The Hoffman Process

Hoffman Graduate Sonia Choquette, an intuitive teacher and guide, just released a powerful new book- “Walking Home – A Pilgrimage from Humbled to Healed”. Join in her adventure as she walks the Camino de Santiago, healing loss, grief, betrayal, and abandonment, and finds her way back home - back to her Spirit. It will lead you there too. http://www.soniachoquette.com/Walking-Home.html 

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Remember The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein? Read that to your family or yourself tonight.

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Where to Aim Cupid's Arrow - By Hillary Illick If you could choose anyone in the entire world to fall in love with you, whom would you choose? Seriously. Give it your consideration.  Out of everyone on the planet, whose love would be the most fulfilling? The most life changing? Whose approval, whose affection, whose benefit of the doubt, whose championing would make the biggest difference to you? Out of anyone - yes, anyone - on the entire planet, yours would. In fact, its your love and approval and affection, your championing, your benefit of the doubt, your healing, your blessings that you really crave. Here's the deal. We think we need other people to love us, especially certain other people. We assign them the role of the person whose love we think we need in order to survive. We think our life depends on getting this love. Yet the person whose love we most deeply crave is our own. We're the one we spend every minute with. We're the one whose voice is piped into our heads every waking second. Even asleep, its our dreams we experience. Imagine your world and your life with love coming at you 24/7, from the inside. This is entirely possible. In fact, you already know what its like. In your Process, you experienced self-love. You felt what its like to love who you are, and your whole world felt different. You may have looked in the mirror and been able to see the shift. You beheld the radiance, the love, shining back at yourself from your very own eyes. From the state of self love, life changes. Colors appear more saturated. Food tastes more flavorful. Other people even seem different. Someone previously experienced as threatening may seem, from the state of self-love, more vulnerable, or in pain. Our capacity for compassion deepens. Our stress level lowers. Even traffic jams can seem less annoying. You know how to attain this state. You do this by remembering who you really are - you are your spiritual self - and by remembering who you are not. You are not your patterns. Self-love - establishing a healthy, loving relationship with your self - is a requirement for experiencing healthy love and intimacy with another. What does on inside of you sets the tone for how you experience everyone and everything else. Remember to give yourself the gift you so deeply crave - the gift of your own love. Take yourself on a date, or an adventure, something you've been hankering to do - whether or not someone else is available to do it with you; your company is enough. You are enough. Read the note you mailed yourself from the Process. Text yourself a reminder saying, "I am not my patterns." Look into those eyes of yours and see your spiritual self shining back. Hug your body. Tell yourself what you really need to hear, in words only you can say. 

The Hoffman Institute was recently featured in ELLE DECORATION magazine! Read all about editor Michelle Ogundehin's transformative experience through the Hoffman Process.

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Once you have a list of answers, dig below the surface to interpret them. For instance, even though you would love to spend a month off traveling, and you regularly head to the travel section of your bookstore, this should not necessarily be interpreted literally to mean that you are meant to make a living as a travel writer. More often than not, your answers point to broader foundational concepts.  What is it about travel that you love? Perhaps you love meeting new people, experiencing different cultures, seeing new places, and trying new things. It could be that seeking -- the opportunity to constantly experience new things -- is part of your purpose. If you love to share your experiences with others, teaching others may be part of your purpose. Perhaps the part you love most about travel is connecting with people who are very different from yourself, or bringing people from different backgrounds together. These elements are part of your purpose, as well. List these broader concepts in order to get a more universal view of your purpose. A major stumbling block to living your purpose is the belief that it must become your career. You might want to turn your passion into a paying job, but you do not have to in order to legitimize your purpose. If you want to be a writer, then writing and you are a writer. If your passion is to make music, then make music. If your purpose is to teach children, then volunteer to teach children. You do not have to quit your day job in order to pursue your passion right now.  THat being say, if you would like to pursue your passion as your career, often the most difficult logistical hurdle is how to make the switch from "day job" to "dream job". Fortunately, it is not necessary to solve this problem in order to realize your goal. Instead, identify one small step you can take -- right now -- to expand the amount of space your passion takes up in your everyday life. Then, see what happens. The universe has a way of opening up and showing you the next step once you take the first step. The passionate traveler may put together an itinerary focused on cultural exchanges and form a small group to take a trip. If your passion is politics, volunteering for an advocacy group is a quick way to be involved without quitting your day job. If you are interested in starting a business, joining a trade association can put you in touch with others who can lend support, networking, and brainstorming opportunities. One of the biggest pitfalls is convincing ourselves that we do not have the right education, experience, money, time, or the right contacts. Your passion is there for a reason; it is your Spirit's way of showing you your path to happiness. Just ask yourself, "What would I do if I absolutely could not fail?"

