Kevin Murray
Ancient Art of POJSU
- February 14, 2008
What is POJSU? It is an ancient technique (actually not yet ancient but it may be in thousands of years.) It is highly effective. It puts you in the flow of all kinds of good things. When practiced, even in the face of fear, it has the capacity to support you moving towards your dreams. Or, we could say, it magnetizes you so that your dreams come to you.
Okay, you’ve waited long enough. What is this thing?
POJSU is the Power Of Just Showing Up.
How do you use this? Where can you use this? When can you use this? How does it work?
We’ll start with the last question because it’s the easiest. How does it work? Who knows? But really, who cares? That it does work is certain.
When can you use it? Use POJSU whenever you feel that it might be preferable to retreat or play it safe, but a part of you knows that pushing forward a little RIGHT NOW might be just the thing that is needed.
Where can you use it? Anywhere. At home with your spouse. At work. With anyone. You might be avoiding a conversation with someone. POJSU supports you to be available to listen. POJSU shows that you are willing to go beyond initial discomfort to what’s next.
How do you use it? Just Show Up!
In my business (where we made this up) we use POJSU for sales. We use this technique particularly when we’ve exhauseted all other methods and feel like there’s not a whole lot more you can do. You can call a client, fax, email, but sometimes, when things need a little boost, POJSU is just the thing. Even if the client can’t see us, we leave a card, a note, and they know that we took the time to show up personally. IT MATTERS. The next time we try to reach them, we find that they are a little more accessible. POJSU is respected.
I very often see POJSU in the realm of spiritual practice. In my community, POJSU is part of the discipline even when you’d rather stay home this weekend than travel to a retreat. It’s also showing up for my meditation when I can find many excuses not to. Over the years, those of us who continue to JUST SHOW UP know that this committed action tends to bend the universe a little in our direction. POJSU brings many gifts: sometimes peace, ease, insight, humor. Whatever the gift, there is almost always a reward, if we are willing to look for it.
In some situations, POJSU is what gets us there and yet there may be other work to do, things to say, or hear.
But none of that can happen without first showing up.
Where can you practice POJSU now?
Where is there work to be done that is being postponed?
Where is there a relationship that could use some attention?
Where is there a place where you are a little stuck?
Try Just Showing Up! and see what happens.
I welcome your comments, thoughts and reflections. Please leave a comment to continue and expand this conversation of POJSU.
Image of Perfection - Part 1
- January 17, 2008
Starting as babies, we look up and out to see how we are doing. We look for the reflection in our parents and caregivers to see “how it is going.” We are completely dependent, so it makes sense that we are looking “out there” to get our needs met. If we see smiling, loving faces, we are good. All is well. At some point along the way, we see or hear something not so pleasant and harmonious. There may be some upset. We look up into the same face, but it is not happy and smiling. Something is not right. This happens throughout our young lives. And it continues today. Along with the unsmiling face we may also receive some words: NO, don’t be that way, you can’t do that, who do you think you are? - and we also receive an emotional download along with these words. The emotional message is “you’re not okay just the way you are.” And we receive that message. And we don’t like the feelings generated inside us that correspond to that message - it simply doesn’t feel good.
So, we adapt. We learn to modify our behavior to keep the happy faces coming, and reduce the frequency of the not-happy faces. Or we go for the not-happy faces if that’s all we can get. This is what we all do. This is not a problem. But there is a big side effect. We learn to become something that we are not, something less than authentic. We try to reach some level of “how we should be.” But this is based on what someone else thinks we should be. More challenging, is that we get conflicted messages of how we should be from Mom, Dad, Teacher, Brother, Sister, Preacher, etc. But we do our best to be enough in light of all these opinions.
From an adult point-of-view we see how silly it would be to try to please all of these different expectations. But as young people, we do create an aggregate of these expectations - the Image of Perfection.
There are two major ways we modify our behavior as children in reaction to these outside influences. One is to do our best to be what we are told. The other is to rebel and go the opposite way. It’s all about hooking the attention on the outside. Both ways will get attention; and any attention is better than no attention. When we are trying to meet the expectations of this aggregate image, we are not being our selves, no matter the result on the outside.
An interesting thing happens along the way however. We no longer need the outside influences to tell us or remind us how to be. We internalize these voices primarily by believing them. If we don’t believe them, they aren’t part of our makeup. But once we believe them, they are hard-wired into our self view and self expression.
