Tonight in our Bold Life Brotherhood meeting, we looked at ways to improve our connection with loved ones on one of many possible different ways of being intimate:
Men in the circle chose bold actions to take in the next week, deepening at least one component of intimacy in one important relationship in their lives.
I have been leading Design Your Day workshops each morning from 7:30am to 8am Japan time (UTC +09:00).
This coming Sunday August 2nd will be a special 1 hour version in which I will guide us in meditation to design our optimal outcome.
Maybe something like this meditation:
In the third week on CONNECTION, we focused on our connections with other people. What do you think they SHOULD be doing? How might these ideas point to things that you can do instead of changing the other person?
Quite some great insights tonight. I discovered ways in which I am not taking care of myself, and some ways I can enjoy my work more.
What do you think your favorite person SHOULD do?
What does this “SHOULD” point to you doing (for) yourself?
Four men attended last night, so we had balanced numbers for the breakout rooms. I was glad to hear the processes were new experiences for them to bring their awareness to the present moment.
The verbal version of automatic writing brought interesting insights; several of the men will take time to practice this again during the week. It reminds me of my days in RC (Reciprocal Counseling).
Thanks to my friend Will Ewing for his words about BLB:
For me the Bold Life Brotherhood has been a gentle journey into
self-awareness. It has helped me to resolve some of my
long-standing personal issues and has been a stepping stone for me
to communicate better with my family. I'm very grateful to Rob
and his steadfast dedication to helping the world evolve in a
positive manner.
- Will Ewing
Tonight in Bold Life Brotherhood, we described our realtime felt experience in our bodies. e.g. “I feel the slight pressure in my fingertips as I push these plastic shapes on the keyboard. I feel the intake of air filling my lungs and stomach stretching as I breathe.”
Each man spoke for a minute, narrating his felt experience. Then we amped it up for each of two rounds:
Close your eyes and do the same, share what is happening for you now..
Feeling inside your body, inside your skin, narrate what are you experiencing in realtime (not what your skin feels, but what your internal parts feel)
Quite a cool experience!
I’m super pleased with how the beta versions of my Design Your Day workshops have been going.
I’m so happy to hear my friends moving forward on projects that they’ve been wanting to do for a while!
I plan to run a weekend training on Finding Your Life Purpose to more deeply connect to our Heart as the compass in our lives.
Each person has their own heart and their own life mission. Their own reason for being here on Earth. I teach ways to connect more deeply with purpose and to bring that into daily life.
Email me if you’d like to jump in on the daily Design Your Day circles, held at 7:30am JST each day.
Today Shu and Hiro joined Shinobu and I for our fifth(?) Your Art Matters event!
Hiro showed his HO gauge model train track he has been working on since 2001. Shu showed her drawings that she has been doing daily in the last month. Shinobu showed her interior landscape images. I showed my start at soldering stainless steel wire for a new marble track.
And someone didn’t take a single photo!
Here is my custom made soldering iron stand, made out of a single piece of wire.
Great meeting tonight with a new man in the circle. We rewrote some of the messages from our inner critics and even sent the inner critics packing! Great rewrites such as
“you can’t do it” —> “It’s already done!”
“you don’t know what to do” —> “I trust my creativity”
What are some ways you’d rewrite messages from your inner critic?
I have begun to walk again in the mornings. I have posted on FB my idea of walking to Niigata. I have begun to plot out some potential waypoints for the route.