Hoffman is poised to double the number of people we now serve. Please ensure the Legacy of the Hoffman Process at this important time.  With Light and Love,    Liza Ingrasci, CEO

Meet Hoffman graduates-turned-donors who are making a difference for generations to come, and learn what giving to Hoffman means to them. Through their eyes, explore the various effects of investing in Hoffman.  REBLOG this video and let us know what Hoffman means to YOU!

Connecting with Spirit and Self - by Paula Jones Holidays can be a very happy and connective time for many of us, but we can also experience holiday stress. Fact: stress exacerbates our patterns -- our own and the patterns of people around us. While we may be able to keep our patterns in check during the rest of the year, the holidays can hold up a mirror showing us what we really don't like about ourselves. Common patterns that may come up around the holidays are fear of rejection in social situations, fear of abandonment, overcompensating with gifts in exchange for love, needing to impress everyone around you, loneliness, or even just showing up late for gatherings. Connecting with Spirit is an excellent way to re-center yourself when these patterns arise. Staying grounded, deep breaths, lots of compassion, showing vulnerability, and even reaching out to a Hoffman buddy can help. The whole team at Hoffman is available to help you too. After all, we are ALL human!!! We have a great teleclass coming up later in December -- just in time for the holidays -- as well as on-the-phone coaching readily available, and our entire Facebook community to give you added support. I find that if I let the sounds of "The Hoffman Connection" radio show waft over me while I'm driving in the car, cooking, or paying bills, something I need to hear will jump out at me and bring me clarity and understanding. Recently I took the teleclass "Communicating with your Guide", which helped me identify the beliefs that were blocking my connection with that place of all-knowing inside of me. Restoring connection with Spirit is a resources that we can reach for in the midst of triggered patterns and difficult feelings that the holidays may bring. Other ways to connect with Spirit, self-love, and other Hoffman Graduates are through the local graduate groups that meet in many areas. Some graduate groups choose to connect on email lists, group conferences, or Skype. Many graduates of a 2003 Process class are planning to attend a Q2 together as a 10-year anniversary celebration. Some graduates plan their own gatherings, which include a session from a Hoffman teacher. Every November, my Hoffman class -- who completed the Process in November 2007 in Massachusetts -- has a one-day session led by Hoffman teacher Hilary Illick, where we delve back into bashing our Dark Side, visioning, elevators, uncovering our vicious cycles, and any other tools that can bring us back to center. I encourage you to get your gaggle of geese together and do the same wherever you are! I am someone who has made a habit of running off for some kind of workshop, personal growth seminar, meditation weekend, or just a personal retreat with my journal towards the end of each year. I was born the day before Thanksgiving, so starting a new birthday year and ending the calendar year during a spiritual season focused on gratitude, birth, and light seems like an appropriate time for reflecting on the path ahead. That path may include everything from getting in touch with your anger to saving a certain amount of money to cleaning out the hall closet. I find that at leas one good epiphany comes out of each workshop or retreat that I attend. It is the kind of epiphany that feels like a very subtle but definite shift deep inside me -- the kind that makes for deep and lasting change. The personal connections we have made with other Hoffman graduates can be a very grounding and supportive boost for all of us, as well. There is an automatic openness among this group of people who have experienced deep personal work and are coming together again to continue that process. There is tremendous acceptance in that environment, as well. In whatever way you are spending the holiday season, you can feel confident knowing you are NOT alone. You have your Spirit ever-ready to guide you, and a Hoffman family who is on call to help. Rely on the support, encouragement, and wisdom of your fellow Hoffman graduates. Remember: you are loved, loving, and lovable. Here's to gratitude!

