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Living Your Resilient Life
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Welcome to Our New Format!
The Heroic Journal is happy to announce some new changes coming. Each month, there will be a heroic story about a now-famous person's journey as well as someone - not yet famous - who's life also shows those same heroic elements. We will also have an article that takes a piece of the journey to give you more information to deepen your own process around your own challenges. This month, we take a deeper look at the pivotal role of the threshold guardian in our life. This "guardian" is nearly always going to be the people who test our patience, our stamina, our courage and our commitment to life or self. And, because The Heroic Journey is based in the Metropolitan Nashville area, we have put Brian McAllister's story off until June, to bring you a story about We Are Nashville: The Heroic Journey of A Community After Our Own Version of Katrina. We still have other tidbits such as movies, research, quotes and more. Thank you for joining us this month. Check out past Heroic Journals in the "Archives" section at www.theomnibuscenter.com
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We Are Nashville:
The Heroic Journey of A Community
| | Missy Bradley |
 Nashville is well-known for a few things, such as the home of country music, the capital of the fine state of Tennessee, the Tennessee Titans, a myriad of very fine universities, the medical research of Vanderbilt University, the publishing and banking industries, but until May 2010, much of the world did not know about Nashville's big heart and resilience.Tennessee is called the Volunteer State and that is not just something that University of Tennessee alumni (like me) gloat about, but it is a reminder of the deep roots in giving our time and money to others.Tennessee is a state of extraordinary resilience. The first weekend in May, just three short weeks ago, much of the state of Tennessee was devastated with historic flooding. Middle Tennessee, the home of Metropolitan Nashville and surrounding counties, experienced up to seventeen inches of rain in 24 hours. During that time, thousands of people became homeless as their homes were taken over by the flooded Cumberland River, Harpeth River and tributaries. Portions of all the intersecting interstates (I-40, I-65 and I-24) were under water. Many people lost their lives in their homes and cars and others had to be rescued while sitting on the interstate as a portable church building (with the word "Hope" previously attached on the side of the building) floated down I-24 near Hickory Hollow Mall.
Building floating down I-24 | The grand Gaylord Opryland Hotel, with 2,900 sleep rooms and nearly a half-million square feet of convention and exhibit space had to be evacuated as it was overtaken by the flood. The Grand Ole Opry was also flooded, but the also famous circle from the original Ryman stage was preserved because of years of shalack. The new pride of Nashville, the internationally acclaimed Schermerhorn Center, home of the wonderful Nashville Symphony Orchestra was also flooded, damaging the new $2.4 million pipe organ.Many of the most internationally known country music performers lost all of their musical instruments and tour equipment from flooding at a large warehouse and their own fine homes, yet many of them gave very large donations, held fund-raisers within days and helped their neighbors even when their own homes were under water. Only a few media outlets carried much about the flood - Anderson Cooper, Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart (all which can be viewed on YouTube and the links to their shows), since the flood coincided with the Manhattan car bomb incident and the history oil spill in the gulf. So far, the conservative estimate is $2 billion in loss, which doesn't include lost business and revenue. Most homeowners did not have flood insurance because this is considered to be 1,000 year flood. Most homes and businesses which were damaged were no where near a flood plain. Three weeks later, Nashville is alive and well. As people put their lives back together, clean the mud, mold and damage from the city, the volunteer state is on philanthropy steroids. Very few people do not have neighbors or families willing to house them until their homes can be repaired or relocated. Unlikely pairings have come about with people from well-to-do neighborhoods opening their homes "for as long as needed" to those in great est of need. Check "Nashville Flood" out on YouTube. Hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours have already been chalked up and there are no signs of slowing. Nashville is stronger and friendlier than ever, and we are coming back. Come and visit us. Visit the We Are Nashville website if you like any of the art in this article, helping to raise money for flood survivors.Nashville, like many who have come before us, is a heroic community. We are being initiated on the heroic journey of a community and we are succeeding in showing our true colors, because when a community pulls together, they can survive nearly anything and grow stronger. 
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Living A Resilient Life: Finding the Hero Within
Franklin, TN
| | TUESDAY, JUNE 29, 2010
8am - Noon
Living A Resilient Life: Finding the Hero Within
will be held in Cool Springs/Franklin, TN (just south of Nashville) for a half-day seminar.
This seminar
is based on an ancient framework which has helped billions of people
throughout history successfully face life challenges of all types. Whether you are a business owner, a parent, in a committed relationship,
dealing with financial or health challenges, recent flood (!) or just wanting to live
with more intention and courage, this will give you the specific tools
and framework to live and thrive with excellence.
