CGW 4 Day 1

The total attendance for the workshop was 27 people. I got up early enough to walk to the Flamingo next door and to find my room. The workshop was in a lower floor, in a smaller room to accommodate a more intimate atmosphere. There were some couches outside, and I had some smoothies that Kevin from Las Vegas brought for us attendees. One was a thick smoothie consisting of Dates, bananas, and Almonds, which was really sweet, but not too sweet. Then I also had a milder smoothie consisting of watermelon, cinnamon, and ginger. I also had some trail mix. That was a surprisingly filling breakfast, and it saved me some time. I talked with Erin who printed out my name tag wrong, but I just let it slide. It felt surreal that I was there when I saw Erin and Steve because I felt like I was in a youtube video. I felt a smile on my face when I saw Erin. We then started the workshop. I sat in the third row in the center table next to Kevin, from Austin Texas, and Carolyn from Oakland, California.

First, Steve asked us to write down our intentions for this workshop. This is what I wrote:

“I want more freedom/ independence in my life-especially emotionally. I also want my career that is in line with my true passions, raising my default vibration level, and maintaining it. I also want to set more boundaries in my life.”

I did the truth exercises with Kevin, and he suggested to me to travel more often, maybe some short trips to get more of an idea on what I want to do with my life and just to experiment with different things. I only got to the first few points of the written exercises, forcing me to work faster when describing stuff to people. I felt stuck career wise, and this is what we spent our time talking about. I am happy about my current financial situation. I also talked about how the guilt and anxiety that I have been feeling were affecting my digestive health. I also said that my social life was a little bit lacking. From this, I eventually got the idea that I should join toastmasters and start a blog just for the experience. I also worked with Carolyn on another truth exercise about where we honestly saw ourselves within a year if nothing significant changed.

In the second half of the morning, we talked about love and people in my life who were aligned with love and who I may need to ditch, this was a hard part to do. Niall, from Ireland, but living in New Orleans, juggled, and then Steve threw some balls at him while juggling. He dropped all of his balls, which symbolized people in your life who try to hold you back. I decided to start a blog, travel more frequently, possibly away from home (working on it), resume visiting wealthy neighborhoods, and organizing more social events.

Some other things that were covered in the morning session were that if you don’t know what you want in life, just guess, make a decision. Quit staring at your navel thinking about it, and throw all your energy behind it.

We did the list of power exercises before lunch, where we ranked items from 1 to 3 as a degree of difficulty for us to do a particular task.  Some of us went to the Lux Café in the Venetian for lunch. I had some tofu dish and I met Mikki from Inglewood,CA. We talked about music. I was also with Antonio from Concord, CA, I was also with Nicole, A librarian at MIT, but who grew up in North Omaha (small world). I met Tal, an Australian from Israel, who is in America visiting his girlfriend. I forgot who else I was with, but it was a large group with two tables. Lunch was filling, and all of us came back late past the 2pm afternoon start time.

We did an oneness exercise where we classified our life as Criminal, Martyr, Neutral, or contributor. It was mainly our relationship with our external environment. In some of the categories, I saw myself as either neutral or as a martyr. In order to avoid being a martyr, I need to set more boundaries at work/home and to encourage others to do so. We then played ultimate rock paper and scissors where we would cheer the people on who beat us until we were all cheering for other people.

For the concept of Authority, we did master and servant exercises. I commanded my group of Henrik (currently in Switzerland, originally from Sweden) and Kenneth (Sacramento) as if they were dogs. As a servant, I did everything dutifully for Henrik, and for Kenneth I did the same, but then I got angry when he refused my “taco” that I gave him, so I threw the plate at him. I learned that I need to be a better master and to be more decisive in my actions. Steve then gave us a second chance, and I asked them to tell me what they want to improve on in their lives and had them take pictures of the group for me, as seen below, so I can remember these people. We then had an intelligence exercise where we were to talk to our future self. I could not get anything initially. I then went and talked to myself in 2005, and reassured myself, as I needed a lot of reassurance back them, but I felt like I did not get the support back then.

Another note from the afternoon session was on courage, in the fact that you must face your fears. One way to do that is to create a supportive network around you, which will take care of the love part. Another point that I got from the workshop is to live outside the body. This is from the courage exercise that I need to live outside the body and that a safe life is no life. He said that when you try to play it safe, by living the adjective, you are also living inside the noun. Very deep stuff.

In the afternoon, we did power exercises, which were quite fun to do. We had to rank a list of things to do ranging from 1 for easy tasks and 3 which are “impossible” tasks for you. One of the 3s that was on my list was to ask about stripping jobs in Las Vegas. I asked a male bartender that and he suggested that I ask a woman, so I asked a woman in front of her husband and she said I would make a good stripper as I have an intellectual look to myself.

After the workshop, I was dead tired, so I agreed to meet with some people at a bridge leading to Caesars Palace in an hour. I almost overslept and got up just at the last minute. We deliberated on what to eat, and we ended up going to an Indian restaurant at the Hawaiian Marketplace which had cheaper bars, restaurants, and convenience stores. The place looked run down for strip standards (not that bad), and I had some chickpeas and a spicy tomato soup. I also had some peppermint water, which was spicy, with Naan bread and rice. I then walked the strip with Josh and Angela doing some power exercises. Some things that stand out was when I got a picture with Napoleon dynamite, messed around with captain Jack Sparrow, and then I got spooked by him. Some guy told me that I looked thirsty and that I wanted to buy a water from him, and I shouted “you don’t know me!”, which surprised him. We saw the volcano at the Mirage and the sirens/pirate battle at Treasure island.