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Raphael Cushnir
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Go beyond Emotional Intelligence and
experience greater freedom, peace & wellbeing through the profound spiritual wisdom in your emotions.
Most spiritual teachings minimize or dismiss the role of your emotions in the process of transformation, focusing on simply witnessing or transcending them.
But what if there was a more sophisticated way to relate to your emotions as an actual repository of spiritual intelligence that can guide you to a life of grace and joy?
The good news is that there is such a pathway that combines the best of psychology, spirituality, and science into a more effective approach.
Your vulnerability is the gateway to your soul and the Divine...
The key to unlocking this sacred connection, is to fully experience your emotions IN your body as a way of transforming them... and YOU in the process.
And the more resistance you have toward an emotion, or the more difficult the feeling (grief, anger, fear), the more essential it is for you to embody it fully as a path to freedom — unleashing more energy, love and creativity within you.
This may seem counterintuitive to spiritual seekers who’ve been following traditions that practice moving past emotions or focusing more on the transcendent states of consciousness.
However, if you have unexpressed emotions, even if you’re not thinking about them, they’re running in the background, influencing your actions and decision making... preventing you from being fully present in each moment and ultimately cutting you off from your natural flow and your connection with Spirit.
For years, we’ve been taught how to manage our emotions, “name our feelings,” and then shift our focus to the “higher aspirations” of consciousness, including meditation, prayer and other forms of spiritual practice.
Rarely are we taught to embrace our emotions and experience them fully as THE stepping stone on our path to enlightenment.
(To add to this challenge, your brain is actually wired NOT to feel “negative” emotions completely, which we’ll say more about in a moment.)
There’s another way to experience more peace of mind, more fulfilling relationships and a life well-lived in which you’re sharing your gifts and making your greatest contribution to our world... through the portal of your emotions.
This pathway combines the best of psychology, spirituality and science and recognizes human emotions for what they truly are — a source of spiritual intelligence, and the key to embodying love, grace and joy.
Riding the Wave of Your Emotions to Real Liberation
The groundbreaking work of Emotional Intelligence has brought to the forefront the role of emotions in personal and professional growth. Yet, awareness of emotions is still more or less a mental exercise, which can trap your feelings in a perpetual loop of thought and energy.
Many psychological and spiritual approaches minimize or dismiss the role of emotions in the process of transformation, focusing most often on witnessing or transcending them.
But it’s not enough to manage your emotions...
If you’ve ever faced depression, anxiety, or other symptoms of “stuck” emotions, you know how dark and hopeless things can get, even after you’ve identified what you’re feeling...and this is true, despite years of spiritual practice under your belt.
However when you discover how to “ride the wave” of theenergy of an emotion in your body, it dissipates — opening the gateway to your higher Self.
Those usual triggering situations happens less frequently. The life force begins to flow through you. Consequently, you’re more discerning and relaxed. More loving. And more spontaneous.
This is when the real breakthroughs can happen, and you experience true vulnerability. The kind of vulnerability that opens your heart and mind to creating (and receiving!) the radiant life you’ve been yearning for, consciously or not.
By becoming aware of and following the shifting energetic terrain of your emotions in your body, you can discover profound freedom — from resistance, reactivity, the revolving door of relationships (same relationship, different person), and even addictions and compulsions.
How to Rewire the Evolutionary Glitch In Your Brain
It begins with the recognition that your brain is actually wired to block the very emotions that can liberate more energy, love and creativity within you...
Part of your brain doesn’twant you to feel...especially painful emotions that can liberate more energy, love and creativity within you.
Here’s how it works: Your limbic brain handles emotions. Its job is to feel the feeling all the way through. Meanwhile, your primitive, or reptilian brain is concerned with your survival and views difficult emotions like grief as life-threatening. So it will try to protect against feeling it. This sets up an impossible situation, as you may have guessed.
Yet, you can actually “flip this switch” in your limbic brain, so you can unfreeze stuck emotions, release them AND flow with new emotions as they arise, redirecting your awareness as the energy of that feeling moves in your body.
The Power of a Proven Process
Raphael Cushnir, bestselling author of The One Thing Holding You Back: Unleashing the Power of Your Emotions, has developed a proven process for working with emotions to free you from the debilitating aspects of fear, old traumas and attachment — leaving you more connected to your body, heart and others.
