The Life Skills Approach

How to Consciously Face Challenges in the Moment

Every challenge we face has an inner focus where the challenge requires you to let go of the past and enter the moment connected to the Wisdom of your Body. This is where you tap inner resources that empower you to meet your challenge. Without this simple connection you fall back on how you were conditioned in the past and that isn’t always the most appropriate.

The other challenge is in what you have to do to be successful. This is where past conditioning and education is valuable. When you learn from the success of others, you don’t have to make as many mistakes.

Now when you put these 2 challenges together, you have the best presence to meet your challenge with success. Unfortunately our society strongly focuses on what you know and what you do. Of course for that is what we pay for, but how you do it is very important also. That is where quality of life comes in and the relations you make with people.

I feel the “how” things are done is remembered much easier than what you “know or even do.” So maybe what they carry in their heart is more memorable than what they think. Obviously everything is valuable so you need to realize you are responsible for both.

25 Tips to introduce myself, my work and what is important to me

Tips to get to know me

1) I was born in Detroit, Michigan & traveled after college, searching to discover myself.

2) Landed in Santa Monica, CA. for 30 years, on a hill over looking the ocean.

3) Got multiple sclerosis and became legally blind in 1981. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Within a week I was at UCLA Hospital. At that time the doctors said we really don’t know what is wrong and they sent me home saying there was nothing they could do. That forced me on the most intense journey to deal with an unknown challenge.

4) I helped start Life Skills Institute in 1981to work with people with chronic illness or disabilities, focused on how to tap inner resources to actively deal with their challenge. This helped me deal with my own challenges for like they say in Zen a knife may be very sharp and can cut everything, but it can not cut itself. Helping others made it easy to deal with the challenges I was forced to deal with.

5) Life Skills Institute began to work with Vietnam vets with PTSD for 20 years at the VA in LA. My focus was to help them accept the moment as they did in combat to deal with their struggle. That was a powerful lesson to share because that is what I had to do for myself. When they were in combat their life was more important than any thought in their mind and that put them in a super-conscious moment. The greatest problem with PTSD happens when thoughts are more important than life and their own mind causes extreme trauma.

6) I took the lessons I learned with the vets to volunteer with people facing a life threatening illness like cancer & AIDS, for they were fighting for their life and they needed the life skills that focused them in the moment also. That connected them to what I call the Wisdom of the Body, that place where people tap powerful inner resources to face challenges. That is like the “Zone” in sports and it is available to everyone in every breath.

7) I saw in my life and with the people I worked with that when we constantly focus on thinking, we block the Wisdom of our Body. In a health crisis it is more dramatic, but the reality is that every person experiences that beyond thought reality we just don’t recognize it. Woman experience it in childbirth, we experience it during creative moments and when we do something we really like doing, being in the moment feels natural.

8) Now when we face difficult times, especially during the nation’s financial struggle, we can not be constantly focused on our thoughts because it blocks the Wisdom of our Body. We need that inner wisdom to deal with these times, just as a person needs it when they face the threat of death.

9) Last year my MS got to the point I couldn’t walk up the stairs to my apartment in Santa Monica so I had to move. After being gone for 35 years I came back to be with my family. Last winter was the first winter I experienced in 35 years and it was like I hibernated and wrote an E-book called A Healthy Way to Be Sick. I saw that space beyond my thoughts was peaceful in difficult times and now I want to share it with people in a struggle.

10) I volunteer in Life Skills Institute, a non-profit organization to share the lessons I was taught. I feel what I developed would serve people who deal with a struggle. In physics it says that when an organism is under stress it will either evolve to a higher level or it will be defeated. I encourage everyone to choose to evolve in difficult times, for it is actually an amazing inner journey.

11) On January 21^st, at the Crazy Wisdom Book Store I will be doing a seminar with Michael Andes, an Ann Arbor therapist. The time is 7:30 PM. The talk is called Dangling on the Edge of Despair. We will attempt to show you how to deal with difficult times utilizing inner resources.

12) Victims look outside for the solution of their problems. Empowered people look within with the attitude of I will do what ever I can to consciously deal with this. What ever your challenge is, use it as an opportunity to evolve. I tell my seminar participants that the quality of their life doesn’t depend on the health of their body, it depends on their focus. Use challenges as an opportunity to discover the part of you that exists beyond anxious thinking.

13) If you know anyone dangling on the edge of despair invite them to my Tele-seminar and have them go to http://lifeskillsinc.com to enroll. Learn to turn struggles into incredible opportunities. In the same way pressure turns coal into diamonds; let struggles turn you into a precious gift.

