by Terri Alamo | May 16, 2018
So many of you have heard it is ALL ABOUT THE FEELING – well let me tell you we are on top of that!  As a recent webinar attendee said ” The feeling was off the charts, the depth of love in this community never ceases to amaze me”. May is all about that LOVE!
Each month the CSC Board of Directors get together, and each board meeting is started with sharing from each person present and then a “grounding” which ranges from a personal story, a passage from The Missing Link, a Dr Seuss rhyme, a song lyric or a poem. Often times you hear about all that people are appreciating in their lives. Sometimes someone has a challenging month and they share that- quite frequently we hear – well I wasn’t feeling all that great but I knew when I saw all of you I would forget about that. The reason for that is there is love in every meeting. The board genuinely cares for each other. It is palpable. I can’t imagine this is typical of Board meetings in general but I must say it is typical for this one!
One of our Board members, Gretchen Blais has been a shining example of the love and blessings that seem to flow into our lives after we begin to understand how life works. Gretchen has spent many months of board meetings relating to us how she was doing handling the role of caretaker for the love of her life, George Chan as he finished the remaining days of his life. Each month she would come on and express how grateful she was that she had more days to love him. She found joy in the care-taking tasks whether it was folding laundry or making meals. She inspired us all to look at the things we do in our everyday lives differently. Little things done with great love started seeping into our lives. Gretchen’s love, George Chen transitioned April 2nd. You can read what she wrote about it in her blog post.
Gretchen loved George and she shared that love with us and now we share it with you. Life with the Three Principles still includes sickness and death, but it allows us to see the beauty in those things as well.
On Tuesdays, Our Collaborative Associate Patty Tanji has been hosting calls for community members in recovery. As we have sat in, we have seen that human beings who love and accept each other can support each other through anything.
On Thursdays, Judy Sedgeman has been hosting In the Moment calls. Many times the calls have dropped into a beautiful feeling that people take with them the rest of the day. We joke about the “makeover” that some of us feel we’ve had after these calls. If you haven’t had the pleasure of taking part yet – please join us!
On May 15th, Amir Karkouti hosting a webinar entitled People Before Principles, The feeling on this call was absolutely gorgeous! People were shedding tears at the beauty in it!  The quote I used at the beginning of this letter is describing this call. If you’d like to listen – the recording is now available here.
On May 20th we will be sharing more love with you in the form of a celebration. The last few months I have shared that we were launching our new website and would be sharing peoples videos about What They Know for Sure. This coming Sunday we will be releasing more of these videos and recording some live on a 12 hour Zoom celebration. We have been so touched by the generosity of the community in joining in our celebration – we have had over a dozen coaches offer coaching sessions as give-aways, many people recording videos ahead of time and people signing up to share their insights with us live at the party! We will spend that day as a community, much like our board does, in a feeling of appreciation for what we have seen, what others have seen and how it impacts our lives and the world around us. Though we are live from 8am – 8 pm ET on Zoom – feel free to pop in and out throughout the day to listen to insights, see old photos, share love, win prizes and celebrate the Principles that Syd shared with us all. Remember to RSVP to get the zoom link.
I look forward to seeing you!
Love,
Terri
Terri Alamo
Executive Director
by Terri Alamo | Apr 18, 2018
I was lucky enough to work with Three Principles Facilitator Michael Neill for many years and as such I got to sit in on 5 of his Supercoach Academy classes. In 2014 I was struck by how the impact of this work came out in such seemingly innocuous insights and I wanted to share with Michael what his work was really accomplishing in the world so I set out on a “secret mission”. I asked each of the students of that years class to share an insight they had as a result of learning about the Principles. With a lot of help from Academy student (now Certified Transformative Coach) William Snow – we were able to publish a book of these insights and surprise Michael with it as a Thank you gift for bringing this understanding to so many.
What I loved about this project was that everyone had seen SOMETHING new and it did not matter how long they had been looking in the direction of the Principles. Some of the insights at face value seemed “small” and some seemed “earth-shatteringly large” and what made it seem small or large depended largely on the readers own experiences and what that particular insight brought to mind for us. The same ones that made me weep with their enormity were brushed off by others. What was true overall though was that the book was a hit! People laughed as they read it – they cried. They saw themselves in the stories and they saw the innocence of others. When they finished reading they felt a part of something larger, they felt kinship with the other human beings inhabiting the planet. It was clear that we all work the same way and innocently we get caught up in our thinking.
So when I began to look at what kind of difference I wanted to make in my position as Executive Director for Center for Sustainable Change, I knew part of it would be in people sharing insights. In discussing how people share this understanding I have heard teacher after teacher say to “speak from the heart” to “share what you have seen for yourself” to “not teach above your paygrade”. In sharing in communities people have told me they feel overwhelmed with the idea of defining Mind Consciousness and Thought to someone and yet they can turn around and tell me how the Principles have changed their life and it is so moving!
So I am really pleased to say that CSC is working on a new video series called What I Know for Sure. It is people sharing those seemingly simple insights that if the whole world saw it in the way each of these people did, the entire planet would change. To kick things off I am sharing the insight that I shared with Michael as part of that book below. It is called “They Bounce Too”.
