Tag: non-personal awareness

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Your Personal World Cup & How To Win It (no football required)

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Your Personal World Cup & How To Win ItThe air is alive with World Cup fever this month. It’s something that comes around like clockwork, fills the participant nations with high emotion and has the potential to deliver the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.

How, thought I, could I possibly relate this footie-phenomena to the joys of a non-personal perspective in a personal world?

Well, if you’ll pardon the pun, it turns out that it offers us a golden opportunity for self reflection and a shot at deeper freedom…

Identity Crisis

The other day I caught one of those ‘count down’ TV programmes, the World Cup Top 100 something-or-others, and what I noticed is that we hold distinct national ‘identities’, which directly relate to ‘what we are like’ in the World Cup.

For example – England are rubbish at penalties, Irish fans expect nothing but have the best time, Cameroon are likeable rogues, Germany are efficient and effective; always in contention etc etc.

It’s intriguing that the identification each nation has taken on in relation to their World Cup experience, seems to play itself out again and again. The thing is, the same mechanism is operating in our individual lives; we each have our own ‘World Cup’ event, we have assumed an identity in relation to it, and we play out this identification as our habituated track through the event. With a sigh we are left wondering why it happened pretty much the way it always does.

Of course, if you’re a Brazil, an Argentina or a Germany in relation to your personal World Cup, then chances are you feel pretty happy with how things pan out.

However if you’re an England and find yourself constantly disappointed and longing for the glory days; or if you’re a USA who’s only really interested when you’re winning and dismissive of the whole thing when you’re not; or if you’re a Scotland that ends up with the opportunity to play much less than you feel you deserve and often end up on the sidelines gaining hollow satisfaction from seeing your ‘only slightly more talented’ sibling country falling flat on their faces again… well then, perhaps, it’s time to break the pattern and have a different experience..?

The Road To Your World Cup Heaven

Your Personal World Cup NPA GraphicSo, here’s your chance for some self-inquiry. I could call it steps 1-4, but it’s oh-so-much more fun to continue the metaphor:

You’ve gotta be in it to win it, so firstly you’ll have to get through the qualifying stages. For that you’re going to need to ask yourself what your ‘World Cup’ situation is? Then to survive the group stages you’ll need to know who you are being in relation to that situation?

Next it’s knock-out time and it’ll take some fancy footwork to uncover which key aspects you’ll need to leverage, to bring more freedom and ease to the situation. Pull all of this off, and you’ll make The Final, where you can use a little NPA (the ‘Pele’ of tools for this kind of thing) and score the winning goal that can reset who you know yourself to be!

Defining Your ‘World Cup’ Situation

To help get you qualified for the main event, here’s some qualities that define the World Cup and which you can use metaphorically to look at the defining your personal World Cup event:

World Cup Aspects Defined:

  • It’s a sport, so there are winners and losers, with a series of events and a distinct outcome that defines that (add drama to taste)!
  • It is noteworthy on the ‘sporting’ calendar!
  • It happens regularly and repeatedly
  • There’s a heavy investment of National identity in it. Lots of fire, passion and potential misery! (even though it’s ‘only’ a sport)

So, to find the World Cup in your life, contemplate those aspects and ponder where this kind of pattern plays out in your life. If you want to sit back and be lead by the hand on this, skip to the bonus resources section and share the blog – then you’ll have access to a handy bendy audio that will help find your personal World Cup.

Who Are You In Relation To That Situation?

Once you’ve got a specific situation in mind it’s time to take an objective look at how it plays out. Imagine that it’s not you, not your family, not your life – just a TV drama. Ask yourself:

How does it usually play out?

  • What role does my character play throughout? (Think in terms of archetype, stereotypes or symbolically)
  • What role does my character end up in?
  • What judgements are my character making?
  • Is there a clear emotional pathway and/or a switch point? (eg. a give up point, an explosion point, an impatience-leads-to-carelessness point)

Just watch the movie and contemplate these questions, getting a general sense of the role you play and how that pattern shows up.

A Couple Of Examples

Here’s a couple of examples to give you the idea…

The Children’s Clear Up Challenge

Tidy Up BattleYour ‘World Cup’ event might be asking your kids to tidy their rooms? You notice you leave the asking for as long as possible – perhaps its a 4 week cycle. You seem uncharacteristically het up about it and the kids throw all kind of strops. You want to be ‘strong Mum/Dad’ but the tears and tantrums always seem to take the juice from the legs. You hit the crossbar, miss the goal – it never quite seems to go the way you want it. When it comes to this – you just seem to play out the role of the ‘ineffective parent’, and you feel disproportionately crushed.

The Financial Ex-Factor

The Financial Ex FactorIt’s that time again when you need to ask your ex-husband for more money for the kids. It’s always more of a drama than other conversations you have with him. You find yourself getting nervous before you call him, distrustful thoughts enter your mind, then angry thoughts – you know you play your best game when you’re centred, but you can’t help feeling meek. You fight the feeling and get angry with yourself – you know you’ve a perfect right to ask. Then you call. Sometimes he’s just fine and agrees and what a huge relief. But sometimes there’s a slight hesitation from him, a hint of resistance and you explode – you accuse him of sleight of hand with the finances, you’ve slipped into the role of ‘hysterical ex-wife’, a ‘victim’ –  it’s an own goal – you’re devastated and bewildered… you don’t even think that stuff… ouch.

