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I love reading and I love learning. Reading new books allow new perspectives.  While reading Supercoach: 10 Secrets to Transform Anyone’s Life I had one of those experiences.

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The book talked about using the word project instead of the word goal. There is a lot of power in words. Think to yourself of a goal that you want to accomplish. Notice how the goal is in the future and has a failure date. Turn that goal into a project and notice how those feeling shifts. Project is something that you are working on now. Just switching the word from goal to project takes what you are working on from the future and puts it in the present.

You will also notice that it takes away the failure date. You might have dates you would like to complete the project, however a project can go on if you do not make a date. You would have to create a new goal if you do not make it. Using the word project breaks the contract of disappointment.

I am looking forward to playing around with this idea more in 2012! I am excited for next year as I am excited for today! It is all part of my projects.

What are some goals that you are going to change into projects?

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Continue reading »]]> Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing: The Recommendation

Welcome to Joyous Expansion’s Recommendations. This is not a review because I am not going to write blogs for books I do not like. Therefore, I am only going to be writing recommendations. The recommendation this week is Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing.

Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing is a book about an enlightened dude named Jed McKenna who runs a house of enlightenment in Iowa. McKenna is surrounded by a cast of characters that are meant to represent the different aspects of spirituality. He systematically goes through each aspect of spirituality and destroys them. McKenna is not your average enlightened dude. On the surface, he comes off as a huge jerk. Actually if you read deeply you will probably still think of him as a big jerk. He is someone who is enlightened and that is all he cares about. He has little patience for mysticism or false paths to enlightenment. In his reality there is only one way to be enlightened and one way to get there.

There are two big reasons I recommend this book. First is because I find it entertaining and it made me think. I enjoyed the way the book is written. I like the tale of McKenna and the messages he had. I enjoyed the things he had to say and the brash way he said it. When I first read this book I got caught up in that aspect of McKenna. I caught myself arguing with the character in the book trying to prove myself smarter than the character. The book stood out to me.

If you’re not amazed by how naïve you were yesterday,

you’re standing still.

If you’re not terrified of the next step,

your eyes are closed.

If you’re standing still and your eyes are closed,

then you’re only dreaming that you’re awake.

A caged bird in a boundless sky.

-Jed McKenna

You can find the above quote on the right in my random quotes section. What stood out to me was, “If you’re not amazed by how naïve you were yesterday, you’re standing still.” I coupled that with his koan, “further,” I was able to take myself further in my development.

If you go to Amazon, you can read some glowing reviews and some very scathing reviews. Both are correct. . I do disagree with one point that the negative reviews kept mentioning. There is a saying, “Before enlightenment you chop wood and carry water, after enlightenment you chop wood and carry water.” I missed the part of the saying that says, “You don’t play video games, go sky diving, and all of the other supposedly unenlightened activities McKenna does.” What a lot of people who hate this book are missing is that the book is meant to make you think.

This is the second big reason I recommend this book. It will make you think. The second time I read the book I gained an understanding that the star of the book is me. The parts of the book that make me upset are the parts that I need to examine. The book is good for getting you unstuck as it will show you where you are stuck. It will challenge your ideas and if you take the book to heart you will think for yourself. A person can read this book and turn it into a bible, however that isn’t the point. Learn from it and move on. Go back if you feel you need another spiritual enema. McKenna is just a finger pointing at the moon. If you ask someone for directions and he gives them to you in a tone you do not like, do you yell at him for being a jerk?

No one knows if McKenna exists or not. Some people think he is Adyashanti. If I had to choose from all the people I have read I would choose Richard Bandler. If Richard Bandler was enlightened, I believe this is how he would act. This is potentially a very powerful book and it wouldn’t surprise me if the writer had a great knowledge of NLP.

I recommend this book to anyone who feels a little stuck in their spiritual path or is willing to challenge it. If you want to stay on your path without question, then this book is not for you. You will read it and yell at it and put it down. However, if you are looking for a book to challenge who you are, then this is the book for you.

