Spoonbending & Firewalking

Last night, Katie went with me to a fun free workshop in South Austin.  We were going to learn how to  SPOONBEND!  Of course, I was a little skeptical, but my happiness about doing something with Katie kept that all in check.

The room was packed with people, some I knew and some I didn't. HeatherAsh began to talk about the stories we tell ourselves in our mind - some that limit us and aren't even true. She's a wonderful speaker and I always enjoy her presentations. She spoke of the power of imagination, the power of our own energy, and even a little about quantum physics.  We talked about how we mistakenly think of matter as SOLID, when in fact, it's primarily space between the solid particles. I wrote a little about that recently with the Higgs Boson discovery in July, in Mysteries of the Universe.  So after the discussion, they presented us with a whole bunch of spoons and forks of varying thicknesses. The goal was to override your brain's chatter about how this could not be done, and simply feel for the space within the metal. HeatherAsh led us through a few visualizations, we called up as much energy as we could muster, all the while working on our flatware.

And voila! 

The results of Katie and my Spoonbending Workshop!

"Then you'll see. It is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself."

The Matrix

Impressive, huh?

I never finished my blog post a couple months ago about another mind over matter experience I had through Toci, the Toltec Center of Creative Intent.  I went to a FireWalk! I had no clear idea about whether or not I would participate, but I found the whole thing fascinating. I remembered watching Oprah do the firewalk with Tony Robbins on television and was intrigued.

 

HeatherAsh has been leading Spoonbending workshops and Firewalking for decades now. When I went to read more about the experience, I came across a reporter documenting firewalks for National Geographic. And who do you think was there in California leading his experience? Yep, you guessed it - HeatherAsh.

My friends and I went to the event and, again, listened to HeatherAsh talk about mentally overcoming obstacles. A few people had done this before, and I found that a little reassuring. So when the coals were ready, we went out to the fire walk.  The excitement was building, drums were drumming, people were shouting - just like in the video. Then the time came. A few of my friends marched across confidently. I started taking some deep breaths. If they could do it, so could I!!!

I inched toward the coals....
My friends cheered me from the other side....
And I walked across glowing hot coals!

Wow! THAT was exhilarating!!!!

To be completely honest, I did get a little blister on one of my feet, but nothing a little aloe vera couldn't take care of! 

So these two events have proven a couple of things to me. 

1) The Impossible might not be. 

2) The next time I find an obstacle, I have a couple pretty strong talismans in my pocket: 

I have walked on Fire! 

And I can bend spoons with the power of my Mind!

The 4 Agreements

A small book with a huge ripple effect!

My friend, Cydney, and I came across this book written by Don Miguel Ruiz a few years ago. We had a lot of drama in our lives as our kids were in the midst of serious teenage angst. We read the books and thought it would be great to have them read the books as well. The principles were so simple and it would be so helpful for them to get control of some of the reactions they were having to circumstances that presented themselves.  Cydney bought several books and strategically placed them throughout their house.  I don't know if her children read them. In my house, Michael read it and loved it. (Of course)  Katie skimmed it, but wasn't interested really. And Alyssa let me read pieces of it to her. She often could see how it applied to others, but was having a hard time applying it to herself.

So Cydney and I decided we would simply try to learn more about it for ourselves. We read articles on line, listened to podcasts, and even attended a workshop focusing on an overview of The Four Agreements. We were hooked! We signed up for some more intensive study and began taking a Thursday night class. If we were going to see this work in our families, perhaps we simply needed to start with ourselves.

The 4 Agreements are simple:
1. Be Impeccable with your word means to speak the truth to yourself and to others. Avoid gossip.
2. Don't Take Anything Personally is understanding that it's not really about you. What others do or say tells about them, and their projections. When you recognize this, you can avoid so much pain and drama.
3. Don't Make Assumptions is all about communicating clearly. Check and double check if you are understanding what someone is saying or doing before you spin off weaving some story in your mind that may not be accurate at all.
4. Always Do Your Best, and this varies from day to day depending on how healthy we are that day. But strive to be the best we can be and avoid self-judgement and self-hatred if we fall short. Simply continue to do your best each day.

So today we're off to a weekend workshop on some of these principles. We discovered that it wasn't just the teens that needed to clean up some of the negative self-talk going on. We needed it too!