And fella’s on the other side of this one – you know there’s equally complex emotions and identities at play here for you too! ♥

Shifting Identities with NPA

NPA is awesome for shifting identities. The NPA vernacular for them is ‘cookie cutters’ and they come in all shapes and sizes. Simply having an awareness of what you’re up to and the roles you fall into in your personal World Cup is an empowering thing and awareness alone for sure can get things moving. However, super charging with non-personal awareness has a way of releasing these traditionally sticky identities at the speed of light!

So now you’ve got the situation nicely defined, you can apply some NPA, and here’s some simple ways to do that:

4 Steps For Experienced NPA-ers:

1) Use a spew from the set up questions and contemplations in section 1 (the qualifying stage) to get a situational cookie cutter. Self elicit in your preferred way and choose the most animated cookie cutter.
2) Ask yourself: In relation to [Situational CC], who or what are you being?
3) Spew and elicit the most animated cookie cutter(s)
4) Run those cookie cutters through the NPA Process.

Simple Instructions For Newbies & Beginner NPA-ers:

Simply share this article via the bonus box and you will get access to a 6 min video that will take you through how to do the process. There will also be an outline of the NPA Process words themselves. There’s a ‘gap’ in the process where you insert the cookie cutter you are using.

If you’re a newbie simply use whatever role or roles you came up with that you play as your ‘cookie cutter’.

So in the examples I gave above, the cookie cutter to use for The Children’s Clear Up Challenge would be [ineffective parent]. And for The Financial Ex-Factor, there are two: [hysterical ex-wife] & [victim], requiring two processes. Obviously, it’s going to be whatever role you are seeing yourself in, not the examples. Just put that in the process, say the 6 lines, including those words out loud and see what happens.

If you want to understand all those ‘Experienced NPA-ers’ terms and do really graceful NPA, you’ll need to get some training via our comprehensive audio programme NPA: The Bridge or by attending an Event. You can also get direct assistance from me, and make a huge difference in your life HERE.

Bonus Resources For Sharing

I’d love you to share this article on your social networks, and doing so will give you instant access to the NPA Basic Training video, The NPA Process words AND a guided elicitation to help you through steps 1 & 2 described above.

[JY-General-Bio]

Artist credit: World Cup Selfie by Emma Allen – http://www.emmaallen.org/gallery/

Tweetables:

We hold distinct national ‘identities’, which directly relate to ‘what we are like’ in the World Cup. via @JoelYoungNPA

It’s intriguing that the identification that nations take on in relation to the World Cup, play themselves out repeatedly. via @JoelYoungNPA

In our individual lives; we each have our own ‘World Cup’ event. via @JoelYoungNPA

NPA is The ‘Pele’ of transformational tools :0)  via @JoelYoungNPA

Score the winning goal that can reset who you know yourself to be! via @JoelYoungNPA

NPA is awesome for shifting identities. via @JoelYoungNPA

Having an awareness of what you’re up to and the roles you fall into is an empowering thing. via @JoelYoungNPA

Non-personal awareness has a way of releasing these traditionally sticky identities at the speed of light! via @JoelYoungNPA

Trust that you can work with whatever situation is showing up. via @JoelYoungNPA

 

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Wholeness & Your Inner Brat: WTF?

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Wholeness & Your Inner Brat: WTF?In this Musing on NPA & Life I’m going to suggest that you notice a place in you where you have no need of life to acquiesce to your childish demands for more than you have.

In plain English that means I’m going to ask you to stop pandering to (or fighting) your inner brat. After all, s/he’s a brat.

So, let’s get this out of the way. We all have one.

It wants more. More than you have, more than you need, more…. just because more is better, and even if it isn’t better, at least it’s more, More, MORE!!!

So how does one handle this often incessant demand without suppressing or invalidating this part of you?

A Little Clarity Please…

Just to be clear – I am NOT saying ‘have no childish demands’. Childish demands come and go, as do all the colours of human experience.

My suggestion is that you have no NEED of LIFE to acquiesce to them, no matter how diligently you pray, affirm, clear out blocks, work your ass off, vision board etc etc… you get the gist.

This is, of course, only if you are interested in Truth and Peace.

And, just to be clear again – I am NOT saying don’t pray, affirm, clear out blocks, work your ass off, vision board etc etc… what you are moved to do is always perfection in the widest context.

What I AM pointing to here is a discernment of Truth, from a Spiritual perspective, and a further re-alignment of ‘Being’ from ‘Dualistic Struggle’ to ‘Wholeness’

The History Of The Conscious Brat

In the latter part of last century, especially in the awakening movement, we nurtured the demanding child of our psyches and drilled ourselves on the belief in personal power.

To a degree this may have been the quenching of a natural thirst to re-integrate the personal perspective into the Whole – a pendulum swing from outer focused authoritarianism and the exclusion of self-motivation. In the context of balance and integration, clearly this was an authentic act of kindness to The Human.

