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Spiritual Workouts Edition #12 — Sat, 14 Oct 2000 WORKOUT TIME? A few days ago I spoke with a dear friend who just returned home after spending several months in a foreign country doing what she loves best — singing! I had expected her to talk excitedly about all the great times she had, but instead, her dream-come- true working vacation was an emotionally draining nightmare. Nothing turned out the way it was "supposed to" because problems came along that she hadn't anticipated. All of them to do with people's feelings about her — and how they reacted for having them... We talked about her experience and I mentioned an analogy I had about "resistance": that we experience events in our life as though we were working out at a spiritual gym. We go around and choose certain types of equipment (experiences) which offer us the kind of resistance we need to develop certain muscles we're not used to moving. The resistance experience improves our spiritual muscle tone; helping us to grow stronger, more flexible and emotionally resilient. There is always some gift that springs from adversity. That makes a "problem" something to look forward to. Or not — depending on whether you don't like that initial muscle soreness from beginning a new exercise routine. (I sure hope this won't inspire some of my more entrepreneurial friends to create a "Spiritual Buns Of Steel" workout tape!!!) ... I do find it interesting that many of the people I know are having a "crisis" summer this year. Nobody's dead from it, but there's sure a lot of scrapes and bruising out there... 2000 is probably a "reality check" year: no one died from the NON-APOCALYPSE in 1999, which now leaves us all to ponder the future — for real! "What the hell am I doing here?" This is the metaphysical hump that everyone seems to be engaged in trying to get over. Jump high, keep going. The finish line awaits — so you can begin in earnest. Reality Check: My Adventures in Authorship For the last two months, I have been working on a new and improved version of my book, Reality Check, which I released earlier this year. The experience of releasing "version one" of the book seemed to herald my own workout experience with the metaphysical hump of "What the hell am I doing here?" That struggle still goes on, although the greater part of me just laughs at it all, and at myself, and just keeps going. After all, I apparently have an eternity to work all this stuff out... The newest version of Reality Check will have some new features, mainly the answers that were missing from the initial "question only" version. To say "answers" may not be accurate, but I'm adding some further prods and nudges to assist readers with their deeper psychological investigation of their feelings, motives, and lives in general. Overall, the book has done well here and there, but not everywhere. It reached #8 in the top 10 at Toronto's Omega Bookstore Ñ which says a lot, considering they carry about 22,000 books, including those of the biggest authors in the world. It gave my writer's ego a bit of a boost and also gave me an indication of what might be the book's future potential within the North American "new age" marketplace. I should stress, this has only been a limited "test run" release. A friend of mine had talked me out of actually putting "Special Preview Edition" right on the cover. It doesn't change the fact that it still is one though... In other stores around Toronto, I couldn't give the damned thing away! Some people didn't "get it". Others, "got it", realized there was work involved, and quickly put it back for some other sucker to stumble upon! Reality Check is work — an ugly word for many in the "let it be...but pay me, OK?" crowd. My recent life experiences are confirming that many talk a big game but avoid the ballpark altogether. This is also true for people who buy books. Many who consider themselves "spiritual" have merely memorized the most fashionable of new age dogmas as dictated by some recent book of space age fiction. Now, I'm not suggesting that these books are untrue — I'm saying that they won't learn the difference by reading it second hand from the safety of their couches. Spiritual resistance workouts: who needs em!!! (we do!) Reality Check doesn't offer a gentle, soothing read for when boredom sets in on the subway. It offers a shot at some real insight — the kind that changes lives if people look inside themselves for long enough. But maybe it's my old age (hey, I'm 38 ya know!) because I've decided I'm going to try to bridge the gap between the old version of Reality Check and one that doesn't offer such a frenzied workout for the brain. Aside from the answers, or pseudo-answers, the new version will also include:
and, (Happy early April Fools!) I'll let you all know when it's done. 'Til then: toodles to you and your poodle! (hey, what's he smiling about?) Rolando The Vinci Subscribe to free newsletter
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