by sublimity-001-main | Mar 13, 2023 | 2023, Emergence, Podcast, Spiritual Growth
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Welcome to another episode of Ask Derek. Where we do shorter trainings based on the most popular questions that you have asked over the weeks, months, years, in our groups, in our forms, and in our classes, as a way to get a quicker hit than some of our longer trainings. To really create a library of very clear answers to the most important and often the most debilitating issues that block us from really living our full potential. Activating our full emergence.
Today’s question is such a common one. Is it ego or guidance talking? Or is it my ego or my spirit talking?
[bctt tweet=”The ego looks for guarantees, the spirit looks for opportunities”]
This question often comes from an unconscious shadow, brought about by an early experience where someone has taught themselves to doubt their own judgement.
Listen in now for the full explanation and support your personal development and spiritual growth and start participating in your future good NOW.
And remember, self-help is shelf help – you have everything you need already!
Stay inspired!
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Shadow Process
by sublimity-001-main | Mar 10, 2023 | 2023, Emergence, Podcast, Purpose, Spiritual Growth, Wealth and Abundance, Work and Business
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Today we’re talking about and answering the question how do I choose which way to go? In terms of should I do this? Should I do that? How do I stop just trying to figure things out and actually choose a path, choose a lane, choose a direction?
[bctt tweet=”Just commit and go for it!”]This is one of the most common challenges and struggles with entrepreneurial creative types, especially if you have that unique design of the Renaissance type of person, because there’s so many possible ideas, so many things that you want to do, and so many possibilities, and primarily it also comes from some unconscious, or maybe conscious, false assumptions and fears, such as I need to know for sure that the choice I make is going to be the right one, and you may not be aware, but often that’s really what’s underlying your fear, or your procrastination, or your hesitation to just make a choice, to just commit and go for it.
Listen in now for the full explanation and support your personal development and spiritual growth and start participating in your future good NOW.
And remember, self-help is shelf help – you have everything you need already!
Stay inspired!
by sublimity-001-main | Mar 8, 2023 | 2023, Emergence, Podcast, Purpose, Spiritual Growth, Wealth and Abundance, Work and Business
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When we understand that life is emergent, that life is not happening to us, but it’s happening through us and as us, that whatever’s missing is what we’re not giving, that if we want more to come into our life we have to let more life come out of us, or as the poet Browning said, “We must find a way to release this imprisoned splendor.”
[bctt tweet=”The only real sign you’re not supposed to pursue something is you no longer want to”]
We’re talking about today the seven reasons why things aren’t working, or just why aren’t things working? This is such a common experience, of course, and we bang our head against the wall, and we get depressed and disillusioned, and it’s important to understand so we can begin to diagnose why aren’t things working? What’s going on when things aren’t working?
Listen in now for the full explanation and support your personal development and spiritual growth and start participating in your future good NOW.
And remember, self-help is shelf help – you have everything you need already!
Stay inspired!
Transcription
Derek Rydall here, founder of the Law of Emergence, and author of the bestselling book, Emergence, and it’s just such an honor and a pleasure to be with you again as we take this deep dive into understanding the principles for successful living that sometimes can be quite radical and exactly the opposite of what we’ve conditioned to believe. When we understand that life is emergent, that life is not happening to us, but it’s happening through us and as us, that whatever’s missing is what we’re not giving, that if we want more to come into our life we have to let more life come out of us, or as the poet Browning said, “We must find a way to release this imprisoned splendor.”
We’re talking about today the seven reasons why things aren’t working, or just why aren’t things working? This is such a common experience, of course, and we bang our head against the wall, and we get depressed and disillusioned, and it’s important to understand so we can begin to diagnose why aren’t things working? What’s going on when things aren’t working?
I want to start off by saying it’s almost never a sign from the Universe that you’re not supposed to be pursuing this. Now, certainly sometimes you aren’t supposed to be pursuing what you’re pursuing, but that old trope of New Age belief that when things are difficult and hard it’s a sign that you’re not supposed to do it from the Universe, if that was true, pretty much all major innovations in history would never have happened, because it was really hard for Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi and Edison and Disney and Steve Jobs and Jesus and Buddha, pick your master, creator, inventor, leader. Every door was closed to them. Every window was closed, and storm shutters nailed to them. So that wasn’t a sign they weren’t supposed to do it, it was an opportunity for them to dig deeper to become stronger, and it was really a sign that they were in many cases on the right track of progress, because it was bringing up all the resistance in their direction.
I just want to start off right out of the gate and say that your struggle and your challenge, don’t fall for the belief that it’s just a sign from the Universe you’re not supposed to do it. The only real sign you’re not supposed to pursue something is you no longer want to. I want to say a caveat to that is sometimes you don’t think you want to, because it’s hard, and you have to trick your ego and say, “If it could be easy, if I could still do it, be successful, be well received, have a great time, would I want to do this and be this and create and contribute this?” That kind of temporarily clears away the dust and debris of the journey, and allows you to feel that glow of your heart’s desire again. As long as that glow is still there it’s still true for you, and the difficulty is about growing and getting stronger and building soul stamina and developing certain muscles and skills so that you can carry the energy of that vision or mission.
