RL Group

This site has moved.

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:47:00 +0100

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your interest in this site - we have moved, rolling all our work into one site at www.reinventinglife.org. The rl group blog has moved to the Personal Life Menu under retreats.

The new site gives you lots of opportunity for increased interaction in the forum - accessed after signing in by clicking on the discussion link in the top right of the page.

See you there,
Alana

Just because it is lovely

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Fri, 9 May 2008 16:02:00 +0100

Hi everyone - this is really enjoyable.
Alana

How to decide your focus?

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Fri, 9 May 2008 12:47:00 +0100

Hi all,

One of our members writes, "It would be easy to apply, but my greatest challenge is to figure out szeeseswhat I want to work on... health, spirituality, being with my perfect match, ways to become more prosperous... Would love some feedback."

We all approach problem solving differently - so I can only explain how I recommend we do it for the retreat - but I am not an advocate of splitting our lives into parts and then problems solving them. I guess the bottom line is this - how can we ever hope to enjoy a sense of wholeness and wonder at the whole, if we continue to use the scientific model and focus on the parts?

So what do I do when I go through a visioning (usually twice a year in January and September)? I start by putting a picture of myself in the middle (the shot above shows my current vision chart - up in my office where it becomes a backdrop to my life). Then I put all the segments I need to consider around my face (or a picture that represents my dream life) and go from there. I personally use a portable white board material so I can erase and redraw easily as I go, and its big, 2'X3' at least so that it has to be up on the wall - big enough that it relates to me and doesn't get lost in a pile on my desk. I work on it a bit, and then go on to other things. Eventually it sort of "settles" and becomes a backdrop for a while until I find I need to add to it because things have shifted.

Let me give an example from the list above - you might start by putting the list in order:

health, - are you unhealthy? if so, this is a priority, if not it slips in the order of things
spirituality, - does your life lack peace? If so then this becomes at least a backdrop
being with my perfect match, - It has been my experience that this one tends to be a top priority whether or not we put it at the top - there is likely no greater gift to life than a good match. However if we are at peace, have baggage, etc we may choose to X this from the list altogether.
ways to become more prosperous - again the degree of focus would be determined by the degree of pain. If we are poor or in more debt than we are comfortable with then perhaps this becomes a priority.

OK - now basic problem solving would have us list potential strategies and this is not a bad thing - use the diagnose step to see what others have done. BUT BEFORE YOU WANT TO MOVE INTO ACTION YOU WANT TO MEDITATE, SLEEP ON IT, etc - what ever terms you use for yourself to let it lie in your subconscious for later action. Until you are good at the PAR cycle and practice there is a great likelihood that you may move too fast, not letting your inner spirit have the chance to talk that it needs.

Besides the next retreat is less than a month away - getting your map started and some early diagnosis work done is a nice beginning to that retreat.

Love to you all,
Alana

Setting up Profiles

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Fri, 9 May 2008 11:12:00 +0100

Hi all,

One of our members asked where to find and set up your profiles (always nice to have a picture or avatar, etc.). Do you come through a page marked Dashboard? If so, and if your name is over in the top right hand corner there should be a link under it to "edit your profile." If not let me know and you and I can see together how to make these changes.

Alana

Starting each day with song

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Sat, 3 May 2008 07:29:00 +0100

Hi everyone,

On my last flight from Europe to the US I watched "Enchanted." I have no shame that the only kind of entertainment that I find, well, entertaining are things that leave me feeling upbeat and happy. In one scene the cinderella like character begins to convince the man whose attitude about life has soured that he could look at things in an upbeat way. She does this through singing (and of course the whole world joins in as you can see here and here).

On our HomeLife blog I will go on a bit about the song that Margie made up for our new puppy. This morning finds me singing it to her and having my spirits SOAR, leading me to this post, hoping all of you get a chance to enjoy singing today.

