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Taking a Big Leap | SkyJump

Ending 2022 With A Big Leap

While in Las Vegas for a wedding last month, I jumped at the opportunity to take an 855′ leap from The Stratosphere tower on the strip. I wasn’t nervous at all until I saw someone do it. The time from the 3, 2, 1 countdown to me moving felt like a very long moment. The SkyJump was more thrilling than any ride I’ve been on and even more than parachuting. The only time I did that was a tandem jump, so taking that first/last step wasn’t up to me. You can see the video of my SkyJump here:

Here’s the view from the ground, shot by my wife.

One thing that hit me, which I couldn’t put into words right away, was the difference between taking that leap into nothingness for fun versus taking a jump for my demise. On the SkyJump, my nerves vanished once I jumped from the platform, and I experienced joy, thrills, and fun. Nothing in my being communicated that this was a bad idea. I felt completely safe, even though I had no idea how the mechanism that would slow me down worked. I didn’t even ask about it.

I’ve also had the experience of standing atop a building, believing I wanted to die, and trying to get myself to take a much less fun jump. At that moment, everything in my body and energy was saying don’t take this step. There was tremendous resistance, fear, and trepidation. I ended up calling a suicide support line for the first time.

While plummeting through the Vegas night, full of adrenaline and joy, it struck me how fearless the experience was. There was no concern or desire to go splat on the ground. I felt safe and alive, thrilled to be alive.

Whereas in my attempted doom jump, I couldn’t get myself to take that one step into nothingness. I hated myself then, judging myself as weak and pathetic, but looking back, I was safe in a very different way. My better aspects wouldn’t let me take that seemingly one small step.

The first half of 2022 was a dark crucible. I didn’t feel fully alive until July. I knew I wanted a year-end celebration. The SkyJump was a Leap of Life for me. A victory lap for all I had persevered through. I will never forget it and hope to do it again.

I wish you your own Leap of Life this year, a celebration of you and all you have made it through.

If you are in crisis and contemplating any sort of doom jump, please text or call 988 for immediate support. https://988lifeline.org/talk-to-someone-now/

 

Be well,
Andy

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About The Author
Andy Grant

Andy Grant is a best-selling author, award-winning speaker, Transformational Energy Coach, Healer, and suicide prevention activist. He holds certificates in Positive Psychology, the Enwaken Coaching System, Infinite Possibilities, The Modern Mystery School, and more.

Andy teaches workshops ranging from energy tools to ebook publishing. He is the founder of Real Men Feel, a movement encouraging men to come out of the emotional closet. As a survivor of multiple suicide attempts, Andy knows how low we, as human beings, can feel. He is committed to helping people realize how magnificent life is meant to be.

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Auric Region Series Healing

My Experience with a new healing, Auric Region series.

I first shot a before-and-after video when I received my Life Activation in January 2016. Now, it’s become a staple whenever I have a new healing experience. This week I had the first of ten sessions making up the Auric Region Series from the Modern Mystery School. Several mystery school healers I know learned this modality in November, and all raved about how powerful it was, even after only receiving shortened versions of it in their training.

The word that kept showing up for days to describe how I felt was clean. I still feel very clean and expansive five days later.

I’ll be doing one session per week for ten weeks. I don’t expect to post something each week, but I certainly will at the end of the series.

This holiday season, be sure and give yourself a gift too. It might be an item you’ve long desired, an experience, or some quiet alone time. It is entirely up to you. The point is, do not neglect the most important person in your life; you!

This holiday season, be sure and give yourself a gift too. It might be an item you’ve long desired, an experience, or some quiet alone time. It is entirely up to you. The point is, do not neglect the most crucial person in your life; you!

I also share this because, as a healer, I never stop healing. As a coach, I never stopped being coached. As a teacher, I never stop being a student. If you are ever looking for a coach, healer, mentor, or teacher, be sure they continue to receive and grow. You would never pick a dentist who wasn’t a patient of another dentist or see a doctor who thought they were beyond seeing other doctors.

Be well,
Andy

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About The Author
Andy Grant

Andy Grant is a best-selling author, award-winning speaker, Transformational Energy Coach, Healer, and suicide prevention activist. He holds certificates in Positive Psychology, the Enwaken Coaching System, Infinite Possibilities, and more.