14) Struggles are the perfect time to explore inner resources. Just like in physics it says that a light shines brighter in darkness, struggles can make you shine during difficult times.

15) Life Skills is available to tailor make a seminar or e-book designed for you. When you empower your staff and your customers; your service and or your product becomes more effective.

16) If you really want to get to know me, come to my Tele-seminar. There are over 25 experiential techniques that develop a Positive Self Image, self trust and a direct connection to the Wisdom of your Body. These techniques developed as I shared Life Skills with people in a health challenge for 25 years. The purpose of the Tele-seminar is to connect you to your Wisdom of the Body.

17) My blindness makes it a hassle to read messages and interact with people, but once we leave superficial talking it becomes easy to share my inner world.

18) I feel if we approached challenges as though they were opportunities to grow instead of focusing on “how other people see me”, challenges would be seen as gifts.

19) I am looking for a company to sponsor me. They may provide a professional view of healing & I would present the patient’s role in healing. That partnership provides a conscious approach to healing that combines inner and outer resources together.

20) I am in control of my inner environment, for that is what responds to medicine & medical treatments. When I take that responsibility seriously, healing happens the best.

21) Doctors go to school for years to learn their role in healing, so shouldn’t patients take their role more seriously and develop skills to participate in healing?

22) One of our nation’s greatest resources exists beyond the thoughts of every patient. That inner wisdom has evolved over thousands of years and offers a great reduction in medical expenses and reduction of personal pain.

23) The Wisdom of the Body is a tremendous resource in furthering education, sports, spirituality and work. We just need to know how to use it. I teach Tele-seminars that guide people in a health crisis to connect to the Wisdom of their Body. Go to http://lifeskillsinc.com to enroll in a Tele-seminar. This inner wisdom is nature’s way of ensuring conscious participation in what ever we do.

24) We are born with the Wisdom of the Body, but because we constantly focus on thinking, we ignore our greatest resource.

25) I feel the quality of my life improves when I have a clear connection to this inner wisdom.

Learn to consciously condition your subconscious mind. Develop habits that effect how you respond to challenges. Go to http://lifeskillsinc.com to get my E-book A Healthy Way to Be Sick  and join a Tele-seminar you can do from home. My Blog at http://lifeskillsapproach.com shares the lessons I have learned along the way.

© Marc Lerner and Life Skills 2009

Difficult Times As Opportunities Of Growth & Change Who Deals With It

                As our country and the world enter difficult times, we have to be extra focused on how we face our challenges.   In a health struggle, it is not the illness that determines the outcome as much as who has the illness.   It is not the struggle you face, but how you react to it. We may not be able to control what happens to us completely but we definitely can control how we deal with what ever happens.

                Stress is a product in how we interpret the challenge we face. Victims naturally interpret difficult times by the way they have been conditioned without any responsibility over what their response is. The way we are conditioned does not define us, we are not the habits we learned we are the consciousness that listens to those thoughts. When you really accept that, you are free to change those inappropriate habits into habits that serve you.

                Look at difficult times as opportunities of personal growth. A time where you can go beyond your past conditioning, just like a snake sheds its old skin, we can get out of our old conditioned definition of who we think we are. Most people fear that vulnerability without their old protection covering, but with confidence that reveals freedom.

                With that confidence and freedom you are completely capable of dealing with any difficulty. In fact this difficult time will be seen as an amazing gift because without it you may have never got to know how powerful you really are.

Learn to deal with challenges from your deepest inner strength. Go to http://lifeskillsinc.com register for the Tele-seminar and develop the habits that connect you to your inner wisdom in every breath. We are only victims when we fail to shed our old habits. My Blog http://lifeskillsapproach.com.

© Marc Lerner 2009

The Power of Controlling Your Inner Communications.

      Inner communications is a  two-way process: You communicate with your body and your body communicates with you.  Your self-image is the part of you that determines the quality of your inner communications.

     At a seminar I gave recently, a person with AIDS came to learn the Life Skills Approach.  He named his Negative Self "Indifferent" and his positive self "Joy."  When he channeled his thoughts to "Indifferent,"
he got the uncaring answers that came from a part of him that did not care about his life.  When he directed his thoughts to "Joy," he got responses that came from the part of him that had a real loving spirit and a strong will to live. 

It was very obvious which part of him would create the best motivation in his life.  By creating the habit of accepting his Positive Self, he could find resources that turned his tragedy into an opportunity to grow.  It was easy to see that the little effort it would take to connect to his Positive Self would be                                                              significant in dealing with his health crisis.

