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Oneness Process: Appreciative Inquiry For Awakening Our Universal Wisdom

My mind told me that it was completely insane to marry her, while my heart told me to stay. After agonizing for several days, I decided to trust my heart and go ahead with the engagement. Linda was hospitalized several months before our marriage and needed a medical team to pull her back from the edge of death.

She lived for nearly seven more years, and we enjoyed a wonderful relationship. At the time, I had never felt so intimately known and loved in my life. Although the last years were very difficult for both of us as her health declined, I never regretted my decision to marry her. At the beginning of January , Linda told me that she would die in twenty-eight days.

She asked me if I knew who would be my next partner. It was a sincere question, and I knew it deserved an honest response. I told her that I thought it would be Christiane, whom we both knew through the Jean Klein fellowship.

When Your Voice is Silenced

There was no outer reason for me to think this since Christiane and I were just friends at the time. Linda nodded and said Christiane would be a good partner for me. Twenty-eight days later, Linda went into a diabetic coma and was taken to the hospital by paramedics. She was discharged and returned home briefly before again losing consciousness in the early hours the next morning. She was rushed to the hospital, but this time she did not recover. Her death was only a few hours later than she had predicted.

When I saw her lifeless body full of tubes at 2 a. It was her body, and she was clearly gone. I am happy to be free of this body. I felt as if I had witnessed, and in some way participated in, an inner rocket launch. I was on a high for several weeks until a huge wave of grief came crashing in. I was not grieving for her so much as for myself. Despite my glimpse through the veil of life and death, I experienced a terrible emotional emptiness in my heart that felt like a bottomless, dark crater.

For months the grief came in waves with varying respites. An occasional sneaker wave would pull me completely under. I would toss and tumble in grief for hours until I was spit out, exhausted.

Oneness Process: Appreciative Inquiry For Awakening Our Universal Wisdom

I trusted my inner knowing that my heart would eventually be more available. We got married sooner than I would have normally wanted. I am very grateful that I did. Christiane and I had a wonderful son, James, and a new chapter of my life unfolded as my heart gradually reopened to deeply love them both. This underground spiritual classic is still largely known by word of mouth. It deserves a much wider audience. Lusseyran, born in Paris in to a middle-class family, lost his sight in an accident at school when he was eight years old. At first he felt anguish and despair, but he soon realized he was looking at his situation in the wrong way.

This was more than a simple insight—it was a revelation:. He was seventeen when the Nazis invaded France and occupied Paris. Driven by an inner resolve from the core of his being, he became a major leader of the Resistance, organizing a group of over six hundred young men to clandestinely produce and distribute an anti-Nazi newspaper throughout France and to help downed airmen find safe passage to Spain.

Lusseyran, known as the Blind One, would personally vet each new member of his group in order to detect possible Nazi collaborators. He could read others with extraordinary accuracy and gained a reputation for being infallible. He was, however, ambivalent about only one member that he accepted. This man betrayed him and the entire leadership a year later. Lusseyran and his comrades were arrested by the Gestapo, interrogated, and shipped to Buchenwald.

After nearly dying there, he became an informal spiritual counselor to many of the men because of his inner radiance. He was one of the few to survive. For Lusseyran, this guidance took the form of great insight, courage, and compassion in the most demanding circumstances imaginable. Sometimes my spiritually oriented clients wonder whether self-love, self-acceptance, and self-care will reinforce the ego. Loving and accepting ourselves as we are allows us to step off the inner battlefield and to relax the knot of inner division.

Self-indulgence is different from self-care. Self-indulgence feeds the sense of being a separate self. When we become self-indulgent, our life is all about the little me. Self-care means that we listen to our core needs, set reasonable boundaries with others, and live in balance. It also means that we question all of our limiting beliefs that create suffering for ourselves and others.

And it means that we live in growing integrity with a deeper truth that we are not separate from anyone. Genuine self-care frees us to be more selfless. Our basic needs are fairly simple—food, shelter, rest, health, human connection, and meaningful work. Burnout—becoming exhausted, sick, and resentful—is pointless. There are times when we need to stretch beyond our normal limits in order to be there for others or to meet a work commitment. At some point, however, we need to rest and replenish.

