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for November, 2009.
By Gwen
“Being able to shift perspectives is like having a freely functioning vehicle. If a car is stuck in any gear, what you’ve got is a dysfunctional car. Even if it’s a Maserati, if you’re stuck in first gear, or you’re stuck in reverse, no matter what gear you’re stuck in, it’s dysfunctional. But the moment you have fluidity and movement and you’re able to shift up or down or into reverse, or whatever you need to do, you’ve got a functional vehicle.”
~ Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel
Big Mind – Big Heart
That’s awesome. Imagine your ideal car. It looks soooo beautiful on display. You buy it. And… It’s stuck in reverse. Hah! Now imagine YOUR life. Are you stuck in reverse? Always looking backwards? Stuck in 1st, never willing to take a risk? Or maybe stuck in 5th, never able to slow down? As Genpo says, it doesn’t matter what gear you’re stuck in, if you can’t shift as life demands, your car is dysfunctional. Same with our lives. Again, this is what the Big Mind process is all about: not getting “stuck.”
Brian Johnson
Philosophers Notes
By Gwen
Your reality is the same size and shape as the container you hold it in. If you confine your creativity, your imagination, you future to the small container of your current reality, your thinking will be dominated by negative self-talk and your actions will be confined to your current comfort zone.
What if you let your reality grow without containment? You may think, “That sounds too simple.” It’s not simple; it takes a firm understanding and application of certain principles. But its’ possible, and worth the effort.
Lou Tice
Email me at
discoveryourdharma@gmail.com
for your
FREE 30 minute consultation
By Gwen
“You’re supposed to avoid stress and get lots of rest,”
the nurse said. “But if your soul wants to dance, staying
in bed is stressful, and dancing is restful.”
A lot of my clients come dressed for success, sit at attention, and write down everything I say. When I tell them to put away their notebooks, take off their shoes, and stop doing anything, they look as thought they’ve just discovered I’m on the wrong medication entirely. Whether they say it out loud or not, I know that they are thinking: You don’t get ahead in this life by “non-action.” You get ahead working, by pushing, by making a gosh-darned effort.
What these people haven’t’ yet experienced is the feeling of “doing without doing.” There’s an old Taoist story about a group of Confucian intellectuals who, while strolling past a huge waterfall, glimpse a human body in the churning, roaring froth. Horrified, they gather by the banks, trying to figure out how to fish out the body and give it a decent funeral. The discussion comes to an abrupt end when an old man pops out of the water at their feet, dries himself off, and walks away.
Once the scholars have stopped gaping in astonishment, they run after the old man. “How did you do that?” they demand. “No one could swim in that water without being killed.”
“Oh, no, it’s really very easy,” the old man tells them. “You just go up when the water goes up, and down when the water goes down.”
The idea here is that when you relax the thinking mind, the rule bound, anxiety-ridden social self, you are not simply stopping everything. Taoists believe that there is an immense benevolent force flowing through all reality, and that each of us –at least our essences — are a part of that force. Once you’re aligned with this force (the Tao, or “Way”), you’re like a surfer on the perfect wave; you move forward with tremendous power, but the only thing you have to do is go up when the water goes up, and down when the water goes down.
The way to do this is to turn off the rules you’ve learned from culture, and allow your essential self to come out and run the show. While the social self is rigid and fixed, the essential self is relaxed and responsive. In any situation, it can give you instructions about how to “not-do” in a way that carries you closer to your North Star.”
Martha Beck
Finding Your Own North Star
Email me at
discoveryourdharma@gmail.com
to schedule your
FREE 30 min consultation
By Gwen
“Self-worth is not a thing; it is a perception. Just as a gymnast begins a routine with ten points and receives deductions for each mistake, so you began life with a natural, complete sense of worth. (Have you ever met an infant with self-worth issues?) But as you grow, you serve as your own judge, deducting points when you misunderstand the nature of living, and learning–when you forget you are a human-in-training and that making mistakes and having slips of integrity and mediocre moments are a part of life, not unforgivable sins.”
“It’s important to note that the most sensitive, self-reflective souls among us–those of us with the highest vision, ideals, and standards–often have the lowest sense of self-worth, because we constantly fail to meet our idealized standards. Maybe that’s why George Bernard Shaw once remarked that “the ignorant are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt.”
