Eckhart Tolle & Oprah Web Course -- A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

By now I am sure some of you have heard of Oprah and Eckhart Tolle's monumental free web course they are offering. Since this week I met quite a few people that had not yet heard of it -- I have decided to do a post to tell you this is truly something NOT to be missed. Week 2 of the class begins Monday but it would be quite easy to catch up. The class will be held every Monday at 9PM EST for a full 10 weeks (9 weeks left). Every week they will be discussing a chapter from Eckhart Tolle's book "A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose". You can logon to Oprah.com to get more info, sign up and watch week 1 or download it to your IPOD as a way to decide if you want to participate. The book you can pick up from the library, buy or download it to your amazon kindle and save on paper and money and have it within 2 minutes. You need to log on to oprah.com to get your free worksheets which ask very insightful questions to answer after every chapter. This past Monday over 500,000 people showed up to listen and it was inspiring to see JUST how many people are willing to open their minds and ears to listen to this important message.

So who Is Eckhart Tolle and what is "A New Earth" about? A New Earth is about becoming "conscious" and the shift that this world is undertaking and so desperately needs. My first encounter with Tolle was listening to the audio version of his book "The Power of Now". I love "The Power of Now" but find "A New Earth" in a better format and he offers very clear exercises to discover the inner you, awaken and differentiate yourself from your ego. I would find it hard to put it better than Amazon's summary, "In A New Earth, Tolle expands on powerful ideas to show how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world. Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence."

The first week's video is a great one to watch. Eckhart and Oprah explain how "A New Earth" is very in-line with religion -- instead of against it as many think and is a major reason for some shying away from it. I have covered posts that touch on issues covered in this book including listening to your self talk, consciousness and about two weeks ago I wrote a post called "Influences; People, Places, Things -- make them Positive" where I mention Tolle and the movie "The Shift". I feel Tolle and the movie "The Shift" are right on target about where our future is heading and are very important for people to become aware of. There are many discussions going on about this web course and "A New Earth" right now. From Facebook, to Oprah's Discussion Boards, to yahoo groups and one of my favorite blogs Evolving Times. There are so many people interested in this because of the importance. If you haven't experienced Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth" yet I highly recommend it. I'm involved in quite a few discussion groups on it and look forward to talking with you and hearing your comments! I always make myself available to answer questions.

Face Your Fears and Empower Yourself

Eleanor Roosevelt understood fear when she said, "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do." How true this is and this past weekend I faced two fears in one day and boy did I feel empowered! I skied down from the highest point on a hill where I cross country ski AND I made my first video to put up on youtube. By facing your fears you gain self confidence, empowerment and feel if you can overcome one fear -- the sky is the limit! H. Jackson Browne says, "Don't be afraid to go out on a limb, that's where the fruit is". I have found that fruit and how sweet it is!

I have always been a perfectionist. Being a perfectionist is a blessing and a curse. I now like to say I am a "recovering perfectionist" -- better to try something and learn from it than to never have tried! Yes, I strive to meet my goals and make sure I achieve them. I have a clean house, am a good cook, a decent dancer, am always educating myself and am usually in shape (gotta give me some allowance for the holidays -- oh, right it IS March isn't it?). ;-) But when I fear something -- BOY do I fear it! The thought of doing something badly does not sit well with me even though I teach my kids that everything takes practice. I am known to psych myself out of doing something if it is scary to me in any way. I also am known to not ask for help but instead be the helper for everyone else. So how do I conquer my fears?

