Men don’t cry! Wimps might!
Well I must say I know who I am and I am a man of great integrity, knowing and Being my authentic self. I was able to show my true essence to people I have never met prior to this weekend. Let me just say when you are Being true to yourself and to those you touch, even a biker can clean up nice (She really does WOW), you can show that emotional side of your Being. I have work hard to reconnect with my femininity and I have been blessed to express it! Men don’t cry! Wimps might! NOT! I spent the weekend with wet eyes from time to time, and I can say that Men Do Cry!
Ok, maybe I should be a bit more specific. I had the honor and privilege of speaking at an even in LA this last weekend. I was truly moved on many levels. I was there to speak about the essence of my forth coming book “Transformations of an Authentic Man” and I found myself being transformed moment by moment, by a group of amazing women that I had the opportunity to be with. Tragedy and torment, have lead these amazing women to step out of their comfort zone and stand on principle to bring awareness and shift the tide of behavior, and how we treat one another in this universe. I am here to say that I totally agree, it is time to stand and say we must treat one another as we wish to be treated, truly not just say it, but live it! Treated with honor, respect, love, compassion, and lifted to greatness. I saw greatness being expressed and I am deeply humbled by their true commitment.
Listen, when you have been abused, (and I am not coming from a victim perspective, it serves no one to be the victim or to stay there) it would be just as comforting and simple to stay small and run away from life, but I saw more power and elegance in these women than I have ever known. And it was this that allowed me to be the Being that I am Being.
In the “Transformations of an Authentic Man” I speak of how I was once One. You know who you are. Those self-center, egotistical, control freaks that believe that in order to succeed in the world you have to be tough, strong, controlling, in charge, egocentric, mean, abusive, and even destructive to whomever they come in contact with. If you didn’t show the world you were all together and in control you wouldn’t be taken serious and would be left behind, CORRECT? Well that is furthest from the truth. I began my transition in 2008 and I can say to you I have never been more happy and complete as I am today!
So now back to the specifics. Several foundation and organization came together this weekend in Newport Beach CA. to connect, fund raise, and promote their passions for good in the world.
We started the day of with a workshop FoRe! “Living Royal,” sponsored by Maria DiGiovanni and FoRe Beyound the Green International Ministries. This small conference saw messages of hope and prosperity, healing, and new visions for health living. Then we finished the day off by acknowledging Rebecca Lawlor and her Investiture into the “The Imperial and Charitable Orders of Constantine the Great and Saint Helen. This event honored Rebecca Lawlor, among others, for their amazing service to humanity and Rebecca’s The Heart of Hope Foundation, Inc., just to name one.
On Sunday, “Maria also used her campaign to promote and share in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness month, and coordinated a fashion show fund raiser for the first international ‘A Heart FoRe! Grace’ foundation. Below please find those sites where you can learn more about what took place and how you can help be the change.

http://www.forebeyondthegreen.org/

http://www.livingroyal.org/

http://www.safepassagelives.org/

http://www.rebeccalawlorlimited.com

http://www.heartsofhopefoundationinc.com/

We were honored by the grace of our host Marjan Tavakolian. She truly opened heart and her Spirit, not to mention her home to all of us!

So I will leave you with this thought. The common theme or question that I was asked this weekend was that it appeared to be a daunting task to teach men how to become their true authentic self. My reply was that anything worth doing was worth the risk, and were they willing to help with the challenge, one man at a time. Are you willing to live the change, I am. Be blessed and I look forward to meeting you and those men who need to become authentic!

What is it about the human condition that causes us to struggle with patience?  Why do we hurry to unfold?  What are we missing in the moment when we rush though life?  I must say that these were not questions that I used to concern myself with.  I was rushing through life so fast that I did not even recognize that I was missing anything at all.

During my reading and meditation this morning I had an amazing feeling of hurrying through the process so I could get on with a project that I wanted or needed to complete.  Needed, is a very strong word in this situation.  It was not a need at all, more like a fixation on solving a problem.

Mark Nepo writes that if a rose was to rush to open and not unfold naturally it would tear.  Just as with the human condition, if we are to rush to unfold our lives we too would tear (The Book of Awakening).  Then it dawned on me that I have rushed through life far too quickly.  This subject has come up in conversation quite a bit lately, subtly at first, but not with much more vigor and specificity.  I truly love synchronistic events, especially when you can create them.

