First Video: Unconditional Love

If you are reading this after the week of February 7. 2002, click the link below to view the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXiTbpFWbVc

Transcript:

What is it about life that is so intriguing and at the same time, can be seemingly so difficult? One moment we appear to be happy and content and the next can bring utter chaos. We can move from joy to anger in a split second or find ourselves deeply mired in wallowing grief and despair for no apparent reason. In this message, Harold W. Becker shares are we finally willing to understand what motivates these experiences at a causal level or are we content to react to every effect we encounter for the rest of our lives? Perhaps we can begin understanding the mechanism and driving motivation behind our personal and planetary story and re-member ourselves as part of a greater adventure and collective whole. Maybe it is time we embrace unconditional love at a causal level. For more please go to www.thelovefoundation.com

He continues… Most of us spend our day in some form of reaction to conditions, people, places, and things all processed through our thoughts and feelings. Thinking our way through each circumstance, we attempt to follow a logical pattern and draw a reasonable conclusion to make sense of life while our feelings flair up constantly and often unexpectedly, holding us emotionally hostage in ways we don’t even realize. Add to this mixture the rapidly changing dynamics of our increasing global awareness where we are no longer just dealing with our immediate lives and that of our community, we are faced with the daily issues that plague humanity on a scale far beyond our comprehension much less our conceivable ability to do anything about it. Or so it seems.

There is a different way to approach life that can make sense of it all and bring us the peace, harmony and unconditional love we all crave. The funny thing about unconditional love is that it is already within us. Consider opening your heart to allow unconditional love to flow once again from within you and experience love of a new magnitude. Embrace yourself and you embrace the universe. Be the cause of unconditional love and you light the way!

The Love Foundation is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization with the mission of inspiring people to love unconditionally. Established in 2000, TLF has become the internationally recognized leading resource for understanding and applying unconditional love. Our vision is to assist people by building a practical foundation and experience of love within individuals and society as a whole, through our education, research and charitable programs. “The Home of Global Love Day each May 1st”

Harold W. Becker is Founder and President of TLF and is the author of various books including, Unconditional Love — An Unlimited Way of Being

Created by a kind volunteer as a gracious gift for The Love Foundation.

Second Video: A Lesson From Conversations With God

Self-Awareness 101 Episode 6: A Lesson From Conversations With God

If you are reading this after the week of February 7. 2002, click the link below to view the video.

http://www.yourdailylifecoach.com/conversations-with-god.html

Transcript:

Today, we’re going to explore a line from a book called – Conversations with God written by Neale Donald Walsch. And the line is “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone “.

Have you ever noticed how certain books can really help you gain clarity on your own life, on your own personal journey? For me, one of those books was a book called “Conversations with God”.

And there’s a specific line in the book that really jumped out at me, that forever impacted me, and the line was, “life begins at the end of your comfort zone”

By the time I read Conversations with God, I had already been on my own personal journey of personal development, self awareness, and spiritual development for about eight or nine years. I had been exposed to the idea of a “Comfort Zone”, but this simple phrase gave it a whole new meaning.

With this amount of time for hindsight, I was able to look back at a place in my life, where, my comfort zone actually was creating so much pain for me that it was actually a point of insanity living the way I was.

I had been drinking heavily, I had been using drugs; I had been doing everything I could to numb every aspect of my life for about 11 years. At my worst point, I was drinking 2 cases of beer, a half bottle of tequila and taking 2,500mg of caffeine in pill form daily.

But as sick as this may sound, I was comfortable there. I knew when I got up in the morning, that if I ingested the alcohol, if I ingested the drugs, I was going to have a specific outcome at the end of the day. I could count on reaching a place that was safe for me, I didn’t have to deal with emotions, I didn’t have to deal with responsibilities. As strange as it may seem, I was very comfortable in that insane place in my life; for me, to actually feel… to be responsible… talk about stepping outside of your comfort zone.

But there came a point in my life where I had to make the decision, a point where I could not continue living the way that I was living, because either I was going to die or I was going to kill someone else. At that point in my life, I really wasn’t scared to die, I actually welcomed the idea. But to kill someone else in a drunken state then have to live with that for the rest of my life, that was something I could not deal with.

There was a strange sense of security of knowing every day that I was living that same re-enactment over and over again. Going the same places, seeing the same people, doing the same things, experiencing the same emotions

But I had to make a choice to step outside of my comfort zone and face life. Not only face life, but begin experiencing it in a whole new way. And now 20 years later, I have to say it was one of the most amazing choices I ever made and one of the greatest things that has ever happened.

If you’re continuing to do the same thing every day, all you’re doing is reenacting what you’ve done the day before. This repetitive cycle is usually created because of fear. Your comfort zone doesn’t have to be as bizarre as mine was, but I want to offer this to you as an idea. Life was not designed to be a re-enactment. It was designed to be lived fully, expressing our greatest potential.

Opening yourself up to trying something new, trying something different, stepping beyond your comfort zone, will change your life. It will change your life forever.

I believe that we were put on this earth to create, we were put on this earth to experience, when we were children, when we were babies, that’s exactly what our life was about, was experiencing new things; Creating by participating in life . And a lot of times as we get older, we lose that, we forget the joy of being present in life, and experiencing life.

It may not be easy, but I do promise you that if you step outside of your comfort zone, if you take that one step, your life will never be the same, life truly does begin when you step past the repetitive process of a comfort zone and begin to take the risks to live the life that you deserve and that you’re here for.

