"Destroy Me!" Two Words to Conquer Conflict and Pain
Right before my recent travels I felt a conflict arise with someone I held very dearly. It pained me greatly to feel dissonance rather than love. No matter what I tried I could not figure out how to resolve the conflict nor alleviate the pain. Then I remembered two things: the words from the spiritual teacher Matt Kahn, “Destroy Me,” and a visualization I was guided into where I allowed someone to “destroy me” and felt a great relief in response.
I believe Matt’s intention was to encourage us to have the courage to face our challenges head on and trust that will lead us to a greater victory. Trust builds with experience. I was lucky to have had a visualization where I experienced the benefits of surrender when feeling disharmony.
Almost two years ago in the fall of 2014 I was taking the level 2 Meditation Teacher 
Training at The Expanding Light Retreat Center in Northern California, where I was living at the time. Our instructor asked us to...
Commitment and Freedom: Same or Different?
A couple recent conversations within LoveWorks, a relationship training program, helped me get clear on my relationship with the term “commitment” and its connection with “freedom.” This exploration revealed some enriching ways to view commitment and freedom that I thought would be fun to share.
On a phone call we were discussing the idea of surrender. I asked for someone to explain to me what it is like to continue to surrender over a long period of time. I added I have only been in commitments for shorter periods of time. In response to my question, Sonika, one of the leaders of LoveWorks, suggested I reframe the question to something more uplifting like “What have I been committed to over a long period of time? What have I continually surrendered to?”
Right away I knew I had an answer to that question, God; seeking truth and tuning into God’s will. Many times I have gone into something feeling calm and right about it. Then...
What Really Are the Rules?
After going to a musical the other night, I was reminded of the transformational opening I felt from going to a dance concert a few months ago. A dance company by one of my past dance teachers was performing in San Francisco. I had respected this instructor so much that I did not feel it was necessary to do any research on what I was getting into when I bought a ticket for this show.
Living the quiet meditative village life in the hills of the Sierra Nevadas in California, just a trip to San Francisco felt like a blur of energy swarming around me. As I walked into the lobby of the dance theater I was asked, "Do you want to dance?" My answer was enthusiastically, "Of course!" They were teaching people a version of an electric slide in funk style.
The announcer came out at the beginning of the performance and proclaimed that all audience members were required to shout during the presentation. The first dancer entered the stage with huge platform shoes, bright colored clothes, and a...