Bo Sebastian's Finding Authentic You!: June 2013

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Extreme Quiet

If you have been around noise all day—people complaining, crowds in stores or bars, or the ratcheting noise of a factory, you may need some extreme quiet. Sometimes it feels impossible to find that one place where everything and everybody disappears so that your body and mind can get that much needed rest and peace. This is where meditation helps.

The cognitive, deductive mind is working the moment you wake up and realizes that you are in your bed, in your home, and have to get out of the bed to proceed with your day. The whir of the proposed day goes through your head: I’ve got to rush through my shower to make it to work on time; I’ll pick up coffee at Starbucks to give me a rush of energy; I’ve got to get the kids to their game, the pool, school; I have so many home projects that need completing…

We tend to move into the deductive mind without even thinking about spirituality and the possibility of adding a spiritual connection to this myriad of things to accomplish. But when you stop and take a few moments for meditation or prayer, or read some kind of inspiring message, pray for the day to be led by angels, ask that you be a conduit for good, ask for grace in your dealing with all of the people you may touch, but most importantly—pray that you may be a vehicle for Spirit’s good throughout the day.

Just taking the time to consider opening your spirit self will allow the frantic energy of the day to subside exponentially. When I miss my spiritual time, it feels as if every part of the day is a struggle. When I take the time to meditate—even if it is just 2 minutes—my entire day changes course. It’s as if God and angels move before me and help me get through some of the most difficult times. I find myself in many more synchronistic moments where spirit leads me to people and things that are purposeful and help me grow as an individual.

I find that I am more compassionate as well. Just one moment makes all of this connectedness and beauty happen. Can you imagine if you took more than a few minutes and actually dedicated 30-60 minutes a day to quiet and meditation what would happen to your day and to your body and mind?

Another action you can do is to dedicate some of your day to creating art, practicing an instrument, walking in a garden or around a lake or wooded area. All of these things, quiet the mind and body and allow for us to connect with our soul, which is the place where our spirit and God’s spirit are operating in tandem.

Namaste.

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Bo Sebastian is a Hypnotherapist and Life & Health Coach, available f

or private sessions to QUIT SMOKING, Lose Weight, New Lap-Band Hypnosis for Weight Loss, CHANGE YOUR MIND, CHANGE YOUR LIFE! at 615-400-2334 or www.bosebastian.com.

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Bo Sebastian is a Hypnotherapist and Life & Health Coach, available for private sessions to QUIT SMOKING, Lose Weight, New Lap-Band Hypnosis for Weight Loss, CHANGE YOUR MIND, CHANGE YOUR LIFE! at 615-400-2334 or www.bosebastian.com.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Grandma Goes Bowling

Tonight, my mother decided that, as a fun thing to do, we would go bowling with four middle-aged adults, two young children, and one friend who wasn’t playing.

My mother was an avid bowler as a young woman. She averaged 160 for a long time in her league playing years. I don’t believe she has played in many years. Her expectation, though, even though she is almost 81 years old, was that she would play exactly like she did when she was young. She got up for her turn, took her ball in her right hand, firmly clutching it with her left. She walked slowly to the foul line, and jams the ball backward, then lunges forward to throw the ball.

Her expectation was that the ball would go to the center. To her dismay, it went into the gutter. Not once, not twice, but eight times! She had a zero for four frames. The disappointment on her face made me see, perhaps for the first time, how much my mother didn’t realize how old she was or her limitations. Every day she wakes up expecting her body to act as if she were forty and treats it that way, as well.

I believe that imagining that you are younger than your age isn’t a bad thing, but let’s face it; as our bodies age, they require our attention in a new way. Each day we have to listen to our muscles, our organs, and reach toward our capacity without pushing too hard.

