I was recently invited to contribute to a telesummit which is called “Unlock the Secret To How Successful Entrepreneurs are Attracting a Continual Stream of Hungry Clients Eager to Buy What They Offer, Consistently Making 6 and 7 Figure Incomes Through a Magnetic MindShift Empowering You to New and Greater Levels of Success!”.

So why was I invited?!

I’m laughing yet the question is relevant enough – given the fact that the only consistency that I represent is the consistency of flow, and that I have a rather relative approach to success.

Success means something different to each of us, I’m sure but I think that the way success feels is rather universal:

It feels like victory, doesn’t it? Like winning a game, or a battle. It feels great.

Usually, the feeling of success doesn’t last:

Because most of the games and battles we play consist of more than one victory and more than one defeat. They kind of come and go in waves.

In most cases, for most people, life happens in spirals, cycles and waves.  Life is wise, and exciting, in this way too…

Success is just the top of a wave, not the entire flow:

As I see it, if you try to make success last, you will fail. But then, if you try to make failure last, you will fail too!

How about surrender to life’s natural cycle of waves? That way you just might set yourself free…

Let me be a bit more specific about this:

Even if I’ve surrendered to flow when I was very young, it’s not all that long time ago that I became aware of…

How I enjoy surfing the waves of my life:

Mostly, “success” comes as a surprise, and mostly, I know that it won’t last… because life goes on… so I  enjoy it – totally! – while it lasts …

Also “defeat” comes as a surprise, typically, and, typically, I know that it won’t last either… because life goes on… and there is peace and joy in that too… (just another shade of joy)….

It’s like enjoying the last glass of wine or the last minute of a sunset… and then enjoying the last hour of intense thirst… or the last hour of darkness… . Fully being there, fully sucking the best out of that passing moment …

It’s not the “enlightened” “all things must pass” detached neutral sort of an experience … It’s much more sensual and joyous and alive than that!

What is success anyway?

I’m sure there are as many answers to that question as there are people on the planet.

Also there are lots and lots of perspectives on how to achieve success. Including my way:

I know and cherish the realization that every single moment of the flow-journey is a miracle and success by design!… including the waves of “success” and “failure” and everything in between ...

Including the inspiration and mindshifts that we bring to each other thanks to our amazing diversity!

And so, it is my pleasure and great honor to contribute and to invite you to accept contributions from all the speakers at the upcoming “Achieving A Magnetic MindShift” Telesummit hosted by Cathy Gettings:

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“Between A Rock And A Hard Place”

The above is the title of the auto-biography by Aron Ralston — a  story of a man who became trapped by a boulder in an isolated slot canyon in Utah. (It later became the film “127 hours”).

The fact that he was stuck and unable to move wasn’t his main challenge though.  Getting him out of there wouldn’t be rock science .  The problem was that he didn’t tell anyone where he was going, neither did he take his cell phone with him. And so, he could not be found and he could not be helped.

The  underlying major issue was that he was not open to receive. He was not open to receive the abundance of help, love and connection that was actually there.

Does it ring a bell?

He was a highly talented mountain climber, passionate about guiding others too. But he was not open to receive. It almost killed him. And then it became his rebirth.

From what I see, most people on a spiritual journey struggle with a similar problem – psychologically, spiritually, practically – even if not necessarily in such extreme ways and often times without even  being aware of it being a blocker.

This is one of the most common reasons why we get stuck and/or disappointed in our attempts to create/manifest more money, love, purpose, joy, success, inner peace:

Half (or more) of the creation/manifestation process is really about being receptive:

I mean, you can have an abundance of fresh, clear water (and money, and love and whatever else you want) in the world – but if you don’t open your mouth… you’ll remain thirsty.

So that’s why  receptivity is what the first Flow~Integration e-book is going to address – in profound, expansive and yet practical and specific ways (because obviously, there’s more to it than just opening your mouth )

On this note:

Are you open to receive a free copy of the e-book?

Title Comment Contest – Win a Free Copy

I have an idea for the title of the e-book, but perhaps you have a better one? I’m open to that!
Submit your title idea in a comment below and I’ll pick the winner of a free copy of the e-book on Monday January 30 — but only if there are enough comments. So be sure to share this post with as many people as possible and invite them to participate! (in this way you also help them find a unique resource for their transformational journey!).

