Infinite Love and Gratitude

Last night I went to a Lifeline Technique presentation.

The Lifeline Technique was created by Dr. Darren Weissman of Chicago. He studied various modalities: Chiropractic, Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, Ayurvedic Medicine, Total Body Modification, Neuro Emotional Technique, Shakras, Muscle Reflex testing, and others.

Using pieces from all of these he developed the Lifeline Technique which is described as “Conscious Body-Conscious Mind Training.”

He asks, “Are you ready to stimulate your senses, open your heart, and be empowered with practical tools, strategies, and support to live a purposeful and meaningful life?”

It sounded interesting, and it was a free presentation. I went in with an open mind. I can’t say I was convinced that this is the answer to all my problems.... but it was interesting.

The basic concept is this: If we can send “Infinite Love and Gratitude” (their key catchphrase) to everything – all things physical, mental and emotional, all things past, present, and future, all things that exist, have existed or may one day exist in the universe  – then we will find peace and live happy, healthy lives.

There is a long protocol used to get to this point of "infinite love and gratitude." Eric, the man who was giving the presentation was trained by Dr. Weissman. I felt as if he truly believed what he was presenting.

Here’s what I took away from it:
On the negative side::
• Like many spiritual and religious people, he had a tendency to speak in absolutes. He would say, “This is how it is.” If he had instead said, “This works for me,” or “This is what I believe,” it would have been easier to keep an open mind.
• This seems to me to be a concept that could be applied to groups of people, or even to “everything in the universe” as he claimed. However, instead of presenting it as a tool to help bring positive energy to all living things (something that was mentioned in passing at the end when someone asked about it directly) it was presented as a “quick-fix” for life’s personal problems – like fear, trauma, grief and even life-threatening diseases. Perhaps its true that the body can heal itself, but telling someone who is sick that this is the only thing they need to get well seems like a dangerous thing indeed.
• There was talk of "Intention" - which I understood to mean that the group could focus positive energy together in a way that could be healing to the universe. This is a concept I've come across before. I would have liked to have heard more about that and less about how to fix personal issues.

On the positive side:
• There were times when I closed my eyes and opened my mind and heart to what he was saying and could feel the positive energy in the room in a way that I rarely have.
• When I tried to apply what he was saying to my personal life and history, I had a “revelation of the obvious”.
Revelations of the Obvious is a term I invented a couple years ago, in therapy. I have had these so many times, now, that I couldn’t possibly remember them all. Maybe you have had them, too?
This is what happens: I  have an “ah ha” moment. Something becomes crystal clear in my head and I feel pieces fitting together in a way that makes sense. Then, I try to explain it to someone but I realize that there was no way to explain it without saying exactly what I’d heard from others in the past! It isn't a new idea at all, but a new way to understand something I've heard before.

Last night, I had this "revelation of the obvious": As we were going through the protocol, he would pull out something and ask how it pertained to us, personally. I would think of something – it might be an an emotion or an event from the past, a current physical sensation, thought or emotion, or something I wanted in the future. I would close my eyes and visualize the "issue". Then, he would do his “Infinite Love and Gratitude” thing – whether the "issue" was something positive or negative. We would all say it together and I would focus on sending infinite love and gratitude to whatever I had been visualizing.

Then, suddenly, it dawned on me that if I completely accept ALL aspects of myself – the things that I think of as good and those that I think of as bad – I could find peace.!Acceptance doesn’t mean you have to leave things the way they are or that you have to like things the way they are. It only means that you ACCEPT that this is how they are or were or may be. Once you accept it, you can send it love and gratitude. Infinite Love and Gratitude! You can do this because all things are equally valuable – things that are good and things that are not good. They are equally valuable because every tiny detail of the past is necessary for us to be in the present we find ourselves in and every single detail of the present is going to contribute to the future we will one day be in.

So, I haven’t been able to come up with a way to say it and not sound cliché... but this is it in a nutshell: My revelation of the obvious is that love, gratitude and acceptance are the answer to everything.

Others have been saying this kind of thing to me for years, but I think it’s impossible to explain this to someone else. If we could explain it, we would have all the answers, already, but the only way to understand it is to experience it.

Some time ago, I came up with a “roads to Rome” theory. You’ve probably heard the expression, “All roads lead to Rome.” In Europe, a couple thousand years ago, all roads DID lead to Rome. The Roman Emperor was very powerful and had the resources to build roads. Consequently, roads were built from Rome to every place the Emperor deemed worthy.

My theory is that if God wants us to find him, then he’s built a lot of roads. I believe we each have our own road and it is our life’s work to find our own path. There is no one, right way, but I enjoy being in the room with someone who has found their road. That was the best part of the presentation. I was in the presence of someone who was confident and comfortable with the road they were travelling and that gave me hope and inspiration to keep searching for my own road.