      Science shows us that when we develop a habit, that habit can actually change the chemical makeup of our bodies.  Just imagine what would happen if you developed the habit of accepting your Positive Self as the real you.  Your mental response to everything you experience would trigger a different chemical reaction, creating a dramatic positive effect on your life.  When you learn to accept the Positive
Self as the real you, you can make the shift that enables you to better deal with your situation.

      In Stephen Covey's book, The Seven Habits of  Highly Effective People, he talks about the need to "shift our paradigm."  This is the way in which we see the world.  Covey tells the story of a subway ride
he took in New York,  It was a quiet ride until an man and his children entered the subway.  The man sat next to Stephen and the children ran around the car disturbing everyone.   When Stephen asked the man to do something about the children, he slowly looked up.  He said they had just come from the hospital where their mother had died and they did not know how to react.  At that moment, Stephen stopped being annoyed and became eager to help.  He shifted his paradigm and saw the world differently.

      Changing your self-image also has the potential to create that paradigm shift.   When you have the ability to shift from focusing on your Negative Self , where you get negative responses to your
thoughts--shifting to your Positive Self instantly gives you positive interpretations. 

      In a health struggle, it is not the illness that determines the outcome as much as who has the illness.   It is not the struggle you face, but how you react to it.                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                               

New Beginnings, The Art of Starting Over in 2009

               As we enter a new year there are some things that we can do that allows us to start over. Just as you have to push the clutch in to shift gears, our consciousness needs to be released from our mind to change. Now if you follow a linear thinking path; that is difficult to do. It is impossible to follow thinking out of the conditioned maze created by thinking. So what can you do?

               Start the new year in silence. That is the clutch that disengages your mind. That is where your heart expresses itself without the limitations created from your past conditionings. That is where the Wisdom of your Body lives in a moment that has deep, rich experiences. That is where you cope with health challenges utilizing the Wisdom of the Body.

               So now this is the question we have to ask as we enter this New Year: Why do we carry mental garbage into a potentially new beginning?

               I feel that mental garbage is the main reason we ignore silence. If we learned to simply surrender beyond our thinking mind and just let go for even a moment as our breath turns from an in-breath to an out-breath; our deepest wisdom would take over our lives completely.

                Unfortunately because we are so committed to thinking we ignore that incredible moment.

               To start a New Year with our deepest inner wisdom we just have to commit to one moment and when that surrender connects, you find that moment to be endless. It exists in every breath and is the only moment available to us. We spend our lives nearly touching it in every breath, but until we develop what I call an accurate surrender, we simply ignore it.

Develop the accurate surrender that ignites your inner wisdom in a Tele-seminar. With only 30 minutes a day, you can develop the habits that connects you to that moment. Go to http://lifeskillsinc.com to enroll in this Tele-seminar. Download a free intro. for “A Healthy Way to be Sick” &  then read it & live it.

© Marc Lerner & Life Skills 2009.

2009 New Beginnings, The Art of Starting Over

As we enter a new year there are some things that we can do that allows us to start over. Just as you have to push the clutch in to shift gears, our consciousness needs to be released from our mind to change. Now if you follow a linear thinking path; that is difficult to do. It is impossible to follow thinking out of the conditioned maze created by thinking. So what can you do?

                Start the new year in silence. That is the clutch that disengages your mind. That is where your heart expresses itself without the limitations created from your past conditionings. That is where the Wisdom of your Body lives in a moment that has deep, rich experiences. That is where you cope with health challenges utilizing the Wisdom of the Body.

                So now this is the question we have to ask as we enter this New Year: Why do we carry mental garbage into a potentially new beginning?

                I feel that mental garbage is the main reason we ignore silence. If we learned to simply surrender beyond our thinking mind and just let go for even a moment as our breath turns from an in-breath to an outbreath; our deepest wisdom would take over our lives completely.

                 Unfortunately because we are so committed to thinking we ignore that incredible moment.

                To start a New Year with our deepest inner wisdom we just have to commit to one moment and when that surrender connects, you find that moment to be endless. It exists in every breath and is the only moment available to us. We spend our lives nearly touching it in every breath, but until we deelop what I call an accurate surrender, we simply ignore it.

Develop the accurate surrender that ignites your inner wisdom in a Tele-seminar. With only 30 minutes a day, you can develop the habits that connects you to that moment. Go to http://lifeskillsinc.com to enroll in this Tele-seminar. Download a free intro for “A Healthy Way to be Sick” &  then read it & live it.

© Marc Lerner & Life Skills 2009.