Winner will receive a personal message on January 31 – and a free copy of the  e-book (50+ pages packed with information, inspiration and practices) as soon as it’s finished.

Technorati Tags: flow and abundance

What is the greatest challenge in your life right now? Let me know and I’ll do my best to support you through it with an e-book, that shows you ways to move forward while following your own flow.

Technorati Tags: e-book

[This post is the essence of the recent New Year's Eve discourse]

There’s been a lot talk about 2012 and what it means… Here’s one comment I’m particularly fond of:

I have to say though that  it doesn’t freak me out…  I mean, I have no idea what’s going to happen in 2012. But then I also had no idea what would happen in 2011…  so here’s what I’m thinking about how to deal with the uncertainty of it all:

In all its simplicity I believe that the best approach is to be open and receptive to what life brings along. It’s a good idea in general and even more so in changing times, in times of transition.

Because such times are like traveling across an unknown territory. You don’t have a map — but you can open and  receptive towards the landscape, the people and the experiences that come your way.

Allow the journey to lead you, and you will probably find out that it goes up and down, in waves big and small, uplifting and challenging… and also from time to time there are these giant creative waves that kind of make it all fall into place. You can’t plan these ways anyway…

Because, as I see it, our present times, which could be perceived as a global crisis, call for new ways of living. We are in the midst of on one hand stagnation and on the other hand changes happening so fast or in such unpredictable ways, that we cannot depend on the old maps and calendars anyway.

We need something more flexible than that I feel. We need to combine our wisdom and our knowledge with what we experience and learn every moment. We need to travel light.  “Travel Light” is by the way the title of the book on Flow~Integration that I’m writing!

When you travel light, it is easier for you to adapt to changing circumstances – and you can also enjoy the journey more when you’re not being burdened by a lot of baggage – be it past experiences, expectations or plans for the future.

When you travel light you don’t carry a whole lot of food and drink and whatever you may need with you. You are open, aware and receptive  to the gifts and resources that become available to you as you go, even if  yo have no idea what they will be. Isn’t that far more exciting than eating can food and dry soup… (figuratively speaking).

The same goes for planning your route really. You have to create and find your path as you go, and make choices as they emerge. And these choices and decisions may turn out to be of a very different nature than you expected them to be before you embarked on your journey.

Perhaps you’ve been thinking about how you want to step into your full potential, spiritual, personal and financial, have big goals and intentions and do whatever it takes to get there.  Or perhaps you thought that all you wanted was simple living and just being. Perhaps along the way you will find out that what you really feel attracted to is something entirely different, a third way, a flexible way of living, living in waves, living in alignment with a flow that has more variety to it than just big or small?

Perhaps, before you embarked on this particular part of your journey, someone has advised you to build a big and heavy ship – a perfect vessel for crossing the ocean.  But then it so happens that your journey takes you along a river instead, where the big ship will just get stuck and block everything else. Perhaps what you really need is not a big ship but a flotilla of light boats?

Or perhaps someone has said to you: There is nowhere to go and nothing to do . And from a certain perspective that is so very true, you know. Except, perhaps such total  beingness is not what your life and your journey is about at this time. Your journey may very well be about creating something indeed and definitely going somewhere and if you refrain from that what you will find is not bliss but a state of confusion, powerlessness and lack of fulfillment.

So traveling light is very much about making choices that are right for you, here and now, in a flexible way, and a way that can change again and again as you go with the flow of your life.

And by the way,  “going with the flow” doesn’t necessarily mean that you are very passive/reactive and just go from impulse to impulse. Yes, your presence is a primary key and door to it all, but then so is interaction, both with life as such and with the people and the world that you live in. 

Really, when you think about a river flow for example, it is one giant co-creation. The river follows the landscape but it doesn’t so passively. It also affects it in all kinds of ways, big and small. The life within and around the the river – plants and fish and animals and people – they all follow the river but that’s not just a passive following either. It is a living inter-action.

And by the way, just to bring these big ideas down to earth a bit: even if I’m very open towards 2012 (and 2013 and on… ), I do have some specific creations or intentions or goals in mind. They can change – I am not attached to them. But definitely committed to:

Finishing the “Travel Light” book (and other books that are on their way as well), and to continue supporting and inspiring you through Flow~Integration coaching and teaching — although in ways that will be more flexible, more adaptable to traveling light, easier to adjust to your individual journey.

