The Gong Show!

Happy Tuesday to You!

It’s a beautiful day in Heaven ☺.

I had a lovely day and a balance between work and play yesterday.

I finished building my new slide show for our next CHEK Institute webinar series, which is Wednesday, Jan 23, 12pm PT: How To Look and Feel Your Best Ever This Year! – Living the 6 Foundation Principles Of The CHEK System. Click on the link to join me. In this 90-minute webinar, I will cover the essentials of creating your dreams, meeting your goals and objectives, and living fully in 2013.

Amidst my work activities, I created time to get outside and do some rock art. I started a new stack that I was building atop a large stone. After about an hour, I was just putting on the capstone, and down she went!

I was having so much fun, and learning so much, I was excited to do it again, but even better.

Where I am now (my new office), we are up on a small mountain and the wind blows very strongly here. Therefore, any rock stacks that are not well built usually won’t make it through the day, not to mention all the wildlife that likes to climb and sit on them!

I decided to take my time rebuilding it and use some big stones. I got to one that weighs about 250 pounds and had to call it a day because the strength and athletic ability to position it wasn’t in me after an hour of lifting.

I’m looking forward to continuing my project today after I write this blog.

THE GONG SHOW!

I don’t know if any of you would remember, or be old enough to remember a TV show called, “The Gong Show”? It was a show where people would come on and do some kind of act or show and if the people didn’t like it, they got the gong.

In my observation, the gong show continues in each of our lives each day, but we are the one’s that strike the gong most often!

We all inherently know when we are in tune with ourselves – and others in relationship, and when we are not.

In the Taoist philosophy, and in a variety of Chinese healing practices, a gong is a 100-day practice. The ancient masters found that if a student didn’t stick to a given practice for at least 100 days consecutively, they wouldn’t achieve any tangible, lasting gains from the practice.

I’ve certainly found this to be true in my own life, and as a teacher as well.

Today, people in general suffer from what I refer to as “monkey mind”; their thoughts and actions are all over the place, and they often complain continually about why this or that is wrong, and why they can’t ever seem to accomplish this or that goal, or why their body is always hurting them, etc!

The tendency is to shop around for a quick fix, and one that requires as little participation on their part as possible. A model well facilitated by the marketing and medical industries, as well as many others.

Life is much like a gym; making changes to your body so that it suits your dream is a participation sport. No one can go to the gym for you and transfer the results to you directly.

If your goal is to put on muscle mass, you will need at least eight weeks of consistent training; if you stop at that point, you will begin to revert back to your original state within 72 hours on average.

The moral of the story here is that consistent change requires consistent practice.

I have been offering my Holistic Lifestyle Coaching students an offer to enter into a gong practice at my HLC 2 and 3 courses for many years.

Of all the students that “offer” to enter into a gong agreement with me (I sign their chi stick and they agree to stick to it for 100 consecutive days of practice), I would estimate that only about 3% of them actually complete their agreement with me, which is really an agreement with themselves.

This is not a good number of students per 100 making the pledge. I’m aware of that!

According to some experts, only about 1-2% of human beings ever achieve the state of being a free thinker, a truly open-minded person that isn’t clouded by their prior programming.

OSHO stated in one of his lectures that he estimates that only about 1 person out of every 6 billion to visit earth ever reach enlightenment; there are many more along the way that reach states and stages of enlightenment, but few are those that have fully illuminated their shadow.

As a teacher, it is not my job to force my students to do anything. It is my offering to teach them as many ways of creating health and well-being in their own life as possible.

I feel, from my own experience, that when we are authentic in our own practice of personal, professional and spiritual growth, guiding others is as easy as teaching a child how to tie their shoe; they want to learn, they pay attention, and they can forever tie their shoes. If they don’t listen and learn, they are forever tripping over their shoelaces!

When mom or dad teaches their child a new way of loving and caring for themselves, and they do it, there is usually some degree of celebration among the parents. Not only do they get the joy of seeing their child learn to be self-sufficient, they are at once freed from wiping bottoms, tying shoes, wiping noses, cleaning bedrooms, and the likes. The child is learning to be a healthy individual; the dream of every parent.

When one of my students completes a gong, I’m always very happy and excited for them, for I know that they have committed themselves to the process of growing and becoming something more whole for themselves and others.

This is a real time for celebration!

I know that these people have demonstrated discipline and a true willingness to participate in their own life, which is an essential prerequisite for anyone who leads others, particularly in the health and exercise professions.

Just the other day, I received this photo from Craig Elliott in Australia.

He sent me the photo and a lovely note (you can click on the image and it will enlarge so you can read the note). His tai-chi ruler is sitting atop of the gong sheet I created for my students and he’s ticked off each of the 100 days, demonstrating his consecutive practice. The note attached expresses the fruits he’s gained by participating in his own development.

Congratulations Craig! Thank you for trusting me enough as a teacher to stick to the practice I suggested for you and your fellow students.

You are a great inspiration to me, to them, and surely many others who witness your unfolding each day. May you be the inspiration for many gongs practiced among many people in your precious lifetime!

Once you’ve completed a gong, you have reached a new “state of awareness”. The first gong completion often comes with an childlike excitement of completion. But don’t stop there!

Many make the mistake of thinking they’ve mastered an exercise after only one gong. I can assure you after using the tai-chi ruler for many years, that each gong is like a surprise; you learn that you didn’t know nearly as much as you thought you did the gong before!

Just as a good butcher gets better with their knife every year, needing to sharpen it less and less and getting more and more work done in less and less time, we continue to grow in our awareness, efficiency, and clarity with each successive gong.

When we incorporate simple, effective healing exercises and practices in our life each day until they become second nature, like using the toilet, we reach a new “stage” of development.

Here, we are truly a different person than we were before we began the practice, or even the most recent gong.

We learn that it truly is the simple things in life that equate to the most long-term value.

Giving someone a hug or a kiss to start the day, or on greeting them, or to end the day is very simple, yet it can change the outcome of a person’s life dramatically!

just one kiss or hug a day is all it takes to create a whole human being. That’s very simple, but very powerful, profound actually.

I hope that today, you are willing to participate fully in your life with something simple, healing, grounding and nurturing. Something just for you becomes a gift for everyone.

That’s how love works.

Love and chi,
Paul Chek