Lots of love,
Alana

PAR as PersonalGrowth: A case study begins

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Fri, 2 May 2008 09:39:00 +0100

Hi everyone,

As I lead retreats I use the cycle of PAR as the model for personal growth. Why? Well why I really like the flow of alchemy, PAR is quicker and more appropriate for use as a method for discussion as you interject actions to help put your new phase of life in place as you go.

I am a good case study for how this works right now and thought I would use myself to exemplify how this can work - then others who will be retreating with me can jump in if they wish with their story, their diagnosis work, etc as a basis for what goes on in June. (By the way there are still spaces left for the retreat and anyone interested can email TraceseaS@yahoo.com for information).

Diagnosis is the first PAR step. About four months ago my friend Alice took the time to make up a mock flier for "the James Group" outlining how others should employ this mythical group of consultants because we help them solve problems. It was her way of pushing me in the direction of consulting on a larger scale, something on which I was not at all focused at the time. This gift from God propelled me to what has become an almost daily adventure in a n uphill learning curve.

I believe that there is nothing in the world that someone has not already done - so when we want to reinvent our lives it is best to start by researching what is already out there. What has caught my attention is the question of how the internet is changing the world of education - with tons of redundant information being uploaded everyday, much of it of very high quality, there is little reason for the creation of content to be much of the work of an academic.

This leaves people like me in the position of facilitator of knowledge management and learning - and since facilitation is something I like to do I am on safe ground. However I have needed to catch up on Web 2.0 and all the implied changes that go with it. This diagnosis stage has finally slowed down to a level where I think I am ready to develop what I have learned into a business plan/website design, thus moving me on to the ACT part of the cycle. Before I go there, I will capture my ideas both here and on my DoctorateLife blog.

For those of you who want to join in:
Write a short blog on the context for your life growth, and then go off and research what others have done, what else is out there, that will propel new ideas. Come back here when you are ready and we'll go the next steps together!

All the best,
Alana

Action and meausurement steps

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Sat, 5 Apr 2008 10:19:00 +0100

Hi everyone,

I am frequently focused on the use of diagnosis step in PAR. Today my mind runs instead to the action and measurement steps. How is it that we put out actions towards our goals out in the world in such a way as to let others measure them? More specifically how can the internet help?

A few ideas weave together here: first distributed learning. According to one of my favorite theories, people really learn by cobbling together whatever comes their way that helps them understand and develop the skills they need. This has been called by some distributed learning it may lead to the disintegration of classrooms.

A second idea in this weave is that people love to share -in fact there is a great buzz to putting our ideas out there in cyberspace - hence blogs, moblogs, etc.

The final fiber in this thread is the need for measurement after we take action - we need feedback. As an example, as I write, book proposals, blogs, articles and chapters I need (crave actually) feedback - (if you haven't commented on a blog in a long time then please do so today). As you use PAR for whatever type of reinvention you are working on you need measurement feedback as well - why not consider using the internet to get it?

Below is a list of popular websites where you can upload your ideas/action/etc and then receive feedback - if you are lucky from the general public and (if not so lucky as all that) by emailing family and friends to go have a look. Chances are they will be curious and do so. As an example my first video got 58 views and one comment.

In case you are intrigued you may want to try:

Taking pictures of your notes, your actions, your projects in progress and uploading the to www.flickr.com.
You may want to start a group of followers on Twitter, each of you watching out to make sure that the others follow through on daily or weekly commitments.
You may want to start or join a group on google, yahoo, etc. to allow you to share your interests and ask others to help you measure your relative success.

What I do is use them all - in some sort of mystic rotation as to what I feel like at the moment. As you can tell today I am blogging. Tomorrow I have plans to take another video and see whether and how I can attract more viewers.

What I do know is that the strength of my ideas is directly proportional to the degree I put myself out in the world. Taking action and measuring the consequences of those actions is a major part of the process of growth and development.

I would love to hear that you have made a commitment to focus energy on the action/measurement side of the equation for the next couple of weeks. Just a small bit of time each day will allow you to reap amazing rewards.

