Hay House I Can Do It!

A rare photo op: Iyanla VanZant with Caroline Myss

I attended the recent Hay House I Can do It conference a few day ago.  As a mom, whose conference attendance is pretty frequent these days, I had to pick and choose my days so I chose to go on Sunday only.  I got to see most of the Authors speaking that including the lovely Iyanla Vanzant, the always enlightening Caroline Myss,  as well as Brian Weiss, Gregg Braden and newcomer Kate Northrup. 

Iyanla's talk was lively and extremely down to earth.  She was the opening keynote on Sunday and began with music and dancing. She tells the truth about herself for herself and her big mantra was “Holiness to the Rescue!” Your Holiness is the part of you that exists no matter what.  She said there is nothing that your Holiness canNOT do! Taking care of ourselves is important she said: Rest well, eat well and stop criticizing yourself!  Find something to laugh at and understand there are some things we cannot understand.   “If you want to be a spiritual warrior, you can’t be a punk. And God has given you some people to forgive.”  Her new book on forgiveness comes out in December. 

Caroline Myss followed Iyanla.  I’ve seen Caroline before and she is an amazing teacher.  You literally enter a classroom when you sit in front of her.  One of the first things she said was that “we are living in an axial shift.”  She has studied war as much as she has studied God and said war is the great change agent.  Those born post WWII are different, as in DNA-different, than the generations before because they’ve come during the nuclear age.
The scope of Myss’s talk explored a building that was a metaphor for personal growth and development.  The First floor is where life comes at you- it begins there for all of us.  By the time you reach the top your realize you come towards life as a co-creator with it.  This is where we need to be. We are all co-creators. My favorite quote, possibly of the entire day, was the when she said “Religions are Costume Parties.  We’re done with all of that!” Hear, hear!

The Wonderful Gregg Braden

Gregg Braden was up next.  I’d never seen him speak and was blown away by his energy.  He is crazy-smart and a dynamic speaker.  He drew us in with photographs from his countless journeys around the world, many to monasteries and spiritual locales.   He too said we are living in a new time and that many of us are grieving the way of life that is no longer.   With this great shift, he said, life is going to keep changing and there isn’t anything we can do except ride the wave and be resilient.  We have no choice in the matter if we want to go on.  “Building resilience is not a luxury it’s a 21^st Century Imperative” Braden said.  It’s the key to personal transformation.    
He showed us photos of two women he had encountered during his travels.  One was a monk and the other a matriarch.  Both of these women were one hundred and twenty years old or older!  Their secret to such longevity was love and compassion.  Compassion for themselves and others and the love of those around you.   Their age is not an anomaly, its simply an example of someone that has learned how to live.  

Gregg said the Hopi Indians and other highly evolved beings have indicated that our human bodies are capable of living up to somewhere in the nine-hundred year range.   But, they said, the catch is that the first one-hundred-years are the hardest!   This is because during those first one-hundred-years, you will lose everything you have loved.  Those women have lived, loved, lost and continued living.   Their hearts are light.  It is our heavy hearts full of pain and burdens that release us from this life all too early, for their capacity for such stress gives out around the age of seventy.  These are the gems that Gregg left us with.  

Throughout everything I heard, there was a theme that arose.  In Essence it was: 

• Be Yourself.  
• Be Who You are.  
• Find out who that is and share it.  
• The time is NOW. We cannot wait. 
• Step Up. The World needs you.     

All the more reason I'm glad to be here. ♥