What are you Growing?

It's hard to remember sometimes that we, human beings, are natural. Yes, we can do unnatural things -- or maybe "artificial things" is a better, less hostile way to put it :) -- but regardless of how we act sometimes, the truth that we're natural is something that can't be denied. Forgotten, avoided -- yes. But not denied. We're natural.

And because of this, one thing that we can always rely on to teach us things is nature itself.

After all, we ARE nature, right? So why not look to nature for insights on how things really work on this planet? Because, after all, nature has been around a long, long time -- and the last time I checked, trees and shrubs and mountains weren't spending time in therapy. So they must be doing some things right.

The first thing we can look at, as we curiously gaze at our natural relatives -- trees, grass, flowers, and so forth -- is that there is a latency period between when a process starts, and when so-called "results" are achieved.

In simpler terms: things take time. And what is planted today may not seem to "grow" for weeks, months or even years.

Of course, that growth is always happening. A seed planted today may not grow into a plant for weeks or months -- but that doesn't mean that it goes from a completely dormant seed to a "growing plant" when the stem appears to emerge from the earth. The growth is taking place from the moment the seed is planted; though we may not be able to detect this visually.

These days, we're relentlessly focused on results -- on outcomes. That isn't so bad (I guess...) EXCEPT when we stop to realize that this focus on results or outcomes is really quite...well, it's quite unreal.

In nature, there are no outcomes; no results.

Nature is NOT a results-driven experience.

It's a constant, continuum of progress. Sometimes, yes, we can "see" that process in the form of a flower or a plant. But all we're seeing is a part of the process. And, really, only a tiny, tiny part of it all.

There are things about you that you may want to change. If you focus entirely on results and outcomes, guess what? You won't get there. Results and outcomes are merely parts of a process that begins in the only place where change can happen.

Here, now.

The Movement of Nature

If we take a glance at nature -- just a glance is needed, nothing more -- we'll come to the same, inspiring observation: it is always in motion. In fact, the word "nature" is probably not the best way to describe what is really happening out there. It would be more insightful to call it naturing or something that implies motion or change; because even the tallest, oldest tree that seems firmly rooted and immovable is constantly changing. It is growing; it is expanding down into the earth and up into the sky. Indeed, by our human "stopwatch" standards, this change and growth may seem very slow. But that's really a perception and not a reality. What seems slow to a human being may seem rapid to a tree. In fact, what seems slow to one person can seem rapid to another!

As people, we are constantly changing and moving as well -- both outside, in our outer shapes and sizes, but more profoundly and more importantly, inside as well: in our consciousness and awareness.

The challenge occurs, however, when we want to stop changing. When we say to the world: no, that's it, I'm not going to grow. Period. End of story. No chance. ZERO!

Nature simply doesn't speak the language of "stop" or "end of story." Nature is a constantly moving story -- a story that is constantly being written. You can go to the Amazon rain forest or the to the tiny, neglected patch of grass near your home. You can go to the Himalayas or you can go to a busy park full of happy children. It doesn't matter. Nature is nature, and if you honestly and openly look at it -- and allow your real eyes to see and not just your imposed expectations -- you'll become aware that nature is constantly moving. It is a movement. It is a dance; a symphony of forms and the formless; of potential, of growth.

The biggest challenge a human being faces -- any human being, anywhere, doing whatever -- is to answer the call to change. Indeed, that call is constant and ceaseless; just as nature is constantly and ceaselessly changing and growing.

Are YOU listening to the call? Are you allowing change to happen in your life? Or, are you trying to "stop nature" from being nature? Are you trying to put your hand flat down on the page that you're on, and say: this book is finished! I don't' want change!

Remember: life is change. It's dynamic; it's organic. It cannot be otherwise -- and neither can you.

Yes, you can try and close the doors to change...but you will still change; but in a destructive and quite miserable way.

You are nature. You are the dance. You are meant to change.

Look deep in yourself and see if you are really, in fact, giving yourself permission to change. If not, then this is where you must start before anything else happens. It's the first step.

From Becoming to BEING

Many people are drawn to “self-help” (which is a really, really broad term!) because they’d like to become something else. That something else could be something specific, or it could be something general.

For example, you may want to become an author, or you may want to become more compassionate. You may want to become more focused, or you may want to upgrade your skills and get a better job. You may want to improve your health, or you may want to be more open-minded and tolerant. There are as many reasons for being “interested” in self-help as there are ways that people are offering to help.

However, there is a…well, a problem here that is important to discuss. It’s the problem of BECOMING.