So, I ask you to take a moment right now and look at your life and ask yourself, “What are some of the things that I’m hiding from by staying inside of this comfort zone?” And, “What’s one small step that I can take today, that I can take at the very latest, tomorrow, that would at least move me forward in a positive direction?”

I promise you that if you take that step, you will find, a week from now, a month from now, a year from now, that your life has truly taken on a new shape, continue to expand yourself, continue to expand your comfort zone, and be prepared for the wonderful ways that your life will change.

I invite you to read the book which helped me, Conversations with God : An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 1) written by Neale Donald Walsch.

I look forward to hearing how your life changes for the better by expanding your own comfort zone.

Take care.

1st Video: A Twelve year old artistic prodigy. This video was featured on CNN of a young girl with incredible drawing talent.
Regardless of your belief system, you have to celebrate the amazing talent of this girl.

If you are viewing this video after the week of January 17, click the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmm-0-Rdxo8

2nd Video:  Journaling: When We Write To Learn, We Release The Past
Self-Awareness 101 Episode 3: I Realized To Soar, I Needed To Let Go Of The Past.
Write to Learn -what it means, and how you benefit.

Willard discusses how he used the process of writing about past experiences to help uncover hidden strengths, and how looking at those past experiences from a new perspective allowed him to release the past, forgive and move forward to greater levels of self-awareness.

If you are viewing this video after the week of January 17, click the link below:
http://www.yourdailylifecoach.com/write-to-learn.html

Transcription

Today we’re going to explore the quote, “I realized to soar, I needed to let go of the past. You can’t fly when you’re holding on to all that baggage.”

One of the beautiful things about the journey to self awareness is that it is a journey, it is not a destination. And over the years, one of the things that I’ve noticed from many people who are on this journey, myself included, is the frustration that happens along the way. What I mean is that we work so hard on improving ourselves, we work so hard on clearing away the past, we work so hard on learning new skills, new strategies to help us become better people. And when we think we have it all figured out, then we hit these stumbling blocks that stop us in our tracks.

I know for me personally, about ten years ago, I had really done a lot of work on myself, and I reached a place in my life where I just felt like I was spinning my wheels. I could not get ahead, I felt like the sky should be the limit for me, but I also felt like I was held to the ground and I couldn’t figure out why. I remember it was December of 1998. I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I laid there tossing and turning trying to figure out why I felt so stuck. I said, “You know, something is not cleared up, there’s something…. and I haven’t finished with it yet.” I decided I needed to go back one more time, I went out to my living room, sat down at the computer and I started to write. But I wasn’t just writing about my past, my history. I was using a process where I would write to learn about myself, about things I had not seen before.

I didn’t intend on it becoming a book, but it did. The point of what I was doing was in essence, a journaling exercise. I made the decision that I was going to sit down and write to learn about my life, from as early as I could remember until that current moment. But I wasn’t going to just tell my experiences, I wasn’t going to sit there spew out “war stories”, like… I did this, and then I did this, and then I did this. The idea was to look at the experience, with the intention that I would write to learn new perspectives from an observers point of view, rather than from my original perception. To be able to look at the experiences that happened in my life; to be able to analyze them; to look at what happened to me mentally, emotionally, spiritually in those moments. I would look at some of the traumatic moments in my life, in an effort to understand what happened on all those levels. But not only looking at what “happened” and how it affected me, but I wanted to learn what were the strengths I gained that came from going through that experience? Or, what were some of the resources that were available to me, that I didn’t use? So I was going back and not simply reliving the experience, but I was going back kind of like walking with my best friend. I was being my own best friend and saying, “Hey, did you notice when this happened, or did you notice, you could have done this?”

It was a wonderful experience and it really freed me. It has allowed me to forgive myself, because there was a lot of areas where I was carrying guilt and anger. By looking at everything as an observer, I was able to recognize resources I never realized that I had. It showed me strengths I never realized that I had and it showed me options, I never knew were available.

Understand that as you go along this journey, you’re going to hit plateaus. You’re going to even backslide at times. And what I suggest that you do at those times is journal. Get a book, specifically for journaling, and when you feel yourself stuck, when you feel yourself spinning your wheels or backsliding, sit down and allow yourself to benefit from the experience as you write to learn everything you can about yourself through the eyes of an observer. Just write it all down and give yourself the gift of separating yourself from the experience. Become your own coach where you can look at it from an objective position. Then ask yourself these questions:

What were some of the strengths that this gave me?

What were some of the new directions this moved me in?

What could I have done differently?

What were some of the “gifts” that came later in life from this experience happening?

When you write to learn from those experiences, trust your instincts. If there is something “nagging at you”, continue writing about it until you feel it is complete. You will learn so much about yourself by sitting down, being objective, and journaling.

Take a moment right now and look at some of the biggest moments in your life; some of the greatest triumphs, or the hardest trials. And, just as an exercise, write to learn about everything you can remember regarding that experience. As you are writing about it, look over the whole experience, and be a coach to yourself, be an observer and make the observations you may not have noticed before. Ask yourself, “What were the gifts? What were the lessons? What were the resources I tapped into? What were the strengths or the characteristics you used to get you through that experience?

I know you’ll learn amazing things about yourself.

Again, this is the journey of self-awareness and as you allow yourself to become aware of these things, you can carry these tools, and these skills with you as you move forward. I look forward to what you uncover for yourself. I look forward to seeing you again.

Have a great week!