Week #14 (2015-16) – Persistence

Over te holidays, I had a chance to watch COOL RUNNINGS.  What a great movie!  I had seen it before many years ago, but this time I watched with different eyes.  The story is about a young Jamaican sprinter named Dorice who has a dream of going to the Olympics and follow in his father’s footsteps.  On the day of the trials in the final heat there is an accident and he along with 2 other runners get disqualified even though Dorice is favoured to win.

Up to this point, Dorice has been practicing for what seems like his entire life with only one though on his mind – that of going to the Olympics to compete.  After he is disqualified he pleads with the organizer to give him another chance but is told he will have to wait for 4 years.  However you can see in his eyes that he can’t wait that long.  Since one door has closed for him his persistence forces him to open another door.  He ends up finding an older fellow and wants to help him fulfill his dream of coaching a Jamaican bobsled team.

Dorice then goes on to recruit fellow team mates to form a mastermind alliance who are all aligned to the same purpose and willing to help each other.  Once the team arrives in Calgary for the Olympics they are ridiculed for wanting to compete as bob sledders.  This is a sport that Jamaica traditionally did not compete in.  Despite the challenges, Dorice and his team mates manage to qualify and go on to race in the Olympics.  During their final run, their bobsled has a technical malfunction and they end up crashing short of the finish which causes them to disqualify.  However, their persistence to complete what they started forces them to pick up their sled and walk the last dozen meters to the finish line.  As they walk everyone cheers them on, acknowledging their burning desire to be at the Olympics.

Had Dorice not had that burning desire from the beginning he would have quit long ago.  Because of his vision, he got to the Olympics one way or another!

Week #13 (2015-16) – Christmas Holidays!

I enjoyed this weeks lesson.  It resonated with me being a science major back in university.  All my life I have had to apply the scientific method to the world around me.  Gather data, interpret and make conclusions and extrapolations.  I was taught this method applies to the physical world, but now I also understand that it can explain the spiritual and mental world.

On some level I think we all know that the non-physical realms must have a method behind it.  It just needs more concentration and open-mindedness to understand it.  Most times in our lives we block out the power of thought as we go about our daily lives.  In order to truly benefit from the power of thought we need to give it proper cultivation and allow it to be .  The sits I have been doing regularly have been doing this I believe.  I have to be honest in that not every sit is of the same “quality”.  Some are better that others.  However when I do get a few good ones in a row I can start to become the observer and see the stuff I have been missing most of my life.

Wishing all of my MKMMA brothers and sister and Happy Holiday season over the next couple of weeks.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Week #12 (2015-16) – Finally Home and Staying Put!

Got home late last week from my trip to India.  So happy to be home.  I love to travel but it takes a lot out of you.  Especially the jet lag thing.  So happy to have had the chance to see my old grandmother in person again.  Still going strong at 93 years young – I’m hoping some of those genes have been passed down!

Finally back to MKMMA webinars – looking forward to catching up and getting back into the groove.  I like the analogy given this week in the Lesson.  That our concentration is like the focus in a camera.  Blurred images result from no focus, but with focus the images become crystal clear and sharp.  Our concentration is the same, with proper concentration on our ideals the “results will be in accordance with our mental picture”.  I understand this perfectly as an avid amateur photographer.

Still jet lagged and so I must bid you adieu and listen to my body – something that MKMMA has taught me do without feeling guilt of leaving stuff to do.  Seems bizarre when I think of my former thought processes!

Week #11 (2015-16) – Wedding Festivities

I have officially lost internet connection and am preparing this on paper medium.  Initially I freaked out with no internet but now 2 days later I am quite at peace with it.  In fact, I am enjoying not being tethered to the rest of the world for a change.

Although we are taught to be in the moment and dwell on the past of the future, I still find it tricky .  It is only when something like this comes along that you can truly focus on the here and now.  Wedding festivities for my nephew are in full swing.  Indian weddings usually last about 3 days with various functions and ceremonies happening.  With nothing else to take my attention away I am enjoying myself immensely.

During down time I am focusing on doing my MKMMA exercises and reviewing past lessons.  So nice reading on the veranda in tropical weather.  I could get used to this!  Next blog from sunny Canada and hopefully not so cold weather?!

Week #10 (2015-16) – Real Life MKMMA

This week I headed off to India to attend my nephews wedding and to visit  my maternal grandmother (last living grandparent) who is now 93 years old.

This time I am traveling alone without my family as the kids would have missed too much school.  Consequently I have no other demands on my time and can spend quality time with my Grandma.  We’ve had some interesting discussion where we talked about her life growing up and how everything keeps changing.  Every now and then she offers up advice on how to take care of myself and my family and to make the world a better place.  If I didn’t know any better – I would say that my grandmother has taken the MKMMA experience and has lived it fully.  I see so many parallels to what I have been learning in MKMMA and her advice.  Clearly the formula works as she has had a wonderful life!

Kudos to my grandmother and her husband when he was alive for being examples that life doesn’t have to be complicated to have meaning.  I am so looking forward to many more chats over the next 12 days!  But now I am jet lag and it is time to sleep.

Week #09 (2015-16) – Positive Affirmation!

I am whole, perfect strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy.