The wisdom of the heart helps us to navigate these apparent dilemmas of when to say yes or no to the requests or demands of others. Sometimes a no will be the most wise and loving response in the long run, even if it temporarily disappoints someone. A no to someone else can be a yes to our inner truth.

YOUR STRENGTHS

Self-love and acceptance can easily begin as mental principles that transmute into ideals against which we judge ourselves. For this reason, sometimes it is not that helpful to encourage people to accept themselves. If they have a hard time doing so, they will feel like failures. Further, injunctions engender resistance. I noted in chapter 4 of my book that the conditioned mind only accepts conditionally.

Find a quiet place, sit comfortably, and close your eyes. Bring your attention to your heart center.

The 5 Keys to Trusting Your Heart and Acting From a Place of Inner Wisdom

Take several slow, deep breaths and let your attention settle down and in. Is there something within me that loves and accepts me just as I am? Let the question go and be quiet. Notice what happens in the area of your heart. If you can sense this place of self-love and acceptance, attune with it and let it in. Notice the impact as you do. Then imagine embracing the part of you that feels unacceptable and unlovable in the center of your heart. Let the love saturate this part for several minutes.

If you are unable to sense this place, ask yourself if there is a core belief about whether you are lovable and acceptable as you are. Then follow the experiment in chapter 4 about questioning core beliefs. We find unconditional acceptance in the depths of the heart. The deeper our attention goes, the more compassion and understanding we discover.

It is as if there is a secret spring in the core of the heart. In chapter 2 of my book, I described three levels to the heart: The egoic level is concerned with our self-image and its related feelings of pride, shame, self-esteem, and self-loathing. This level goes very deep, and much of our attention is ordinarily absorbed in maintaining an image acceptable to ourselves and others.

The questions that arise from this level are: Do you see me? Do you like me? There is a natural desire and need to be accurately and appreciatively seen and to have what is seen reflected back to us—in psychological terms, to be mirrored. A certain amount of mirroring is necessary for attention to move beyond the self-image and self-story. Receiving it supports our self-trust and the ability to stand on our own. My clients and students often report journeying through increasingly subtle layers of their hearts.

As they do so, they discover why they closed their hearts and put up a series of barricades in the first place. Each wall is connected to an old emotional injury—a deep hurt due to abuse or neglect that was too much to bear at the time. Sometimes these walls appeared suddenly, and other times they appeared incrementally.

It was easier and safer to shut down and armor the heart than to stay open and feel. It takes courage and vulnerability to reopen these sensitive depths. Wounds to the heart are usually relational in origin, so the healing will often come through the loving acceptance and attunement of another person, be it a family member, friend, partner, or therapist.

This process of healing takes time. As the heart heals and clears, greater depths unfold. At some point, we may encounter what feels like a sacred core—what some call the soul. It is the place of greatest relational intimacy, whether we are relating as spiritual friends or lovers. Here the heart is undefended, innocent, and open. Each individual offers complete access to the other. It is a place of love, gratitude for life, compassion, appreciation, and joy. It is deeply touching to sit with people and experience their journey into this inner sanctum together.

Will Johnson, author of Rumi: Gazing at the Beloved—The Radical Practice of Beholding the Divine , offers the following poem, among others from Rumi, as evidence that Shams and Rumi spent most of their ninety days together gazing:. I have found that meditative gazing with an open friend or partner tends to evoke this soulful level of contact. A deep longing of the heart is fulfilled when this level of relational intimacy is touched. The taste of these sacred waters is extraordinarily sweet. Gazing with a partner is a beautiful practice that I highly recommend.

When meditatively gazing with someone, it is best to have no agenda and simply be open to what unfolds in the moment. It is never the same experience from session to session. You can go as long as you like, although thirty minutes is usually sufficient. The intention with this practice is simply to be open to what unfolds within you and between you and your gazing partner. Sit comfortably across from your partner. Close your eyes for a minute and relax. Feel your feet on the floor, your breath, and your whole body.

Open your eyes and make relaxed, non-effortful eye contact. Allow your eyes to be soft and receptive. Be natural and at ease. This is not a staring contest.

