Newsletter December 2011-January 2012

The Transformer

Inspiration and News from the Center for Transformational Presence 

December 2011 - January 2012

Feature Article: Navigating an Uncertain Future: Guidance for the Unpredictable Road Ahead

Manifestation Profile: Ilona van der Hagen—Creating World Peace from the Inside Out

Video of the Month: Photographer Louie Schwartzberg on Gratitude and Happiness

Navigating an Uncertain Future: Guidance for the Unpredictable Road Ahead

Photo - Jos Rovers

It seems that with each passing year, the pace of change is quickening, and there are no signs that it is going to slow down any time soon. Along with rapid change comes unpredictability, and often volatility at every level of society—family, community, business, and government.

2012 is not likely to be any different. Numerologically, 2012 is a “5” year. In a 9-year cycle, it is the “middle” year. Archetypally, the number 5 represents unexpected change, uncertainty, and re-balancing of energies. So in case things haven’t been uncertain enough for you in our world, just hang on—chances are, it’s about to get more intense! So my inquiry is, since it could be a year of unexpected change anyway, what unexpected shift in the mass consciousness and collective action might be possible if we focused our energy and attention?

We can choose to struggle against the uncertainty or to take it as an invitation to discovery, new learning, and growth. We have no guidebook for today and tomorrow because the world has never been where we are now. So how do we navigate our unpredictable future? How do we prepare when we don’t know what we are preparing for? How do we ensure that we will be ok? In this article, I outline nine skills, approaches, and perspectives that could serve us well in navigating our uncertain future.

First, we can look at life as energy and learn more about how life works from an energy point of view. Everything is energy and that energy is always in motion. Life is energy in motion. Relationships are energy in motion. Family, society, business, and government are all about relationships and how the energy is flowing in those relationships. And in order for relationships to be healthy and productive, there cannot be winners and losers. Everyone, on at least some level, has got to win. The energy must be flowing in such a way that serves everyone. Therefore, we must be aware of how our choices, decisions, and actions are impacting others and look for the choices that move everyone forward.

Secondly, we can be willing to let things get messy for awhile. Although some might fear that things have to get worse before they can get better, a bigger-picture view usually helps us understand that the “getting worse” is just a necessary breakdown or unraveling that must happen before a new pattern or creation can form. Therefore, the messiness is actually serving a purpose. There is huge momentum in the evolutionary flow. We are on our way from where we have been to where we are going. If we fight against that flow and try to maintain control and keep things orderly, the ride is going to be even rougher than if we just trust that the messy period is a natural part of the evolutionary process.

Which takes us to number three. In uncertain times it is important to be able to perceive potential before it fully emerges, and then to follow that potential and let it show us the way forward. Focusing on solving problems slows us down and puts us out of sync with the rapid pace of evolution and change. A problem is not something to be solved; it is a message to be listened to and a potential partner with which to co-create. Problems are just symptoms that something is not working. And when something is not working, that is because something else now wants to happen. What may have worked at one time is no longer working because the situation or circumstance has evolved.

Culture and society are evolving at ever increasing rates. If we try to “keep up,” we are doomed to failure because we’re working too hard at trying to figure out how to keep up. However, if we choose to ride the wave and let the powerful flow of rapid evolution carry us and show us the way forward, we discover an enormous energy that can sweep us to the next place. Synergy and synchronicity kick in when we follow “what wants to happen.” Miracles start to become the norm. The problems then seem to disappear, become irrelevant, or solve themselves.

When things are moving fast, our focus must be on what wants to happen and where the wave of evolution is taking us next, not on fixing problems that belong to an old paradigm that no longer serves. Focusing on fixing problems keeps us stuck.

Let me make a point of clarification here. I fully acknowledge that we have crises in our world. And when a crisis occurs, we must, of course, respond in the short term to take care of immediate needs. When people need food and shelter, we must take care of that immediate need. However, as quickly as possible, our bigger focus must be on “what wants to happen here? What is this situation trying to show us? What must be our next big step forward?” One part of our awareness may need to be on taking care of the short-term needs, but some part of us must also be focusing on the bigger picture and what wants to happen.