The first change is in place already, namely in the way the one-on-one coaching process has been redesigned: both the mutual clarification process and the program as such are now much more open and flexible than what I started with.

See the new one-on-one program here.

Technorati Tags: flow-integration

I’m sure you know the feeling: you see a map of an area where you are and you immediately feel moved to place yourself right there on the map. Perhaps even draw a big red star there. “I am here. The place I’m going is there. This is my route”.

If the map in question represents a geographic area it’s a real good idea, mostly. If however the map represents a spiritual path, placing yourself on it this way will possibly trigger an old tendency to measure your progress and compare it with the path on the map. And perhaps also a concern: “Am I where I’m supposed to be? Am I moving forward fast enough?”

Well…

The Flow~Integration map is not created for you to measure yourself:

Because you’re not here to be measured.

And also because Flow~Integration is a spiritual, personal and vocational transformation process, and a process like that doesn’t happen in a straight line from A to B, from here to a fixed point there. It happens the way life’s flow happens, in waves and spirals.

And that means that you can find yourself several places on the map simultaneously!

You can be both in the beginning and the middle and at the end of the path – but in different waves or stages of that process.

You could, for example, be exploring what keeps you stuck while at the same time discovering a new you and also creating or transforming your business, job or project.

When we work together in a Flow~Integration one-on-one program we don’t follow the flow map either. Rather, we use it as a framework while following your flow.  For example:

One of my flow coaching clients has been working primarily with his relationship with authority figures and money and from there the creation of his own holistic business. Another clients has been working with the relationship with her boyfriend as well as discovering her authentic preferences and wishes – and from there changing her job to something more holistic and creative. Yet another client’s primary focus has been to develop her spiritual business and its website in such a way that it truly expresses her work and ensures open communication between her and her clients. And all of them had at different points of the journey been addressing various aspects of their spiritual, mental, emotional, financial and physical life, past and present, as needed and as it related to their dreams and goals.

It’s like visiting your favorite restaurant or library:

You don’t just follow the menu from the top to the bottom, do you? You use it entirely to find out how it can serve your needs and wishes, and they change each time you visit the place.

And so an individual program begins with a telephone session where we look at your wishes and needs. From there we design a program which then again is being adjusted as we go and as life flows.

Something similar will be the case in future Flow~Integration groups, workshops, retreats and How To e-books: they will not just follow a general map. Rather we will co-create them based on yours and others participants wants and needs.

There is one area though where I intend to use the map pretty much as is — and that’s while writing the Flow~Integration book and the future articles for this blog. That’s to give you as much insight as possible into all the aspects of the journey.

Let’s chat about it all on New Year’s Eve!

I’m going to send all subscribers a separate invitation for that, but I’d like to let you know already now that there will be a wonderful occasion to chat about all the above (and whatever else we feel like chatting about) on the upcoming New Year’s Eve meeting on December 31 at 11 AM Pacific. I’d love to do it in a restaurant by the way!…:-) However for practical reasons it will be an online meeting More information soon via email … (just make sure you’re on my email list by submitting your email address at the right top of this page).

And, you can see what kind of Flow~Integration services are available right now here

Technorati Tags: flow map

First of all: Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate it (with or without turkey:-)) – and thank you everyone in any case – thank you for being you!

I am here to support you in just that – in being you, FULLY. But how exactly??

I mean, it’s only natural that before you even consider embarking on a flow journey with me you want to know where it’s going and how we’ll be getting there! You want a map and some pictures to give you an impression, you want some facts, and you want to find out whether this is where you indeed want to go and when and how…

And, I have to admit, that except in direct coaching conversations and in the Flow~Integration materials as such, I haven’t been very good at providing you with such information or at least not in the way I wanted to. And that, I believe, has led to some confusion, ambiguity, uncertainty. Sorry about that!…  Even if I did my best, it just wasn’t possible before now, for several reasons.

This is all going to change now!

Before I show you how this is all going to change, I do want you to know that one of the reasons  is that Flow~Integration is a gigantic topic and for months and months, in spite of many attempts, it has been impossible for me to present it in a structured, clear sort of way while at the same time making that structure flexible, living and inspiring.  To me, the latter is a requirement!

