This past weekend Saturday, something interesting happened. I had a clear calendar. I didn’t have any business meetings or calls scheduled. No meet-ups planned or mastermind sessions.

So, I did my morning routine of coffee, meditation, yoga, then hopped in the car and started driving.

I ended up again at Omega Institute -- the mindfulness center in Upstate New York. And I’d like to share with what a bit of what I learned there.

(FYI -- my goal is to bring you thoughts and reflections on connecting the dots and living purposefully. So fully expect my work to be one part Richard Branson and one part Dalai Lama -- not that I’m nearly as cool as either Branson or the Dalai Lama, but you get the point.)

I knew that Dr. Brian Weiss had a weekend retreat scheduled there, but I didn’t plan on going there before yesterday.

 

Dr. Weiss is the leader authority on reincarnation and past-life regressions. After graduating from Yale and starting up his psychotherapy practice, Dr. Weiss began his practice. Everything changed when a patient of his name Catherine began to experience what seemed like past-lives. 

 

This led to Dr. Weiss further exploring hyposis-therapy, being a featured guest on Oprah, and starting a world-wide therapeutic movement with past-life regressions. 

 

Past-life regressions, says Dr. Weiss, can help a multitude of ways. They can help someone release subconscious trauma in one’s life along. But they can also help tune one into their spiritual path in life. This is why I’m talking about him today on Your Life on Purpose, 

 

And it may surprise you that concept of reincarnation is not only something that’s more common in the traditional Eastern religions. Here’s of bit of what Dr. Weiss had to say about the concept of reincarnation:

 

Enter Dr. Brian Weiss 

 

As weird as it may sound to you, when I drove to Omega last week, It was almost as if my spirit was taking me for a ride and I decided to follow.

Has something like this ever happened to you?

By the time I really knew what was going on I had found a seat next to an older woman with short white hair (who I found out later is a shaman) and closed my eyes as Dr. Brian Weiss shared a bit of lecture then took us through a past-life regression.

He spoke about a lot of things and it got very spiritually deep.

 

Here’s what he had to say purpose.

He says that every person here is here for a reason and that our spirit selves chose or were chosen to enter this life for a reason. It’s up to us to tune in and listen to what our body, our mind, and what the universe is telling us.

Interesting, right? What do you think? (Honestly, I’d love to hear your thoughts so hit reply and let’s keep this conversation going :)

Just one thing. Instead of stressing out over whether or not you are living your one and only one true purpose in life, focus more on living intentionally. When I say “this is your life on purpose,” I’m not really saying “live your purpose,” but rather “live intentionally”. Live beautifully, as Pema Chodron often says, and have your actions reflect the direction you want to go in life.

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How did I come across Dr. Weiss’ work? That’s an interesting story. I was first introduced to Dr. Weiss’ work when I was 16 years old. I had just learned how to pop a pimple and tie a tie when I did my first past-life regression.

You see, I went to a very small, very Catholic private school in New York.

At our junior prom, the school had brought in post-prom activities to try and keep the kids from going out and getting in trouble. They brought in these inflatable sumo wrestling suits, some other games, and then this woman who they called an “Angel Reader”.

That piqued my interest, so I got in line. A short brown-haired woman with round shoulders, the angel reader spent about five minutes talking to each student about the angels they have in their life. When it came my turn to meet her, I sat down and said hello. Forty-five minutes later, she had asked if she could send me a CD.

She ended up sending me one of Dr. Brian Weiss’ past-life regression CDs. So, at age sixteen, I did my first past-life regression.

And this is strange because if the school found out that this woman was talking about past-lives and such, the priests and nuns at my school would have thrown her out. And to further this, this woman had bought me a CD and paid to mail it out to me.

 

I didn’t realize it at the time, but reflecting back on it I now realize how strange that any of this even happened.

Throughout college I would do past-life regressions here and there and I found them very interesting. This, I kept pretty hushed, along with my meditation practice because I knew no one else who had even heard of Dr. Brian Weiss and this is before even meditation was openly talked about in Western culture. Now, business CEOs rave about the benefits of meditation. Back when I was kid, that didn’t happen.

Reflecting back, I realize that this was a dot in my life. A big dot. It helped steer me down the path of tuning in to myself and exploring my passion for living purposefully and helping others to do so.

Did I share any of this with Dr. Weiss? No, I didn’t have time. When we had a break between sessions, a long line of people waited patiently to see him. I did go up to meet him, snap a photo of us, say thank you and ask him one question.

“What tips could you share on how to live more authentically?” I said.

He gave this long beautiful answer that talked about how people tend to put masks on themselves because we are afraid of how others will judge us and if people will still love us.

And here’s where I learned a valuable lesson: when you go to record someone, make sure your device is actually recording.

After meeting Dr. Weiss, I returned to my chair to check the recording. It didn’t record. My $300 dollar professional recorder didn’t record Dr. Weiss’ beautiful answer.

Perhaps it wasn’t for me to share. Perhaps it was for me to hear. To realize that I should stop wearing a mask. That I should be more authentic.

Which is why I’m sharing this story with you. I’ve never spoken publicly about past-life regressions nor have I told anyone other than my lovely wife the story I just shared with you about junior prom.

 

 

So, what about you? Something tells me that if you’re still listening to this, perhaps you too can relate to this story. Is there a mask that you wear?

 

I know that it’s difficult to truly be our authentic self in the professional setting. Perhaps that’s another reason why so many people strive to be entrepreneurs now and build a lifestyle business. But, when we don a business suit and enter the office, does that mean that we have to strip away those unique bits that make us extraordinary?