By essence we mean our basic, real, and invariable nature; it is what is inherent and unchanging in us. It is our substance, spirit, lifeblood. Essencework is the discovery of our heart, soul and core. The work is the journey we take in order to uncover and bring to life the deepest aspects of our nature. We see through what is not real in us. We experience the contents of our personality and structures of our ego, discovering what is real and what is not. In Essencework we are exploring and realizing who we truly are, our essential nature, versus who we think we are, who we are conditioned to be.
I am like a coach or a guide who has developed a particular method, a particular approach, for helping others explore their experience, with a strong emphasis and focus on the inner aspect of that experience.
In Essencework we explore our experience by becoming fully involved and immersed in it. This involves paying attention to three areas or centers of experience. The first is what we call the head center, which involves an awareness of our thoughts, beliefs, memories, perceptions, and images. Next, we pay attention to our heart center, to our feelings and emotions. And thirdly, we become aware of our bodily sensations and what we are experiencing energetically, which usually involves the belly center. There is no particular order to how we do this. So, as we are working with a certain issue in our lives, we might be aware of tension we are feeling in some part of our body. If we allow ourselves to pay attention to it, really feel into it, rather than trying to get it to go away, we might begin to notice that there are certain feelings and emotions that are associated with the tension. Now, if we allow ourselves to stay with these feelings and emotions, certain memories or impressions may begin to rise in our consciousness. Perhaps they are impressions from our childhood, maybe even the memory of a specific event. We begin to see that this issue is affected by what happened to us when we were very young and that is influencing how we are living our lives now. We can see how the past can trigger responses and reactions that may not be appropriate to what is happening in the present. Until we become aware of something we cannot change it. When we do become aware of it, seeing it can begin to free us from its control. This leaves us free to live life fully in the present moment, unhampered by the past.
They come for various reasons. Most want to understand themselves better, to enrich their lives.
I've been pretty fortunate in the ways that I'm able to work and in the nature of the work. I am not bound by seeing my clients in person. We can do this work on the telephone or do video sessions over the internet, such as with Skype. I have a diverse group of people I work with all over the the world; this has included the US, Canada, and different parts of Europe as well as Australia and New Zealand. It has built up organically. Someone that benefits from the work recommends it to a friend, partner, or colleague.
It's really the same whether it is over the phone/Skype or in person. The first thing is to find out what has brought them to the work. That generally entails getting some personal history. Of utmost importance is family background because our early family life determines so much about how we come to know and experience ourselves.
That really depends on who I am working with, the level that person is working from, what is going on with them in that moment. Often, the student will bring something that they have been working through, a particular issue or perhaps some experience they have had that is affecting them. I will usually ask them to pay attention to what they are feeling and experiencing now. We may even start with certain sensing or breathing exercises that help them become more centered and present to their immediate experience.
That reflects a wide range of issues indicative of the human condition. Sometimes it is a particular event, such as break up of a relationship or marriage, or dissatisfaction with their working life. Certain people are experiencing a deep sense of frustration or dissatisfaction or even meaninglessness or hopelessness in their every day lives. Some have more clinical issues and they are looking for an alternative approach. But let me state right here that I am not a psychiatrist or psychologist or medical practitioner, nor am I a substitute for such an expert. I am actually a strong advocate for those disciplines and at times have insisted work with me is contingent on the individual being treated by such a specialist.
Basically, they are normal, everyday sorts of people. They include doctors, lawyers, accountants, musicians, actors, artists, athletes, students and the like. Some are grandmothers and grandfathers, housewives and househusbands. There have been spiritual seekers. I've worked with Buddhists, Christians, Orthodox Jews and Muslims. Some of this reflects the diversity of a multicultural society. But as you can see, we are really talking about all kinds of people from all walks of life.
I can speak about what it means for me, which has to do with really being present, really being here in this very moment. To do this we have to come down out of our minds, out of the continuous thought streams where we usually reside. Then we have the opportunity to begin to become aware of what we are truly experiencing and what is actually going on around us. In his work, 'The Power of Now,' Eckart Tolle describes the benefits of living in this state of presence in our daily lives.