Let’s go through the seven reasons why things are often not working. The first one, and these aren’t necessarily in any given order, but the first one it’s often a sign that you’re trying to achieve something with old tools, and an old model, and an old map. In other words, in our developmental stages of life you end up having experiences, and you end up deciding this is the way life is. Life is hard. Resources are limited. I’m not that worthy, and people aren’t to be trusted, as an example. Right? That’s based on some experiences you have, so you quickly draw a map of reality, and it literally gets laid down neurologically, and then you create a model for living based on that map. Then you end up creating a toolkit to operate and survive in that territory.
The problem, of course, is that the map is incorrect, but for a time it can actually be useful, because, if you’ve studied my shadow work, you end up developing a lot of skills and abilities and things as a reaction based on coping and defense mechanism and self-preservation, a lot of skills and things that are actually beneficial. This is what’s called the gift of the shadow, but at a certain point, especially if you really get on a path of self-development and self-actualization and spiritual awareness and consciousness expansion and real vision, you are calling forth and activating a larger consciousness, a larger perception of reality, and what starts to happen is that old model, that old thing, no longer works. It’s like you’re trying to use the tools that they used to work on the Model T Ford to work on your Ferrari, or even your Prius. The tools don’t work anymore. You don’t realize that, because these tools and this map and this model are so close to you, but that’s one of the reasons is that you’re trying to get from LA to New York using a map of the old world where it’s still got little drawings of dragons and stuff, there be dragons. They would write those on the maps whenever they didn’t know what was there. They would just draw a picture of a monster or something, because that was how the mind perceived the unknown.
That’s one sign, and you begin to question. What if my map of reality is wrong, and my model of operating therefore is wrong, and the tools I’m using to work with that model are therefore outdated or no longer work on this new model that’s trying to emerge in my life? That starts to open up a whole other line of questions, of inquiry, and of discovery. As well as transformation and real evolution.
The next of the seven reasons, and this is connected to this first one, is often your chronic challenges or problems are a sign that you’re trying to manage a life that is too small. You’re trying to manage or cope in a world too small where you’ve activated a different or bigger life, a larger life. For example, like the acorn analogy you’ve activated your inner oak tree, but you’re still trying to stay a safe acorn and hold onto your protective shell. That inner oak is trying to crack through, and it’s creating the crisis. It’s creating the experience of things falling apart or not working, and you’re trying to call in a shell repairman to fix your shell and all these kinds of things. Like the caterpillar trying to hold your caterpillar life together. You’re trying to manage. You’re trying to cope and hold onto a self-concept and a life concept that is breaking apart, because you’ve activated a bigger life.
It’s similar, but it’s different by degree. In the first example you’re trying to use tools and a model and a map of the world that you’ve outgrown, and eventually when it becomes a chronic problem you are now trying to manage and cope in a world that is too small for the world life that you’ve activated, for the energy that you’ve activated. This becomes increasingly challenging and painful the more you are on a conscious spiritual path, and the more you have desires and intentions and prayers, because you are activating all this energy that’s now trying to emerge, but you are still holding onto the old self-concept, the old world concept, and trying to actually manage your life within that paradigm. It won’t work. It’s extremely painful, and ultimately impossible. You can’t be an acorn and an oak tree at the same time. Once you’ve activated the inner oak, you cannot remain an acorn without suffering. Does that make sense?
Then the third reason why things aren’t working is a values conflict. You may have heard me talk about this before, but basically you’ve been wired a certain way because of experiences. Perhaps growing up you were trying to do a certain endeavor or project, and maybe make money or be successful or be creative, and it was causing problems in your family, and you got the message somewhere along the line that you were hurting your family, or you were hurting your sibling, because you were outshining them. You got the message that you either have to be a good child, a good son, a good daughter, and be part of the tribe and have family and connection and love, or you have to leave it, abandon it, for success and for name, fame, and fortune. It may not have been that overt, but you got a message that it was one or the other. It was mutually exclusive.
Internally you still valued both things. You still wanted to shine your creative genius or be successful, and you still wanted to have love and family and connection. Those values still existed in you, but now they were sibling rivalry. They were mutually exclusive they way they were wired. So every time you would start to go for one, it would create problems in the other. It would create anxiety, or you would self-sabotage, so that you could ultimately go back to the other value. Then you would eventually yearn for the other value, the opposite value, and somehow self-sabotage this one so you can go for the other one. Right?
I used to do that as well. I’d start to get successful, then I’d pull back, back away, self-sabotage, and then I would go do my spiritual practice, be with my family, feel a sense of relief. Then eventually I’d start to feel anxious and like I’m not doing anything, I’m not living my potential. I would start going for success again, and eventually start to feel anxious, guilty, disconnected from my spirit, from my family or friends, and then I would sabotage and go back to that again. Until I eventually saw that based on my upbringing I had these values conflicts, and in my mind to go for one would mean I’d have to sacrifice the other. I just created a reconnection of my values, a values affirmation, where I essentially said, the more successful I become, the more deeply connected I am to my heart, to my art, to my loved ones, and the more I honor my need to be connected to my spirit and to my art and to my loved ones, the more powerfully I am inspired to go for success and make a big impact in the world. That felt good. Yes. I can have both.
