We returned home feeling joy, relief, and a bit of sadness that we have now completed Track III of THRIVE, as it is the final track of the three main teaching tracks. Our next treks to Peoria (and other locations) will likely be for Track IV, which is often inspired or co-presented by those people who have begun utilizing THRIVE skills in unique ways that continue to bless God's people.
Joy is our primary emotion as we reflect on the life-giving knowledge we obtained and then became familiar with through the thoughtful and effective exercises the Life Model team facilitates at the THRIVE Conferences.
We get a lot of questions about THRIVE, so, for those of you who have not attended a THRIVE Conference, check out this web site: https://lifemodelworks.org, and, using the left navigation column, you can read all about THRIVE and what is in the conferences and options on how to learn their life-giving skills.
NOTE: Being with God, in syncronization with Him, is how we help others return to joy, in secure relationship with Jesus, which is how we were created to function, which is what THRIVE's goal is: to restore our secure, synchronized relationship in Christ and then with one another, that we return to "Living From The Heart Jesus Gave Us," by E. James Wilder.
FYI: We took two years between Track I and II to do the year-long book of skills and exercises, partly because Noel goes to sea for ½ of the year. But, the main reason being that as soon as we began the exercises in earnest it was clear we were two bonded people with unfinished maturity tasks in the 2 to 4 year old range (infant maturity). My basic attachment style is disorganized (due to growing up in an abusive, violent, alcoholic home), while Noel’s basic attachment style is dismissive (not having any loving contact as an infant or child, no memory of being held or related to—thus he has no wiring for connection).
About mid 2008 people around us began to see that we were changing in significant ways and asked what we were doing, and would we teach them. We prayed about it, then rearranged the furniture in our home and began our first Life Model group which was Restarting, developed by Ed Khouri that was focused on people who had developed BEEPS (Behaviors, Events, Experiences, People, and Substances) that they became dependent upon in place of secure connection with Abba in Christ. We told our people that we were in the same boat as they: learning and re-learning missing life skills.
We asked for grace as we co-labored with them, and the Lord, to re-learn our missing life skills. In that process we began to re-grow-up and our joy capacity grew in leaps, which began to change our lives in profound ways, including empowering spiritual tools that we had previously learned but did not have the capacity to activate.
Track III: As Chris Coursey describes on his web site (above-click on FAQs-click on-about the different tracks), Track III is, “The Five Levels of Pain the Brain Knows (also called Synchronizing Our Brain and Story).”
There were only six of us in Track III, but we knew two of the gals from last year’s Track II. The other gals are from Canada and will be facilitating Chris & Jen Coursey in the upcoming THRIVE Conference in August in St. Albert, Alberta.
Noel was the only man in Trk III, which delighted him and the rest of us. The gals from last year noticed how different Noel is, very engaged, interested, as well as having some valuable insights from his perspective as coming from a Dismissive Attachment into Earned Attachment.
Since there were larger groups in Tracks I & II, we ended up doubling up Track I & II so we (track III) could train more people, which was a blessing for all of us as working with more people brought home the effectiveness of the life-giving skills of synchronizing life with our feelings and deeper connections with Jesus.
Note: It isn’t until Track II that we realized that each track trains the others and in that understanding comes the power of doing the year of work with each workbook. Thus, the extra year we took to do the Track I workbook gave us good preparation for training when we went to Track II. Because we worked the material and got to know the developmental aspect of human growth from infancy up, and the ability to re-learn missing maturity skills, we were able to give solid life to others at our Track II training. And, subsequently, to those attending the classes in our home office and at church in the Olympia, Tacoma, WA area.
Back to Track III: As the days progressed and we became adapted to the training process, Noel and I began to synchronize with the depth of benefit (blessings) in learning how to tell what kind of emotional pain is common to the various levels of brain function, then, what is the appropriate response to that pain to facilitate calm and returning to joy and rest ASAP. NOTE, we repeat: Being with God, in syncronization with Him, is how we help others return to joy, in secure relationship with Jesus, which is how we were created to operate, which is what THRIVE's goal is: to restore our secure, synchronized relationship in Christ and then with one another.
As Noel often says, God gives us demonstrations of what He is going to teach us before we get to the lessons of the day, and this insight applied to the entire week of Track III: the Lord had used in faith in our previous year so that when we were taught more detailed information we had many revelatory, Ah ha moments, which raised our joy capacity. Then, facilitating exercises with the Tracks I & II, strengthened the memory of the tools creating a new file for left brain storage.
This is simplified explanation for a fairly complex learning process, but that’s how effective the Life Model team has developed this learning process. . . . Cynthia