It has been interesting cross country skiing in the same place for the last 4 years (the park near my house). It was an airport so it is VERY flat except for one hill that is great for sledding. When I first started skiing this hill looked ENORMOUS to me. I am not a downhill skier and my first and only experience downhill skiing was FAR less than perfect. ;-) (Okay here's the visual -- me falling down the mountain all the way from getting off of the chair lift -- wow did that hot tub afterward feel GOOD!) This past year I have overcome a lot of obstacles by healing myself and have found new strength. The first time I went out skiing this season I thought "that hill doesn't look so big anymore". I've gone down the more gradual part of the hill almost every time we've been out and it didn't seem scary. This past weekend the snow was perfect for skiing -- nice and packed down and slippery. There were three of us skiing (me, Angela and Jessica). When we went down the hill the first time I went down the gradual hill and it was FUN! Jessica chose the steep path and FLEW. We decided we wanted to do it again and I immediately started toward the gradual part which was my habit. I stood there contemplating the steep side of the hill and was VERY close to psyching myself out once again and saying "Ok gradual side -- here we go again". But I stopped myself and told myself "I am not afraid, what is the worst that can happen?, if I fall on my butt in the snow we'll all have a good laugh!" I went down the steep side and it was SUPER fast and I enjoyed it tremendously. I bet next year that won't even seem like a big hill to me.

My fear of seeing myself on video is much deeper. I don't ever remember watching a video of myself and not wanting to run from the room. I can't really explain it except that it has been with me as long as I can remember which made it a more difficult fear to ever imagine getting over. With all my blogging and with me wanting to be a life coach I KNEW I had to face this fear head on. My first attempt was a few weeks back when Simpleology had a contest and I said "This is IT -- I am going to enter". Well, after my first attempt which at playback had me wanting to run from the room again followed by my son saying, "you look SO MUCH better in person mommy" I was ready to put off conquering this fear for a WHILE longer!

It was then I decided I needed to watch other people who HAD done it and also ask for a little help (which as stated before -- is NOT a strong point). Once I decided I wanted to overcome this and stated it as an intention the resources came to me quickly! I am a big fan of Karen Lynch's at "Live the Power" who has recently started putting video of herself on her blog. I complimented on her excellent job and shared my fears and she sent me an email with excellent words of encouragement. I also just acquired a mentor, Karin Hiebert, who is wonderful on video and shares very similar personality traits as me. She gave me concrete advice on how to proceed and gave me an assignment to create a video response to one of her many videos. Okay -- now there was NO getting out of it. Rosa Park's wise words were perfect for this, "I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear". I KNEW I had to do it so now was the time to face one of my biggest fears.

I attempted to do the video in my dining room. The backdrop was perfect (one of my favorite paintings of sunflowers). But between my husband pumping up the kid's bike tires in the garage (a room away) and my kids running around and being their normal crazy kid selves -- I realized this was NOT the place. I took everything upstairs to my dressing/laundry room and set up shop. I took some deep breaths. I made sure I liked the backdrop. I talked out loud just once to the camera without taping to get in my head an approximation of what I wanted to get across. I took one last deep breath and decided "to let go of my fears" and to tell myself "whatever will be will be -- you can do this". This absolute calmness came over me right before I pressed record and it almost felt effortless. I KNEW I could and would do it. Afterward watching it -- I was okay. Did I think, "wow, what a cool confident woman, GREAT job?" Well... not exactly -- but I did not run from the room either. I was able to send it to Karin within a few hours of shooting it and put it up on you tube shortly after.

I got such a nice response from Karin, my family and friends that watched it and my son even said, "you look MUCH better that time mommy". Better yet, since then all these ideas have been coming to me of things I WANT to say on video. Will I stress out about it next time I make one? Probably a bit, but I know I CAN do it now. With practice I will get better and I know I will hear Karin's words of guidance as well as my own before making each video. Thank you Karin and Karen for your confidence in me and your encouragement -- it is GREATLY appreciated. I look forward to being a life coach and I believe making videos is a good tool for getting my messages out there as a coach -- that makes me even more motivated to continue.

Here it is.... my first attempt.... even a month ago I could not have imagined me posting a video of myself!