Throughout my time working with Michael and being exposed to the Inside Out understanding, I have begun to see more and more that “I bounce”. What I mean by this is that I understand that there is a greater intelligence behind life and a “kind design”. No matter what happens, I always come out ok.
During the first weekend of the Academy, Michael likened this security to a net that catches you during a ropes course. The entire time he spoke about it I kept thinking ” I know I bounce back – but how do I get my children to see that I bounce back so they don’t worry about me!”
During the break, Michael asked me why I look perplexed and I told him what I had been working on figuring out. He turned to me and simply asked, ” They don’t bounce?”
I was floored! I did not have to protect my children! I did not have to have them see everything the way I did – I did not have to “save them”! The kindness of the design” worked for them too! They bounce too!
The months following have left me with such a sense of security – as if I saw them fall off the ropes course 100 times and the net keep catching them. I saw the truth not just for myself and my fellow learners but for those I worry about most.
What a gift!
I would encourage you to take a moment and jot down the things you have seen – What do you know for sure about life that you did not know before you understood the Principles? Then I invite you to consider doing a video on one or more of these things and sharing it as part of our series. Do not dismiss the little things you have seen. Imagine the whole world knowing for sure what you know and what a difference that would make. You can submit a video or request to do a recorded video call with us so we can help with the tech and they will be shared on our shiny new website 🙂
I am grateful for all the insights I have seen myself and all those who have shared the insights they have seen, whether it was Supercoach Academy students, people I have met at conferences, people who have shared them via books, people who have posted them online or people I have worked with since joining CSC. The book was a gift from the students of SCA to Michael, this video series is a gift to us all.
What do you know for sure?
by Terri Alamo | Mar 27, 2018
Last month I mentioned that I had been looking at community as a verb and what that would look like. Â This month the team and I are taking that a step further. Over the coming month you will see some exciting new developments in making the word community a verb and how that ties into our vision and mission:
We want to help you to…
Establish Connections… We want to make it easy for the whole 3P community to connect with each other. In April, stay tuned for a new website with some unique new features that will allow us to do that. You will be able to be a part of the 3 Principles community, not as a “practitioner” but as a fellow human being who has seen something about the way we all function.  You will be able to learn about other fellow beings who have seen something looking in this direction as well. You will be able to CONNECT with each other and LEARN from each other and with each other as you go about your lives.
Find Support… The new website will include the launch of new virtual GROUPS that allow us to SUPPORT each other. Having difficulty expressing what has touched you about the Principles? Practice with someone who is working on the same thing in one of our community groups. Looking for something more personal? Find a local LIVE GROUP near you and take part, or start a new one with people you find are in your area. Are you in RECOVERY and looking for a way to continue living and loving in your own communities with the SUPPORT of others who understand recovery and how life works from the inside out? Our Collaborative Associate Patty Tanji will be starting a weekly online Zoom support group to address those needs in April.
Network… Have you always wanted to share this understanding in a certain community, like in prisons or with your local police department? MEET others who have been there and done that. LEARN what went right and what could have been done better when they did it. Get to know those with REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE without spending money or traveling to conferences, and CONNECT on your time.
Learn… New programs and projects will be coming soon, including…
- Master Coach Molly Gordon will be leading a focus group to find out where you are having trouble sharing the Principles among friends, family, and others in your community to further direct our programming.
- Three Principles Facilitator Amir Karkouti will be doing a webinar on People before Principles and how to get out of the way and let the feeling do the work.
Have Fun… Our monthly calls are changing, too. We want you to LIGHTEN UP and enjoy life and the Principles, so starting in April, Judy Sedgeman will be hosting IN THE MOMENT calls. We are looking for sponsors to support this program so that people can attend for free and enjoy an hour with a long-time practitioner talking about life and the things that happen “in the form” without losing sight of the bigger formlessness that this understanding points to.
Our official launch party will be a 12-hour affair full of fun and laughter – stay tuned to see what we have up our sleeve!
Be Inspired… We are launching two new video series to share people’s stories, to inspire people to look in a new direction, and to share what they see. It is our hope that hearing and sharing these stories will allow you to see how much you have to share with the world from right where you are.
- Bloom Where You are Planted will showcase people who have shared the gift of the Principles with others, not from the front of the room but from standing beside them while going about their everyday lives as a parent, a friend, a co worker.  (If you have a story to share and want to schedule a time to record it with us – email us here.)
- What I Know for Sure will take us back to what we each have seen as a result of learning about the Principles.  Sometimes these insights might seem so small – “I make better decisions when I am settled down” – but imagine the ramifications if everyone saw what you have seen!  This is an opportunity to share things in your own words of how the Principles have brought insights that changed YOUR WORLD and have the potential to change THE WORLD.
As a newsletter subscriber you will get a “SNEAK PEEK” before the official launch, and you will be able to become early adopters and be the first to join the community. Â Please watch your email and add CSC@centerforsustainablechange.org to your approved sender list to make sure our emails go directly to your inbox!
I look forward to connecting, networking with you, supporting you, learning with you, having fun with you and being inspired by you.
Love,
Terri
Terri Alamo
Executive Director