I grew up swimming competitively and later attended and swam for the University of California in Los Angeles. I didn't achieve the Olympic stage myself, but after I finished competing I joined the coaching staff at UCLA. I had the opportunity to coach quite a few Olympic gold medalists, world and national record holders. I learned a tremendous amount about what it takes for an individual to reach their full potential in a given area. On the side, I ran a learn-to-swim business. This gave me the chance to explore how people learn to do something that should be natural and innate to them. After all, at some point in our evolutionary history, we did crawl out of the water and become land bound. So being able to manoeuvre in the water is a part of our genetic makeup if we can just learn to get out of the way of the body's natural process. What I discovered was this required helping the person to get out of their head and learn to center and become present in their body. Then the body is able to relax and do what it is meant to do. This, of course, is much easier for children than adults, they don't spend so much time in their heads yet.
Yes, I do. My friends think I'm crazy because I get up before dawn and I'm usually in the pool by 5 am. I swim 3 to 4 miles about six times a week and I'm able to be back and ready for my first session, often by 7:30 or 8 am. I do have a rest sometime during the day, though.
Not very much anymore. I became very involved coaching basketball because that was the sport my own kids did and excelled at.
After I finished swimming for UCLA, I began studying and working as an actor, and later I opened an acting studio and taught acting workshops in Sydney and LA. Once again, I was involved in helping others actualize and express their potential. We had a sign in the studio that said, 'Leave your ego at the door.' It was necessary for the actor to drop their past beliefs and perspectives, get out of their minds, and become centered and present in the moment. As I had discovered in teaching swimming, if I could help the individual to become present, it freed them so their innate talent came to life and began to work for them. The other interesting part of the work involved the creation of the character in the story which became a study in the development and structure of the personality. By exploring the background, past experiences, and subsequent beliefs of the character, their point of view and character traits became apparent and began to develop. Put these with an actor who is free and centered, 'living truthfully under the imaginary circumstances,' with real spontaneity, and you get a wonderful piece of artistic expression.
I learned that in order to actualize our full human potential we have to work through what stops us, what stands in our way. Most importantly, it is necessary to get out of our heads, our self consciousness and self-judgement, and free ourselves from our past conditioning. If we can do this then our innate gifts, talents, and potential can begin to develop and work for us. This is our natural state of being. The real challenge becomes how to dissolve the blocks which prevent us from being able to reside in such a state consistently. This is what has become the basis of the work I do now.
Definitely. I could not teach this work if I had not experienced it myself. I have a teacher I have worked with for many years. And I have studied the works of various teachers and writers which have helped me as I developed my own approach. The most significant for me has been the work of A.H. Almaas, the originator of the Diamond Approach and the Ridhwan School, a spiritual school of inner work.
I have. In my childhood, my mother worked as a clinical psychologist and therapist. At age 88, she still does family and marriage counselling. As I grew up, inner work wasn't considered odd or taboo. As a result of her influence and a high school teacher who introduced me to different works of psychology, I got involved in group therapy and encounter groups which were an out flowing of the humanistic psychology movement of the 1960's and early 70's. I read a lot of Carl Rogers, who was a pioneer in the study of human relations, and all the novels of Herman Hesse, which had a profound affect on me at the time. And since that time I have never stopped doing my own inner work with a variety of counsellors and practitioners schooled in different methodologies. I guess you could say I developed a fascination with understanding human nature, using myself as a ground of exploration.
Well, to go back to the earlier point, we certainly are living in difficult and challenging times. If the first decade of this century has taught us anything, it is that we need more than new ways of thinking; we need to bring entirely new approaches to old problems. This is true in politics, economics, and our relationship with the environment, as well as our relationships with each other. But, first and foremost for me, is the relationship we have with ourselves. How do we resolve the emptiness, meaninglessness, and frustration that so many of us experience in our daily lives? We have been convinced it is through the pursuit of something outside ourselves such as work, money, beauty, fame, or love, to name just a few. We believe if we can get these things, our lives will be filled with meaning, purpose, and value. We don't understand that real meaning, a true sense of significance is actually part of who we truly are, our innate, essential nature. Once we have connected to this deep sense of meaning and value inside, we then bring that to all of our encounters, all of our relationships, everything we do or touch. Achieving this state requires a deep awareness of our experience, no matter how difficult or unpleasant that may be. And you can be sure that each of us, at some point, will have to face some sort of difficulty, something extremely challenging in our own lives. Why not prepare ourselves with as much self-knowledge and understanding as possible?