He shows you how to rewire the evolutionary glitch in your brain so you can unlock old emotions and deal with present-time emotions effectively, as well as how to release resistance to feeling — so that you can engage with life with all of your natural vitality, creativity and capacities.
Raphael’s unique teachings have been celebrated by thousands and recognized by Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra — because his methods work.
During The Emotional Liberation Program, you’ll discover a new way to relate to your emotions — with respect and curiosity, and surrender instead of resistance.
You’ll receive essential practices to help you unlock the core of grief, sadness, shame or other challenging emotions that may have plagued you for a lifetime.
You’ll begin to embrace your emotions for the gift they truly are — keys to wisdom, intimacy and a vibrant life.
Raphael teaches how to connect with your most challenging emotions, which he compares to surfing a wave, to put yourself in an expanded energetic space, where you have access to more wisdom, power, and grace.
As Raphael says, “Our vulnerability, in a sublime paradox, is what renders us truly invincible.”
He’ll show you how to untangle and resolve old traumas, navigate emotional triggers in the moment and develop healthy boundaries to prevent recurrent triggers.
You won’t just feel better, you’ll also unblock emotions that may be creating addictions and compulsions such as shopping, sex, and overuse of digital media.
In short, this work can free you from the many things holding you back from a truly liberated and self-expressed life!
The Importance of a Masterful Teacher
Raphael Cushnir is highly skilled at emotional connection. The process he teaches is rooted in his personal experience and work with thousands of clients and workshop participants. In his own journey, he had achieved worldly success, devising innovative campaigns for celebrities such as Madonna, Pearl Jam, Demi Moore and Michael Fox. He then entered a classic “dark night of the soul” in which his career and marriage fell apart.
This dark night eventually proved to be a great blessing, propelling him into working with emotions on their own terms, as forces that can lead to a profound spiritual awakening.
Raphael has since shared his practical approach to millions. His writing has been featured O Magazine and Spirituality and Health and on BeliefNet. The bestselling author of The One Thing Holding You Back: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Connection, Unconditional Bliss: Finding Happiness in the Face of Hardship and other books, Raphael is on the faculty of the Esalen Institute, Kripalu and Omega.
He’s joined the Shift Network to share the life-changing process of connecting with your emotions deeply. If you want to get past persistent triggers, wounds, and reactivity, Raphael’s approach can help.
During Raphael’s practical 7-week program, you’ll discover:
- The key role of the language of your body, and how this inner compass is the key to liberation
- The signs of emotional contraction and what you can do to shift into expansion
- How to recognize & release your resistance to emotion
- The evolutionary glitch in your brain that doesn’t want you to feel negative emotions
- How you can rewire this glitch for maximum healing & wellbeing
- What it means to “surf” your emotions fully and successfully, which not only rewires your brain but also helps you heal the remaining wounds from your past, stay more fully in the present, and lead the way to a truly inspiring future
- The ways that breath, posture, movement, and sound are some of your most reliable allies in staying emotionally supple, and how best to choose and combine them
- A unique approach to healthy boundaries that draws on lovingkindness rather than defensiveness
- How to overcome the limits of will power by replacing it with a new kind of self-acceptance that promotes peace and positive change
- How to break through the barrier that keeps even advanced spiritual practitioners from self-realization
What You’ll Discover in These 7 Weeks
Course sessions are on Wednesdays at 5:00pm Pacific.
In this 7-week transformational intensive, Raphael will guide you through the fundamental skills and competencies that you’ll need to transform your relationship to emotions and turn them into a powerful catalyst for an awakened life.
Each weekly, LIVE contemplation and training session will build harmoniously upon the next so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools and principles you’ll need to sustain your emotional transformation over the long haul.
Module 1: Your Inner Compass
Rediscovering the Language of the Body (December 14)
An emotion is a message from your brain, delivered to your body as a physical sensation. Receiving these messages by attuning to your body and the shifting sensations of peace and fulfillment.
In this session, you’ll explore how your body presents you with information and learn to consult it in the heat of the moment, using guided practices to track and adjust the thoughts and energies that can put you in a state of contraction — and block freedom and self-expression.
