The Dunce in the Corner
by Lea Anne Wolfe

Take over the Personal Journey classes at the school?" "Could I do that?" "Am I ready?" "Am I good enough?" "What if no one likes me?" "Who would want to take classes from me?!?" "What's "Awareness" again?"

The idea of teaching classes at the Rocamora School brought on a stream of screaming Ego voices. Some of them were supportive, most were just plain terrified, but my own Awareness knew that it was time for me to step up and let the fear of working with Mary go. It was at that time that the phones at the school began ringing. Within a month and a half two new P.J. classes were underway when there hadn't been a new P.J. class in almost a year. The sychronicity was comforting.

Now, to face the "reality" of teaching the classes themselves. I went through all of the class notes, page after page, I was reviewing the notes apprehensively because I felt as though I needed to know the language and semantics of the lessons by heart. I was afraid that I didn't know the material well enough to be sitting in the teacher's chair. There was a certain amount of dread that filled my heart before my first class started. But as I began the introductions and asked the first question, all the subtleties of Awareness work came flooding back to me. I realized what a tremendous gift teaching the P.J. classes were going to be and gratitude filled my heart.

During my first class there was an ego struggle, but not the one that I had anticipated. I had feared that I didn't have the knowledge of the material down in a way that was going to be necessary in order to instruct the P.J. classes. But what came up was my ego wanting the students to "get it". I've been teaching for years, teaching academics and acting, where it was my job to help students understand the lesson precisely. So, I coaxed a little...re-phrased the questions...re-directed their answers, all in order for them to understand the lesson. And they did. But after the class was over I felt that I hadn't done it "right" and it wasn't my Ego telling me that, it was my heart.

It was very important for me to stay out of the way and allow people to "get it" or "not get it". I finally GOT it!

Since this discovery I'm witnessing more and more Awareness at work. I'm seeing how Awareness serves the group as a whole and how someone's unique perception of a question brings a deeper understanding to the entire group.

Oh, my ego is still around but mostly as a witness. It does give me the occasional pat on the back, it likes to take credit for Awareness's work whenever possible, but it no longer participates in class. It has put on the Dunce's cap and appropriated the stool in the corner. At least for now...we all know the guises that Ego can create.

To be Continued...


Awarness Training through your body
By Kate Oliver

I plunged into the Rocamora training about two years ago and have been going ever since. Her awareness training has revealed to me the person I truly am and the quality of life I have longed for. Layer by layer I am peeling away my ideas and beliefs of how life works. Illuminating the true essence of the way things are. This is not something I have been able to share with outsiders the way I would like, because just as Mary says, experience is the key. Experience is beyond concept or idea. Experience is felt through your body, heart and mind. And it is yours. This new place I have arrived at has seeped into all areas of my life. And I can see it vividly in my Bodywork. I now know why I named my business "Life Changing Bodywork". That is my intention with my work, to share an experience with people potent enough to change their lives and mine. Through Mary's work I have arrived at my best work and it is still growing and revealing itself to me. It is a constant exploration and expansion into the love itself.

For the last few months I have had the joy of connecting even further with Mary, in doing my bodywork on her. Mary has been a catalyst in my confidence and clientele. Together we have made some discoveries about how our work is complimentary. My work, just as Mary's, requires a certain kind of commitment and presence for the best results. I think most anyone can get general benefits from awareness training or massage. But for transformative results you must bring along your choice, willingness and presence. The wows happen when someone can bring their awareness right to their subtle body and focus on the subtle sensations. Work from the inside out. I have found the best sessions with people are when we both can show up to explore together without a desired outcome. We can have an outline, but we need to allow ourselves to feel the process not think it. Then there is nothing to figure out or explain, the process takes us where we need to go. We become instruments of the love and are left in awe of the experience. It brings everything to the surface. Unveiling your emotions, beliefs and physical pains or pleasures, pushing you to raw presence.

Like awareness training, it is a process of peeling away layers, surrendering to your body's intelligence for the perfect pace and healing. As in Mary's work, my work is not for everyone. I want to work with people who I can really serve, so I too am served. My intention is to live my dreams of connection with people, myself and my purpose. I call myself a Healing Artist because I want it to be about more that just the normal massage or normal anything. I want it to be an experience.


Moving into the Bigger Life
by Stephanie Stone

I have been in a major process for the last 6 months of remodeling and putting up my website. I can see that all this preparation and work has been for more of a purpose than just having a pretty house. There have been so many lessons about working with people and learning to delegate all that has needed to be done. This whole experience has been teaching me some amazing and often difficult lessons in how to navigate in the free state.

A number of months ago Mary had said to me in a session "Keep your eye on the needle, not the haystack." This impacted me and I have kept it in my consciousness ever since. Using it with my clients and friends in many instances. Focusing on the needle means to me, staying on my lifepath, not being distracted. Each day now challenges me to continue to expand while "focusing on the needle."

The fascinating thing about the kind of focus is the "stuff" that used to throw me just drops away so quickly and without the old drama. It is creating a deeper and deeper commitment of what the love wants to move through the bigger "me". Getting the little "me" out of the way, so I can, as Mary puts it, "Step into the bigger life." I can see that the remodeling process and my website have been preparing me to expand and drop away all the stuff, the distractions that need to be eliminated for me to step into the bigger lifepath. I experience that there is a higher intelligence moving through me when I am focusing on the needle. This intelligence has a life of its own. As I embrace this intelligence it teaches me the "How" of getting what I want done. It is me and it's bigger than me. I am the instrument, the channel for the love.

I have also been learning how crucial it is to slow it all down. Slowing it all down, allows me to drop into an even deeper awareness of the "How" I can access whatever resources and people I need on the lifepath.

My house and my website are almost completed and I can see all the value that these projects have given me in being able to play a much bigger game and know how to move myself and others deeper into the free state. Moving into the bigger life is an amazing process of expanding my capacity to open my heart and be a space for others to share in that love.