life in which our kids only need to work about oh, ten hours a week. Tops. And they can spend the rest of their time in life-enriching ways, doing something they believe in, for free, because they believe in it. Like...healing the planet. I can totally see it happening, and I think my daughter would fit in really well in that world. What I see in her as a lack of ambition may just mean she's been pre-programmed for an easier existence, a fun existence, an existence in which all that matters is her heart's desire, and creating planetary One-ness.

What seems like ages ago, Katybeth's Cole found Lily's hat under something at school. It had been lost for weeks, and it was my favorite hat of hers; Jay had gotten it for her so on top of it being cute, it was evocative. I sent Lily to school with $5 for Cole, because, to me, the hat was priceless and I would have put up a $5 reward in the first place if I'd have thought of it; in fact I bet it's a great way to actually get kids' lost clothing back! Anyway Katybeth and I had a conversation in which she said, it's something he'd do for a friend, he absolutely doesn't need money for it, don't even go there; and I countered with, I want him to have the experience that living one's life, simply being a good friend, effortlessly brings rewards. (I also pay my daughter--every time she makes me laugh so hard I cry. It's maybe 4 times a year, but she is always poised to make her comedic move, so we have a fairly entertaining domestic life, very sit-com. (More fun for both of us than the usual "allowance.") Hello, if anyone out there wants it, sit-com idea: the yoga-teacher mom whose daughter imitates her in a smart-assy way, but the mom, because she's a yoga teacher for god's sake, does not react. I'd like my daughter to play the daughter and I'd like...hm...one of the former brady bunch girls to play me.)

Anyway, in sum, all I'm saying is, what if life could be way better than we ever realized? What if we don't really need half of the stuff we've learned--or owned? What if we could free up that time and space for relaxing, enriching activities, in bodies that brimmed with life? What if in paring down our long workweek and our major expenses we could also turn the health of the planet, and its people, around? Isn't it worth fantasizing about? What would you do with all that extra time and energy? What might your kids do, if they don't have to worry about mortgages, health care, unemployment rates, when they grow up? It would not hurt to imagine that, because everything that's ever happened was first a thought. Right? Cars. Airplanes. Computers. And other things that may now be turning obsolete. Is there anything wrong with a huge shift in which people will work less? It might hurt for awhile, for some people, like an unwanted diet, but it will help tremendously for all of us to see a positive end in sight, rather than more of the same.

The world IS changing--why resist? The future could exceed our imaginations.