Very simply: you cannot become something else. No – wait. That’s not meant to discourage you; rather, it’s meant to INSPIRE you to accept the very nice fact that you are absolutely unique and there is nothing else quite like you – anywhere – in the entire universe. Really.

And because of this uniqueness, you really don’t need to BECOME anything. You are who you are. You cannot become what you aren’t, and since you already are what you are…there is no actual reason to become ANYTHING.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t benefit from self-help of some kind. Yes, by all means: enjoy more wealth, become more compassionate, improve your health, get a better job, experience and spread more joy! All of that is wonderful – but it’s not about becoming something else. It’s about going INTO yourself and expressing more of your BEING.

Self-help is not about changing you – it is really nothing more than a spark; a catalyst. Once that fire starts, it becomes a process of internal change – of BEING what you could be, not about BECOMING something else.

Start today (and from now on) to accept WHO YOU ARE – don’t reject parts of you that you don’t like. What you reject, you project (more on this tomorrow!). Just accept yourself in your totality, and start to experience more BEING – and let BECOMING fall away. You are here to experience more BEING, not to BECOME something else. You are who you are – utterly unique, unimaginably amazing.

The Secret of Being Miserable

The...what of what what? Yes, you read that right: The Secret of Being Miserable.

Really. Why not? After all, we've spent a lot of space here talking about The Secret DVD; and we'll continue spending a lot of space on it in the future -- especially when the Sequel to the Secret is released.

But right now, we can take a little detour :) from our path and look at something that many of us have in-depth personal experience with in one way or another: the secret of being miserable.

And before you move that mouse cursor over to the "comment" box, let me take the bold step of confirming that, yes, it is a secret; in the sense that it's something so many of us aren't aware of. You could say it's an unhidden secret. But given that so many of us continually overlook it, it's about as well-guarded as any other secret out there. Maybe it's even more well guarded because it's not well guarded at all! In other words, maybe we're expecting some complicated or "deep" answer that requires years and years of meditative inner-exploration.

Well, that's not what we're going to do here. Instead, we're just going to go out and blurt this unhidden, unguarded secret, and hope that the fact that this isn't wildly-complicated isn't a disappointment to you.

Want to know? Are you sure?

Because once you know what this secret is, you're never really going to be able to fully be miserable again. Oh, you may be miserable from time to time -- but it won't go as deep; it won't last as long. And for some people, being miserable is something they've cultivated for years. Saying goodbye to something that you've spent time with for so long -- even something as utterly destructive as chronic misery -- can be difficult. People become accustomed to misery; just as they become accustomed to joy.

Remember, too, please: we aren't talking about sadness, or even despair. Those are, indeed, authentic emotions that are worthy of experiencing in their own way. When we engage injustice, cruelty, loss of life or health, or any kind of suffering, feelings of authentic sadness and empathy can emerge within us. That is not merely "okay" -- that is HUMAN.

Misery, on the other hand, is a really lousy emotion; it's probably the worst one. Because it's not authentic; it's kind of like a by-product. It's like junk food. It seems to taste okay, but it's not nourishing. It just fills you up, but once it's inside you, it actually starts to act quite...unfriendly. Quite violent. Your body doesn't like it, and it doesn't like you. Misery is the same way. Your soul doesn't like misery; it doesn't align with it. It can do nothing with misery. It cannot transform misery into empathy, into compassion, into silence, into stillness, into anything of value. Just like junk food fills you up with "empty calories," misery fills you up with "empty energy." And your soul DOESN'T LIKE empty energy. It has dignity. It wants authentic nourishment.

So...

After reading all of that, are you SURE that you're ready for this? Because, like I said, even if you disagree with what I'm about to share with you -- and by all means, disagree if you want to! -- if even a tiny piece of your soul grabs hold of the truth of this, it will start to change your whole life. Remember: once your soul hears or reads the truth, it can never let go. That is the "characteristic" of authentic, eternal, timeless truth: it sticks to your soul.

Ready?

It's just one word (see, I warned you it was simple.)

And that word is...

Comparison.

Wait. I know what you're thinking: huh? What?

Shouldn't the "magic word" be something more...well, more miserable? Something like "death" or "pain" or "violence" or "greed" or something?

No. The word for today is comparison.

You cannot be miserable without comparison. Remember: we are not talking about sadness. Sadness is something altogether, qualitatively different. Sadness can be (and often is) quite beautiful and poetic. Sadness is a part of the human experience; it is something that MAKES us human.

But as we said, misery is just a lousy "substitute" for sadness; it pretends to be sadness, but it's just empty energetic noise that can ruin your day, your week, your year, your decade -- and for many people, most of their ENTIRE ADULT LIFE.