All the best,
Alana

Distributed learning - diagnosis step

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Wed, 2 Apr 2008 18:56:00 +0100

Hi everyone,

As I prepare to travel to the US to meet people, organize a new retreat and discuss participatory action research (PAR) with doctoral students, I am musing on how the educational side of my life merges with the diagnosis step in our personal PAR work. Bear with me for a minute and let me see if I can make some sense of these ideas and that they might be useful to you.

Let me make a few assumptions:

You want to make some changes in your life (let me use the ubiquitous lose weight as an example).
The first step is diagnosis (how many who have lost weight feel like you know all about it because you have done it so many times before?)
So what you have to do is diagnose what would be new to you? A question you might ask is, "Who is saying something (about your topic) that I have not heard before?

Now the principles of distributed learning come in. The world wide web is a fantastic place, and held among it are nodes (or gathering places) of information. Flickr is a node for pictures (but not just photos, pictures of peoples notes, diagrams for books, all types of things). Slideshow.com is node for presentations, as YouTube is for videos. All the major companies like Google, yahoo, MSN have groups - you can search to see if there are groups in the area you want to research.

All the time what you want on your radar is the new, then when you hear something you follow it up, make your own decisions, craft your own plan.

Before you know it your ideas are re-energized and you are ready to move into some kind of action.

In the last few weeks I have been on a diagnosis binge. Every morning for a couple of hours I found myslef researching what was new in education - this is where I came up with these ideas. But i also came up with an idea for some consulting business I want to do. I put it into action last night as I asked some friends if they were interested in working with me on these ideas. Tomorrow I go see a man who might be a prospective client. We'll see how it goes.

The important factors here are that new information is energizing because it helps us focus on potential and there is something in the human spirit that loves potential.

I hope these ideas inspire and that this finds all of you following your potential.
All the best,
Alana

Let's talk about Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:14:00 GMT

What the world needs now is.....
well part of the answer to this phrase is deeper connections with other people (love sweet love).

I know that it is about a year old - but Twitter is really hitting fast in our part of the world. I have to say that there has not been a new tool that has caught my attention like Twitter. it gives me a buzz to know my friend with the pink hat is getting her computer fixed or working in her garden. It helps my connectedness to my work to know that a professor whose insights I value has a new slide show up on the web. It may even help the sale of my book if I get a video or pdcast done and then mention it in Twitter - who knows how fun and connections can spread.

What does this have to do with our reinventing life group? Why not consider all being on and following each other in Twitter - then setting the intention of Twittering regularly about how we are doing with our designs, our actions etc. Using the four PAR steps we would measure our success faster and find this as a tool to get our reflections started.

So for anyone who wants to drop in with a Tweet - I am alanajames on Twitter!

All the best,
Alana

PAR video: The steps explained

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 13:37:00 GMT

Hi everyone,

This video slide presentation is a mock up version for three sessions I am giving to Colorado Technical University in Colorado Springs on April 12th and 17th. While the video is not perfect (feet and bottom of slides cut off) it is a fairly decent first attempt and I think those of you interested in the idea of using this process on reinventing your life might find it interesting.

The process is the same whether it is for solving issues of poverty or deciding what you want to do next with your lives. It is helpful to have a map when we step out into the unknown - that is the reason PAR helps with transformation - it gives us the map.

Please post ideas, responses, and general impressions using the comment link below - I love knowing who this goes out to and what you think.

All the best,
Alana

PAR Presentation Attached

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 13:15:00 GMT

Hi everyone,

This video is a basic presentation that outlines the PAR steps for people who want to address complex adaptive (hard to solve) problems. While I made it as a building block for my talks to a university business and education crowd, the steps and the way we think about reinventing our personal life is much the same.

I confess that I put a lot of information in eight minutes, so I wouldn't be surprised to hear it was hard to catch the first time you watched it (lopsided grin).

Please comment below and let me know if it makes sense for anyone considering making changes in their personal lives.

All the best,
Alana

Infinite Field of Possibilities

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 13:47:00 GMT

Hi everyone,

I am reading, well actually listening to, the trilogy of which you may have seen the movie The Golden Compass. The hero is a little girl who has a fantastic ability to attract friends and together they become involved in the struggle between THE CHURCH (the bad guys) and her father (not so sure he is a good guy) who is trying to do away with religion once and for all and on all worlds.

