Part of the Change – Chapter 6

Your role as a spiritual helper. By Neale Donald Walsch.

“Water of life” – By Gil Dekel.

The sixth step in becoming a spiritual helper is to:

6. COMMIT TO BEING KNOWN, COMMIT TO BEING FREE

This is another big step, because this step brings us to the attention of the world at large. This is different from Step 1, in which we announced ourselves to each other. That step involved finding people of like mind, and then saying to them, “I’m with you.” This step involves stepping out of the crowd and saying, “Are you with me?”

It is about freeing yourself of who you thought you were, and being known, widely, as who you now are in your wonderfully recreated version of yourself. Even if you live your truth, you cannot help others unless they know you are doing it.

Did you hear that? Did you understand the implication of that?

Please don’t be offended by these questions. Every day I have to act as if I never heard that before. Every day I seek to bring myself to a new understanding of what all of that means. Sometimes I can hear something and “not hear it,” know what I mean? And sometimes I have to say the same thing over and over again to myself to stop it from going in one ear and out the other. I’ve heard some things so often it’s like I’ve never heard them at all. I have to really focus to bring myself to such tidbits as if they were brand new.

So sometimes I sound like I’m repeating myself, but that’s not always bad. ‘Cause it gives me a chance to hear the same thing over again, and hear it “brand new.” So let me ask you again, did you hear that?

What I SAID was…even if you live your truth, you cannot help others unless they know you are doing it.

The implication of that is enormous. Because if you see this and embrace this and accept this wholly, nor merely intellectually, you will find yourself “stepping out” in ways that you might never before have imagined.

This thing called freedom

Before you allow yourself to be widely known, you must allow yourself to be free. First, you must be free of all your false thoughts about yourself. Then, you must be free of all your false thoughts about others. Finally, you must be free of all your false thoughts about God. You can take these in reverse order if you wish, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you free yourself before you try to free others. Like the hero in those adventure films who’s running down the corridor of the torturer’s prison swinging the cell doors open and letting all the prisoners out, you must first have the key before you can open the door for others.

Now once in a while you’re going to drop the key. That’s all right, as long as you’re willing to look for it and to pick it up again. But if you try to open those doors without the key, you’re going to discover that you can’t do it.

Once you get free, it will seem like the most obvious thing in the world to let yourself be widely known (even if you’re uncomfortable with “fame” in the beginning), because you will be like a person who has just won 40 million dollars in the lottery. You will want to share it. You wouldn’t keep it all to yourself even if you could. And in order to share it, people need to know you have it. So you have to tell somebody. And once the word is out that you won 40-mill in the lotto, I promise you, everyone is going to know about it.

In just the same way, once the word is out that you have found a deep understanding about God and Life, and that you have become a messenger of the New Spirituality, a lot of people are going to know about it. And, as far as you are concerned, the more, the better, if you truly want to be a Spiritual Helper. So if you are uncomfortable with being known, and being known ever more widely, yet you still wish to become a Spiritual Helper, the first thing you will want to get free of is every sense of discomfort around being known to many others as that.

Some practical ways to take Step Six

Taking this sixth step in becoming a spiritual helper is as simple as A-B-C.

A. Practice moving to the edge of your comfort zone. You can help some people anonymously, but if you really want to have an impact on the world, you are going to have to “put it out there” that you are doing that. This may require that you go to the edge of your comfort zone—and beyond it. You will need practice.

B. Systematically review your current thoughts about God, about Life, and about others. This is work that you have already been doing, or you certainly wouldn’t be reading this. Now it’s time to take that work to the next level.

C. Prepare the articulations of spiritual freedom. Be ready to speak into the moment and to place into the space, the message of hope and help that the New Spirituality offers.

Now let’s take a look at how you can do this.

Allowing yourself to be widely known as a spiritual helper may be challenging for you, especially if you are not used to being “out front.”

There is a trick to being out front, and it has to do with your reason for being anything. Once you become clear about that, being out front becomes as easy and as natural as being naked. “What?” you say. “Being naked is not easy for me! It is not natural. WELL…it may be natural, but it is not normal.”

Yet it is, if you are with your lover. It is if you are wanting to make love. It is both natural AND normal. And easy. Now, if your reason for being alive is to make love to the universe, then being out front suddenly seems like the normal and natural thing to do. If your entire purpose for being alive is to make love to life itself, being totally seen becomes easy. Indeed, you will want to be totally seen if you
truly want to serve that purpose.

So the trick here is not to try to gather up the courage to be seen so much as it is to gather up the will to beCOME. And just what is it you are to become? Why, Who You Really Are, of course.

“Water of life” – By Gil Dekel.

Stretching past your Comfort Zone.

So right now I am going to suggest to you a little process. Once again, take out a sheet of paper. No, no, do it. Don’t just read right through this. Do it. Good.

Now, on that sheet of paper place a column on the left margin and label it, Five Things I Am Uncomfortable Doing. Good.

Now, in a second column, write down, What Happens When I Do This Anyway. Make a third column, How I Feel When I Overcome My Discomfort With This. Now fill out the form and see what it tells you about yourself. In column one, jot down five things, the doing of which has made you uncomfortable in the past. “Allowing myself to become widely known, behaving in a way that draws attention to me,” might be one of them.

After you have identified five things, move to the next two columns and just write into those spaces what is true for you. If you have never done any of the things that you wrote down in column one, ask yourself, “is my discomfort around doing this so great that I intend to avoid this for a lifetime?”

