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How Do You Turn Your Life Around?
- James Purpura
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Welcome to “Healing From Within” with your host Sheryl Glick Reiki Master Energy Teacher Medium and author of the newest book in a trilogy A New Life Awaits Spirit Guided Insights to Support Global Awakening which shares stories and messages from Spirit that show us our challenges are not merely economic political or societal but a disconnect from our true being or soul wisdom. Sheryl is delighted to welcome the author James Purpura of Perception Seeing is NOT Believing.
As listeners of Healing from Within are well aware Sheryl and her guests and I share intimate and insightful experiences often of mystical or metaphysical content which help us recognized that we are more than our physical being and that our inner intuitive soul nature when utilized in combination with our ego based mind reality offer us unlimited potential for success in both the physical and energetic realms of experience.
In today’s episode of “Healing From Within” James Purpura who has experienced some of the most extreme moments life can offer and was an inmate struggling with life in solitary confinement placed there as a result of his actions while homeless and addicted to drugs will share how he developed a personal philosophy and once released from jail found his wife, created an amazing family and prosperous life and became inspired to share his knowledge with the world. His wife Steph had a challenging life also and is a survivor of sexual abuse and an attempted suicide and went on to co-own a large software company and is now co-founder of Powerful U along with James. We will discover how the human spirit deals with trauma and loss and overcomes all to find happiness.
When James is asked to think back to their childhood and remember a person place or event that may have signaled to them or others the interests and life style he might embrace tells us he really had a happy childhood and played a lot with his older brother. His mother told him he was one of those people who lit up a room when he walked in who got super excited about everything. When he got to school it became apparent he had some pretty severe learning disabilities and struggled with reading and was put in a special education class. The first day he went to that class the teacher called him up in front of the room and said, “Jimmy I don’t know if you know this or not but only stupid and retarded kids go to special ed.” James was shocked. It is sad to know there are teachers so insensitive and harmful, and probably doing that to demoralize the children and knock the wind out of their sails. James goes on to tell us that every day in that kindergarten class, this teacher called him up in front of the class to tell him he was stupid and instinctively he knew he couldn’t show any emotion or things would go even worse. It was at that point that James detached from his emotions. This teacher had given the kids by her actions permission to bully me. James parents had divorced when he was about three years old and his Dad’s involvement in his life was very sporadic, His mom was bipolar and really incapable of helping James very much.
Sheryl says that as a teacher in the NYC elementary schools she saw teachers who because they had tenure or a lifetime right to remain as teachers even incompetent teachers were not fired. Just like problems in the police or civil service workers tenure is not such a good thing for maintaining a healthy group of functional people. Just like corruption in government agencies, political factions cover up so much negativity and abuse. It truly needs to be corrected.
James Purpura’s book and film are the story of transformation and describes how he and his wife Steph both came from professional and personal bankruptcy to a life of success and service to others. Their book is designed to create a fundamental internal shift that redefines how readers think about their experiences and reshape how they experience life. If you begin to know what gives your life meaning, you will discover there are two things that dictate your life experience. They are perceptions and emotions Everything you are, everything you see, everything you experience is determined by perception. And it is your emotions that give your life the only meaning it has. My wife and I made a pact with each other to make sense of our past, rebuild our lives, and use the Law of Attraction to bring the best into our lives. We learned “Thoughts are things.” We wanted to know how and why thoughts become things, Our process began by asking the question. What is self-esteem? Our thought was it is the opinion we have of ourselves. We hated ourselves so we had to start telling ourselves that we loved ourselves. After a while it seemed less of a lie. It took years to put enough positive layers on top of the negative for it to start to show up in our lives But, once it started to show up it kept growing and like a miracle it was mind boggling. At that point we realized it was perception. We began to understand why we were successful and how most people weren’t living up to their potential.
We also discovered that some people internalize their thoughts and feelings and emotions while others externalize theirs. James externalized his emotions and blamed everything on the outside world. He literally felt like a victim of circumstance. Steph internalized all her emotions and blamed everything that went wrong in her life on herself.
