LEAP! Living Empowered Action Program

This episode is a primer for a workshop being offered on the LEAP! Living Empowered Action Program.
This workshop is offered via Zoom on Saturday, July 22, 2023 from 10 AM to 2 PM Pacific, for $39.

You can register here

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Welcome everybody to another Fearlessly Feral podcast. This is Reverend Karen coming at you from the back 40 out in northern Nevada. And today's episode is titled LEAP. Now LEAP is an acronym. It stands for Living Empowered Action Program. And I'm going to present this program in a workshop on July 22nd. So today's podcast is going to be a primer, if you will, or an introduction of what's going to be covered in the workshop. There's some valuable stuff in this podcast. You don't have to attend the workshop to get some goodies. But there's even more goodies in the workshop. So I hope by the time you finish listening to this podcast, you'll say, sign me up. And I will have the directions to do so at the end. So before I dive in, here's my introduction, which I always have to do. They say you gotta do the intro. So here's the intro. Welcome to Fearlessly Fair A Living, broadcasting to you from the Woogie Ranch, out here in the back forty of northwestern Nevada, where I'm a half an hour away from the nearest gas station and the nearest grocery store. This podcast is devoted to using new thought principles to ensure successful creative living. Fearlessly Feral is a focused ministry of centers for spiritual living and devoted to the vision of a world in which everyone lives fearlessly, feral, or wild and free. So back to our topic. So Living Empowered Action Program. Leap! I always have to say leap when I do that. I don't know why. Just leap. Anyway, it's more about self-care. Really, the leap program is about deep and abiding and loving self-care. So that's kind of what I'm going to talk about today with this leap program. And in the new thought science of mind world, self-care has historically been consisted of mostly meditation and treatment, what we call affirmative prayer, with a little bit of study thrown in. In the secular world, self-care consists of massages and manicures and days off and vacations. While the secular world hasn't changed much in terms of self-care in the new thought movement, I am very grateful that another component has finally been recognized, that of self-care. That of personal self-awareness. When I first started in this movement, there wasn't a lot of personal self-awareness going on, believe me. And in my opinion, self-awareness coupled with connection and meditation and treatment and affirmative prayer is the whammy of successful living. Personal self-awareness, connection, meditation, and treatment, or affirmative prayer. It's the whammy of successful living. And I'm repeating that because it's so incredibly important. I believe that it is only when we do these four practices combined that we can live empowered. I believe that everything that comes up for us in life, all the changes, all the losses, all of it is ultimately designed to encourage us and allow us and facilitate for us to move ever upward. There's always more, there's always better. And again, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with what is. There's just more. There's just better. So today, yeah, I'm just gonna give you the recipe and not really tell you how to put it all together. That's gonna come in the workshop. But yeah, leap, living empowered action program. So let's say life is just okay. Or maybe it's highly unsatisfactory. Maybe you have a tissue issue that's just screaming at you to do something. Or maybe you're considering a life-changing decision, or maybe you've had a major loss or a series of losses. And as I'm saying this, I realize that I'm beginning to sound like one of those folks. Remember those folks back in the early 1900s? Well, you probably don't remember them, but you might remember hearing about them. They used to travel around the country with their tints, and they would sell this stuff that they it was ultimately called snake oil. Of course they had a lot of different names for it, but it was basically snake oil. They would say, This will cure everything, all your ailments, and they'd sell it, and then they'd leave. And of course, by the time the people found out the snake oil was worthless, the person would be gone and they'd never find them. So of course we know that the snake oil never cured anything. Probably got you drunk or high, but it never cured anything. And I'm finding it really interesting that people kept buying that snake oil and that people have always looked for a cure all. Isn't that true? We've always looked for something that is gonna fix us. Now setting aside the fact that none of us needs fixing, again, there's nothing wrong. None of us needs fixing. There is always ever upward movement. There's always more, there's always better. And I believe that this leap program, and when I say that, sometimes I think, you know, Karen, this is nothing new you're presenting here. This is not original shit I'm giving you guys here. But in my work with people, I've discovered that there's not always a willingness to do this stuff. Or there's a willingness to meditate, but there's not a willingness to do introspection. Or there's a willingness to do introspection, but there's not a willingness to do affirmative prayer. Or there's never been a I've never encountered anyone who's been completely and totally willing to do all of it. And it's not that time consuming. Once you learn it, once you've got it, it becomes a consciousness, it becomes a way of living. And so it's just so wonderful, so easy, and yeah, it is indeed. Here's your snake oil guy, this program. It's a cure all. I'm just gonna come right out and say it. It's a cure all, and I'm not going anywhere, I'm not moving. So if you decide it doesn't work for you, I'll give you your money back. How's that? As they say in twelve step meetings, you can leave. Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out, and we will gladly refund your misery. Sorry, I'm getting a little on my soapbox here. I'll get back. Can you tell I feel very strongly about this? Oh my god, my life has been so vastly improved since I started doing this. So back to self-care. Historically, in the new thought movement, meditation and affirmative prayer were the only two things that were considered as self-care. I believe there's way more, of course. Historically, with people in general, when something happens to us when we have a loss or a major change or something going on that we just don't want to take a look at, the typical response is well just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get her done. Or move. Let's move. The only problem with moving is that you take yourself with you when you go. There's a name for moving, by the way, when when something happens, it's called a geographic. Now the very fact that there's a name for that might tell you something. It might tell you that, oh, okay, this doesn't really work very well, does it? No, it doesn't. But we seem to have this unwillingness to do anything remotely resembling self-awareness. We will do anything to avoid that. We will do anything to go with of to avoid going within. And I just I've never understood that because the rewards for going in are so great. And I feel like I'm harping, like I'm nagging on this, but oh my god, life would be so much better. The world would be better if people went within and looked at themselves instead of pointing the finger outward. I do believe that life is about living full on, it's about living in joy, it's about experiencing all of life and allowing ourselves to experience all of life. All of this stuff. I also believe life is about allowing ourselves to experience all that stuff without shame and without blame. In other words, we don't get to call ourselves names, we don't get to say, oh my god, you're so stupid. No, we don't get to do that. We don't get to shit on ourselves. We don't get to blame ourselves. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, blame needs to be removed from our lives. There's no blame ever. Not for ourselves and not for them. No blame and no shame. Going within and allowing yourself to feel isn't gonna kill you. It's not gonna hurt you. Those feelings, they come up, you allow themselves to come up, you allow them to move through you, and then they go away like magic. And sometimes in the allowing of ourselves to experience those feelings, we learn very cool stuff about ourselves. So this self-care piece that I'm speaking of begins and ends with personal self-awareness. And it includes connection and meditation and treatment, and of course all that good yummy secular stuff, massages and manicures and days off. And self-care has a huge component of self-acceptance. So self-care is the most important thing we can do in our lives to ensure successful living. And that and the most important component within the self-care is introspection. Connection makes the introspection comfortable. Connection gives us the power to carry out the ideas that we receive when we're doing this introspection. Meditation gives us the relaxation and some more power to do what is ours to do. Treatment gives us clarity, that affirmative prayer piece. So it's all important, but it's all based on that introspective piece. And again, so many people don't practice that. They've never even been suggested to them. Going within seems to be synonymous to going into a danger dangerous neighborhood and people avoid it at all costs. They'd rather blame others for their troubles. They'd rather point the finger outward, they'd rather blame the government, they'd rather blame whatever, whoever. Anything to keep them from looking at themselves. And because I have found this method to be so successful, I've always been really curious and a little frustrated about why more people don't do it. So I did a little bit of research into this, and I discovered, according to one researcher, that ninety-five percent of people think they're self-aware, but really only ten to fifteen percent people are. This comes from an organizational psychologist and researcher named Tasha Urick. E-U-R-I-C-H is the name. But really only 10 to 15% are. And we have names for not being self-aware. Some people call it being unconscious. Around here we like to call it being in spiritual bypass. Yes and yes, and I also call it limiting. Because if we don't know at any given time what's really going on inside of us, how can we know whether what is going on is limiting us or not? How can we know whether we're living in integrity with our values and beliefs if we don't know what's going on inside of us? How can we hear that still small voice within that says uh don't do that? You ask for trouble if you do that. Or that still small voice within that says Go for it. How can we hear that if we're not self aware? How can we take responsibility for our lives if we're not self aware, if we don't know what's going on? And I've got news for you. Taking responsibility for our lives is what moves us out of victimhood and into empowerment. Because if we're not taking responsibility, we're victims. It's clear as day and it's very simple. So I did a little bit more research and I because I wanted to know why. Why are ninety five percent of the population not self aware? Why? And here's what I found out. People do not practice personal self-awareness or introspection because they're afraid of being vulnerable. I got news for you folks. Vulnerability is kick ass. It opens us up to the sunlight of the spirit big time. It is an awesome way to live. Does it feel like we don't have any skin when we're vulnerable? Yeah, but there's ways to counter that and still be vulnerable. Here's another reason people would refuse to be to do self-awareness, introspection. In the case of folks who are leaders, they don't have people willing to give them honest feedback. Can you think of any leaders we've had recently who are like that? Anybody who gave them honest feedback got fired. I don't understand that at all. I just don't get that. Fear, denial, pride, defensiveness, what some of us call the ego, or an absolute unwillingness, a stubborn unwillingness to take personal responsibility for our lives. Do you ever meet anybody like that? They go on and on and on about how bad things are and how bad things have been, and how it's all everybody else's fault. And they stay in the problem forever because they won't take responsibility for themselves. And here's a biggie. Some people don't do