A fifth skill for navigating uncertain terrain is the ability to step beyond judgments of right or wrong, good or bad. Again, everything that happens has a message—it is trying to tell us something. When we get caught up in labeling something good or bad, right or wrong, we can miss the message that the circumstance is trying to convey. If we step beyond the judgment into a place of listening, observing, and intuiting, there is always a message. The sooner we can hear and respond to the message, the more things will start to flow.

All of this is not to say that just following the energy and paying attention to the message will make everything easy and fine. Sometimes the message feels like it actually just makes things more complicated. Or doing what the message is asking may seem impossible. Our challenge here is to accept not having the answers. All we can do is listen, observe, intuit, and take one step at a time while following the potential as best we can.

The sixth skill that can serve us in uncertain times is knowing how to be both visionary and strategist. The unpredictable road ahead challenges us to live in the intersection between being and doing, between intuition and intellect. In Transformational Presence work, we talk about the vertical and horizontal orientations of awareness (see my latest book, Create A World That Works, chapter 4). Most of us default to one orientation or another. In these volatile times, we need to be equally at home in both.

A seventh helpful skill is knowing when to act and when to press pause. The Hermetic Principle of Gender says that the creative process must always have both masculine and feminine energies. This means that inspiration and creativity must be met with strategy and action. Yet it also tells us that there are times for moving full-speed ahead and other times for pausing, reflecting, and intuiting the next steps. A related principle, the Principle of Gestation, tells us that all things come in their own time. The cake will not be baked until all of the chemical reactions have occurred in the oven. In an evolutionary flow, things take as long as they take, and some things are out of our hands. (For more on the Hermetic Principles, see Create A World That Works, chapter 11.)

Which leads us to the eighth skill: the ability to access greater wisdom. It is one thing to have a lot of knowledge; it is quite another thing to have the wisdom of how to use that knowledge. Or even to know when to admit that our knowledge is based on an old paradigm and therefore we really don’t know anything about where we are now! The invitation in those moments is to trust that there is a new paradigm emerging that requires new knowledge and skill sets, and that our job now is to learn fast.

Wisdom also brings clarity about what is yours to do and what is not yours to do. This is a really important awareness skill in times of uncertainty. You may be tempted to try to take care of everything. You can’t. Use clear discernment to know where you should actually be focusing your energy, and then give it all you’ve got.

Wisdom is not something we learn; it’s something we grow in to. However, we can certainly invite it in! Just the recognition that knowledge isn’t enough and that there is a bigger awareness to tap is already a start. On the unpredictable road ahead, there will not always be time to learn all there is to learn or to carefully craft a plan. When things are moving fast, intuition and inner wisdom, along with the wisdom and support of those we trust, may be all we have. It is important to cultivate that wisdom when things are calm so that it is there to serve us when we are paddling hard in the #10 rapids.

Finally, the ninth skill is presence. If your aim is not just to survive the road ahead, but to truly make a difference in your world, then it is important to develop a personal presence that is inherently transformational. Transformational Presence is a result of living in the partnership between intuition and intellect, soul and ego, being and doing. Transformational Presence is an embodiment of all that I’ve written about here and more. It is about showing up to life in such a way that creates the optimal conditions for transformation to occur. Transformational Presence means closing the gap between what you know and how you live. It means being in touch with a deep and profound inner wisdom and letting that wisdom guide you.

Navigating life is an art. What kind of artist you are becomes evident in uncertain times when all you have to fall back on is your craft and skill in artful living. Know and respect your weaknesses as well as your strengths. Take good care of yourself, because, when things are moving fast, you are the only one who can. And take advantage of the quiet times to continue growing yourself.

