Emerging Futures

Maybe that’s as good a way as any to describe what an Emerging Future looks/feels like : I get to change my mind.  I get to change my mind often and without hesitation and explanation.  I get to step into a thought and in doing so, find another just over that edge and follow it, instead.  I get to live fully, moment to moment, and have that living reflected in my choices - and in the quality of my life. 

This new blog location is me, changing my mind.  Trying something because it feels right to try it, and then stopping it because it feels right to stop - both of these are part of the process.  It took me a long time to get past that one. The one where changing my mind calls up those inner conversations about my capacity for commitment; my ability to exercise discipline and will power to ’stay the course’; the length of my attention span and all the derogatory things that we could say about it!  And those were just the things going on inside myself!

I’m older now and not quite as maleable as I once was.  I am aware that doing something just because I said I would, despite the entry of new information to the contrary, is not the sign of a high IQ.  Yes, I understand that it makes me unpredictable in some ways - and I wonder what made us think that predictable should garner such favour and high praise?  I suppose if control were high on my list of preferred outcomes, I might agree. However, it’s not - so I don’t.

I’ll likely change my mind a lot in the next two years.  Intention 2009 is looming large on the horizon and I’m very clear on the direction that I’m moving in.  Having said that, I am not wedded to how I do that.  No doubt, over the next 24 months, lots of things will ebb and flow; many opportunities will present that I will step into and likely just as quickly either move through or step out of.  And through it all, I will continue to move in the direction of my destination.

I wonder how many women get stuck on that one? I wonder how much harder it is for women to do what ‘feels’ right for them, when doing so has an impact on loved ones?  It is perhaps one of the reasons why love is so easily lost to obligation and resentment.

I’m looking forward to trusting myself and discovering what magic lies ahead!  Given all the people I know who are travelling this road with me, I know that I am in the best of company!

Breathing is good…..

Mom and I just got back from spending the day together. Man! That woman is a hoot! I sure hope that there is some genetic coding in there, somewhere, that will allow me to look forward to being 83 and as irreverant, outrageous and funny as she is! The drive to the hair stylist’s took 40 mintues - and we laughed all the way.

She’s really an amazing woman. I don’t know anyone who is more generous in spirit than she. Her compassion for others and generosity, at all levels, have touched the lives of so many over the course of her lifetime. Our house was always full of people that she did stuff for; people who found that talking with her made a difference in their lives. I often thought that she had missed her calling. I know that had she been born in another time, she would have been a doctor of some kind… of body, mind or spirit. As full as her life has been and still is, I sometimes look at her and wonder : had she been born in 1950 instead of 1925, who would she be today?

As we were driving home, Lorna starts talking about what I do for a living. After all these years (close to 20, to be more precise) she still does not have a clue what I do! SShe’s like something simple, like teacher or doctor or therapist, that would make it easy for her to tell her friends. They would then hear the word and go “RIght! I kow that that is!” and that would be the end of it. She has often suggested that I write what I do on a little card and have it laminated so that she can hand it out to her friends. That way, she wouldn’t have to try to figure it out. My older son, when asked what his mother does, tells people that I’m in sales! His reason for that? “It’s just easier than trying to explain to people who you are and what you do.” At some level, that does make perfect sense.

However, I find it all too puzzling because from where I stand, it’s not complicated. I work with people so that they can transform their lives. But I don’t think that’s the tough part. I think it’s HOW I do that that seems to cause the problem.

Last week, when I wrote the article on The Year of Practical Magic and listed the 5 Keys to Making It Happen, I wasn’t kidding. I believe, with every cell of my being that those indeed, are the 5 essential requirements to transforming your life. Not making changes at the edges. Not tweaking a little here and there. Not complaining about it but unwilling to engage differently! But profoundly redesigning who we are in the world and, in the process, transforming our world.

Those 5 Keys are:

1. My body is a Quantum Biological Processor (QBP). This simple fact has profound and mind-blowing implications in that it does not add to our description or understanding of what a human being is – it completely redefines it! My body is not who I am – it is an exquisite, organic, profoundly powerful device that allows ‘me’ to express through it, in a physical universe… and it is a device, nonetheless! Like breathing is the key to an open, relaxed body, a soft, open and fully relaxed body is the essential requirement to creating a fully functioning Quantum Biological Processor.

