Category: Grateful Heart Monday

Happy Grateful Heart Monday everyone! What I find myself most grateful for as we begin yet another week is a spiritually-centered organization I became a part of back in December of 1999 named The ManKind Project (MKP).

Back in 1999, I was truly broken inside over my father’s suicide that had occurred three years earlier. His sudden death had left me extremely angry and lost in life. Therapy, church, sports, work, medications, you name it, I had tried so many things, hoping each would help me let my father go, but none were able to. I had become so depressed and anxious that I was on the verge of taking my own life.

That’s when a co-worker at a company I was employed at suggested I join him on an upcoming retreat, as he could see how mentally and emotionally sick I had become. When I asked him what this retreat was about, he said it was called the New Warrior Training of The Mankind Project and pointed me to another fellow employee who had already been a part of this organization for some time. When I eventually spoke with this other person, I was told that I could find the healing I was desperately seeking if I went on this retreat. I was skeptical at first because of my total lack of success anywhere else, but when I casually mentioned this retreat to one of my closest friends at the time, I ironically discovered that he too was a part of MKP and how it had changed his life for the better as well. That’s when I made the decision to sign up, because I don’t believe in coincidences. A few weeks later I entered the two-day New Warrior Training retreat with my co-worker fully enveloped in a tremendous amount of fear and doubt. 48 hours later though, I was completely free of all that fear and doubt and had found forgiveness with my father that’s still 100% present with me today. While I won’t spoil the processes I went through to get there, I can say that it was the first retreat I ever was on that didn’t force me to believe anything or do anything I didn’t want to. Instead, it allowed me to establish my own safety and boundaries to work through something I never thought I would or could.

Being a part of MKP didn’t end for me once that initial retreat ended either. Shortly thereafter, I joined what was called an IGroup, which is simply a group of men who too went on the New Warrior Training and chose to continue working on themselves after it by utilizing the processes they learned during it. Since December of 1999, I’ve been a part of a number of them in various cities and continued to use that venue to break through many other blockages that kept me a prisoner just like my Dad’s suicide once did. Blockages like the pain I had from being molested when I was a young kid or the abrupt loss of my mother due to her alcoholism.

In fact, MKP has helped me work through so many blockages that my gratitude runs quite deep for those who created this nonprofit organization. Currently, MKP’s presence can be found in 22 countries, with other 900 IGroup’s, and 60,000-plus training graduates. Recently, I helped to expand that number of IGroup’s by adding one more here in Toledo with six other men. We meet every other week and do deep spiritual work on our lives using processes that 12 Step recovery and therapy and other self-help types of guidance aren’t able to provide.

Nevertheless, while I once judged MKP (like I did with AA at one point as well) to be a cult before I ever really knew anything about it, I’ve discovered how far that was from the truth and have gone on to sponsor many other people over the years to take part in the New Warrior Training and Igroup’s too. Seeing these men spiritually heal and grow from that has brought me an immense amount of gratitude and led me to be extremely grateful for an organization whose only mission is to see broken men find healing and begin to lead lives of integrity, authenticity, and service to others.

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

(NOTE: You can find information about The ManKind Project at http://www.mkp.org and if you are a woman seeking a similar type of organization, please check out The Woman Within at http://www.womanwithin.org)

Welcome to another Grateful Heart Monday everyone, where I look for one new thing each Monday to write about that I’m truly grateful for, and for today it’s for all those who work in any customer service-based position.

So, for all those who are waiters and waitresses, flight attendants, help desk support engineers, baristas, retail associates, cashiers, concierges, maids, food service specialists, receptionists, home technicians, customer care operators, dispatchers, front desk agents, bank tellers, and all others who are working in customer service, I’m truly grateful for each and every one of you, as I know the amount of energy it takes just to remain in this branch of employment.

Having formerly been a help desk support engineer myself for several different companies, as well as owning my own bed and breakfast for many years, I came to understand just how difficult it can be on more days than not, in serving the public. For every customer who shows some level of appreciation for you, there are always ten others who seem to constantly take out their frustration on you, especially when you don’t get every single thing perfect for them.