If we never have a chance to see that these voices are now operating internally and independently, we are run by them. We find ourselves living by a standard that is based in outside opinions that we have agreed to, whether or not they are actually true. We may be “successful” by outside standards, but we may also feel a creeping feeling of dissatisfaction. Being “good enough” for them and living according to this is really selling ourselves short. We can be so much more and enjoy life so much more by questioning these voices and opinions and then deciding for ourselves how to live into our own values with our own unique expression.
How do we begin this shift to take back our own attention and live life on our terms? That’s Part 2.
it’s all connected - even if we don’t see it yet
- January 14, 2008
In a conversation with a friend today, a point of view shifted. this may seem like a small thing, but i bet it will be a big thing for my friend. a new idea created a very new and exciting way to enliven what previously seemed like a lot of unconnected activities in her busy life. the old idea was: wow, there’s a lot of things going on, and they are individually very great, but sometimes they feel like distractions and unrelated and i feel over committed.
the new idea that emerged in our conversation was to hold all the things going on as related and connected and leveragable. i.e. they can all connect and support each other, even though it is not clear yet how that will happen. when this new idea was offered, you could hear the relief and release on the other end of the call. my friend relaxed and commented on the feeling shifting in that moment. i invited her to hold all the different things in light of this new idea and begin to look for ways that they might integrate and support new results. the theory is that by looking for and expecting synergy, there is a much better chance that it will show up. [the law of expectancy a.k.a. the law of expect-and-see]
we can look back into our lives, and see that we needed to go through exactly everything we did to be exactly where we are today. this exercise can work by projecting it forward, with Faith, to know that everything that we are experiencing right now is exactly what we need to be experiencing to move us to what is next for our lives.
this does not mean we have to keep everything that is going on as it is. we have choice. but in the moments when our choices do not seem to be fulfilling, or the going gets tough, remember that in time we will see the wisdom of this passage. so practice faith and expectancy. it’s all connected, even if we don’ see it yet.
ZEN TEST VIDEO BLOG
- January 12, 2008
this weekend, our dreaming group spend the weekend in a Zen monastery in Rhode Island. the short youtube clip here was my personal proof-of-concept of video blogging.
ABUNDANCE IS ALL THERE IS
- December 18, 2007
Imagine a society with so much faith in abundance, that the conversation of “lack” is a little startling. Imagine a culture where the reality of abundance is so ingrained that it’s like a fish in water; people hardly notice how amazing it is that all of their needs are met and how lavishly ‘Life’ flows through their lives. It may really require a stretch of the imagination to conceive of this. Please take a moment right now to simply stretch your imagination just a little. Use your breath and your body to feel the quality of abundance in this moment. Maybe our presence is a great and close relative of abundance.
For many or most in our western world, the inverse is true. Ideas, thoughts and feelings of lack are so prevalent we don’t even know that this is the medium in which we live.
And consequently, the conversation and practices of abundance can seem quite alien.
I’d like to propose a cause:effect relationship governing this phenomena- that abundance and/or lack are merely effects and that the cause is our beliefs. Further, I propose that our experience of abundance or lack on the outside is a reflection of the sum total of the thoughts, words and actions generated from our faith in “how things are.”
But rather than leaving this as a thought experiment, let’s use this column (this time, this place and this space) to create challenges to ourselves in the manner of an experiment to test the following hypothesis:
We are truly creators living in an abundant creation. We can create in our lives whatever we can imagine and whatever we are willing to have.
The experiments of action will challenge our deepest, most powerfully held beliefs (that we may not be aware of) about our worth and value. The entire structure of our beliefs that is contrary to this hypothesis (i.e. most of our beliefs) will be challenged. This structure would need to come tumbling down in order for a new abundant “reality” to emerge. This tumbling can be an eons-long slow dissolution, or a crashing, jarring earthquake of ego destruction and re-emergence. Maybe with a group of people engaged in this process together, this process can be enlightening, fun, gentle and miraculous. The speed and grace of this transformation is up to you.
There is nothing that we may desire that does not exist already in abundance; money, relationship, physical wellness, anything. It is a question of will and of practice. What are you practicing now?
Please look for future installments in this space to challenge you to create all the abundance you would be willing to have.
Welcome!
- November 26, 2007
This is a new home for some words and, I intend, a lot of energy infusing and in between the words. Thank you for visiting. I hope every visit sends you on your way into your day with a little lift and maybe a point-of-view that inspires you.
This is such an exciting time for our human adventure here on Earth.
Do you feel like you are living in the middle of an adventure?
» Comments (0)