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Last year, I chose the 2009 Placebo of the Year award. Congratulations to the winner Invite Change. I thought it would be fun to start 2010 with a look back at the top 15 placebos of the 2000s. Wow, it is funny to write that. I remember when I was going to party like it was 1999. That song did not get old at all in 1999.

Placebos in this sense are personal development work, events, books or audio-books that have changed my life for the better. The 15 that I mention here are the top 15 in the last 10 years that have greatly shaped who I am today.

Here are numbers 5 through 1.

Number 5: David Deida and his book Way of the Superior Man. The book Way of the Superior Man is about being a more superior man than the man you are now. It is about living your purpose fully and with complete abandonment of things that do not serve your purpose. It says that living your purpose as a way to serve everyone.

One of the main gifts I gained from reading Way of the Superior Man is his ideas on relationships. I learned about the three stages of relationships and noticed that I was in the second stage, because I didn’t want to be in the first stage. The first stage is a dominant macho jerk and submissive housewife. The second stage is a partnership between the new age wimp and the powerful woman. He talks about ways of being a powerful man without being a macho jerk. In terms of math, I think the first stage is 1+1=0, where both people are dependent of each other; however, they mostly cancel each other out. The second stage is 1+1=2, where both people are 50/50 partners. This is nice, however it doesn’t provide spark in the bedroom and the woman doesn’t get to explore her radiance because she has to pick up the slack from her man. Also, the man does not get to explore his direction and purpose as he has to be the man in the relationship and his woman’s best girlfriend. The third stage is 1+1=infinite, where they are both whole, healthy human beings and together they are so much more. In this scenario the man is living in service of his woman so she can get to the depth of her radiance and the woman is in service of her man so he can get to the depth of his purpose.

He also mentions that one of the mistakes men make is to treat women like they are men, and vice versa. The way he explained how women are spoke to me and from there I let go of a lot of anger I had towards women. Before reading this book, I had anger towards women for not liking me. It was their fault that I was alone. They just couldn’t see what a catch I was. Also I thought of them as crazy. After reading this book, I became inspired to be a man who can attract an amazing woman and love her for who she is. I do not want to marry a dude, why would I want my woman to be like one.

Number 4: Invite Change. The Invite Change coaching model has five classes. I have been through four of them so far. The first one is Living Your Vision. In this class we work as a group to create vision and purpose statements that we are to use for our lives. It is an empowering exercise to develop a statement that when spoken feels like it talks about the essence of who I am. My purpose statement started off as long, however now it is “to be joy and love deeply.” Saying it feels so great. This was a very special class that I recommend all people take, as you do not have to be in the coaching school to take this class.

The second class is Essentials. In this class students get the essentials of coaching. This class is a great starting point for learning how to coach and what coaching is. This is mostly a learning class with some good exercises.

The third class is Power. Power is an amazing class that I cannot really explain. I went into the class feeling pretty good about coaching and I left the class feeling amazing about coaching. I felt completely sure that I am a great coach and I can help people reach their goals faster and with more joy.

The fourth class is Dynamics. They say that what Living Your Vision is to your life Dynamics is to your coaching business. It felt very true. I just took this class two weeks ago so much of what I learned is sinking in. I am very excited to see where my business goes from here. The vision and my mission statement fills me with pride. I look forward to working with people and facilitating a change in them that will spread out into their communities. I will be a positive force for change in this world and a huge part of that is because of Dynamics.

The fifth class is called Mastery, which I will take in July.

Number 3: Intentions. Learning about intentions and writing them down has been an amazing way to grow. I first learned about intentions from Wayne Dyer. I started writing them in a meet-up group called an intention circle. I highly recommend checking out an intention circle in your area. Getting together to make intentions for how you want to direct your life is very powerful. I have also enjoyed the work of Lynn McTaggart and went to one of her seminars this year. There is a lot of power in the written and spoken word. Using them to our advantage will help us get to where we want to go.

