Tag Archives: change

Personal & Spiritual Process Book

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Copyright © 2018 Stephen Bruno, CH.t, RMT

Here is a list of some significant concepts from a new book about personal growth and spiritual process that I plan to publish in 2018. The book covers the essence of what I teach in numerous workshops, retreats, and in my Life Coaching sessions. As the book nears publication I will post more information about where you can purchase the book.

• The Seven Elements of Essence
• Respond rather than react
• Influence rather than control
• Unconditional compassion rather than unconditional love
• We use 90% of our brain to keep us believing we only use 10%
• Embrace rather than comprehend
• Service rather than self-serve
• Understanding rather than judgment
• Embracing our essence rather than following our enculturation
• Lifestyle versus career
• Friendship rather than isolation
• Natural rather than normal
• Power rather than force
• Curiosity rather than fear
• Depth rather than shallow
• Understanding core beliefs rather than simply patterns
• Change rather than resistance
• Listening rather than talking
• Flexibility rather than rigidity
• Imagination rather than willpower
• Open-minded rather than dogma
• Living rather than dying
• Performance rather than trauma/drama
• Embracing rather than surrendering
• Optimism rather than pessimism
• Reverence for life rather than irreverence
• Responsibility rather than avoidance
• Essence rather than ego and personality
• Support rather than dominance
• Planning rather than worry
• Creativity rather than stagnation
• Transcend rather than circumvent

 

Needs No Explanation

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While I was growing up my brother, eight years older than me, would sometimes buy me gifts that he especially liked, for Christmas when he had some extra money. Whether it was a box kite or remote control car, he would always demonstrate the proper way to use it without giving me an opportunity to try it first. He would set it up, try it out, and then promptly break it before I even had a chance to try it out myself.

One Christmas when I was in elementary school, I decided to change this pattern. He gave me a gift of a plastic soldier on a gas-powered flying hovercraft platform that came with a remote control. He set everything up, fueled it and just before he launched it, I grabbed the remote control and immediately sent it straight up as high as it would go. While he watched, his mouth open in shock, I decidedly powered it straight down into the alley asphalt until it hit with a terrific explosion. He remained standing with his mouth agape; he turned and looked down at me shaking his head in stunned disbelief. I smiled and walked away delighted. This was the last Christmas gift he ever bought me, and the best Christmas I ever had as a child.

I Ran Away & Joined The Circus…Almost

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Carrousel 2014 © Stephen Bruno

When I was a child around six or seven years old, a large circus came to town. Somehow, I found my way to the fairgrounds and spent the day talking to the owner and various circus performers. Aside from some potential manipulations and harm that I did recognize may exist but did not feel threatened by, I decided to run away with the circus when they left town.

My home life included some challenging and abusive situations so I figured the circus could not be worse and might offer some promise of better times. Either way, I knew it would be an adventure. What I was too young to comprehend was that this could be a life transition.

I ran all the way home, collected a few small belongings, and then as I was walking out the door my older brother physically stopped me and ultimately kept me from joining the circus when it left the next day. My brother or any family member for that matter rarely paid much attention to what I did. Not even when I roamed the streets of East Los Angeles most nights and early mornings as I had my own bedroom door to exit out to an alley. It is ironic my brother would stop me at this time.

I always wondered how my life would have evolved had I run away and joined the circus. Nevertheless, I was not at a loss for many other adventures throughout my life including recruitment into a gang and later a tour of duty in Vietnam.

Life transitions play a significant and often meaningful time in our lives. Each transition whether it is running away, moving, beginning or ending a relationship, health crisis, picking a college major or selecting a career, generally offers an adventure.

There is no escaping our life transitions. Most of the time in hindsight, we would not want to. Transitions are all about change. Change is all about life. How we choose to embrace the changes determines what we bring to our life and those we touch.