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Is personal development hard work?

Alex Webley — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:46:02 +0000

Is personal development hard work?

Some people claim that it is. Some should know better.

I am very wary of such statements for a number of reasons, some of which will be covered in this article.

Before I start please let me fill you in on a brief background. I had an extremely bad emotional, psychological and mental start in life due to very bad parenting. Today I experience joy and calmness which has been a lasting feature for many years now. In fact it is actually increasing. And all without drugs, alcohol or other ‘crutches’.

Some of what I have achieved could possibly be described by some as being the results of “hard work”.

One of the problems with claiming that personal development is hard work is that it can be a key hindrance to the very people that need help the most. One of the reasons for this is that many people associate the words “hard work” with unpleasant feelings and thoughts, both on the conscious and subconscious levels. Personal development does take effort, but whether this is seen as hard work depends partly on one’s viewpoint and how the term is conceptualised. You see, in many ways, personal development and growth is actually easy work – in fact this is one of the secrets that large numbers of people are unaware of because of societal conditioning, poor advice and other factors.

So how can I say that personal development is actually easy work?

Let me give you a simple example which will help to illustrate the concept. It is not difficult.

We as people are usually concerned about ourselves and running our own “business” called “Me Inc”.

When we start to see that by employing certain personal development techniques and thinking structures our life improves – (the benefits) – doing what is necessary can become a lot easier. As the fruit of what we are sowing starts to manifest as a result of what we are changing, then life becomes easier and further positive fuel is added to the fire. Obviously, it is a much better character trait to do things the right way for the right reasons, as opposed to just to get benefit; however, especially in the early stages of personal growth, doing things to gain a benefit is the more likely outcome. As time passes and the individual becomes more alive and connected internally to the right things then the character is able to change in a more positive way also.

The simple equation then, is that when we understand the correlation between the personal development technique and the benefit, the whole process appears much easier and more inviting. We are no longer telling ourselves that what we’re trying to do is hard work, which could be especially bothersome if we have always failed at “hard work” before.

Clearly, I could go into a lot more detail about this concept however that is not the purpose of this article and I’m sure that most readers will understand the point.

Another reason why I dislike calling personal development hard work has to do with the end – the goal – the incredible state of joy, calmness and peace that is available, and a certainty, if one follows the right path. Again, without going into a lot of detail, a key focus for people should be on the vision and knowledge of what their reality could and should be. And will be.

There are many more reasons why I dislike calling personal development hard work however I will close this article with one more. This one is a deeper aspect, however it is actually very simple. I will not cover it in detail here, choosing rather to focus on a very brief outline. In time, I will write in-depth material on this subject.

Over many years of personal experience both in my own life, and in counseling others, I have discovered the power of the visual to change lives in extremely marked ways, often in a very short space of time, with minimal effort. Using the power of the visual for personal development in the correct way is incredibly powerful and frankly, to call it hard work, is an insult and demonstrates a lack of understanding of an essential element of personal growth. The visual can often incorporate the spiritual too – I ask you to consider the question: if one receives help from Spirit; how can that be hard work?

On a personal note, I do feel a great responsibility to help as many people as I can to understand what really works. I will be writing more on this subject in due course, and in much more detail.

Thank you for reading. And for those of you that are really desperate, there really is hope. Even if you’ve tried personal development techniques before. And even if you’ve been to see the “Gurus” and it hasn’t worked.

If you are in a hurry, or even desperate, for some of the most powerful techniques for personal growth and inner healing, look into Shamanic Journeying. I will be writing a lot more about this down the track, however this will give you a head start.

Is personal development hard work? is a post from: Black Shaman Blog

Twittering – clarification of my policy.

Alex Webley — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:39:45 +0000

Presumably many readers of my blogs have heard of Twitter.

I have had a Twitter account for sometime now and my link is:

http://twitter.com/Black_Shaman (User name = Black_Shaman)

For your convenience I have inserted a Twitter panel into this blog where, on the right hand side, you can view my latest Tweets without having to load up Twitter.

Whenever I post to my blogs, a Tweet happens automatically (I have a special WordPress plugin which enables this).

It is worthwhile keeping an eye on my Tweets because not all of them are posts from this blog. Some are plain and simply just ordinary Tweets; which could be about anything, including interesting website links – Twitter is after all a ‘micro-blogging’ application.

Some of these links may be added to my website links page, however not all, and conversely, not every link on the latter will be Tweeted. So, if you like my content, and the stuff I come across or know about, there is more to keep an eye on!