I am so inspired by my work with intentions that my first book will be about writing joyful intentions to awaken your true potential. Intentions are how I bring everything together. I learn from something and then I write down an intention to live and embody the way that I want to live. The intention process has changed my life for good and I am looking forward to sharing that with you in my new book.

Number 2: Kingpin. If this is the first blog you have read of mine, then this is probably a big surprise. However if you read the blog “The Greatest Day of My Life” then you understand why this movie is in the second spot in my top 15 countdown. The satori that I experienced from watching this movie has changed my life in so many ways. I know I wouldn’t be the man I am today and all of the other placebos that I have above would not have registered the way that they have. Taking complete responsibility for my life has been so freeing. It is amazing how amazing it is. It also shows me that the greatest wins can come from the least likely sources. Being open to anything allows me to get an amazing realization from a comedy about a bowler with one hand and a slutty woman taking an Amish guy to a bowling tournament in Vegas.

Number 1: Warrior Sage. Warrior Sage is number one on my list because I have received more from this group than any other in the last 10 years. I have completed four workshops with them including the Illumination Intensive (twice), Sex Passion and Enlightenment and Living Ecstasy.

The Illumination Intensive is one of my favorite things I have ever done for myself. I learned that the main person I learn from is me. The amount I have learned about me from these intensives is staggering. One of the most important is best described as “I am me.” I feel that everything I have learned afterward has been more authentic. I believe that I am a much more authentic and present person because of the Illumination Intensive. If you have a chance for an Enlightenment Intensive I highly recommend it. The Illumination Intensive is enough to put Warrior Sage at the top of my list.

Sex, Passion and Enlightenment was interesting to me. I do not know how much I got out of it. I did get my boundaries pushed a lot. I am very grateful for that. I do feel like I am a better man for going through with it. I just cannot pinpoint what exactly I got out of it or why it is a good seminar. I would recommend it to people who are in relationships or want a relationship.

Living Ecstasy was an amazing experience. Trusting my intuition is the reason I signed up for this seminar. During the first night of Sex, Passion and Enlightenment, I had the same dream three times. The dream was me at the end of Sex, Passion and Enlightenment with the feeling that I do not know what I got out of it and then me signing up for Living Ecstasy. So when it was the end of Sex, Passion and Enlightenment and I noticed I had that same exact feeling, I thought it was a good idea to follow the dream and sign up. Living Ecstasy set the stage for an amazing 2009 and was the end of my three seminars in four months. I went to Living Your Vision in October 2008, Inner Boundaries in November and Living Ecstasy in December. It was an amazing experience for me. During Living Ecstasy, I again pushed my boundaries and became more comfortable with myself. I was in a situation where I was able to get more in touch with my heart. In fact it was right after Living Ecstasy where I simplified my purpose statement from five sentences to just one short statement, “to be joy and love deeply.”

I also joined a men’s group from through Warrior Sage and with their help I was able to be challenged to push many of my boundaries. I also bought the book, Living Ecstasy by Satyen Raja, the man who founded Warrior Sage. It is a group I highly recommend joining. They are a huge reason I found the key to release myself from my prison of fear.

Congratulations to Warrior Sage for winning Placebo of the Decade from Joyous Expansion. I am very thankful to all the other placebos and the many that didn’t make the list. I am blessed to live at a time when there are so many special teachers available to me. Plus, I am in a situation where I am able to explore them rather than just worrying about what my next meal is. I appreciate the wonderful times we live in and I am looking forward to more placebos and being your placebo.

Look out for my book in 2010!!!!

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Continue reading »]]> Last year, I chose the 2009 Placebo of the Year award. Congratulations to the winner Invite Change. I thought it would be fun to start 2010 with a look back at the top 15 placebos of the 2000s. Wow, it is funny to write that. I remember when I was going to party like it was 1999. That song did not get old at all in 1999.

Placebos in this sense are personal development work, events, books or audio-books that have changed my life for the better. The 15 that I mention here are the top 15 in the last 10 years that have greatly shaped who I am today.

Here are numbers 10 through 6.

