There will be no meditation class this Friday, Nov. 17. I am out of town and once again lacking sufficient internet bandwidth to run a zoom class. I expect to be back to the Bay Area in time for the Friday following Thanksgiving, Nov. 24.

In the spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving I want to share two powerful insight that came to me in the same day.

Are You Good Enough?

The first insight came from the post of Brennan Dunn, a techie guy who teaches how to personalize email systems. Much of what he writes involves PHP scripts and invisible instructions way above my comprehension. However, his post “Are You Good Enough?” spoke to my soul.

In the post he talks about making his first mobile workstation out of wood. He knows he is just a beginner.

The learning needs of a newbie or anyone for that matter requires the right level of instruction. We need a person who understand where we are.

He described the time he was teaching a beginners workshop on building a simple web app. Most of the participants were fairly experienced, having built basic websites or dabbled with PHP code. Except one guy who could not figure out how to even install on his Macbook, the web framework they were using. He didn’t know where to start. Brennan was too advanced for this guy’s level of comprehension, and Brennan struggled to teach him anything. 

Brennan's own experience figuring out how to make his worktable involved step by step YouTubes videos from people just a few steps ahead of him. Although he admires the work Paul Sellers, a woodworker for 40 something years, and aspires to some day be like him, for now, he can not learn from him. Paul is too advanced.

And so it was with the guy in the website workshop. Too much distance between the learner and the teacher.

Conclusion: It can seem sometimes like you’re not good enough, have nothing new to say, or are just another loud voice in a crowded room. However, on the internet, you don’t have to be “the authority.” All you need is a small group of people who look up to you as their authority because you know exactly where they are and how to get them to where you are.

There are 5 billion people on the internet. Each at a different level or requiring a different way of learning. Some will be people only you can help. You just need to position yourself so they can find you. You are enough!

Healing is in Your Hands

The other insight came from reading one of the chapters in Rachel Naomi Remen's book, Kitchen Table Wisdom. A trained pediatrician, Rachel is a renowned teacher of integrative medicine and the co-founder of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program. 

In the particular chapter, Rachel describes one of her physician workshops in which the doctors are invited to activate their innate healing powers through listening and touch.

Each of us is born with this healing power. It involves being wholly present for the other— listening and holding space without the need to be the hero or fix the other. 

Physicians are taught to be "professional" to hold themselves apart from their patients. In doing so, they shut off their most powerful tool of healing -- themselves.

One of the physicians, a very professional and accomplished pediatrician, let go of her shield or professionalism to place her hands on her partner's heart. A powerful energy flowed between them. Her patient described it as though she were holding his heart in her hands. In healing him, she healed herself and reclaimed the part of herself that had lead her to become a physician in the first place.

Being enough and being ourselves are really one and the same thing. It is self acceptance of who you are right now. This self acceptance is facilitated by the Sufi meditation practice I teach. Being in the moment takes you out of fear of the past and future. In the moment there is only you right here, right now.

Of course trying to be something else is what we have been taught in childhood -- to worry about being or doing enough so we fit in and are loved. In reality, we don’t need to contort ourselves into another shape, a shape that does not wholly fit. Instead, we want to return our own unique and essential shape. In this shape we have the power to heal and help the world

Next class is Friday, Nov. 24 at 9 am PST.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89999494833?pwd=V2pOS28yYUdXM3hkaW1rVWIvSjBUdz09

Meeting ID: 899 9949 4833

Passcode: SUFI

Here's a time converter link if you need to check the time in your location.

Be brilliant.

Michelle

Dr. Michelle Peticolas

Life Transformation Coach

Empowering Women to Reinvent Their Life After Loss

Secrets of Life and Death

https://www.facebook.com/secretsoflifeanddeath.com