A Global Gift

Hello World. I have some exciting news and gratitudes I'd like to share with you today. First I want to say thanks to Ashoka who created Activating Empathy which held a contest we entered last year with our company Feeleez.

Yesterday, Ashoka hosted a live web event with panelists, including Natalie and I, discussing our work in teaching and promoting empathy. I very much appreciated the opportunity to speak about what we do with Feeleez in particular as well as with our other endeavors to support and empathize with parents (i.e. this blog, parent mentoring, etc..), but I also enjoyed getting to listen to other's thoughts, ideas, and questions about additional ways to increase the global EQ, and teach empathy.

One thing I was also grateful for was the burst of inspiration and positivity that Natalie and I felt from being involved with the discussion. We weren't even finished with the video panel before Natalie had scrawled a little note to me with the finishing touch to an idea we'd been batting around for 5 or so years.

I'm extremely pleased to present The Empathy Hotline 1.1. This is going to be an international community for the sole purpose of receiving and giving empathy. No sales pitches. No products. Just people coming together to share empathy with each other, both in times of triumph and times of upset or at any point between. 24 hours a day, any- and everywhere in the world, we'd like people to be able to join the group, post, and receive an empathetic response within the hour.

The rules are described on the About page of the group and are also currently pinned to the top of the group's post reel; but essentially the idea is that someone posts, and someone(s) else just offer them empathy in response. Empathy and empathy only. No advice, no opposing perspectives, no trying to fix it, no jokes, no distractions.

Here's the part that I'm most excited about: We'd like to invite you to get involved. No matter where in the world you are, we could use your help spreading the word about the group and, of course, posting!

Interested? Then here's what to do:

1. Go to the group page on Facebook --  here.
   
2. Share it on your timelines, google+ it, email the url to friends, and/or add people you know who would like to be involved. Remember, we want this to be a global service.
3. Post when you want to, and respond to others often.
4. Contact me via a comment here if you have an idea for a different platform we can use for free that will allow:
   1. Easy access and set-up of a profile for users with the ability to create an alias as well
   2. Original posters to choose when they post whether to post as themselves or their aliases
   3. Admin capabilities -- to remove inappropriate posts (whether they are ads or non-empathetic, etc.), or block rouge users if necessary, create sub-groups, etc.
   4. Sub-categories to form within the larger group -- e.g. Parents, Teachers, Bereavement, Russia etc.
   5. Users to control the scope of their involvement by timezone, country, religion, and/or sub-group(s)

Thank you friends and global neighbors. I sincerely appreciate any help you might be in this endeavor -- even it's just sending us your good thoughts.

I do hope you'll join us in the group!

∞

Be well.

Corollaries

In the last post, I started explaining the concept of Blind Faithº -- the bedrock belief that everything everything is working out for our highest possible good(s).

And though I think I gave a pretty good answer to this question already, I can still imagine someone wondering: "WHY?"

Because I have other plans for this post, I don't want to spend much more time on this at present, but I will give the following three assertions in response:

• First, I happen to believe, as I mentioned already, that we all live and die, perceive and ignore, experience and avoid the entire world of life based almost solely on what we believe about it. The perspective we hold on life is the essence of what we live and experience.
• I also happen to believe that we are all connected -- that is, absolutely and utterly interlaced and continuous -- All is One, as they say. From our mingling atoms, to the energy connecting us and the empathy we share with everyone, we are as indivisible from stars as we are from each other. That is, we are all vital parts of the same thing.
• Finally, I also believe that the whole thing of which we are all parts cannot, truly speaking, ever do itself harm. There is no source of suffering in the universe, there is only a source of benevolent abundance, and our willingness to allow it in our lives or not.

I can't say for certain if these beliefs are antecedents or offspring of my Blind Faith in the process of existence. On the one hand, they feed into and make possible this bedrock reliance on our safe growth and development. Knowing that belief creates experience, knowing that my belief and experience have told me that everything is part of the same thing, and knowing that there's no reason to believe that the universe would need or want or even be able to harm itself -- does, in fact, make it easier to believe that everything is working out for all of our highest possible good(s). On the other hand, Blind Faith is all that underpins that knowing. I just believe those assertions to be true. And further, it is my trust in the continual evolving of our potentials in particular that guides me to believe the above assertions to be true.

It's rather like a hot air balloon. You wouldn't say that it's the air alone, or the heat alone, or the silk alone, or the stitching alone, or the tie-lines alone that make it fly. They all have to be there working together. The air is held by the  stitched silk, the silk balloon is held to the frame for the flame and the basket for the pilot by the tie lines -- the flame heats the air up so that it swells in the balloon, which lifts against the tie-lines, which pulls the rigging upward with the balloon, which means the flame stays with the balloon and heats the air, etc. etc.. Who can tell which one comes first or is the most important when you're soaring through the sky?

Put all together, my philosophical hot air balloon works something like this: 

I hold that the overriding principle in all of my experience of life is that everything is infinitely interwoven, part of the same universal thing; and that this entirety is benevolent to itself, and has orchestrated all of its parts so that everything is working together for the furtherest possible development of everything that is, toward our highest and most evolved well-being; and when we allow ourselves to hold that belief long enough to habitualize it into our default perspective, then we perceive nothing but the continual joyful unfolding of our potential.