Its this last that I am musing on today - that there are multiple universes - each which split off as we make a decision. This makes sense to me as I see that as long as we play in the world of 'what if' - we have infinite possibilities for our lives, but as soon as we pin ourselves down to a course of action the rest of the actions that we did not choose disappear somewhere. Occasionally we may get them back, but they won't be the same as if we took those actions in the first place.

OK - so now, at this moment I am seeing a world of infinite possibilities and I love thinking about: new websites, associations of my friends setting up shop to enhance multicultural ideas, mentoring doctoral students and playing with people who are at the leading edge of ideas about how education is changing. Yet I also feel tension - that as some of these ideas play out the field of possibility lessons - and as they become successful the likelihood of becoming stuck in them they way they are - where we work to keep them moving takes over. Plop, zip, gone are any pretense of infinite and we just fight to hold on to possibilities.

As I pursue some of these new ideas my goal, or idea is to stay close to the power of new ideas - to not let the day to day destroy that energy. AND/Both rather than EITHER one OR the other.

Looking forward to any comments you might have,
Alana

RL Retreat info and scrapbook

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:13:00 GMT

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Hi Everyone, you will be able to move the scrapbook pages up close where you can see them by clicking on the up arrow in the middle - then move them at your own pace by using the right hand arrow. There are 10 scrapbook pages in all.

Please let me know what you think. If you have any friends who might be interested in retreating with us in May/June please pass on this link to them.

Alana

Being Happy

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Sun, 9 Mar 2008 11:06:00 GMT

Hi everyone, I thought I would upload this article, written for The Immigrant Newspaper in Cork........

What does it take to make you happy? Picture a line and on one side of the line is absolute bliss (happiness beyond measure). On the other side of the line is sadness. Everyday run-of-the-mill happiness falls somewhere in the middle. Some people would say it is easy to be happy, others would say it is hard. The important message is that happiness does not come from the outside of us but the inside, and that makes all the difference.

Many people think that they will be happy, “if….” If they have a boyfriend, or girlfriend; if they get the next job; if they make more money, have a house, or drive a new car. The truth is that these things only bring fleeting pleasure. We can never get enough things outside of ourselves to make us happy. Happiness that lasts comes from connecting with the part of life spirit that is inside of us, the part that comes out when we sing, dance or create art. This is also the part that we feel when we see puppies or small children playing. These things make us happy because they remind us of our connection with life itself.

After you read this article, close your eyes for a minute. Sense that inner part of yourself that knows happiness – that is happiness. Does it feel warm? Does it have a color? Rest there for a few minutes until you feel yourself naturally smiling. Remember times when you felt like the world worked for you and you knew yourself to be secure and content. Feel your breath, feel the buzz of life in your hands and feet, and let yourself move in a way that makes you smile.

We can all make this a daily practice. If we remember to connect with our own inner happiness, then we can help our families, friends and co workers remember their “happiness place” as well. Perhaps we can all spread a little sunshine as we go. If this happens to you, I hope you email me at james.alana@gmail.com and tell me stories about how it worked for you.

Diagnose Alchemy Moves to Action - The beginning of a PAR cycle

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Sat, 1 Mar 2008 10:23:00 GMT

Hi everyone,

As I mentioned in another blog, I recently was propelled through circumstance to investigate which archetypal pattern was currently playing in my life. The idea here is that we all are playing out a few roles that tie us to humanity through the ages - and the alchemist turned out to be me! In fact it fits my soul so perfectly that I find it thrilling to investigate – so investigate I did.

Before I forget it, you will find a few links at the bottom of this blog they are put there for fun and I highly recommend follow some of them. The first link I saved for the Lost Wonder Museum – and it truly is a wonder! I highly recommend it for anyone desiring to experience the buzz when your small human mind connects with the universe – FABULOUS. Also, wasn’t Nicholas Flamel a character in Harry Potter? Wasn’t he the man who had created the sorcerer’s stone? Evidently he also lived in our 3D world as I found drawings on the web from his notebooks! (See the 2^nd link).