Those values aren’t intrinsically exclusive. They were only wired that way. The minute those wires touched again there was an energetic spark. Energy started to flow again, and as that became a mantra and became embodied then the more I would go for my success the more I would be inspired to take my spiritual path deeper and connect with loved ones, and the more I connected with my art and my heart and my loved ones, the more inspired I was to go for my work, and it served. They became complimentary and served each other. So values conflict, that’s often a reason why things aren’t working. It’s like you’ve got one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake.
Then we get to the shadow block. Again, if you’ve studied my work you understand some of the shadow work, and this is there’s a shadow around whatever the next step of growth is. You’re bumping into the shadow, and this shadow is connected to values conflicts, can be connected, and can be similar, and can emerge out of similar developmental stages of your life. This basically means that, for example, maybe you actually need to take a different direction or slow down or take a break or take more time at some aspect of the work you’re developing or the relationship, but when you imagine doing it you’re afraid of the outcome. What if it doesn’t work? What if I fail? What if I look stupid? What if I look bad? Then if you ask yourself, if that happens, what would I make that mean about me, or what am I afraid others would make it mean about me? You hear certain judgments, like I’m lazy, I’m a loser, I’m a failure, I’m unworthy, I’m not good enough, I’m selfish. For example, you really want to go for this thing, and you find you just don’t feel the momentum or the energy, or you keep sabotaging it, and when you ask, what am I afraid is going to happen? I’m going to succeed. What am I afraid people are going to think about me? I’m self-centered. I’m selfish. I’m insensitive to their needs, whatever. That’s a shadow.
So when you do the shadow work, and you embrace the selfish self, or the lazy self, or the failure self, you integrate the imprisoned energy within that shadow. I don’t have the time to go into the full understanding of shadows within this particular talk, but you unlock it, and now that energy becomes available to you, and the wisdom, and the insight, and the gift of that, and it’s no longer blocking you, because you have now made friends with the selfish self. You don’t care if somebody thinks you’re selfish, because you’ve embodied selfishness in its optimal state, which means to honor the self, to take care of the self. Now, if you want to do the shadow process once you understand what your shadow is, you can go to DerekRydall.com/shadowprocess. Download a free shadow process audio training. If you really want to master the shadow work, you can get the program Shadow Dancing. It’s a total in depth mastery of the shadows in all the major structures of your life, and that will radically transform you and unleash the energy within you. You can go to DerekRydall.com for more information on that, or email support@DerekRydall.com.
The next, Number Five, why things aren’t working, wrong goal. Let me just break this down a little bit. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still, let’s say you want to write a book, build a business, grow your clientele, or find the love of your life. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have that as a success endeavor as a part of your plan and your vision and something you are going for, but ultimately there’s only one legitimate goal, and that is to live in a deep connection with yourself, with your Source, with God, with truth, whatever name you want to give it, and to be in a state of peace, love, joy, in this moment. That’s the only legitimate goal. That’s what all the great masters have taught. You can actually test and verify this if you ask, if I got that outer goal, what would that give me? Why do I want it? If you ask what I call the five whys, why do I want it, why do I want it, why do I want that? Then you get this, and why do I want that? Then you get this. You eventually get down to I’d get the money, so I can buy the house, and I’d get the house so that I can enjoy my life. Then I can enjoy my life, so I can finally be in joy or peace. You’ll always eventually get to a quality, a state of being, a state of deeper connection with life. Always. That’s all we’re really ever going for.
Any attempt to have an attachment to an external goal immediately turns on the stress response, makes it increasingly difficult to achieve it, creates all kinds of resistance and toxic chemicals and toxic thoughts, and may make it difficult to impossible to ever achieve it, or if you do the cost will be so high, and you will not experience joy or freedom, if only temporarily, and then eventually you’ll be right back to thinking you need to get the next bigger, better thing, and you’ll be miserable. You want to look at, what do I really want? What I really want is a sense of peace and joy. So then you shift your goal to be developing and embodying whatever the vibrational feeling tone of achieving that goal would be.
That becomes your core goal, your top priority, so that as you’re going through your day and doing the work you’re doing, you’re stopping on a regular basis and checking in and going, what am I really after here? Remembering, getting reconnected to your real goal, to be in love, to be in peace, to be in joy, in this moment. For the next 30-60 minutes that’s my goal. Then you go back to work, and you still do whatever you’re going to do. Some people are like, if I just only want peace or joy, and I’m just resting in the moment and peace and joy, I’m not going to be inspired. I’m not going to have momentum. Everything’s going to fall apart. That’s what the ego tells you, but exactly the opposite will happen.