I little bird whispered in my ear this morning and said that it is a condition of fear, and the need to control that cause us to rush through life and want to unfold before it is time.  Just the act of being impatient cause stress levels to increase and illness to take hold of our bodies.   Reflecting back over my transition of the last 2 ½ years I can see where I have lost perspective of this unfolding.  Pain, fear, and the thought of needing to control have in fact been the driving force.

It dawned on me this morning about a conversation I was having with a friend a few days ago.  I have always been someone who has been very active outdoors.  One such activity was to “Drop Out” a couple times a year.  I would usually hike into some remote back country and experience the joy of grounding myself in nature.  Well I have not “Dropped Out” in over 4 years.  So it is time again.  This will allow me to gain perspective of what really is important in my life. With no amenities, no cell phones,  no computers, no TV,  all you have is you and the Spirit within.  I am looking forward to this experience again, and moreover looking forward to the unfolding in a natural way.

By allowing my life to unfold it is own natural way I won’t tear.  I can Be part of the unfolding and enjoy the new life that is being created.  By allowing this unfolding to occur naturally I am living a life, free of fear, pain, and the stress about controlling.  This journey call life can blossom into a truly beautiful masterpiece, and you too can have a life that unfolds naturally.  Just Be Patient and allow!

Have you forgotten who you really are?

Do you remember when you were a kid and it was the week before Christmas, or a few days before your 6th birthday.  Do you recall what it felt like the last week of school before the long summer break!  Do you remember that feeling engulfing your senses and occupying your imagination?  What would it be like if you could experience those same feelings, emotions, and create that vivid landscape in your minds eye?   Well I am here to tell you that it is very possible to experience those feelings again and again, and again.  And remember who you really are!

I have been on a quest for the past 2 ½ years to reconnect with those feelings.  Reconnect with the limitless knowing that all will be.  I remember thinking, that what was about to happen to me was going against everything that I had created and built for the previous 20 years.  Did you notice I said “I”  Well, I did realize how alone I really was or so I thought, thank you Father.

It occurred to me several years ago that I was on a path and a journey that was not serving as I would have hoped.  I have shared this story before, so if you have heard it before, so be it!  I am telling it again. So I hopped off the treadmill and began to deepen my search for Spiritual truth.  What I first realized was that in order to achieve what I was seeking I had to give up all ties to the past, ALL OF IT!  This has been a challenging part of the journey.    For the most part I have completed this part of the journey.  I still have a computer so I can write and share my thoughts.  I still have transportation, albeit, it is not my dream beamer!   I still have a beautiful warm and dry place to lay my head.  And now I have Spirits in my life that I can truly say have helped to shape my path, especially one very very gifted Spirit.  Thank you JEM!

As I indicated earlier, for a long time I thought I was alone in the world, oh I had lots of friends and family around, but I still didn’t fit in.  I did a great job at making it seem like I fit in, but in reality I knew something was different about me.  It wasn’t until I began to allow myself the right to expand my consciousness, did I realize that I was far more intuitive than I realized.  As children, we truly have this ability, but as we move through our days we are constantly given a message of conformity and the need to be realistic and practical.  I bought that line and began that 20 year trek into conformity.  What is really amazing is how easily one loses their ability to connect to the energy of life.  One day you are playing kick the can and whiffle ball in the street, and the next you have become a corporate raider.

The real question is how do you return to who you really are?  I propose that it is a healing of sorts.  You know like when your body sends those powerful healthy cells to rebuild what has been damaged.  Well same thing with remembering who you really are!  Time, meditation, and allow your inner guide to get stronger and stronger to bring you back home.  Sometime you may need to help of others who have returned home to help, but either way you will soon recall.  Oh one more thing, you will have a bit of mind chatter during this process, pisst guess what, the ego does want you to wake up.  So just know that this healing may take a while.
As a healer in the allopathic world for some 30 years I have come to appreciate the relationship between that world and the natural world.  During this past 2 ½ years I have come to sense a more powerful healing in the natural world that offers far more benefit and true healing than I had known before.  Combining both knowledge bases has helped me re-define my healing path.  I plan to study for my Doctorate in a very specialized area of healing at The American Institute of Holistic Theology.   This I believe will provide a full return to who I really Am!

In closing, I would like to invite you to sit with the idea that we are far more than just organic shells, randomly bumping into one another in this space.  I say that we truly are Spirits living a human experience and that when we can feel and see our experiences as Spirits then we will begin to realize who we really are!  I encourage you to  search your heart and ask the question, have I forgotten who I really Am?  If so, begin your journey of discovery.  I Am here to help if you wish!