I’ll use this space to highlight the basic learning from my search:

1. Most people think of alchemy as the search to turn iron to gold –or for the sorcerer’s stone and eternal life –evidently the life eternal that alchemists really seek is not the mundane but the enlightened idea of the blend of this life with the eternal oneness of the universe (a theme that runs throughout).

2. Alchemy was given a bad name by Freud, who commented that Leonardo Da Vinci (a known dabbler in the alchemical arts) was the equivalent of someone half crazy in the lingo of today, making Leonardo seem ridiculous.

3. Jung, on the other hand, developed the basic alchemical principal of the merging of opposites and the basic patterns of life force (air, water, earth and fire) into psychological principles (spirituality, physicality, emotionality and mentality).

4. Alchemy has seven steps – as you will see in the Museum of Lost Wonder.

The effect of my search on my creative mind has been enormous. The actions that follow include: a) using this as a teaching cycle for my other work (a retreat coming up by the way in Colorado in May or early June), b) I have started a small altered book “My book of Wonder” that uses the seven alchemical phases as a stepping off place, and c) I am adding the seven steps to my spiritual/psychological database of ideas to work out their correspondence with everything else that I have put together.

The bottom line for me is that a lot of energy came zooming into my life with one set of exploration – here’s hoping that whomever reads this finds the same zoom of wonder for themselves – It is really a lovely ride.

I’ll leave the discussion here for today so that my readers have time to play in the links below.

Love you lots,

Alana

www.lostwonder.org (tour the museum) This is really a can’t miss

http://www.alchemylab.com/flameldwgs.htm A whole page of Flamel links

And finally a link to cool pictures (like the one above) http://altreligion.about.com/library/graphics/magick/alchemy4.jpg

Synchronicity: A few notes on how it seems to work

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 17:17:00 GMT

If we accept the premise that there are no coincidences in life then we enter what I am calling an “alchemical mystery.” Alchemical because as we grow we have the opportunity to make gold out of the drudge we may have started with (or visa versa) and a mystery because the series of coincidences can guide us rather than our little selves trying to control everything. As a long time reader of science fiction fantasy, those terms enliven my heart – I want my life to be a mystery and I enjoy the processes of all things alchemical. My reader will just have to indulge my tastes.

It is a lot more fun to live a life where you don’t know where you are going exactly than to plan, fret and try to coerce an otherwise uncooperative universe into doing what YOU (the little you) want it to do. Or at least this is becoming true for me and I have a few examples.

Like millions of people I started 2008 planning. Only this year I had no real idea of where I was going so rather than planning for particular things (little me planning) I opened it up to the alchemical side of things. Having been trained as an artist is very useful here – artists become comfortable when they face those big white pieces of paper that they don’t know and can’t precisely control what will come out on the other side. There may be zen in it (if I better understood zen), but I know that there is flow to it, using Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) discussion of flow (which I would call an alchemical state) where people enter a zone (as the athletes understand it) and “magic” happens. Art requires focus, flow, and entering the zone and so did my planning session this year.

I won’t bore you with the details, suffice it to say that I came out with a diagram with four arms, two representing things that work in my life now and two that are the energies I want more of. I couldn’t n tell you all that I thought about or what the parts meant because I was largely moving on instinct. When the drawing that represented what my little mind might call a strategic plan felt “right” I printed it. Now it resides above my head and since part of the picture is a growing body of writing and two book proposals, I occasionally add words around the diagram.

Synchronistically, I was listening to a Deepak Chopra tape (2007) in which he leads his audience through exercises to identify their archetypes. I have seen this type of work before and it didn ‘t “click – this time it did and I adopted the archetype of ….(drum roll)…..(you guessed it) the alchemist. Being visual I went to the internet to find pictures of alchemists and …..(drum roll again) they look just like my office looks when I have these large planning documents up covering all my cabinets – many things going on, different sections of the office in use for different things I am doing, etc. I like to have everything out where I can see it – and evidently this has been the case for people who think like me throughout the ages.