Think about it. Really. After you "close" this blog, sit back and think about it for yourself. How can you be miserable if you don't compare?

Comparison is the language of the ego. The ego cannot exist unless it is comparison. After all, the ego is obsessed with analysis: with giving names to things, with categorizing them, with pretending that it "knows" what something is, simply because it "knows" what that thing is called. And how can you know something without comparison?

Don't get me wrong. When you decide what to watch on TV, what websites to visit, what car to buy, what home to buy, or even what to name your new cat, you may indeed be comparing -- but that comparison is entirely different than the kind we're talking about here. That comparison is intelligence. It's simply looking at the reality of different things and making an informed decision. There is no suffering in it; there is no poor me story. There is no emotional drama attached to it. You simply choose the option that fits with your requirements, your goals, or whatever else. That's normal; that's healthy.

But when you dwell in comparison -- when you sit and ruminate miserably on what you "could" have that you don't, what your rivals have that you don't, what you could be "if it weren't for a limitation"...then you are entering the realm of misery.

Sound bizarre? Again: don't take my word for it. THINK about it. Reflect on it for as long as you'd like, and then the next time you feel yourself descending into misery, try and give yourself a little "wake up" call and think of this blog. See the mechanism of comparison as it is working in you.

When you see it, something utterly miraculous happens: you are no longer unconscious of it. You become the witness of your own mechanical misery-making machine. And that's the first step towards joy.

Try it. I'd love to hear about your experiences -- please share!

Until tomorrow...

Lessons from Nature!

In this Information Age of ours, surrounded by some pretty cool, technically advanced “information sources” (like a blog for instance!), it’s easy to forget that, despite the amazing (and sometimes not-so-amazing) technical toys at our disposal, we’re still, well, PEOPLE. In other words: we’re organic expressions of nature; not mechanical bio-computers, however clever or intelligent we may think ourselves to be.

And because we are, thankfully, organic expressions of nature, we can – if we wish – take a step back from all of our bookmarked blogs, all of our DVDs (yes, this includes The Secret :), all of our workshops and seminars and other tools of learning in the Information Age, and simply re-connect with the source of it all: nature.

Indeed, if you can clearly and openly re-integrated with the natural world – and it could simply be a tree near your home or a lush tropical rainforest – you’ll find sources of information that will truly amaze you, and potentially transform you.

Really, it must be pretty hilarious for trees and rocks and mountains and flowers to listen to us human beings talk about “the Information Age” as if it’s something new. Do we really believe that anything in the world – that is, anything in nature – could exist, AT ALL, without being influenced by an incomprehensibly divine source of information? Information is natural; and, oddly, it seems that the only living things on the planet who don’t seem to grasp this eternal and rather ordinary fact, are human beings.

No wonder cats look at us like we’re…well, kind of stupid. We are!

Now, the point of this blog isn’t to remind us that we’re…stupid…but instead to invite you to take some time (how about today? How about right NOW?) and step back from your familiar sources of information: the Internet, your Secret DVD, your CDs, your books…whatever you learn from, and go outside and co-exist with something that has a more pure, more integrated connection with the SOURCE of information. In other words: go hang out for a while with a tree, or a rock, or a stream, or a flower.

And when you do, if you simply open yourself up – just as a flower or blade of grass is open and inviting – you’ll experience something…rather difficult to put into words. But I’ll try to put it in words, anyways (since a blank blog would be a bad idea…or maybe not?). You’ll experience insights, connections, clarity, spaciousness, and stillness that will nourish your information-starved soul. You’ll see elements in your own life, and the lives of those around you, that reveal themselves as patterns: which means that you can change them by changing something that you’re doing, or, more likely, the way that you’re doing it.

I know, I know. It sounds weird and “out there” and, really, who is out there marketing for “tree learning”? I mean, people sell all kinds of things – books, seminars, even Secret DVDs. But who is selling “hanging out with a tree”?

Just because nobody’s selling it to you, doesn’t mean that it’s worthless. In fact, it’s invaluable; and YOU have the potential to tap into that invaluable current of REAL information…not just knowledge and endless streams of thoughts and words. I’m talking clarity, insight and vision. THAT is information. THAT is what “informs” us.

So make an effort – a small effort, really, considering the other things you do in your busy life – and go hang out with something natural. A lake, a shrub, a tree…it doesn’t matter. Anything. Everything. The SKY.

Information does not belong to an “age.”

Information is your very nature…and it’s in nature still. We’ve forgotten.

The rocks, trees, flowers…and yes, the cats, still remember. So can you. So will you!