Being Here is Out!

The new book written by The Kanes is out. It's entitled "Being Here: Modern day Tales of Enlightenment", and it is an amazing set of stories from the lives of people who have experienced Transformation. A truly wonderful book. I've posted below a letter from my friend Valerie who talks about a special promotion for the new book. I suggest you take advantage of it and get yourself a copy, and you can get some holiday shopping done at the same time!

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Dear Friends Around the World,

In following with Ariel & Shya's inspiring emails earlier this week
about their dream & the dreams of those in our community, I'd like to
tell you about an opportunity that will support the dream of sharing
the possibility of Instantaneous Transformation in becoming a reality.
The Kanes' most recent book, "Being Here, Modern Day Tales of
Enlightenment," was released to the public in September and is now
available in local and online bookstores (David Hamilton even spotted a
copy in the Barnes & Noble in Chelsea in NYC!). One of my dreams is to
have this book hit best seller lists and gain national & international
attention so that people across the planet can have access to the magic
& possibilities of transformation.

We are doing a promotion to have"Being Here, Modern Day Tales of
Enlightenment" become abestseller on Amazon.com to introduce as many
people as possible to Ariel & Shya’s work. Here's how it works: during
the course of one day (November 7th, for our promotion), the goal is to
have as many people as possible purchase the book on Amazon.com to
launch it to bestseller status. As an incentive to buy the book during
this 24-hour period, we are offering free bonus gifts. We are
advertising the promotion in Wisdom magazine, on SelfGrowth.com and in
other places on the web.

To have this promotion be a success, we need all of your support!

Here's how you can help:

1. Purchase 1 book on November 7th (only $10.36 on Amazon.com)and
receive the new audio version of "Being Here" (read by Ariel), as well
as other special podcasts (for free!).

2. Purchase 5 or more books on November 7th and receive not only the
above gifts, but ALSO a free admission to 1 Monday Night Alive! (or
Starting the New Year Right evening or International Conference Call).

2a. Purchase more than 5 books on November 7th! Many of you generously
supported the successful promotion we did last year to launch "How to
Create a Magical Relationship" to bestseller status on Amazon.com by
purchasing 25+ books....feel free to do the same this year! Imagine
all of the holiday shopping you'll get done in one shot. Also, I have
found it really valuable over the last year to have books on hand to
give people as gifts (teachers, business contacts, friends, family,
fire houses, acquaintances, etc.)....you never know who you're going to
meet. Also, I now see Starbucks with libraries (as well as fitness
rooms, churches, high schools, colleges, yoga centers, community
centers)...they all take donations.

3. Tell everyone you know about this promotion! It's a great and easy
way to introduce people to the Kanes' work and the revolutionary and
liberating idea that "working on yourself doesn't work." I'm going to
send emails out and tell people in person about the promotion, but if
you have a blog, email newsletter or website, include this info there,
too. Fernanda is creating a flyer that I will email out shortly with
all of the info that you can forward via email, print or post on your
website or blog for download.

4. We are looking for someone (or someones) in the NY/NJ/CT area to
warehouse / receive books for people in Europe who want to purchase
books to help drive "Being Here" to #1 on Amazon.com, but don't want to
pay the high shipping prices. Then we will coordinate getting the
books to the people who bought them - bringing them to Costa Rica,
giving them to Europeans who come to NY to take workshops, etc. Any
takers? Please write me back to let me know if you're interested.

All of the details for the promotion are here:

http://www.ask-inc.com/specialoffer/

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me!If you feel
to participate and buy books, GREAT!! Please write me back to let me
know how many you will be ordering.

Whetheryou choose to participate in this promotion or not, keep
sharing yourself and transformation. You make a difference.

Love,
Val

Trusting Your Intuition, Especially When it Comes to Dating

I've been out on quite a few dates in the past month. Some women I've met through friends, some I've met online and some I met out and about. What's funny is how much I've let my mind push me into doing things my intuition knows is not in my best interests. My mind says loudly "you should go out with her, she's hot (aka physically attractive)." Or it says "maybe she'll open up later and be more fun." Or any number of things. If my intuition would speak it would say "there is no connection here, this isn't working, not fulfilling." So when I listen to my mind and thoughts instead of my intuition, things are based in change, more difficult and strenuous. Like an always uphill battle. It's really about letting go control. Just like I'm finding with singing. And it's making things a hell-of-a-lot easier.

My intuition sometimes speaks in what Ariel & Shya Kane term the quiet voice, but more often for me it feels a certain way in my body. It's no joke that it's called it a gut feeling, because that's where it is often felt. Though intuition comes in many different forms and people have different experiences of it. Sometimes when I stop to ask myself a question (usually when I'm listening to the garbage in my mind) like "what do I want for lunch, what should I be doing next here at work", I will feel into my gut. A "Yes" answer feels connected, whole and complete, almost heavy in my belly. A"No" answer feels disconnected, I feel light in my stomach not solid, like a tumbling feeling.