I love this affirmation – I just keep repeating it whenever I have any alone time.  I know this is sending a message to my subby  and will manifest over time.  In fact, back in the spring of this year I had some nerve pinching issues in my neck while I was off doing volunteer work in Guatemala.  This affirmation was probably the single biggest reason I didn’t have any major issues while down there.

How is everyone doing on the 7 Day Mental Diet?  I am having a hard time keeping a clear head.  Initially I would only last a couple of hours then BAM I’d fall of the wagon.  Even now, my longest stretch has only been 3 days and then something happens to derail me.  I can’t seem to become the observer as easily as I’d like.  Not giving up though … I AM going to get there!

Happy Thanksgiving to my USA brothers and sisters!

Week #08 (2015-16) – Imagination

This week we focused on our imagination.  Anything we want to create in the world without, we need to create in the world within using our imagination.  Seems so logical and obvious.  I can’t speak for anyone else but as I have grown older and become a responsible adult my imagination has been left behind long ago.  This week as I did my readings and sit I tried to figure why this has happened.  I really don’t have a good answer.

As my kids were growing up I would see their imagination in their school work, in the pillow forts they made, the wall drawing they made with crayons, putting up their artwork on our walls using a lip blam “glue stick”.  Now they are still young (ages 11 & 13) but I can see that they are following in their daddy’s footsteps and becoming more and more logical and practical.  Well this has to come to an end!

These are the seemingly “childish” exercises we are all doing in the Masterkey.  I can feel my imagination starting to surface again.  It is certainly a progression to get to a point where the effects start to come together based on us changing the cause.  One thing is for sure – my kids are never allowed to lose their imagination!

 

Week #07 (2015-16) – Visualize!

This week marks a pivotal point in my Masterkey journey.  I am starting to finally “get” how this all works.  All the little parts that Mark J and the gang have been talking about the past few weeks are finally making sense.  Individually, these exercises don’t amount to much but synergistally its a whole new ball game!

Little things in my life have been lining up more often than not.  I fully chalk it up to the Masterkey experience so far.  Things at the office are looking great.  My home and family life is wonderful.  Things are just getting done without all the drama surrounding it.  Seems like the catchup game that most of us play is starting to come to an end.  I feel that once we are “caught up”, that is when the real magic starts to happen!

This week we are visualizing.  This is very powerful.  Sometimes we get so wound up in our lives that we fail to realize that we are creating our reality on some level by the thoughts and images that we hold in our minds.  This goes back to all the little exercises that Mark J. et al has us doing so that we visualize “better”.  Great job Mark J.  – looking forward to even more positivity in my life!

Week #06 (2015-16) – Nice Try Old Blueprint!

This was a crazy week.  Every single day there seemed to be a fire that needed to be extinguished by yours truly!  The old blueprint was trying hard to get me to lose focus on Masterkey.  In fact, I sort of did.  I started to convince myself that maybe I will deal with “Stuff” this week and get back into it in the next week or two.  I had a chat with my wife midweek who then reminded me that you can’t skip activities and expect to get results.  Either do it fully and properly or don’t do it at all.  My wife has done the program last year and knows how it works.

She is right.  After 20 years of being married to my bestest friend I have lost count of how many times I have said that.  I have started to clear my plate of things that are not directly part of my DMP.  Feels quite good actually.  I have made a timetable of how my day should flow with all my required activities on it.

I have always had a dream board but this week I worked on modifying it so that it had a Masterkey flair to it.  Always enjoyed arts and crafts!  Now that things were starting to get back on track I hit another bump on the road.  My laptop and essentially my lifeline to basically everything went haywire.  I ended up having to reformat and reinstall everything.  It took 3 days but I now have my laptop back (thankfully I have been diligent with my backups so no data was lost).  Sorry but that is why this BLOG post is a bit tardy.  Now that my computer is fully functional again, I will be back on track again.

To my Indian MKMMAers – wishing you all a joyous and prosperous Diwali!

 

Week #05 (2015-16) – Drink Deep

This was a great week.  I finally felt a sense of being back in control of things.  Work life has settled down and is now humming along.  There are still seemingly a million things to do but I don’t feel the stress.  My volunteer commitments are also back on track.  I also feel that I am more engaged in my family life.  I am finding that I am breaking my big tasks into smaller bite size morsels that are easy to get through.  As a result of finishing smaller tasks I am giving my subby frequent small victories which is starting to snowball.

I know we have already discussed this over the past several weeks but sometimes until I experience it first hand I seem to have a hard time accepting things on faith.  There is that faith thing again.  Still working on it and certainly getting better.

Next week we move on to the next scroll.  Although the first scroll is powerful, the second one is my favorite. Being my third round of Masterkey I have had a preview of things to come.  I find it the key to the entire program at least for me is the second scroll which talks about having love in our hearts.  With this as a base there is nothing that cannot be achieved eventually.  It reminds us to look at ALL things with a softer gaze and see the beauty in everything.  Everything from a beautiful sunset to the guy who cut you off in traffic!  Sorry had to throw that in – was getting a bit too serious 🙂

As I close out the Blog for Week #5, I leave you with a quote that has been with me for the last 28 years.  “Learning is a dangerous thing, drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring” – Alexander Pope.  Till next week – stay thirsty my friends … sorry couldn’t resist!