However, as one foot falls and has it’s moment of relevancy on the path, the other foot inevitably comes into consideration.

How To Love Your Inner Brat Wholesomely

Non-Personal Awareness on many levels is a vehicle through which you can engage in a simple inquiry to the source of ‘you’ and the experience of Self. Many are surprised at what they find; the realisation of Self as effect rather than cause. But ultimately there is relief, a resting and a natural willingness to Be.

From the highest personal perspective, it’s a matter of discernment. Part of mastering the NPA Process, and understanding Non-Personal Awareness is about becoming highly skilled at noticing ‘animation’.

Animation is my word for ‘what is already being moved by God/Grace/The Universe. It’s the ‘Energy of the moment’ and as you come to know this, you are able to let go of formulas and discern the ‘highest & best’ in the context of the present.

Practice

As you practice non-personal awareness, the personality relaxes it’s game of control and rests Gracefully in the chaotic, ordered, intelligent, beauty of Life. An invitation to notice the longings, wants and childish demands. To notice actions happening that appear to support those longings, wants and childish demands. To notice actions happening that appear to NOT support those longings, wants and childish demands. And to notice that, in any case, Life is what it is.

I have what I have. I will always have what I have. And I have no need of life to acquiesce to my childish demands for more than I have.

And just to leave your personality with a little reassurance right now; that tends to feel freakin’ awesome 😀

[JY-General-Bio]

Tweetables…

Childish demands come and go, as do all the colours of human experience. via @JoelYoungNPA

what you are moved to do is always perfection in the widest context. via @JoelYoungNPA

As one foot falls and has it’s moment of relevancy on the path, the other foot inevitably comes into consideration. via @JoelYoungNPA

engage in a simple inquiry to the source of ‘you’ and the experience of Self. via @JoelYoungNPA

 let go of formulas and discern the ‘highest & best’ in the context of the present. via @JoelYoungNPA

As you practice non-personal awareness, the personality relaxes it’s game of control. via @JoelYoungNPA

Notice that, in any case, Life is what it is. via @JoelYoungNPA

I have what I have. I will always have what I have. via @JoelYoungNPA

I have no need of life to acquiesce to my childish demands for more than I have. via @JoelYoungNPA

 

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The Surprising Secret Ingredient That Consistently Facilitates Healing

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The Surprising Secret IngredientNPA embraces and expresses one of my favourite paradoxes in the realm of healing, transformation, consciousness and love.

In this Musing on NPA & Life I want to lay it out for you, and give you an insight into, what I have come to understand is, THE biggest gift you can bring to any healing or facilitation situation.

“I’m Very Grateful”

This week I received an email from a client who wanted to express the gratitude she felt for the sessions we have been having, and offer a testimonial to share with others what she felt she experienced with me and how it has helped her.

The clue to the ‘secret ingredient’ is in here, so have a read and I’ll break it down for you after…

“Working with Joel I have been surprised by, and so appreciated, the tender compassion and acceptance that he has brought to each session. He offered a genuine loving space with no judgement; even of feelings I had previously felt sooo ashamed of.

In the past I have experienced a certain level of acceptance with facilitators but when change hasn’t come or stuckness has shown up, the focus on ‘moving on’ or changing has taken over.

Joel’s approach has the flavour of open-handed compassion and shows a level of acceptance which feels as if it comes very naturally from him. For me though, it was a very new experience and I feel that those qualities have been key to me moving on as I have.  Those more tender/”dark”/”stuck” feelings, having been offered all the time and space they needed to feel safe and relax, let down their defences and change of their own accord.

Here I am a few months later finding myself in a more peaceful and happy place! Feeling more able to deal with life, with more space and compassion now coming from within me! yeah!! I’m very grateful.”

Jane Griffin, Leicester, UK

The Secret Ingredient

So what was Jane experiencing ‘coming naturally from me’? She states; compassion, acceptance, genuine loving space, no judgement. These are qualities which naturally arise from the secret ingredient but are not the secret ingredient itself.

The thing I love most about NPA; the thing that practising it has trained into me, into my approach to working with clients and into my life in general is it’s agenda-less-ness. OK, so that’s not, strictly speaking, a real word but it points to the fact that NPA, in it’s pure form, comes with no agenda. And having NO agenda IS the secret ingredient.

And there-in lies the paradox, and the challenge for many a would-be power-user of NPA, and many a fine transformational practitioner. The question goes: “Surely if someone is paying me money to get some kind of outcome or result – shouldn’t I be doing everything in my power to get them there? Or at least to help them get themselves there!!??”

The trouble is, all that “I, me, them, their, there” stuff is based on personal power. Personal power requires a person. Persons come with an agenda. Agenda’s come with timelines, outcomes, comparisons, judgements, intentions… that leads to right ways and wrong ways both overt and covert… that leads to dogma and dogma leads to blindness… I think you get the idea.

NPA invites you to:

  • Express yourself in your natural way.
  • To say a few simple lines.
  • To notice what happens (if anything).