Number 10: David DeAngelo. One of my di

rty little secrets is that I started my self-improvement kick to get me some women. I was stuck in what I called

“my prison of fear,” and the aspect of my life that brought me the most frustration was talking to women. I got my hands on everything I could when it came to the art of pick up. Honestly, I am no better a

t picking up women than I was before I started to listen to David DeAngelo’s material. The part of pick up where I would act like someone I am not to pick up women didn’t really interest me. However the part about “Inner Game” fascinated the hell out of me. Being a man who could just attract women with my confidence e

xcited me

. I would not be where I am today if I didn’t read David DeAngelo’s material. He mentioned Tony Robbins, who mentioned Wayne Dyer and the rest is history.

One main nugget I learned from David DeAngelo was the idea of reflection. The aspects of other people who bothered me was actually aspects of myself that I did not like reflected back to me. This freeing concept has allowed me to no longer be mad at other people and to look at the aspects of myself that I want to change. This also allows people who annoy me to become my teacher.

Number 9: Byron Katie. Listening to One Thousand Names for Joy made me strive for a way to let go and be fine with anything. The realization

of not believing my th

oughts and that all suffering is when I am arguing with reality is very powerful. The work is also very simple and easy to do. They even have a free hot line for people having trouble with the work. When people are stuck on a thought it is like their brain is playing the same song from a record over and over again. The work allows other tracks to be played. There is something freeing about seeing the opposite of what you think is true as just as true. For example going from, my mom shouldn’t have abandoned me to I have abandoned my mom, and my mom should have abandoned me and my mom didn’t abandon me, has allowed me to let go of a lot of past pain. All o

f these thoughts are just as true as the others. The suffering comes when I believe the thought that is different than what has happened.

The main nugget that I want to share from Katie is that all thoughts are judgments. In personal development a lot of books talk about not being judgmental. What that means to most people is thinking positive thoughts about people. Actually it means to not be attached to your judgments because no matter what you think, each thought is a judgment on something. Judgment is the language of the

mind. It only knows how to think in judgments that are relational to something. Again, this is a very freeing belief.

Number 8: Adyashanti. I learned of Adyashanti when I was surfing the Internet to see if Jed McKenna was a real person. Some people have suggested that Jed McKenna is really Adyashanti.

So I bought his book, Emptiness Dancing and enjoyed his teachings. I highly recommend it to everyone. The other talks that I have listened to have been just as good. His teaching on enlightenment works well with me. He sees the ego as something to let go. It is like a jacket. Listening to him it is not something to discard It is

something to put on like a coat. Going outside to talk to people, remember to take your ego so you can speak words and relate to the illusionary world where we live. What I understand from him is that enlightenment is letting go of my Ego and wisdom is

training the ego to live in this dualistic reality.

One nugget to share from him is that enlightenment is not about learning more

of who you are; it is about unlearning who you are.

Number 7: Abraham. Abraham is a collection of spirits that are channeled through Esther Hicks. From their perspective, there is nothing more important than finding a thought that feels better than previous thoughts

. They have an emotional scale that they teach people to reach. Instead of going from sadness to joy, they suggest going from sadness to anger. This is because at that moment anger feels better than sadness. They are also teachers of the Law of Attraction. They ha

ve quotes such as, “The better it gets, the better it gets”

and “There is nothing more important than to feel good.” Listening to them speak is a great pick-me-up and following their practices will help you to feel good. They have some videos on Youtube and I highly suggest checking them out to see if they click with you.

Number 6: Meetup.com. Meetup.com is a website where you can create a group about anything your heart desires and if people are interested they can join. Then you can host meetings. I found meetup.com on craigslist when I was looking at the events and noticed an EFT on building wealth. I joined and went and I was hooked. I noticed how much my personal development grew when I was around people who also had the same goal of improving their lives. There is something about being around people who share a similar goal and a similar mindset that helps. I have been to channeling events, intention circles, drumming circles, learning how to date, law of attraction, board games, Byron Katie, and group discussions on subjects that interest me. There was a time when I would go to one meet-up a week.

