Muffin of Change (part 2)

       In my post, Muffin of Change Part 1, I described a watershed event that was made possible because of a series of shifts and openings that had occurred in my life. Openings and shifts continue to emerge for me, and the processes involved are worth sharing.  
       I love to share myself. I really do. it gives me a joy that I can’t completely describe. Equally as important as the buzz I get from sharing, is the possibility that my sharing gives something to you; to those who choose to participate in my life with me. My sharing, in all of its incarnations, is the manifestation of my deep need to do my life with others.
       And through that deep need, I realize my sincere desire to transform myself and to assist others in their transformation. But before I get way ahead of myself, which I’m really good at, let’s get back to the mission of this particular post; to share my journey with you.
       A few months before I reconnected with my older brother, I engaged in practices that were designed to create space in my life. Space for new things to emerge. For a while, all too often, my ways of being, my ways of thinking, my behavior, my attitude, and the way I was engaging in my life, was not working. Or more accurately, was not working enough. Nothing was broken. But my life wasn’t firing on all cylinders either.
       Far too often, I would get down on my life. I would get down on me. But what I came to realize was that my life was not the problem. And I was not the problem. The problem was how I was choosing to be in my life.
        I made a commitment to myself to transform what wasn’t working. Specifically, I committed to transforming how I brought myself to my life. Especially to areas that were causing me pain or not creating fulfillment. And then I followed that commitment with action. Lots of action.
       What occurred were a series of what I describe as “openings”. Put another way, opportunities manifested that, because of how I was previously being, were not possible.
       The mysterious magic is that we don’t know what those opportunities will be, or how they will manifest themselves, or when they will occur. Even if we think we do. Because, our minds being the wonderful, powerful, usually incredibly arrogant creations that they are, convince us that we can figure everything out simply by using what’s between our ears. We think we can simply out smart our life. But as hard as we try, we can’t. And believe me, I’ve tried. And I’m a smart fuckin’ guy.
       If instead we commit to free ourselves from that which is holding us back, and thus create openings, then when those opportunities present themselves, we are ready to accept them. To choose them. Whereas before, either the opportunities would not present themselves because, as the adage goes, “when the student is ready the lesson will appear”; or, if the opportunities do present themselves, we are not ready to accept them. So we simply miss them altogether. Or we just say “No”.
       I had no idea if or when I would ever reconnect with my brother. And even if I had, I never would have conceived of it the way it happened. But because of the openings I created, I was ready. And I didn’t even know it. And the possibility presented itself. And I said yes. And my life is now quite different.
       Now to the nuts and bolts of what I did to create the openings necessary for my life to expand.
       The first thing I did was some unique body work out in Phoenix with a woman named Laurie Handlers. Her company is called Butterfly Workshops, and she is a remarkable woman. I won’t go into specifics, but I will tell you that the work helped me. If you’re interested in learning more, check out her website at www.butterflyworkshops.com.    
       The Master Cleanse came next (www.mastercleanse.org). It had a greater impact on me than I could have possibly imagined. Ridding myself of toxins created space. That’s just metaphysical math; toxins take up space, and with them gone, now there’s room for more of the good stuff. And by toxins, I’m referring not only to chemicals that physically resided in my body, but metaphysical emotional, mental, and spiritual toxins that poisoned my ability to function at a higher level on all those planes.
       Through The Master Cleanse, I not only created room, I became lighter. I lost weight. Lots of it. Physical weight. Psychic weight. Emotional weight. There is now a levity about me. Which has nothing to do with being shallow. I go deep. Really deep. But I don’t go there from a heavy place.
       Back in June, I began meditating in earnest. Usually just emptying my mind. Though sometimes, depending on the meditation, filling it with the energy of love, strength, abundance, possibility. What I had been told by everyone who meditated, but remained a concept I could not grasp until I actually did it consistently, was that the practice of meditation is what matters. Unlike say, engaging in a workout routine, where doing it “properly” or “right” is important, with meditation, there is no “right” or “wrong” way of doing it. Doing it is the way.
       I started writing again, posting what I wrote in my blog, and thus sharing what is in my heart and in my mind. I was publicly exploring myself. Exposing myself. Being vulnerable and risking greatly. Taking the chances necessary that are leading me to fulfill  my vision of taking my message to the world. Boldly, Courageously. Lovingly. Powerfully.  
       To that end, I’m in the process of turning this blog into the centerpiece of my brand. The Muscleheart brand. I’m terribly excited about that. I can’t get very specific yet, because I’m still working on the vision, and I don’t want to dilute the product before I unveil it. But I can tell you that through my brand, my objective, beyond that of full self expression, is that I want to impact you. I want to move you. I want to evoke an emotional response from you. I want to connect to you. And, through all of that, I want to assist you in the opening of your heart, the fuller expression of your self, and the deepening of your capacity to give and receive love. Through doing what I do, I want to inspire you to expand the emotional capacity of your life.
       Continuing my Genius Coaching has also been critical to my expansion. I’ve been working with a man named Otto Siegel since January. But we’ve taken it to a whole new level now. His coaching is about creating a literal “Life Upgrade”. Check out his website at www.geniuscoaching.com.
        Recently, I participated in The Landmark Forum (www.landmarkeducation.com). The Forum is s hard thing to describe, but if I had to boil it down, I would tell you that, not so coincidentally, it created space in my life for possibilities. That is what I’ve been doing, in one form or another, for the last five months. I was having difficulty seeing how my attitudes, my behaviors, my very words, were preventing me from creating room and opportunity in certain areas of my life.
       In effect, I’m creating a new paradigm for myself. I’m manifesting a new plane of being that before was unavailable to me because of an invisible ceiling that I unconsciously put over myself. I lived inside a house that, although felt pretty big, and in some ways was (for example, in the area of self expression), it was not nearly big enough. Not big enough for who I really was and who I was becoming. Not big enough for who I wanted to be. Not big enough for where my life could go. And, I could not see how big my life already was. Nor could I see how much bigger it could become. I didn’t see the size of what I was in nor all the room for expansion. Because I wasn’t looking out the windows. There were plenty of them in the house, because I love windows, and I create them naturally because it’s who I am. I just wasn’t using them.
       In part three of what I’ve affectionately deemed my “Muffin Posts”, I’ll tell you about another realm of expansion. Possibilities have shown up in yet another area of my life that, I have to say, have completely shocked me. An area of my life that years ago was a source of great pleasure, but eventually became a source of some of my greatest distress.
       I’m talking about The Purple House.


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