It’s so easy to beat ourselves up and then self-sabotage–limiting the amount of joy, creativity and abundance we experience in our lives. This gateway is all about discovering the fact that: “You are no more or less worthy than any other person or part of reality. Your sense of worth grows by doing what is worthy. But you do not have to feel worthy; you need only treat yourself as you would a loved one or honored guest, ending self-destructive behaviors or cycles of self-sabotage, opening to life’s opportunities.”
~ Dan Millman
Everyday Enlightenment
Email me at
discoveryourdharma@gmail.com
for your
FREE 30 minute consultation
By Gwen
“Push yourself to do more and to experience more. Harness your energy to start expanding your dreams. Yes, expand your dreams. Don’t accept a life of mediocrity when you hold such infinite potential within the fortress of your mind. Dare to tap into your greatness. It’s your birthright.”
“Act as if failure is impossible, and your success will be assured. Wipe out every thought of not achieving your objectives, whether they are material or spiritual. Be brave, set no limits on the workings of your imagination. Never be a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future. You will never be the same.”
~ Robin Sharma
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
Email me at
discoveryourdharma@gmail.com
for your
FREE 30 minute consultation
By Gwen
Do you believe that you create your own reality? Or do you believe that reality is something “out there” over which you have no control?
As adults, we generate our experiences in life. While we can’t control everything that happens to us, we can control how we respond. We can take responsibility for the results we experience in life. And when we do this, we grow enormously.
Television newsperson Dan Rather once said that John Kennedy became a true leader when he stood before the American people and said that the Bay of Pigs was an atrocity that never should have happened, and then took full responsibility for it. He was transformed from a promising young politician into a great leader.
The same is true for you and me. If we take responsibility for our lives – our reality – then we are in power. If we avoid it, then we have lost that power.
Who is responsible for the quality of your life? If you say someone else, you are trapped unless, or until, circumstances change. If you say, “I am,” you give yourself the power to change things, if you choose to do so.
You see, the power to change resides where it has always resided – inside you. Take charge of your life, and you give yourself direction and purpose that has probably been missing. Will you be taking risks? Yes, you will, and you will probably make some mistakes. But show me a person who has never made a mistake, and I’ll show you someone who hasn’t lived.
Lou Tice
Email me at
discoveryourdharma@gmail.com
to schedule your
FREE 30 minute consultation
By Gwen
Do you believe that you create your own reality? Or do you believe that reality is something “out there” over which you have no control?
As adults, we generate our experiences in life. While we can’t control everything that happens to us, we can control how we respond. We can take responsibility for the results we experience in life. And when we do this, we grow enormously.
Television newsperson Dan Rather once said that John Kennedy became a true leader when he stood before the American people and said that the Bay of Pigs was an atrocity that never should have happened, and then took full responsibility for it. He was transformed from a promising young politician into a great leader.
The same is true for you and me. If we take responsibility for our lives – our reality – then we are in power. If we avoid it, then we have lost that power.
Who is responsible for the quality of your life? If you say someone else, you are trapped unless, or until, circumstances change. If you say, “I am,” you give yourself the power to change things, if you choose to do so.
You see, the power to change resides where it has always resided – inside you. Take charge of your life, and you give yourself direction and purpose that has probably been missing. Will you be taking risks? Yes, you will, and you will probably make some mistakes. But show me a person who has never made a mistake, and I’ll show you someone who hasn’t lived.
Lou Tice
Email me at
discoveryourdharma@gmail.com
for your
FREE 30 minute consultation
By Gwen
Do you believe that you create your own reality? Or do you believe that reality is something “out there” over which you have no control?
As adults, we generate our experiences in life. While we can’t control everything that happens to us, we can control how we respond. We can take responsibility for the results we experience in life. And when we do this, we grow enormously.
Television newsperson Dan Rather once said that John Kennedy became a true leader when he stood before the American people and said that the Bay of Pigs was an atrocity that never should have happened, and then took full responsibility for it. He was transformed from a promising young politician into a great leader.
The same is true for you and me. If we take responsibility for our lives – our reality – then we are in power. If we avoid it, then we have lost that power.