Surrounding yourself with positive people is a way to skyrocket your development.

Come Back Next week for 5 through 1!

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Continue reading »]]> Top 15 Placebos of the Decade

Last year, I chose the 2009 Placebo of the Year award. Congratulations to the winner Invite Change. I thought it would be fun to start 2010 with a look back at the top 15 placebos of the 2000s. Wow, it is funny to write that. I remember when I was going to party like it was 1999. That song did not get old at all in 1999.

Placebos in this sense are personal development work, events, books or audio-books that have changed my life for the better. The 15 that I mention here are the top 15 in the last 10 years that have greatly shaped who I am today. A few may surprise you, one definitely will if you haven’t read a previous blog of mine.

Number 15: A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. This book gave me a wonderful look at life and the way things are and some methods to help me remain in the present. There are times when I am driving when I will just take some breaths and drive to practice being in the now.

Number 14: Deepak Chopra/Wayne Dyer. These two people are synony

mous for me. They are similar in their teachings and are best friends. They are two of the first self-help people I listened to and they have many good ideas. Using Chopra’s process of being conscious of doing something unconscious, I stopped biting my fingernails. He said not to judge an action as right or wrong, instead notice myself doing the action. I started doing that with fingernail biting and then one day I noticed I had to cut my nails for the first time in over 20 years. That showed me actual proof that I was learning from self improvement. I enjoy both men’s senses of humor and have learned a lot from both of them over the years.

From Dyer’s teaching, I learned that living from spirit, is living from inspiration.

Number 13: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steve Covey. This is on the list for two reasons. One is the habit of which is my favorite, “Seek first to understand then be understood.” This is a wonderful way to live. Listening to people is a lost art in our culture. Often people tend to wait for their turn to talk. They do not actually listen to the person who is talking. There have been many times when I have listened to conversations and it is like two people are having completely different conversations.

The second reason is from reading this book I finally understand unconditional love. Before this book, I thought it made sense, however, after this book it just clicked. When Covey had a conversation with a client about how the love in the client’s relationship was gone, Covey kept telling him, “Well just love her.” This made the click for me.. Love isn’t something I have, it is something I do. You do not have love for someone, you love them. From this book I have been able to deepen my capacity to love and working to have love as just a state of being rather than something that I do.

Number 12: Boundary Solution. “Boundaries” is a seminar series given by Joan Casey. I was lucky to meet her at a Warrior Sage event. I was surprised to learn that she also leads seminars and was smart enough to take two of them. Using many techniques, I was given a view on my boundaries and push them. There was a time when nothing was more important than pushing my boundaries. The Boundary Solution seminars gave me a safe place to push and grow my boundaries. I took two seminars. One focused on boundaries with other people and the second was about boundaries within myself.

The main idea I took away from these seminars was an exercise where I felt a feeling with passion. I chose a feeling, fear, and then worked with it for 21 days to break my addiction to the chemical of the feeling. This excercise has allowed me to avoid creating situations that fulfill my need for fear. This has been very freeing.

Number 11: News for the Soul. www.newsforthesoul.com was a website that I would go to at least once a week. There I would listen to the people they showcase like Satyan Raja, Don Ickle, Greg Braden, Brad Yates, Amethyst Wyldfyre, James Arthur Ray, John Assaraf, and many more. News for the Soul also introduced me to a wonderful free and easy technique called Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT. Brad Yates is the person who is known as the EFT wizard. I highly recommend looking him up on Youtube and giving it a try. It might look a little funny, however it is quick, easy and free and may help you.

It is hard to pick one nugget I learned from News for the Soul. There was at least a two-year period that I listened to it constantly while working and I used a lot of great ideas from it and learned from many different perspectives. If I had to point to one thing it would be discovering EFT.

Come back next week for 10-6!

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Continue reading »]]> Welcome to the first annual Placebo of the Year award. Placebo of the Year goes to the event, book, class, or workshop that has brought me some lasting happiness or skills that have helped me with my life. To be eligible for Placebo of the Year the event or book has to be something that I did, read, or learned something from during the past year.. For example, even though I discovered Richard Bandler in 2008, he is eligible in 2009, because I read two of his books this year.

