August Anticipation

I’m having an early morning sit in my study in the Catskill Mountains listening to the birds and looking out at nature’s abundance. I am feeling a lovely calm along side a very sweet anticipation of a future unfolding around me.

I find myself very taken by some folks with long histories at www.theinstitute.org along with some enthusiastic newcomers. Together they are integrating my life’s work into a timely, accessible offering for healing. It has been many years since I have been part of such a generous, spirited and unified intentional community with an ambitious mission: Sharing a vision for living authentically and creating conditions to connect more genuinely with ourselves and our world. The last time I had such a powerful community experience it was life changing, and I have the same feeling now.

I am grateful to Ana Venezia and Barry Lipscomb for their leadership and to our board and committees for enthusiastically supporting the launch of this vibrant possibility in the weeks and months ahead. Please stay tuned, as these initiatives speak directly to my previous blogs about finding growth, resilience, and direction in our rapidly changing lives.

I have added two new links to my web site resource list. The first: Dr. Frank Lipman, a pioneering Integrative Physician and author. For twenty years he has enlightened me with new perspectives on optimizing health holistically. I was recently honored to become a contributor to his web site with my recent article Spontaneous Remission From Collective Insanity (click and have a look).

The second: Integrative Psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Scharmat. He always surprises me (and clients I refer to him) with his whole-body, whole-world perspective that is often illuminating.

In a recent issue of Ode Magazine there was an article that beautifully articulated an alternative perspective on common mental illness diagnoses in: Your brain is a rain forest (click for full article). Thomas Armstrong introduces the field of neurodiversity, celebrating the differences among brains. It’s a fascinating forward-moving perspective.

More in September, Michael

Summer Solstice Awakens a Dream

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As I woke on the morning of the longest day in this 10^th year of the new millennium, a new dream began to take shape. I am a lifelong dreamer, with a good record of having most dreams realized, in one form or another. I once dreamt I would change careers and work more directly with people in a healing way; it happened. I envisioned healing from a terminal diagnosis, and I did. I also dreamed about writing a book; now I’m working on my fourth.

As a contributor for the GoodTherapy.org site, I am encouraged to write periodic new articles with a fresh approach to my specialty, Focalizing. When I began to write the recent submission, it just spilled out of me and titled itself: Spontaneous Remission From Collective Insanity (click bold to read the full article).

Shortly after completing that piece, David, a new Facebook friend remarked, “I feel like right now, we’re all missing a collective dream, at least a positive one.” He asked if I was familiar with Pachamama Alliance. As it happens, not only am I a great admirer, they are linked as a resource on my website.

I was reminded of their “Awakening the Dreamer Initiative,” when I revisited the Pachamama Alliance site. Since my life experience has demonstrated that dreams can carry us forward, especially when bringing intention and action to them, I realized that this article was the beginning of a new dream for me and the world; a dream that we can all bring intention and action to.

I wrote David a follow-up on our collective dreaming chats. “I'm dreaming that we live to see a spontaneous remission of our collective insanity and that the children of your generation will get to live in heaven on earth. Care to share a dream?” David, who is much younger, responded, “I’m dreaming the same dream as you!”

What a delight his response was. It is up to us to create new dreams, as we gradually stop clinging to what no longer works.

I invite all of you to share in this dream. Shared dreams and intentions do manifest real results.

Happy Summer, my friends!

Spring Awakening: History & Fear

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Addiction and mental health recovery activist, Chris Shroeder, recently interviewed me. It was surprising to see how enlivened I was, telling stories that put a part of my life’s history in perspective. I shared about some of my shifts, traumas and awakenings. (To view the video click here.)

During my recent week’s vacation, I had a chance to dive into my colleague Dr. Jeffrey Hull’s new book Shift: Let Go of Fear And Get Your Life in Gear. I was very affected by Jeff’s cogent, inspired method for reinventing our relationship with fear and what he calls the “cycle of dread.” My hope is that the supportive essence of this book can reach the masses at a time when we need it so much. To that end, and in honor of the book launch party this week, I offer the following review for Amazon:

“I was happily awakened by Dr. Jeffrey Hull’s book Shift, as it frames our roller-coaster lives into a spectacular journey of self-growth. With great wisdom, Hull teaches us how to embrace change and transform our fear into a partner that is soulful and revealing.”