98 best ONENESS images on Pinterest in | Spirituality, Spiritual awakening and Spiritual

Feel free to blink, briefly close your eyes to rest, or adjust your posture as needed. Stay at home in yourself and receive your partner. Be open and nonjudgmental. Silently notice what arises without trying to change it in any way. We require no additional charge for you to connect to Zoom with your computer or mobile device. Please note that dialing as opposed to joining the session via the link into Zoom from your telephone may incur charges; your telephone service provider will charge you according to your existing long-distance calling plan.

International access numbers are available. As you experienced in the webinars, alliances are forming and like-minded people are connecting, collaborating, and evolving business to create sustainability for humanity and our Earth home. We welcome you to the Conscious Business Innerprise. As a member of this movement, you will be a disruptor. Conscious Business will overturn legacy business models that focus exclusively on profit. And it will usher in a Conscious Business model that creates function where there is now dysfunction.

If you are like us, you are fed up. Something foundational is missing, and that is the concept of Oneness - the understanding that all of life is interconnected. To continue to thrive, Oneness must become a central organizing principle for businesses. Some emerging companies focus on this, but it has not yet been widely adopted.

Our goal is to change this. We have a proven framework to help companies successfully transform the way they operate. Business owners and executives are becoming increasingly motivated to evolve and bring more consciousness into their businesses Conscious Business Agents are increasingly in demand to guide companies - either as a leader within or as a consultant - through the transformation process to become a conscious business. The Conscious Business Training and Certification Program teaches people how to become Conscious Business Agents over the course of three months of training and collaborative work with peers in the Community of Practice.

Graduates of the program receive a Certificate of Completion and the opportunity to complete a peer-reviewed project required to become Certified Conscious Business Agents. Certified Conscious Business Agents will help companies: Recognize that all of its actions are interconnected and affect global ecosystems — social, financial, environmental and political. Create new ways to operate that are profitable as well as healthy and nurturing for employees, suppliers, partners and local communities.

Operate with economic, social and ecological transparency. Act as good global citizens that respect human dignity and fairness. If you already have a deep experience of Oneness or interconnection with all life and you are ready to embody that deeper experience in your professional life. If you are working in a position of influence or leadership within an existing business, or are an entrepreneur driven to birth a new enterprise, or are a coach or consultant and you want to help lead companies through this critical transformation.

If you want to be a pioneer in an emerging field of consulting. If you want your work to align with your values. You might wonder what it feels like to impact business in such an awe-inspiring way. Have you been playing it safe, afraid to claim your destiny and your deeper calling? Be still for a moment, and think about what you really desire in your work life right now. Is it to experience more joy?


  1. Trust Your Heart: How to Connect With Your Inner Wisdom.
  2. Im The Guy The Bartender Tells His Troubles To.
  3. www.newyorkethnicfood.com: Iris K. Barratt: Books, Biography, Blogs, Audiobooks, Kindle.
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A deeper connection with others? More free time to spend with your loved ones? The chance to make a real difference? We have fantastic news for you All of these are within your grasp right now. You want to create a better life for yourself, one in which you feel passionate, purposeful and meaningful productive in your work and life. His companies included some of the brightest minds in the technology corridor. Steve walked away from the Valley because he felt a deeper calling, a calling to transform an emerging vision into reality.

At its core, it was about a shifting paradigm where business attunes to the interconnection among all stakeholders, including stockholders, employees, and the community, as well as with the sacred inherent in all life. The organization is focused on awakening our Self and the world to the interconnection of all of life.

Humanity's Team is a founder of the Conscious Business Alliance that created the Conscious Business Declaration, as well as the creator of the Conscious Business Initiative that provides training, certification, a community of practice and consulting services. The organization also sponsors the annual Global Oneness Day October 24th , as well as various other programs that advance its mission in the world.

She is a visionary who guides business expansion, focusing on success mapping and accountability tracking, helping companies increase return on investment by taking step-by-step actions to achieve their goals. Kristin holds a Masters in Engineering and an International M. She has a very successful business consulting background working with clients worldwide. A wealth of information; I am totally inspired, more inspired than I have ever been. I am looking forward to the next steps. Since participating, I've been able to nurture my own business towards greater purpose and prosperity. Every class and meeting was an experience that broadened my mind and my heart.