2. Discovering that my body is a Quantum Biological Processor presses for us to consider: what is it processing? Processors have no value, in and of themselves, without having something to process. The Quantum Biological Processor that my body is processes signals/information/intelligence. These signals occur at multiple levels of expression, from the external physical (i.e. food for my lunch) to the internal physical (i.e. my feelings/emotions) to the esoteric (i.e. thoughts, intentions, expressions of the spiritual). The Quantum Biological Processor that my body is, is capable of expressing and processing all of these signals, at the same time. The human body is the epitome of multi-tasking.

3. I am not my body, I am the Signal. The “I” that “I” am, is the Signal that flows through the QBP and manifests in the physical world through body and behaviour. The Signal from Self….the signal that differentiates ‘me’ from my history, my cultural conditioning, my external demands….is in constant flow with those other signals that come from my history (experience/wisdom/knowledge) and the demands/expectations of my outside world. Nonetheless, the Signal from Self offers the clear, direct and internally-driven sensory cues – moment to moment, without fail - that will lead to my body and my Self being in total alignment, if I allow it. In that moment, an Emerging Future becomes possible.

4. Emerging Futures are the key to transforming our world. The alternative to an Emerging Future is to create the future from the past – which we already know how to do. To do otherwise, we must discover HOW ELSE to engage the energetic for expression through the physical.

5. Evolution by Intention is the platform that allows us to move beyond our historical notions of living and stand firm in designing how we live. In that moment, we become willing to let go of all that has been that we may create all that can be. The alternative is to continue to attempt to create the future, shackled by the past.

Here’s the condensed version: we are the godforce in expression in a physical universe. We are the very thing that we seek. There is no external god… no guru/master/saviour/guide/mentor/guy-in-charge… that is not already us.

Those are not complicated words. However, those words, spoken that way, pack a punch to the body that most people recoil from. Those words are indeed a great challenge for most of us to process. In a world where we are rigorously trained to externally reference - to always look outside of ourselves for the cues and guideance on how to live the ‘right’ life - it is indeed heretical to suggest that our capacity for internal sensing (i.e. following an internal truth that is far more accurate and potent) is actually superior and that we’re designed for it.

Such notions are a massive challenge to cultures/societies shaped through dogma (and that would be all of them), the tool for controlling organic collectives. The notion that each of us is naturally guided by internal cues to be the unique expression of the godforce in a physical world would render redundant the notions proferred by organized religion. In that moment, we would lose interest in killing each other over whose god is the right one, since it would have become a moot point. Organized religion forms the basis from which our rules about how to live are derived. Our collective beliefs, values and attitudes are fired in the crucible of our willingness to gather ’round an external god who will both reward and punish. The party line is that without that, we would be in chaos.

My experience has been quite contrary to that. The reverse has been more an evident truth: that the dogma of organized religion has become the platform on which we mercilessly judge ourselves and each other, often being judge and executioner to how another chooses to live his/her life; and being willing to make people invisible - or worse - if/when they are non-compliant.

So, maybe my son is on the right track. Used car sales, it is. Nothing too scarey about selling a used car. However, who would we have to become if we were to come face-to-face with the notions that a) we are the very thing we seek; b) no one will save us from ourselves but us; and c) our science - the god of the culture! - has been telling us for at least 10 years that we must redefine what we believe ourselves to be in order for us to get past ourselves.

Maybe Mom’s on the right track. She finds humor in everything! What’s NOT to laugh about when you’ve made it to 83 and are still vibrant, sassy, healthy and welcomed everywhere you go! Maybe I’ll put those 5 Keys on a small card and laminate it - just for her.

Breathing is good…

I wrote The Year of Practical Magic… and The 5 Keys to Making it Happen as a reminder to myself to keep moving forward. It is also the first time I’ve written this way - about 5 keys to anyting! I have identified the 5 things that I believe are essential to creating a different life. Not just talking about and/or thinking about a different life but actually living it.

I also recognized when I wrote those 5 keys that they are not your standard ‘put your left foot in and take your left foot out’ kind of keys. They are not about changing behaviours or even strategies - they are about redefining what we define ourselves to be as a human being. Once that switch is flicked, everything changes all by itself. From that, there is no going back.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I wonder where my own evolution will take me?

