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• Commitment, Integrity, Spirit, Health, Yoga, Breathwork, Raw Live Foods and more all combined in a men's weekend.

Dear friends and clients;  

What is going on?

Life presents us with many challenges. I think that most of you would agree with me. If you do not agree, then you can stop reading here.

What is going on? Many of us have had moments in life that has us asking this question. I have had more than a few. The "what is going on" question for me comes as I am challenged, not by the moments that are exciting and fun. I ask this question during the moments that I define as "awful" or as "enormously fearful." Just what is going on?

My past response to these challenges has been to fight and resist them. I would spend countless hours in fear, doubt and anxiety. I then spent many more hours plotting and planning what I had to do to get others to change... hmmm... I can say for sure that none of "my" planning worked. Usually, I just got more of the same.

So what have I learned... what have these challenges taught me?

1. There is a gift in every moment, especially those that I defined as "awful." What I previously missed in past challenges was the gift that they were presenting. I was so busy worrying, fretting, plotting and planning; I missed how the challenge was pointing me to change. I missed the direction, the road signs that pointed to how I could change, so that things could change.
2. Surrender. I used to fight all the moments of my life that I did not find "enjoyable." If they did not fit my definition of what worked for me, my definition of what life should be like. "I" after all, knew best. What I have learned since is to surrender to what is... nothing is out of order in a Universe... and that is true in my life. Today, when "awful" moments appear... and they still do... I remember nothing is out of order and I look for the gift. I ask, "where is this pointing me... what is this moment asking me to change... how can I be different?" In previous challenges, there were many "others" that were involved or were the reason for the challenge in my mind. I used the word "they or she or the boss or the company"... they were the reason for my difficulties. Today I know that there is no "they." Wherever I use the word "they," I replace it with "I." If "they" are a jerk, I look at where am I a jerk. If "they" are angry, jealous, envious, stupid, obnoxious, I look at where am I all of those. Today I realize that I was the common denominator in all of my challenges and I still am.
3. Challenges are asking me to change me. No other pointers required here. I know you get it.
4. What I am harvesting, I planted. I spend time writing in my journal or meditating or speaking with my coaches about what I am harvesting. I define what is showing up and then look at the seeds I planted. If angry people are showing up, where am I angry? If I am lacking money, I look at where am I tight and holding back. If you define what you are harvesting, you are what is being reflected back to you by the moment. That is the gift. The Universe is always reflecting back to us what we are giving out. Once we wake up, we can change and as fast as we change, plant new seeds, we start the process of getting back that new harvest. New seeds, new harvest, it's just a matter of time.
5. The philosopher George Ivanovich Gurdjieff once said, "most men are in a bourgeois' sleeping man's state and it takes a force of will to wake one's self up in one's lifetime." Challenges that I defined as "awful" were the force, the gift to help wake me up. The more I resisted the "wake up call," the more difficult the challenges were to accept. The Universe stepped up the level of difficulty with each level of my resistance. It's like the computer games or the sodoku puzzles... you can play at the easy level, the mid-level or the extreme level... I chose the extreme level, which manifested in a life threatening health challenge. That is what was required for me to "wake up." That is what is taken to get me to surrender. To accept what each moment "presents," the gift. I am grateful for this gift.

You can play at the easy level if you choose. All you have to do is surrender. Look at what you are harvesting. Ask, "what is this challenge asking me to surrender to... what new path is this asking me to take... what is this difficult person showing me about me... what is the beautiful gift in this?"  

If you resist, you will proceed to level 2 where the same pattern repeats. If you do not get it at the easy level, you will get it again only even more challenging. Again, all you have to do is ask yourself the questions above.  

If you continue to resist, you could be asked to surrender your life, like I was, five days after being admitted to the hospital and three after moving to intensive care. Interesting, it’s called "intensive care." That's where I was asked "stay or go"... Just like that... After I had passed to the other side... it was gentle, peaceful, and totally loving.

Stay or go? I surrendered. I said "thy will be done" and in the next second I was back in the hospital room... back to participate in life.

I wonder what would have happened if I did not surrender in that moment? Would I have come back to repeat even greater challenges? Would I have proceeded to play at the Master Extreme Level?

I am grateful to have surrendered... and I continue to.  

Where are you fighting what life is "present"ing you? Where could you surrender to the gift? What is life asking you to change?

What would your response be if you were asked "stay or go" right now? Would you fight it?

Relax, accept the gift in your challenges. You are and will be ok no matter what. NO MATTER WHAT.          

Surrender into it. Get the lesson... or progress to the next level... the choice is yours?

Which level do you what to play at?

Now do you know what is going on here?

Gratefully yours,
Steve