The more you are connected to and achieving a state of peace, love, joy, gratitude in the moment, legitimately, the more dynamically creative and active you will be, because your spirit is not neutral. Love is not neutral. It’s dynamic. According to your unique design and pattern it will unfold. You know the old thing where your parents might have told you, “You keep crying, and I’ll give you something to cry about.” The Universe is saying, you keep being in joy, I’m going to give you something to be joyful about. You keep being grateful, I’m going to give you something to be grateful about. That state of joy and gratitude will manifest more experiences that give you reason to be joyful and grateful. If you’re struggling and things just aren’t working, you want to check in and see, what’s the real goal here, and realign yourself with that.
Then we get to the sixth reason why things aren’t working, and that’s competence. Sometimes you hear your voice say, I’m not good enough at this. I’m just not good enough, and you know what? That voice might be right. A lot of times we brush over that and try to just do an affirmation, but it might actually be accurate and giving you guidance and saying, “You need to go back to the drawing board. You need to dive a little deeper and get a little bit more learning and understanding and mastery of this particular thing.” There’s gold there that you have yet to mine, beyond what you may even know. You may go back to research and study, and all of a sudden it opens up a whole new world, a whole new possibility, a whole new potential. Don’t dismiss the possibility that you need to develop more competence. Sometimes it also might mean you need to work harder, not just smarter. You might go back and discover the people that really succeeded in this, the very best of the best, they were the ones still at the gym when everybody else went home. They were the ones willing to completely redevelop their particular skill even when people were saying they were good enough. Like Tiger Woods willing to break down his golf swing and rebuild it at the height of his career. Like Michael Jordan going and shooting 300 free throws every time, even at the height of his career.
If you’re the person who suffers under perfectionism, this is probably not your issue. Your issue is probably the opposite, you just need to ship it, as Seth Godin would say. You just need to get in the game and not just stay on the sidelines practicing. It depends. Depending on where you are, there’s some deeper learning either that the best practice is you need to just do it, just get it written, get it out there, or that you need to learn Step A or Step B or Step C. This is the most practical of the seven reasons why things aren’t working, but, believe it or not, often overlooked.
Step Seven, finally, you might just need to rest and stop taking action. The analogy is you plant the seed. You water it. You weed it. You feed it. It doesn’t grow right away. You dig it up again, plant it again. Water, weed it, feed it. It doesn’t grow right away. You dig it up, plant it again. Is that seed going to grow? No. It’s not only not going to grow, it’s probably going to die. There is a period of work and labor and sowing, and then there’s a period of resting, and then there’s a period of reaping. If you go to the gym, and you work out every day the same muscle over and over again, it’s not going to grow stronger. In fact, it’s going to tear down and eventually fail. You have to rest. Actually, all of the greatest progress happens during the rest. That’s when the repair and the rebuilding and the signal in the body goes and makes the muscle stronger and bigger through the process of repair.
The same thing is true with your ideas, your creative projects. Sometimes you have to just put it in a drawer for a day or a week or a month. It’s not saying you’re giving up. It’s understanding the gestation, germination, creation process. There are cycles. You don’t just breathe out. You have to also breathe in. Again, for some individuals that are go, go, go, go, like a shark afraid if they stop swimming they’re going to die, you want to look at a values conflict or a shadow, because there’s something you’re afraid is going to happen if you rest. For some of you you need to develop new structures in your life so that there’s space for playing, that you actually build into your calendar your mediation practice, time to be with friends and family, time to play, time to exercise, time to just goof off, free time where you got nothing scheduled. So that you’re designing a life that’s conducive to the natural rhythms of conception, creation, gestation, maturation, and ultimately manifestation. Sometimes you just need to stop and rest. Be still, and let the work you’ve done begin to work on you.
These are the seven core reasons why things aren’t working. Usually you can find and diagnose the problem within these seven. I hope this has served you, and my prayer, my intention for you, is that no matter what you stay the course. You stay engaged, and you stay inspired. Until next time, remember to live authentically, love unconditionally, and follow your destiny.
by sublimity-001-main | Mar 6, 2023 | 2023, Emergence, Podcast, Purpose, Spiritual Growth
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It’s just great to be with you again in episode to help you take things to a whole new level. To master the principle of emergence in every area of your life.
What we will be talking about today is ‘All of Your Tomorrows Are Part of God’s Today.’ How to access your future NOW. This is no small thing.[bctt tweet=” Time and space is like the canvas upon which we paint our perception of eternity of infinity.“]
They’re not absolute realities. Time and space is like the canvass upon which we paint our perception of eternity of infinity. There’s perfection which is infinity, mortal, eternal. There is perception which is our awareness of it. That little sliver of our awareness and then there is projection, which is the manifestation of our perception.
The way we paint on that canvass of time and space. And then there’s protection which is the frame we put around it and call reality. But it’s not. It’s just a painting or a photograph if you want to use that analogy, thinking of the photos, the film, and the camera shutter. It open ups for a split second. Captures a little bit of light. A little bit of the landscape. That’s perception. The light and the landscape is the infinite perfection. And then it projects it on the film strip, which becomes the photo. That’s the projection. And then we print it out or whatever. Put a frame hang it on the wall and that’s protection. And we look at that and say “That’s such and such a person or such and such a landscape.” Well no, it’s actually not. It’s a picture of that. But if you can imagine we have a gallery of paintings or pictures and we just live in that gallery and eventually forgot it was a gallery. Forgot it was just pictures and photos. We’ll be lost in time and space or lost in the gallery of our concepts and pictures of reality. And that’s really what happens.
