Notes from Neale

The CwG Reader

Continuing our ongoing discussion, last week we concluded with
this…

So if you find yourself in a "negative space" about something,
think about what your thoughts are showing you right now. Make
the commitment right now to do that — to think about what you are
thinking about — whenever you feel less than totally
joyful, totally peaceful, totally content. THEN…

…apply the discipline of refocusing. This is a discipline.
It is an art. It is Aikido of the Mind.

Going on from there this week, I observe that this discipline of the
mind is about taking the incoming negative energy that may be
assailing us from the world around us and redirecting that energy in
a positive way.

Wikipedia tells us that the physical art of Aikido is often
translated as "the Way of unifying life energy" or as "the Way of
harmonious spirit." The goal of the creator of Aikido was to come up
with an art that practitioners could use to defend themselves while
also protecting their attacker from injury. Aikido is performed by
blending with the motion of the attacker and redirecting the force
of the attack rather than opposing it head-on.

This falls perfectly in line with a prominent CwG message: What
you resist, persists. Therefore, when negative thoughts or
emotions assail you, do not resist them. Go ahead and think about
what you are thinking about — but think about it in a new way.
Redirect your mental energy. Refocus it.

Using your knowledge of the Mechanics of the Mind and the System of
the Soul as given to us in When Everything Changes, Change
Everything, enlarge the databank from which you are extracting
information about the Present Event by importing data from the place
of Pure Being in which your Soul resides.

Moving to this place, you will notice an expanding of your
Consciousness, which will, in turn, increase your Awareness, which
will, in turn, produce a new Perspective, which will, in turn, alter
your Perception, which will, in turn, result in a new Belief, which
will, in turn, produce a new Behavior, which will, in turn, bring
you an entirely different Experience of the Present Event.

Joining this different Experience that is provided by your Soul with
the Experience that you have been provided by your Mind will produce
an extraordinary opportunity to create and live a new Reality with
regard to your Present Event (or any other Event in your life).

How to make this adjustment in the Line of Causality is carefully
explained in the book When Everything Changes, Change Everything,
and the application of these ideas is explored every day at the
Changing Change Network website (www.changingchange.net),
a place on the Internet devoted to creating a Compassionate
Community of people from around the world who are committed to
partnering with others in the Human Family who are encountering life
changing events in their lives.

The important thing is not to resist, or seek to avoid, the negative
moments in your life, but rather, to transform them. This can be
done by meeting them head-on, looking at them and seeing them for
exactly what they are, acknowledging them and even honoring them for
what they are (rather than "shaming them" into non-existence —
which will not work), and then working to re-shape them, thus to
produce a new Reality with regard to them, and the events that
brought them on.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
= = = = =

This week’s offering: The other side of goals.

What lies on the other side of goals?

Believe it or not, this is a question that no one ever asked me,
ever — much less answered. And this is going to turn out
to be the most important question of your life.

I promise you.

When I was a young man it seemed to me that everyone and his brother
was taking pains to point out to me "the importance of
goal-setting." I came of age in the days before hand held personal
computers and Blackberrys and all that. The Big Thing when I was an
Up And Comer was the Franklin Planner. They were all the rage, and
you could tell the Serious Ones Intent On Success from the Flakes
and the Going Nowhere’s by who walked around lugging a big fat
leather-bound tabbed book and who did not.

The Franklin Planner had tabbed sections for everything: Today’s
Appointments; Current Projects; To Do List; Short Term Objectives;
Long Term Goals; Memos; Contacts. Strategies. A flick of the wrist
and you could tab to any thought you had ever recorded on any
subject, or put your fingered on any data that you could ever need
to get through any moment — and, indeed, if you used the Planner
correctly, your entire life.

The Planner was your entire life, and if you accidentally
left it somewhere — like, God forbid, on a bus or the subway
or someplace where you could not immediately go back and get it —
you were in Full Disaster Mode. "Ohmigod!", one could hear people
exclaim. "My whole life is in there!"

Over and over again in those ancient times (I’m talking about the
Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties. You know, last century…)
people Older and Wiser than I were telling me that I must set goals.
I must set goals. Without goals I was going nowere. Without
goals I was simply floating down a river on an inner tube, headed
wherever the current was taking me. I needed to get it. It
was all about
 

Now, as an older man, I want to tell you that I think this was good
advice. As far as it went. I mean, I think that it is important to
have a clear idea about the things you want in life, and some well
thought out, step-by-step plans about how to get them. And I think
that Intention Setting is a major tool…a major tool…in
the creation of your own reality.

So whether you have your check-off lists and contacts and daily
appointments in MSOutlook or on a Blackberry or in your cell phone,
I think it’s good to have a personal organizer of some kind,
and to have a set of long term goals and objectives as well.

