Back in the day, a sailor’s first voyage across the equator was considered a big deal.

It was a rite of passage. A ritual of crossing.

Everything was different after it happened.

Once you had crossed the line, you weren’t just a sailor anymore. You were a shellback. Someone who had been across.

You had presence in a way that you didn’t before. All voyages change you, but the crossing is a different kind of change.

This is what I’m talking about when I’m talking about crossing.

To me, crossing the line invokes elements of scouting, keeping watch, passage.

It’s also about intention. Committing. Staking a claim. Paying attention to our internal and external lines. Identifying where we stop ourselves.

We cross the line to begin.
Translation! To begin living in a way that is more playful, conscious, meaningful (to you), exploratory and fun.

Questions and answers.

Today I was going to answer some questions about my upcoming Crossing the Line 8 Day Voyage program. Password: haulaway

That was the answer to the question, “Why is it called that? What does it mean?!”

Okay, onward!

How is Crossing the Line different from the Week of Destuckification or the Week of Biggification?

I am combining all the best bits of both of those programs into Crossing the Line.

We will work on creatively play with (among other things), the following:

• becoming IMPERVIOUS to the monsters (while still treating them with compassion)
• having extremely powerful and useful force fields
• sneaky ways to be okay with visibility and still get to wear invisibility cloaks
• being completely able to serenely deal with tough situations
• making progress on the scary stuff without being in the scary.

How is Crossing the Line different from Rally?

1. When we’re off on Rally (Rally!), I don’t give advice or suggestions. Unless you happen to be sitting next to me at lunch and you ask.

While Crossing, we will specifically work on untangling challenges you’re dealing with. Not in scary, confrontational, role-playing ways (tfu tfu tfu). With giggling. But we’ll work on your stuff together.

2. I don’t teach at Rally. We rally at Rally. The framework and culture and the magic of the Playground do their thing for you. They hold the process.

This will also be true during the Crossing, but I’ll teach techniques and lead you through things much more.

3. The Crossing is EIGHT DAYS. This is deep immersion stuff we’re talking about. We’ll also spend way more time on how to implement and take it home.

4. At Rally, you might have no idea what your mysterious project is until the end. On the Crossing, your project is deep destuckifying so you can move forward on whatever it is you want to do (even if you’re conflicted/not sure what that is yet).

5. Additional support, before and after.

6. You get 2 Rallies included as bonuses so you can implement, integrate and apply the stuff that came out of

What if I don’t…?

Okay! Here is what is ABSOLUTELY NOT required.

You do not even slightly need to have a business.

It does not matter to me whether or not you have a business or even want one. Some people on the Crossing will already have successful businesses, some will be starting, some have possible future ideas, some couldn’t care less.

It’s all fine by me. We can work miracles (even if we’re not all that clear on what needs them yet).

You do not even slightly need to know what your thing is.

I do not know what my thing is and I do not expect you to be able to speak coherently about yours.

Having a thing is great if you have one. NEEDING to have one is extremely overrated. (See also: you don’t need to have a thing.)

This is one of the things we will make better.

You do not need to be like me.

People tend to worry about how they don’t like doing downward dog (I once wrote someone a permission slip to never have to ever), or that they don’t want to wear costumes (you don’t have to!).

They worry it will somehow bother me or that the magic won’t work for them because they drink Sprite or don’t have a duck.

What if they like to bake their monsters cookies even though mine don’t always like cookies, and is that okay?!

I see people worrying they aren’t fun enough or kooky enough or something enough.

That’s just outsider complex talking. Of course you don’t need to be like me. You will be like you. That is good.

And yes, there is daily old Turkish lady yoga but you can just nap or roll around on the floor or avoid it altogether or yell “silent retreat!” and run away. Works for me.

So what is required/expected/necessary?

A powerful interest in this stuff we do here.

Conscious and creative untangling of patterns so you can rewrite them. Making changes that you want to make. But not in a Face Your Fear way or an Ass In Chair way.

Here is what I care about:

• That you have a good heart. Yes, you can be sarcastic and roll your eyes and have a good heart.
• That you are a person I can play with.
• That you are genuinely curious about and interested in having a fun, playful, loving, caring relationship with both your projects and your stuff.
• That you have opinions about things!

Here is what I expect you to be excited about and/or familiar with:

These aren’t really so much prerequisites as things I expect you to have an inkling about or interest in…

• Sovereignty. Not how to do it or anything. We’ll practice that! But basic familiarity with the concept: being in active, conscious relationship with your life. You get to be in charge of your personal kingdom. You get to take loving responsibility for your internal space, your body, your time and how you live.
• NVC aka compassionate communication. You don’t have to be at all “good” at it — I do expect you to have read the book (ignoring the poems is fine!) at least once before you arrive.
• Outsider complex. Enough familiarity with the idea to recognize when you’re in it. Because we all do that and it’s good to remember that this is a thing.
• The beautiful thing that is Shiva Nata. You don’t have to have done it. It helps if you’re curious about using the body and brain to interrupt patterns and map out new neural pathways.

Help help I’m being repressed feeling ambivalent!

Sorry, Monty Python moment there. I’m back!

There are two kinds of ambivalent.

If you have monster-ambivalence (“I want this so much! But aaaaaah, scary! And aaaaaah, not allowed!“), that’s good. I mean, that’s useful. You can use that information and work with it.

If you are super EXCITED about the idea of Crossing the Line and also terrified, that’s the kind of ambivalence we want.

Right? Because that’s a sign that this might really be for you, and that’s why the Monster Collective is so invested in scaring you away. They know they might be out of a job soon…

On the other hand, if you’re ambivalent about the thing itself, then my suggestion is to give yourself a popsicle stick permission slip to not have to think about it. See where you are a year from now and consider it again then. It will all work out.

Stopping here.

I thought I’d be done with whisper-brunching and on to regular brunch by now. But that didn’t happen. So!

The page for Crossing the Line: the 8 Day Voyage (password: haulaway) is still a whisper-page without a lot of information. More to come.

Probably. There are only 5 spots left so we might not stop whispering. Look, I’m whispering right now.

In the meantime we’re allowing the additional bonus for a few more days: an invitation to a quiet hanging-out and question-time dinner with me and Selma for anyone who signs up before September 30.

Usual comment zen applies: we all have our stuff, we let other people have their stuff, we take responsibility for our stuff. It’s a process.

And can we have some loving hand-on-heart sighs for the concept of the Crossing? Thank you!

p.s. Did you see the new photo of me and Selma in the sidebar? It’s from the last Rally (Rally!). Thanks to Kylie — more about her tomorrow!