That’s really the very definition of being merely a human being.
Listen in now for the full explanation and support your personal development and spiritual growth and start participating in your future good NOW.
And remember, self-help is shelf help – you have everything you need already!
Stay inspired!
by sublimity-001-main | Mar 3, 2023 | 2023, Emergence, Podcast, Purpose, Spiritual Growth, Wealth and Abundance
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Yes, you do have an awesome purpose, and you do have unlimited potential. We’re talking about today the Five Step Potential Activator, and this is a really powerful thing. We hear all kinds of things about potential, but one thing to really understand is that your problems are potential activators. That’s actually why they’re there. Understand that your potential always trumps your problems. Your potential is always, but only always, bigger than your problems.
[bctt tweet=”Yes, you do have an awesome purpose.”]
Just think about that for a moment. Whatever problem you face, whatever problem, your potential is bigger than that. Whether it’s mental, emotional, physical, relational, financial, your potential is bigger. Your potential is bigger. Indeed, your true nature is an infinite individualized expression of life itself, all the power, all the presence, all the substance, all the wisdom, all the genius, all of the whole of the cosmos uniquely individualized, uniquely knowing and expressing itself. That’s what you are.
Listen in now for the full explanation and support your personal development and spiritual growth and start participating in your future good NOW.
And remember, self-help is shelf help – you have everything you need already!
Stay inspired!
Transcript
Hey, Derek Rydall here, founder of the Law of Emergence, bestselling author of the book Emergence, and your guide on the side for this journey of emergence of the full potential and awesome purpose for which you were born. Yes, you do have an awesome purpose, and you do have unlimited potential. We’re talking about today the Five Step Potential Activator, and this is a really powerful thing. We hear all kinds of things about potential, but one thing to really understand is that your problems are potential activators. That’s actually why they’re there. Understand that your potential always trumps your problems. Your potential is always, but only always, bigger than your problems.
Just think about that for a moment. Whatever problem you face, whatever problem, your potential is bigger than that. Whether it’s mental, emotional, physical, relational, financial, your potential is bigger. Your potential is bigger. Indeed, your true nature is an infinite individualized expression of life itself, all the power, all the presence, all the substance, all the wisdom, all the genius, all of the whole of the cosmos uniquely individualized, uniquely knowing and expressing itself. That’s what you are. In order to experience that it must become manifest in some way, shape, or form, and in order for it to manifest, for it to come out of you, sometimes it requires challenge, crisis, problems, struggle. Just like the jack pine needs a forest fire to activate its potential. Just like there are many species in nature that need struggle, challenge, “problems”. The meaning and the message and the reason for that challenge, crisis, or problem is that there’s another level of evolution, another level of progress, another level of potential. So the very purpose of your problems is to pull out of you more potential. Make sense?
That’s why they’re happening. Your problems aren’t happening because you’re bad, because you’re a sinner, because of just merely karma. Karma may have created the starting point of a problem, but your karma does not determine your destiny, nor does your conditions determine your destiny. Your destiny is determined by your character, which is the etch of God on your soul, which is that level of embodiment of the truth of your being. Your character is determined by your core habits. Your habits are determined by your consistent actions. Your actions are determined by your emotions and by your beliefs, which are determined by your point of focus, intention, attention, and by how you choose to frame whatever condition you face.
Notice the thing that we often think is the thing that determines our life, condition, that’s actually way down at the bottom of the list of what determines our life. It has absolutely no determination unless you let it. It’s the starting point. Your condition is the starting point. From there you get to frame it. You get to decide what it means. What you decide that it means determines how you feel about it. How you feel about it determines what you do about it. What you do about it determines the habits. The habits determine your character. Your character determines your destiny. That problem is giving you a fresh starting point for a new journey of activating your potential. You can begin to get excited, because the truth is there’s only this infinite reality of wholeness and harmony, and it’s seeking to express itself in ever greater ways through and as you. So these challenges, everything is conspiring to reveal more, to put life even more fully on display.
There’s five core steps to taking your problems and turning them into potential, what I’m calling the Five Step Potential Activator. The first step is recognizing that that problem is a call to pull more potential out of you. It’s a call. You don’t want to try to avoid the problem. You don’t want to try to anesthetize yourself from the problem. That’s letting the call go to voice mail, and the Universe gets the message, mailbox full. You don’t want that call to go to your voice mail. You want to answer the call and recognize it’s a call to pull more of you out. That’s it. That’s it. It’s a sign that you’ve already activated a bigger life. Somewhere along the line you’ve said yes. You’ve intended. You’ve prayed. You’ve affirmed. Your back was against the wall. You cried out, and in that moment the larger version of your life, that greater dimension of your potential, that next step of your evolution, began to emerge, but then it bumped into your small self-concepts, your limited paradigms, and as it starts to bump into that and rub up against that, it creates what looks like a problem.