In yoga you learn to listen to your body in a different way than most people are used to. When you stretch deep into your muscles, you must use your mind to control your breath. As you do this, slowing the breath to four to five counts in and four to five counts out, causes your blood pressure to lower and your heart rate to slow. When this happens, your body doesn’t expect that you will hurt it. Your body learns to trust that you will not break it. So, the practice of stretching ends up being a time when the body learns to trust the mind.

If you think your body is 40 and you are actually 60, your body is not going to trust how you treat it. As that happens, muscles tighten, blood flows slows, and your oxygen levels decrease in an unhealthy way.

My lesson for the day is that you listen to your body and respect the age you are by taking care of your muscles and listening to the limitations that aging brings to the body. Perhaps, by doing a practice such as yoga, you can regain some of your strength and also your mobility.

The objective, though, is for your own body to trust you enough so that it doesn’t strain or tighten when you utilize your strength. When your body remains pliable, your limitations get greater.

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Friday, June 28, 2013

The Wind Song Stays on My Mind

Like a tightly knitted sweater, my lady friend crossed her arms, curling her hands around herself. She knelt down by the grave and kissed the stone. I saw the wind brush her hair so softly that individual strands cascaded across her teary face. One last look… One last touch... Could she ever get back the moments that were stolen away by one drunk driver?

Her heart wasn’t bitter. She loved God. She believed every thing happens for a reason. Yet, there were whispers of resentment floating upward and inward with her prayers. You could hear it in the shivering wind song lilting through the pines.

I remember the cold day in winter as if it were yesterday. My friend grieved over the loss of her seventeen year old son. No one could comfort her. “A mother is not supposed to outlive her child,” she muttered.

My family and friends stayed at arms length, but not too close to give her space. We all wanted to lift her into joy. On a normal day, she had more vivacious love and caring in her heart than most people.

On that distant day from my past, I asked myself if I would live to see thirty. I can’t tell you why. I just felt it in my soul.

You wonder how these thoughts begin. This began with a death—a tragic death. Many things in my life began when death sank deeply into my bones—close enough to touch, near enough to taste. I reassessed life in that moment. What was the nature of my existence, and how did I plan to make the best of every moment from that point on?

Why is the power death so life changing? If you are sane and intelligent, you have to know that every relationship has an end. We either separate by reason or by death. Life, by nature, is the opposite of its cohort—death. There is inevitability in life. An end will happen. It will happen to you at some point, we just don’t know when.

The existential reality of life is such that without life, there would be no death. So, the two opposite ends of the spectrum come hand in hand. Is it that we just don’t want to recognize death, until our ultimate demise stares us in the face?

When that happens, does something magically transform us and make us into something we never thought possible?

I believe this is so. Death has changed me many times. Each time, I grow a little deeper, wiser, and trust in my gut a bit more. But mostly, I learn to stop fretting over the miniscule parts of life and begin living the greater parts.

However, if you don’t understand what you life’s purpose is, death brings about a completely different challenge, especially if you are an Atheist or Agnostic. If you don’t believe there is a hereafter, than the only choice to believe is that you will no longer exist in any form. What could be more disparaging than that?

But with a life’s purpose and faith in an afterlife, at least, you can trust that something, somewhere, has a handle on the longevity of your life and your purpose here on earth.

The goal would be to integrate your own beliefs and life into your spiritual purpose. When you do that, your fear subsides. You realize that you will be here as long as it takes to achieve your life’s goal. Then, perhaps, if you believe in reincarnation, you might believe that on the other side of this life, there may be another life to try again.

I don’t have answers. I have questions. If you haven’t asked yourself these questions, you might consider doing so. If and when you do, you will encounter each precious moment with care and the attention it deserves.

The Now will become your inevitable home.

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Two Birds with One Stone

Today, as I was driving home from a friend’s house, two birds—flying in tandem—slammed directly into my windshield—dropped from the air. I couldn’t have avoided the collision if I were Svengali. I looked from my rearview mirror to see them both flop to the street. My heart sunk.

I heard myself murmur, “Huh, two birds with one car!”