Namaste

Mission, Vision, & Passions on this Journey Called Life

It has been some time since my last post, I deeply regret that. I must confess that I have had a bit of writers block, or should I say I have been looking for a writing path that will offer some value to you the reader. You have a lot of options out there and I don’t want to waste your time. I would hope that in some small way what I write will be reflected upon, and bring value to your life.

I have two passions in this life. First, is to see us live a life of true self-healing and not be controlled by the giant medical establishment that says we must take this pill or that pill only to mask what is really going on inside us. After spending 30 years inside the medical machine, I now know that we have been programmed to believe that we need X,Y,Z in order to feel better and heal. This is plain and simply not true. Now that modern science can measure and study everything from the genome to consciousness, I think it is high time to use those finding to shift the way we see ourselves and how we truly are capable of healing ourselves, without all the drugs and surgeries. Please don’t misunderstand, I am not saying we don’t need acute treatment like ERs and ORs for emergencies, but if we would begin to live lives of health and wellness from birth, I believe we can shift the belief that this little blue pill will cure us!

My second passion is also intertwined into my professional life, but is being slowly connected to my personal life. I can only speak for myself, but I know that I am not alone when I say that most of us have two lives. The life of your private self and the life of your public self, interestingly enough, living two lives can truly be challenging. So let me ask you which of those lives is the real you! Aw! You don’t know which one is real. You have been living this way for so long you have no idea which one is real. I came to this realization about 6-8 months ago, that I have been living a lie. I had finally hit a point of diminished return. I could no longer manage either, then it hit me. Why not live in full transparency, you know like bring the personal secret life and combining it with the public life that image that you project outside of yourself.

This really hit home last night, while speaking with a close friend. She had asked me a very powerful question! I paused for a moment with trepidation, then I realize I had an opportunity to be transparent and live in both my lives at the same time. Let me set the stage for you. This friend is in her mid 40’s, single, and has been very cautious over the last several years with her desire to be involved in a loving relationship. This was a self-imposed healing, for she had been deeply hurt in the past and felt it necessary to remove herself from those dating environments. So now she is back to feeling as though she is ready to find another soul mate and she asked me a very powerful, yet painful question. “Why do men lie?”

I have to say I was struck speechless for a moment. Those that know me would find that hard to believe, Jed speechless NOT! But this was critical at this juncture in both of our lives, hers the point of trust, and mind the point of transparency. My response was this, remember I have shifted my consciousness about living a life of transparency, I said I have no idea why they would lie it will only come back to haunt them later. Then it dawned on me, all my early programming came back to me! It was about control, about ego, especially about self-esteem. We cannot let this beautiful young lady think I am not altogether. I cannot let her know I have some flaws. I cannot let her know that I am vulnerable in this area or that. She needs to know that I am strong and capable, and oh I really want sex so I will do whatever it takes to move this in that direction.

Well gentlemen, I am going to move this discussion so that you may understand. That process you have been living is bull. It is a lie, everyone knows it is a lie, and furthermore do you believe for a moment, that the young ladies you are pursuing are stupid! Dude if you want what you are after, just ask! We really aren’t that much different. There are some soft differences, but for the most part, we each are looking for companionship, belonging, love, conversation, and yes sex. But please please don’t make that the end goal, and for goodness sakes freeken ask, you will be surprised what the answer may be. Look, we are both seeking very similar ideas and concepts on this journey, like love companionship, conversation, safety, security, healthy relationships, by God you don’t need to lie to get it.

So gets, this leaves me with my close. I would like to invite you to join a conversation that two of my colleagues and I have started. This conversation is the brain trust of a Spiritual Teacher by the name of Josh Dunn. Josh has been on this journey for some time now and has offered a forum for men to speak their truths and speak from their authentic self. And if you are just now awakening from your slumber and are not sure what that authentic self is, come join the conversation and let us help you find that. Check us out on facebook at the Beyond Survival Group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_170213236375187&ap=1

Here is to you and your journey!

In Spirit
Jed A. Reay

This quote really hit home for me today I hope this transformational moment causes you to shift your process and your thought, enjoy.

“To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief systems, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.” This quote is by one of my heroes, a turn of the century philosopher and some believe to be the father of the modern day personal development movement William James

Here is a short, but powerful quote for the day Enjoy!

