Change Your Mind

It’s not your life … it’s how you choose to look at your life.

It’s pretty amazing what a little change in perspective can do. It’s really amazing what the power of thought can do. These are principles I’ve known for quite some time now, but it was only until recently that I had the opportunity to truly study them and learn to use them in my day to day life.

I’ve been a fan of the band Sister Hazel for quite some time now, and I make no secret about how their music and the community of Sister Hazel fans – affectionately known as Hazelnuts – have had such an incredible influence in my life. One of Sister Hazel’s songs in particular that has been an inspirational beacon to not only myself but to so many others is ‘Change Your Mind’. It’s a song about perspective. It’s a song about point of view. It’s a song about letting go of all the noise that tends to make blurry our priorities and finding clarity in the simplicity of taking a new and different look at our lives.

“Did you ever think there might be another way to just feel better, just feel better about today?”

Over the course of the last several years, Sister Hazel frontman Ken Block, in collaboration with his wife Tracy and his friends at 4th Street Training, Dave Neal and Ray White, has developed a workshop for personal betterment that is centered on the principles of ‘Change Your Mind’. I recently had the privilege of participating in the pilot program for this workshop, and to say it was life-changing would be an understatement.

I’ve always considered myself a very fortunate individual with a personal history void of major hurdles, trauma and catastrophic events. I am very blessed and my life, for the most part, has always been in what I would consider a good place. I did not go into the workshop feeling lost or confused or seeking some higher form of enlightenment. Quite the contrary. I was bursting with excitement and anticipation knowing how much the song has meant to me and so many others, and eager to see how the workshop would be built around the concept of positive thinking. To put it simply, my expectations were met and exceeded, and the whole experience was so positively overwhelming.

From the beginning, the workshop was an exploration into my priorities and core values; understanding what is truly important to me and how I can incorporate those values into my life journey. It was an exercise in aligning my goals and dreams with these core values, and making sure my thoughts and actions support both the short and long term vision of who I want to be and what I set out to accomplish. The workshop showed us how to dream big and then create a plan to realize these dreams. It was eye-opening, thought provoking and, most importantly, inspiring.

It was also very rewarding in many different levels. Having had the privilege of knowing Ken Block for several years, it was very cool to be able to see and appreciate the person he was during the workshop. Ken is well known for being an open, humble and approachable musician. I imagine whatever ego he has is something he displays behind closed doors. Still, during the workshop we got to see Ken Block, the man with the Master’s degree in counseling and the person who lives with a spirit of giving back and doing positive things for others. He was still his fun-loving and jovial self, but it was great to see him be also very deep and passionate as he addressed the group. Pair this with the focus and energy from his wife Tracy, the superb presentation and group management skills of Ray White, and the excellent ‘behind-the-scenes’ work of David Neal and Danny Thomas, the Change Your Mind workshop was an experience like no other.

The best part of CYM is that it does not stop once the workshop is over. The program is designed to be ongoing, with the community of CYM participants working together to support each other’s visions, and to continually make better the program as it grows and evolves over time. Whether you feel stuck in a rut or that life is good and on cruise control, the CYM workshop has something for everyone. It is a program I highly recommend. If you’re unsure about looking into the workshop, just remember that changing your life is as simple as changing your mind.

Please follow these links for more information on Sister Hazel, Ken Block (Facebook), 4th Street Training and the Change Your Mind workshop. You can find the CYM workshop on Twitter at @ExperimentCYM

Attitude of Gratitude

I first began blogging just over 27 months ago. I can’t say there was one particular reason as to why I started writing. Rather, I think it was a myriad of reasons and circumstances which compelled me to click away at my keyboard. And in these past 27 months I’ve written about so many things. Kids and cars, love and lust, failure and forgiveness. It’s all there. My life for the world to see.

Over the past several months, however, I’ve been asked by several friends why I don’t write as often as I used to. I would post 3–4 times per week. And not just 2 paragraph ramblings. I’m talking about 500–700 word rants and soliloquies about what was happening in my life. For me, it was my therapy. It’s how I dealt with the pain of losing my dad. It’s how I coped with the fact I left my wife. It’s how I healed after my heart was crushed. It’s how I rejoiced after my life was saved.

So here I sit looking back at what can only be described as a tempest of time. A whirlwind of emotions and experiences that brought me to where I am today. The father of two wonderful and beautiful children. The boyfriend of a woman who is true, endearing and so amazing that I am often rendered speechless. The member of a community that is so loving and embracing, it’s hard to imagine a life without it. All those dominoes that fell, all those ripples that floated outward, all those breezes that were born into gusts that begat changes in direction, perspective and understanding; they all brought me to where I am today.

And where I am today is a wonderful and remarkable place. I am a couple of chapters into the new book that is my life. My new life, where the rear view mirror is no longer haunting and the horizon is something to be embraced and no longer feared. It’s a life in which my daily battle is to temper my desire to floor it because I know the future has so many more wonderful events in store, yet I want to pace myself and be able to thoroughly enjoy the here and now.

I used to write to dull the pain. I used to write to justify the course of my actions and the decisions I made. I used to write because I hoped that someone reading would empathize and understand. We all know that misery loves company and I was miserable. Even though I never really was, I felt alone. I felt in despair and the only thing keeping me together was the ability to click a button that reads “Post to Blog.”

I have to admit, it’s much more of a challenge to write now. Just like crawling into a bottle or laying in bed for days upon days, it’s so easy to write when you’re sad and depressed. I have so much for which to be thankful, that I just want to shout it out to the world (hence this entry). Yet I find myself too busy enjoying life that I don’t make the time to sit down and write. And sometimes, that’s alright with me.