I listened to Michael’s backstage this week on bringing your best self forth.

I loved the inquiry “when have you felt your best and what do you notice about those moments?” He had participants go into breakout rooms to share.

When I reflected on mine they were “hard” moments like my mom going on a ventilator. Another one was being in Dublin in 2016 awake in the middle of the night waiting to hear the US election results.

In both of these situations I went into deep states of knowing there was a bigger purpose and felt at peace. My
mom died and I knew it was what she wanted. I immediately got that Trump was elected so that we would wake up.

Back in 2004 I had a guy that I was dating tell me – one day you will feel God. He even told me to write it down in my journal. 5 years later I felt it -very cliche- on a mountain top in South Africa.

Until then I grew up in a very spiritual family and most of my experience were “intellectual” spirituality. Since that day I have felt that feeling of peace and presence many times but somehow never wanted to “chase” it.

I’ve been in many communities where people would meditate for hours seeking that bliss. I felt grateful and lucky that I had moments where it would come upon me. However something Michael said in this workshop stuck me “ground into the good feeling as a foundation.”

I remember on one of his q/a’s a woman said to him that he had the 3 P’s as something to ground into that he can teach from. His response was “it was the other way around.” I was grounded and then found the 3p’s or something like that.

I’ve never felt like a teaching, religion or even the 3p’s could be my grounding – I see too much nuance. Any part of me that’s wants to be fully on board is my perfectionist and the part of me that believes we need to agree 100% to belong.

For me self-connection is my grounding.
It’s the part of me that knows when it’s just thought or deep healing, trauma release that is occurring. The part of me that chooses to meditate to connect or knows that I’m just trying to escape.

However what I do see with my curiosity around “grounding in good feeling as a foundation” is where I’m drawn. I see the part of me that settles for less and is afraid to intend for good feeling as a foundation.

It feels a bit like guilt. The ironic thing is that it’s allowing myself to feel sadness that’s creating the possibility of grounding in good feeling more as a foundation