Cost of either seminar is $75.00 - which includes
seminar, workbook and light snacks. Payment may be made with
Visa/Mastercard via PayPal before the seminar, check or cash.
BYOB - Bring Your Own Buddy. For anyone who has been through this seminar previously, you get in free to review if you get a friend to come with you. Anyone who lost their home in the flood may come free of charge.
Deadline for sign-up is Friday, June 18, 2010
Sign up early, space is limited
To sign up or for all inquiries, please contact Missy Bradley at 615-377-6002 or MelissaBradley@theomnibuscenter.com
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Profile
from Homeless to Billionaire |
Guy Laliberte once seemed to be an unlikely success by
traditional standards. In 1977, the then
eighteen year old Canadian, hitchhiked across Europe
making enough money to live by being a street performer. While sleeping on park
benches and very low on cash, the teen was actually in training to
becoming a billionaire and the CEO of an entertainment phenomenon that has
packed in tens of millions of people to his shows.
From bench sleeping street performer to fire-eater,
accordion playing and stilt walking, Laliberte combined forces with other
street performers. At first he had no grand schemes, he was simply out for "an
adventure" and that adventure was supposed to end with returning to school and
having a "regular life." What he didn't expect was the adventure became his life.
He returned to Canada
in 1984, after learning a great deal about entertaining people and was asked to
perform for Quebec's
450th Anniversary Celebration. The rest is history. But, before history was made, there were many challenges
on his road of trials. He signed $1.5
million in contracts, although he did not yet have the financial backing.
The first year, his show was a success in interest, but his
newly found company was badly in debt. "He went for broke and took a huge gamble by booking an act for the
opening of a Los Angeles
art festival." "I bet everything on that one night," he recalled. If we failed,
there was no cash for gas to come home."
Now in 2010, Guy Laliberte is not only the CEO and Founder of
the Internationally acclaimed Cirque de Soleil, he is also a
philanthropist. ONE DROP Foundation was
created three years ago to raise awareness on world-wide poverty and the
essential needs of sustainable access to safe water. He has also won Ernst
& Young Entrepreneur of the Year at three levels - local, national and
international and many other highly acclaimed awards praising his dedication to
the arts, as well as issues that impact people around the world.
From homeless street performer to a man who is impacting the
lives of others globally, not a bad journey, huh?
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Staying the course of your life, even when others want you to fail*
*or do they?
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Terri Schanks & Missy Bradley
What does Dr. House (on the TV show
"House"), the mother in the award winning film "Precious," a drill instructor
in basic military training and the friends of Job in the Bible all have in
common? They all act as threshold
guardians. In every heroic journey movie, biography or story worth our time,
there are always THRESHOLD GUARDIANS that will help take us to the next level. In order for us to grow and evolve, we must
face the challenges they bring to us. These people or situations always give us
the opportunity to deepen our own strengths, to develop more discernment, to
increase our dedication to what we are being called to do. In order to transcend the barriers put in
place by this type of guardian, we must face our fears and doubts, look at the
beliefs which are in place which may keep us stuck.
Threshold guardians don't always give us
this opportunity with honorable motives.
They may be the people and situations which have the ability to plug us
in, to set our teeth on edge, to drive us up the wall or to completely
exasperate us. A Threshold Guardian is always a mirror for us, a mirror which
speaks to us our greatest fears, and therefore the thing for which we can hold
the most hope. If your fear is of
failure, the Guardian will speak to you of failure. If it is of success, the Guardian will speak
to you of success.
The Guardian is the Illusion in your
life, the proverbial Satan in Christian terms, Mara in the Buddhist. If you trace the word "Satan" back to the
Greek, it literally translates not as "evil," but as "The Accuser." This can be a person outside of you, or an
inner voice asking, "Who do you think you are? You can/can't really do
that...." If you trace the word back
further to the Aramaic, the language of Jesus, the word literally translates as
"crazy thoughts." I have seen other
translations as "the one who whispers lies."
It is up to you to decide if your Threshold Guardian is your own mind, telling
you that you aren't good enough, smart enough, or that you are so entrenched in
your own way of doing things that you don't need to even consider another way
of doing things when they are already going to drastically wrong.