It means that somewhere along the line you’re still holding on to smaller ideas, concepts, or you just don’t yet have the infrastructure, mentally, emotionally, physically, vibrationally, energetically, etc. strong enough to carry the voltage, the wattage, the capacity, the velocity, of the life that’s trying to emerge. So it’s time to uplevel. It’s time to get to the 2.0 version. It’s time to create stronger structures to carry more energy, more capacity, so that you can express more of your beauty and your brilliance and your abundance. There’s some outdated worldview or self-concept, or just structures that are no longer able to carry what’s coming next. There’s more traffic that wants to come down the freeway of your life, and you’re going to have to start expanding the lanes. Some kind of growth is trying to happen. That’s the meaning and the purpose of that problem. That’s Step One, recognizing that, coming to terms with that, releasing all judgment and resistance, and getting ready to do the real work.
Step Two, ask what are the qualities or the quality or the skill or the skills that you would need to embody and express in order to be free and empowered in the midst of this problem? Notice Step Two is not how do I solve this problem? It’s what are the qualities. By the way, that’s not a terrible question to ask when we talk about asking the right questions. How do I solve this problem is not a terrible question, but it’s not the most effective or empowering question, because it ties you back into the energy and the frequency of the problem. Often times when you solve it at the same level of energy you just recreate that same problem in a different way. You haven’t actually evolved, and you just see the same problems getting recycled again in different ways. It’s the same frequency. Like you’ve heard me use the example of ice. You can’t solve the problem of ice as long as you’re living at 32 degrees. That’s where ice lives. Even if you pour hot water on it, you’ve solved it for a moment, but then what happens? That hot water now turns into more ice. You have to actually rise above that temperature to a higher frequency. You have to evolve, and then the problem isn’t solved, the problem dissolves, because it cannot live above that temperature. It cannot live in that higher frequency. This is true of all problems.
The real meaning of a problem is it’s time to evolve. You ask, what qualities or skills would I need to embody and express to be free and empowered in the midst of this problem? For example, it might be more trust, more peace, forgiveness, love. You may be struggling financially, and for you money and finances really represents safety, security. So what’s it’s really calling for you is a deeper quality of trust, a deeper inner conviction that you’re taken care of, that you’re okay, which a feeling tone of trust. In fact, that’s really what your soul is yearning to feel and experience and express, and you can know that just by imagining if I did have that money, how would I feel? There’d be this inner sense of freedom or fulfillment or trust, a sense that all was well and you were okay. That’s the quality that’s trying to be expressed. So you ask, what is that quality?
It might be a particular skill, which could be a skill of character or a literal skill, a skill like being more patient, or being more generous, being more focused, more determined, more resilience, more stick-to-itiveness. That’s like a skill of character that you’re being called to develop. Maybe the thing is not happening as fast as you think it should be happening, and it’s created a crisis, and rather than just digging in deeper and pushing harder, maybe what’s really being called is to develop patience, which is developing a capacity within you, as the course in miracles says, “Infinite patience brings about immediate results.” It’s a soulful capacity that when you develop patience it opens you up to be an instrument of greater power and potential in many areas. It’s also the evidence in consciousness that you’re already there. That’s why it says infinite patience brings about immediate results. It dissolves all resistance, all pushing and forcing, and is an underlying vibration that it’s already done.
Perhaps it’s focus or resilience, the willingness to stay at something even when all seems lost, even when you seem to be having failed. There’s a deeper soul stamina that’s trying to be built, that’s making you a stronger instrument for even bigger opportunities. You’re asking, what are the skills or qualities that I need to embody to be free and empowered in the midst of this problem? So even while the problem’s there, I’m good. I’m strong. I’m empowered. I’m free.
Third Step is you ask, who would I be if I overcame this? What qualities or skills would I be expressing or exhibiting? How would my character be different, changed, improved? What would I feel? Who would I be? How would I be able to show up, if I overcame this problem? So you allow yourself to imagine yourself on the other side of this. Who are you then? What are you capable of? How do you show up? How do you express yourself? Again, you begin to unpack some qualities. You can unpack these qualities in two ways, feeling qualities and being qualities. The feeling qualities are more static. The being qualities are more active, which again are more like the skills of character. A feeling quality would be peace, love, joy. A being quality would be generous, creative, outgoing, spontaneous, playful. You see how those lend themselves more to action, whereas the feeling qualities are more a state of being.
I know it’s ironic when I say the being qualities lead to more action, and the feeling qualities lead to more being, but essentially the feeling qualities are more static. You can’t really do them. The being qualities are more active. You can be them. You can consciously be them. You can ask, what would it look like for me to be more generous in this situation? That will lead to actions. Versus how does it feel to feel more peaceful, to feel peace, to feel joy, to feel love? It’s a feeling state.