In this module, you’ll discover:
- The key role of the language of your body, and how this inner compass is the key to your ultimate liberation.
- Guided practices for tracking and adjusting your access to your body’s compass
- How you can tap into a more expanded energy state, a portal for optimal well-being and peak performance
- The signs of emotional contraction and what you can do to shift into expansion
- The negative impact of emotions in a prolonged state of contraction — and what happens to your health, career, and relationships when you know how to work with your brain’s resistance to difficult and challenging emotions
- The renewal available when you can fully accept “what is” and enter into a flowing “Yes” to all of life
Module 2: Retraining Your Evolutionary Brain (December 21)
Evolution is messy. It moves forward in roundabout ways and in fits and starts. The human brain, therefore, is often at odds with itself. Nowhere is this more apparent, or damaging, than in the realm of the emotions.
Left to its own devices, your brain generates emotions you need to feel, and then blocks them.
Fortunately, your brain also has the ability to rewire itself...
In this session, you’ll become intimate with and start to rewire this “evolutionary glitch,” especially in situations in which you previously felt trapped and powerless.
In this module, you’ll discover:
- The surprising relationship between the evolutionary glitch in your brain and the negative patterns that have kept you stuck — even after lots of therapy and spiritual work
- How to combat the narcissism of the neo cortex so that your thinking brain no longer competes with your feeling brain, leaving you freer and more effective than ever before
- What it means to “surf” your emotions successfully, which not only rewires your brain but also helps you heal the remaining wounds from your past, stay more fully in the present, and lead the way to a truly inspiring future
- Specific ways of working with emotions and thoughts that allow you to untangle the feedback loop between them that has, till now, created debilitating pain and blocks to fulfillment
- Key practices for your internal “verdicts,” both conscious and unconscious, that otherwise keep you from surfing with ease and success.
Module 3: The Practice of a Lifetime (December 28)
Understanding how to connect with emotions is one thing applying the process in the rush of everyday life is another. Once you start practicing emotional connection, you’ll undoubtedly encounter unintentional blocks. In this session, we’ll work with these reactions directly, so that you can recognize and neutralize them.
Yet, some emotions may resist your attempts to feel them so you’ll learn advanced practices for creating and maintaining flow.
In this module, you’ll discover:
- How to notice quickly when you’re “triggered” — and a core practice to relax and reconnect you to your joy
- The ways that analyzing, judging and bargaining interfere with this practice and exactly how to keep this from happening
- Breath, Posture, Movement, and Sound techniques to keep you emotionally supple
- A reservoir of unfelt emotion under each lingering life issue, and how to break through the dam once and for all, in a way that is safe, gentle, and exhilarating
Module 4: Relief from Addictions & Compulsions (January 4)
Addictions and compulsions are part of the brain’s defense against difficult emotions, which it erroneously sees as life-threatening. We all have these defenses to varying degrees. And for the purpose of emotional liberation, they require a very specific kind of attention.
This session, you’ll work with any addictions or compulsions, and not from the usual “disease model” and or limited insights of “cognitive behavioral therapy.” Instead, with just a little tweaking, the practices you’ve learned so far can provide you with relief from addictions and compulsions.
In this module, you’ll discover:
- How to overcome the limits of willpower, replacing it with self-acceptance that promotes positive, peaceful change
- A practice called “Done Deal Delay” that can unhook you from addictions and compulsions
- The No Fail Zone — a technique for finding the hidden victory in every “slip”
- A way to heal the root cause of addiction and compulsion, by befriending the parts of yourself you’ve spent a lifetime trying to get rid of
Module 5: Vulnerability as the Source of True Power (January 11)
The relationship you have with yourself is the greatest determinant of your relationship with others. This includes how you relate to “the voice in your head,” and to the hurt and fragile parts of you. In this session, you’ll learn how to stay supportive and connected with yourself at all times, especially when trauma surfaces.
Raphael will also share powerful best practices for dealing with the people you care about most. They’re not always open. They often don’t share your commitment to emotional liberation so it’s important to be discerning . You’ll learn how to be intimate, and protect yourself as possible while also remaining as safe as possible.This template for relating to others will make intimacy easier and more fulfilling.