2012 will likely bring more uncertainty and challenges on all levels. However, we also can influence how the year unfolds by our thoughts, attitudes, intentions, and actions. As 2011 draws to a close and you prepare for the dawning of a new year, I invite you to spend some time listening to what the evolutionary flow is asking of you in the coming year. What is the vision you feel called to give energy to? What unexpected change could actually serve a greater good? How can you support that unexpected change? Just because something doesn’t appear to be possible today does not mean that it will not be possible tomorrow. Everything is changing quickly. And these unexpected times call us each to step into great wisdom and to learn how life works in a new era.

Listening to that evolutionary flow and partnering with it can take courage. It might mean challenging the conventional wisdom of the day and standing for new perspectives and approaches. Heading into 2012, I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes from poet and activist Audre Lord:

When I dare to be powerful—to use my strength in the service of my vision—then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

Who might you be in these uncertain times if you forgot to be afraid? What might you accomplish if you used all of your strength and skills on manifesting a vision that serves a greater good?

Much has been written about the Mayan calendar ending in 2012. It doesn't mean that the world ends in 2012. It means that up until now, in a sense, our story had been written. From 2012 on it’s up to us to write our story. The page is blank. What story will we as a collective write? What is the story that you choose to give energy to? And what is yours to do in order to manifest that story?

Whatever that is, live it now. The world can’t afford for you to wait any longer

All blessings for the holiday season and the New Year,
Alan

Copyright © 2011 Alan Seale

Manifestation Profile: Ilona van der Hagen — Creating World Peace from the Inside Out

by Johnathon Pape

Photo by Timo Eckhart

Working with the Manifestation Wheel requires honesty and self-awareness, mainly because the process of manifestation is much more about “being” than “doing.” In our results oriented modern society it is common to jump right into action whenever we encounter a challenge or want to create something in our lives. But when working with the Manifestation Wheel, creating an action plan actually comes relatively late in the process. Prior to that, you have done all sorts of work with understanding the project or issue that you have placed on the Wheel, and what is more important, you have gained a much deeper understanding of who you are.

This was certainly Ilona van der Hagen’s experience when she participated in the Manifestation Wheel workshop with Alan last spring in the Netherlands. As Ilona worked through the eight “houses” of the Wheel, she became clearer and stronger in her understanding of herself as a World Peace Pioneer and a VIP (more on this later...), although at that time she could not yet define it as such. In a personal session following the workshop Alan encouraged her to put this understanding on paper. Ilona thought to create a website, but while using the Manifestation Wheel to set the intention of the site, she realized that it had to be called a web portal—a portal to a different reality, another reality where we can create a new way. Ilona explains, “In order to do that, I had to go to who I am, my presence. The web portal could only be the experience I wanted it to be if I was honest and real. It took a lot of courage, because in effect I was putting myself on the line; I did not have a clue what would unfold in front of me—it was yet for the world to see.”

The seeds for defining her presence and for this portal were planted during the Manifestation Wheel workshop while working on another project—Leading Voice (more on this later, too...). “When working in the first house, ‘world peace’ just popped up. I was stunned, though at the same time I felt like my whole life fell into place.” Although she grew up in the protected environment of a small town in the Netherlands, Ilona had been keenly interested in world peace since her third year of college when she did an apprenticeship abroad in Jerusalem. Her field of study was Management Communications, which mixes Public and Government Relations, but she also had a strong interest in journalism. One year later she returned to Jerusalem, where she wrote human-interest articles, studied modern Hebrew and followed her MBA studies in Organizational Behavior and HR Management. The 3 years she intended to stay there turned out to be 14.

Being in Jerusalem created an energetic shift in Ilona. “It felt like everything came together in that one city—that Jerusalem reflected what was going on in the whole world. If you could put the solution of everything that is unbalanced in the world on a map, it would be found in Jerusalem. It’s there, in the ground, in the air. I’m speaking very energetically of course, but it feels like the place where all of these things collide, and therefore where they can also resolve. Solution lives within the conflict. And how I see it is that the more people find the solutions to the problems of the world within themselves, the more this thing that is already there will be activated.”

