Archive for the ‘Alchemy’ Category

 A few months ago I read a really inspiring book, “Magician’s Way” by William Whitecloud. It was about how an intuitive golf coach by the name of Steve Addington gave the main character lessons that transformed much more than his golf game - those lessons transformed his entire life.

 Being such a fan of the book, when I heard that the real life Steve Addington aka Kris Barkway was coming to Byron Bay I was itching to get a lesson from him (not that I play golf, mind you).

 Kris is a freakily gifted intuitive coach who uses golf as a vehicle to empower others to play the game of life in the way they’d love to play it. He coaches golf professionals and has coached many of the world’s most prominent personal development experts.

 So – I made the two hour drive down to Byron from Brisbane just for a 1 hour session with Kris. Here’s an account of many of the magical life lessons that this golf lesson taught me.

 I arrived there for the session. Kris greeted me and walked up very close to me within about an inch or two of me and looked deeply into my eyes.

 

When I looked into Kris’ eyes something interesting happened. His eyes seems to drill directly into my soul and when they did that my heart melted. I got a glimpse, just for a moment, of something incredibly divine.

 

Interestingly, at the same time I was terrified, feeling vulnerable and exposed (now, before you think this is going to be a story of how I am hot for this golf dude, it isn’t -  let me explain) …

 

I was instantly taken back by what I felt and at the same time was frightened that Kris would see inside me (which he had already started to), see what I was feeling and also see me as some kind of fraud.

 

I told him that I was scared. He said, “What are you scared of?” I said, “You. That you’ll see inside me.”

 

He told me, yes that was part of the process but asked me wasn’t that what I came here for?

 

I begrudgingly said, “Yes”.

 

We were at the field and moved over to where the golf tees were lined up. Kris said something along the lines of, “You make out everything in life to be very important, don’t you. You put a great importance on coming here to this session today, didn’t you!”

 

I said, “Yes I drove all the way down to see you today from Brisbane.”

 

He said, “To see me? Or to see yourself because you know we’re both one don’t you.”

 

I said, “To see myself”.

 

Little did I know how true those words would end up being.

 

Interesting, isn’t it - how often we put on masks, and build concrete walls designed to hide our frailties. To stop people seeing us for who we really are. To stop ourselves from getting hurt.  To stop people knowing how we feel.

 

The irony of that is these very masks we wear stop others from seeing the incredible beauty inside our hearts. More importantly though, they stop us from REALLY, truly  feeling love and joy in our lives. These  masks create separation between us and others.

 

They stop us from achieving the very thing that so many of us want in our lives … unconditional love.

 

But - when we have the courage to be raw, real and in our hearts, and be truly authentic, that’s when the true magic occurs for us and for the people around us.

 

Kris then lined up some golf balls and told me that he was going to get me to hit some balls but before I did that he wanted me to know that every time he has run this exercise in the past, nobody has ever missed. Nobody. So it’s reaaaaally important that I didn’t miss it either.

 

He asked me to hit a ball into his foot from a very short distance.

 

Look, I have studied and practiced the magical golf techniques mentioned in Magician’s Way book quite a lot. I’ve used the technique to break boards with my hands. Break arrows with my neck. And I have used the techniques in many business situations but could I get them to work in this situation? Not in your life.

 

I tried. I missed.

 

He moved back. I tried. I missed. He kept moving further and further back and I kept missing and missing almost every time.

 

He said to me, “You don’t trust yourself do you? Ah, no it’s your higher self you don’t trust. You don’t trust your higher self at all … for anything.”

 

How many of us don’t trust our own intuition and we second guess ourselves, conferring with others for their advice on issues rather than trust their own instincts?

 

I’m naturally an exceptionally intuitive person with a deep level of insight and I must say I’m pretty accurate at that. Yet when it comes to applying the insight in my own life, up until now, I often confer with others to ask their opinions before I act on something. Then I’ve often followed the advice of others and not my own. The result? It virtually always turns out that my intuition was right in the first place.

 

Kris was able to pick that by the way I played golf and by tuning in to me.

 

Later - Kris lined up more golf balls and said to me something like …

 

“Earlier you labelled yourself as left-handed. Ah, interesting. What would happen if you started using your right hand.”

 

I used my right hand to hit some balls and I was much more successful.

 

He put his hand on his chin and said something like “Mmmm … interesting. So you call yourself a left hander but you actually did much better with your right hand. ”Would that be because it didn’t matter how you played because your right hand isn’t the hand you normally play with so it didn’t matter? Hmmm …”

 

Have you ever wanted something so badly that you drove the very thing that you want, away? Salespeople, you’ll probably relate to this. On the months when you’re desperate to meet a certain sales target, you simply can’t seem to close a sale. But when you’re doing well and you really don’t care about the results you get, sales come flooding in.

 

Sound familiar?

 

Kris then said something which was a big revelation for me. Some people want to climb Mt Everest because they really want to. Others want to climb Mt. Everest because they think it will give them something else when they get there.

 

He told me that I was the second type. That I didn’t really want to be a millionairess or any of the other stuff, all I want to do is “be”.

 

In reality, all I really want in my life is love. To love others unconditionally and love myself unconditionally and to awaken themselves to the love that’s inside their own hearts. All that other stuff really doesn’t matter.

 

How many of us want to be rich because when we have it, it will give us the lifestyle we crave. How many of us want to be famous or prominent because once we reach that status, it will give us the respect and acknowledgement we’re looking for?

 

And we think that if we do this then that will happen. If we do that then this will happen.

 

The reality is that we can have all of that now without all the doing-ness.

 

Kris Barkway’s life lessons continued.

 

Later on in the session I hit a few more shots and after that round he told me that there was a point where I really opened up and relaxed and enjoyed it. When I’m like that, THAT’S when I become very powerful. He told me it’s when I’m in that state that I create a LOT of attraction in your life.”

 

Isn’t it the way - when we are in the “zone” doing something we really enjoy or just relaxing having fun. When we are doing something that we’re confident of and when we’re not attached to the outcome, or when we’re totally in our hearts, life happens effortlessly. Things happen effortlessly. People come into our lives effortlessly.

 

I know I experience that when I’m in my flow.

 

The thing that was the most magical about the session was the way in which Kris “read me” (yes) but more significantly, how he gave me a “real life” experience of how I do various things in life. How I do my shadow. How I do my greatness. How divine I am. And it’s those feelings that I experienced that will live with me forever.

That day, I really saw myself, from the moment I looked into his eyes for the first time and every time I looked into his eyes after that. I saw “unconditional love” looking right back at me. I saw my own divinity looking back at me. Kris also gently embodied and awakened me to many of the really ugly dysfunctional patterns that I run to maintain control in my life and it was all okay – quite funny, actually.

 

That’s what the session was about for me. Experiencing myself for who I really am, in my eyes and through Kris’ eyes, and really loving every part of who I am.

 

As a result of the session with Kris, I have changed the way I do things. The way I operate. The way I am being in the world. If you get the chance, I highly recommend having a magical golf lesson with Kris. Make sure you check out his website at www.krisbarkway.com