In this module, you’ll discover:
- A technique called Zoom Lens that allows you to honor and heal trauma without getting trapped in it
- How an artful balance of the 3 keys of awareness – vipassana (noticing), metta(lovingkindness) and tantra (full engagement) – ensures your greatest possible healing and growth
- The Anatomy of Reactivity – how to defuse conflict with others quickly, and how to avoid the unnecessary harm that otherwise follows
- The Language of Requests – this is a life-altering practice that allows you to replace the pain of inappropriate expectations with the skill of “loving negotiation”
Module 6: From Emotional Liberation to Joyful Co-creation
(January 18)
Once you’re able to open fully to emotions, you’re also ready to open fully to Spirit. The great wisdom traditions often describe this as moving from self to Self. In this course we refer to it as ‘practical nonduality,” a way to live your experience of Oneness in this world, in the here and now. Doing so makes everyday life become radiant, infused with magic. Paradoxically, you end up accomplishing more while trying less.
This session also helps you plug into your ultimate Source, which enables you to fully hear and heed the deepest calling of your heart.
In this module, you’ll discover:
- How to refine your intuition by keeping current with your emotional flow. It’s this process that makes your "gut feelings" the most reliable
- A unique approach to healthy boundaries that draws on lovingkindness rather than defensiveness
- Doing from Being – this is the way you access a universal power far greater than yourself, and then join with that power to co-create your best possible life
- The rare skill of Energy Matching, which enables you to stay in consistent harmony with your ever-shifting internal states and in the process become more productive, powerful and joyful
Module 7: Coming Home to Your Spiritual Genius (January 25)
What does it mean to be “in this world but not of it”? How do we reveal and revel in the vastness of our being while also still walking the earth? Is it possible that this liberating dance of wholeness is what’s necessary for we humans, finally, to bridge ancient and contemporary wisdom and become true peacemakers?
In our final session we answer these questions with a passionate “Yes!” We turn to everyday practices that make this lofty dream a living, breathing reality. As a result, you will emerge from the course with a renewed clarity about your True Nature, as well as a roadmap for staying in alignment with it at all times.
In this module, you’ll discover:
- How to live in the dynamic tension between your individual self and the Oneness from which it’s born, which helps you avoid both “spiritual bypassing” and the sense of not fully belonging here on earth
- The importance of surrendering the timing and the outcome in relation to any of your aspirations, so that your need for things to happen in a certain way doesn’t unintentionally prevent the greatest possible outcome
- What it looks and feels like when there is no “problem” to be found, so that real, lasting change is possible without any resistance left to block it.
- A revolutionary shift in perspective so that, going forward, whatever happens to you also happens for you
- The awesome power of “turning the light around” — a pivotal practice that re-activates and synthesizes all the benefits of this course instantly, even in the most challenging situation.
The Emotional Liberation Program Bonus Collection
In addition to Raphael’s transformative 7-week virtual course, you’ll receive these powerful trainings and materials. These bonuses complement the course — and promise to take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
The Hidden Power of Your Emotions
6-session Video Series With Raphael Cushnir
This series of intimately produced videos will supplement your work with Raphael, as you engage in the life-changing process of “surfing” emotions you may routinely avoid, resist, or attempt to dismiss. You’ll receive a variety of tips and techniques to help you stay on the wave when your mind is judging, analyzing or otherwise protecting you from connecting with painful emotions.
Teaching What We Need to Learn
Two Audio Interviews From Raphael Cushnir
In this audio bonus package, you’ll receive two powerful interviews from the Teaching What We Need to Learn created by Raphael Cushnir. No matter where we are on our own spiritual path, none of us are just students. We’re all teachers, too. Our everyday lives are offerings to all the people with whom we come in contact. Taking the cue from the wise and generous guests in this series, let’s all teach what we need to learn... and learn what we need to teach... starting now.
Diane Musho Hamilton
Raphael Cushnir interviews Diane Hamilton, a leading light in the worlds of the Integral spirituality and American Zen, who shares provocatively on a wide array of topics including the use of power, 9/11, trauma, our “cosmic address,” aging and sexuality.