To help readers even more, I have activated a special feature which lists my dailyly Tweets automatically in digest form. Once per day, a new post will appear on my blog which contains all my Tweets (not the @ ones) for the preceding day. You can find these posts here. If you are subscribed to my blog via RSS reader, or email, then of course you will receive these daily Twitter post digest blog posts automatically. (Previously, the digest was weekly, however due to increased use of Twitter I have now changed to a daily digest).

My aim with Twitter posts is to be as interesting as possible and as potentially helpful as I can. This is one reason I avoid bland Tweets about what I had for dinner, or other trivia.

At times I ReTweet other peoples Tweets. Due to technical reasons, not all of these appear in my Twitter daily digest blog posts.

Just because I do not appear to follow someone does not necessarily mean that I think they are no good, or uninteresting, or that I am not actually following them. In fact, I follow a lot of people on private lists which make it easier for me to concentrate and focus – rather than having everyone in my main Twitter stream.

I prefer a sincere approach. I would rather follow people who I want to follow and have people follow me because they want to. In my view this is a better quality life experience. It also promotes my having a focus and awareness on producing quality content.

Here is a tip which may help your Twitter experience….

These days I use Firefox and Google Chrome as my main browsers. I use the Yoonoo add on for Firefox which gives easy access to both Twitter and Facebook. I suggest you check out the add on page here. And the developer’s page here. Yoonoo does more than what I have mentioned.

Yoonoo:

Makes my life easier
Saves me time
Is efficient
Is unobtrusive
Provides a better Twitter and Facebook experience
Enables some multi tasking

In the past I used Flock, the ‘social web browser’. In my experience. Flock is starting to fall behind and has some other limitations. Yoonoo in Firefox provides a similar sidebar experience to Flock. Game over.

Addendum: Currently I am not using Yoonoo, though I still recommend it. My tools of choice now are CoTweet – How Business Does Twitter and HootSuite. I no longer use Firefox, except for specialized tasks. Chrome is now my sole browser and this choice has been facilitated by the large range of extensions now available for Chrome.

Twittering – clarification of my policy. is a post from: Black Shaman Blog

Translate Pages Into Your Preferred Language

Alex Webley — Sun, 17 May 2009 02:38:02 +0000

How to translate pages on this blog into your preferred language…

Over to the right, in the sidebar, is a simple translation tool, which looks like this:

Here are the steps to translate a page:

Go to the page you want to translate.
Select your choice of language.
The page will be automatically translated!
Easy!

At the top of the translated page you will find a link which will take you back to the original English page if you wish. You can also mouse over the translated text to view original language.

Perhaps you know someone whom you think would read and benefit from this blog, if only they could read it in their language? Well, now they can.

Translate web pages easily with Google Chrome browser

Translate Pages Into Your Preferred Language is a post from: Black Shaman Blog

My vision and purpose.

Alex Webley — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:11:07 +0000

My vision and purpose is to help as many people as I can in as short a time as possible.

Reasons include:

I understand suffering at a depth few can comprehend, and how to overcome the negative aspects of it.
Gratitude for the wonderful peace I enjoy today.
Spirit inspires me.
So many are in need of understanding, wisdom and release from mental and spiritual bondage.

My expertise, knowledge and experience lies in the mental, emotional, psychic, and spiritual realms.

I had a particularly bad start in life in these areas (you can read a bit more here – scroll to about the middle) and had to fix myself.

Because my problems were so severe, and coupled with an over active, sensitive and intelligent mind, I could find very few people who could help me. Seasoned professionals were unable to help and at times, in my mentally weakened state I found it very disheartening to discern that I was considered beyond help. A few told me so, most covered it up; some I think out of misplaced ‘concern’ for me and others because they did not want to admit that they could not help me.

Simply speaking; I am aware of many wonderful things and want to share them with as much of humanity as possible. We live in a broken and shallow world. It is as we heal, that the world and things in it will heal.

As you continue to read the articles I have posted, and will post, on this blog you will learn much.

I cannot reach everyone myself and one of my aims is to create spiritual wild fire; which spreads of its own accord.

So, who am I to say these things?

No one really.

Why do I say this?

Think on this carefully…..

I am a highly intelligent man, very logical and empirical; yet that is not my secret. Brains, ego and so on will not save you when the going gets really tough.

My ‘secret’ is that I was once in a terrible mental state.

So bad that it is impossible to describe other than say that it was like being on the edge of an abyss of no return.

I was on my own. I knew that there was no one I knew, or whom I could contact, who genuinely cared about me (they that did were deceased).

It was a place of death and I nearly did not come back. It happened in the October of 1987.

I did not realize it at the time, however it was a ‘place’ of Shamanic initiation.