Johnathon Pape: Thank you so much for being our profile for this month. I relate very strongly to what you are saying about your experience in Jerusalem. When I was in Israel I felt the same thing energetically, the huge potential that is there underneath all the conflict, waiting to be activated.

Ilona van der Hagen: After my MBA studies, I worked on peace projects in the Middle East for several years. I left that project work when I came to understand that peace starts inside of us. I suppose that was why I was surprised when ‘world peace’ came up so strongly in the first house of the Manifestation Wheel. Throughout the process I came to understand that it came back in a whole new meaning: to bring (groups of) people and the field they deal with into their greatest potential. Now I see a lot of movement like that going on among the people. Sometimes it is hard to explain this potential to those who ask questions from a very ‘mental’ place. But people at the grass roots level love it. They have a deeper understanding of this, something that is in them and that resonates with this solution available in the earth, and they can consciously or subconsciously connect to that, and it can get them past the surface/mind/logical/band-aid solutions.

JP: And the solution lies within each of us, finding the peace within and reflecting that out into the world?

IvdH: Yes. There is a group of Israelis called Revolution of Love that have decided they want to be “pro” instead of against—to work for things instead of against things. They want to bring love into the country. So they go into the streets in Israel with messages of love and positive energy. It could be something as simple as a sign that says, “today is a nice day, isn’t it?” or something like that. It brings a different energy into the environment. It’s interesting, when you’re in Israel, you aren’t really aware that there is a war going on most of the time. Things move along rather normally. But if you’re there for a long time, you become aware of the stress within the environment. Something as simple as this group relieving that stress through positive messages can be very meaningful.

JP: Again, I had similar experiences in Israel. I was very aware of the pervading normalcy of daily life there, but at the same time felt everything underneath it—both the stress and the innate potential for healing on a global level.

IvdH: It relates to a movie I want to make called The Other Way. The name comes from a song that two women—a Jewish Israeli and an Arab—sang on a European Song Festival. When you look at these issues from the human (rather than political) perspective, you recognize that we are the same, so there must be another way. The intention of the movie is to show people that are choosing another way. It will be shot in Israel along a trail that goes from the very northern part of the country all the way through the desert to the south. It’s almost 1000 kilometers long and has incredible, diverse scenery. The idea is to see these very different people in these different natural settings along the trail choosing the other way by recognizing their oneness instead of their differences.

JP: What a wonderful idea for a movie. Continue manifesting it!

IvdH: I will.

JP: Tell us more about being a World Peace Pioneer and VIP.

IvdH: A pioneer is someone who is preparing and leading the way—the way to a new land, a new reality, a new world. I am a pioneer of world peace, and I think many other people are pioneers too, or would like to become pioneers. So I help pioneers fill their backpacks and inject their veins with valuable stuff, the “Pioneer’s P’s.” These are things like play, peace, passion, purpose, potential, perspective, and what I call PR•essence, which is presence derived from essence.

I help people, including myself, into their greatest potential by acting as a VIP. The V stands for Visionary. I help you see and define who you are, as well as your work, your project or organization, and how to apply this to your unique PR-essence.

The I stands for Incubator. I initiate programs that help you expand that PR•essence and connect with potential co-creators and resources to accelerate the realization of new perspectives.

The P stands for Potentiator. I pick up on waves of potential that ask to be ridden and translate them into initiatives that I invite you or other potential co-creators to manifest.

JP: Your website—or web portal—explains and illustrates this beautifully. The address is http://ilonavanderhagen.wordpress.com and I encourage our readers to visit it. How has working with the Manifestation Wheel changed how you think about making things happen in your life and the world?