Andy teaches workshops ranging from energy tools to ebook publishing. He is the founder of Real Men Feel, a movement encouraging men to come out of the emotional closet. As a survivor of multiple suicide attempts, Andy knows how low we, as human beings, can feel. He is committed to helping people realize how magnificent life is meant to be.

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Photo by RKTKN on Unsplash

“You’re Just Like Your Father!”

Did you hear, “You’re just like your father!” often when growing up?

Was it ever meant as a compliment? Was it always a put-down? Was it said sarcastically, with anger, with love…?
Being told we are just like our father was rarely meant to be a good thing for many men I’ve met.

My parents got divorced when I was five years old and it was very acrimonious. My mother didn’t say many good things about my dad. In times of frustration, where my mother and I were butting heads the most, she would sometimes say, “you’re just like your father.”

I clearly remember when I was about seven years old, my grandmother once remarking that I stood like my father. I recall being momentarily stunned, not sure how to receive that. Was it okay to be like my dad? Was she pointing out something wrong about me? And, how did she even know my father? I had no memory of them together.

That was one of the rare bits of evidence that my parents did indeed have some background. I had no memory of them together, hadn’t even seen wedding photos. I had to take their word for it that they were ever married.

Sometimes my dad would say “That’s my boy” with a bit of pride

But the times I heard that the most were when I was in trouble, acting out as a kid, or dealing with depression. It was a very mixed message.

When I first shared this video on Facebook, other men commented that “Like father like son” was another phrase they heard and not as a compliment. Guys said they didn’t like these comparisons when they were growing up, but they choose to take them as compliments as adults.

Many men shared the experience of meeting people later in life who thought their fathers were great guys. I remember how moved I was at my father’s memorial service when so many of his friends told me what a supportive man he had been for them.

Regardless of what other people said, are you comfortable being like your dad?

Can you see the best in your father?

I recently interviewed someone who does an astounding job of that.
Listen to Real Men Feel – Regular Guy Chat with Billy at Apple Podcasts
or Spotify.
Watch it on YouTube.

Or right here, right now.

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About The Author
Andy Grant

Andy Grant is a best-selling author, award-winning speaker, Transformational Energy Coach, Healer, and suicide prevention activist. He holds certificates in Positive Psychology, the Enwaken Coaching System, Infinite Possibilities, and more.

Andy teaches workshops ranging from energy tools to ebook publishing. He is the founder of Real Men Feel, a movement encouraging men to come out of the emotional closet. He also facilitates monthly men’s groups and is a contributor to the GoodMenProject. As a survivor of multiple suicide attempts, Andy knows how low we as human beings can feel. He is committed to helping people realize how magnificent life is meant to be.

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Photo by Harika G on Unsplash

Dark Night of the Soul

I don’t recall when I first heard the term “dark night of the soul.” It is most often used to describe a spiritual crisis. It goes all the way back to a poem by the 16th-century, Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic, and priest, St. John of the Cross. The poem narrates the journey of the soul to a mystical union with God. Over the years, it has often been used to describe any challenging time, period of depression or questioning the meaning of one’s life.

I’ve experienced a few dark nights in my scariest, most fearful, depressed and suicidal times. Periods where I’ve given up, and have no idea what to do next. I’m in torment; questions spinning and racing through my mind. I beg, plead, and pray for help, for support. I cry, sob, rant and rave. Eventually I fall asleep exhausted.

In the past I’ve interrupted these releases by attempting to end my life. Frustration and impatience boils over as my desperation does not get an immediate response, answer or change. After a suicide attempt, I would get support. Sometimes it would be in a hospital but my needs were met. I could fully exhale and surrender. It took me years to realize I could be supported without attempting to end my life, and years more to see I could have emotional releases, feel sad, angry and fearful without having suicidal thoughts or impulses too.

Three days ago I had a self-induced dark night of the soul. After three weeks of fear, sadness or tears showing up each day I was now furious and in a rage. I screamed at my wife over our finances. I was completely out of control and I hated it. So I isolated myself in a dark spare bedroom and I prayed. I meditated. I did energy work. I cried. I repeated Ho’oponopono over and over (I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.). I surrendered to the Divine, to whatever support, guidance and assistance I have. I asked for Archangels, Guides, Masters to help me release this torment. Dying crossed my mind, but not in any sort of ‘that is what I want to or should do’ way. My wife came and tried to talk with me. I ignored her. I tuned out the little whisper I could hear/feel that said just talk to her, stop this act. But I didn’t. The old part of me, my ego, was louder. Old patterns insisted that I be quiet, isolated and feel tormented and that I ignore my wife so that she would feel a bit of this pain too. I wanted to punish us both. Looking back, I believe it was the feelings, energies and tendencies that I’ve been releasing making their last stand.

