YOU, are awesome

Stories, ,

Michael Wyman created the Power of Acknowledgement workshops. He ran them from his duplex apartment on the east side in NYC. At the time the B-52’s owned the building. Occasionally you would run into them going into the upper apartments.

He taught that there is genuine, authentic power in acknowledging another human being; that there is greatness in every person – a light that shines within everyone – and when that greatness and light is acknowledged, transformation occurs. This transformation occurs for the giver and receiver both, for there is a great need in each of us to feel truly seen. by Mike Schwager, President of Worldlink Media Consultants, Inc.

Back then, as a young 20 something, authentic acknowledgement was difficult to accept. A young woman in a big city is accosted daily. I mean that. You cannot walk down the street without someone having a thing to say to you, it tears at who you are. Receiving acknowledged, not just for being young & good looking (at 20 we all are), but for who you are was really, really difficult to take.

Michael was in the midst of the new age emergence, people ran from self-help to self-help workshop seeking knowledge, wisdom, friendship, dates or a good time. I think his work got lost in all of that. Tragically he passed away suddenly and was not able to continue his work himself.

I had heard about the Validation movie from Warren Whitlock, he was plastering it all over Twitter. Back then, for what ever reason, I ignored it. Today it showed up in Facebook (sorry I lost who posted it) and I decided to watch it. I was transported back to Michael Wyman days and experienced both those early uncomfortable feelings and hope for the future. I know. Hope? Future?

But really don’t we all need to feel validated? I know I do. I’ve been struggling to reclaim a part of my life that was lost. I have been struggling to recreate a whole new life. All of this struggle makes me a cranky person. At the end of the day I need, you need, to be acknowledged for what you are doing that is OK. We all need validation that we are OK with both successes and failures. We are OK as we are. Enjoy the movie. Validate someone today.



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Welcome to your story…

Book Review, , , , , , , ,

Don Miller's book

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life

I just finished reading this book after getting the water logged version in the mail. I enjoyed it. Don Miller has a wonderful self-effacing way about his writing. You can imagine him as real and not a fictional Don Trying to create his life. Its a journey. One that takes us through his life and the telling of it in a movie and the telling of it as he lives his life and recreates it. Its also a treatise on the art of writing a good story. In fact the chapters are laid out in a formula for creating a good one. I wanted to be on this journey with him- that is a good thing.

But importantly as he grows the reader is given the chance to grow with him. We can ask the same questions along with him about what makes a good tale and a good life. But not only that if the story is not a good one we can change it. We can live into this better story through developed plot twists that I can create in the telling of who I am. As an example, Miller tells of his friend and his teenage daughter. She is dating someone that he doesn’t like and had just been caught with pot. The father is lamenting all of this when Don tells him his daughter is not living a very good story. The father goes home to think about this and comes to realize he hadn’t provided a better role for her so she just picked a story that had some fun in it. There was risk, rebellion, adventure and independence. The father says, “She was just choosing the best story available to her.” You have to read the book to find out how the father creates a better story for her. I dare to say if you have children you might want to read the book for that piece of information.

Miller goes on to tell us how he began to tell a better story for himself. One that challenged him to do and become a better person. He didn’t sell his possessions and moved himself to a mountaintop, rather he used the elements of good storytelling to shift his character (himself) away from his average life to one that had a little spark in it. He added new stories along the way and began to shift his life in a big way.

This book has been making the rounds and everyone is talking about it. The book is part screen-writing, part storytelling, mixed in with self help and a little redemption at the end. By the final chapter there is so much that you learn about yourself, and the author, that you can’t help but feel the potential to change your own life. Just begin to tell a better story about who you are in this world.

What would you change in your life story if you could?

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