Threads of Thailand

I'm in L.A. overnight, currently sitting in a yummy, cream-coloured leather chair in my Sheratin room near the airport. The kingsize bed is enough for me and all of my stuff. Tomorrow's plan is to drive with Karen Lorre to Palm Desert where we will be attending Peak Potential's seminar, Never Work Again.

Three useful things I learned at Making the Stage with T Harv Eker: I'm a natural on stage AND there's a lot of improvement needed; energy in the room is much higher when my words are congruent with my body movements, tone, speed and volume. For example, it wasn't just "big," it was "BIIG!!!" And lastly, it's not about me, it's about my audience. I have to get out of the way and connect. The data is important, but significantly more important is connecting with my audience by really looking them in the eye and responding to what's happening, or not happening, "out there."

Three most valuable gifts at Making the Stage: 1) My team-mates have my utmost respect, love and gratitude, everyone gave 100%, thank you!! 2) All of the trainers taught critical skills and I am soo excited to follow up with each of them in 2010 and sooner. Because of our coaches' expertise I now know what is perhaps my greatest acheles heel in life and how to empower myself to address that: I need to know that people care about me and I can simply ask them! 3) Practice makes perfect: I witnessed such incredible improvement in myself and my team-mates in just four days that I know without a doubt that with practice and continued coaching, it's well within my reach to be a world-class trainer and presenter.

In the end, relative to the value I received, I felt the price for this course was not only fair, it was a bargain.

On to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand... It was a relief to fly from the monsoons hitting the Gulf of Thailand over to sunny Phuket in the Andaman Sea. And it was further relief to my thick Canadian blood to fly from the South's heat to Chiang Mai where it is cooler and dryer. Northern Thailand is beautiful and features some of the oldest Wats (temples) and bodhi trees in Thailand and amazing training camps for elephants and tigers. Many hill tribes add colour and texture to Chiang Mai culture, and Burmese, Lanna, Sri Lankan, Mong and Indian influences appear in the various temples' designs and details.

Monestary life for Buddhist monks is still a respected and widely-accepted way of life and many families have contributed at least one monk to the ranks. Every taxi driver I spoke with had spent part of his childhood as an apprentice monk.

There was one temple in particular that struck me when I began to recognize it's message. Wat Rong Khun, or the White Temple, is just outside Chiang Rai about two hours north of Chiang Mai. You can check out the pictures of it on my Facebook page, except for its inside where cameras are banned. This temple is still being built and isn't going to be finished for another 30 years. I watched the artist painting way up high on scaffolding on the inside left wall and it reminded me of Michaelango and the Sistine Chapel. The entrance wall inside the temple has an exquisite, bold mural that is completed in mostly earth tones, browns, yellows and reds. The mural depicts an enormous demon head with images of our current world being sucked into it's wide-open mouth. The images included New York's Twin Towers being hit by the first jet, and Western super heroes like Batman and Keanu Reeves out of the Matrix. And of course, Spidey was depicted as climbing around the mouth, on the bottom lip. Spidey is too smart to get sucked in!

Above the demon is a skull with flames coming out of its eyes, and above that a huge lotus with a budha sitting peacefully on top. The message I was struck with is how the old world is passing away, destroying itself, and how the peace and serenity of the buddha survives and transcends all.