I was recently asked a good question by my friend and colleague, Rob McMahon.  He asked, “With all that you’re working on, how much of it is you having to do it versus Spirit?”

I answered that it feels like it’s me pulling to make things happen about 75% of the time, with 25% being handled by Spirit.  But then I realized, wow – that’s a lot on my shoulders.

How would YOU answer that question?  

With what you’re working on, what percentage of it is YOU versus Spirit?  

Last week I was facilitating a day-long private ceremony for a client that flew in from Florida. I continued to sit with the thought, “What if I was doing only 1% and let Spirit do 99%?  What would that look like?  How would I move in the world if that was the case?”

While I pondered this thought, I suddenly had the urge to get up and do Tai Chi.  It had been months since I had done it last, and yet as I slowed myself down and became “empty” – down to 1% that I was doing – it was some of the best tai chi I had ever witnessed myself doing.  I could literally feel Spirit and my breath doing 99% of the work to complete the movements.  It was absolutely beautiful.

Man, if I could just move that way all the time.  Here I am several days later struggling to remember how that felt as I deal with the challenges of my two babies, work, emails, and the new projects I’m launching.

But it begs the question, “What is the energy that we’re creating with?”

Is it the energy from your last coffee?

Or energy from “The Universe”?

Of course, in any true creation – whether it’s a song, book, or business – it’s about opening up to let the creative energy of the universe flow through you.

Yet, how does the energy of the universe move?

In my experience, very slowly.

Look at the way a flower or tree grows.  It happens, but slowly.

There’s a beautiful hike in the canyon of Laguna Beach that I love going on with Eden.  We often veer off the main trail through waist-height brush to visit our favorite place:  a huge tree that has literally grown right through the cracks of a giant boulder.  It’s an amazing site to see.  Here’s this tree that has literally cracked through the center of a boulder of solid rock, with only the slow energy of Mother Earth as her power.  But what power it is!

Imagine if we could harness this same energy!

Later on in the ceremony with my client, I asked spirit to bring forth the guides that would most serve me over the next several months.  I’ve received many power animals as guides over the years.  This was the first time I was given a Turtle.

A turtle?

Yes, I was shown that I need to take one little, slow, step at a time.  In the days since, this power animal has actually pissed me off.

I don’t want to crawl like a turtle. I want to soar like an eagle, or gallop like a horse, or run like a deer.  I like to go fast.  I like to drink coffee. I want to get up and go – quickly. So what do I do when Spirit gives me a turtle as a power animal?

Do I rebel?

Do I say, thank you very much, but I’d like something else?

The thing with Spirit animals is they are here to teach us something we don’t already have, or don’t already know.  They are here to help us evolve an aspect of ourselves that, frankly, needs some work.   I know there is something to this “turtle” thing.  I know it will help me slow down and take each step more carefully, if I allow it to.  In this allowing, I would be able to let Spirit finally do the “heavy lifting” because I’m not running 10 steps ahead trying to do it all myself.

If we are going to allow Spirit to work magic in our lives and do most of the work, then we have to slow down, tune in, and be one with spirit.  Otherwise, there will be too much “static on the line”.  Spirit may be giving you signs, but you could miss them with all of your mental chatter and belief you can do it all yourself.  If you’re hearing a voice in your head (or heart!) tell you, “take a left” and you keep going straight because you’re moving too fast, then you’ll likely miss an opportunity that could have shortcut the path to what you were wanting.  That outcome, based on your own doing, may not be the highest one that is aligned with Spirit.  You’ll get somewhere, but it may not be the most elevated option.

If you’re not going to put your faith in Spirit, then you better drink lots of coffee and read some Tony Robbins because you’re going to need a whole lot of personal force to make your outcomes happen.  That is one way to get it done.  We’re talking about another way here.  One with minimal personal effort.

Here’s the formula:  

Slow yourself down. 

Clearly set your intentions.

Ask Spirit to do the heavy lifting.  

Know the action required to co-create with Spirit.  

Allow that to unfold for you in this moment. 

There’s a scene from the HBO show, Bored to Death, where the character played by Ted Danson is informed that he has cancer.  It hits him hard.  He says, “I don’t want to die.  I haven’t figured anything out yet.”

I’ve been on a wonderful journey my whole life of seeking to figure things out.  It’s why I read Think and Grow Rich when I was 15, studied meditation and Eastern thought in my early 20’s, became a life coach at 30, and a shaman at 36.  It’s led me to the heights of many mountain tops in North and South America, with stacks of journals along the way.  Yet, most of the time, this principle is still something I sit with on a daily basis: “Trying to figure things out.”