Because of CBCA Program, I have changed the focus of my company, creating many opportunities to achieve the prosperity I deserve with the purpose that makes me wake up every morning with joy and energy to make my dreams come true. Some emerging companies are already focusing on this but it has not yet been widely adopted.

Our goal is to change this and we have a proven framework to help companies successfully transform the way they operate. Consumers, especially Millennials, want to buy from brands that stand for something greater than just quarterly earnings. Businesses need to develop both the awareness and skills to consciously evolve their business. They need Certified Conscious Business Agents! Graduates of the program receive a certificate of completion and three months membership in the Community of Practice with the opportunity to complete a peer reviewed project and become Certified Conscious Business Agents.

The Conscious Business Initiative will be disruptive. It will overturn legacy business models that focus exclusively on profit. And it will usher in a business model — a Conscious Business model that creates function where there now is dysfunction. The time for this change is now! We invite you to join the movement!


  • Dream Stories: Ideas about Deficit, Transit, Death Penalty and Elections?
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  • Conscious Business Innerprise – A New Paradigm For Prosperity.
  • Iris Barratt.
  • What is a Certified Conscious Business Agent? The Conscious Business Training and Certification program offers inspiration, knowledge, skills, and support.

    Thank God for the Internet

    Self-paced training videos for each module 60 minute Live Group Coaching Sessions: Conscious business leadership has been Kristin's focus for the last 15 years. I will at first describe the context for the evolutionary of business, which is the New Story of Creation with us as active agents within it.

    Our unique life purpose is that Impulse of Evolution motivating us. It holds the genius of evolution encoded in it. Peter is the author of 2 books and more than articles on technology, investing and Conscious Business practices. Transforming Business with Appreciative Inquiry and Theory-U With Ilma Barros-Pose Fowler Center The power of connection - how connected people, teams, organizations, and communities can lead to a thriving world Using Theory-U methods to presence the future that is seeking to emerge Using Appreciative Inquiry to transforms problem solving in business Ilma Barros, Ph.

    Thomas has retired from Conscious Business Initiative where he served as Director. He was dedicated in this position and helped create a global community of collaboration and support for spiritually conscious business transformation.

    “The Heart is another name for Reality and this is neither inside nor outside the body.”

    Creating Corporate Mindfulness Programs With Lindsay Benjamin Intel Applying mindfulness to work relationships, innovation, leadership Effectively selling or promoting mindfulness programs within corporate culture in a way that addresses urgent business needs Effective methods for measuring before and after results. Lindsay Benjamin Van Driel is a Business Operations Manager at Intel, who co-founded the Awake Inside program which taught workers how to incorporate mindful techniques into their home and work lives.

    She has been with Intel for 16 years. She is a dedicated Mindfulness instructor with 15 years of experience in Buddhist and Yogic meditation practices. One-hour weekly coaching sessions Affirm what you have learned Get insight on how to apply your new knowledge immediately in a practical way Inner Practices: Throughout his career, he has used these gifts in various roles that he held in the financial, technology, and media industries. In service, Stephen has applied his gifts in the realms of counseling and the ministry.

    CBI Change Agents are actively transforming businesses right now. As coaches, consultants, trainers, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, their work is diverse, and their community is global. You can be one of them! Here is a glimpse of what this immersive and very personal course offers: Collaborative leadership and entrepreneurial oneness Sacred activism and community Mindfulness and the language of conscious business Employee engagement and team building Conscious business planning Appreciative management and decision making Financial transparency and open book management Bringing presence into sales and marketing Conscious legal practices.

    When we look at the state of business culture today, this can seem like a scary step - even terrifying. But once I made that choice, I experienced what conscious business change agents universally report This step enriched my life in ways I couldn't even imagine when I made it! I began to feel happier and more at ease at work I became more deeply aware that I was part of something bigger than me, and as my sense of mission and purpose grew, I had more energy and creativity as a leader. Training is in an interactive on-line classroom.

    The certification project is self-paced with one-on-one support from a coach.