Once I decided to walk on fire, I felt a profound shift inside of me. Because I'm often like a friendly Saint Bernard that goes around licking everyone on the face, I know my exuberance can be a little overwhelming. In the past I would purposely squelch my enthusiasm in order to make those around me more comfortable. That seems impossible now. I want to share. I want to not just share my excitement, but I want others to experience this too. But why?
A few of the things that have had a profound impact on my personal empowerment have been extreme: kayaking, skiing and climbing (although I never got very good at climbing). When I did those things, the activity broke loose self doubts, because I was doing such extreme activities and conquering them (at least completing them without dying). An aspect that I didn't expect was how the empowerment translated into other aspects of my life. Of course kayaking would empower rafting or swimming, but what about public speaking or other seemingly unrelated activities? The truth is, it was ubiquitous. Skiing made me a better teacher. Kayaking made me a better writer. How?
By challenging myself to do what I was scared of I shrunk my fears and emboldened my courage. And what I discovered through that was that fear and courage are really at the crux of whatever we want to do. Do we lean on the fear side or the courage side? And to what degree? If you've faced down the fear of death in class V whitewater, giving a speech in front of your department chairs becomes undaunting.
So what? What does this have to do with faith, let alone fire? Here's what. When I did those various things my faith developed over time that I could do it. Practice, and execution over time gave me the confidence that I could do those things, but it was in the extremity of the action that I found the real catharsis. It was in exposing myself to my fear where I discovered my power. Learning to do those things had value. I don't want to diminish that. It fills you with a sense of accomplishment. But the catharsis of facing down your fears happens in a moment. It's a moment of do or die. This is powerful. This is transformative. This puts all of the meetings with crusty faculty heads into perspective.
This is why I'm so excited by the firewalk. The idea of walking on fire has the same principles of confronting a gnarly whitewater rapid or a ski slope with no visible bottom, but the required skill is, well, faith. You have to simply have faith that you can walk on fire and it will be okay. It's similar to the idea of skydiving in that the skill is faith, but the faith you have when you skydive is in the parachute. You have faith that the device works. With firewalking the faith you have is in yourself. The faith you cultivate comes from seeing that people have done it and those people aren't more amazing and magical and skilled than you are. They simply had the faith that they could do it, and they did it. It's easily witnessed on Youtube. People have been doing this for eons. I'm sure that any of us, with a little effort, can find someone we already know who has done it. And if we look around to find the people who have done it, we probably won't be surprised at who they are: they are the adventurers. They walk with confidence. They spend less time being tripped up by the trivialities of life. They are emboldened. The question becomes, are they me?
Namaste bitches
Find more at www.JerryMooneyBooks.com
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Monday, September 22, 2014
Best Sellers List!!!
Look what I had the pleasure of seeing today!
Number 4!!!!
Namaste bitches!
for more please visit www.JerryMooneyBooks.com
Namaste bitches!
for more please visit www.JerryMooneyBooks.com
Sunday, September 21, 2014
FREE EBOOK FOR A FEW DAYS!
History Yoghurt and the Moon will be free as a Kindle ebook for the next 5 days. You don't need to sign up for anything. Just buy the book for $0.00.
http://www.amazon.com/History-Yoghurt-Moon-Jerry-Mooney-ebook/dp/B00N992JYY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409676827&sr=8-1&keywords=history+yoghurt+and+the+moon
Namaste bitches
Find more at www.JerryMooneyBooks.com
http://www.amazon.com/History-Yoghurt-Moon-Jerry-Mooney-ebook/dp/B00N992JYY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409676827&sr=8-1&keywords=history+yoghurt+and+the+moon
Namaste bitches
Find more at www.JerryMooneyBooks.com
Friday, September 19, 2014
The Author's Paradox
I was recently asked about marketing by a fellow author and I feel like I'm a total newb in this arena. However, I understand its necessity and realize it is not as simple as beating potential readers over the head with the idea that you wrote a book and they should buy it. As such I've been delving into the discipline and wanted to share the response I wrote to my fellow author.
..... I just joined goodreads.com, so I have little to contribute as far as its effectiveness. I do share your observation that it seems difficult to reach readers. I think until one has 'arrived' it just is so. But I also think that this is a good resource to get your book out there, get it into the collective psyche of readers, and contribute to your efforts to magnetize your work. It feels like there is a paradox in selling books: there are zillions of book consumers so selling some copies should be easy. But there are a zillion books to choose from, so getting someone to choose your book seems impossible. What I'm experiencing is that people have this built-in fear of making bad choices. So it takes time to expose them to an idea before they accept it. That means that you can't just tell them, "Hey, I have the greatest thing on earth!" and expect them to pull the trigger, even if it is the greatest thing on earth. So, without some built in publicity or some stunt or providence that shines a bright light on your work it will probably take some time and effort to get people to trust choosing your book.