Who is responsible for the quality of your life? If you say someone else, you are trapped unless, or until, circumstances change. If you say, “I am,” you give yourself the power to change things, if you choose to do so.
You see, the power to change resides where it has always resided – inside you. Take charge of your life, and you give yourself direction and purpose that has probably been missing. Will you be taking risks? Yes, you will, and you will probably make some mistakes. But show me a person who has never made a mistake, and I’ll show you someone who hasn’t lived.
Life is yours to be lived. Live it fully!
Lou Tice
Winner’s Circle Network with Lou Tice – 11/3/09
Email me at
discoveryourdharma@gmail.com
for your
FREE 30 minute consultation
By Gwen
“Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground.” ~Marge Piercy
Can you think back to the best moments of your life? Moments of clarity and commitment? Moments of transcendence and transformation? Moments of exhilaration and engagement? Those Kodachrome moments, when you felt so incredibly alive you actually offered thanks without prompting. Remember? Revisit those moments of profound pleasure when every beating pulse echoed James Joyce’s Irish heroine, Molly Bloom, in her flowing surrender to passion: “And yes I said yes I will Yes.”
What’s the first memory that comes to mind?
During those indelible moments, Spirit was a palpable presence, bearing witness to the extraordinary awakening that is the miracle of authenticity. If you were actually aware of this numinous presence, then these moments became everyday epiphanies — those “ah-ha” transmissions, when the static of the world suddenly clears through Divine Intervention. It’s at these times that the soul’s Morse code — the dots and dashes of our daily round, so often dismissed as meaningless — not only connect, but resonate on the deepest level.
Spirit is also present during life’s inescapable moments of denial, depression, and despair. When faith falters. When we erupt in rage. When we feel betrayed, abandoned, and bereft. When we prefer to be left alone. As flawed as we are, our instincts are unshaken: at least we know what’s fair and what’s not. And this — whatever this might be — is not fair. But during those interminable dark nights of the soul, we’re not, thank God, left to our own devices. Angels are ready to extend a hand to help us back to our feet or carry us off the battlefield of disbelief. But we must ask for help, even if we can only articulate our SOS through cries and whispers. We are never alone on our journey toward Wholeness, from our first breath until our last — and beyond.
Sarah Ban Breathnach
Something More
Excavating Your Authentic Self
Email me at
discoveryourdharma@gmail.com
for your
FREE 30 minute consultation
By Gwen
“Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground.”
~Marge Piercy
Can you think back to the best moments of your life? Moments of clarity and commitment? Moments of transcendence and transformation? Moments of exhilaration and engagement? Those Kodachrome moments, when you felt so incredibly alive you actually offered thanks without prompting. Remember? Revisit those moments of profound pleasure when every beating pulse echoed James Joyce’s Irish heroine, Molly Bloom, in her flowing surrender to passion: “And yes I said yes I will Yes.”
What’s the first memory that comes to mind?
During those indelible moments, Spirit was a palpable presence, bearing witness to the extraordinary awakening that is the miracle of authenticity. If you were actually aware of this numinous presence, then these moments became everyday epiphanies — those “ah-ha” transmissions, when the static of the world suddenly clears through Divine Intervention. It’s at these times that the soul’s Morse code — the dots and dashes of our daily round, so often dismissed as meaningless — not only connect, but resonate on the deepest level.
Spirit is also present during life’s inescapable moments of denial, depression, and despair. When faith falters. When we erupt in rage. When we feel betrayed, abandoned, and bereft. When we prefer to be left alone. As flawed as we are, our instincts are unshaken: at least we know what’s fair and what’s not. And this — whatever this might be — is not fair. But during those interminable dark nights of the soul, we’re not, thank God, left to our own devices. Angels are ready to extend a hand to help us back to our feet or carry us off the battlefield of disbelief. But we must ask for help, even if we can only articulate our SOS through cries and whispers. We are never alone on our journey toward Wholeness, from our first breath until our last — and beyond.
Sarah Ban Breathnach
Something More
Excavating Your Authentic Self
Email me at
discoveryourdharma@gmail.com
for your
FREE 30 minute consultation
"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."