Happy spring awakening, Michael

March Facebook Madness and then some...

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Needing distraction from the discomforts of a recent cold led me to an in-depth exploration on Facebook. Initially, I began Facebook with a circle of people I knew and was already in touch with. Subsequently, while recovering from that cold, my curiosity brought on an explosion of new friends on my personal page, which then inspired my professional page. I’ve had the pleasure to survey what is interesting to my Facebook friends. In turn, I have posted when I felt inspired, or wanted to share something intriguing.

The progression has been cascading since that weekend, and I am gratified by the expansive, validating and fun process. It has not been the usual custom in my profession to be so Out There. Yet, in recent years I have felt a sense of freedom and liberation that has emboldened me to share more of my life experiences and inspirations.

This synergistic awakening has manifested with new developments in my work and I’ll soon be leading my first retreat in several years. The many retreats I’ve facilitated over the years have been among my most sacred memories, and this next one will galvanize all of my practice, research and life experience to date. Focalizing with a diverse group toward a shared sense of wholeness and renewal is utterly enlivening.

At the opening session of a past retreat, we created an intention that we would all experience being on a magic carpet ride. With our spectacular oceanfront location in Cape May, New Jersey, we were already off to a good start. By the second day, a growing sense of oneness was emerging in the group. During a break that afternoon we were greeted by literally millions of migrating butterflies; Monarchs flying by the retreat center over a turbulent Atlantic. The beauty and synchronicity took our breaths away, and participants still speak of it to this day.

Long time supporters from the Institute for Authentic Process Healing, it's web site (www.theInstitute.org), and some of my Focalizing students have inspired the direction of our next retreat. Creating it has spirited a revitalization of this non-profit, volunteer community, and I am enormously grateful for the encouragement and support I’m receiving.

I hope that some of you can join us for our next retreat.

Looking forward to continued connection, Michael

Can The Wisdom From Addiction Recovery Save Humanity?

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I have recently been enriched from the wise counsel of some younger people suggesting ways that my life’s work in addictions, trauma healing and Focalizing can be more relevant for the needs of current times. Several participants from last year’s Focalizing workshops, along with TheInstitute.org, (the non-profit community that has supported my work for many years) are helping me connect the dots between segments of my own research and practice. In short, there has been encouragement to merge my Stage Two Recovery techniques with those from Focalizing.

Stage One addictions recovery is a recovery from a destructive obsession that wreaks suffering in our lives and family systems. This can be from a substance, as well as from an addiction to conditioned thinking which causes destructive patterns. Stage Two is the recovery of our emotional, spiritual and sexual wholeness, while Focalizing offers guidance for a natural path of healing and moving forward with grace.

This powerful reshaping of my work to incorporate these previously separate factions utilizes the tools and community of addictions recovery. As Dr. M. Scott Peck said in The Road Less Traveled: I think of addiction as the sacred disease. Very probably, God created alcoholism in order to create AA, and thereby spearhead the community movement which is going to be the salvation not only of alcoholics and addicts, but of us all. Perhaps this healing path really is a way to positively impact the world.

As one of my wise, younger advisors, Barry Lipscomb takes it even further in a question that guides his daily endeavors: “How do we affect a mass conscious awakening which encourages sustainable living?” Healing ourselves in a way that has a positive impact for humanity and the planet; what could be better? Read my latest article titled Focalizing Stage Two Recovery: The Spiritual Core (click for entire article reprint) published by GoodTherapy.org. And stay tuned for developments on our emerging future as we begin to offer retreats, workshops, presentations, and interactive online venues.

Wish us well, as we wish the same for all of you.