Breathing is good….

Once again, the end of one year and the beginning of another. Cycles and rhythms. Inhaling and exhaling. Ceaseless… relentless… harbinger of the mindlessness of repetition and the potential of the hope that is carried in the dawning of a new day.

Closure. Fresh starts. Moments to reflect on completions and things still undone.

If I were to tell the truth of my experience – of myself and the world which I create for myself – it would be a mix of many things, all of which are now shaped by an overwhelming sense of urgency. One thing I know for sure: Gaia will do fine, as she always does. I’m not so sure about human beings. At least, not as we have historically defined human beings to be.

I know that I’m moving toward something. Have been since January 2006. I woke up one day in January and it was as if the lights had been turned on in my head and I could see things that I had not seen before. In that moment, even though I had no sense of the destination, I knew that I had to turn down a different path… move into a different direction… moving toward something that my body knew would not just sustain life but rapidly and profoundly expand it.

And so here I am – almost two years later – and I am still mindful of that presence in my body of urgency, of intensity, as I continue to move along this path. The path still feels like where I need to be. It does feel, however like something is picking up speed. All I need to do is follow where the path leads me.

I look back at the last two years and I marvel at the speed, intensity, outcomes and contagion of this journey. There have been no accidents in taking this path and I know that there are still two years left in this journey. I am mindful that Intention 2009 will have closure in January 2010 – and I know that I will be done. I also know that in January 2010, my path will take a new direction. Whether it will have a resemblance to the one I’m on – or not! – I have no idea. What I do know is that I trust the Signal that I am in the world and that flows through me; and I know that it will all unfold exactly as it should.

In this past year, I have become keenly aware of the degree to which the notion of a holodeck has moved profoundly from thought/notion to expression of reality. The idea that we are energy. The idea that all is energy and that energy never dies; that it simply changes its form of expression. Energy is never lost or wasted. It always IS. I am energy – and I too, will always be IS. The way I move from matter to energy is of my own choosing. And whether or not, and when, I move from matter to energy is also of my own choosing.

That we are Quantum Biological Beings is a massive, profound and extremely potent discovery – if we choose to consider its implications. We are not matter (mechanical beings), we are energy. We are energy with mindfulness of intention. We can choose to be and become, at will. What I am noticing about my world and myself in that world is that what slows down manifestations of energy is energy in ‘conflict’. Thoughts are energy – so conflicting thoughts, conflicting beliefs, a yes/no for the same intention. Like having the foot on the break and the gas at the same time.

I know that the discovery that we are Quantum Biological Beings is a 2005 awareness, persistently perceived through the limitations of a mechanical being. An energy awareness considered through the limitations of a mechanical framework; and in that, the limitations of our thoughts/energy prevent us from allowing the limitations of our mechanical framework to be released and experience energy in flow. In that, I am reminded that it is not that things don’t exit – it is that we are unable to calibrate for their existence.

I have declared for myself that 2008 is The Year of Practical Magic! It is the year that I pay mindful attention to the degree to which I hold on to what is familiar to me… to what feels ‘normal’ or ‘safe’ or ‘real’ and allow myself to let go of each of those thoughts as they come into my awareness. I am energy and in being so, I determine what form I take.

Gaia will not only survive (as she has done for billions of years), she will thrive. And so will I. There will be many who will not, as unsustainable ways of being in the world (i.e. thought in conflict) continue in their death throes and make way for new paths to be carved out. Some talk of a new species of human emerging. I believe it is already here. It is us. It is the Quantum Biological Being in full and mindful expression as energy. And our connection to the Signal of Self is the key.

As I bring 2007 to closure, I am just so delighted by the magic of it all! I am surrounded by amazing women! I am part of a family that is willing to be open, honest, clear and direct. I am loved by and am deeply loving of so many. I am filled with the power of intense curiosity that gives me permission never to have anything be fixed or static or ‘real’ or ‘true’; and that makes every day a new adventure, filled with a combination of letting go of what was and claiming what can become. One foot in front of the other. One conversation preceding the next. Living in the moment. Staying present to myself and what moves inside me. Connecting in voice and word and thought.

