After getting the umpteenth email about how to eliminate the blocks in my life, I am here to inform you that:

You do not have BLOCKS!

That’s right, absolutely NO BLOCKS to success, weight-loss, health, millions of dollars, your soul-mate, the perfect home, the ideal pet, winning the lottery, finding a parking space, working 4-hours per week, or becoming a finalist on American (or British) Idol.

I’m serious here. I don’t care what you THINK or what you FEEL about “blocks.” You don’t have them. 100% Guaranteed.

“Blocks” is a made-up concept, invented by naive-but-well-meaning or manipulative-scumbag (your choice) people whose goal is to:

• sell books about the “blocks” and how to “clear them”
• sell tapes about the “blocks” and how to “clear them”
• sell coaching services about the “blocks” and how to “clear them”
• sell seats in a workshop about the “blocks” and how to “clear them” (where you’ll also be able to buy books and tapes and coaching services)
• sell membership into the “advanced” course about…

Get it?

What’s interesting to me is why we’re such suckers for this idea.

Let’s play the home version of our game and find out:

PART 1

1. Think of something you want, but don’t have. Could be that fur-lined car, or the fat-free house, or the job where you get paid for playing solitaire on your computer (For many, if they’re honest, that’s what they’re getting at least 25% of their current salary for that already).
2. Now think about your current situation.
3. Okay, now pay attention to, and feel, the gap between NOW and the IMAGINED future. If you don’t know how to get from “here” to “there”, see if you can feel that something must be in the way. Something MUST be blocking the passage. Feel how that “clearing up” that something would create a direct path to what you want.

Okay, now shake that off for a sec and go on to…

Part 2

1. Think about the city you live in… I’m in Boulder, so that’s what I’ll pick.
2. Think about some other city, a few states away. I’m using Washington, DC (since I’m going there soon for my mother’s birthday).
3. Notice that, while you can “feel” the distance between the two, there is no feeling of a “gap” or a “block” or something that needs to be “cleared up” to get you from here to there.

Let me ask you a question.

Would you ever even consider taking a workshop from someone who suggested that to get from one city to another, you needed to:

• Listen to subliminal tapes that said, “You can get there! You travel with ease!”
• Spend an hour a week talking about your childhood until you understand why you haven’t hopped on a bus
• Focus on being in the other city, as if you were already there… but this time with EMOTION, or PURPOSE, or while having an orgasm
• Evolve to a new level of consciousness, where you can buy an airline ticket without your ego
• Hyperventilate to clear out astral demons who are tying you to where you currently are
• Have some sadist dig her/his elbows into your muscles until you release what’s holding you where you are
• Scream, beat pillows, rearrange the furniture in your home, wear crystals, get a colonic, get a makeover, chant, meditate or do anything else besides MOVE YOUR DAMN BODY FROM HERE TO THERE

Of course not.

Well, what’s the diff?

Simple. One is a real trip and the other is a fantasy trip.

When we engage in the fantasy, we feel a “gap” because where we are NOW is real… and the imagined future is IMAGINED. We feel a “gap” between here and there… because there’s no way to get from REAL-here to IMAGINED-there. There’s no there there!

We sense the “block” because our problem-solving mind can’t figure out how to do the impossible — build a bridge between (that we’ve told it must exist) between the REAL and the IMAGINED.

When we compare reality vs. imagination, or try to bridge the two, the EFFECT of those actions is a feeling that we could describe with words like “gap” or “block.” But that doesn’t mean there IS a gap or a block. It’s just a feeling. A feeling that follows imagining something that doesn’t exist and wondering why we’re not living in Barbie Dream House.

Just because we feel something doesn’t mean it’s true.

Next time you have the chance to go to a workshop about your blocks, remember that if feeling something meant it were real, you wouldn’t be able to drive to the event because of the traffic caused by all the unicorns and monsters that little children feel are real.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 8:57 am and is filed under New Age thinking, self-help. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.