That’s it. No agenda.

So How Does That Consistently Facilitate Healing?

Let’s break it down

The Problem with AgendasThe problem with agendas – even ones with positive intent, even subtle energetic easily self-deniable ones – is that they apply pressure towards the intended outcome or route. Pressure tends to invoke resistance, resistance leads to persistence and before you know it you’re in a world of friction and potential stuckness. That can lead to further pressure in support of the agenda and so begins an un-helpful loop.

Jane illustrates it when she says, “In the past I have experienced a certain level of acceptance with facilitators” – in other words, there was an agenda with the facilitator, and she goes on to say how the agenda kicks up a gear, “but when change hasn’t come or stuckness has shown up, the focus on ‘moving on’ or changing has taken over.”

As you train more in the art of using NPA, you’ll begin to appreciate the importance and power of it’s agenda-less-ness. The power in NPA is NON-personal; as you get out of the way (drop the agenda) things begin to resolve all by themselves… in wonderful, effortless and sometimes miraculous ways.

Working agenda-less-ly with Jane meant that we met in a state of mutual, gentle discovery. It was like watching a flower blossom… and how personally are you involved in that process?

As Jane put it, “Those more tender/”dark”/”stuck” feelings, having been offered all the time and space they needed to feel safe and relax, let down their defences and change of their own accord.”

They (the feelings) let down their defences and changed of their own accord… And THAT is how having no agenda consistently facilitates healing, transformation, evolutions in consciousness and love.

Let It Come Alive

I have found that people who bathe themselves in the non-personal perspective at The NPA Expansive Weekend and beyond, find that it naturally comes alive in them, and with that dogma’s and agenda’s fall away. They still, of course, are available to passing intentions, outcome notions and the like, but rather than wearing them as uniform, they are passing fancy dress outfits that serve to raise a smile, warm the heart, lift a weight, disarm or arm; they come, and are used when useful and kind, and are discarded effortlessly as the truth of the moment dictates.

In the end it comes down to this, “Less ‘you-who-knows’ and more ‘Life-will-show’, invites the magic moment”

[JY-General-Bio]

 Tweetables:

“Having NO agenda IS the secret ingredient” via @JoelYoungNPA 

“Dogma leads to blindness” via @JoelYoungNPA 

“NPA invites you to express yourself in your natural way” via @JoelYoungNPA 

“The problem with agendas is that they apply pressure towards the intended outcome or route” via @JoelYoungNPA

“As YOU get out of the way, things begin to resolve all by themselves” via @JoelYoungNPA

“We met in a state of mutual, gentle discovery. It was like watching a flower blossom…” via @JoelYoungNPA

“Having no agenda consistently facilitates healing, transformation, evolutions in consciousness and love” via @JoelYoungNPA

“Less ‘you-who-knows’ and more ‘Life-will-show’, invites the magic moment” via @JoelYoungNPA

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When Words Speak You (3 Keys To Divine Expression)

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When Words Speak You

I remember a time when silence was awkward.

Back then, there was an urge for ME to fill the void.

Say something!

Say anything!

And if my racing, fill-the-void mind can’t find something to say, then please-oh-please can one of you get your fill-the-void mind to fill it for us!?

Then came a great relief in the realisation that the source of all experience is prior to self… It’s the first of 3 keys I’ve found to living (and speaking) your Divine Expression…

And I’m going to walk you through each of them here…

KEY 1: The Source Of All Experience Is Prior To Self

I suppose that could do with a little further explanation – so if you’re up for it, come down the proverbial rabbit hole with me…

As I pointed out in my ‘Bad News for Control Freaks‘ post:

“Enlightened Masters, Quantum Physicists & Brain Researchers agree that fundamentally there’s no personal causality & every perceived reality is entirely at consequence to God/The Field/The Subconscious (pick your label)”

A slightly softer way to look at this, is to say there’s a heck of a lot going on that you are simply not aware of. And this stuff has way more influence than most people ever dare contemplate.

And… if I’m really honest, using the word ‘influence’ is pulling my punches.  

How so?

Well, if you follow any thought, impulse or inspiration back to it’s source, you’ll very quickly get beyond the self and into a much grander, more intricately connected consciousness.

Vanilla Or ChocolateFor example: A simple act of ‘personal will’ like picking an ice cream flavour…

Vanilla or Chocolate?
Your choice right?
Let’s follow the trail…

Well it might land in your ‘actionable mental inbox’ as a preference, in the form of a thought: “I fancy chocolate today”… but where did that thought come from? What was the source of that thought..?

Now clearly there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to that, and you’re unlikely to truly experience the answer by chasing it with another thought.

But if you ask yourself the question “What is the source of this thought/experience?” and let the answer find you… then you’ll likely have a direct experience of something greater than your personal self.

Things I have heard when I’ve done this exercise with people include:

Stillness, nowhere, vastness, silence, energy, Source…

Sometimes it takes a few steps… like “Well I felt like it”… OK, so what is the source of that feeling? “Er… well it’s like pleasure”… Great, so what is the source of that pleasure? “Er… I don’t know”… Great so what is the source of that not knowing? “Ooh… it’s like a vastness”… you get the idea.