Michael

(Click here to receive announcements of forthcoming events)

A Personal Aristocracy

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I have another story about a book that’s a new-release and timely to mention. Several years ago a new client came to me by way of the internet. She found me from Alaska, where she had been immobilized for a year with post-traumatic stress. After speaking with her on the phone, she decided to come to New York to do Focalizing work with me. We did a month of two-hour weekly sessions, which helped re-regulate her central nervous system. She left New York with a new, clear sense of spirit and resilience that could propel her life forward. It warmed my heart to know that back in Alaska, she and husband, True Blue Indigo, were thrilled with the success of our work. A year later, I received a manuscript in the mail from True with a note that said, “Michael, if you feel what I have written has value can you help me bring it out in the world? This is beyond my capacity as a simple man of the wilderness.”

I initially wondered what I could do to help since I’m a therapist and author, not a publisher or a literary agent. Yet when I had read about a third of the manuscript, my jaw dropped in disbelief of its power, I had to call my publisher to tell him about what had just fallen into my hands. Within a week of sending him a copy, my publisher and True were in contract negotiation. The book was just released. What an honor it is to have it dedicated to me, with a mention in the acknowledgements that made me weep. If you would like to read a lyrical manifest for the modern age that gracefully invites us to live at our highest potential, buy this book: A Personal Aristocracy: Cultivating the Power of Spiritual Nobility.

The synchronicities and serendipities never end J

You CAN Change Someone You Love…WoW

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I first met Brad Lamm, a vibrant, younger colleague, at the Palm Springs airport on our way to a Professional Weekend in December. He was beaming with delight, as he had just received the first off-the-press copies of his new book, How to Change Someone You Love. Sensing it would be a real myth-buster, I immediately bought it. God bless you, Brad; many people will be helped by your refined new insights that are easy to grasp.

Lamm, an interventionist by profession, leads us on his fascinating personal journey, and those of his clients, weaving them into a simple, loving process. They are not the stereo-typical interventions you see on television. Professionals in the addictions field will also experience a breath of fresh air in the book’s “Four Steps to Help You Help Them.” As the jacket says, “A Powerful, ground-breaking book that shows you in concrete steps how to stop a loved one from engaging in self-destructive behavior…not just a self-help book; it’s a help-you-act book.” I hope Brad has a best seller on his hands. The more people heal themselves, the more it will add to the energetic rippling of ongoing transformation for the good of all of us.

Happy February,

Michael

2010: Finding Calmness in a Storm of Change

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I spent the last week of December enjoying the holidays with friends, and renewing myself in the mountains. 2009 was a year with many challenges: Both my parents were seriously ill, often in crisis mode, I moved my private practice space after 15 years, and many clients and friends were losing jobs or finding themselves in a troubled world that none of us could have perceived. There has been much suffering in my immediate world and on our planet, yet there have also been many joys and I am grateful.

I seem to live in two worlds: Most of the time I’m in the world of consciousness, with its sensing, aliveness and awakening; then I’m in the physical world, with its beauties, joys and suffering, I often struggle to find words to express myself while bridging these divergent yet inseparable experiences. Sometimes I find that writing here helps me connect this duality. Also, when working with clients on their emotional and physical struggles, I can sense when they are in a better place of being. It’s contagious and helps me feel integrated.

Further than that, I’m aware that when my clients find resolution in the work we do, it affects their larger worlds, as in a ripple effect. It supports the notion that maybe we really can heal the world by healing ourselves. Another way I’ve heard this described is Acting locally to evolve globally, which is also the theme of a new book I’ve recently found inspiring. It’s called, Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future (and a way to get there from here), and in essence it’s about the scientific possibility that a spontaneous remission of insanity could occur on our planet. My own experience of having two deadly cancers going into remission makes the premise feel like a real possibility.

Three other books that serendipitously were holiday gifts support the above possibility: Taking the Leap by Pema Chodron, One Soul, One Love, One Heart: The Sacred Path to Healing all Relationships by John E. Welshons, and lastly The Red Book by C.G. Jung, are all highly recommended.

While I wholeheartedly look forward to the new year, it was an easy, fun vacation, relaxing and bouncing from book to book (between movies, of course) fortifying my sense that there is also calmness in a storm of change.

I wish all my clients, colleagues, family, and those reading the very best that this new year and new decade has to offer.

