In this age of individualism we have fallen away from deep personal relationships with each other.  Casual, superficial connections abound, being enormously facilitated and driven by the appeal of various forms of electronic expression, like this and related websites.  But something vital goes missing when depth is ignored: how to simply and truly be with another human being in ways that support openness, honesty, vulnerability, and freedom to change. 
 
The necessary first step in reclaiming this capacity, however, is to create a deep personal relationship with yourself.  In so doing you will be faced with the multifaceted nature of your own psyche, with all its puzzling and tangled inner relationships.  By affirming your worth and offering all parts of yourself compassion and unconditional positive regard (attention, acceptance, appreciation, affection, and allowing), something remarkable begins to happen.  Defenses become visible, knots loosened, formative memories recalled, and present moment awareness strengthened.   Welcome to the path toward self recovery and reintegration, or, if you will, personal transcendence.  

It just so happens that this practice is best done in shared company with another trusted person who is interested in doing the same. In this way you practice being with yourself while your friend practices being with you and vice versa when roles are switched  In essence you and your partner (or your group) learn how to simply and truly be with each other in ways that support openness, honesty, vulnerability, and freedom to change.   Find out more about this process and how to adopt it in Books/Resources.

It is becoming quite apparent that the old mindset built upon survival instincts and driven by insecurity fears has reached its dead end. Fortunately the brain turns out to be more able to be rearranged ("rewired") than scientists previously believed.  Many wisdom traditions have known for centuries that regular mindfulness practices can, over time, result in dramatic shift in consciousness.  Our rapidly paced world makes it a challenge to devote the necessary time and energy toward attentioning our selves (and supporting others) in this manner

Yet we are essentially left with no other choice.  We human beings must learn and embody the wisdom of mindfulness practices within the next few generations or be supplanted by technological creations designed to exist without devouring or destroying the planet.  Fortunately we posses some vital qualities that make transcending old ways of operating quite possible.  The most important ones to exercise in this effort are conscious awareness and free will or choice.  Instead of living life limited by beliefs and stories of who we think we and others are, all of which are based in the past, we can learn to direct attention and awareness to present moment experience.  Instead of wasting enormous amounts of energy trying to avoid, create, or manage feelings and judgement, we can learn to step outside of the insanity and have compassion for the suffering mind.  Instead of fearing the imperfections of our bodies we can learn to access them more deeply and discover the infinite flow of gifts offered to us from the mysterious life energy coursing through all. 

All our "defenses" arise from the creative "source" of being, what I prefer to call "life energy."  Each is a reaction based on instinct, past conditioning, beliefs, judgements, etc., and represents an attempt to protect from any possible security threat(s), often associated with "uncomfortable" feelings. Dwelling inside, beneath layers of defense, lies profound vulnerability, which, when compassionately contacted, reveals the fearfulness of non-being, i.e. loss of connection with being alive.  So, in essence, our defenses, adopted to support us, are just as much an expression of "life energy" as any other manifestation of being human. When defenses are acknowledged, accepted, and appreciated as such, something fresh can happen.  Oddly, there seems to be less energy devoted to opposing it.

Interested in learning more?  Download a PDF of my latest eBook, I Simply Am ...not who I think I am, now available at Gumroad.com, the Apple iBooks Store, or view as a slide show in Books/Resources on Built4Love.com.

If we as human beings are not built to create and live out our individual lives as though we are characters in a story, then what are we?  "Who or what am I" is the most profound of all questions.  Why?  Because there is no way that it can be answered in words.  The I that asks the questions cannot be converted by thought into some objective answer that adequately represents Truth.  Hence the non-answer "I simply Am" allows the mysterious nature of who we truly are to unfold without limitation.

The invisible, immeasurable, and intangible Life Energy that brings forth, constitutes, and permeates all existence defies limiting definitions imposed by the mind.  It is, after all, the "source" of all.  Every one of us human beings is a unique manifestation of It in every moment.  So if who I am is not simply a character in a story, perhaps there is a way to go beyond story, to experience self and others on a much deeper level, to become in each moment, uniquely, inspired and fueled by Life Energy.

The great news is that we human beings are, indeed, built to go beyond the limitations imposed by defining ourselves in relation to ingrained thought and feeling patterns developed and fortified over many years. A simple, proven path to self becoming is outlined in my recent Ebooks,  viewable in Books/Resources on Built4Love.com, as a free download from the iBook Store (iTunes, Apple) or for as little as $0.00 for a PDF download from Gumroad.com.