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Creating Your Vision and Designing the Life You Want - By Ed McClune Everything that has ever been created began as an image in someone's mind. Look around a room -- or a garden, or at a career -- everything that's there was imagined first. Creating the life you want is no different -- it starts with having a vision, which is essentially your Spiritual self being allowed to explore your deepest desires without constraints. For many of us, the patterns we learned in childhood have us focusing our energy on supplying others with what they want, rather than looking inside for what we deeply long for. But that can change! Creating a vision involves exercising a muscle that have been used often enough, but before long if can grow and lead you to where you truly want to be. If you're not sure where to start, a simple practice is stopping to ask yourself basic questions around small decisions, and then listening for the answers. This will add bulk to your visioning muscle. For example, when considering what to order from a menu, you can trust that you'll order what's right for you without considering the price, calories, or what other people are ordering. It's about asking yourself, "What does all of my Quadrinity want?" then actively honoring the answers that come to you. This can lessen your inner conflict and help you trust yourself to make more life-fulfilling choices. 

The Hoffman Process empowers people to become their open, loving, spontaneous, and inherent selves. This happens because Hoffman catalyzes a moment of great personal evolution – an inflection point – in people’s lives, so they can remove their inner barriers to love. Today, the Hoffman Institute is at an evolutionary inflection point of it’s own. Please accept our heartfelt invitation to INVEST WITH US at this critical juncture.  Join our wonderful Hoffman Process Graduates who are making a difference: http://bit.ly/18TpEZj

Visioning With Dale DeNunzio Close your eyes, and take a long, deep breath. Be aware of your breathing, coming in and going out... So begins the Visioning practice. The purpose of keeping up a practice of visioning is to bypass our intellect and to connect with our Spirit in order to live in greater alignment with it. Put simply, visioning helps us to know what we really want in our lives. Albert Einstein, known primarily as a great intellect, said, "I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking."  I'd like to give you a refresher course on visioning. Begin by closing your eyes and envision how you want things to be or to turn out. You do not have to envision every area of your life at once either -- picking one area of your life works well too.  For example, let's assume you are focusing on the type of home you want to live in. Now that you've decided on an area for your vision, how do you go about forming that vision? One common obstacle in forming a vision is by focusing on the physical details of the vision, rather than focus on on how you feel in the vision. For instance, you may picture the large size of the rooms in the house. Instead, feel the emotions in your vision. Be at your destination and tap into the emotional sense of being there. Feel how you would want to feel in that house. Through your emotional perspective, your vision of your house becomes your feeling of spaciousness when you are there. It can help to imagine as many of the five senses as possible along with your vision, too. Some find that imagining a scent, or a taste that would be associated with their vision helps anchor their emotions.  It can also be difficult for some to come up with any vision at all, if you really don't know what you want. I have found that envisioning yourself as having clarity can help. This can help break through the indecision.  The next step is to write out your vision. Describe what you saw in your vision and again, try to avoid the intellectual details. Also, be sure to write as if the vision is happening right now. Instead of writing out, "I want a house that has seven large rooms," focus on how you are feeling in that house right now, then your vision changes to, "I'm enjoying the feeling of spaciousness of my home." During the visioning process, your intellect may have a few limiting things to say. Observe and note the patterns that emerge. For instance, when envisioning the feeling of your spacious home, your intellect may say, "Yeah, but, I can't afford that." The remedy of observing the pattern is to bring yourself back to center and back to your vision.  Visioning is a practice. Remember, the practice part is reading the vision over again every day and adjusting it accordingly. When reading it over, bring your vision to live as much as possible. You should be trying on your vision as if you are trying on new clothes. You will know if there is something about it that doesn't feel right. Then, adjust accordingly!