It was the start of a long journey to not only a sound mind, but one filled with peace. I died out there. It was the end of the old me. It was not all plain sailing after that and I still had much growth to go through. Many more spiritual and other battles to fight (these started in 1985), though I did not realize what they truly were until later.

I paid a huge price and went the shortest hardest way up the ‘mountain’ as fast as I could. I knew where I was going.

As the years passed my character developed too. I found myself caring for people, animals and things in ways which were foreign to me. It was a pleasant surprise.

You see; some of the essence of it all can be summed up like this:

I realized that:

I was a rotten despicable person with incredibly selfish motives.
I had no strength or wisdom of my own.
Spirit loves me intensely – deep down in my being.
Spirit is where true wisdom comes from.
Spirit is where true character comes from.
I am very grateful to Spirit and honor Spirit.
The more I acknowledged the truths of Spirit, the happier I became, the more my character developed and the more my psychic awareness/knowledge increased.

Frankly it is all very simple; and after all, Spirit would not be loving if it excluded people on the basis of intelligence or cognition.

The more that you humble yourself, the more real spiritual knowledge, awareness and power you get.

This is because you become a channel for Spirit to move in this earthly dimension.

So, real ‘cleverness’ is humility and acceptance of true spirit. Not some religious dogma, but raw spiritual power. When you experience it you will never be the same again.

In conclusion then, I have an incredibly deep awareness that I am loved by Spirit. Whilst I love people, I do not love them because I need them. I don’t need anyone. I learnt out there in the fire of spiritual battle that all I needed was Spirit. Humans will fail you, true Spirit will not. I love people today because of what Spirit has done in my life; not because I am anyone special. Left to my own devices I was just another selfish git.

My vision and purpose. is a post from: Black Shaman Blog

Key life fix.

Alex Webley — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:09:30 +0000

Are you looking for the way to fix your life?

The way to achieve real and lasting change?

Something that not only works, but which does so on a very significant scale?

Well, here is the basic, simple ‘formula’.

I will explain the formula in the guise of a story.

Peter did not know how to fix his life and tried one thing after another. He read about “The Secret” and all sorts of other personal development stuff, yet found some aspects hard to implement. Some of it helped and he did experience some personal growth, however progress was slow. Then he discovered Shamanism.

Over his life he had been a bit sceptical about spiritual stuff and had been badly treated by religious types – happy clappy people in a large church who shunned him when he failed now and again, or got upset when he was sincere and un-hypocritical.

One of the last straws for Peter as far as ‘popular’ religion was concerned was when he discovered that a high profile Australian Pastor had conned thousands of people worldwide about having cancer. Even the church leadership had no idea. Now, if all these people were truly in tune with God then surely they would have known the Pastor was a fraud? (More on Michael Guglielmucci here). How could SO many people have been unaware? This realization was shattering to Peter. Peter however was clear headed enough to face up to the truth that there was something severely amiss with a situation where lots of people who claim to hear from God on a daily basis did not ‘hear’ the real truth about this Pastor. And this Pastor’s actions were far from isolated. These type of actions caused so much damage to the message of the church. Research Peter conducted online revealed an enormous range of incidents where church Pastors and other leaders had deceived their gullible flocks, in some cases for years. And this type of thing was happening decades ago too as Peter’s research on Jimmy Swaggart showed. The final nail in the coffin for Peter, as far as the church was concerned, was his discovery that many people in the law enforcement and investigation professions had come across high rates of paedophilia in church communities, a significant portion of which was covered up.

Peter still felt a deep hunger within for the truth and real spiritual contact. A relationship with the spirit world. He had noticed that this deep inner hunger was a common denominator in most people, though many did not admit it. He smiled when he read that even Atheists tend to pray when the plane is going down.

Peter’s key focus was on truth – what was real and really worked. He started to look into the psychic world because he found out that even Police forces and intelligence agencies believed in it. Surely such factually minded people would have no time for rubbish he thought – yet here were cases of Police solving old crimes using information that psychics were able to provide. It was clear that the psychics concerned could not possibly have known some of this stuff unless they had access to spiritual knowledge.

As Peter’s search continued he came across Shamanism. Refreshingly basic and simple, Shamanism, Peter learned, was ancient – mankinds’ earliest and oldest spirituality. Peter discovered that he could communicate with the Spirits and other spiritual energies through Shamanic Journeying and meditation – both simple exercises. He started to have personal experiences where the Spirits revealed things that made perfect sense and helped him overcome his problems. At times, the Shaman he went to see told him stuff that there was no way Peter had revealed.