You’re asking, what skills or qualities do I need to embody and express to be free and empowered in the midst of the problem, and who would I be and how would I be expressing if I overcame the problem? So you end up with a series, or maybe just one or two, qualities of feeling and/or being, which can also include skills. Some of these skills might be things like focus, determination, patience, stamina, perseverance, or whatever might come to you. They might even be more practical skills. Maybe organization comes through. You need to be more organized. It can be more practical. It’s whatever is necessary for your growth and development. What’s important to understand now is that what you’re discovering is not something you’re trying to do or add to the situation. What you’re discovering is that this condition, this problem is setting up the condition for those qualities that are already in you in latency and incipiency to come out, and even more, if you want to go down the rabbit hole even more, those qualities within your soul that want to express more have actually created the problem and the condition under which they will be able to express.
When you pray for patience, do you think the Universe just bops you on the head and says, you’re patient? No. Rarely. Usually you don’t just wake up more patient. Instead you end up finding yourself in long lines and traffic jams, and you might even cry out, “God, why have you forsaken me? What happened to my prayer of patience? I’m more angry and pissed off and impatient than ever before.” No, you’re not. What’s happened is that condition is revealing the pockets within you where you are caught in anger, judgment, complaint, unhealed issues, unforgiveness, and it’s creating the fever that’s pushing the poison out of your system. So that the natural effervescence of your soul, which is patient, can begin to emerge. So you can build the muscles and the infrastructure to hold the vibration of patience. Just like when you go to a gym, you don’t just go poof, you have muscles. You have to go into resistance training. When you’re in that traffic, that’s a form of resistance training to activate and grow the muscle of patience, amongst other things. Your current problem is the very resistance training that your soul has created for you, so that more of you can come out, more of those muscles of your being can be made manifest, more potential. Got it?
Then Step Four, now create a potential activation plan. It’s not enough usually just to notice there’s a problem, more is trying to emerge. What are the qualities that are trying to emerge? Okay. More love, more peace, more patience, more generosity, more focus. Now you’ve got to actually have a plan, just like you’d have a workout plan. Otherwise it’s often very likely that the inertia of old patterns and old habits will take over, and you won’t really have the focus and the continuity of action and ultimately the momentum to really grow and change. Create a plan.
You can have a 21 day plan, but ultimately I say stick to the plan until you get the results. If you want to lose weight you don’t just say a 21 day plan, and if after that I don’t lose the weight, I quit. Maybe you start off with a 21 day plan. Then you take these qualities and new skills, and you weave them into your daily plan and practice. There’s a variety of tools you can use, but the core goal is you’re going to activate and integrate and embody these qualities or skills that you’ve discovered is what’s being called forth from you. There’s the VVR process that I teach, visualization, vibration, radiation. Go to DerekRydall.com. Go to the free resources section, and you can download that audio training to do that practice. There’s prayers and affirmations to activate those qualities. There’s just visualization, which is a part of the VVR process, where you visualize yourself living this life where you are expressing these qualities. There’s just the moment by moment practice of these qualities. If you’re trying to be more loving and patient, maybe you stop for a minute every hour, what I call the One Minute Mystic, and you stop and just tap back into the feeling of that quality or that vision. You set a goal that in any given hour, when you remember, for the next 30 minutes I’m going to practice this quality. I’m going to be loving. I’m going to be more generous. I’m going to be more patient. Then just see what unfolds.
The key is to create a real plan where you are practicing. If you’ve studied, as I go into some of my other trainings, the LIFT practice, and you can get that in my Emergence podcast archives or library. LIFT stands for Living in the Feeling Tone. I talk about in there how you can take these qualities and turn them into the people, places, objects, and activities. So you’re literally designing a way of life that is congruent with the qualities of character that you’re seeking to embody. You can literally begin to redesign your life around these qualities, which in many cases is also what’s seeking to emerge. This problem isn’t just seeking for you change your nature. It’s often seeking for you to change your way of life in some way. The people you hang out with, the conversations you have, the environments you spend time in, the things you put into your mind and into your mouth, as well as the things that come out of your mouth.
It’s often seeking for a revolution of your whole life, especially depending on the degree of the problem. Sometimes it’s just seeking for you to transform some aspect of character. I would definitely encourage you to get the LIFT practice podcast if you have not yet studied that. In any case, you’re creating a potential activation plan. That’s Step Four, so that you make it real. It’s not real until it’s really in your plan, and then on your calendar. You won’t do it otherwise, in most cases, until it becomes a habit.
Then Step Five, assess, reassess, on a weekly or daily basis. In other words, at the end of the day look at your day, and go, how did I do? Rank yourself. A scale from 0-10, 0 I didn’t do anything around this, 10 I gave it my all today. Just see if you can uplevel that a little bit every day until you’re getting a lot of 10 days, which just simply means you really showed up for this. You really gave it your all. It doesn’t mean you’re perfect. It doesn’t mean you decided to be loving and patient for the next 30 minutes, and you were perfect. It means you know you really showed up. That would be a 10. You can’t force growth. You can only show up fully to it. You would assess. It could be daily, or it could be weekly. Whatever interval you think feels appropriate, every other day. At least once a week. You’re looking to see, how did you do? Are you being or becoming more of this version of your new self in terms of these qualities and capacities and skills?