Shameless. Fearless. Sometimes raw and jagged, sometimes well-honed and razor sharp. And always, the intention is to honor the sacred Signal that is the ‘I AM’, to honor the Signal that I am that flows through the Quantum Biological Being that moves in this space and time.

The emerging species is already here and it is us. The question is: can we awaken to and claim it before it’s too late? And perhaps more importantly, can it ever be too late?

Breathing is good…

Wow! I can feel things speeding up! In the last couple of days, we’ve created two new blog sites, one which launched our new Newsletter format and one that created an interactive area on my website; completed a new article on the notion of practical magic for 2008; set up four new radio interviews in the US; created a new digital master for ‘Fully Alive - A Corporate Conversatio’; and managed to still find time for the Dog Whisperer - not because we have a dog but because Cesar understands and speaks to the nature of energy and its impact on other living organic systems (dogs!).

AND….let’s not overlook that I had to figure out technology for much of this! Am feeling pretty good about it all and very eager to engage!

The Newsletter - ChoicePoints - is now at http://choicepoints.wordpress.com and
the new, interactive ‘Women Gathering’ is at http://www.LouiseLeBrun.com/WomenGathering

I’m discovering that I am really looking forward to 2008 and really getting myself out there. I believe in magic - and I particularly believe in the kind of magic that is possible for us as Quantum Biological Humans. Time is passing and the need for us to discover the magic in ourselves is pressing hard against the need for us to create change in our lives.

I also spent a couple of hours today watching the tv specials (recorded) offered in remembrance of those who died in the tsunami on Boxing Day on the other side of the world. Even though I’ve seen those images so many times, I am stunned each time by the power of Gaia and the forces that are a natural part of her expression. Energy in transformation takes many twists and turns.

Tomorrow, I meet with a small group of women (women of intensity!) to catch up and explore where we may guide ourselves to in 2008. This conversation will be different as we’ll have a few women who will be there for the first time and who know very little about WEL-Systems. That is always such fun! I get to watch lives transform in such a short period of time. More magic!

For now, I’ll call it a day and dream big dreams for the next one.

Breathing is good….

It’s Christmas Eve. No matter how it actually unfolds, I am always mindful of a darkened sky, stars blinking through the crisp, cold air; ever-decreasing activity on the road as people reach their destination and settle in for the long-anticipated time with family and loved ones; snow falling softy and quietly, adding to the sparkling cloak that Gaia has wrapped herself in; streets lined with house after house, dressed up for the occasion in brightly colored lights on rooftops, swirling around trees and shrubs, doors welcoming guests with wreaths of pine boughs, red bows and twinkling lights.

This will be my 57th Christmas Eve. The first few have left no memory. For so many others, I can run the movie inside my head and see grandparents long gone; a house full of people talking and laughing; decorated trees nesting in a sea of regally wrapped boxes of magic and surprises. Smells of warming pies mingling with the sound of glasses tinkling as eggnog is poured from the punch bowl into the small handled bowl, topped with whipped cream and nutmeg; Christmas carols playing in the background. And yet, through all those years, there is one memory that never leaves me.

The story is told of Christmas Eve, 1914, and the spontaneous truce that occurred between the German and Allied Troops along the front lines. I know that I was very young when I first heard of this…perhaps 7 or 8 years old. Without the language to describe it, it amazed me that human beings were so instinctively and essentially drawn to love each other. It also profoundly awakened me to the degree to which external drivers – those things outside of us called authority, experts, leaders, guides, etc. – were able to reshape that essential being and the degree to which we allowed it to be so.

Every year at this time, I am reminded of this moment of my own awakening. Each year, I remember and recommit to my own journey of staying awake and awakening those who have the desire to do so. At this time of year, I am reminded why I have become who I am; and the degree to which each of us is so essentially and organically intended to connect and engage with each other.

Mine is not to change the world. Mine is to create the world that I desire. And what I desire is full expression of what I know to be our birthright – our right to love and be loved; our desire to engage with each other in ways that awaken and expand our potential; and our deep and organic pull to move toward each other and not away from each other.