It’s a powerful moment in one’s life when they move beyond the need to figure things out.  What came through in a meditation recently is this:

“Stop thinking that you need to “figure out” the way.  That is exhausting.  Instead, just seek to keep yourself in balance, seek to be in your heart at all times, and simply open to the moment.  What you need to do will be right there.”

I don’t know why about every week and a half, I seem to have an existential crisis.  I once again become invariably concerned with, “What I am doing?” and “How am I going to get there?”

Why do these two questions seem to run my life?

It gives me a headache.

I know I should just relax and surrender, seek to be in balance mentally and emotionally and then see what the universe brings me.  Yet, every 10 days or so, I forget this and go back to a place of “needing to figure it all out”.

Why do I do this?

After our trip to Greece a few years ago, I had a realization:  That if my life wasn’t about winning, what would it open me up to?

There is a freedom when you get off the hamster wheel.  Just breathing a calm, centered, purposeful moment right now is glorious.

But like many people out there, I’ve spent my life trying to win at everything.  In school, with sports, in the different jobs that I’ve held.  Also, as a coach and speaker, wanting to win and be successful.  Of course, there’s nothing wrong with achieving.  We often fulfill our purpose by being in action in service to others.  Yet, when you’re always focused on the “next” step, which is what a life spent dedicated to winning often becomes, you can miss something.  

I used to say that the most important thing in the world is, “What you do NEXT.”  That’s not necessarily true for me anymore.  It’s not what you do next, but rather what’s underneath your next movement.  It’s what is behind the thought impulse that drives your action.  What’s actuallymost important is your starting point.  Is it a starting point of stillness?  Of the heart?  Of a grounded consciousness?

Or is it some bit of chaos?

Because your next movement, whatever it is, will be informed by what just preceded it.  Hence the importance of slowing down and connecting to the heart center, as many times as it takes throughout the day.

Give up the need to figure things out. 

Step off that hamster wheel.

Breathe in the present moment. 

Open to the Truth that is there. 

“How on Earth am I going to be able to manage all of this?”

That was my thought as I’ve been trying to sort out running my business from home while also having a newborn baby and 20-month old toddler running around.

My wife gave birth to our son two weeks ago.  It’s been such an intense time on every level:  literal, mental, emotional, and energetic.  I had to smile when I received a few emails wondering why I haven’t sent out a newsletter in a while.  Life has become very full. But now, I hope people understand.

The birth of my son, Sorya Sage, has brought with it many lessons and opportunities for growth.  In addition to fully supporting my clients and helping my wife to care for our two children under the age of 2, I’m also launching a new business endeavor providing energetic support and workshops for conscious organizations and companies.  (See www.elevatedcompany.com if you’d like to check it out.)  So how on earth am I going to be able to manage all of this?

“By expanding and elevating my energy in every area.”

That was the answer that immediately occurred to me.

To paraphrase Incubus, it’s now about “going beyond the heights of what I think I know.”

We’ve all heard that managing energy, not time, is our most valuable asset.  So how do I do this when both my time and energy is at a premium?  How can I produce results with the least amount of effort possible?

The exploration of that last question is the reason that I’ve been practicing Tai Chi Chuan for the last few years.  It’s been an enlightening experience to take the concepts of Emptiness, Void, and working with universal energy instead of my own and bring them into the physical.  It’s one thing for me to nod my head about working with flow of the universe and not against it.  It’s another thing toactually move that way.

What’s the least amount of effort required to take flight?

I’ve learned that in nature, animals don’t “think their way” into a situation.  They don’t strategize or “figure out the how” of getting off the ground.  They just do it.  They naturally take the path of least resistance, using their God-given talents and strengths to their benefit.

Here’s an awesome video I recently found of birds taking flight in slow motion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4uS7NL4tu8

While it may seem like these birds are flapping pretty hard, if you look closely, they jump and then at just the right moment, they bring their wings up to create the

maximum amount of lift.  Then they bring their wings down with full force as they lift their bodies up in a beautifully timed burst of synchronistic motion.

It’s not that flight doesn’t require some effort.  It certainly does.  But what is the least amount of effort required to get off the ground?

For us, when we need to flap and extend some effort, how can we time it just right?

We do it by listening first, giving us the intuitive knowing of the exact moment to strike (or flap) with minimum effort but maximum force.