“If you concentrate on finding what is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.” Rabbi Harold Kushner

Imagine for a moment about an event or situation in your life where you felt boxed in or that the barriers appeared to not allow you to proceed. What did you do? Did you get frustrated and angry? Did you continue along the path and then give up? Did you turn around and choose a softer, gentler route? Or did you continue on until you viewed the opportunity from all sides. Did you look at the barrier as an opportunity to see your life from a different perspective, rather than from the traditional point of view.
When you can begin to view your life as a clear ball and that there are truly multiple combination’s of what you think you see to that which you don’t see as solutions, then you may find the answer to the barriers in front of you. Step back and step out of your own way. “We tend to make the thing in the way the way.” Nepo

It has been a while since my last post, and I truly apologies. I am in a major transition in my life and I am navigating unfamiliar waters. I am finding a great sense of empowerment knowing that all this is as it should be. I Am that which I seek, and now I understand that living in fear only keeps me a prisoner of my own consciousness. So with that I will leave you with a quote from my meditative read of the day.
“The stuff of our lives doesn’t change. It is we who change in relation to it.” Molly Vass

I realize it has been several weeks since my last post. In the field of reality, life has come in like a perfect storm and I have had to take a break. Then last night it dawned on me. It is time to stop feeding that wolf and begin to feed and create the vision I have for my life. I had the great honor and privilege to be a part of a powerful radio show last night. There were some of the most notable voices on the Anything But Ordinary Show, and to be included with this group made me proud to be a part of it all. This powerful group of change agents is on course for some amazing accomplishments in 2011, and the world will benefit from what is about to be created.
This was all affirmed when I awoke for my morning reading and Ernest Holmes suggested: “Life responds to us in the way we approach It…Let us choose to be identified with power, with love and beauty, with peace and happiness. Let us identify ourselves with abundance and with success.” That being said I would like to thank Michael McCleary and Maria DiGiovanni of “Anything But Ordinary Radio for allowing me to be a part of their cast of powerful characters.
I would also like to acknowledge those powerful characters by saying we all have a part to play in this production we call life, and without you: Danielle Noel Hawthorne (mis Mojovator), Harry Shade and Phil Gornail of Marvelous Mondays, my friend and guardian Tonoa Bond “T” Ms. Kiki Richardson of “Playing Devil’s Advocate, and all those other characters who graced my door this year to bring me to where I am today. Thank you my friend Eddie Rodriguez, Michael McFadden, Jacqueline Hadden, Ric Mixer, Project Gratitude creator Shana Smith. You all have made my life a richer one in which to grow from. I look forward to what we will bring to the world and the changes we are about to create.

In loving Spirit

Jed

“Pursue the obstacle. It will set you free.”

“Pursue the obstacle. It will set you free.” Mark Nepo. That quote of Marks is fitting to begin a new discussion on those things, situations, life experiences that stand in front of your path and appear to be blocking you. Life presents challenges that sometimes seem monumental and other times challenges that are simple to negotiate. I would like to begin this discussion by drawing your attention to the simplest of ideas or it would seem the simplest if we would not confuse what Is and what is made up, you know our stories. When we arrive in this world (that moment of conception) we have no idea that we cannot do a thing, or think a certain way. We are totally free of all obstacles, but then a funny thing begins to occur even before birth. We begin to take on the ideas, concepts, notions, beliefs, attitudes, and assumption of those genetics as well as those humans closes to us. We begin to become what we see, hear, feel, and experience in our environment. We begin to build our stories that we may or may not live with for the rest of our lives. What I mean by that is that some souls have the canny suspicion that what they see, hear, and feel is not the right path and are strong enough to take a different path, while others are not able to make that connection and continue to create the stories they are taught.

I have been walking a path that was predetermined for me long ago and I did not realize it until just recently. What I find so fascinating about this is that once I became aware that I was walking someone else’s path, that path of my families and societies approval, it has taken several years to get off that path. I did not realize how ingrained this programming was nor how difficult it would be to shift paths, especially at 52. Well that mountain that I have been climbing just got a bit steeper the other day. For the purpose of this discussion, I would like to propose that when we are commenting that we stay out of our stories and focus on the journey and what it is that we want to create. Now please don’t get me wrong, we may need to set the foundation and create clarity for the discussion, but we are not going to live in our stories here. That being said I would like to open this up to all of you to help create a fantastically, amazing, place to share your mountains you have concurred and what your life looks like now that you have arrived safe and sound on the other side. As Mark said, those obstacles will set you free.

Have a powerfully creative day!