Long gone are those men who first dared to follow their natural instincts and proclaim a truce. Under the most dire conditions and within the context of vicious intentions, they found within themselves what was required to remember who they are and to trust that – no matter what!

Perhaps this Christmas Eve, 2007, will be the one that re-awakens us to the truth of who we are.

Breathing is good……

I had breakfast today, with a woman who has become a deeply meaningful part of my life. I would trust her with my life and, perhaps more importantly, I would trust her with the lives of my sons. I do not say that easily or loosely!

My time with her is always a great adventure of discovery, about myself. She and I both know that as we share aspects of our lives, we listen to the other knowing that we are hearing expressed some aspect of our own consciousness, playing itself out in the life of the other. I’ve discovered that sometimes, when I talk to myself, I need to hear the words through the voice of another.

We talked about family. We talked about responsibility and commitment. We shared stories about the Holiday Season…about Christmas past and present…and about the experience relative to the commercial hype. We concluded that it was time for us to create new rituals for ourselves and the people we love, that would better reflect what we have come to hold as valuable.

I left breakfast with a sense of being real. I felt that in the great hypnotic trance that is my cultural conditioning, I had just had an awakened moment. It reminded me of days long gone when I would swim from one end of the pool to the other, holding my breath, and finally breaking through at the far end, gasping for air! In that moment, I could breathe again and knew the essential nature of breathing. There are times when I had taken it for granted and just forgot its place in my existence.

Over our third cup of coffee, we agreed that we created it all! The new directions and the capitulations; the joys and the resentments; the frenzy and the tranquility. None of it belonged to anyone other than each of us, in our own way.

We talked about change and transformation. We explored our experiences in corporate environments, marveling at how robust these constructs of collective agreement are as they continue to unfold, unchecked in their unspoken determination to keep us in line. How else do we feed a collective driven by consumption?

And finally, we agreed: it is not about trying to fix or change the world we have – it is about creating the world we want. When we withdraw ‘energy’ (life force, mana, prana, attention, focus, etc) and we cease to engage with something, that thing begins to fade away and disappear. Nothing can survive without the energy that feeds it. However, when we invest energy in bracing against or fighting something, it gains strength. A wise person once said : “What we resist, persists.”

We agreed : we must give ourselves permission to walk away. No arguments, no need to explain, no rants or big investments in getting anyone to understand – just walk away. Sometimes, walking away can be as simple as ‘No, thanks!’. Or, it can sound like ‘No more!’. Or it can be as simple as redirecting my attention to those people, places and things that feed my soul! But no matter how we looked at it, we concluded that the two things that present in all of life’s situations is that a) my life is always about me (just like her life is always about her); and b) there is nothing to struggle with.

I am keenly aware, particularly at this time of year, of how difficult it is to NOT be drawn into the collective consciousness…the collective coma….that causes us to second guess ourselves; to abandon all that is true for us and stumble into the march-step of those around us; to silence ourselves rather than speak when what we have to say causes the conversations around us to pause abruptly! And yet, I know deep inside me, that the future lies in learning how to do just that.

I am so grateful to have, on the holodeck of my experience, those who are willing to come face-to-face with themselves. In those moments, I become more.

Breathing is good……

I found out, yesterday, that a woman I had come to know from her being a client, has passed on. Since discovering this, I’ve had a couple of phone calls and email exchanges with others who have been touched by her passing and, no doubt, by her having lived.

It has left me wondering: if (as I believe) all things unfold exactly as they should, what is there for me to discover about being human from this having entered my life?

As in all deaths, my thoughts go to those who are left behind. So many things unsaid; so many other things said regrettably…wishing they could be withdrawn. Opportunities lost for completing things, changing things, redefining things. Perhaps the invitation in one’s passing is for the rest of us to pause…and consider….how else might I live? And beyond that, how else might I love?

As someone once said (and I have no idea who it was), living is a lot harder than dying. I believe that. living fully…living a meaningful and authentic life…demands much of who we are and even more of who we might become. Living an authentic life requires that we make choices that may well fly in the face of cultural conditioning and socially accepted conventions of behaviour. Sometimes, choosing one over the other brings challenging consequences either way. Perhaps the invitation in one’s passing is for the rest of us to awaken to a recognition that NOW is the moment! And we can never be sure that there will be another…..