A story my father told me when I was
growing up involved his step-mother who was the main character in a childhood
of intense and painful challenges. After
years of abuse - both physical and emotional, she told my teenager father that
he would "never amount to anything" to which he replied, "I will show
you." Her statement, probably done
without honorable motives, became his rocket-fuel to success. As he faced his own doubts, confusion of what
he wanted or needed to do and his own fears, he was able to not only prove her
very wrong, but to find his own strengths, passion for life and
empowerment. In the extreme discomfort
she doled out, he began to find who he really was.
The Guardian embodies the concept that life
can make you bitter or better.
The TG is always there to help us release our resistance to continuing
on the path and always gives us the opportunity to see ourselves in another, to
reach a bit more deeply within to find our true center. Like any good spiritual teacher, the
Threshold Guardian can help us find the deeper aspects of the Divine within, so
we can see the deeper aspects of the Divine in others. The TG helps us get in touch with our
capacity-or perceived lack thereof-for hope, for life, for resilience, our
capacity for being transformed by the fire that has come upon us if it has made
an appearance.
There is a life changing moment with the
threshold guardian time and it all hinges on one primary question- What will
you choose? When we choose not to break-through that barrier, we
lose our strength and sense of self. As that loss occurs, we will find it
harder and harder to break free of the illusion of bondage. Like Lazarus, the Divine is always calling us
by name yet we have to decide to come out of the tombs in which we find
ourselves, and sometimes ask for help getting unbound.
After a time, we begin to believe the
opinions or perceived limitations set by the TG and life begins to shrink along
with our empowerment. The possibility of a vibrant life begins to die a bit at
a time. We usually begin to believe we
are not capable or worthy of more and those messages become so internalized
that we carry our own threshold guardian around with us - hence, we become our
own worst enemy.
The other end of that spectrum will be
when we face the challenge the Guardian brings, our lives begin to expand. In essence, we are being sent a rowboat and a
helicopter and we must choose to get on.
When we find the courage to face this time, we are taken to the next
level of development and resilience. We
transcend the fears and limitations which keep us stuck. Always remember too,
that YOU are probably someone else's Threshold Guardian. So at times ask yourself if this is how you
would like to be spoken to in a time of need or trouble. Like the friends of Job, sometimes we provide
support, and other times it just comes out as judgment. When in doubt, choose love and mercy.
Some threshold guardians in my life have
been my greatest teachers. After I
struggled with reading as a child, I didn't think I was smart. That belief made me think I would not have
been college material. A graduate degree and many thousands of books read
later, I have come to a deep truth-that I am a creative, intelligent, smart,
funny, fun and capable woman, an Elder in my community and that whatever I am
guided to do will be a success. But the temptation to believe the negative spin
or sink into old patterns of defeating thinking is always an option as
well. It's important to live the yes and
choose to live my life, regardless of what any Threshold Guardian may think
about it.
Jesus was tempted in the desert. Buddha was tempted under the Bodhi tree. Both, in the languages of their day, faced
their demons, which are always our temptations, fears and illusions. The ancients understood that demons were not
evil forces outside of us but our own inner demons-our addictions, our fears,
the old beliefs that no longer serve us or God or others. Going to the desert to face the demons is
what always brings one closer to the Divine, because in facing our deepest fear
we will find our deepest strength. Thus
the major religions all employed these techniques for spiritual growth. When the TG arrives, s/he can open the door
to your demons, so it is tempting to blame the messenger, rather than listen to
the inner message
If a Threshold Guardian has arrived in
your life, as much as possible practice non-attachment for a moment. Is the message accurate but you are just
offended by the delivery and choice of the messenger? Like Job's friends, is your messenger a harsh
judge, pointing out a speck in your eye when there is a log in his own? Can you find a place in you for strength,
compassion and wisdom for yourself and your TG?
If not, can you ask for that, or seek out wise and compassionate
counsel? Are you willing to trust the
process of life that we all have the ability to create the changes we
choose? The Threshold Guardian will help
you get in touch with your own victim consciousness, your own love, creativity,
peace, faith and integrity. Offer thanks
for that Threshold Guardian - whether it came through honorable or dishonorable
means, but then move on into the deeper places you know are your own. Find the friends and people who can and will
support you. Practice patience and dwell
in gratitude and you will inevitably find yourself further down the path. Hike on, you heroes....
Questions and Examples for further contemplation...
Some examples of thresholds people have
identified in counseling:The
way I sabotage myself is with my addiction to...
I can never do
anything good enough for my ____ (i.e. boss, spouse, friend, parent) and it exhausts
me.My
fears about starting my own business
What or who has threatened to stop or
delay you from being the person you are capable of being or having the honorable
life you wish to have?