As it turned out, that again required that a certain phase of my own integration journey be completed first. The good news is that I’m there now! A child is born! Well, not literally, but almost :

On the night where it all shifted, I dreamed about a man, that took off on an airplane  but then jumped the plane! and landed in a river. And there I saw him, being carried by the river on his back, with a baby girl securely resting on his chest, and for reasons I cannot quite explain in words it brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart…

And by the way, I love that picture because to me the best of life is right there, between heaven and earth, connecting it all, in the flow!

Anyhow, when I woke up, the inner and outer work of many months had come to fruition and all I need to do now is to keep on building on it! (that should keep me busy for a year or two  ). Seriously, this is really a rebirth of my work, both figuratively and literally speaking:

It affects everything I do presently and probably for years to come, including the book I write and what I prepare for you next (starting with a new map of the journey and including the first Flow~Integration “How To…” resource!).

*** UPDATE *** The map and a special gifts is available now!: Just scroll up again and submit your email address in the right sidebar and I’ll “ship” it to you by email right away!

So stay tuned!

PS: The  map is flexible… So if there is anything that you would want to be included in our journey together? Specific challenges to  be addressed? Questions to be answered? Let me know in a comment below, or email me here.

Technorati Tags: flow map

At the end of the recent Flow~Integration webinar, this question was asked: “Nothing I ever try …works. EVER. No technique, no advice. how would this be different?”.

Before I make an attempt to explain how flow coaching is different let me say this:

It is not as unusual a question as you might think. In fact, many of the people that come to me have spent years and years doing spiritual/personal work and  that’s how they feel, initially. Some of them are in their 50s, 60s and even 70s and have basically lost hope in ever moving forward. And then we start on the Flow~Integration journey and they move on anyway. How come? What’s the magic?

It’s not really magic, and here’s how I found it:
When I was around 40 (that’s a long time ago ) and after having done all kinds of psychological, therapeutic and spiritual work for some 20 years, I found myself  in a similar  place.  It was an utterly hopeless and also terrifying place and if I wasn’t pushed there (by life itself)  I would never had found the courage to move through it I guess.  That’s where I found it and that’s what I’m sharing now, basically. Plus a whole lot of experience, and the love and wisdom that is there too.

But it’s not a magic trick, it’s not a recipe, not a technique or a set of rules, it’s not even a predefined process. You cannot control flow that way. But you can learn how to flow with it and claim its gifts!

Through the Flow~Integration based coaching, I offer a very simple way of connecting with the flow that is within you already. From there I gradually support you in moving through a transformation on your own terms.

It’s like alchemy in a sense. All the ingredients are already there – we just add some presence, some loving energy (shakti, one of my clients called it) , some wisdom and lots of experience to it – and then it starts moving.

You don’t even have to believe that it will work – it works anyway. Because change is your nature and that’s what you do – you learn how you can connect with your true nature, with your being.

Simple practices and tools and advice are being offered too, but they are in a sense secondary to that primary process of you simply becoming you.

Because you don’t need to be changed –  there is nothing wrong with you! All you need is to set yourself free.

It’s a gradual process, a gradual way for you to experience  more of your joy, your purpose, your freedom – and from there choose the life that you want, one step at a time.

And you know, most people that come to me, cannot even explain how they know this is right for them. They just know it, or feel it. If you have that feeling, regardless of your self-doubt, trust it and I will be the catalyst for your transformation.

Flow~Integration Coaching

Technorati Tags: flow coaching

This is my shortest post ever. Because there is just this one thing that I want to say:

If you’re on a spiritual journey yet struggling with stagnation, confusion and frustration, workwise and otherwise…

If you yearn for the joy, flow and purpose that you know should be there yet seems to avoid you no matter how hard you try…

Then this free webinar is for you!

see you there

Flow in relationships – the radical way:

What are the chances? A few hours before the Forgiveness Telesummit begins I “stumble” upon an online interview with a healer who, before he started healing, spent many years in a war zone. His work was very much about learning how to create flow in relationships there – between people from religions and cultures that appeared hostile towards each other.

He chose to do it by immersing himself as much as he possibly could in culture and religion  that was very different from his own (to say the least) — so that he could experience directly, in his body, feelings, mind and spirit how it was to be the other person.