2009 Ending with Grace…

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…and a few new friends. Photo above (left to right) is of me, Brad Lamm, author of the important new book exploring progressive concepts in intervention, How to Change Someone You Love, and Alan Downs, Chief Executive Officer of cutting-edge treatment facility Michael’s House in Palm Springs. They were just a couple of the impressive, committed colleagues I spent the Professional Weekend with for those working in addictions recovery.

After a busy week and a joyous conclusion to the most recent 10-Week Focalizing course on Thursday night, I flew to Palm Springs early Friday morning. Spending much of my time with trauma healing professionals in recent years, it felt like a homecoming to be with my addiction colleagues. Though traditionally varied in their approaches, I noted this weekend how organically the philosophical merger of both fields is happening. I was thrilled by the generosity of spirit coming from all of the staff and participants from around the USA and Canada. Alan Downs gave an impressive presentation on how Michael’s House has distilled their own formula of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to succinctly meet the needs of those in early addiction recovery. Clients are learning new practical and physiological tools that will help them in the present, as well as prepare them for the ongoing healing journey into wholeness.

While at the airport heading home, I ran into Kristen Scheel, Director of Professional Relations at Pride Institute, who had also attended the conference. We had an inspiring conversation about our respective professional beginnings, and I was reminded of my gratitude for the resonance that seems to gracefully travel full-circle on my evolving path.

I offer heartfelt good wishes for your holiday season, whatever that entails, and for a brilliant 2010 beyond our wildest positive dreams.

Michael

Why Focalizing Now?

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Why Focalizing Now?, the query of my own life purpose, is also the title of an article soon appearing as a feature on goodtherapy.org (an association of therapists who believe people are equipped to transform their obstacles to optimum health and happiness).

Recently, I made a presentation on Focalizing and self-reinvention for The Meadows where their representative Judy Smith (below pic) and an engaged audience had a unique experience. It felt like profound healing occurred quite naturally in that room.

Why Focalizing Now? Our world has been deeply impacted by confusion and suffering stirred up by worldwide economic insecurities and resultant rapid shifts in experience and perceptions. On the other hand, never before in history has our global, human inter-connectedness been so tangible. To not seize the opportunity for self-growth and transformation in these times would be tragic.

Focalizing is one of an assortment of nature-based energy and somatic psychologies that teach us how we can naturally meet collective and individual challenges in ways that allow us to move forward with grace and dignity. We are swiftly moving from healing systems that are limited to linear biographical stories towards modalities that are holographic and sensed in our bodies. These evolving methods take some learning, going beyond traditional science into the world of phenomena, yet the results felt are substantial. Focalizing is best defined as a process that helps individuals and groups remove blind spots that prevent achieving goals and realizing intentions. It is a dynamic and effective process that allows us to respectfully set aside familiar thoughts and feelings to access nature’s gift to us: our innate intelligence. I will also define Focalizing as a technique for experiencing wholeness in your body.

I hope the excerpt is helpful. For the full article click here.

Happy Thanksgiving, Michael

Living on the Edge of Evolution

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In my blog entry of October 26, 2008 titled Global Crises: We Don’t Have to Hit Bottom, I shared my own intention for interacting with our times:

I am dynamically linked to a number of inspiring people, treatment centers and healing organizations. It will be my mission to engage a conversation with them in the days and weeks ahead about how we can organically meet our collective challenge in ways that allow us to move forward with grace and dignity and at the same time benefit all. Never before in history has our human, global inter-connectedness been so tangibly obvious — to have a blind spot to this and not seize the moment would be a tragedy.

This intention is being fulfilled while I am experiencing a new aliveness and thriving connections from conscious interactions. Since October of last year, I have engaged with many very bright people, along with pioneering institutions, and the results continue to manifest gratification of my desire. In the photo above, I am in my office with Lynn McKnight, the Clinical Director for Crossroads Antigua, an international non-profit recovery center founded by Eric Clapton.  Together, we are envisioning programs for their new renewal center. The photo was taken by Lisa Baruch, Crossroad's local community relations official.  The Meadow’s, a renowned treatment center in Arizona has honored me with an invitation to share a free introduction on Tuesday evening, October 13th to the Reinventing Ourselves Naturally course that is the cutting edge of my research. This event in New York City is open to all. Find out if the next course starting in late January in New York might be a good fit for you or someone you care about. Click here for details and to reserve complimentary limited space.