Who or what are the threshold guardians
in your life?
What are beliefs and fears you struggle
with as you face those thresholds?
How have you transcended past thresholds
in your life? What strengths and support did you find to do so?
What is it like now to reflect on times
of your responses to those past thresholds?
Examples of famous thresholds for famous
people:
Learning disabilities were TG's for Paul
Orfalea (later became the founder and CEO of Kinkos) who couldn't read.Christopher Reeve and Michael J. Fox has Threshold Guardians that were their injury/illness
Oprah Winfrey had many bosses early in
her career that told her she wouldn't succeed because of her weight, hair,
touchy-feely down-home way.Zig Ziglar and his experience with
homelessness.
Bankruptcies were the threshold guardians
for Walt Disney and Milton Hershey.
Past repeated trauma were threshold guardians
for best selling author, Dave Pelzer.
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Quotes "There are times in life when you've just got to keep making decisions, even if they are wrong decisions." - Mountainner, Joe Simpson, after falling 100 feet, landing in a snow bridge inside an ice crevasse. Below there was only a "pitch-black void." (From Touching the Void - documentary) The
question isn't did you fail, but did you pick yourself up and move
ahead. And there is one other little question 'Did you collaborate in
your own defeat?' A lot of people do. Learn not to. -- John Gardner
It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the
dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.
- Robert
H. Schuller
The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most
difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let
them put you in that position.
- Leo
Buscaglia
The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the
rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything
you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; the
procedure, the process is its own reward.
- Amelia
Earhart
The
truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are
feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is
only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to
step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer
answers. M. Scott
Peck quotes (American
psychiatrist and Author,
1936-2005)
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Seminars on Resilience and the Heroic Journey
Need Continuing Education Hours? Social workers, nurses, nurse practitioners, drug and alcohol counselors, pastoral counselors, counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, marriage and family therapists and MORE may be eligible for CE's with these two seminars. | |
The Psychology of Resilience: A Multi-Modal Approach to Thriving Using the Heroic Journey will be presented in a full-day format in these cities in the United States in the upcoming months. Coming soon in CE self-study.
May 11, 2010 - Harlingen, TX
May 12, 2010 - Houston, TX
May 13, 2010 - Austin, TX
May 14, 2010 - San Antonio, TX
June 9, 2010 - Fresno, CA
June 10, 2010 - San Jose, CA
June 11, 2010 - San Francisco, CA
June 23, 2010 - Oakland, CA
June 24, 2010 - Folsom (Sacramento), CA
June 25, 2010 - Reno, NV
July 14, 2010 - Springfield, MO
July 15, 2010 - Tulsa, OK
July 16, 2010 - Oklahoma City, OK
LAUNCHING AUGUST 4, 2010 Three Stages of Healing: Trauma Conversion and ResilienceA brand new seminar which combines elements of moving through all types of traumatic events (such as child abuse, combat, complicated grief, accidents, traumatic death, devastating illness and more) from Victim functioning to Thriver functioning as well as a look at the essential clinical needs of individuals and families to heal fully after heart-wrenching life events. Cities to be announced in the June newsletter. CEU's for professionals will be available.
 Three Stages of Healing: Counseling Victims of Sexual Trauma
6 hour, self-study, with 150+ page manual, CDs and assessment - CE's available
www.crosscountryeducation.com
For more information on location, registration and course content for any of these seminars, you may upload a brochure at www.theomnibuscenter.com (Go to 2010 schedule and click on the city link). Seminars on Resilience and the Heroic Journey are available in half day, full-day and multiple day formats for clinicians, the general public, businesses, places of worship and community groups. Please contact Melissa (Missy) Bradley for more information call 615-377-6002 or MelissaBradley@theomnibuscenter.com |
| Stories and Articles coming soon! | |
In the coming months, we are honored to have many stories of resilience.
Coming soon:
JUNE 2010 - "Full Recovery:
Addiction, Inspiration & Abundance" - Brian McAllister
"Finding Life After the Holocaust" "The Power of the Work Team: Supporting One Another To Reach the Pinnacle" "The Journey to Self Through Abuse and Divorce" " An Adventure Into the Alaskan Wilderness in 1953" - Author & Adventurer, Harriet Walker "From Sharecropper's Son to the Fortune 500: A Story About Jim Clayton" "The 20% Cancer Thriver" | |
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