I wasn’t trying to be funny. Sometimes, though, when something outrageously horrible happens, my faux Turrets disease, comical side pops out to keep my mind from dwelling on the terrible present. This was the case.

I drove down the street bewildered. Why on earth would God allow two precious little sparrows to be killed by my car in that moment? I didn’t like the Now. In fact, I hated it, and I was a little angry at God. So, I tried to think of the lesson that those beautiful creatures were trying to teach me sacrificing their lives. The lesson must be huge, because it had my utmost attention.

My lesson yesterday had been about rejection. I still had been dwelling on it a lot lately. I found myself telling a client that, sometimes when you are in a secure relationship, old behaviors rise up to be healed, because you feel as if you are in a safe place for growth. Perhaps, this is the case.

I asked Spirit to help me understand what else I would be killing off if I attended to easing my anxious obsession about rejection. I didn’t get an answer right then. When I arrived home, I had about twenty chores I wanted to accomplish before my first client. I wanted to help out a friend and cut his grass. After that, I scurried around the garden and about the house making my special sausage sauce with homemade pasta, pizza dough to keep refrigerated for 3 days (my secret), pizza sauce, changing the filter in the pond, watering plants, pulling out weeds, and running the sweeper. Those were the main chores. I had more energy than normal.

I noticed, after my four hours of running around like an aerobics teacher and before my shower, I noticed that I had lost two pounds since the morning, and that was even after I had eaten breakfast. I was pretty stoked about that. I’m almost down to my fighting weight. (Could that be the killing two birds with one stone?)

As I sang opera in the shower, I began to think about the great day gay men and women from all over the US had yesterday. Our struggle to get the government to treat us like first class citizens had been validated. Allen and I went to a party at Tribe last evening to celebrate. So many people were jubilant and excited about what this Supreme Court decision meant for the future of our lives.

I, in particular, have never really considered all the implications of what it would be like to be married to a man and have equal benefits as my straight friends, family, and neighbors. I felt even more secure about the future than ever before. Soon, I want to settle down with a partner and make a commitment for life.

Maybe this entire scenario about ridding my life of my rejection issues is about preparing me for a wonderful future with a mate who I can commit to for the rest of my life.

Perhaps the message on the windshield this morning was this: If you are strong enough to face your worst fears of rejection, you will also become brave enough to love with abandonment, security, and longevity!

I like it. Thank you, birds!

One more thought: maybe feeling something as rejection so deeply isn’t such a bad quality. The more I consider the purpose of the now, the greater I can feel it. Then—the key to this issue—is to release what ever feeling it is to God and to the greatest good! Otherwise, you may end up dwelling in that negative space for far too long and end up in a depression. We don’t want that.

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Rejection—IS—Spirit's Direction

Rejection—IS—Spirit’s Direction

When I look back in my life, every time I have been rejected, whether it be for a job, a show, a relationship, or a friendship, it has always been perfect direction toward something more permanent, more lasting, and better for me.

Rejection is a hard word for everyone. We hate it. No one likes to be told that he/she isn’t right for something or someone. It hurts like hell. In fact, it is probably one of the worst hurts we can feel.

The reason is most of us desire to have close relationships. We desire to be liked and appreciated with every bone in our bodies. So, when we are told that we don’t live up to someone’s standards or that someone else was better qualified, it makes us just want to crawl under the bed and hide. It certainly does to me.

But I’ve been thinking about how negative the word rejection is. I’ve been wondering why, even though I know inside that it is God’s direction, I have let my life be controlled by rejection. I want everyone to love me. I want everyone to be my friend. I want to be considered and hired for everything I audition for.

It’s what’s known as Anxious Attachment. The need to be loved and held at close proximity is in my neuro pathways.

When I was a child, my mother left my father at a young age. The person who provided the most loving and caring in my life, left without a trace. She sent me to the candy store. When I came back home, she was gone with all her belongings.

