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Serving a community of private individuals and professionals
who have the desire to cultivate a life of clarity, compassion,
and creativity. We warmly welcome our new subscribers. Thanks
for joining! Your feedback is encouraged. Please feel free to contact us.
1. A Story
Do you ever find yourself slightly depressed because your life
isn't working as you would like? Here is a wonderful story that
can help you to understand that life is always presenting you
with opportunities to succeed.
Horinouchi Kyuichiro is a Japanese man who went from being
a complete business failure, to becoming the president of a
$100 million business empire.
While still in his early thirties, Horinouchi ran his family's
business totally into the ground. Bankrupt, shattered, and ashamed,
he got in his car, drove away, and deserted his family and his
creditors. For months he lived on the streets amongst other
homeless people, and spent many hours pondering his seemingly
sad fate.
With lots of time to think, he came to realize three things:
1. He previously had no concept of what would bring him joy
in life.
2. "Quality of life" was a term he hadn't understood.
He had been obsessed with "success" and he thought
that with enough money to spend, the quality of his life could
be purchased.
3. The more he strove for material wealth, the more he found
himself to be spiritually bankrupt.
With winter fast approaching, Horinouchi was wandering about
aimlessly one day and came upon a broken kerosene heater left
in the garbage. Horinouchi had always enjoyed fixing things
and he impulsively decided to take the broken heater back to
his car and repair it. By the time evening rolled around a ration
of kerosene had been bought and he and a small flock of his
homeless friends basked in the warmth of the rejuvenated heater.
As Horinouchi sat there, he realized not only had he enjoyed
doing the repair work, but he also very much had enjoyed giving
the heater a chance at a second life. In that moment he vowed
to give himself a shot at a second life as well. Little did
he realize that his personal desire to start all over again,
would spawn a wonderful rebirth for many others as well.
If you stay in Japan for some period of time you will be amazed
at the quantity and quality of household goods that get discarded.
You can easily find working TV's, heaters, toasters, CD players,
and computers. People used to believe that the Japanese would
never buy such discarded goods because they would feel that
they smelled strange and seemed dirty. Horinouchi proved everyone
wrong!
He rekindled his entrepreneurial spirit by focusing on doing
what he truly enjoyed - fixing things, and recycling goods rather
than adding to Japan's already huge mound of garbage. This time
around he realized that by focusing on quality of life and job
satisfaction, he would likely achieve financial stability as
well. Slowly, he built up a business of collecting, repairing,
and reselling merchandise that had been thrown in the garbage.
As fate would have it, Horinouchi established his recycling
business at the perfect moment - just as the Japanese economy
began its meltdown. As numerous businesses failed, "all
of a sudden" people became quite open to saving money by
buying second hand goods. With Horinouchi having made the vow
to reclaim his life, it seemed like the Universe was pitching
in to fully support him.
Eventually he was able to save enough to open his own store,
and the rest as they say, is history. Today he has more than
200 franchised stores, with gross sales of more than $100 million
a year, and a whole raft of new businesses in the early planning
stages.
How about you?
Would you like to reprioritize and recycle your life, by focusing
on what brings you the greatest joy?
If you stay sensitive to ALL of life's offerings, you just
might find the key to your success lays hidden in a pile of
high quality "garbage"!
Can a truly happy person ever really be "unsuccessful"?
2. Commentary
More and more I realize, that my life is indeed going according
to plan.
The problem being…
That the plan being followed is not the one I had envisioned!
Coming to terms with this was a bit hard to take in at first,
but in the long run understanding that I have often not known
what was truly best for me, has proven to be quite comforting.
Looking back on my life, I realize that in almost every instance
I have doggedly tried to hold onto whatever I had that seemed
good at the moment.
I held on rather than having a wide angle perspective, and recognizing
that in many ways life had MUCH more to offer me than I was
allowing myself to take in.
If I had a nice girlfriend I thought that losing her would be
the worst thing that could happen to me.
If I had a business, I thought that it was mandatory for me
to be successful in that business. That if my business failed,
it would mean that I was a failure.
Particularly when I was younger,
I had no concept of what my life might be like in another ten
or twenty years time.
I had no idea that each failure I encountered set the stage
for my unforeseen future success.
As long as I continued to learn from my mistakes, and build
upon the things I was doing right.
With any luck, I have at least another twenty years to live,
And I am beginning to realize that the best way to plan for
my "success" is to focus on the activities that add
to the overall quality of my life, and the lives of those I
interact with.
After all, can a truly happy person ever really be "unsuccessful"?
