Video terms – Lifeshocks, Cutting Edges

I’ve had a couple of requests from people who are unfamiliar with some of the words and concepts used in the video.    And since the video was targeting the team members of the March More to Life Weekend, it is understandable.  So here is my explanation of those unfamiliar terms.

Lifeshock – the simple definition is "something that happens."  The longer explanation is something that happens in a moment in time, in which we have the opportunity to be more – more congruent, more real, more open, more wise, more realistic, more loving, more proactive, more enlightened, more productive; fundamentally calling us into right relationship with ourselves, with the rest of the world, and with God/Life/Universal Light/etc. They are not conclusions, deductions or realizations, but actual data picked up via our senses – that’s why it’s so important to be awake to our senses.  We can get into alignment with the lifeshocks, and we also have the option to resist them.  Fundamentally, Lifeshocks are God’s/Life’s/The Force’s/Higher Power’s way of waking us up to our highest and most noble selves.   Mostly we miss these communiques, sometimes because we are asleep, sometimes because we don’t like the delivery.  But it doesn’t stop the lifeshocks from offering us one opportunity after another to wake up.  The More to Life Program is about that process of waking up to those communiques, and through the various processes taught, to decipher those messages in such a way that our lives are lived more graciously, more purposefully, more meaningfully, more response-ably.

As trainers, we have a discipline about noticing our lifeshocks daily.  For example, some of the lifeshocks I have received recently are:
"You’re going to have a grandson."  (from my daughter, Rebecca)
"164"  (my heart rate while I was on the treadmill)
"write, write, write"   (from Tom Parish)

These lifeshocks may seem inconsequential at first blush, but trust me, knowing how to unlock the messages contained in these lifeshocks has been the saving grace of my life.  Unlocking the big, hairy lifeshocks, the ones I wished I had never had, has radically changed my life.

The other term I used when speaking to the team was "cutting edge."  That is a concept that capitalizes on the deciphering of those lifeshocks.   The more awake we are, the more we notice that, often, lifeshocks have trends – illuminating specific behavior that is up for course correction.  For instance, many years ago, the lifeshocks I was receiving highlighted my resentments – again and again.  When I finally got that resentment is the cancer of my spirit, I changed.  And how I changed was to proactively pursue that change via my ‘cutting edge" – like a knife – cutting away from my old behavior of righteous resentment, and cutting into my compassion.  It could also be called a Learning Edge or Growth Edge – growing away from the old, and growing into the new.  If I leave that cutting edge there, as an ideal or an intention, it’s not likely to change anything any time soon.  So then I plug in my amazingly creative bio-computer, my proactive mind, and design a plan or a prescription that addresses my issue head on.   We have 2 ways of doing that – committing to specific behavior that blooms my edge, AND committing to specific processes taught in the program that expose my self sabotage and deepen my commitment to my life – my consciously chosen life. 
For example, if I want to be more compassionate towards others, then the behavior I might choose is to speak to 3 different people during each session of the weekend (there are 7 sessions times 3 people = 21 practice runs) and tell them what qualities in them that I admire, respect, honor, love, etc. The processing I might choose to do over the weekend is a resentment process taught during our More to Life Weekend course that dematerializes resentment.  And say I choose to do one resentment process each day of the weekend (3 altogether) on 3 different people on whom I am currently running a resentment.  The last piece, and a critical piece, is to have a support partner – someone who knows what I am going for and who wants me to have it.   We commit to meet at specific times and talk about what’s working/not working regarding my edge, and we adjust as required.  Simple – and it works!

PS  You do not have to be a team member on a More to Life Weekend to commit to your cutting edge!  Just do it!  And keep doing it!  Keep transforming your life!