Recapping My Interview ...

For those who missed the online Presence Zone meeting last night, it was recorded, and I'll be sharing that link as soon as I get it. In the meanwhile, here's how my friend Kevin Beck (the host) summed up the conversation:

Last night Dena Brehm shared her compelling story and insights in the Presence Zone.

There is no single formula that creates personal transformation for all people in all times. Each of us has experienced unique situations that shape how we see the world, ourselves, and our place in the world.

However, when it comes to personal transformation, we seem to share several common elements.

For instance, consider fear. Fear is a powerful thought and emotion. It can paralyze people and freeze them from making any decision. Or it can propel us into making unwise decisions.

Dena calls it the "egoic reaction to what we do not know."

Sometimes, well-meaning people in our lives reinforce our fearful thinking. Sometimes, it comes dressed in religious garb and is called repentance, confession, and guilt. Dena described it with the amazingly self-contradictory phrase "shame-based therapy."

As hurtful as fear is, there is good news. When we reach a point in our lives when we can't live with the paralysis or rashness of fear, we can find a creative place for transformation.

A similar thing happens when we experience pain. Whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, pain can serve as an alarm clock. It can awaken us to new paths of living -- new paths that transcend the constrictive life patterns that we have learned and acquired over the years.

We tend to label these and similar emotions and experiences as "negative." Yet, there is noting intrinsically negative about them -- if we allow them to open our eyes to changes that we can make.

Dena described this transformation process in detail. She has undergone -- and is continuing to undergo -- deep changes after experiencing intense fear and excruciating pain.

When we believe stories about a pathological deity, our own unworthiness, and endemic exclusion, we will create prisons of anxiety, worry, and suffering for ourselves.

Those prisons, though, do not have to be the end of the story. There is a way out.

How?

Lose the story.

Dena described her experience like this. "I had to fire the old 'god' that was in my head."

Obviously, this can be a difficult process. It can involve the end of one world. But the creation of a new world -- one that is yours, not one that was foisted upon you -- far surpasses the former things.

In finding freedom, we can go through a process of judgmentalism.We might judge people who are judgmental. This tends to reinforce a mentality of victimhood.

How can you experience liberation from this cycle. Dena says, "I am responsible for what I project." This empowering realization allows you to be a conscious creator with God.

This was a wonderful webinar with people from North America, South Africa, and Japan.

And I'm pleased to report that my mother said I didn't embarrass her, not even once! She actually enjoyed it ~ and so did I...!

Oh - and Mark ('twould be my main squeeze) has been asked to do the Zone Meeting in October! Then y'all will be able to hear the "rest of the story"..!

And if you'd like to see the slide images that I used, just email me, and I'll share them: brehmites @ aol . com (remove the spaces first, of course!).

Shalom, Dena