Sheryl says: “As spiritual beings having a physical life, I have learned that life is not random and most of the events in our life are designed by our soul awareness to give us experiences that help us refine our emotions and feelings so we may grow more compassionate and loving. It is really a journey of the soul in a physical world that supplies many challenges. I have learned to value my external and internal aspects and not to judge or resort to lower emotions of anger jealousy greed but to allow accept and surrender to whatever happens and find value in it all even what some would consider a bad situation. There is no good or bad right or wrong only experience.
We might not see ourselves as others see us. Perhaps James says its because we don’t understand the journey from Neverland to the Matrix
James says we all share the same journey. Life starts out for all of us in our own version of Neverland, our younger days filled with wonder and awe. When we suffer our first major rejection that bubble burst and we fall into the Matrix a world that feels forced upon us.
James and Steph have included a description of the different stages describing this journey
Neverland Life perceived as a child from the vantage point of your unique and authentic self: an inner world of fantasy imagination creativity and the feeling that anything is possible.
The Fall when we experience major rejection and the bubble of childhood innocence bursts and with it goes the safety of childhood: you realize that things aren’t as you thought they were or should be.
The Matrix—where you land after the Fall. This new world feels like it has been forced on you: you must adapt to cold harsh realities.
The Climb You begin the escape from the self-limiting confines of the Matrix, attempting to consciously create life circumstance of your own choosing.
We can know how others truly perceive us. Actually, It’s all about you and how you perceive yourself that affects how others perceive you. You might feel alone even in a room full of people. You might still be considering or reviewing all the mistakes you made throughout your life and often you don’t know whose fault it is if you are having a difficult time theirs or your own. It’s not that they don’t want to know you or help you but often they have their own issues to deal with, YOU might choose to believe that nobody understands you or your life or how hard your journey has been. In some ways that is true because no one has lived your life or fought your battles. But I think people might want you to know they understand you and you are not alone and there is nothing wrong with you and nothing missing from within your heart and soul. You are not crazy to feel the way you do. Everyone has problems and fears but there is hope and life does not have to be a fight or a struggle. You have everything you need to be successful and to be happy and fulfilled and nothing that happens to you is your fault. Life has a plan and events happen to help you grow stronger in the acceptance of that plan. Whatever decision you make and how ever it goes is exactly the experience at the time that can ultimately benefit your soul purpose and growth. No one is better than you nor are you better than anyone else. We all have just had different life experiences, which gives us a different pool of information to access when we have to make decisions. When you have good information, you make better decisions.
It seems some of us seem to be inherently negative and others eternally optimistic. Well, some people may have an Identify Crisis which can be viewed as a major rejection. The world seems to shout, You are not enough,” in your face and brands your spirit with the imprint of trauma and separation. It is at this point that you have an Identity Crisis and life spins in a different direction. It’s called survival mode. In those moments you begin to perceive and believe that life is not the playground you once believed it to be. And you need to fight to survive. It is also when you realize that you are separate and alone.
The second thing a rejection does is cause you to adopt the belief of separation creating a me vs. you scenario. Back in the early days of our existence there was no concept of I. Most primitive cultures did not even have a word for I. This idea of separation is the most damaging and at the heart of every argument and disagreement, every war. Scarcity becomes the norm and when there is not enough people do not care about anything but themselves. A survival mechanism is triggered inside you and that is the only thing that matters.. You are alone fighting for your life.
Sheryl says that it seems to be the way our nation is operating now in the middle of this pandemic and election cycle 2020. Still some people are trying to encourage cooperation over competition and Law and Order and fair play.
James says he saw happy people around him and couldn’t understand why his own life was such a struggle. He didn’t have decent relationships He was in pain and in order to cope with the pain he began doing drugs. He got to the point where drugs became his whole life not just an escape. Change may often be painful but that pain or reaching the night of the soul or the bottom of desperation is often a time when people reach out to ‘Spirit or God and Ask for Help and often find their way forward. James was running away from a drug dealer he stole from and found out later this drug dealer had killed someone in a similar situation. James had to change or he would be dead. So sometimes when we reach the lowest point possible we ask for help and then change begins.