Read my blog Find Your Placebo to get a better explanation of what I mean by placebo.

The candidates for the 2009 Placebo of the Year award are:

Adyashanti: I discovered him early in the year and he has been a great teacher in my life so far. This year I purchased his book Emptiness Dancing which gave a wonderful take on enlightenment. This book illustrated the idea that the Ego is something I let go rather than fight against. If you have read Eckhart Tolle’s work and

you are looking for more on enlightenment, I highly suggest this book. It has a way that isn’t softer, it just won’t make letting go of the Ego such a battle.

In addition, I checked out Spontaneous Awakening and End of Your World from the library and downloaded many of his free satsangs and purchased Accessing the Ground of Being from the Portland satsang, I also purchased his CD set Dawn of Awakening and went to one of his satsangs.

Adyashanti is an amazing teacher if you are interested in enlightenment. He is very good at explaining something that is unexplainable. He also seems very genuine.

Main Learning: In the Dawn of Awakening, a member of the crowd asked something along the line of, “When does the resistance end?” Adyashanti gave a perfect answer, “It never ends.”

From his simple answer, I went into my life and looked at where I was waiting for resistance to end. How was I waiting for resistance to end instead of doing or feeling what I wanted to feel? For example, I was waiting to be in the flow for a fun spiritual life that was easy instead of just being in the flow. If I am waiting to be in the flow, I would be always waiting rather than beingin the flow.

Now I am practicing his main teaching, “Stop” from the live satsang that I attended.

Sedona Method: The Sedona Method is a simple technique where one feels something and then lets it go. It is as simple as it sounds. They go into much more detail in their CD series. This method has been around since the 70s.

Main Learning: The holistic approach in the Sedona Method is allowing myself to feel something as much as I can and then allowing myself to feel better at it or the opposite of that as much as I can. For example, if I was jealous because my wife cheated on me, I would allow myself to feel as mad as I can at my wife and then let it go. Then I would allow myself to be as fine with my wife cheating on me as I can and then let it go.

This is one of the first steps I do when I start to feel an emotion that feels bad. I allow the feeling and let it go, and then I allow the opposite and let it go. This allows me to feel what I feel and honor my feelings, while allowing me to let it go and think about how things are going to be OK. Plus it allows me to work and learn from the feelings that are not known to be positive such as jealousy and disappointment. I am able to feel it and learn from it instead of throwing a pity party.

Invite Change: Invite Change is the coaching school that I attend. This year I have taken three classes through them, Essentials, where I learned the basic of being a coach, Power, where I learned that I am a very good coach, and Dynamics, where I learned that I am a Awakener. I am very excited about my future as coach.

They are very supportive and amazing people. I am honored attend this school. A special thanks to my teachers, Susan McKay, Amaorah Ross, Jan Berg, Janet Harvey, BJ Levy, and Beverly Marsh.

Main Learning: The main thing I can take away from Invite Change is both an excitement and a huge desire to coach. I do not believe I would be where I am with my personal beliefs without going to Invite Change. The growth I have gone through due to this school has also been amazing. I look forward to building my business in 2010, mostly due to the work I have done in Invite Change.

Byron Katie The Work Live: I learned of Byron Katie in 2008 when I listened to the audio book A Thousand Names for Joy That was the first time I listened to someone and I thought to myself, “Yea, that is where I want to end up when I am done with this journey.”

In early 2009, I was able to go to her six-hour workshop at the Center for Spiritual Living in Seattle. Seeing her do the work live was absolutely amazing. The greatest part about it was witnessing the strength of those who did the work and what they were able to go through. Seeing the love that she showed each person she talked to was

amazing. It was a magical experience for me.

