Hello good folks, I’m writing to let you know that I’ll be taking a breather for a bit. In just a couple of days, I’ll be hopping on a plane and heading to… Israel and France! My normal trips are road trips to the North Carolina mountains, sometimes the Virginia mountains, or to New Orleans right down the road, so this will be a big one. I definitely haven’t been out of the country in a while. Sometimes New Orleans feels like a different country, but no passport is needed. So I had to renew the ol’ passport.
I think I told you that I went on a really cool retreat to Sedona, AZ last September with a group called Way of Mastery. That’s been my “spiritual food” for almost two years now. It’s been very refreshing coming off the heels of about seven years of A Course In Miracles. The Course was great, but it’s so mental to me. And I’m so mental. So it was time to get in the breath, in the body, into feeling my way though life more. And with Way of Mastery, mission accomplished. Feeling versus thinking so much is just a profoundly different way of living, and it seems to unravel this old knot of ego much faster.
Basically, I’ll be with a really awesome group of like-minded folks touring around the Holy Land for a while. Then for the last five days, we’ll go to Provence, France, and hang out at a cave where Mary Magdalene apparently lived out the last thirty years of her life, teaching and healing those that came to see her. And none of this is even religious (I know that might sound weird or impossible). There will be lots of… you guessed it… breathing! And lots of meditation, that sort of thing. And as I said above, that’s always good for me. The less thinking, the better. I feel like I’ve done enough thinking for a thousand lifetimes, and all that thinking has definitely not been able to figure out inner peace. Ha! So I finally stopped trying it that way. Living in the breath more and more has been amazing. And I’m just scratching the surface.
Anyway, I just wanted to give a heads up. I’ll have my iPad on the trip, but I won’t be focusing on writing anything. It’s totally an inner journey for me. If anything wants to come right out, though, then of course it will – no rules. But there’s no doubt that any and all pearls will eventually come out on this blog at the most natural time. So that’s exciting. And I’m guessing that I’ll still start another blog called A Deep Mind at some point, which I’ve mentioned before a while back. But I’ve put that on the shelf until it’s ripe. No rush there. But I’m sure this trip will have a profound influence on that.
There will also be at least two counselors on the trip who have been doing some powerful and transformative work for longer than I have. So you can rest assured I’ll be milking them all I can! Without bugging them, of course… I’m going to soon be adding a very important element called “Inquiry” to this work, so I’ll be asking them about that, because they are masters of it. I’ve started doing it some in the office these last two weeks, and it’s already yielded some pretty stunning results. Many of you are familiar with Byron Katie’s “The Work,” and that is definitely a form of inquiry. This will be similar, but it’ll incorporate the breath and feeling more to make sure we’re not being too dry and mental (which is a great way to stay on the surface and not really get to the root of things. Trust me because I’ve mastered it!).
So there you go, that’s what’s up with me. And what’s up with you? That’s what I’m interested in. I’m seeing more and more people start to “get it” and live differently than they did before. And they’re doing it by learning and understanding the simple truths that we talk about here at A Clean Mind. I’m also aware that plenty of others are not “getting it” so well, and I think they might be over-thinking things. I know because I’ve mastered that as well. Lots of mastering going on today…
So if it resonates, I invite you to re-read any of the posts on this blog from 2015. It’ll be repetitive, but that’s kind of the point. The truth is simple; the ego is complex. Peace will never be found in the complexities of the thinking mind. The truth is way, way simpler than that. Let’s go for our standard issue, basic inner peace first. Enjoying my life first. Thriving first. And then I can try to make it more complicated. You’ll find, though, that you’ll have no such desire. And you’ll be amazed at how simple it really is to just be happy. Give it some time, though; I am. You’ll be amazed that good feelings really have been in there the whole time, and you’ve become an absolute master at covering them up. I sure know that I have, and I’m practicing this all the time.
So I invite you to take the next few weeks to really simply things. Live day to day, moment to moment. Even if you happen to be planning your retirement or thinking about a major change in that moment. Just do one thing at a time. Slow down, even when you’re on the go (think about that one for a moment – it involves what your mind is up to). And trust that Life is always bringing you exactly what you need to grow. That’s why I often call this work Ordinary Awakening. You don’t have to go on a pilgrimage to another country because Life will use whatever is in front of your face to help you realize how awesome you are. There are no rules, though, so if you feel called to do something like that, especially if it presents itself to you in front of your face, then go for it! That’s what I’m about to do, and I’ll report back in a few weeks when I return. All the best to you in the meantime, much love to you, you are supported, and happy living!