How an external conflict stops your inner flow:

It reminded me of places within me where I had experienced war-like states… It reminded me  how there have been people in my life that have triggered such deep, old pain in me that it appeared impossible to forgive them, or even just accept them. For a long time, I had to turn my back on them. But then again:

Trying to turn your back on someone else is like trying to turning your back on yourself- it’s impossible. And it stops your flow, more than you think.

Life has its own way of healing those wounds:

Eventually, as it turned out, life had a solution to that problem too. And the solution was to set me in situations similar to the situations that made the people that had hurt me act the way they did.

In this way, I was given the opportunity to be, feel and experience directly how it was to be them in those situations. As I did that (without planning it in any way), forgiveness emerged spontaneously. And from there a flow of healing, peace, joy, and a growing willingness to embrace and love what is. And from there again more radiance and more flow in relationships too.

More about forgiveness and flow in relationships:

You’ll hear more about my perspective on forgiveness, healing and flow in  relationships on October 7th where Nancy Battye will be interviewing me as on the subject of Forgiveness. But don’t wait that long.  Because it all starts today:

Today, and for the next 2 weeks, you have a rare opportunity to listen to 33 teachers, healers and coaches from around the world sharing their wisdom and experience and supporting you in the process of forgiveness and self-healing.

I warmly invite you to listen to as many of the speakers there as possible.Because each of them is here for you, and each has a gift for you. And one of the many gifts is their diversity, the way they are different from you and the way they are you.

So many times, the inner  and outer stagnation and limitation  that keeps you frustrated for months and years can be transformed through a healing process that involves forgiveness towards very specific people and very specific experiences from your life. It’s a very important aspect of opening to flow and joy.

You can make the Forgiveness Telesummit (and the workbook that comes with it) a powerful journey in your process of forgiving,  opening to flow and from there sharing the miraculous,  radiant you.

[Much more about ways to cultivate your radiance in the next post by the way so stay tuned!]

For now, sign up to the free Forgiveness Telesummit below and start setting yourself free in those relationships, present or past that you might be reluctant to even think about.  Give your love a chance to flow more freely – for you, too.

Technorati Tags: flow in relationships

[This is an invitation to The Forgiveness Telesummit]

Forgiveness is one of the most significant keys to flow in relationships. The relationships that have shaped and the relationships that will shape the flow of your journey. Forgiveness is crucial for your relationship with yourself.

But then again…

How do you really feel about forgiveness?

As for me, I used to have rather mixed feelings about it, I have to say.

Because forgiveness implied that there is something to forgive. Because it used to trigger the ugly, humiliating feeling we all know from our childhood. When we did something real bad (or not). And felt sorry for ourselves. And were told to say “I’m sorry” to the other person instead.

Forgiveness implied injustice. It implied pain. Forgiveness implied guilt and separation.

So what is forgiveness anyhow?

Let me challenge you a bit here:

On a spiritual path, it is tempting to fly high above the  entire forgiveness issue and just say: “There’ no problem. It’s just a story. There is nothing to forgive.   “. 

Because even if it’s completely true, there is one “tiny” problem with that:

We’re not quite there. Not always.

We’re very human this way, aren’t we.

And you know what? I so appreciate our humanity!

That’s what this journey is about:

It’s about being human too. A human spirit. A spiritual human.

It’s about being everything that you are. Not just the nice part.

And so, on this journey, there is pain. There is anger. There is guilt. And there is forgiveness.  Sometimes.

But then again, along the road…

The  meaning of forgiveness can transform entirely. And then it can transform you.

Whether you like it or not…

Forgiveness transforms your relationships:

Whether it’s intimate relationships, family relationships, business relationships…

Forgiveness brings more flow, more joy, more freedom.

Because honestly…   your relationships are not only defined by how high you can fly (sometimes…) or by how  much how deep you can go  ( sometimes…) but  more than anything by how much you can flow with and truly embrace the diversity of the people that cross your path (all the time!)

You relationships are defined by your heart’s ability to forgive:

I look forward to sharing more on this topic at the Forgiveness Telesummit. And I’m honored to be part of an event where 33 dedicated spiritual  teachers, healers,  coaches and authors come forward to share their spiritual wisdom as much as their  very human experience of Forgiveness.

I warmly invite you to join us on this Forgiveness journey:

The Forgiveness Telesummit 2011

Technorati Tags: forgiveness