Diane Musho Hamilton is an exceptionally gifted mediator, group facilitator, and one of the authentic contemporary spiritual teachers of our time. Combining decades of innovation in conflict resolution with an enthusiasm for life, she knows how to address the challenges of our modern experience with an uncommon spiritual perspective. With extraordinary warmth, depth and insight, she encourages us to consciously evolve beyond old and limited ideas of who we are so that we might discover our own unique expression of wisdom and of compassion in this time.
Daphne Rose Kingma
In this interview with Raphael Cushnir, Daphne Rose Kingma, a leader in love and letting go, explores her own romantic journey. Among other revelatory musings, Daphne shares, “The great romance must come to an end, does come to an end. The ending is built into the gorgeousness of the experience.”
Daphne Rose Kingma is a bestselling author, speaker, teacher and healer of the human heart. Daphne speaks to large organizations and in intimate settings throughout the United States and in Europe. She teaches workshops at The Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California and at the Hollyhock Institute on Cortes Island, British Columbia, as well as tailoring workshops for private individuals and organizations. She was a six-time guest on Oprah and her work has been featured on hundreds of radio programs, newspapers and magazines across the country. Her books have sold more than a million copies and been translated into 15 languages and her clients are leaders in their own right in business, industry, medicine and the arts.
What Graduates of Raphael’s Workshops Are Saying...
Personally, I have found no teacher or process that I trust more or that engages so many facets of my being.
— Anonymous
Listening to you and watching the skillfulness, gentleness and love with which you worked with people was so valuable — I learned from you. But somehow you knew that something more was called for. What I experienced in those few precious moments with you was Being Seen, fully, in a way that included the personal but went beyond it, through it. Thank you from the depths of my being.
— A. H.
...I was absolutely moved by your authenticity and vulnerability as you shared your message. I felt honored that I was sharing sacred space with you and the people who risked sharing some of their struggles. You serve as a teacher who has risked to be real. What a generous heart.
— R. H.
Unique among spiritual guides, Raphael rolls up his sleeves and dives with people into places their inner work may never have pierced. Attending his workshop was an unforgettable experience, a giant wake up call. His teaching is full of humor, humility, maturity, understanding and wisdom. Many of us emerged with new levels of hope and resolve.
— T. G.
I have felt better in the past month than I have in a very long time in my life. And I really feel that your seminar was a big turning point for me. I want to thank you for your wonderful spirit, your healing presence, and for the incredible work you did with me.
— B. S.
This has worked with my dog, my daughter, with my partner. It sounds a little too huggy, but it really is changing me in very profound ways.
— P. B.
Thank you so much for a day that was truly transformational. You were an inspiration to me as a teacher, both in the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious quality of your presence and the integrity you brought to the questions and coaching of participants. I give your book to friends and recommend it to students.
— L. M.
I loved your workshop and how you made being in the present a natural feeling rather than “woo-woo.” We didn’t even have to take our shoes off, there were no pictures of anyone “greater” than us to revere, and we even got to move the altar to the side! That meant a lot to me.
— Z. C.
I have been very cautious in my life, choosing to play it safe in many, many ways. With these questions I am coming out more, and at the same time going in. The beauty of it is that I do not have to change a thing, and yet by accepting it all it seems to be changing itself. And isn’t that after all the illusion of all time? Nothing is changing, and yet in every moment everything is changing.
— D. S.
I think that sometimes you see the best of yourself in someone else. Raphael just puts you in a position to be able to do that.
— B. W.
Join the Global Community
The Emotional Liberation Program not only offers some of the best online teachings currently available, it also offers a thriving global community of support.
Join your fellow students and practitioners from across the world in the live interactive conference calls or in our online community to support and learn from each other while you learn to open your mind and expand your paradigm of reality.
This international community is at the leading edge of a global movement of people who are committed to manifesting a better world for all beings. This emerging planetary movement is rooted in an open heart and stands for the principles of mutual support, cooperation, harmony and reverence for all of life.
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Seven 90-minute Class Sessions With Raphael Cushnir
Experience a rare opportunity to be mentored and learn with leading emotional connection teacher Raphael Cushnir — from the comfort of your own home. Each class session guides you to learn the specific skills and abilities to expand beyond emotional intelligence to discover the profound spiritual wisdom in your emotions. Course sessions are on Wednesdays at 5:00pm Pacific.