A great example of this was when I used to do help desk support for a check-cashing software company. More than once I had stores call me up and say their computers weren’t working. I always began my support by asking them if their computers were turned on, which tended to consistently get my head bit off and me asked if I thought they were stupid. Yet, do you know how many times that was actually the reason why things weren’t working for them? 95%. But, being on the receiving side of people whose ego and anger has all figured out in their head before they even call is never easy to deal with. Yet, in this type of position, things are generally the employee’s fault no matter what and never the customers, even when many-a-times it should have been the other way around.

Another good example of this was when I ran my bed and breakfast. There I had to smile all the time, under every circumstance, like even after my mother had died tragically. Because everything had to be perfect all the time for my guests, as when their brain told them it wasn’t, they would let me know by usually telling me something needed to be better for them or they would refute the credit card charges. Yet, none ever really took the time to see the amount of work I put to make their stay a great one, nor knew that my work day began at 6am and ended at 10pm, or ever considered the possibility that I had a personal life as well.

But, as much as my bed and breakfast and help desk work experiences were as challenging as they were, it’s because of those positions that I’m truly grateful now for anyone still in this sector of the work force. I have a lot of respect these days for those who serve the public because I know what it takes to be in their shoes. I know they get blamed for far too many things that tend to never be their fault. I know they get their butts handed to them on far-too-many days too. But I also know they have hearts and souls no different than I, with their own trials and tribulations going on in life as well, all the while performing their jobs to serve people just like me.

Customer-service oriented jobs aren’t easy to do, on any level, which is the very reason why I’ve dedicated today’s Grateful Heart Monday to all those who currently still are employed in one of these types of positions. It’s much because of all of you that this world keeps on functioning and I thank you for that and for all the servitude you offer to each of us, day in and day out, sometimes even in the worst of circumstances. For that I’m truly grateful!

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

Welcome to another Grateful Heart Monday! So, what are YOU the most grateful for today? As for me, my gratitude is for all those therapists, social workers, psychologists, and life coaches out there who do their best every single day to help people around the world through all their pain and suffering.

Did you know that it really wasn’t until the 1950’s and later that seeing a professional for mental and emotional help even started to become an accepted thing in society? Honestly, I can’t imagine what it must have been like before then when someone was going through something really rough and needed someone to talk to about it. Treatments back then for this area of clinical care were far too aggressive, dangerous, and tended to end with people far worse, sometimes even in mental hospitals and padded rooms, which is probably why most kept their issues to themselves.

Thankfully, things are very different in the psychotherapy world today and people aren’t considered crazy or insane simply because they decide to go get some professional care for their angsts in life. Personally, I have utilized counseling in its many forms ever since I came out of the closet and became clean and sober from alcohol and drugs in June of 1995. It’s hard to believe that twenty-three years have passed since then and how many psychotherapists I have gone to during that time period. I’m quite glad I did though because each have helped me in their own way, to grow tremendously on my spiritual journey in life.

From my father’s suicide to my mother’s tragic passing, to the loss of a partner I thought I’d spend my life with and the business we owned together, to financial failure and health decline, and so much more, counselors have consistently helped me find plenty of solace in their guidance and direction, which is why I have an incredibly grateful heart for all those who have made this career their life practice.

So, to Linda, Katie, Martha, and the many others I’ve seen throughout my life thus far, and to all those other therapists, social workers, psychologists, and life coaches out there still alive, and even those who have passed on as well, I offer my thanks and gratitude to God for each of you on this Grateful Heart Monday. I thank all of you for taking the time, day in and day out, to listen to the many stresses, agonies, griefs, sorrows, despairs and the like so many of us have had to endure throughout our lives. It’s truly because of each of you that people just like me have been able to keep on going, one day at a time, no matter what the trials and tribulations have been. I am very grateful for each of you and I love you all…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson