Willing to Change: Strategies for Transformative Healing

One “open secret” about inner transformation and healing is the central role of Free-Will and Ideals. It starts with the cultivation of “willingness” to effect changes in one’s life in order to make healing possible – a willingness to create deeper awareness and space for enhanced health and well-being for any dis-ease, point of confusion, or dysfunctional aspect of life. And that starting point is enhanced by clarity about the guiding power of one’s Spiritual Ideal.

This one-day online workshop will provide you with new perspectives and approaches to cultivate hopefulness and greater health in your life. We will explore how to use the principle: “It’s as important to know where we have come from as it is to know where we are going,” by using the wisdom-mind to recognize and appreciate instances in the past in which we have used the Will to make life-affirming, positive choices. And we’ll identify the very places in our lives now in which ideals-centered “willingness to change and transform” is the key.

A large part of our self-exploration for the day will be making use of a model of “core challenges for the Will” in each of three phases of life:

• Early adulthood,
• Mid-life, and
• The final third of one’s life.

Each phase has distinct archetypal issues which arise and provide opportunities for either

• Falling deeper into old, karmic patterns which lead to dis-ease and dysfunction OR
• Rising up in consciousness through the willingness to become more open, flexible, and open-hearted.

You will leave this workshop course with:

• Applicable insights about your own positive history of using the Will to promote health and well-being;
• A new understanding of the phases of the journey of life through three phases of adulthood and the archetypal opportunities that are presented by each phase; and,
• A personal plan for practical steps you can take over the next 30 days to express your own “willingness to change and transform,” and thereby to promote enhanced health and well-being in your life.

Special note: Each registrant for this workshop will receive a free e-book edition of Mark Thurston’s book Willing to Change: The Journey of Personal Transformation

Mary Elizabeth Lynch, J.D. is an educator, organization leader, and conflict transformation specialist who serves as president of the non-profit Personal Transformation and Courage Institute. She is an adjunct faculty member of George Mason University where she teaches courses about mindfulness, resilience, and self-care. Mary Elizabeth is a life member of A.R.E. and has been a student of the Cayce readings for 45 years, in addition to her in-depth studies of other traditions of spirituality and healing, including Vajrayana Buddhism.

Mark Thurston, Ph.D. is an educator, author, and longtime leader within the A.R.E., including his current position as a member of the organization’s Board of Trustees. His full-time job is associate professor at George Mason University where he teaches courses about mind-body health, consciousness, meaning. He is author of more than a dozen books about spirituality, personal transformation, and finding one’s calling in life.