Seven Audio Recordings of Class Sessions
After each class, the audio will be available for you to download in high-quality MP3 format. You’ll never have to worry about missing a session, and you can listen anytime and anywhere — on any connected device and at your convenience.
Seven PDF Transcripts of Class Sessions
In addition to the high-quality MP3 audios, you’ll also receive the entire class transcription in PDF format after each session is completed. You can then review, print and highlight the most important insights and practices you were given.
Seven 30-Minute Interactive Group Practice Sessions
With live class attendance, there will be a 30-minute optional interactive practice session directly following each class. You’ll be placed in an intimate group with several other participants on the conference call to interact, share and do additional practices to help further integrate the weekly lessons. If you’re unable to attend the calls live, the Online Community group allows you to connect with each other to find alternative times to interact.
Interactive Exercises and Questions for Each Lesson
After each lesson, you’ll have the option of completing related exercises, practice new tools and answer questions in order to accelerate your learning and integrate each week’s lesson.
Online Community
Our exclusive Facebook online community is the perfect place to continue your discovery process after each class. Here, you can ask additional questions, interact with your fellow students and get access to additional resources to take your exploration to an even deeper level.
The Emotional Liberation Program Bonus Collection
- The Hidden Power of Your Emotions
6-session Video Series With Raphael Cushnir
- Teaching What We Need to Learn
Two Audio Interviews From Raphael Cushnir
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join The Emotional Liberation Program Virtual Training
We feel honored that Raphael Cushnir has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive LIVE online training. This is a rare opportunity to interact directly with a leading voice in the world of emotional connection and present moment awareness whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and awaken ourselves and our world.
Through this powerful online format, you’ll not only save time and money on workshop costs (plus travel, accommodations and meals — which would cost thousands of dollars), you’ll be able to benefit from Raphael’s incredible teachings and exercises from the comfort of your home — at your own pace!
If you are serious about finally moving beyond your wounds and reactivity and living your most fulfilling life, then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones and our world to take this one-of-a-kind training.
If you’re ready to take the next step in evolving yourself, click the register button below to reserve your space now.
More Praise for Raphael Cushnir...
Emotions are so often misunderstood. Raphael Cushnir shows us how to connect with our feelings and move past the obstacles that can block our way.
— Deepak Chopra, Author of Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment
Both clear and practical, honest and wise. Cushnir can help us plumb life’s mystery and joy.
— Lama Surya Das
...Raphael Cushnir spells out how resistance to emotions is often what gets in the way of our most important goals. Then, tenderly and patiently, he shows us exactly how to reconnect and break free.
— Terry Patten, Co-author of Integral Life Practice
Cushnir introduces fascinating and iconoclastic ideas about health and healing... [and] argues, “Emotions are physical. Our bodies are the only places they can ever be found.”
— Publishers Weekly
Raphael Cushnir has provided us with a gentle tool that everyone can use. As clients practice his technique, they are able to climb out of the mind chatter and drop back into their hearts. A loving gift for all of us to utilize.
— Teyani Rain Whitman, MA, CMHCC
Raphael Cushnir gives us additional skills to help our clients experience more joy in life. “Living the Questions” provides a framework for people to get clarity on feelings and the moment, and then possess the possibility of greater connection and even spiritual growth.
— Joseph E. Siegler, MD
Counselor and lecturer Cushnir has developed a four-step formula for achieving success and unlocking undeveloped potential... Cushnir’s genius lies in his compilation of easy-to-follow principles, highlighted core concepts, and key refinements.
— Lucille M. Boone, School Library Journal
Raphael blends a mixture of warmth, humor and compassion to teach his simple yet profound process. We thoroughly enjoyed his workshop and endorse it without hesitation.
— Reverend Maureene Bass, Unity San Francisco
You present your work with clarity and warmth. The people at the workshop found it, and your book, to be both powerful and helpful.
— Reverend Ed Townley, Unity in Chicago
Cushnir’s method is deceptively simple considering the magic it unleashes.