I had five brothers and sisters who she sent to the swimming pool. I felt sick to my stomach and didn’t want to go. I knew something was out of the ordinary down in my soul. I was thwarting her plans to escape without detection. However, she wooed me away by asking me to go to the store—the store that would take me a half an hour to get to and from it.

I felt responsible. I understood in my child mind that I was the one who could have kept my mother at home, had I not been so interested in candy. I had my chance and I didn’t take it. This left a scar in my brain that has kept me anxiously attached to just about everything.

Of course, I would initially pick as a profession—acting, singing and dancing in NYC. This path was rife with rejection. I never got used to it. I finally decided to move to Nashville, record a Christian album and write books.

What happened was that I thought Christianity would be a buffer for rejection. When I discovered that the Christian music industry was worse than the secular one, I was even more disoriented. Then with writing books, you just spend a year of your blood, sweat and tears churning out a 400-500 pages only to find—you guessed it—rejection again.

I’m not saying that I didn’t have times of acceptance. I have had great successes, which I am very thankful for. But I begin to wonder if this entire journey has been about resolving this one issue—REJECTION!

When I use logic and reasoning, I see that rejection is only God’s direction. If I believe firmly in the concept that God and Spirit are steering me into the place I need to go where I will be aptly blessed and learn tremendous life lessons, there is no other way to look at this truth.

However, if I have an anxious, disoriented, or avoidant attachment in my life, this is the only autonomic response that acts in the body without reason or thought. It is alive like having your own active volcano inside. When you get triggered, there is little to do but let it come out and feel it.

However, I have been using EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitation Reprossessing) to change the patterns and the amount of time I stay disoriented and sad. The system works.

I’d be happy to help you with it and hypnosis, if you are dealing with some pain of this nature. It’s almost miraculous if you can find yourself strong enough to take a different pathway in those times of disorientation or anxiety.

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

The Power of a Seed

I heard a message recently by Dr. Mitch Johnson, the pastor of Center of Spiritual Living Nashville, in which he explained the nature of a seed. To paraphrase, he suggested that a seed can be from an orange in Florida, and, if you plant it anywhere with the right temperature, it will grow, because by its nature, it is programmed to explode with new life.

A seed is magnificent and magical. Something so tiny can become something so majestic—for instance a Sequoia, one of the largest trees in the world comes from a small seed.

Every year, I save seeds from the last year’s annuals to plant for the next year. I used to take such care in potting and planting each individual seed. Then when the seedlings would grow large enough, I would transplant them into the garden exactly where I wanted them to take root.

Lately, I’ve been scattering the seeds or just throwing them into the air. I am always thrilled with the amount of plants that come up when I copy what nature would innately express: a.) the seeds naturally would come to a head; b.) the wind blows them in all directions; and c.) new plants grow the next year.

I’ve discovered that the power of nature is often much stronger than the power of taking the individual seeds and planting them into small pots. I’m not exactly sure why. It would seem that the more nurtured the seed, the better chance it would have to grow. But year after year, my neighbor and I throw seeds out in the spring. By summer, our gardens are lush with new annuals.

Seeds are generally metaphorically identified as thoughts or ideas. Usually I say with careful nurturing, the thoughts or ideas will take root in your life and express as reality. But I’m wondering now if putting too much effort into ideas and not letting nature or Spirit take your seed to its intended path could be a bit counterintuitive.

My greatest life achievements have happened from a combination of being prepared as the perfect opportunity expressed itself. The times I have labored over decisions and ideas, wondering exactly how and when I should proceed, have been times in my life where anxiety has accompanied seed thoughts. In these instances I almost never achieved what I desired.

When we leave God out of the growing experience, whether it be in our vegetable or flower gardens or in the gardens of our lives, we do ourselves a great disservice. Life, by definition, begins and ends with the breath of life God gives. So, to express life in any form, we must have the power of spirit undergirding our ideas and expressions for them to take flight, like fledgling birds innately knowing their path is to fly off into the air with wings God gave them.