“The Source of all experience is prior to self” via @JoelYoungNPA

Click To Tweet

Some would argue that this is still the self, or even some ‘truer‘ Self.

That, unfortunately, is simply a modern re-imagining of our pre-Galileo notion that the Earth was the centre of the Universe, around which all things revolved.  

I know it may be seen like heresy in the modern Spiritual age, and I’m inviting you to consider that both these ideas serve to keep the self safe in a bubble of (ahem) self-importance and the illusion of control.

With a little dogma-free, and sober inquiry this vast consciousness reveals itself to be beyond local/personal comprehension and control. It’s the non-personal, and as long as I exist as distinctly me – even a grand idea of me as a Soul, or God itself –  there’s a ‘me’ and the relationship I have with the unknowable beyond.

In other words, there’s a distinct ‘you’ which is only a tiny part of something much greater.

So I call it God, the Infinite Field or some other derivative, and through my relationship with it, I come to know it and myself as best I can.

So what’s all this got to do with words speaking you?

KEY 2: Shifting Your Attention From ‘The Causal I’ to ‘The Receptive I’

Once you become aware that you are part of something bigger, you can begin to make a paradigm shift in the areas of responsibility, attention & control.

It’s a process over time, but when you really get that the experience of self is at consequence to a greater force, your attention can shift dramatically from a causal I and the heavy world-on-my-shoulders responsibility that brings… to a receptive I that basks in the gifts of The Divine.

Causal I Receptive I

The Causal I

In causal mode, you believe you are responsible for creating all that you want. For correcting your perceived imperfections. For managing your emotions, and the emotions of those around you. The list goes on.

You must therefore KNOW what to say. You must gather knowledge and expertise. You must crack the formula. YOU must determine the action to take and take it. It’s an almighty effort to be sure…

You get to assume the credit, but of course you also risk the blame – for you perceive yourself to be personally responsible.

In the silence, someone has to take up the slack; find the words that will fill the void and keep the self alive.

Rarely do the words that come from the formulaic causal I truly inspire. They can seem shiny and good but are, most likely, hollow and powerless in any real way. Kind of the ‘fake tan’ end of the ‘power of the word’ spectrum.

The Receptive I

In receptive mode the self becomes effortlessly attentive to the subtle movements within the non-personal as they coincide with the personal. (Take a breath, I’ll explain that later)

The self becomes attuned to the rhythm of The Divine, and discerns its presence amongst the noise.

In this way the dance becomes synchronous, harmonious, in time, responsive. The self surrenders to the rhythm and is moved. The pattern of Graceful genius becomes expressed through the receptive I.

In the silence, the self is cradled by The Divine; feeling it’s innate support, feeling it’s innate power; buoyed by the waves.

The experience is akin to that feeling against your back when the car you are in sets off. It’s a feeling of being moved, and the words speak.

Living in the realm of the receptive I requires you to surrender the habitual causal I and nurture an active ability to notice what is ‘moving’. The term I use for ‘what is moving’ is animation…

KEY 3: Animation 

Animation is the hidden gem of NPA Training that can transform your life forever

Click To Tweet

In case you don’t know, NPA stands for Non-Personal Awareness and The NPA Process is a very simple and very effective tool for letting go of the yukky stuff and letting in the yummy stuff of life. Most people know it as a beautifully simple way to stop taking stuff personally… and it’s much more than that.

Because The NPA Process seems so simple (it’s just 6 lines long!), people often cheat themselves of the greater opportunity it brings them. To put it bluntly, they think that once they have the lines that’s it… they’ve got it and need go no further.

That’s like putting a dusty old painting from your attic in a boot sale; never realising you sold a Rembrandt original for a fiver. 

There is an art to using The NPA Process…

And those that choose to do the further trainings will tell you that something amazing happens once they have mastered this ‘art’.

What they quickly realise, is that they have gained a powerful skill whose benefits go WAY beyond just using The NPA Process. It’s a skill which allows you to master your alignment with your moment-by-moment Divine Expression.

It’s the skill of spotting the ‘animation’ in any given moment.

Animation is one of several unique terms we use within the NPA toolkit. To quote the Non-Personal Terminology Handbook, spotting animation is the skill of:

“Becoming effortlessly attentive to the subtle movements within the non-personal as they coincide with the personal”.

That’s a very technical and precise description, and I promised to explain it earlier…

So, in simple terms, you could say it’s the skill of listening to (and receiving) The Divine. And, by the way, this is something which can only happen in the realm of the Receptive I.

In both the NPA: Basic Training video programme, and my NPA: The Bridge audio programme, I go to great lengths to help you understand how key the skill of spotting animation is to experiencing Graceful and powerful NPA processes. 

So as you practice and become skilled with The NPA Process, not only do you make a positive difference to the small and big stuff in your life, but you also move yourself firmly into the Divine realm of The Receptive I.

I can’t emphasise it enough: This is an incredible life skill!

When you start effortlessly listening to The Divine, your life becomes magical.

