Defy Gravity Online Event with Caroline Myss
Founded in 1987 by Lousie Hay, author of various personal growth titles, HayHouse has grown far beyond just publishing self-help books.
When you visit one of the HayHouse websites you will find books, audio, video, radio, and online events featuring leaders from the personal growth and development sector. You will also find archives of thousands of online programs.
A recent well received addition to HayHouse is the Wisdom Community membership program where online customers can automatically receive 30% off all products, such as: books, CDs, DVDs, Kits, Cards, Calendars, and other store products. Even event reservations are discounted by 10% (excluding their cruise packages). Once a member you can learn about additional benefits that are available when you sign up.
We had the pleasure of experiencing one of their live programs with Caroline Myss.
Leela Dugane shares of this recent experience.
In case you are not familiar, Myss is a visionary author with an extensive background using her intuition to support healing of the body mind spirit connection which is aimed to invite personal transformation.
Learn More About the Wisdom Community HayHouse Membership
Defy Gravity: Understanding Your Seven Graces by Carolyn Myss
A perfect warm up for the book, the seminar was educational, entertaining, and at times, profound.
Carolyn Myss is ahead of her time and, thank heaven, is trying to take the rest of us with her: A combination of mystic, therapist, academic and marketer, Carolyn is the consummate American healer.
Emptying Out
For the first half of the two hour call Caroline Myss discussed why the book and its distinctions are so important for our modern day society, citing that by collapsing our myriad of categories under one conscious living umbrella (i.e. Spirituality, Yoga, vegetarianism, etc) we have lost our ability to stay focused on the sacred.
In other words, we have simply applied our model of fear-based acquisition to a different, albeit more conscious, marketplace.
Carolyn in her matter-of-fact tone said; we need to start “emptying out” rather than use consciousness to acquire more.
A Community of Light
Carolyn also made it clear that therapy that focuses on what is wrong with us isn’t helping either. Honestly, she seemed to be asking us to grow up and focus on the big picture. She said that “it is time for us to learn what is mystically phenomenal not by what we can have but to see what we can become.” This is where Grace comes in, which is according to her definition “a transformational force that lifts you from one place and offers you an opportunity to move into another.”
So—according to Carolyn—once on the path of service, “we can empower and heal each other and change this world. It is time to become a community of light.”
The Ego or the Soul?
One of the more profound moments happened for me during her discussion of the ego. She said it so simply and clearly it might be easy to miss: Every moment contains a choice-will it be the ego or the soul?
Yes. Who is in charge: the ego or the soul?
From there, she had me and I didn’t even care if she was off schedule or that her screeners let a slightly imbalanced caller on the air. She handled the seminar with grace, humor and ease.
Though I was a little disappointed with the blatant commercials during the “pre-show” and the five-minute break, Carolyn’s expertise overshadowed the marketing efforts and left me thinking about my own life.
The Seven Graces
During the call Carolyn also offered a powerful exercise and briefly went through each of the seven graces:
- Reverence
- Piety
- Understanding
- Fortitude
- Counsel
- Knowledge
- Wisdom
By discussing each grace, its meaning and shadow side I was admittedly intrigued and wanted to know more.
I was quite taken with a few of her theories and saw common ground in her illustrations.
Counsel and Gluttony
For example for the grace of Counsel she said that the opposite shadow side was gluttony. Meaning that we can gluttonously ask for counsel (by trying new techniques, teachers, gurus etc) just to avoid making a choice.
Though she didn’t really go into it on the call she was (as all good teachers do) tying back to an earlier point about acquisition and the theme of getting more in our Western lives.
I think the point is this: Sometimes more isn’t better (think prescription medicine), more is very often, just more.
Duality
If you are a fan of Carolyn Myss books and workshops you will feel right at home.
If you are new to her style, don’t be shy to sign up for a HayHouse online event with Caroline Myss.
You can get past any of her high-context language pretty quickly (I still have no idea what she means by the “castle”) but it didn’t stop me from loving the seminar or wanting to read her new book, Defy Gravity.
And yet again duality creeps in: You need to get the book so you can learn to empty-out . . . Now that is brilliant marketing!
To learn more visit HayHouse > Defy Gravity: Understanding Your Seven Graces by Carolyn Myss Book
If you prefer CD’s: Defy Gravity 4-CD Set
Or Listen Online > Defy Gravity On Demand Streaming or Download
We will soon be posting an in-depth review of Myss’ new book, so stay tuned!
I resonate so strongly with that ego or soul question. I’ve been thinking about it myself, though not exactly in those terms. What happened with me is that I began to notice how my body felt when it was acting from a space of alignment with my own quantum field of consciousness.
For example, when I forgot about myself and went into a healing facilitation setting or a wellness coaching session, I noticed that my body changed dramatically. I was at ease, no sense of pain and no sense of real effort needed regardless of the situation.
