I want to send it to you ASAP so you’ll have it in time to sign up for Oprah’s free class deconstructing the book.

The course will be taught online at Oprah.com, you can sign up for Oprah’s bookclub right now. The class is on Monday’s at 9/8 C starting March 3.

I am half -way through the book and I love it. It’s the deconstruction of the self as you may not have thought of it before. It reminds me of my critical theory courses in college. The part I’m on right now is about the ego and how it sabotages our happiness.

If you loved Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert or Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav, you want to read this book.

If you want your soul to awaken to your own purpose, you want to read this book.

Leave a comment. I’ll draw one comment out of a hat. If all goes well, you’ll have your copy of A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (Oprah’s Book Club, Selection 61) in time for the first day of Oprah University, for first Monday in March.

Contest closes on Sunday, Feb. 17 at midnight. I’ll announce the winner on Monday. Good luck!

Post from: Blisstree

Oprah University Contest

Hi fabulous people! I’m just coming off my spiritual high after being at a 3 day retreat, The Emmaus Walk. This non-denominational interactive experience was just what my soul needed. Absolutely no hellfire and damnation and total grace, love and joy. Bible recap: There were two men who were walking 7 miles or so to the town of Emmaus and talking about the very recent crucifixion of Jesus. Stranger comes and walks and talks with them about what had happened and interprets Jesus words. They invite the stranger to stay and then realize that the stranger actually is Jesus, right before he disappears. Obviously, my recap holds nothing to the King James Version, which can be found in Luke 24:13.

I can’t recommend this retreat enough. Not only did my husband’s experience transform our marriage, but I am feeling super-connected to the soul of the world with a faith that I can impact it in a positive way. And the intention to do so. Who wouldn’t want that?

I have been on other retreats and I seriously and with all genuine concern recommend that you schedule one immediately – as if your life depended on it. Really, here are some obvious reasons why a retreat is a wonderful experience.

Not one time did I have to think up something for dinner and wonder if we had all the ingredients? Nor did I have to change anyone’s diaper, get anyone a snack, clean a single thing, think about my work, think about my friends or husband or kids or anyone else who might be depending on my doing something. I didn’t have to remember any appointments or obligations. I didn’t even have a watch so I didn’t have to worry being anywhere at any particular time. I don’t know what time they woke us up or what time they sent us off to bed. Didn’t care. I didn’t have to worry about what I looked like. I didn’t have to worry about my hair or makeup or outfit – all casual all the time.

When was the last time that you have savored a total lack of responsibility? Perhaps you never have, in which case I must say – it is TIME.

Another great reason is what I’ll coin Commando Study. I’m a fan of what I’ve heard Dr. Phil call commando parenting, but what I originally learned from The Baby Whisperer. It’s where you put all of your focus on the issue at hand for say 3 days. You try to clear your schedule or put a lot of focus on say weaning the baby from his bottle of milk to prevent him from continuing to be a milk tyrant (my current commando parenting task). Spend 3 days of temper tantrums while offering only a sippy cup and refusing to give into demands for a bottle. Commando parenting totally sucks for 3 days – but then the struggle is over and you don’t ever have to deal with the issue again.

For instance, you might be having marital trouble and one thing you might do is go to a therapist. This might be effective. Every week you go in and try to work out what is going on and how you might be able to fix it. This approach will likely take months and months just to find out what is really going on in your relationship dynamic. It’s a long and painful process and seems to never end. Meanwhile you have to keep living together and struggling, (Well, maybe you’ve had better and quicker results than I have, but I’ve found this to be the case for therapists we have sought help with.) You might read a bunch of marriage books together about how different you are and how to overcome that.

An alternative to that long process would be commando marital intervention like the retreat offered by Gary Zukav and Linda Francis called Spiritual Partnership for Couples. I’ve not been to this 5-day retreat, but God-forbid we ever need it again, this is the first stop. It’s just better sometimes to get out of your comfort zone and climb right into the feelings, painful or not, and DEAL with them quickly and efficiently. And a 5-day retreat in which to focus on your marriage or spiritual partnership can’t be a bad thing. I think it would be great to get out of town and spend 5-days – all day and night – intensively talking about your most significant relationship.

I’ve gone on writing retreats as well and have found them to be wonderful. One of the greatest parts of a retreat is that there is no box they’ve prepared for you. You know, the convenient box people put you in and keep declaring this is who you are. Whether its mom or employee or the loud one or the shy one – there’s a million boxes and they are all probably just as confining for the person in them.

But, when you go to a retreat no one has any expectations of who you should be. You can go and completely reinvent someone new and they wouldn’t know the difference. Or you can go and be your authentic self and might find it interesting how the others interpret your authentic self differently than those you see everyday. Sometimes the people who love us the most expect us to keep being the same and don’t take our transitions, evolutions and growth very well. It’s great for us to go be that new self with people who didn’t know us when we had this job or that, used to party too hard, or just expect us to be a specific way.