You experience alignment, clarity and flow.  An effortless grace infuses your life experience. The words begin to speak you, life begins to carry you and silence ceases to be scary. In fact silence, and the whole backdrop of your life, transforms into a source of inspired potential.

 

THE NPA PROCESS: BASIC TRAINING…

NPA Basic Training - Start Here“This video programme will walk you step by step through the core training of The NPA Process and give you what you need to get started making a difference in your life right away with NPA.”

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

When Words Speak You

These days, I am un-phased by silence and have no need to fill it. I speak when words speak me. I am quiet when they don’t.

And I invite you to join me here…

For when words speak you, they carry the rhythm and power of The Divine. The pattern of Graceful genius as expressed through YOU can begin to emerge… For your joy, and the benefit of all.

As always, I welcome your comments, and am grateful if you choose to share this musing. The best place to start your journey to a magical animation led life is HERE ♥

[JY-General-Bio]

More Tweetables:

“Speak when words speak you. Be quiet when they don’t” via @JoelYoungNPA

Click To Tweet

When words speak you, they carry the rhythm & power of The Divine and the pattern of Graceful genius

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“In the silence, the self is cradled by The Divine” via @JoelYoungNPA

Click To Tweet

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Thy Will Be Done – A Non-Personal Perspective

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Thy Will Be Done npacentral.comThis Easter musing on NPA & Life takes a good look at the idea of ‘Thy Will be done’. From a Christian-centric Easter perspective and the story of Jesus in The Garden of Gethsemane – the events that lead to The Passion of Christ – through to a very non-personal perspective on the idea of ‘handing it over to God’.

So let’s crack open this sweet egg, and take a ride down the Easter Bunny hole…

The Garden of Gethsemane, Jerusalem, 2008

In 2008 I had the privilege of teaching the first ever Journey Intensive Weekend for Brandon Bays in Israel. During that trip I had the opportunity to visit Jerusalem – an opportunity I was NOT going to miss.

I was raised Christian, my Grandpa was a Vicar; I went to Sunday school and sang with the church choir. I didn’t really relate to all that bible stuff, but no doubt it’s in my blood. Later as I walked the path of awakening, I was re-introduced to the core spiritual ideas that appear in Christianity, but also within the other main religious texts. In my ‘conversations with God’ over the years, Jesus has regularly been a ‘form’ through which the Divine has spoken to me. And often when Christ was around there was a good deal of talk about the nature of surrender and Divine Will.

So, on reflection, it is no surprise to me that of all the places I visited in Jerusalem, it was the Garden of Gethsemane that touched me most deeply.

The Garden of Gethsemane, Jerusalem, Circa AD 33

What took place in the garden marks Maundy Thursday and begins the Passion of Christ and all the Christian events associated with the Easter Festival. While much of the Easter attention falls on the crucifixion and the resurrection, in my mind ALL of that is cradled in the teaching of surrender that was reached through Jesus’ very human conversation with God; often known as his anguished prayer.

In case you don’t know, The Bible tells how after the last supper, in full awareness of Judas’ imminent betrayal, Jesus takes his disciples to their usual hangout, the garden of Gethsemane. As he waits there he goes off to pray, beseeching God to spare him. He basically says: “God, I know all things are possible to You, so please show me if there is another way? In fact, if there IS another way please, please, please do that!”, and yet with full authenticity he finishes his prayer with “and always, Thy Will be done”

The lesson here is not one of personal power, it is one of non-personal awareness. Jesus does NOT set a personal goal of living without suffering and make that happen, glorifying in his awesomeness when he hits his goal or entering a self-blame/critique/lesson scenario if he misses.

Rather, he shows us that you can be fully present and acknowledge the human expression (the experience of the frightened personality in this case) and still be fully connected to the true source of all decision, consequence & experience: The Infinite, The Origin, God.

Non-Personal Responsibility

You see, often ‘Thy Will be done’ is interpreted as a personal doing. In other words, “It’s my personal responsibility to hand it over to God”.

A non-personal interpretation would be that if, like Jesus, you become fully awake to the realisation that there is no personal causality, and every perceived reality is, in fact, at consequence only to God (or ‘The Field’ if you prefer) – then you will understand that the fundamental spiritual dictate: ‘Hand it over to God’ is not an instruction for ‘you’ to ‘do’ the handing over. Rather, it’s an invitation to simply realise the True source of all experience, inspiration and action.

So, Jesus understood that no matter what personal action he undertook, God was in charge. In the end; Thy Will be done. Byron Katie (author of Loving What Is), who’s term for God is ‘reality’ puts it nicely, saying “When you argue with reality you lose, but only 100% of the time”.

So, this Easter, I invite you to entertain the notion that Thy Will is being done. I encourage you to notice how you are being moved, being breathed, being ‘done’. I also invite you to honour your personal experiences and wishes in that, and be with them as kindly as possible. The Morning Prayer which I share on my Heaven & Earth CD (http://www.shop.npacentral.com/other-products/), provides a format which fully embraces these ideas, so that could be a great resource for you if you’d like a little support with that.