The bottom line for the moment is -- it's worthwhile to hold the perspective "that everything always works out for me", in part, just because it conditions us to see that happening in our lives. The more often we remind ourselves that it's all going perfectly, the more regularly we will experience just that. The more consistently we consider our experiences to be good for us, the more good experiences we get to have!

In terms of action, you might be asking, "Once I get my Blind Faith up and running -- what do I do?" How do you turn Blind Faith into the job you want, or the relationship you want, or the lifestyle you want? And I would certainly be remiss if I left you, as I unfortunately did my friend (in the conversation I described in the previous post) without any further explanation.

Here's some actions that happen for me while I am living the life of Blind Faith: 

• For starters and foremost-ers -- I give a lot of gratitude. I'm giving thanks for the many blessings of life every single day. When something goes "wrong", I give thanks for the right. When something goes "worse", I appreciate that it's as good as it is. Even when I am at my lowest, I am giving thanks for what I must be gathering from it. That energy of being thankful for what is unfolding is both the means and the end of living a fulfilled life.
• Another thing I do a lot is look for the good that is coming. I look for proof of the good that's already in my life. I make note of the ease I am having. I count my blessings. I expect that the asshole who cut me off in traffic, made me miss the exit off the freeway, and made me too late for my important appointment has actually done me a favor, and as soon as I come to my senses I will realize what that is. I know it's all working out, so I am anticipating how that will occur, and I am ready when the moment comes to jump -- which usually means I make all of the appointments I am supposed to make with no trouble at all.
• In addition to looking for the proof that life is working out well for me (and thereby self-justifying my faith), I am also on the lookout for how well life is working for other people. I'm giving thanks for other people's successes and achievements and wisdom and abundance. I'm counting the blessings I see in other's lives as we meet in passing. I've even been thankful for the jokey signs of certain panhandlers...
• Another practice in which I regularly engage is relaxing. I take a pause from all activity, and just breathe deeply and fully. Even if it is just mere moments at a time, I get clear and centered and light, and I lean into the extremely calming notion that everything everything is working out perfectly for me. It's an excellent respite from thinking and doing stuff all the time, but much more importantly, this is an vital practice because it is re-programming my subconscious. This is a simple but effective form of self-hypnosis -- little daily increments of getting the largest, most powerful part of my brain on board with remembering and helping me act as if everything is proceeding as it should (which, of course, is how I want me to act!).
•  I also practice having fun. I grew up thinking everything had to be for some purpose. "You have to be doing something meaningful with your time or you're wasting it." Even something as simple and personal as making art had to have some higher purpose. I have since come to realize that the only real purpose -- for anything and everything -- is because it feels good and right. We may not be able to make laws or run a society based on it, but every person as the master and law of him/herself must abide by it or perish. We must and can only do what feels good and right to each of us. Having fun feels good for me, and more importantly, it's proving my faith to the everything. Again, it is both the means and the end in itself.
• Another vital practice is nurturing the inevitable manifestations of the life I want and the good coming to me. I make room for the things I am welcoming. I make preparations for the fruition of my plans. I look for the things I am being offered to do in order to allow what I want to come. I act in order to express my belief -- I pick up my shovel so that my faith can move the mountain.

When we act, it is important to remember that we have to have our minds ahead of us, or no matter what action(s) we take we will be putting the cart before the horse. As Buddha supposedly said (and someone wrote down in the Dharmapada), "with our thoughts we make the world" -- our hands just move it around. When our minds are working with us, expecting good things, looking for more things for which to be grateful, receiving the experience of life in faith that all is and will be well -- then even the smallest action has the weight of an epic triumph. Or as Jesus reportedly pointed out -- the "faith alone" is enough to move the mountain, if you have that, then all you have to do is "tell the mountain to throw itself in the sea and it will be done" (Matthew 21:21).

So get out there. Be full of Blind Faith. And enjoy yourself -- it's all going to be just lovely.

∞

Be well.

º the unshakeable definition of all things, circumstances, and events as positive agents in our becoming.

The First Concept

The other day, I was talking with a friend, who'd also previously been a coaching client of mine, and he was remarking on how I seemed like I had a lot of great things going on in my life -- great family life, work that I found meaningful, and a plethora of fun projects, etc. -- without seeming to ever "just lose it" with so much going on. He then asked me something to the effect of: "What's your secret?" And I quite literally found myself giving an answer I had never before given to such a question. I think at various points in my life, I would have said, "I don't know..." or "I'm very fortunate..." or perhaps launched into a description of the steps in my approach, and some appreciation of the amazing help I have at every turn. And to be sure, much of that is all very true. 

What I found myself saying to my friend, however, was simply: "Blind Faith!"

He leaned across the table toward me and repeated from under his raised eyebrows: "blind faith?". And I sat back a little, somewhat surprised to hear the words we were both saying, then nodded my head (as if simply in agreement with his assertion), and said: "Yep," laughed and then, "Some secret, hunh?"