What I've been experiencing in a very strong way is that as I follow my intuitive sense, life just flows easily from moment to moment. Not only that, but my intuition gets stronger and sharper, thus making my life even easier and more effortless. It has a tumbling, exponential effect. This isn't a formula for intuition by any means, because intuition has no formula, just like being enlightened has no formula. It's just what I've been noticing like an anthropologist. So please don't try and turn it into a formula or a belief, because you will be doing a disservice to yourself!

A perfect example of listening to your intuition in terms of dating is when Shya Kane was speaking to someone who was feeling bad about not dating, because of the way she acted around a very handsome actor she was in the presence of. He said something to the effect of "ever think that you're being shy was actually your intuition shying you away from this person, who you knew wasn't good for you? That you know information that you can take-in that is beyond what your mind can see." That's exactly what's been happening to me lately with dating. I keep trying to force myself to connect so I can fulfill my agenda, which might be attention, sex, etc. And in the end, it isn't fulfilling; I'd rather be working with technology, playing music, socializing with friends, or hanging with someone I have a connection with.

So here I sit here at home with Washburn acoustic in hand while I type this, tightening up lyrics on and rehearsing some songs. I had a great voice lesson tonight too, working on Stevie Wonder's "As". What a song! My teacher knows really how to connect a voice to a body, super-intuitive. Having a blast. :)

Foot on the Brake, Foot on the Gas

At this past week's Monday Night Alive, a successful young actor in the group began to speak about how when he gets a new acting job, he "puts his foot on the brake" in order to balance his life out. And if I remember correctly, sort of as a reward to relax for having gotten a solid job. Ariel & Shya told him how that's the point in the time when he should be putting his "foot on the gas" and not on the brake. He should line-up a new job for after his run of shows. The Kanes then asked "how good are you willing to let it get?" Meaning how successful will you allow yourself to be, without dimming yourself down to fit in with others? To allow yourself to shine brightly, regardless of those who might try to bring you down, because they are jealous, competing, or afraid that you will leave them behind. This is why a support system of those who can be honest with you about how you are being, and are there to really support you when others might aid you in diminishing in your greatness, though they don't do it intentionally. I love the phrase "you can't do it alone." Boy, how I do wish I that I could do it all on my own. I naturally want to be independent and do it all by myself. Thing is that is a lonely way to live I'm finding. It's easier and more fulfilling to allow myself to be supported, and to support others. It makes things feel effortless.

I find for myself that I'm busier and ever but life is taking on this zen-like quality...work is very busy with many projects, I'm taking voice and acting classes, getting my songs up to speed to perform, writing this blog and managing a group Transformation blog, I'm revamping my apartment with new furniture and paint, and my social and dating life is as active as ever. In the past, I would have reasoned-out that I need time to relax, and balance-out my activity. But now that I've been learning from Transformation that one you start going for your life, you can't stop. I mean you can, but you'll lose momentum. You have to use that momentum to keep going and going more! I remember my uncle once saying that "the idea of balance is bullshit" I can agree in most cases. We think we are capable of doing of only doing so much, so we relax. We get wasted, do drugs, and hang around people who aren't supportive to dim ourselves down. It's a concept that didn't make sense to me at first, but now I can really feel it. Once I leap, I have to keep leaping, to stay on the edge of my life and really keep going for it.

So lately I've been noticing that when I accomplish a lot at work, at home or with songwriting I naturally will start to feel as if I need time to "chill out, relax and balance things out". But I am seeing that this is a form of putting my foot on the brake. Instead of resisting the feeling of wanting to slow down I see it as a signal. It's a signal that now's the time to put my foot on the gas; to complete my work project with greatness; to revamp my apartment with new paint, furniture and a new arrangement; to finish a set of songs so I can start playing out as soon as I can.

It's important to note that I'm not making a rule about balance or always going for it. At times it very well may be important to relax and tend to balance. But with me in the last month, I can intuitively feel that the foot must go on the gas, that I must keep going for my life. Didn't you know that your time is short here? Easy to forget especially if we're lost in the drama of our own lives, stories in our minds about what we can and can't do, and not being present to what's happening right in front of us and what we are doing. Yoda from Star Wars has said it so well: "All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing."

So where is your attention right now? On yourself, on the future, or on the present and on what you are doing? I ask myself that all the time when I find myself drifting away, into fantasyland.

Until Transformation, I had always heard about the concept of people dimming down their own success, but it was just a set of words. And I certainly didn't see how I could dim myself down to hinder success. I'm just starting to see this latter point. After all I was brought up with the phrase "moderation in all things." Which isn't a bad phrase and isn't it wrong by any means, some things I may need to moderate. It's just that it has its limits if I live by it as a rule in any situation.

So go for it, keep going, don't stop. Life only gets more magical when you live this way.