I had a similar experience the last time I felt suicidal. In December, 2015 I had suicidal thoughts and even did some planning, yet there was a bigger, clearer part of me, a newly more powerful and louder aspect of me, that knew I was not going to take part in any self-harm. I felt and believed it was this old suicidal energy and identity showing up again so that it could leave me – hopefully once and for all.

Since this experience I’ve researched how other people define the Dark Night of Soul. Eckhart Tolle says

“It is a term used to describe what one could call a collapse of a perceived meaning in life…an eruption into your life of a deep sense of meaninglessness. The inner state in some cases is very close to what is conventionally called depression.  Nothing makes sense anymore, there’s no purpose to anything.  Sometimes it’s triggered by some external event, some disaster perhaps, on an external level.  The death of someone close to you could trigger it, especially premature death, for example if your child dies.  Or you had built up your life, and given it meaning – and the meaning that you had given your life, your activities, your achievements, where you are going, what is considered important, and the meaning that you had given your life for some reason collapses.

“It can happen if something happens that you can’t explain away anymore, some disaster which seems to invalidate the meaning that your life had before.  Really what has collapsed then is the whole conceptual framework for your life, the meaning that your mind had given it.  So that results in a dark place.  But people have gone into that, and then there is the possibility that you emerge out of that into a transformed state of consciousness.  Life has meaning again, but it’s no longer a conceptual meaning that you can necessarily explain.  Quite often it’s from there that people awaken out of their conceptual sense of reality, which has collapsed.”

Pastor and therapist, Chuck DeGrout, states what he sees as three truths about the Dark Night of the Soul:

  1. Dark nights provoke deep questions.
  2. Dark nights are spiritual and psychological.
  3. Dark nights provide opportunity for growth.

I could not agree more and I’ve felt a deeper acceptance and validation since reading about the experiences of other people.

I encourage you that if you encounter this sort of dark and heavy emotion coming into your life, find a way to embrace it. Be willing to feel it. Be willing to ask your deep questions. Question everything. Allow your own Dark Night of the Soul. Don’t expect immediate, instantaneous change, but KNOW that every thought and feeling that you allow to show up is leaving you. Don’t fall into the trap that I have many times that the pain and shit you feel IS you. It is not. It is your system working wonderfully to release what you have outgrown and what no longer serves you.

I’ve spent months, intending daily, that I was willing to let go of all that no longer serves me. I feel rather dimwitted to admit that I didn’t think such a process might bring me discomfort. I learned that some things that no longer serve me are things I’m still very much attached to. They are identities, patterns and aspects that I see are part of my uniqueness that truly don’t support me, yet I only let go with a fight. I was only able to let go of them after a Dark Night of The Soul. I used to think that I needed to die, but the reality is I needed to be willing to let part of my die. I had to let my “egoic sense of self,” as Tolle puts it, die. I can kill the illusions without killing me.

When I first woke after my recent “Dark Night” I didn’t want to start the day. I didn’t experience any miracle. Nothing profound happened during the night. But as that day and the next unfolded I began seeing that all I had been asking for was showing up. The synchronicities of people reaching out, my own elevated mood, days free of fear and with much more peace, as well as inspired actions, and new clients and opportunities. It slowly dawned on me that I do indeed get what I’m asking for. I don’t need to rely on being depressed or suicidal. I’m not served by insisting on my perceived uniqueness or my egoic identity. My healing, my power, my service comes when I surrender all that I think I am (the obvious bullshit and the things I think are wonderful) when I am willing to let all that go I can truly connect to Source, God, the Universe, Faith… whatever you want to call it, and it makes a difference.

Dark Night of the Soul

Life is Like a Guy in Step Class

Mama always said, life is like a man in a step class. You never know where to put your feet.

Well, actually my mama never said that, but it sure felt true when I found myself in a step class recently; which is healthier than eating a box of chocolates even when it is frustrating and challenging.

Do your best. Follow your guidance. Accept and realize that your best will vary from day to day.

I hope you find your next step class that pushes you beyond your comfort zone.