Having a Different Measuring Stick

There are many ways for us to measure our success.  It’s easy to measure it in terms of money or results.  We can also measure it in Happiness.  Lately, it’s occurred to me that it’s pretty easy for me to sacrifice my personal happiness for the sake of my path.  But this doesn’t serve me.  After all, what is all of the success in the world worth without Joy?  So I’ve decided to ask myself a certain question each morning upon waking:  What would it take for my resonant being to be one of Joy? What would it take for me to be happy today?  And making sure I ask this question before I ask, “What do I need to do today?”.

I feel that letting Joy lead the way is one of the ways to get the timing right and work with the flow of the universe.

It’s certainly not by just “trying harder” to push the boulder up the hill.

My wish for you is that you find the right timing with all that you’re up to, that you’re able to sense when to flap, when to jump, and when to sit still.

May your flapping, or the energy that you exude, come back to you tenfold.

Blessings.

John Germain Leto

By the way, if you’d like to see a photo of my new little wise man, he’s right here:

What are you creating in your life?

Now, you might be thinking:

“What do you mean – what am I creating? I’m just living. I’m trying to be on my highest path, but most of the time I’m just doing what I’m obligated to do. I’m also trying to make a little bit of money and build my practice.  But what am I creating?  What do you mean?”

What I mean is that whether you realize it or not, you are creating your life. You are creating your experiences. You are creating your reality.

You have exactly the situations, the friends, the amount of money, worry, and love that you have created up to this point. See, many of us have lost our connection to creation – we’ve lost our ability to truly create. We really don’t have to create anything anymore. We just have to follow. We just have to react: just go to the meeting, say what you’ve already said a thousand times, just answer the text, send the email, drive there, go here – we’ve lost our sense of what it means to be the creator of our own lives.

How can you restore the power that you’re supposed to have to create whatever you’d like for yourself and your life?

1) The first thing to get is that you actually are the creator. If you’ve lost touch with this, then rekindle it. Deep down, you know this to be true. If you don’t believe me, then suspend your own belief for a minute, and then keep reading.

Try on that every single thing that you feel and that goes through your head – matters. Every single thing. The thought about that girl, the judgment about your body, the doubt about yourself, whatever it may be – it matters. It counts, big time.

Now, I probably don’t have to go too far to try to convince you of this. You’re probably living proof that the Law of Attraction is very real.  You know that you become what you think about. Yet, how conscious are you of it on a moment to moment basis?

“Our minds are always active anyway, so they might as well be focused on something worthwhile.”

-       from the movie, I heart Huckabees

So once you’re present to the fact that you are the one who is constantly creating your own reality, the next step is to go into Nothing.

2) Enter the Void

Emptiness is a concept that I’ve been sitting with all year long. Believe me, it hasn’t been easy. It’s much easier to be Something than to be Nothing. I’ve been studying Tai Chi intensely one on one with a master for the last year and a half. The whole point is to access a deeper sense of nothing to be able to work with the true “chi” – the energy of the universe – instead of our own. What I’ve learned is that if I’m working only with my own energy, it’s a pretty limited and finite thing. I mean, how long can you go before you need to rest or have another cup of coffee? But if you’re working with universal energy, you have access to all that is and can actually be limitless. One of the major lessons of Tai Chi though is that you can’t work with universal energy if you’re already full of your own. If your cup is already full of what you think you are, then how will the energy of the universe be able to get in? Hence, the concept of emptying oneself: Going into Nothing.

The reason why it’s important to go into nothingness is because if you don’t find some way to be in stillness, you’re doomed to your own momentum tunnel.

This is a familiar concept if you’re a Four Winds student.  If you’re not, think of it this way: there is a momentum pushing you forward in life. It consists of all of your previous actions, thoughts, and beliefs. It has created the environment of your home and work as well as the people you know and where you live. It’s the sum total of your past. And it has a momentum. If you don’t believe me, just think of the things that you have to do tomorrow or next week because of the momentum that your life has already set up.

So if you’re going to be able to change anything about your life, if you’re going to embrace being the creator of your life, you have to regularly step off your own momentum tunnel. If you don’t, then you’re just going to get more of what you’ve always gotten.

The only way to do this is to bring yourself to a still point. Only then will you truly have the freedom to create. Otherwise, if you try to create while you’re still being pushed by your momentum, you’re going to get mixed results.

So the bottom line is that you have to find a way to quiet your mind and find stillness. Here’s a link to a quick guided meditation that I created to do just that:

Enter into Stillness – A 9-minute guided meditation

Then only once you’ve accessed stillness, emptiness, the void (whatever you want to call it), you’re now able to make a conscious choice.