 I am also very psyched by the emerging results of the 2^nd session of this fall’s 10-week “Reinventing…” course in NYC. The participants are already sensing a new relationship with their own evolution that is pleasurable, beyond any preconceptions they have ever had. It is very exciting! In this version of the course we’ve included the simple yet elegant methods of Focusing. Developed by Eugene Gendlin 30 years ago, Focusing is the never-aging grandfather of my own Focalizing, and it makes the process even more accessible to participants. Enlarge photo (above left) for a metaphorical image and text on Gene's work. 

Lastly, a big thank you to my friend Jay Tyrrell for his beautiful photographs of nature's solemnity displayed in my new space.

Happy autumn to all, Michael

Invite from Great Learning & Vacation Experience

I just returned from a week in the Catskill Mountains preceded by a week attending the Focusing Institute Summer School at the Garrison Institute. There were 130 participants, about a third from outside the U.S. Both weeks were great. I was so inspired at the latter that one night I danced like crazy (injuring my back some :) and even did a solo comedy/song act at the last night Follies. The learning and synthesizing I did prompts the invitation below:

You are invited to a new 10-week experiential group I am putting together this fall: Reinventing Ourselves Naturally.  Its approach will be very different from psychotherapy, or any other self-help groups I have done in the past.  We will employ Focalizing to help us work through cultural blind spots and access natural messages from within to guide graceful movement through our challenges. Confidentiality is respected and you will not be asked to reveal any private information that you’re not comfortable sharing.

I am very excited by the benefits participants can experience in creating a positive circle of energy in “felt community.” I am also happy to announce that the elegant, simple practice of Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing, a technique developed over 30 years ago, will be incorporated to make Focalizing even more accessible and meaningful to all in the groups.  Here is what one of the last group’s participants had to say:

 “I've been feeling an ease of flow in my own life since the spring course.  I feel a deeper sense of trust that things are working themselves out as they will - and that I am participating in the process, neither pushing it nor being pushed around by it.  There's more freedom, more ease, more humility, more humor and more acceptance...I'm different!  What a blessing!”

There will be two groups to choose from, both starting on September 24^th, to meet on subsequent Thursdays for ten weeks.  For scheduling convenience, one group will be held from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., the next at 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., with a maximum of 16 participants in each.

For workshop details and to register, click here.  FAX the registration form to 646-530-8703 or mail to the address below. Enrollment will close on September 18^th.

The published fee is $950 for the full course.  However, in acknowledgement of the tough times we all are braving, I’m offering it to you on a sliding scale, based on your circumstance.  There may also be a limited opportunity for a work-study arrangement to be made.

If you have questions about the groups, your time preference, or to discuss fee arrangements, please call 212-242-5052, ext. 3 (registration/special services) by Thursday September 17th. Confirmations will be emailed as enrollments are received.

Best always, Michael  

Transitions, Connections & Journey Forward

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In these weeks, I’ve been able to observe and appreciate the emergence of my new healing practice space, a quiet intimate refuge in the NYU area. 

Also recently, my beloved friend Mary passed on, as did three others in my circle of friends & family. Each of these transitions was a reminder of the fragility of life and the importance of the moments we share.

As I was addressing these losses, I had a synchronistic delight on Facebook: my ex-sister-in-law Cathy contacted me, long- lost after her divorce from my brother and her move out of New York.  Like Mary, Cathy was another earth mother in my life. In 1983, when all evidence was contrary, she believed I could recover from two AIDS related cancers. It was through Cathy’s belief that I found a portal to survival that makes my today possible.  

Friday, August 21, I’m off to the 7-day Focusing Institute Summer School being held at the beautiful Garrison Institute situated in the historic Hudson Highlands overlooking the Hudson River. This sacred meeting place is dedicated to contemplation and education, transformational ecology, and transforming trauma. It occupies a large, newly renovated monastery surrounded by tranquil forests and fields. I look forward to learning and sharing with a community that has a long history of thinking and experiencing “the edge” of our human experience.