Sending you always, love & blessings

Joel

[JY-General-Bio]

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Silence Please!

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Silence Please!Real Silence has nothing to do with sound. There is an inner Silence that is always available, no matter what clamber and clatter surrounds you.

The Dance

I have sat with meditation “masters” who would go to great pains to control the environment, and especially noise in the room. I even remember an occasion where the teacher sent a staff member from the seminar room and out to the other side of the street. He was tasked to entreat the gentlemen who were minding their own and drilling the road, to please, in the name of Grace, shut the F*$# up… at least until we had finished meditating. As a testimony to the staff members charm and Grace, they actually DID shut the F*$# up, rather than telling him to do the same.

This dance was based on the notion that the energetics of the space are disturbed by external noise, which in turn can prohibit good meditation.

While I acknowledge that an outer reflection of silence can support ones ability to notice a true inner silence, or at least highlight the noise in your head, the association of the two can ultimately be misleading.

True Silence

True Silence is never disturbed. Not by anything, and certainly not by noise. True Silence is a backdrop of total absence, against which the noise of experience, the one song, can be perceived.

Versions of the ‘Silence Please!’ dance don’t always come as grossly caricatured as the example I gave. It’s mostly a subtle thing, an irritation or a need for such-n-such to be just-so before true bliss can be realised.

If you find your sacred meditation space invaded by noise, and these controls and avoidances (cloaked as ‘honouring’) arise, then I invite you to be still… let your meditation be to notice the Silence beyond the noise. Here you will find the secret to peace in the storm of life.

Namaste. Tick-tock. Om Shanti. Woof Woof Woof. Peace &… Nee-Noorr-Neee-Nooorr. …Love my friend 😉

[JY-General-Bio]

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Want Wealth? Get Connected To What Truly Matters

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Want Wealth? Get Connected To What Truly MattersIf you want to be and feel wealthy, start getting really honest with yourself about what truly matters.

Matter

Matter. It’s a word that speaks to the formation of the Universe. Quantum forces pulling energy waves into states of tension that give rise to apparent solidity. Energy in tension. I’m sure the phonic simile isn’t lost on you…

This is how your personal reality comes into being and what truly matters becomes more apparent in your field of experience. If you want to know what truly matters, look around your life and notice what there’s already an abundance of…

This is not about positive and negative – discovering what truly matters requires a neutrality of mind, an ability to simply notice.

This sober inquiry will help you land where you are and clear the hallucinogenic fog of positive or negative biased thinking. It has the potential to drop you into truly aligned clarity with an awareness of the intrinsic abundance of your existence.

Connected

The point of this sober alignment, is it gets you CONNECTED to what MATTERS – positive or negative as it may seem right now. It’s the difference between having your fingers on the stuff of life and the ability to move it, as distinct from just running your fingers through empty space. Basically, when you’re connected to what matters, you begin to have a much greater impact when intentions arise.

So, does your story of wealth match the reality of your wealth?

If your story of wealth is that it’s all about large amounts of money, and you have very little, then the fact is that money doesn’t truly matter to you. Once you notice what there IS a wealth of, and therefore what matters to you, you’ll automatically begin to feel the power and flow of your innately creative and abundant self – even if it’s subtle, and even if what matters seems a bit rubbish at first.

Materialise

NPA offers a very simple way to notice those points of connection and in NPA we call them ‘Cookie Cutters’. I often say that I have developed highly sensitive Cookie Cutter ears. In other words I’ve got extremely good at noticing where people are connected to what matters to them. So each process begins with being connected to what truly matters. It’s one of the reasons an NPA session with me and The NPA Process can be so impactful, even if there’s just a few processes in the time we have together.

If you want to manifest the stuff you say you want – if you want to ‘materialise‘ it – then at some point you’ll need to connect to (and start moving in) the stream of matter as it relates to you now.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and please like & share with your friends ♥

[JY-General-Bio]

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The Birthplace Of NPA

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The Birthplace of NPAAs this post get’s published it’s NPA’s 7th birthday!

It seems like ages ago that it popped out of me in Costa’s in Abingdon. It tickles me that Divine births can happen in the most ordinary places.

There I was in my own little vortex of guided communication while around me; kids were squashing the remains of muffins into hot chocolate soaked saucers; an amazing carer calmed the colourful tourette’s syndrome shouts of her ward; a suited salesman wheeled and dealed on his phone and mid-life girl friends supported each others judgements about the this and the that of their lives…

And in amongst all that, six little lines that would rock my world (and countless others) just popped out. Lot’s of people have told me they were inspired by the story of ‘how NPA was born’ so I thought I would share it here amongst the Musings of NPA & Life. If you share this post you can watch a video of me sharing the story, and help spread the word about NPA… otherwise – simply enjoy the read:

The Birth Of NPA

“I’ve been working in the field of human consciousness and personal growth for approaching 20 years. Back in 2007 I’d had the privilege of working with many amazing people and yet…

On 29th January 2007, I was sat in a Costa coffee shop in Abingdon, Oxfordshire where I lived and quite literally a prayer was ‘born’ through me and it went like this:

“OK God,” Grace, whatever you want to call that, “Is there something specifically that wants to come through me, in service to the world… and if there is, please let me know?”