There is never a question as to if the birds will fly. The question is always when and with what amount of courage and fortitude it will take to make that first thrust into the wind. Sometimes they need a push. Sometimes they gently fly out of the nest.

Let your ideas flow from you today. But give Spirit time to nurture the innate desires inside and feed them with knowledge. You will know when it is time and when you are strong enough to spread your wings and fly.

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Monday, June 24, 2013

Are You Really Asking for What You Want?

I asked a client this question: What do you really see yourself doing in a couple years?

He said, “Well, I’m not sure. What I would love to do and what I want to do are two different things.”

Talk about an ambivalent mind. If you don’t know what you want and desire it in your heart 95%, don’t expect to see it expressed in your life. Now, I’m not holding your belief in yourself completely responsible for who and what you become. But as you can see, I’m holding you 95% responsible.

What you are in mind expresses in kind!

What you believe about yourself and about your life will express itself one way or another. One negative thought about yourself will exponentially empower itself and leave you in a negative place for a long time.

There is also that 5% of just human life that happens, and we have little to no control over it.

My lawnmower broke this morning on the week that my sisters are coming into town. Allen and I are staying at his house while my sisters and children are going to stay here in my room and in the spare bedroom to save money. We went to Allen’s last night and the air conditioning was broken. Well, there is absolutely nothing we can do about something strange like that happening. On top of that, not one, not two, but four of my Koi fish got caught in the net that was protecting them from the gray heron. They died in the heat yesterday before I had a chance to notice. Another 260 dollars lost on fish.

I’m not sure what the Spirit is trying to tell Allen and I, but let me tell you, my ear is tuned toward heaven. I don’t want or need anything else negative to happen. I’ve prayed, we’ve prayed, let go, and now it’s God’s turn to help.

I’m not one of those spiritual advisors and clinicians who makes life entirely your responsibility. I know too well from the first three months of this year that you can be doing everything right and be directly in tbe middle of a wind tunnel that sucks your roof off, breaks your car, and all the other appliances and plumbing in your house to the tune of $23K. I was hit hard. But, I didn’t stop believing in the good that is all around me and is possible for me everyday.

In fact, I put more energy into seeing and believing in my good. I recited mantras, saw visions of gold raining down on me, and asked every spiritual friend I knew to pray “with me” as I believed for the good that God gives. (I’m not saying that occasionally I got disheartened. I did. But I tried very hard to believe the truth everyday.)

Now, you may ask, isn’t it a little bit prideful to ask for wealth and health when people are dying for no reason and poor exists all over the world?

I would have to answer a hardy NO!

You playing small in this world doesn’t help anyone. In fact, if you have money, you can help others. If you stay poor and desperate, you are the exact ones that people have to help. What kind of energy is that giving the world?

You are a child of God! Act like it.

If your mother/father in heaven has all the wealth in the kingdom, shouldn’t you be heirs to that wealth? I am not afraid to feel that. You are made in the image of God. God is perfectly healthy, is unlimited good, and is a creator. Are you playing small just so others won’t perceive you as an egotist?

I have a friend Sharon who is a CPA. Every time someone asks her what she does for a living, she says she’s an accountant. She happens to be looking for another job. She told me she doesn’t want to sound like an egotist by flaunting her accolades.

I posed this question: What if someone you are talking to has the capacity to hire a CPA and is looking for someone who has all your qualities. You may just miss the opportunity because you were afraid to say what you are. That changed her mind. I heard her yesterday introduce herself as a CPA. I smiled. I’m glad she understood what I meant.

Playing small just means you don’t see yourself as the best you can be. Don’t be afraid to have healthy ego and be all that you are. Live from a grand dream today. I’m believing it with you. I hope that you will believe in prosperity in all areas of my life with me.

Thank you, friends. And thank you, God for all that you have already given us and will continue to give us in the future.