Then, I noticed how my body felt when my ego self was in charge, in some sort of need to fix the world, change a situation or understand why something happened when I wanted something else to occur, and it was drastically different. Shoulders hunched up, left side pushed forward, headache, neckache, backache, confused thinking, fear, worry, etc.
So, as Carolyn says, I am finding my own way to determine if the decision in front of me is being made by my ego or my soul. My body is telling me, if I just take time to listen.
Hi Neva, Yes I really get what you mean! If fact I was emailing with a friend today who was wondering why she broke her ankle and what she was to learn from it. She was really analyzing everything (with a good intention). I dropped into a state of connecting with my heart and wrote this reply:
“I think our minds look at our world in a linear fashion … and seek answers responding to cause and effect … our hearts (soul) and intuition see our being holistically … whole .. and all things connected. Sort of like how the pulse in our body pumps blood to every cell …. same as what shows up in our reality … all aspects of our being are interconnected and our reality takes shape responding to that pulse … so perhaps the message is to keep following your heart pulse … where deep answers are versus the mind isolating through cause and effect and creating more stories … What I try to do when seeking answers is to remember to breath in the difficult stuff into the heart and keep my focus on what would bring joy to me and others around me. … simple joys … and at times those blissful joys pop up too! Translated: When Ego asks learn soul listening! Then I think mind and and body can observe differently and get out of looping round and round.
Sandy, what you said about breathing the difficult stuff into your heart reminded me of Pema Chodron. In her book, “When Things Fall Apart” Pema teaches an exercise where you breathe in negativity and breathe out the change you want to be and support in the world. At first, that exercise was fearful and even distasteful for me. I didn’t want to breathe in the difficult stuff, I wanted it to go away. Yet, it never went away as long as I was resisting it. I had heard that and accepted it on a mental level. Pema’s exercise of taking in what I feared and allowing the Divine Grace within to transform it, helped me know the truth of the process.
I’ve always believed our bodies were a lot more than just vehicles to get our souls around on earth; they are finely tuned instruments that can help us recognize alignment vs. chaos; love vs. fear reactions; heart action vs. ego action.
I can relate to the woman who broke her ankle. I used to analyze everything that happened. It was good training. It taught me that I don’t need to know. All I need to do is stay aware of the nature of my energy, am I relaxed, open and being led, or am I tense, constricted and pushing or trying to make something happen?
What wonderful distinctions and so very useful! Awesome Neva. Indeed I do think our body is one of nature’s temples in a way. Infused with intelligence beyond what we have scratched the surface to understand. We will have to check out Pema’s book. Thanks! I find that there are very few original thoughts and it often seems thoughts hit in waves. Like all of a sudden a person may find they were thinking about something then they talk to a couple friends to find they were thinking the same thing. Or, a “invention” takes place only to find out that several others were working on the same thing. I had a line of silk scarves that I painted for years. Then one day I walked into a boutique thousands of miles away from where I lived at the time, and I found some scarves painted by an artist using the same dyes, similar technique, and similar color combinations…they looked so similar to mine! I asked when the artist started painting this style and it was actually the same year I started painting mine. It was like we were tuned into the same color channel! Having said this, perhaps we are collectively listening and getting closer to aligning with our soul and heart! Maybe a large portion of the population is catching a wave and beginning to turn this large ship called humanity in a more peaceful, respectful, and loving direction.
Sandy: Yes, I would recommend Pema’s book to anyone going thru a painful life transition. That exercise pulled me through a time I thought I wouldn’t survive. By breathing in hate and breathing out love, I was able to understand that it is resisting that which perpetuates. Embracing what I felt, even if it was hate, and then breathing out my intent that it transform, helped me heal my heart. And I believe, as Pema says in the book, that when we change what goes out on our breath, it’s a frequency that begins to impact the world in a positive way, starting right there at our own field. I loved your story about the scarves. I had the idea for a disposable dishcloth that would have the dishwashing liquid already in it. A year later, I saw it on the shelves. I like your take on that, that perhaps we are getting closer to aligning soul and heart. I think, also, that all potential exists in the zero point field and that whoever grabs the idea and runs with it first, gets to see it outpicture in the world in a bigger way.
I wish to repeat that!
“all potential exists in the zero point field and that whoever grabs the idea and runs with it first, gets to see it outpicture in the world in a bigger way.” Nice!
Also, when we tap into the zero point field as we drop into our heartspace this is the space that creates miracles!
Yep, yep. I was listening to one of the cds in Richard Bartlett’s new Matrix Energetics package and he talked about Angels and how they don’t just come because we call them, they come because we create an environment where it is natural for them to show up, when we drop into that heart space energy. Aho.