Memories. Reminders. Whispers in the back of our mind….the single and the collective mind. All the things that we are reminded of in one moment that are, in truth, about another moment – often from long ago and hopefully forgotten – that is in some way unfinished…incomplete…not yet ready to be put to rest. Perhaps the invitation in one’s passing is for the rest of us to make peace with ourselves; with our loose ends, unfinished business and unexpressed potential. We may not have a ‘tomorrow’ from which to reconsider it all.

Timing. Can it ever be right? Is it ever wrong? In this, I am clear that I trust the unspoken genius of it all! I believe with every fiber of my being that we do not go until we’re ready to go. In that, I honor the choices made to go. And as I do so, I take a breath and I notice all around me those that can and will make the same choice, when the time is right for them. And in that moment, I will have become the one left behind. Perhaps the invitation in one’s passing is for us to allow ourselves the full measure of our experience – of our sadness, our grief, our longing that it were not so – AND to remember who and what we are. Even in these moments, there is cause to honor and celebrate a Life Force continuing in its expression, even though it may be in a way that we cannot share.

To Robyn Wagner: my thanks for all that you have taught me.

Breathing is good…..

I’m very fortunate to have people in my life who find things that they know I would have an interest in. One such discovery recently sent to me is the voice of Danielle Rama Hoffman who also embodies the essence that I know as Sekhmet.

Let Danielle’s words flow through you. Her words describe the truth of my experience of this Sekhmet energy in expression in my own life.

As you read Danielle’s words, let the vibration they carry flow through you…and discover within yourself, the aspect of Sekhmet that is you.

Breathing is good…..

I seem to be intimately connected to the weather. When I think a thought, the weather reflects it back to me, in its unique and inimitable way.

I’m sitting by the fire, feeling snug and comfy in my blue leather recliner….feet up and laptop at my finger tips. To my left, the two palladium windows offer me a lens through which to watch the world unfold, a glimmer of colored lights in the distance as the influence of the Holiday Season is seen through the swirling gusts of snow. The drifts are getting higher, piling up against my neighbor’s fence and making back garden ornaments – like the BBQ! – turn into oddly shaped beings in the dimming light.

I like this. I’m happy in this place, family members busy doing their thing and my time is my own. My thoughts are my own, too…except that Gaia seems to be able to read them.

Outside reflects what’s going on inside of me. Great bursts of new thought intermingled with a quiet reflection on those already there. Thoughts taking on strange shapes, some fitting easily into the landscape of their existing context and others struggling to find their place in what feels like a foreign land. Moments of peace and a sense of inner quiet quickly followed by the winds of agitation as old thoughts blend with the new. As I sit in my cozy spot, I wonder: how does all this fit together?

Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe there is no need to fit…no requirement for fitting of any kind. Maybe perfection lies in what feels like the existing chaos of all this swirling, blowing, heaping….then settling and blowing again! Maybe this is what life feels like on any given day and to think otherwise is to fool myself.

I’ve been thinking a lot about 2007 – what it was, what it gave me and what it invited me to consider differently. I am also enlivened, excited and profoundly encourage by 2008 and what it will become. It seems like every year, the angle of the curve gets steeper and the outcomes accelerate to make way for greater potential. As much as I might say that this is too much….it’s not.

The storm that is blowing through today is a welcomed invitation to shake things up….to trust in the shaking….and to discover that what I consider ‘the norm’ can easily be turned upside down and from there, become a platform for something quite different.

I know that 2008 will be the year of the vibration of sound. More voice. More voices! Voices speaking an undeniable truth – that truth of authentic presence – and all that comes with it. Podcasts. CD’s. Internet radio. Room for bigger and more conversations….one-on-one and in small groups. And all of this about women gathering in small groups, talking. Such a potent force and one, sadly, so wasted on the trivia of our lives.

So, I’m going to sit here for a bit, letting the warmth of the fire make me drowsy, and letting myself jot down all the strange, seemingly disconnected thoughts that my body is offering up. If (as I believe) an Emerging Future rides on that Signal from the Self to the physical body, then paying attention is the gateway to accelerating how I manifest my life – not because faster is better, but because living fully is always preferable to just sitting around and thinking about it.

Breathing is good…..