IvdH: It has helped me to:

• See how my creative and analytical sides can co-create in whatever I do! Both sides are very strong, and it seemed that I always had to choose between them when stepping into the world. I now allow myself to blend them and that basically helps make anything possible—in a much more fascinating and authentic way!
• Embrace the grandness of my soul and the grandness of my “human.” When I came to the workshop, I did not know how to let the relationship that I developed between my human and soul co-create valuable action for the world. I knew how to cherish this relationship within my own safe world, but did not know how to let them co-create while stepping out into the bigger world. In the workshop, I learned how valuable the human part is (not just how vulnerable), and how it longs to be recognized and put into action. I already knew that my soul was waiting to come out and play, but I also needed to accept the qualities of my human part, so that they would be able to play together with life.

JP: When you speak of your “human” part, it’s the same as what Alan refers to as your magnificent ego in service to your soul. How else has this work helped you?

IvdH: It helped me:

• Believe again in my slogan ‘anything is possible’ and the vision of world peace that I have always had in front of me. If this is the potential/vision/essence that leads me, every little step that I take becomes meaningful and in connection to a bigger picture.
• Understand that as long as I keep hiding, nothing will change. By recognizing me and my grand, out-of-the-box perspectives (like world peace or being a VIP), Alan empowered me to make myself visible, full power.
• See co-creation not only as a need, but also as a valuable and joyful addition, so that we can build together on world peace, each with his or her unique essence, qualities and tasks. For me personally, that made ‘the job’ lighter, more possible, and more fun!
• Let out the powerful woman inside of me, who takes responsibility for all aspects of her life and knows how to put her essence into presence. As Alan said to me: “I saw a little girl come in to the workshop and grow into a powerful woman.”
• Realize that just making a choice is not enough to get things done, but that I need to make/request an explicit commitment.

JP: Well it is clearly working. You are manifesting so many wonderful things, can you tell us more about some of them?

IvdH: When I was answering the questionnaire for this article, I was struck by how much I was actually manifesting. Here goes:

• To own my home. This naturally happened after returning from the workshop, in the form of unpacking boxes, decorating, reparations, etc. Some months later I consciously used Transformational Presence (who could I be here and what is the potential) to overcome the challenge with a neighbor. Since that time I know that I deserve and can choose to own my house, which now feels warm and welcoming.
• My web portal www.ilonavanderhagen.wordpress.com and the website www.leading-voice.net. I feel that by defining myself as a World Peace Pioneer & VIP and by making that visible on the web portal I set into motion a lot and I now just start to see what it will attract. By building my web portal (and with that, committing to those roles and services/products), new clients have started to come to me. They all pioneer in their field and aim to do that from a deep connection with who they are and what they are passionate about, while keeping an eye on the greater potential that waits to unfold for their community or field. Leading Voice is another related project; a global movement where youth and “expertiencers” (experts through experience) from different fields will be able to share their voice, leading our world into new ways of being, thinking, and acting. I am now checking out the possibilities of turning the website into a multi-media web interface. The vision shows that it will also be an incubator for manifesting those new ways in the form of projects and enterprises. This was actually the project that I put on the Wheel in the workshop. The project’s next phase is to meet a co-founder, innovative web designers, and other co-creators, who will help turn the vision into a feasible manifestation. The material I wrote in the workshop went into the site’s content, and the work with the future that we did in the workshop has helped me keep connected with the essence and vision of the project.
• Becoming a grownup woman. This is a process that is continuing and that expresses itself in all aspects of my life, and can be seen in everything I have manifested and am manifesting now. The workshop gave me the water that let this seed grow into a colorful flower.
• Intimate and loving relationships with family and friends.  My perspective on relationships has become more grownup (to see new people as potential co-creators instead of immediately as friends). Because of that and because of the more committed approach I have towards life now, I dare to be more vulnerable and intimate in my close relationships and my relationships have become more authentic, deeper, and warmer. I can now share the intimacy and compassion that I know from the dear relationship with my soul with other people. This also relates to how I am currently manifesting a partner relationship.
• Physical health. Since February 2010 until I came to the workshop I had not been able to work much, because of physical imbalances. I am now manifesting health (physical freedom and potential), which I have not yet known during this lifetime. A couple of months ago I used the Manifestation Wheel to see the potential of health within me and to see what kind of life I would be living when I had realized that potential. I embraced that vision and I believe that it helped open up the way to a new diagnosis and solution. My challenge now is to be the active creator of my health, to still feel free to create the life that I envision (anything is possible!) and to allow my body and cells to regenerate themselves. I also feel the potential of being a standard for other people who experience physical limitations rather than potential.
• Payment by choice—a new way of valuing my input. I felt more and more that I should explore a new way of pricing my services. I came to “payment by choice,” where clients can choose to assess how much our cooperation has been worth to them. It is very interesting to see how people react to this, but basically it 1) helps people to define what they would like to receive/achieve through working with me and it makes them an active co-creator; 2) it helps me to focus on what the specific task asks from me and to creatively invest in my input and tasks; 3) it brings the current focus on money back to what it was meant to be: a means of exchange; and 4) it invites trust, transparency, and conscious co-creation. So far I have experimented with this with 3 clients, while dealing with the last doubt inside of me (“this will attract people with no money…”). Here I have consciously used the essence of the first house of the Manifestation Wheel to get the core of the vision and potential clear and use it as a beacon.