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Friday, June 21, 2013

Letting Go

I sat at the movies watching “Silver Linings Playlist” and suddenly my heart began to pound out of my chest. I felt as if all the doors in the theater were being locked. I was transported back to a time in my life when my father was drunkenly beating up my brother to a pulp. I lay on the top bunk for a half of the scenario. Then I jumped out of bed and ran to the neighbor’s house for help.

I watched from an observer’s perspective as my entire body seized with pain and anxiety. I had to leave the theater or I would have curled up in a ball and cried like a baby. PTSD had hit me and hit me hard.

This, however, was the first time in my life I had really been able to watch what was happening. Maybe, because I understood what was going on, the experience hit me harder than I had ever remembered. I drove home, which I don’t recommend, and called a therapist friend as I drove (another bad decision). After fifteen minutes of talking me down from the bridge, I realized I was driving in the wrong direction. I had been disoriented enough that I didn’t even know where home was. I ended up 10 minutes from Columbia, going in the complete opposite direction.

Since then, I have had a few PTSD moments. A couple of them have happened during the night. A dream sparked some terrible anxiety in me. I had to get up, do some EMDR exercises and meditate before I was able to get back to sleep.

Can you release something that your body and mind doesn’t want to let go of? This is a question I have asked myself many times. I believe that whatever anxiety or stress is holding on like glue, will someday—with clear, empowered belief and therapy—will be released.

My point in all of this is that now I am seeing what is happening as it is happening. I had never understood why I would act out of character sometimes and get cold and withdrawn. Now, I’m perfectly aware—so, aware, that I can ask my partner to help me as these emotions are surfacing.

Great relationships are wonderful when someone is compassionate enough to help you work through some deep issues. I suspect that God intended for us to work out most of our deepest relationship issues with our life partner, because he or she understands us in a way no one else does or would care to.

If you deal with this kind of stronghold, I recommend starting with some therapy. Many practitioners of all kinds exist to help people with disabling problems. Choose the modality you feel is right for you by doing Google searches and seeing what therapy best suits your problem. For me, Hypnosis and EMDR, which are very similar modalities are the most effective when it comes to PTSD. In fact, a great deal of my family therapist and social worker therapists are using hypnotic techniques to uncover deeply seated fear and anxiety with Parts Therapy, breathing exercises, and Regression techniques, specifically developed all through hypnosis.

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Thursday, June 20, 2013

June Bugs and Christmas

This morning was a combination of pain and beauty. Like June bugs, which mostly are a menace, they come with the package of June’s beautiful flowers. And like family comes with Christmas, we have to take the happy with the sad, doing our best to live a joy-filled life. I arose this morning with a little less lilt and a bit more migraine. The annoying throbbing still has not gone away. I hope I don’t have to get out the big guns. They cost—get this—$27 a pill!

The first time my doctor prescribed just three pills of Maxalt, I was a little amused. Really? I thought. Then, when three pills were $80, my sphincter squeezed so tightly, it was as if I had drawn the strings of my purse, closing it for good.

I’m fortunate to be able to go outside and see the beauty of my five gardens. This helps my brain process some of the pain, as well using some of the EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitation and Reprocessing) techniques I have learned about switching off the neuro-pathways of the brain, or at least confusing them during the time I do the exercises.

I have a dear friend who has been wrestling with joint and body pain since a very serious car accident when she was in her early twenties. She is now in her forties, I think. I have watched her slip in and out of depression over the years from all of the pain. She actually has stopped working, as well, because her body just doesn’t have any resistance any more.

When we talk, I think of the all the joy she has brought to my life, her infectious laughter, and her amazing talent—all of which pales to the friendship we have. Her pain is my pain. I know it well.

When my clients come in with pain and anxiety, it’s as if, like a gift I have been given the hardship of pain in the June of my life to understand and give compassion to the people who have come to me in the December of my life. Everything has a purpose, even pain—my pain and yours.

