I just got back from another trip to Taisekiji, Japan.  Its a Buddhist trip where karma gets pulled out from every corner of life.  The result is spectacular.  The journey is, too, but its not always roses and unicorns. My phone fell in water right before I left, crazy deadines popped up, I forgot things I thought I needed… Things that never happen all happened in a wave.  Crazy fears came up to hijack my mind.  That’s why I new this would be a big trip. It wasn’t all going to be easy.

If you read my blog you know that my motto is “If it feels wrong, it is wrong.”  To refine that a little, its more accurate to say “If it feels wrong it is wrong….but if what you want is sitting on the other side of an obstacle, be willing to go through whatever you have to in order to get over the hurdle to the other side!  

Anything you want to change, anything deeply grooved in your brain as a habit, in your emotional patterns as the normal or in your space as a disrognazed mess, anger, fear or just about anything you want to get rid of did not show up overnight.  But in the mythology of the New Age, you can do a life hack of some sort and be “freed” of things forever. Rich Roll gave an incredible talk about why life hacking doesn’t work as a lifestyle that you can also watch HERE if you like only the quick fixes.

Before I went on this trip I did one such life hack, truth be told.  A wild form of EFT- have you heard of “tapping”? if not you can read more about it HERE) – where you can clear away trauma by tapping on certain parts of your head and body using certain language to “unlock” the frozen trauma.  I took it to the next level (of course, so I’d have something cool to share) and did an advanced form of this EFT called Matrix Reimprinting.  I went back in time in my imagination while a practitioner tapped on me on these points while I sort of told stries of my past.  I wanted to see what would happen…

And while I did feel “free” for a day or two… what I came to see the minute I arrived on this trip was that everything I experimentally tried to “tap” away in a few hours, and repeatedly after that, was a bandaid to real work to deeply see the truth of my own responsibility in creating my life.

Do you believe you create your own life?

I definitely do.  Now more than ever.

Thoughts. Words. Actions.  = Life.

Its stunningly simple.  Yet terribly hard to confront when you feel stuck or weighed down.

And even multiple sessions of this EFT Matrix stuff wasn’t going to truly change it, though it made me feel better for a moment life a giant pot of tea after a late night…. before the crashing realization that caffeine is not quite the same as sleep!

Of course I believe in “life hacks” when it comes to making a day flow much better. This blog is loaded with them.  There are holistic quick fixes to get you through just about any situation without as much of a drag on your life.

Its the small shifts, though, the ones that lead to a determination to truly rise into new habits and thoughts and words… those are the small shifts (or big ones) that are challenging.  And the more the karma flies out, the more things get stirred up- including anger, fear and even sadness or a chaotic mess- the more I’ve come to know it’s working.

I went to Japan and spent time in this space of expanded determination. A rigorous schedule.  No time to think or complain.  Amazing wisdom. Incredible experiences of ceremonies on a level I can only describe as time and space disintegrating then reforming itself.  It was the highest of heights.  And the most truth-telling I’ve had in ages… real challenge.

Out of the chaos came a new level of peace. Then: I got back home.

Arriving in Los Angeles it was hard to confront the sight of the city streets, the noise, the things not-yet-done that are calling my name.  I may be renewed, but my environment needs to catch up.  That’s where the work comes in.  Digging out of the chaos, you find order in a higher, bigger way.

If you want a brighter life, its well worth the digging.

Seeing things for what they are- even in some of their ugliness, clutter, anger and confusion- is the only way to change them.  Hiw can you possibly fix things if you can’t see them for what they are.  It’s like cleaning your house in the dark wearing a blindfold.  You sort of have an idea of where things are, but unless you are highly tuned and skilled in this action you will likely make more of a mess.  With the blindfold off, you can see everything, as overwhelming as that may be, and seeing it all is the only way to really get it all clean.

Take off the blindfold.

See where you are trying to evade the real work.

Understand your own resistance without leaning into quick fixes.

Build a solid foundation for your life, even if it takes you a long time.  Real things take a long time.  That 10,000 hour rule Malcolm Gladwell talk about in order to master anything seems, in my life experiece, to be very real.  You can’t buy your way to a faster route. You can’t sidetrack life.  You can find better ways to do things and you can certainly refine and grow faster rather than slower… But the work will always be there, and you’ll likely be reminded of where and how you are skipping over important details in a race to attain the pot of gold.

Its not bad to be mad, frustrated, confused or overwhelmed.  The only thing destructive I’ve seen is to sink into this stuff and let it create your life rather than letting it guide you through to a higher place.

I’m so excited to be back home… and so excited to share with you the best of this adventure in ways you can fold into your own life to add more light, more energy and more of that awesome determination that turns obstacles into little bumps in the road of an incredible adventure!   xoxo Dana

 

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