Go ahead, face your fears! It might turn out to be fun or you might not really care for whatever it is you attempt -- but if you don't try, how will you know? Marilyn Ferguson said, "Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom". How free I feel now that I have conquered these two fears and now I look forward to helping others face and overcome theirs as well! If you are interested in having me as your life coach/mentor please email me at jennymannion@yahoo.com or contact me on skype at jennifer.mannion. If you are interested in Karin as a mentor you can contact her through Skype at karin.hiebert or email her at karinhiebert@gmail.com.

I leave you with two other quotes on fear to contemplate:

Marcus Aurelius:

"If you are distressed by anything external,
the pain is not due to the thing itself,
but to your estimate of it;
and THIS you have the POWER to revoke at any moment".

and Jane Addams:

"Our doubts are traitors
and make us lose the good we often might win,
by fearing to attempt".

Book review: "What's YOUR Expiry Date?" by Patrick Mathieu

In January I entered a contest on Peter's "I Will Change Your Life" blog. The contest asked you to leave a comment on a guest post written by Patrick Mathieu on the methods you use in the morning to "Kick start your day". I was thrilled to win the book "What's your expiry date?: Embrace your mortality -- Live with vitality" by Patrick Mathieu. Patrick has an exceptionally inspirational story that involves his heart defects since birth, him being told he would not live past 30 and how he embraced this knowledge and decided to live in the present instead of worrying about the past or future. Patrick's message of "Enjoy Now" is one that we can all learn from and apply to our lives. Patrick's book is VERY easy to read and takes you through his phases (much like the the Kubler-Ross study) of dealing with impending death and his mortality. Unlike the Kubler-Ross study though Patrick takes it a step further and does not just ACCEPT his mortality but celebrates it and challenges you to do the same. Patrick was able to look at his diagnosis as not a death sentence but instead a wake-up call. I looked at my healing with similar eyes but the difference is I thought I was in for a lot of suffering but was never told that I would die.

Patrick's book woke me up to the fact that while life was MUCH better, I was looking to the future to how much better I would continue to make it instead of just living for "now" and appreciating every single moment. "What's Your Expiry Date?" came at such a perfect time for me. I have been asking a few of my online favorites (Albert of "The Urban Monk" and Tim Ferris of "The 4-Hour Workweek" how to balance time when you LOVE what you do. Patrick's book answered this question for me. Yes, I LOVE doing what I do and I am very grateful to be sharing my story with many and touching lives. I am so excited to become a life coach and even touch more lives. But if today was my last day on Earth would I want it to be JUST about the progress my blog/writing will make and how many people I will influence? I would definitely want it to be PART of the day but not all. I have 2 wonderful children that are growing up too fast already that I want to spend QUALITY time with each day. I want to show my husband how important he is to me and how much I love him every day. I want to reach out to friends and family and make sure no one doubts that they are in my thoughts and that I am grateful for them. I want to make sure I do something for myself every single day whether it be a walk, dance, cross country skiing or simply meditating. THAT is what makes up my perfect day and that is what I now know I will strive to balance every day.

After reading "What's Your Expiry Date" I will look at my life differently. I have grown a lot in the last year and I am SO grateful for that. I am "present" and conscious more often but do find myself thinking about the future a lot. I am not saying to not think about the future and set goals -- setting goals is essential in knowing what you want and making accomplishments. But when you fit into what Patrick calls the "Once Trap" (ex. Once I get this raise, we will go on vacation...etc) it is easy to forget that what is important is here and now. My favorite quote from his book is, "Now is the only time we ever have". It is so important to choose what we are doing "now". What do you choose? Do you choose to be happy and do what you love? Do you choose to sit around worrying about things that might or might not happen?

Patrick maintains a wonderful blog at Power of Mortality where you can learn more about his book and his life. He also has a coaching practice and helps his clients live a life that is FEARLESS, FOCUSED and FREE FROM REGRETS. He offers a free 30-minute initial session. Patrick has a lot to share and I highly recommend picking up "What's Your Expiry Date" and learning more about his important message to "Enjoy Now".