personal self-awareness because they have a lack of trust. Usually they don't trust themselves. I've experienced that. I've had times in my life where I didn't trust in my ability to make good decisions for myself. I didn't trust in my ability to allow good people into my life. I didn't trust anything or anyone, including myself. I'm happy to say that's not true today. Oh, and by the way, that's not true today because I incorporated the practice of introspection and personal self-awareness into my life. Again, I feel so strongly about this. I really believe that the majority of the world's problems could be solved if we all practice self-awareness. That's how important I think it is. So what are the steps in this program? What are the things I've been carrying on and on and nagging and lecturing about how important this program is and why it's important? It's a four-step process. Introspection, connection, meditation and or visioning, and treatment, also called affirmative prayer. Again, introspection, that's the self-awareness piece. And in the workshop, I'm gonna go over some ways, some processes to do that practice. There's many, many, many ways to do that practice. I've got my favorites. I'll introduce you to them. You can take them, make them your own, tweak them, change them, find another practice. There's some practices that are out there that I looked at and went, ew, no, I don't like that one at all. But you might like it. There's lots of practices out there. I don't think it matters what practice we use. I think it matters that we use one. So that's the introspection piece. By the way, I looked up personal self-awareness in the Science of Mine textbook and here's what it had to say. Self-awareness is the practice of being conscious of one's motivations, internal dialogue, and hidden beliefs. It is a willingness to observe and take responsibility for one's internal and external choices. Self-awareness is the foundation for conscious choice. Isn't that beautiful? I love that. Okay. The next piece of this program is called what I call connection. This is where we connect with that something, that capitalized something. Some people call it God, some people call it spirit, some people call it the universe. The key with connection is a principle that we teach here in Centers for Spiritual Living called oneness. Whatever you want to call that something, I call it the force by the way, whatever you want to call it, it is everywhere present. There's no place where it is not. That means it's in you, it's as you. It works through you. There's no place where it doesn't exist. That's oneness. Again, this is a place where a lot of people get stuck because they we've been indoctrinated to believe that God is something outside of us and separate from us, and that the only way we can connect with God is go to church on Sunday. And I'm here to tell you that is not true. So in the workshop we're gonna go over some ways to do connection. It's a really wonderful thing. Now, I've had some people tell me that they connect best when they're out in nature, and I'm like, well yeah, that's nice. It's nice to go for a walk in nature. But what if it's snowing a foot every hour? What if it's blowing, gale force winds? What if it's 120 degrees outside? Are you still gonna go outside and connect? How do you connect if you can't go outside? There's other ways to connect. And there's a key way. And I just did it, I breathed. So we're gonna talk about the breath and how it connects us. The third item in this program is meditation or visioning. Now there's they're really two separate spiritual practices, but they're sort of interrelated because visioning is a form of meditation. So we're gonna talk about both of those in the workshop. You're gonna get a chance to experience both of them. And then treatment. Oh my goodness, treatment is so wonderful. Also known as affirmative prayer. There's a formula for treatment. There's a formula for successful treatment. So for those of you who've never been taught the formula, you're gonna learn it. And for those of you who have been taught the formula and maybe teach the formula, we're gonna do a review. It's all gonna be wonderful. And you're gonna finish up this workshop, leaving with your own very personal affirmation that means something to you that you can feel. So those are the key four steps to the leap program. Living empowered, life empowerment action program, introspection, connection, meditation revisioning, and treatment. So, do you want to take the workshop? It's really easy to sign up. Go to my website, not my fearlessly fair website. Sorry, I don't have a store there. My store is located at my other website, KarenLinsley.com. So that's www.kar e n l-i n s l e y dot com. I'll spell it again for you and remember there is no D in Lindsley. It's www.carenlinsley.com K-A-R-E-N L-I-N-S-L-E-Y.com. And I will put that in the show notes for you. It's $39. The workshop is on Saturday, July the 22nd. I'm offering it via Zoom, so it doesn't matter where you are, you can take it from the comfort of your own home or your car or whatever. Although if you're in your car, I prefer an iPad, not an iPhone. Just because you can see and hear people better if you're on an iPad as opposed to your phone. But anything works. Saturday, July 22nd from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pacific time. Yes, it's four hours. But it's going to be broken up into those four different components, and we're going to take a break in between each one. It'll go fast, I promise you. So think about it. $39, 4 hours of your life, and you'll come out with a formula to live fearlessly feral. How's that for a promise? I thank you so much for listening, and I do hope to see your face in the workshop. Fearlessly Feral Living is a focus ministry of centers for spiritual living, and your support is much appreciated and fully tax deductible. You can support us by going to BuzzSprout and supporting us there. BuzzSprout is the host for this podcast. You can support us on Patreon, Fearlessly Feral Living's the name. You can give us a one-time donation via PayPal. And all of these links and more are both in our show notes as well as at my other website, fearlesslyferal.org. And until I see you, I am knowing Fearlessly Feral Living for you and for me. Thank you.