How about you? What if you stripped away your visions of fame,
fortune, and "true love", and instead concentrated
on only those activities and relationships that you truly enjoyed
being a part of? Which plan for your life would you be following
then?
Wouldn't it be difficult to feel depressed or unhappy if you
were doing things that really make for a better world? What
is more important to you, the money that fills your bank account,
or the happiness that fills your heart when you are engaged
in the life you truly desire? I am not saying that you cannot
have both money and happiness. What I am saying is, choose happiness
first, and then if money comes along as well you will have that
much more "wealth" to share with others.
No matter how long you live,
At some point in time you will likely realize that your life
goes by in the blink of an eye.
How much longer can you afford to put off being happy?
How much longer can you afford to base your efforts on the belief
that your accomplishments and position in life will eventually
bring you happiness at some unknown time in the future?
How much longer do you want to go on, not fulfilling your heart's
desire?
The time is now!
Choose happiness,
And all the rest of the pieces of your life's puzzle will fall
into place, just as they are meant to.
3. Practice
Active
Dreaming
Today's Practice is a perfect match for today's story. I have
been using this Practice in numerous workshops for many years
now, and it is a Practice that you can easily use many times
during the course of your life. A great Practice to do outdoors
when the weather is nice.
4. Links
Somatic
Experiencing® (SE) is a short-term naturalistic approach
to the resolution and healing of trauma developed by Dr. Peter
Levine. It is based upon the observation that wild prey animals,
though threatened routinely, are rarely traumatized. Animals
in the wild utilize innate mechanisms to regulate and discharge
the high levels of energy arousal associated with defensive
survival behaviors. These mechanisms provide animals with a
built-in ''immunity'' to trauma that enables them to return
to normal in the aftermath of highly ''charged'' life-threatening
experiences.
Peter Levine and his colleagues do some very high quality work
in regard to working with victims of trauma. Give the site a
look!
5. Suggested Reading
Body-Centered Coaching by Marlena Field
Body-Centered Coaching is a book that you can use
immediately to enhance your skills in working with people.
It is designed as an adjunct to the work you already do with
your clients. This book contains specific techniques along
with various stories based directly on the experiences of
clients. It demonstrates how you can add simple yet powerful
body-centered techniques to your repertoire. The practice
of body-centered coaching can be done in person or over the
telephone. The techniques of body-centered coaching may be
used as a small segment of a session or used in conjunction
with a whole session.
You can find out more, and order the book at:
http://www.bodymindspiritcoaching.com/bc-coaching.htm
6. Suggested Music
"Harmonic Resonance" Jim Oliver
A musician friend once told me that he wished the concept
of "background music" did not exist.
As much as I think it can be great to give all your attention
to a musical piece, I also find that music can serve as a
great background or environment for the rest of what you are
doing. Such is my feeling about the album I am suggesting
today. I enjoy listening to it on its own, and I also very
much love to use this music to create a relaxing environment
while working at my computer, or doing bodywork with a client.
This music is a wonderful vehicle for transporting yourself
and your clients, to a place of peaceful reverie.
7. Our subscribers' section
We heartily thank everyone who sent us their recommendations,
introduced themselves, and responded to our last issue!
Dear Charlie,
Thank you for the lovely last Intermezzo on Mind and Breathing
- a great reminder. Teaching Natural Vision Improvement I find
that people are surprised to discover that breathing and seeing
are linked. When breathing is deep and relaxed we have better
all round vision. When breathing is high in the chest, often
as people focus near and stare at their computer screens, the
peripheral vision collapses along with our eyesight. My colleague
Leo Angart teaches 2 day Natural Vision
Improvement Workshops around the world - breathing and
relaxation are an important part of the work. People learn to
understand their vision prescription and how to take responsibility
for their own eye care using simple effective exercises.
The next London Course will be on 25/26 June 2005
http://www.vision-training.com
Katrina Patterson
* * *
Thank you for your uplifting and informative newsletter!
I am a Yoga instructor and my job
is to encourage health and wellbeing in mind, body & spirit
for all my students. This includes relaxation, meditation, what
we put on our skin and ingest into our bodies. It also includes
freedom from poverty consciousness. Health and abundance from
head to toe, inside and out! Thank you for your valuable input!
Roberta Lemon
http://www.unitoday.net/roberta
* * *
Hello! My name is Russell Mater and I work near Toronto,
Canada. I am a Certified Craniosacral Therapist
and facilitate the release of head, neck and back pain as well
as neurological disorders and emotional trauma. I can be reached
at 519-767-2992 or at russmater@yahoo.ca.
* * *
You are invited to read more
replies.
***
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"Pure Heart, Simple Mind"(tm) is written and edited by Charlie
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