A technique called Gestalt Therapy can be used to literally speak to your physical or mental pain as if it were a person sitting across from you. With hypnosis, you get relaxed enough that you can easily imagine this scenario. The surprising messages that come from pain would amaze you.

When I took the therapy, I was having migraines and neck pain. As my therapist led me to talk to the pain, it said to me, “You are trying to carry too much on your shoulders. Your neck can’t bear all the weight that you carry. “

This was over fourteen years ago. My own body had been trying to tell me through aches and severe pain that I wasn’t responsible for the world and all of its problems—just the problems in my personal life. The rest I could let God take care of.

When I understood the Gestalt concept, I started to use this on my own clients. More and more surprising messages came to the surface. I finally understood that the body is constantly telling us messages with the issues it attracts. This is why, when something seemingly bad happens, I try to find the message in the problem.

I have discovered that when I find the message, the symptoms magically dissolve. If everything has a purpose—pain, too, has its reasons in life. “Understand your enemies,” the Master Jesus said, and “make peace with them.” When you realize your enemies are often the issues in your own mind and body, this will change your life.

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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Belief, Passion, Desire—Action!

A dear friend and I were talking today about getting busy with life. We have been playing with getting our acts together for so long. Now, finally, it’s time to take this act on the road.

As we spoke, I said something that felt like the most authentic words I had said all day, “If we truly wanted to be doing something, we would be doing it!”

By that, I mean, I don’t have any problem making things happen when I know I want them. When I want to go on a ski trip, I make plans for it. When I want to compose a blog every day, I do it. When I contemplate about writing a new book, it doesn’t get done until I’m absolutely passionate about the idea and desire the outcome with all my heart.

So, the ingredients to action are—belief, passion, and desire. If you don’t have all three ingredients, there will be no steadfast work toward a wonderful result. I know this from many projects left undone and many completed.

In seven years I wrote five novels. Only someone who is absolutely passionate about getting a novel published can write, edit, and complete five novels in that short time. Well, I’m sure there are more prolific writers than I, but I’m talking about novice writers—people who are just beginning to understand what it takes to be a successful writer.

I went to every writers’ conference I could find. I saved all my money for vacations that only including some kind of writing endeavor. I used my time and effort for my passion. When I realized that I had spent the time that most people would have used to make millions on writing five novels, which have made their semi-permanent home in a nested folder on my computer; I decided that, perhaps, it just wasn’t my time, or I wasn’t writing work that appealed to the general public. I find it hard to be critical of my own work, even if I was a professional editor for fifteen years, but the end result of fame and fortune is telling, after all.

I went through the same passionate beginning in the acting business. I moved to New York soon after college. I didn’t care that all I had only saved $400 and had a place to stay for just three months. I knew I could get a job and find an apartment, because I had faith in life and my passion. I did get work soon after I moved to New York and got my Equity card on my third audition—something that doesn’t happen to most people. But I didn’t question for a minute that I was supposed to be there and be on stage.

Passion and belief for a long period of time and with luck may end up getting you what you really want—fame and fortune; but, trust me, I have had friends in New York gain minimal success since I left. They have been there for over thirty years. Yet, they stay there because that is what they have chosen and desire.

Now, it seems, I question most things that happens in my life. Life comes down to: Is my passion greater than my desire to be comfortable at home doing what comes naturally? Early on, I had thought that passion meant fame and fortunate. Now, I absolutely know success simply means peace and happiness in the end.

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Bo Sebastian's Finding Authentic You!

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Extreme Quiet

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Grandma Goes Bowling

Friday, June 28, 2013

The Wind Song Stays on My Mind

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Two Birds with One Stone

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Rejection—IS—Spirit's Direction

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

The Power of a Seed

Monday, June 24, 2013

Are You Really Asking for What You Want?

Friday, June 21, 2013

Letting Go

Thursday, June 20, 2013

June Bugs and Christmas

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Belief, Passion, Desire—Action!

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