After this is a week’s vacation in the mountains where I will be integrating and centering into my core to develop a 10-week Focalizing course: Reinventing Ourselves Naturally starting September 24th. I write this enjoying the balmy Catskills summer with wonderful friends and family.

Wishing all wonder and joy, Michael

Summer Gratitude as Everything Shifts

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On page 19 of my book Ritual As Resource I shared my “Mary Ritual” as the book’s first example of bringing “resource” to an opposite energy (or experience). I described her then (and still do) as: “a friend I’ve known and loved for over twenty years. More pertinent is that I know and deeply feel that Mary loves me unconditionally: In her eyes, I can do absolutely nothing wrong. It’s like having the perfect protective encapsulation of love.” Since my last blog, I’ve been witnessing and experiencing Mary’s last days on the physical plane as a true Earth Mother. Equally challenging is watching my best friend John courageously show-up as her primary care-partner. Additionally, aside from the complex tragedies abounding everywhere, my dear niece and goddaughter is undergoing breast cancer treatment and a bevy of other tough life challenges. Mary, John and Deb inspire me. None of them are complaining.  In the best ways possible, they express gratitude in their words and demeanor.

 In Alberto Villoldo’s book Courageous Dreaming he defines: “Gratitude, the feeling that we are blessed, helps us to stop being enslaved to our to-do lists and remember why we came here: to love, to learn, to grow, to discover what we can do to participate in the unfolding work called creation…with boldness and originality.”  Feeling “blessed” is something I can tap into during my current personal and professional experiences and challenges. I am amazed to feel blessed in a life filled with tragic losses and serious illnesses. These perspectives continue to humble and strengthen me as I am blessed at the same time. I am also grateful to be a part and parcel of “The Seismic Shift” that is presently occurring in the human experience. 

In the June issue of Spirituality & Health Magazine Paul H. Sutherland writes: “The change that is underway is profound and will seem to most to be revolutionary. What is this shift? The historic paradigm that our self-worth comes from what we own is ending. We’re moving away from valuing multiple cars, multiple televisions, plastic surgeries and saving little. The shift will underscore the false consumption-orientation economy that we in the West think is the key to prosperity and happiness. Finally, it is sinking into our collective head that our borrow/spend behavior does not make us happy.”  We are observing that a good resonant connection with nature, art, friends, family and the world as well as our Self (in the unfolding work of creation) can make us happy. Now, if we can only create the shared intention to organically evolve and share additional methods to support this shift while also focusing on reducing suffering and supporting possibility, we would have done our part to serve humanity.

My friend Mickey Lubell visited recently and shared three simple questions he uses, he has them posted on his computer monitor as a reminder to support the shifts I’m alluding to: 1) Is what I’m saying loving or respectful? 2) Does it need to be said? 3) Is it true? Initially, this struck me as utterly simple. Yet, when I practiced it myself, it improved my phrasing and communication became more impeccable and created space for other possibilities.  Simple as it is, it is also a practice.

A quick update from last entry: The move to the new practice space went as graceful as possible due to the wonderful help I received. I’m pleased in the newly emerging vibe of my new digs as I begin to feel more settled. It’s a perfect place to comfortably evolve my practice and art. Somewhat coincidentally, the two spring 10-week Focalizing groups I ran ended in the new space in very beautiful ways.

If I can be helpful, I have available time this summer for 1-1, couples, or other facilitation and focalizing.

To a grateful summer!

“The Times They are A-Changin"

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I have always loved the iconic ’60s song written by Bob Dylan. I had the privilege of observing fundamental revolutions happen then, and as I find myself reflecting on Dylan’s lyrics, I become deeply grateful to be partaking yet again in his visionary wisdom. Transformations happening now are even greater in their intrinsic global connection that is tangible.  They are noticeable not only in the media, but also in a felt awareness, and are challenging for all of us. 

It’s been a whirlwind six weeks since my last entry.  I’m heeding an inner calling to move my practice to a quieter, more intimate refuge for healing.  After 15 years serving me and my clients well, I will be leaving my Fifth Avenue professional space. So, it’s “good-bye” to the hubbub of commercial real estate, and “hello” to a quieter, tree lined setting for a very private space. Like any big move or change, it has been quite consuming, and I want everything to be as gracious and welcoming as circumstances allow. 