Over time Peter’s life changed for the better, he started to get special knowledge from beyond the five normal physical senses – he even had guidance on where to find a parking spot! One day he realised that hearing from the spirits had become a habit and his life was so much better for it. Peter also found that he started to become more concerned about others; less selfish – his character grew. Most importantly of all however, Peter discovered that he was loved. He knew very deep down that he was loved, worthwhile in spite of his faults and that he would never be alone again. This love Peter experienced healed him of all kinds of inner stuff. He felt increasingly calm, happy and joyous. He felt free of some kind of set of rules, and also the sense of being judged that he got when he went to church or associated with ‘believers’. In fact Peter was shocked to find that as he immersed himself in the spiritual world of Shamanism that he started to prefer and enjoy doing the ‘right thing’. The right thing not in the sense of a rule system, but much bigger – he found that he liked loving people, animals and the world – it was coming up from within naturally. Peter realized that he had come home.

Key life fix. is a post from: Black Shaman Blog

Purpose of this blog.

Alex Webley — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:45:11 +0000

This blog is about you.

This blog is about Spirit.

This blog is about me, my experiences and thoughts.

This blog will inform you about some aspects of Shamanism, Shamans and yourself.

You will find key life secrets here on this blog.

Things which will help you and others have a better life. A more fulfilling and meaningful life.

You will find out about real power here. Power to change situations and long standing problems.

You will find truth here and will discover why it is important to cherish truth (and not your own opinion; or someone elses).

You will discover why it is important to be of humble mind and spirit. In fact, the more humble you are the better off you will be.

All this will make sense in time. It will not be difficult to understand logically.

What may be difficult for some of you however is daring to find out for yourselves.

You see, you won’t actually have to believe me or what I say because Spirit will appear to you if you do what I suggest. Simply speaking, I will introduce you to the world of true life and power – humanity’s original spirituality – what is actually already in you. Some of you just don’t know it yet.

When you do come into the embrace of Spirit in deep measure you will never be the same again. And no one will be able to take the experience and knowing away from you. You won’t be wondering if ’someone up there’ is really hearing you, loving you or helping you – because you will have the living experience.

So yes, you will learn about Shamanism here. You do not need to be a Shaman to experience Shamanism. You do not need to be a member of anything or join some kind of cult, religion or similar. Shamanism is about being, and about contact with the Spirit world. We are all going there (spirit world) one day so why not start now?

Think carefully about that last statement: “start now“. Very carefully. I think you will agree it makes perfect sense to spend time finding out about the reality of Spirit now.

To conclude, in simple terms:

There are many different views about spirituality in this world. Clearly they cannot all be right.

I will show you how YOU can find out for YOURSELF in such a way that you will never be able to doubt what is indeed real truth.

You will come into contact with Spirit, interact with it and it will reveal its beauty, wonder, wisdom and love to you. You will live the experience.

You won’t have to ‘believe’ or have ‘faith’ – you will KNOW.

Purpose of this blog. is a post from: Black Shaman Blog

Welcome to my blog ~ What is a Black Shaman?

Alex Webley — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:37:01 +0000

Hello! And a warm welcome to my blog.

Here you will find information about Shamans, Shamanism, shamanic practice, personal development, personal growth and yes; the answer to the question: “What is a Black Shaman?”

I realize that some people might think that a Black Shaman is something bad – something to do with black magic. That is not the case at all.

I quote from the Tengerism website:

Black Shaman Tradition

Black shamans are the most powerful of all the shamans and they get their power from the Northern direction. They are warrior shamans and overcome evil by battling might vs. might. They are the models of courage and discipline.

Historically, Black shamans had fulfilled roles in both times of peace and in times of war. In wartime, they boosted the soldiers’ morale and did ceremonies to help in battle. The power of the army was connected to the Black shamans, so these shamans were heavily recruited in times of war.

During times of peace, Black shamans served as advisors and conducted foreign policy by making peace and alliances. During the time of the Mongolian Empire, all treaties were ratified by shaman ceremonies.

Both historically and today, Black shamans do many other types of shamanic work. They do hunting rituals, healing work, protection, divination, and curse enemies. Black shamans have to be careful to stay in balance, for a shaman that curses too much, will lose their ability to heal and would become an outcast.

Shamanism is humanity’s original spirituality.

Accordingly, on this blog you will find key information about yourself. Because you are human, and shamanism is built right into your genes and your ‘essence’.

You may at times be shocked, however what you read will make logical sense.

The universe/cosmos/God is loving; and if understanding key truth were difficult, then that would not be loving would it?

I am a very spiritual and creative type person, however I am also very logical. A balance between left and right brain some might say. As you keep reading this blog you will see that what I have to say makes sense. And that it contains the keys to your freedom.

Welcome to my blog ~ What is a Black Shaman? is a post from: Black Shaman Blog