— Gwen Gordon, Transformation Consultant
About Raphael Cushnir
Raphael Cushnir is a leading voice in the world of emotional connection and present moment awareness. He has shared his unique approach to personal and professional development with millions of readers in O, The Oprah Magazine, Beliefnet, Spirituality and Health and The Huffington Post. He is the author of several books including The One Thing Holding You Back: Unleashing The Power of Emotional Connection, Unconditional Bliss: Finding Happiness in the Face of Hardship, Setting Your Heart on Fire and How Now: 100 Ways to Celebrate the Present Moment. He lectures worldwide and is a faculty member of the Esalen Institute, the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, and the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. In addition, he coaches individuals and teams at Fortune 100 companies, governments, religious organizations and leading nonprofits.
After working his way through school as a teacher and a storyteller, Cushnir redirected his energies as an activist for the environment and human rights. He devised innovative media campaigns that included such celebrities as Madonna, Pearl Jam, Demi Moore and Michael J. Fox. His passion for filmmaking led to a decade-long stint in Hollywood. He wrote, directed and produced a Showtime movie, Sexual Healing, starring Helen Hunt, Anthony Edwards and Jason Alexander. The film was nominated for two Cable Ace awards and won Grand Prize at the Houston Film Festival. Designed by Cushnir as a not-for-profit venture, it raised over $30,000 for the Minority AIDS Project.
In 1996, both his career and his marriage fell apart. "It was a classic dark night of the soul," he remembers. "Many people experience something similar in their own lives. The particulars are always different but the essential experience is the same — a deep, depressing, gut-wrenching pain. In my case, everything I thought I knew about life went completely out the window."
Then, luckily, one of Cushnir’s mentors convinced him to embrace the pain instead of turn away from it. He suggested that, in fact, this was a perfect opportunity to "wake up."
Cushnir took his mentor’s advice and ran with it. Over a decade later he’s waking up still, one moment at a time. Helping others do the same has become his new life mission.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is a virtual course?
A: It’s a great way to engage live teachings and each other from the comfort of your home! All you need is a phone line (or an equivalent voice service). If there is more than one person in your household taking the course, you will each need your own line. We use MaestroConference to make it just like an in-person event, where you can ask questions, participate in groups, and deepen your exploration of the course themes.
Please note that dialing MaestroConference from your phone is a regular toll call to California; your telephone service provider will charge you according to your existing long-distance calling plan. Other options include calling cards and discount long-distance carriers. You can also use Skype to connect to MaestroConference at no charge, and we offer a webcast which is free to use from anywhere in the world.
I have never participated before in an online course. The packaging, presentation, inclusion and Facebook postings created a wonderful, safe cocoon to participate. I haven’t seen a course so well put together ever — not in all the years of taking college classes — and I had my doubts about doing an online course. The wealth of organization and ease of learning materials and support made this fun as well.
– Claudia F., Medford, MA
Q: Can I get benefit from the course if I miss the live classes?
A: Absolutely! You can download the recordings and transcripts of all course sessions from our online media archive, so you never need to worry about missing live calls. You can also engage the full community and leaders on our private community website.
Q: Can you tell me about the Private Course Group?
A: We will have a private community group for all course participants on Facebook that will support you in making connections with others, sharing insights, engaging in discussions, completing homework assignments and exchanging information about events and other activities that can supplement your transformational journey. You’ll have the ability to share your experiences, projects and growth throughout the Course.
Q: Are there scholarships available for this Training?
A: Yes, we always make a certain percentage of spaces available for partial scholarships, giving preference to those in developing countries or doing important but underpaid work to which they can apply the training material immediately. If you would like to apply for a scholarship, please review our guidelines, which include a link to our online application form.
Q: What is your refund policy?
A: Your satisfaction with The Shift Network and this course is our highest priority! We offer a satisfaction guarantee so that you can sample the course risk-free. The deadline to receive a full refund is December 28, 2016. To request a refund, please click on this refund request form and submit your request. Your refund will be processed within five business days and we'll send you an email confirming your refund. However, we'd love to have a chance to address and resolve your concerns first. If there is something we can assist you with, please email us at support@theshiftnetwork.com and we'll be happy to help! (No refund requests accepted after the above date or with scholarship awards.)
Q: How can I reach Customer Support?
A: Please visit our Customer Support Center, where you should be able to find the answer to your question or the solution to a problem. And if you can’t, you can submit an online request form and we’ll get right back to you.