One of the most rewarding discoveries of life has been understanding what perception and assumption is and how it affects every decision we make. Perception is how we view the world and of course it is developed through every experience we have from birth. Perception literally is your life. Understanding how it works is the difference between driving in the dark and using your headlights. Remember you have never made a bad decision, you have only ever made decisions on the basis of bad information. Well it’s your perception that gives you the bad information. This bad information may be based on assumptions. The fundamental principle that underlies perception is that You do not see reality. As a matter of fact, your experiences have no real meaning except for the meaning you give them. If we don’t see reality, what do we see? What you see is an assumption. Your mind collects all the available and makes a decision about what the information means. The next question is Where does my mind get the information to make assumptions. It gets it from the past. It gets it from memoires with strong emotions tied to them and the fact that memories with strong emotional ties are used more often presents us with other problems. Most people’s self esteem or assumptions about themselves are realized by age 6,so often as an adult we are still using the perception of childhood with limited information, that doesn’t allow us to see that often what we want is right in front of us. Learning that the possibilities for success love and happiness are infinite has been one of the most rewarding discoveries of James life.
James wants readers and those who see the film Perception to remember that our biggest issue is we fail to realize that the opportunity to get everything we want is already there. It’s just sitting outside our awareness. We can’t see it because we don’t believe it. We live in a world of infinite possibilities. In every minute of lie, anything is possible if we believe it. We believe our life is dictated by the things we see, but, actually, it’s dictated more by the things we don’t see. The Law of Attraction, vision boards and the power of positive thinking work because they help you believe what you want is possible. They help you see more of the opportunities that are already available and then the power of intention will move you subconsciously towards the things you want and the people who can help you get them.
We thank James and Steph Purpura authors of Perception showing us that its no good only asking what you need to DO differently. Instead you need to PERCEIVE differently. Perception is everything and in this book the authors lay out how to unlock our perceptions, challenge inner beliefs and change behaviors. The Purpuras have spent years testing ideas, theories and practices and through trial and error created a program that resulted in their professional and personal success.
In summarizing today’s episode of Healing From Within we have learned how we create our lives through perception and assumption. It’s not just your past that generates priorities and the patterns or habits that we live our lives by, but our perceptions and assumptions and our need for safety and survival motivated by fear . Perceptions main priority is survival and your perception does not care if you are happy successful creative or fulfilled. It does not care what your dreams are or whether or not you have a great life. It evolved to do one job and one job only. It evolved to keep you safe. In order to survive we had to adapt to our environment and process information very quickly and perception does use fear of the unknown to keep you safe. It also programs you to avoid anything new or unfamiliar or to take risks. Now the three keys that dictate how we create our lives beyond perception assumption and fear and take risks to make necessary changes leading us to a successful life include the ability to recognize opportunities, make decisions and take action. Though perception has evolved to do the opposite of these practices.
James writes, “Perception uses assumption to give meaning to your experiences and your life becomes a pattern with your past casting a shadow over your future….Here’s how it works. Everyday you have experiences. Your perception searches your memory for the experience most similar to the one you’re having now and applies the same meaning it did the last time. When you have the same meaning, you do the only logical thing and make the same decision. This is how the pattern repeats in your life—lather rinse repeat—because your past is always casting a shadow over your future. Welcome to the Matrix. …Everything you are seeing and experiencing is dictated by the program. So as we come to change the perceptions and assumptions that are the conclusions of a state of evolution that might limit our actually learning to understand emotions in a realistic and effective way helping us to move out of our limitations and the restrictions of childhood trauma we come to face the same experiences but to make different conclusions and take different actions so we change ourselves our interpretation of repeating experiences and create better results. We learn to ask better questions and discover that wanting to be right all the time will keep us stuck forever.”
James Steph and I would have you know that no matter how hard things might seem at any given moment that time passes, and the next moment arrives where with help from above. and from those we love here in this life, we find something to be positive about. We can stop blaming ourselves and others and begin to build a foundation from the ground up. Each of us is born with everything we need within us to recognize and realize our life plan or destiny and with that true belief everything is possible.
I am Sheryl Glick host of Healing From Within and author of A New Life Awaits Spirit Guided Insights to Support Global Awakening which share stories and messages from Spirit that show us our challenges are not merely economic political or societal but a disconnect from our true being or soul wisdom. I invite you to visit my website www.sherylglick.com to read about and listen to authors throughout the world who search for answers to age old questions of life death and conquering the fears of physical and spiritual life so we may create within us and in the world greater compassion hope and love. Shows may also be heard on www.webtalkradio.net and www.dreamvisions7radio.com