Let me share a story. A few years ago JCPenny was suffering from declining sales. They completely overhauled their leadership. They brought in new faces with new ideas to attempt to turn things around. What the new group discovered was that the previous sales model was insulting to their consumers. A pair of jeans that they had a price point of $15 would be on sale for 80% off...at $14.99. Everything was always on sale. In fact, if you ever bought something that wasn't 'on sale' you were really just paying for a very marked up item.
So, the new leadership introduced the truth and respect campaign. They were going to stop insulting their customers. Instead of a pair of jeans being marked down to $14.99 they were just going to price them at $15, not on sale. They got rid o the .99, because they felt it insulted their customer's ability to know the difference was a penny. So they proudly introduced all of these initiatives. They spread the word. They advertised on their new model. They worked for a new relationship with their consumers.
And....it failed miserably. It turned out that consumption was such and emotional experience that buying a $60 pair of jeans for $14.99 made the consumer feel like they got over on the store. They made a wise choice. They could pat themselves on the back for being so clever in their purchases. It didn't matter if that pair of jeans was always for sale and that was really the only price. There was no sense of intrinsic value. As such, most consumers bought, not for value or even need, but almost as a sport and buying things on sale meant they were winning.
So, what does this have to do with anything? I think it means that the uneasy truth about being an author is that until you get into the hearts and minds of readers you have to, well, get into the hearts and minds of the readers. And that typically requires more than just producing a quality product.
Namaste Bitches
find more at www.JerryMooneyBooks.com
..... I just joined goodreads.com, so I have little to contribute as far as its effectiveness. I do share your observation that it seems difficult to reach readers. I think until one has 'arrived' it just is so. But I also think that this is a good resource to get your book out there, get it into the collective psyche of readers, and contribute to your efforts to magnetize your work. It feels like there is a paradox in selling books: there are zillions of book consumers so selling some copies should be easy. But there are a zillion books to choose from, so getting someone to choose your book seems impossible. What I'm experiencing is that people have this built-in fear of making bad choices. So it takes time to expose them to an idea before they accept it. That means that you can't just tell them, "Hey, I have the greatest thing on earth!" and expect them to pull the trigger, even if it is the greatest thing on earth. So, without some built in publicity or some stunt or providence that shines a bright light on your work it will probably take some time and effort to get people to trust choosing your book.
Let me share a story. A few years ago JCPenny was suffering from declining sales. They completely overhauled their leadership. They brought in new faces with new ideas to attempt to turn things around. What the new group discovered was that the previous sales model was insulting to their consumers. A pair of jeans that they had a price point of $15 would be on sale for 80% off...at $14.99. Everything was always on sale. In fact, if you ever bought something that wasn't 'on sale' you were really just paying for a very marked up item.
So, the new leadership introduced the truth and respect campaign. They were going to stop insulting their customers. Instead of a pair of jeans being marked down to $14.99 they were just going to price them at $15, not on sale. They got rid o the .99, because they felt it insulted their customer's ability to know the difference was a penny. So they proudly introduced all of these initiatives. They spread the word. They advertised on their new model. They worked for a new relationship with their consumers.
And....it failed miserably. It turned out that consumption was such and emotional experience that buying a $60 pair of jeans for $14.99 made the consumer feel like they got over on the store. They made a wise choice. They could pat themselves on the back for being so clever in their purchases. It didn't matter if that pair of jeans was always for sale and that was really the only price. There was no sense of intrinsic value. As such, most consumers bought, not for value or even need, but almost as a sport and buying things on sale meant they were winning.
So, what does this have to do with anything? I think it means that the uneasy truth about being an author is that until you get into the hearts and minds of readers you have to, well, get into the hearts and minds of the readers. And that typically requires more than just producing a quality product.
Namaste Bitches
find more at www.JerryMooneyBooks.com
Monday, September 15, 2014
Fire Walk
As many of you know, I am a seeker. The search has lead me to many amazing places and many precarious situations. Much of what I've done has often been referred to as mistakes by others, typically, not by me. I've been arrested in five countries. I did a weird mission for the CIA. I had a brief fling with the military. All of these things have added color to my life and sometimes deepened my spiritual understanding. When that happens I feel like I have profited most.
So, a year ago I was doing a sweat out in BFE, Idaho. Afterwards I was talking to Watomi, the resident shaman. He began to talk to me about fire walking. He was a strong advocate for the power it had to burn away vestigial baggage that people lug around, hindering their lives and development. Although his words sounded true and compelling, the idea of walking on 1100 degree coals freaked me the fuck out! I couldn't even entertain the idea in a hypothetical way. It was really terrifying to me to simply think about it. Now, I want to put this in some context. I'm not simply a giant coward. I've kayaked class V rapids, I've skydived, I've skied double black diamond slopes, I've climbed 5-9 pitches...generally, I've done some pretty scary and extreme shit. This crossed some boundary, though. I felt physically uncomfortable just hearing about it. When we left the sweat, it came up between Wendy and me and I tried to converse about it in a calm manner. I gave it the same amount of credence as I would someone who wanted to talk about their run in with Bigfoot. I might listen with curiosity, but I wasn't about to swallow the ideas whole. Besides, weren't there ways to burn away vestigial baggage without inviting yourself to become the guest of honor at a barbecue?