JP: In your questionnaire you mentioned that you were surprised at how working with the Manifestation Wheel reconnected you so strongly with native heritages, with animals, and with nature in general. Can you say more about that?

IvdH: I love to hike in the South Limburg area of the Netherlands, where I live. It is one of the most beautiful places in the Netherlands, with Holland's only real hills and plenty of water. I live in the most southern village of Holland, right on the border with Belgium and not so far from Germany. So when I hike, I usually cross borders and that idea suits me really well! I have a strong connection with animals and talk with them telepathically. The picture below shows me in conversation with a horse. He actually volunteered to be pictured with me for this newsletter!

JP: Taking a project around the Manifestation Wheel can make the path of manifesting something much clearer, but it can also bring up challenges and doubts. How do you work through these obstacles when they arise?

IvdH: First of all, I choose over and over again the potential that I see. I ask my soul for advice, sometimes through automatic writing, sometimes just by listening. I breathe or meditate, sing, go for a hike or a swim. I ask “what wants to happen?” Sometimes I wait until the answer comes to me, and in the meantime I deal with doubt by not judging my non-action and embracing what is. I trust what I have envisioned and check to see that I am not sabotaging it by filling in the blanks, instead of letting the blanks fill themselves in. This is how I can keep manifesting, even though at times things can be very challenging!

JP: I know that you’ve also been involved with some very meaningful volunteer work. Can you tell us about that?

IvdH: I coordinated and directed the shooting of a fashion show for hospitalized kids and their brothers/sisters at the Maastricht Academic Hospital. This was done for BB kids TV. Those kids are a beautiful example of what it means to be alive, no matter what happens. It is a great gift to enable them to step into their beauty and joy, film it, and then have bedridden kids enjoy it too on their TV screens.

JP: What would you say to someone who is considering working with the Manifestation Wheel?

IvdH: Don’t consider, just do it! It will change your life. Thank you Alan so much for this precious work that you bring into the world. And thank you also for showing the world that we are not competitors, but co-creators, each with unique gifts and a unique contribution to the world.

Video of the Month:  Photographer Louie Schwartzberg on Gratitude and Happiness

This incredibly beautiful 10-minute TEDxSF talk has been making the rounds over the last month. Within one week, three different people shared it with us. So we share it with you as this month's video, realizing that someone else may have beat us to it! That's ok - each time you watch this stunning video, you will hear and see something new.

This presentation includes Schwartzberg's short film on Gratitude and Happiness. It seems to be a very fitting video to share as we draw 2011 to a close and step into a new year.