I’m very clear about this. If the answer was no, then that would have been really fine. I’d have happily just carried on teaching what I was teaching.

However, literally a week later (on February 5th) I was in the same coffee shop, journaling on my computer when the six simple lines that I now call the NPA Process literally popped out of me! They came with that tingley-wingley sensation – which is sort of a signal to me. It was like, “This is the answer to your prayer. There will be seminars and books.”

You Have To Be Kidding Me

My response was, “You have to be kidding me. That’s just too simple, too easy!” But I’ve discovered that the simplicity of NPA is its genius in as much as it means it can be used in so many different ways and yet it’s really, really powerful.

For quite a long time I kept it very, very close to myself. I wanted to discover for myself, through direct experience, what this ‘Non-Persoanl Awareness’ was? And it quickly busted many of my illusions – the things that I’d learned and taught for all those years were really challenged by this little NPA thing.

It wasn’t until 2008, in November, that I first taught it publicly and not until 2009 February when I first taught it in an official way and since then it’s just exploded. It’s in countries all over the world and that’s down to the fact that it’s so simple and it just works.”

[JY-General-Bio]

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Why God Said “No Way Dude” To Moses

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Why God Said "No Way Dude" To MosesIn our positively polarised new-age culture, it is often said that God (or The Universe) always says yes. But there’s a Biblical story from the old testament which illustrates an important reason why there’s something God says ‘no’ to and the gift that this denial gives to each and every one of us…

No Way Dude

Moses in the Old Testament beseeched God to make himself known to him. God said “No way dude, you’d be annihilated” (I paraphrase) ;0)

Essentially this story points to God, Divinity as the unknowable mystery. No single being can encapsulate the infinite.

So Moses badgers God who finally agrees to let His shadow fall briefly across him. And in that moment Moses’ hair turns instantly grey and he runs mad around the dessert for 40 days and 40 nights…

This story reflects the deep longing within each human individual to connect with the unknowable – as voiced by Moses in the story.

A Finite Interpretation Of The Infinite Mystery

It further illustrates how even the slightest conscious awareness of that longing will give birth to a story, a shadow of the Truth. In other words; a perspective, a filtered translation or finite interpretation of the infinite mystery.

Then, my awakened friends, the trap of “I have it” is set. In other words we have tendancy to make our interpretation THE definitive truth, and then preach it as such to others.

In non-personal awareness we move from these subtle (and not so subtle) declarations of absolute truth, to a deep understanding that we each have a unique perspective on reality. It’s the acknowledgement that all we have is our story, and that our story connects us to the unknowable truth of what is.

An Air Of Discovery

When you surrender to the humbling awareness of this, you can begin to enjoy yours and other people’s stories, taking them lightly and entering conversations with an air of discovery and unattached passion.

So enjoy your story of Divinity, knowing it connects you somehow to the unknowable.

Please comment, like & share with your friends

[JY-General-Bio]

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Am I Supposed To Be Ridding Myself Of The Ego?

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Am I Supposed To Be Ridding Myself of The EgoThought I’d get 2014 rolling with a bit of hard-core spiritual heresy, and happened across some video footage from a panel talk I did with two excellent non-personal friends in Toronto last year.

So, here’s an extract from: “An Evening of Dynamic Conversation on The New Wave of Non-Personal Development”

It’s moderated by Dave Clark (President of the publishing agency – Solutions Inc.), and I was joined by Arnold Timmerman (Author of Leadingship – Exploring the essence of leadership dynamics) and Philip Shepherd (Author of New World, New Self – Coming to our senses in the 21st century).

Arnold & I had talked many times about doing an event like this, and it happened that our schedules coincided in Canada last May. It was a great bonus to be joined by Philip and have an opportunity to offer multiple takes on the non-personal perspective, spirituality and personal development.

Show Me The Heresy…

The particular aspect of heresy we express in this clip, is on the topic of The Ego. We take a look at where the non-personal perspective on it differs from much of the popular personal growth and spiritual dogma that’s fashionable these days.

In this extract the conversation addresses topics like…

  • What is the nature of our authentic selves and who we think we are?
  • What is the impact of self inquiry on who we think are?
  • Does the Ego disappear when you become present?
  • How does the Ego relate to the human condition and Divinity?
  • Can you actually get rid of the ego?
  • What is the mechanism that creates the ego?
  • What is the mechanism that creates states of enlightenment?
  • What is the true nature of Unconditional Love?
  • How does conscious experiencing effect your life’s purpose?

It’s amazing what you can cover in a little over 6 minutes.

Enjoy The Video…

You Can Quote Us…

“When you start self-inquiry, you’ll find that who we are is much more fluid than we think it might be”
Arnold Timmerman

“I don’t even think about ‘is my ego involved or isn’t it’ – I want to be fully present and whole”
Philip Shepherd

“The minute you start making anything in your experience bad or wrong you instantly step out of the availability of your wholeness”
Joel Young

Comments & shares are, as always, welcome! :0)

[JY-General-Bio]