Main Learning: I can get through anything. I have a tool

called the work that is able to accept anything in my life and work from there. Having it reinforced that it is my thoughts that cause suffering and not the events. It is my relationship with them that causes me pain. I can change my relationship. Hearing the story of someone who went through a what most people would call a horrible ideal and how the work helped them not be defined by it and trapped in the past was amazing. It was like seeing a real life Victor Frankl in the audience.

Richard Bandler: Richard Bandler is one of the creators of NLP or Neuro Linquistic Programming. This year I listened to an audio recording of his, Your Own Personal Genius. I also bought two of his books, Conversations with Richard Bandler and Richard Bandler’s Guide to Trance-formation. His take on personal empowerment is very similar to Katie’s however it is more grounded in the mind. His is more on the line of, “None of your thoughts are true, so you might as well believe the good ones.” He believes that absolute power is being able to listen to something and not allow it to affect you. Allowing anything anyone says to hurt you is you giving your power to them. During a demonstration NLP workshop to feminists during the middle of the Equal Rights Movement Bandler calls them sweetheart, doll and all sort of words that would rile them up. He illustrates that creating a situation where these words cause you to lose your power is not very empowering. Empowerment is being able to listen to anything without giving your power away.

Main Learning: The biggest thing I learned from Bandler is “spinning my feelings.” In his book he shows an exercise where I look in my body where a feeling has started. I start with a negative feeling and find where it starts and how it spins in my body. From there, I take the feeling out, flip it upside down and spin it backwards and put it back in the body. What I noticed is that the feeling feels so much better in that situation. Then I repeat what I’ve just done to anchor the feeling into one super glorious mega feeling. This for me is thumping my chest twice and pumping once in the air while singing We Will Rock You by Queen. This is something I do before I coach to get me into the right mindset and feeling.

I also use the Sedona Method holistic in this approach. This helped me a lot with the feeling of disappointment. I was able to take the feeling of disappointment, spin it opposite direction and then use the Sedona Method of allowing me to spin the feeling of disappointment as much as I can and then spin the opposite direction as much as I can. For me this gives me choice when the disappointment trigger arises. Then I make the intention to feel the new feeling when the trigger arises for the rest of my life.

Jed McKenna: Jed McKenna wrote a series of books about enlightenment Spirituality it is the Darnedest Thing, Spiritual Warfare and Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment. His books are defiantly not for everyone. If you read the books with an open mind you will get something out of them. This is especially true if you enjoy enlightenment, spiritually and self development.

It is nice to read someone who has a completely different take on everything than what I learned. Instead of spirituality and enlightenment being about rainbows and sunshine, he thinks that spirituality is the opposite of enlightenment and enlightenment is a drag out war to the literal death of the ego. He also has many nuggets that are interesting and will help people stay on track and look at what they are doing. If you want to take responsibility for your own development it is nice to read someone who is very, very different. That is someone who isn’t a blinded by spiritually or just a skeptic. I definitely plan on re-reading the trilogy in the future.

Main Learning: Two points stick out in my mind. From the first book I think of the quote, “If you are not amazed by how naive you were yesterday, you are standing still.” This has me always striving to move forward in my development.

The other is from his second book when he writes about a group of people trying to figure out the Bhagavad Gita. He mentions to them that, “It’s not about the people IN the story, it’s about the person READING the story.” This is beautiful. I have had many discussions with people about a book and people struggle with them because they are trying to figure out exactly what the author is talking about. The truth of the matter is the fact that it is not only nearly impossible to know exactly what the author meant, it is not nearly as valuable as what he said means to you. This has changed the way I read books as now I am looking for inspirations that help deepen my development and take me further than trying to figure out what the author meant. Plus it also opens up my own intelligence and gives me 100% responsibility for what I get out of it.

The winner of the 2009 Placebo of the year award goes to:

Invite Change

It is almost not fair to the other participants because I have been to three of their classes this year and they have been very supportive of my growth as a coach. I have received so much out of working with them that they have been worth every dollar that I have spent with them. They are a group of amazing women and the classmates I have met have been outstanding. The entire experience I have had with them has been completely special. Congratulations to the 2009 Placebo of the Year award winner.

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