Now, as the final part of this process, take one of those five things for each day of next week and go ahead and do it. If, as a practical matter, you can, then go ahead and do it. Feel the discomfort and do it anyway.

THEN fill out columns two and three on the form, and see what this tells you about yourself. Now, as a matter of lifestyle, practice pushing past your comfort zone at least once each week in some area of your life. Maybe it will be around money. Or perhaps it will have something to do with sex. Or maybe it will involve something as simple as eating a new food, or telling the truth to your mom, or buying a see-through (I mean, really see-through) negligee for yourself or your lover—whatever. The point of it all: do something that pushes you past your Comfort Zone every week.

Practice, practice, practice! Keep a Journal of your experiences. Look at it once a month. Encourage yourself to embrace your own riskiest and pleasurable dreams. Give yourself to life. Fully.

More practical suggestions

Conduct a Belief Review. Make a list of the things you believe. Look at this in five or six different areas. Here are some suggestions:

• Money
• Love
• Sex
• God
• Relationship
• Right Livelihood
• The World and How It Is
• Politics
• Life, Its Point and Purpose

and, lastly,

• The Biggest Problem in the World Today
• What I Can Do to Help
• When I Intend to Get Started, or to Move to the Next Level in What I Am Already Doing

Explore your beliefs regarding each of these. Write them down, or record your thoughts into a tape recorder. Now, simply look to see what this tells you about yourself. This Belief Inventory can be incredibly self-revealing and incredibly helpful.

Some final practical ideas

If you truly wish to become a Spiritual Helper you will not only need to be willing to step up and step out, but also to speak up and speak out. This means that you will have to not only have the heart for this work, but the communication tools as well. Fortunately, these tools are obtainable, if you feel that you do not already have them.

If you want to sharpen your public speaking skills, look up Toastmasters International in virtually any community in the world. Making effective communication a worldwide reality, Toastmasters is a wonderful way to improve your communication skills. They’ll help you lose any fear you may have of public speaking, and learn skills that will help you be more successful in whatever path you’ve chosen in life.

This non-profit group can asssist you in learning to

• Deliver great presentations
• Easily lead teams and conduct meetings
• Give and receive constructive evaluations
• Be a better listener

Check out this extraordinary organization at: www.toastmastersinternational.com

If you want to pick up additional skills related to sending the specific messages of CwG and the New Spirituality, there is also a program to help you do that. It is the Life Education Program (LEP) of the Conversations with God Foundation. Also a non-profit organization, the Foundation has moved people from all over the world through this program.

Formerly known as the Leadership Education Program, the LEP drives to the heart of the Foundation’s mission, which is to support evolutionary transformation in individual lives and, therefore, the world. The Foundation is passionate about the value of this program, which centers around 3 principles that will create revolutionary shifts in you and the world in which you live: Education, Spiritual Discipline and Community.

Conversations with God, along with other New Spirituality material, has affected many people’s lives in very positive ways. The truth that emanates from these teachings offers the opportunity to transform our experience of ourselves, each other, and the planet.

Education is about learning how Life/God/Universal Energy works. The word “education” comes from the Latin: educere which means to draw out, that is, to draw out from within the wisdom and understanding that already exists; bringing it forth that we might have a deeper awareness of how we create our reality and how our choices impact our own lives and the world around us. This goes much
further than just reading the books and gaining an intellectual understanding. There are many questions that come up after reading books like Conversations with God when you are attempting to move into a place of living these principles in everyday human experience.

Each program module gives you the opportunity to explore these empowering concepts, to delve deeply into your own growth challenges and to freely ask questions to access more clarity and vision. Neale Donald Walsch, along with other spiritual teachers and facilitators will be there to share their wisdom, insight and passion for this work as you participate.

Spiritual Discipline is about practicing a new way of BEING. Change does not usually happen overnight. A world-class musician doesn’t become that without commitment, discipline and practice. Through tools, exercises and trainings you will call forth and practice the awareness of how you are BEING in this moment and evolve into the BEINGness that you choose. At whatever level of spiritual awareness you are, we encourage you to keep stretching, keep expanding your thoughts, words and beliefs, so that the world itself can expand.

Community is the most dynamic and heartening part of this life-changing experience. This program creates a nurturing and positively challenging bond between facilitators and participants that is truly a unique experience. Community emerges in a space of safety for honest and authentic expression when people are challenged with their innermost fears, insecurities and very often their potential for success. The staff is there to support you in manifesting your dreams while you step into a grander sense of self, thus allowing your unique contribution to the world.

The Life Education Program consists of 4 basic modules: Life Skills, Process, Empowerment and Group Dynamics. For more on the LEP go to www.cwg.org.

The last word on Step Six

If you really, really wish to become a Spiritual Helper you are going to have to come out of the closet. No more hiding out, no more placing your light under a bushel. You’ve got to choose to be known, and choose to be free The New Revelations, an extraordinary dialogue book in the CwG series (by the way, if you haven’t read it, it is a must), says this: Everything you think, say, and do is a message. Your whole life is your teaching. If you thought that others, tomorrow, would walk in the path that you have taken today, would you take the same path?

You may think that people do not look to you, but they do. More people than you know. Everyone, in fact, whose life you touch is touched by your example. You are giving them data about life. You are telling them how it is, how things operate, how things are, and they will emulate you, they will copy you, they will take your data into their world and make it part of their own lives… Everything starts with you.

* End of chapter 6 *

Copyright © 2005 Neale Donald Walsch. Published here by Gil Dekel with Neale’s permission. 1 January 2017.

Published in 2005 by Spiritual Legacies, Ashland, OR, USA. All rights reserved.