Over the last year I thought about how the idea of walking on 1100 degree coals terrified me. TERRIFIED ME! This felt very foreign and the magnitude of my terror caused by simply imagining it told me something: I had to do this! If something caused my psyche to do Olympic level backflips, I better take a deeper look. So I did.
When Jacob Nordby posted, http://yourawakenedself.com/igniting-your-inner-fire-with-heatherash-amara/
on his Facebook page I immediately felt those foreign pangs of acute terror. I decided to stare them down this time. I decided to commit to doing it.
What was weird was as soon as I decided to walk on fire, and I don't mean decided to think about it or decided to maybe do it or decided to talk about it, but decided to do it, I felt calm and powerful. I felt the future fire burning away my vestigial baggage. I felt the hypothetical future fire cauterizing my psychological wounds. I felt the burn of the flame cooling around me. I felt the relationship between quantum matrix and observer crystallizing. I felt the power of my mental projections, my stories, my mythology weakening. I felt like I was teleported to my center and there I found calm. I felt like I found the volume switch on life and was able to turn it down.
I felt all of these things from simply deciding. I hadn't even told anyone yet. I hadn't committed out loud. Technically I could change my mind and no one would know. But I didn't. I immediately told people. I felt like telling would make it even more real, even more of a solid commitment.
Now I've committed and I feel like doing so has had a profound impact. Of course the actually walk will certainly be even more so. However, I'm so impressed by the centering and powerful effect of simply deciding to walk. Because of this, I wanted to share, so that if any of you out there experience a similar terror from the idea of barbecuing yourself, perhaps this is an opportunity rise like a phoenix.
Namaste bitches
So, a year ago I was doing a sweat out in BFE, Idaho. Afterwards I was talking to Watomi, the resident shaman. He began to talk to me about fire walking. He was a strong advocate for the power it had to burn away vestigial baggage that people lug around, hindering their lives and development. Although his words sounded true and compelling, the idea of walking on 1100 degree coals freaked me the fuck out! I couldn't even entertain the idea in a hypothetical way. It was really terrifying to me to simply think about it. Now, I want to put this in some context. I'm not simply a giant coward. I've kayaked class V rapids, I've skydived, I've skied double black diamond slopes, I've climbed 5-9 pitches...generally, I've done some pretty scary and extreme shit. This crossed some boundary, though. I felt physically uncomfortable just hearing about it. When we left the sweat, it came up between Wendy and me and I tried to converse about it in a calm manner. I gave it the same amount of credence as I would someone who wanted to talk about their run in with Bigfoot. I might listen with curiosity, but I wasn't about to swallow the ideas whole. Besides, weren't there ways to burn away vestigial baggage without inviting yourself to become the guest of honor at a barbecue?
Over the last year I thought about how the idea of walking on 1100 degree coals terrified me. TERRIFIED ME! This felt very foreign and the magnitude of my terror caused by simply imagining it told me something: I had to do this! If something caused my psyche to do Olympic level backflips, I better take a deeper look. So I did.
When Jacob Nordby posted, http://yourawakenedself.com/igniting-your-inner-fire-with-heatherash-amara/
on his Facebook page I immediately felt those foreign pangs of acute terror. I decided to stare them down this time. I decided to commit to doing it.
What was weird was as soon as I decided to walk on fire, and I don't mean decided to think about it or decided to maybe do it or decided to talk about it, but decided to do it, I felt calm and powerful. I felt the future fire burning away my vestigial baggage. I felt the hypothetical future fire cauterizing my psychological wounds. I felt the burn of the flame cooling around me. I felt the relationship between quantum matrix and observer crystallizing. I felt the power of my mental projections, my stories, my mythology weakening. I felt like I was teleported to my center and there I found calm. I felt like I found the volume switch on life and was able to turn it down.
I felt all of these things from simply deciding. I hadn't even told anyone yet. I hadn't committed out loud. Technically I could change my mind and no one would know. But I didn't. I immediately told people. I felt like telling would make it even more real, even more of a solid commitment.
Now I've committed and I feel like doing so has had a profound impact. Of course the actually walk will certainly be even more so. However, I'm so impressed by the centering and powerful effect of simply deciding to walk. Because of this, I wanted to share, so that if any of you out there experience a similar terror from the idea of barbecuing yourself, perhaps this is an opportunity rise like a phoenix.
Namaste bitches
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
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