What really Matters

Recently I asked my friend Amanda what really mattered for her: was she pursuing her PhD in hope of a job, or beyond that was there some greater meaning in her work? It's only fair to put the question to myself: Why am I doing what I'm doing, and what am I doing anyway?

A year ago I took retreat to consider this question, resulting in my last post. Since then I have been posting only in Facebook notes (FB id: daniel_f_berg). I resonate with a lot of what I wrote a year ago, but am ready to bring myself up to date so to speak. Back then I still focused on entrepreneurship and consulting as the practical ways to make a living and do good in the world, but in fact talked at some length about the insights and humanity of the my relationships of support with Jan and Marie. Since then I have been incredibly challenged by, and have increasingly focused on going deep with, those who are in need of transformation, so much so that now I call myself a spiritual healer/teacher rather than an entrepreneur/consultant. In fact the reason I am writing this at 6:30 am is because I awoke with a dream confronting me with my anxieties about being all washed up as a consultant/entrepreneur. While I did support two of my friends in creating a web presence (Annet Schaap and Robert's Hava Java), and I did work with quite a few people for quite some time on Ethiopian development and business possibilities, I'm no longer pursuing social media/web consulting or things Ethiopian (as much as I love Ethiopia and will still support my Ethiopian friends) but am instead develooping and teaching healing/transformation courses and planning a healing centre with my friend Claire. So what do I mean by spiritual healer/teacher?

Just as psychotherapists are the secular priests of today, those to whom suffering people outside and within religious communities look to for expert friend support, so too spiritual healer/teachers are the 21st century shamans/gurus for those who have no spiritual community or who have not found the transformational support they need within their religious communities. Psychotherapists represent the secular orthodoxy of today, being credentialed, and validated as part of modern day institutions whereas spiritual healer/teacher types tend to be those who have suffered and having found healing and transformation now share their enlightened gifts with others who suffer. I reached a turning point 3 years ago when I felt called to serve, to trust myself to our creator and walk with those who would walk with me, walk meaning pursuing healing/transformation in life. Now, three years later, I feel ready to identify myself as a spiritual healer/teacher as opposed to an entrepreneur/consultant. So how has this come about?

As one who walks with others, I have been walking the last year with those in sore need of transformation, those who at the same time are really gifted. In this walk, I have been incredibly challenged as I have lived full-time both with Jan and Marie with Jan's needs for full-time care, as well as with my friend Claire with her challenging needs for healing/transformation. I have also maintained several helping relationships throughout this time period, some of these efforts being brought together in the first of my courses last fall. It has been my great privilege to walk with people serious about their own need for healing/transformation, trusting me and the grace that flows through me, to guide them in their journey.

The course that I offered took my participants into an internal dialogue experienced through their dreams, waking visions (guided imagery) and body symptoms, all this grounded in breathwork I originally learned from my former teacher Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. The reality of who they are and what they experience has become clearer and stronger for each of them as a result, with some significant breakthroughs experienced along the way. I believe each sufferer has the potential to become "the gift" they were lovingly created to be, and it is my great joy to facilitate the transformation of suffering into that gift! :)

And so I walk now, not simply quietly focusing on my own healing/transformation and of those with whom I walk, but now, increasingly publicly.

Be blessed and a blessing so much as it is possible for you this day my friends! :)