But, as an older man, I want to also tell you that you are going to
be missing something very big, something huge, if you do not ask —
and answer — what I now consider to be a Key Question in
Life:

What is on the other side of Goals?

Or, to put this perhaps somewhat more directly: What do I do when
I "get there"?

You see, I’m 66 — an "older man" for sure, but still relatively
young by most contemporary measures, still in my active years, still
very much on the playing field. They haven’t carted me off to the
Old Folks Home yet. And I’ve got a problem. I’ve already met all
of my goals. So now what — ?

If my life wish was to be loved by a wonderful woman and have
wonderful children and grandchildren…well, okay, I’m lucky enough
to have had that happen.
If my life wish was to be a home owner… I’m lucky enough to have
had that happen.
If my life wish was to be on radio or television… I’m lucky enough
to have had that happen.
If my life wish was to be a newspaperman — a reporter, then maybe
a managing editor… I’m lucky enough to have had that happen.
If my life wish was to be in the movies…been there, done that.
If my life wish was to be on the stage…been there, done that.
If my life wish was to be a best-selling author…been there, done
that.
If my life wish was to be a professional photographer…been there,
done that.
If my life wish was to be deeply involved in politics…been there,
done that.
If my life wish was to be a musician…been there, done that.
If my life wish was to be a world traveler…been there, done that.

…I just don’t know what else anyone could ever hope for or ask
for.

Gosh! A person could wish for any ONE of these things and, if he got
it, feel fulfilled…

I even got to live my dream and become a radio sportscaster, doing
live baseball and football games — high school and minor league,
but still, sportscasting! Man, oh, man!

…and…if my life wish was to be a Messenger of God…I have been
blessed to have been able to do that, too.

I am sooooo blessed. So incredibly, astonishingly blessed. I have
achieved all of my goals. I have lived all of my dreams. I have
accomplished everything I set out to accomplish and experienced
everything I wanted to experience in life!

If you look back on your own life, you, too, will be able to come up
with a loooong list of things for which you are deeply grateful. (In
fact, that may not be a bad idea. What a wonderful little mental
exercise for today! Why not do it?)

But then what?

Let that be the question for the day. What’s on the "other side" of
goals? Is it more of the same, just bigger and better? Naw. There
must be something else.

And there is.

Yet until we ask that question…and give ourselves the answer….and
LIVE that answer…all that we have experienced and all that we have
achieved will mean nothing.

Next Week in this Space: The Answer.

Has it been a good year for you? Have you experienced your soul
expanding, your heartspace increasing, your mind opening even more
to the wonders and the mysteries of life?

How is your relationship life going? Is your life purpose being
expressed in your daily activities? Are you in touch with your
deepest and highest self? And how are you doing with all the changes
in your life?

I am so deeply committed to bringing forward the messages of
Conversations with God in a helping way, in a way that can bring
real and vital new energy to your experience of life. That is why in
the 14 years since publication of the groundbreaking spiritual text
Conversations with God, I have presented an Annual Holiday Retreat
from Dec 28th to Jan 1st.

>From the beginning it has been our most popular and most attended
event each year. Once again this year we are offering this event
here in Ashland, Oregon.

In a very special mind-expanding, spirit-awakening 4 day
presentation, I will offer you the opportunity to truly celebrate
your life just as it has occurred, and then to recreate it anew in
the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held about
Who You Are as you move into the New Year.

Wrapped in the soft and gentle poetry of my wife, Em Claire (www.emclairepoet.com),
this is a highly experiential event filled with personal sharings
and emotional healings, imbedded in deep discussions of the
Conversations with God material.

The wonderfully evocative and joyful musical artistry of recording
artists Cathy Bolton (www.cathybolton.com)
and Don Eaton (www.small-change.org)
will add to an inspiring and uplifting encounter with Self, with
God, and with Life that you are not likely to ever forget — and
that others have told us has changed their lives for the better.

The program ends with a very special Resolution Ritual in the final
moments of 2009, with participants publicly declaring their
intention for the 12 months ahead. Then we’ll usher in 2010 in grand
form with a traditional New Year’s Eve party.

You took the first step when you read Conversations with God.
Now, take the next step…

You already know
you if you want wish to be there.

If you do — if your soul is calling you to spend this very special
time with the Conversations with God material and with me
(something that you may have been promising yourself you would do
one day!), please contact Will Richardson at 352-442-2244. He’ll
answer any questions you may have.

NOTE: Not all events are sponsored by the ReCreation Foundation, but
because all of the events move forward the message of
Conversations with God, which is the mission of the Foundation,
the Foundation is pleased to inform you of them.

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