Feeling satisfied that I was on the right track, I started to use another Chopra (2007) idea and as I go to bed at night I scan my day – then ask the universally connected part of myself (the bigger than me, me) to watch my dreams in the same way. Great stuff! While I may not remember my dreams exactly I can ask when I wake up what was that all about – and my other knowing self gives me an answer.

Enter new or refinements of old ideas and we’ll see the mystery of unfoldment in action once again. The facts are:

1. I have said that if I was to come back to the US and/or lead another reinventing life retreat that the universe would have to open the possibilities because I couldn’t see how it was going to happen.

2. Years ago when I did something called, The course in miracles, (Foundation for Inner Peace., 1992) one of the exercises that did not make sense was, “There is nothing you need do.” What did that mean? I could almost hear myself (small self) argue with the words on the page.

3. In my work as a university professor I am studying transformative education – this took me to a book by Loder (1989) who discusses the Christian stories of transformation.

4. Oprah Winfrey is evidently recommending a new book by one of my favorite provocative authors Eckhardt Tolle (year) Name of book and I got it to listen to on my iPod.

5. There is another Deepak book (2006) Power, freedom and grace, sitting on my desk that I haven’t quite gotten to that I want to add in my Reinventing Life database.

How do all these separate items – coupled with my asking myself when I wake up the meaning of my dreams have to do with following the mystery? The message that came to hit me over the head not once by three times from three different authors (Loder, Chopra and Tolle) was (there is that drum roll again) – my small (what they call egoic) limited self can’t control anything but the bigger connected to the mystery self can have a great time sitting back and letting the flow take me to interesting places. Interesting place number 1 at the moment is to Colorado in April. I received an email yesterday from an old business colleague who will bring me in as a guest speaker for a few days. While I am there, if all is meant to be, I can meet some people and get the next reinventing life retreat going. I will also keep my eyes and ears open in case there are other reasons I am meant to be there and doors may open that I can’t quite imagine.

The dream sequence last night cinched it for me. Mid way through the night I awaken feeling pressured and burdened (not an unusual set of feelings when I am trying to control things) to find that in my dreams I had taken on one too many things and the conflicting deadlines had me running (gee, I wonder if any of my readers have ever experienced this?). OK fine, I noticed it and went back to sleep. As I awoke this morning I felt at ease, upon asking what that was about I “heard,” this was an example of how it feels to let the mystery lead, “There is nothing you need do.”

WOW!

(Chopra, 2006, 2007; Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Loder, 1989; Tolle, 2005)

Chopra, D. (2006). Power, freedom, and grace: Living from the source of lasting happiness. San Rafael, Calif.: Amber-Allen Pub.

Chopra, D. (2007). The essential spontaneous fulfillment of desire: The essence of harnessing the infinite power of coincidence (1st abridged ed.). New York: Harmony Books.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow : the psychology of optimal experience (1st ed.). New York: Harper & Row.

Foundation for Inner Peace. (1992). A Course in miracles : combined volume (2nd ed.). Glen Elen, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace.

Loder, J. E. (1989). The transforming moment (2nd ed.). Colorado Springs: Helmers & Howard.

Tolle, E. (2005). A new earth: Awakening to your life's purpose. New York, N.Y.: Dutton/Penguin Group.

DisneyWorld

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:16:00 GMT

The retreat is a happening thing

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. E. Alana James) — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:31:00 +0100

Hi everyone,

Our first reinventing live retreat is beginning to fill with participants. Brian has the website up and working and John has the brochure circulating. Now it is up the synchronicity in the universe to bring us together.

Meanwhile we are working to find out how others can join us in this blog, making it the beginning of our online community of practice, supporting those who are living and reinventing that living as they go. Please comment here if you want to participate, with your name, email, etc and we will do what we can to get you hooked up.

All the best,
Alana