How is the problem? Rank the problem 0-10. 0 being there’s no problem, 10 being it’s as bad as I can imagine it when you start, and then when you reassess each week look at the problem and reassess it. It was a 10. Is it a 9 now? Is it a 10+? Is it 11? Without judgement, just notice. Sometimes a problem will seem to get worse before it gets better, because what’s really happening is as you’re doing the work to grow more of the unconscious layers come to the surface. Like an infection rising to the surface, like a sliver rising to the surface. If it’s not changing at all, you’re not feeling better and more of this new version of yourself at all after a period, go back to Step Two. Reevaluate the qualities or skills you need to develop. Just see. Is there anything you’re missing, or is there something new?
One set of qualities you definitely want to begin developing if you don’t already have is be patient and loving and kind to yourself. This is a process. You’re building new neural pathways, new conditioning. Sometimes changing conditioning you’ve had a lifetime, and conditioning and beliefs that your family, your friends, and society is potentially still bombarding you with. This may be a change in the way you’re being that you’re current circle of friends are totally not living. That’s not easy, or it might be a break from your tribe in a dramatic way. Maybe they’re a family of complainers, and maybe one of the things you have to let go of is complaining. Did that just send a shiver up your spine? Gossip or blaming.
By the way, I should add, as you’re developing these things that’s another way you can look at it. Not just what do you need to develop in terms of qualities or skills, but what do you need to let go of? As I talk about in the LIFT practice, it’s not just about reengineering people, places, objects, and things that are congruent into your life, but it’s about engineering the people, places, objects, and things that are no longer congruent out of your life wherever possible. The same thing is true here. You’re not just embodying and embracing new qualities and skills of character and being, but you might be letting go of some.
Often when you embody the thing it begins to release the thing that’s opposite it. It’s good to know what it is that’s being released. If you’re being called to embody more love and forgiveness, it’s impossible to do that while still holding onto blame or resentment. If you’re a person who’s got chronic blame and resentment, and you get a call to have more love and forgiveness, it’s good know what’s going to have to go. If you really do focus on love and forgiveness, it will bring up the blame and resentment, and that’s what I mean by things might get worse. You might find yourself more pissed off and angry and resentful at this person or at yourself, and that doesn’t mean it’s getting worse. It means that the depth of that root is coming to the surface. You just weren’t conscious of all of that pain. It’s starting to bubble up. Love casts out all fear. So when you embody and embrace a new quality, that which is not vibrationally in alignment with it starts to come up.
It’s a good practice to also write down what do you need to let go of? You may have to stop having conversations around the coffee pot at the coffee station at work about how bad the economy is or how bad other people are, or blaming the boss. You cannot become the next stage of your best self and hold onto those old bad habits. Can’t become an oak tree and stay an acorn. Can’t become a butterfly and stay a caterpillar. Sorry to tell you. I’m not really sorry to tell you, but I guess I’m saying that to your ego.
Be aware of that as you’re assessing, reevaluating, and being patient and kind to yourself, and to those around you, because as you’re growing through these processes you’re not always the easiest person to live with. Maybe that’s already true. It’s funny to think, when you’re in therapy, or you’re going to through growth and thinking about all the people you might want to blame, just imagine how many other people might be in therapy because of you. That’ll give you a good moment of pause. I’m sure that I have been the cause of many sessions of therapy and healing practices for others. Be kind. Be patient with yourself and with others as you grow through this.
Those are the five steps to the Five Step Potential Activator. As you do this more and more, this becomes a way of life too. This just becomes habitual, and then growth becomes a little more easy, or a little more continuous. It doesn’t have to always be these incredibly dramatic growth spurts, although you’ll still have those.
As a bonus, I invite you to get some accountability, get some leverage on your life, on your growth. Find a partner to work with, somebody you can do it together with. If you’re part of my groups, get in one of those groups and find somebody in one of those groups that you can work with. Do some kind of regular check in, whether it’s daily or weekly, when you do it together, or do it with a group. If you’re part of a Mastermind group, maybe you all do it together. It makes it more powerful, and when you come together in agreement around what you’re doing and what’s possible, where two or more are gathered in agreement, the higher potential becomes activated. It’s an accelerator to the potential activator. It ensures you’ll be less likely to fall off track, to go into hiding. When you do it alone it’s easy to fake yourself out. It’s easy to hide. When you do it together, much harder.
There’s the Five Step Potential Activator. I hope this has served you. Remember, you might get a little juice, a little inspired by listening to these trainings, but listening and learning the theory, that’s beginner’s play. If you really want to grow and master you’ve got to practice.
Thank you again for being part of this. Remember to go to DerekRydall.com. Go to the Resources section. Get all the free stuff you can, so that I can truly support you in making a real difference in your life. If you haven’t already gotten the book Emergence, I invite you to get that book. It’s been named one of the top books by several entrepreneurs, and you can also go to GetEmergenceBook.com and get all kinds of free bonus support when you get the book. If you haven’t joined my podcast and registered so that you can get all kinds of cutting edge or emerging edge training, please go to iTunes and check out the Emergence Podcast. Leave a review.
Until I see you next time, remember to live authentically, love unconditionally, and follow your destiny.
