Dan Millman trained for years as a competitive athlete and learned that even if he was filled with self-doubt, he could still do his best. He also realized this was true in other challenges in life. The key to overcoming fear has nothing to do with making the fear go away. In the words of Susan Jeffers, the key is "feel the fear and do it anyway." Do what we need to do, and over time, and with practice, sometimes the fear will diminish. Competence breeds confidence.
Paradoxically, in traditional enlightenment teachings, where there is a great emphasis on the need for self-discipline or self-control, that need is always secondary to and in the service of the ultimate demand for profound surrender, for a complete relinquishing of control in order to allow a force greater than oneself to move in and through one's life. We can subordinate our little will - our personal tendencies and preferences - to the dominion of our higher will, higher self, higher integrity, or higher ideals.
We need not choose between self and the world. We can accept ourselves as we are, and at the same time, use whatever resources instruct, uplift, and empower us to lead better lives. The urge to transformation is deep within us, whether we call it escape from pain, the drive to freedom, or the force of human evolution. Anais Nin put it well when she wrote, "Then the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in a bud was greater than the risk it took to blossom." The ultimate purpose of transformative practices, of "consciously walking the path of personal evolution," is to clear away the obstructions that hold love trapped within us and free it to expand into the world as joyous service to the common good.
Dan gives a great deal of himself in his workshops and looks forward to sharing a lifetime of insights, which may include the four purposes of life, transcendental truth, laws that change lives, attaining the simple life, three keys to living well, money and spirituality, and the trinity of health. He uses a dynamic blend of spiritual law, yoga, movement, and cutting-edge practices to generate new levels of power, peace, and understanding. You'll find this retreat as refreshing as it is radical and take home a new sense of direction and purpose. Bring questions; bring a sense of humor; bring a friend or a loved one, and bring an open mind. Stretch your limits and awaken hidden strengths; you will learn more than you thought possible, including skills that last a lifetime.
Dan Millman is a former world champion gymnast, university coach, and college professor whose eleven books, including Way of the Peaceful Warrior, The Life You Were Born to Live, Body Mind Mastery, Everyday Enlightenment, The Laws of Spirit, andLiving on Purpose have inspired millions of readers in 22 languages. Dan has transformed the lives of people from all walks of life, including leaders in the fields of business and finance, health, psychology, education, politics, entertainment, sports, and the arts.
"In all my seminars, in various ways, I teach an approach to life I call the way of the peaceful warrior, which embraces both east and west, right brain and left brain, yin and yang, flesh and spirit, heart and humor. Maybe that's why I've been called a blend of Ram Dass and Haagen Daz." - Dan Millman