He couldn't believe either the flippancy of my response (I'm sure he'd been expecting some sage answer, practiced to the point of dissertation), or the lack of any detailed elaboration. I told him, in a fairly vain attempt to console him with earnestly animated, if airy, discourse that I believed everyone proceeds based almost solely on the beliefs they have about life -- ergo we all live by virtue of the faith we have in those beliefs. And I think I made that point perhaps too clear (as it was my only follow-up at the time...) with all the remaining time that we spent on the subject. And truth be told, I feel fine with that, as I believe it was enough for both of us at the moment -- for me to get to simply claim the whimsical, magical truth of myself in the presence of someone I respect without presenting it in a more "traditionally acceptable" guise; and for him to hear this basic, easy gospel, without the philosophical elaborations or logical justifications that he would expect in such a situation or would wish to explore with his own stellar analytical skills.

It was a message delivered by means of the form of the message itself -- a form poem.

Nevertheless, I have realized in the days following that I have a personal philosophy. "Just now realizing he has a personal philosophy?!" you may be saying -- and yes, of course, I have had philosophics of my own before -- but they were almost always various versions of "the philosophy of juggling concepts". I remained open to everything. I borrowed from everything. I owned nothing. And now I have claimed something that I now realize is what I have always always in my heart of hearts been most about. I've graduated. From my own school.

I've also realized, I have a lot more to say about Blind Faith.

I partly-wish I'd had the faculty at the time to tell my friend: "This is just the bedrock, the basic bottom line, the most reduced answer I can give you (just so that we can fit it into the scope of a single conversation...)". I wish I'd left him with the understanding that my faith that everything will work out is just the beginning. So I've decided that I'll share a bit of what I'll tell him next time with you for the moment.

To begin with, let's get the main point straight -- I call it Blind Faith, not because I am a fool for it (though I gladly would be, I think), but sincerely because it is the kind of faith that can lead me even in the darkest of moments, the eyes-closed-leap-into-the-abyss kind of moments, the please-help-me-so-I-don't-go-down kind of moments. At it's most basic element, it is simply the following in which I have this particular level of belief: That no matter what -- no matter what comes, no matter what goes, no matter what befalls, no matter what is revealed -- every single thing that happens to any one of us is for our own and everyone else's highest possible good. Period. Whether it's war or famine or murder or job-loss or partnership-dissolving or failure or degradation or the opposite of all of these things in any one moment -- it is all working toward harmony, not entropy as poor Steven Hawking is mis-convinced. Things do fall, and they do break, and then they become something new -- Things do not simply Fall Apart.

So this first, most important piece, is simply to hold (with eyes shut if necessary) onto the firm rock of believing that I am absolutely taken care of -- both in life and when I pass through death. Nothing can ultimately hurt me, and nothing is out to cause me harm in this life. And as my friends at Abraham-Hicks say, "There is only a source of Well-Being, which you are allowing, or not." -- there is no source of suffering there is just either our allowance of disallowance of our own joy. And no matter what we are experiencing, there is joy to be had there too!

And this faith, this peace, is simple enough that I can reach for it at any moment. When I am upset, I sigh and remember -- everything is working out. When I am frustrated or angry, I huff and remember -- even this is is working out for me perfectly. When I am nervous, I remember. When I am utterly lost, I remember. And moment to moment, the remembering becomes belief, the belief slowly grows into knowing, and knowing into experiencing. And when I experience the fruition(s) of my belief -- I save and compost its essence to nurture my faith further with the proof and evidence of itself.

Over time, and somewhat without my perceiving it, I have grown a perspective on the world. And as the only point I made to my friend indicated, I know that what we believe about the world and of our lives written through it, is the truth of our experience. The truth is not that "seeing is believing", but rather that the believing constitutes the seeing. Everything we know about life defines the extent of what we will end up perceiving of it.

We are not discoverers of great truths -- we are the forgers of them. We can be, do, and have whatever we can imagine, so long as we know it to be our truth.

We don't need a system of levers and gears and highways and machinery to move mountains -- we don't even need a strategy or plan. As Jesus (you know the one) is reported to have said: "If you had but faith alone you could move mountains".  I would add further that if we have faith enough, then we will see clearly that the mountain was never in the way at all.

I think I'll leave that note to resound a bit before I continue. More to come on the effects of Blind Faith on action. Until then...

∞

Be well.

*

Hello Woild!

Hello, Earth. Just wanted you to know, things are looking up. At least that's the view from here. This isn't the perspective of "the glass is half full" – this is the perspective that the glass is ALL full – to the top and overflowing for those who perceive it as such. 

And if that's a perspective you'd like more of, then this is the place for you. I'll be posting something about perspective, fullness, and grace a few days out of every week for the foreseeable future. Come back anytime you need help keeping your chin up or to have another look at that silver lining, or if you just happen to be in the mood for a little more light in your life. 

"Keep your face to the sunshine, and you will not see the shadows." -- Helen Keller

Ω

Be well.