Additionally during this time I’ve been leading two 10-week experiential courses called Focalizing Through Tough Times: Reinventing Ourselves Naturally.  We are entering our 8th session of an amazing personal and communal journey, exploring transpersonal realms of learning from a future that wants to emerge through us.  The nine points of the Focalizing Star Image have come alive for each of us in very unique ways as we have listened to one another’s sorrows, joys and challenges from a larger shared reality. We’ve learned about Conscious Courage and the cherished treasures we tend to overlook because of our conditioning. When we begin to tame the guard dogs that protect our blind spots, it allows us to be more open to the inherent voices of nature.  Then, these treasures can become resources for scaling the changing times as we allow them  to emerge and have flexibility to access them. We’ve noticed that there can be a loving space between our nervous system activation and a more soothing regulation. This is a subtle, yet powerful new awareness for many, as is discovering consenting to what is can be a path to serenity and a more informed energy flow. We have just begun to explore how to “crystallize” and “prototype” the future wanting to emerge through us, thereby providing some next “landing strips” for these mind-blowing evolutionary times.

I’m very excited to experience a landing with my students as our final gathering in this series will serendipitously be held in my newly transformed practice milieu.  This series, along with my ongoing studies, will inform two larger Fall Focalizing Courses beginning in September.

Stay tuned and join us on our ongoing journey to wholeness!

Additional Currency for our Times

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Joyous spring!

Since October, my world has been deeply impacted by the confusion and suffering stirred up by worldwide economic insecurities and the resultant rapid shifts in experience and perceptions. Everything is affected, and the intricate web of life is being felt more intensely in our day to day existence. If it feels like chaos that is because it likely is! On the other hand, we also seem to be creating a larger and more informed space and context for the resolutions of our personal and cultural “stuckness.”

I noticed a profound inner shift in myself recently and it came out of my own Focalizing practice. In all this, I realized that my primary currency for living life is transforming. I have been slowly observing this and watching how it is gradually manifesting in physical reality and the insights as they are reflected back to me.

It was only after this shift that I recognized that this currency manifested in the outer shapes and forms of life, namely my finances and other physical realities. I like to think of myself as a generous, big-hearted guy but I have always felt a deep need to being able to survive. Yet it came as a surprise to me that my system has been focused and anxious about financial security and physical realities. Not so odd, I guess, but compared to the “felt awareness” (as solid as a rock in physical reality) a new clarity is emerging. My renewed currency is about deepening my caring connection with others and myself and the sustainability of all that this entails. It’s all about the unseen tangible good feeling that comes from caring actions, both given and received. It is that place where the formless becomes form, and where felt and unseen realities morph into the physical. I have not given up my love for cool material things like my Mac—this love has simply been rearranged in the order of my conscious priorities. The former now takes a far junior role to this deeper connection with others and the nature that I emerge from.

It now seems that all my personal and client encounters are even deeper and more mutually gratifying than before. I am continuing to learn from this, and was delighted to get a synchronistic email from a participant in the “Focalizing Tough Times” groups that are presently under way. He wrote: “My experience in group today was profound. I came into the room with my feelings of restlessness and immediately felt that drop out of my head and into my gut where that energy could be dealt with. The other thing is my sense that this economic realignment is about connecting in more genuine and authentic ways that look externally like less income but the universe may be aligning itself in such a way that we may all make less, have less but live more. Could be quite nice.”

Yes, a tipping-point shift from “growth & more” to “caring, respectful sustainability” of the shared spirit that makes life worth living “could be quite nice.” I sense that this is already happening and invite others to join with me and share resonance and experience.

I feel privileged to be on the edge of a personal and global transformation that appears to be quietly unfolding in and around us. If my readers have an interest in exploring these sensibilities explore my web site Resource Links & Books and join the fall Focalizing Workshops which will soon be posted on this site. Contact me directly to explore if you could use more personal and 1:1 facilitation!

Thanks for sharing the journey!