So far, I have plotted waypoints for 5+ hours to walk to Seibuen Amusement Park
https://goo.gl/maps/YgmtgwGVbAALcXdH8
Seibuen Amusement Park to Tennenonsen Kachofugetsu Hot Spring via Miyamae Park, nico rico, and 5 other stops in Google Maps.
https://goo.gl/maps/FvvQDWknCoTLWpKp8
Tennenonsen Kachofugetsu Hot Spring to 鳩山町文化会舘 via Ikejiriike Park, Takakurakofuku Temple, and 6 other stops in Google Maps.
https://goo.gl/maps/W7Fs2vZjpEVJ9Vz59
鳩山町文化会舘 to 薪石窯PIZZA たんぽぽ via Kamigarako, Kamigarako, and 3 other stops
https://goo.gl/maps/pkJbSZmK7jj3eQcQ7
薪石窯PIZZA たんぽぽ to Minaregawa Park
https://goo.gl/maps/H3Vn3GMnqS5pshnD9
薪石窯PIZZA たんぽぽ to 結婚の森 via Gunma Prefectural Observatory tooo farrr
https://goo.gl/maps/Qn1NjwB4UQKmRZpK9
結婚の森 to ゆじゅく金田屋
https://goo.gl/maps/itsKLD3cYFLV195x9
ゆじゅく金田屋 to グンマーsaraアジト via Akayako Memorial Park, 源泉湯の宿 千の谷,
https://goo.gl/maps/rteWnfWG4w8Reb9j8
Minaregawa Park to 県立公園群馬の森 via Shitauike Water Park, Gusto
https://goo.gl/maps/KgebWfjm6YtGMimF7
県立公園群馬の森 to 利根川総社緑地 via 群馬の森北入口, Fuji Shrine
https://goo.gl/maps/Q2vqyvGz2JAAx6fM8
利根川総社緑地 to Kanai via 株式会社コメックス 漆原センター, Ichitora Chinese Restaurant
https://goo.gl/maps/N7521xbJZz5F7soo8
Kanai to 結婚の森
https://goo.gl/maps/WS6pwWykeTPGFzZw6
グンマーsaraアジト to Dragondola Sanroku Station
https://goo.gl/maps/eLgXnUV8nZ8mze9J9
Though I have decided to not stop at Lockheart Castle, I have not yet figured out a way to embed maps on my site. Working on that now. The Google maps API allows “only” 20 waypoints on a map.
For tens of years I have intentionally ignored news because it just ends up riling me up and making me feel scared and sometimes angry. I always went with the phrase, “if it gets bad enough, they’ll come tell me.”
I saw a post the other day about how I don’t know what black people have gone through or are going through now. That’s certainly true.
Humans can have empathy for each other, but until we have lived through the same experiences, it’s hard to know what it’s really like.
What is it like to be suffocated to death with a knee in the back of the neck? I don’t know, but I imagine it is pretty fucking horrible.
And even without watching any of the videos, I dare say the officer should have known that he was doing something pretty fucking horrible.
How the fuck did this happen?
In my men’s circles, I often invite men to breathe. “Become aware of your breathing in this moment. Allow your body to breathe itself as you imagine pure clean energy coming up from the earth and filling your body.”
This works well in many situations.
Try breathing. Breathing works wonders.
…
George Floyd was denied the right to breathe.
Wait, what?
George Floyd was denied the right to breathe!!!
I said
GEORGE FLOYD WAS DENIED THE RIGHT TO BREATHE!!
I have seen #icantbreathe hashtags so just like “don’t taze me bro” I guess George Floyd was saying “I can’t breathe” to the people around him… People. around him. Humans, who I believe can have empathy.
A knee intentionally crushing someone’s windpipe into the ground is pretty much the opposite of human empathy. It’s horrifying to imagine “I can’t breathe” were George Floyd’s last words on earth.
So what to do?
Breathe. Give your brain and body oxygen to transmute your feelings into awareness and knowledge of what’s next.
After you breathe, let your new awareness move you courageously forward into action.
Use your empathy to stand up for human rights in whatever ways suit your situation.
Write. Call. Join. Leave. Invite. Ask. Speak. Share. Meditate. Pray. Post. Breathe. We are all connected and all playing a part.
Black Lives Matter.
Plot Twist (jump right to 1:54:18 for George Floyd info):
Props #youngpharaoh