I’m always a little bit surprised that people like who I authentically am as much as they do. When I’m on a retreat people tell me they enjoyed my company and I’m friendly and fun – sadly, I’m always a little bit surprised because I don’t hear that very often when I am at home trying to be my authentic self.

I’d love to go on a yoga retreat. I have been practicing yoga at my gym 3 days a week for about 9 months. I love it. I feel so much stronger than when I started. I always feel so powerful and empowered when I do it. Best of all I think it’s so spiritual, I feel my mind get some rest as it connects with God and the spiritual soul of the world and I really feel relaxed and connected during my yoga classes. I would love to go on a 3 day retreat and just really master a lot of poses and get really in that meditative zone and see where God might take me. I usually get a lot of inspiration for writing while I am in my yoga class, who knows I might walk away with the inspiration for the Great American Novel after a 3 day yoga class.

Whatever your interest, I strongly recommend a retreat of some sort. You deserve it!  

Post from: Blisstree

Walk to Emmaus

I’m a spiritual sort. I go to church on Sundays; I love a good spiritual retreat and am anxiously anticipating my upcoming Emmaus Walk at the end of the month.

Currently, I’m reading The Seat of the Soul, by Gary Zukav. Zukav appears to have been able to smoosh all of the philosophies and religious traditions on the planet into an evolution of a multi-sensory spirituality. If you’re offended by talk of your soul’s karma, evolution or reincarnation then this is not a good book for you. Myself, I’ve studied other religious traditions a little and karma appears to be basically the same principle as “you reap what you sow” found in Christianity. It’s also quite easy for me to think of “evolution” as growth, physically, emotionally and spiritually so I can get on board with much of what Zukav has to say.

One of the main things I’m taking away from this book is about how my soul learns and grows. Zukav says that if I intend to confront and harness an aspect of myself, such as self-righteous anger, then my soul, God, or the Universe will compassionately and intentionally place all sorts of situations in my path that are historically likely to bring self-righteous anger to my consciousness in an effort to give me practice at moving past it or choosing to respond to situations without self-righteous anger.

I’ve found this to be quite true lately and I think I’m getting better at nipping it in the bud. My husband and I recently separated and I’ve got all sorts of valid and legitimate reasons for self-righteous anger. But, I realized that the self-righteous anger wasn’t getting me anywhere. It wasn’t teaching him to treat me better, it wasn’t teaching him anything except that he can make me lose it if he wants. It wasn’t making me feel better – self-righteous anger feels lousy to tell you the truth. It feels ugly and powerless and heavy like a giant sack of rotting potatoes.

I also believe in the law of attraction, if I feel self-righteous anger, that is what I will get back from others, in other words “you reap what you sow.”

So, last week I decided to leave my self-righteous anger at church. Let God deal with it and just choose something else. Sounds crazy-easy doesn’t it? Here, God, take the anger. I don’t want it anymore because it’s not getting me what I want. Thanks, see you next week.  

I walked around all week feeling a little lighter, but I had to keep reminding myself to choose something different than self-righteous anger because, like Zukav said, valid and legitimate reasons for anger kept being presented to me, as if to prove the point – I need lots of practice.

Historically, I would get angry when the keys were locked in the car, baby sitting arrangements fell through, a friend dropped her kid off at the last minute expecting that I would have nothing else to do and then refusing to switch cars so I wouldn’t be trapped at home all day, my car broke and then broke again and then again, getting pulled over twice by police for no particular reason, getting incorrect medical bills in the mail, getting over-charged at the pharmacy and a sneaky charge on my satellite bill, getting sick on the one day when I don’t have the kids, waiting in line to get my car licensed only to find out they only take checks which I don’t carry, leaving bottles and pacifiers all over town so I don’t have any at home, the baby getting two more teeth right behind the ones he just got, my hair stylist not getting my color in and then not telling me until I showed up for my appointment two weeks in a row.

I have to give myself props. Normally, I would respond to all of these situations with anger. Why is the Universe trying to get me? But, since reading Zukav’s theory I have to assume that my soul is just giving me lots of opportunities to practice choosing a response other than anger. So, at church this morning I am in the prayer room and I tell God,

I’m leaving the rest of my self-righteous anger here and I’m going to focus on feeling love and compassion toward my husband and I’m going to trust you to communicate that to him. What I truly want is a fulfilling and enriching marriage where I feel loved and validated and my self-righteous anger isn’t going to get me that.  

I’ve discovered that the more practice my soul gets at choosing something other than anger the easier it is. Really, anger is just a nasty emotional habit of mine and researchers say habits can be broken in 21 days.

What’s your nasty emotional habit? Is it serving you or costing you? If it’s not serving you, I encourage you, get rid of it.

Post from: Blisstree

Self-Righteous Anger and my Soul