Thursday 31 January 2013

The Word of the Week - You ARE Great!


In a world that demands our attention all of the time.  With access to the internet and information at a touch of a button using the many wonderful gadgets this world continues to bombard us with.  The need to express what you are doing at every given moment via social networking for reasons only known to yourself; it seems as if our attention is always somewhere else, always doing and never just quietly encapsulating the art of just being.

The theme of all my writings is to steer people in the direction of knowing themselves; into realising that we have an untapped source of pure potential that is being supressed by distraction!  The more you are able to truly look at yourself and your behaviours you may find things that you like or dislike, however it creates a dialogue for change.  What is it that we truly fear by being ourselves, by actually knowing who you really are?  Why do we just accept what is and find it hard or near impossible to believe how great and loving the human family can be?

We can find thousands of excuses justifying our reasons “not to,” in fact, it is usually the first point of dialogue with any type of aspiration, and then we couple the “not” with an overwhelming “I can’t!” Thus your perpetual cycle of inactivity continues and you wonder why any change is not sustainable.

You are a beautiful, precious and valuable commodity in this world.  Why, because the human family has shown throughout history that we have the power and will to overcome many obstacles and the potential to move mountains.

Just for today, realise how powerful you truly are and be courageous by knowing that your latent omnipotence only needs to be awakened by knowing thyself!
Inscribed on the ancient Temple of Luxor in Egypt are the words:

“Man, know thyself……and thou shall know the gods.”

Have a blessed weekend.

Friday 25 January 2013

The Word of the Week - Getting to know Your Self



 How many of you really know your true self?  More often than not, you have an idea of who you are, your likes and dislikes, as well as certain behaviours that you attribute to “being you.”  Oftentimes, we operate as if we are on auto-pilot and consequently demonstrate the same robot-like behaviours when dealing with issues or thoughts that we have without an awareness of what we are actually doing. 

For a very simplistic example, you ask someone to do something for you and they affirm that they heard and understood your request; however, sometime later you find out the task has not been done.  Following your normal response (dependent upon what frame of mind you are in), you may automatically get annoyed with the person, which may lead to  thought processes that further nit-pick at the individuals shortcomings. Thus creating a habitual dialogue in your head.

My question is, have you ever observed your own behaviours and thought processes as you act them?  As difficult as this concept may seem initially the practical application is not. You have what is known as the “thinking mind” and the “observing mind.”  The observing mind can sit and watch the beauty of a butterfly in flight, just be in that moment and study it without judgement or opinion.  The thinking mind captures a thought that says “oh what a beautiful butterfly, look at the colours, oh that reminds me of a time when I went to Australia….” Now the thinking mind has gone off on a tangent, it is no longer in the present moment, it has moved onto other thoughts. The observing mind’s attention is now focused on the thought, being pulled away from the present of just observing the butterfly and now is being directed to observing  a distant memory of the past.
I am sure you can imagine how many more thoughts that one instance could lead to, and left to its own devices,  the thinking mind now digresses further until you have full blown chatter going on in your head.  The act of observing yourSELF is by having no opinion or dialogue with the thought processes; making no judgements of what you are doing or thinking but just observing yourself from another perspective.  This act of observing allows you to be present in the NOW, a watcher of your own thoughts and actions as they occur.  When you stop observing, you can then have interesting dialogue as to what was revealed about yourself.

Just for today, try and be an observer of YOURSELF for a few minutes, this exercise is extremely insightful in determining the core essence of who you are and is helpful in pinpointing habitual behaviours that you may wish to change or modify.

Have an insightful weekend.

Friday 4 January 2013

The Word of the Week - Welcome 2013


A very heartfelt welcome back to this brand new and exciting year!  Even though EVERY new day brings with it an element of wonderment and hope, somehow, when it comes to a New Year there is a greater sense of optimism in people who wish for a variety of changes to occur in their life.  Admittedly, this energy, that is so apparent at the start of a new year tends to wane by mid-month, further, by the time February rolls around, most, if not all are back in their same old patterns of thinking, doing and being!

Do you know what, that is entirely okay if you fall into that category because this year I would like to suggest a mind-set for you to carry using the phrase “this is a year of no pressure?”
Well, what do I mean by that?  From my own perspective I have always set myself goals being equally large or small that would necessitate a change in the way I think or how I act; a change in lifestyle or even in the choices I make. Sometimes there would be so many behaviours that I would like to get rid of, that  I became overwhelmed at the magnitude of my so called shortcomings, I would end up admonishing myself for not achieving even one of the unrealistic goals that I had set myself.  Thus would begin the circle of doubt in anything that I would think, say or do, because I did not live up to my own expectations!  I recognised a pattern of discontent which rendered me as totally ineffective in achieving what I set out to do.

The greatest thing about this journey back to your true self is that one day you wake up and actually feel as if you are growing and that your constant searching, trying, doing and failing actually yields tangible results.  One lesson which has taken me quite some time to learn is the lesson of acceptance.  I have learned to accept who I am and what I feel at any given moment, but what makes this so valuable is that I have learned to accept ME and be guilt free!  If one morning I wake up and I don’t exactly feel happy, I tell myself it is okay, if I am particularly sensitive or have a short fuse, that’s okay too.  I do not deny how I feel, I just feel that feeling; actually I embrace it rather than fight it and have learned that in acknowledging how I feel at any moment, does not make me less of a person or something that I am not.  I am still me regardless of how I feel and revel in the fact that I can still love myself irrespectively.

So I hope that you will continue to join me in this year’s theme of learning total acceptance of being yourself and endeavouring to love every part of that unique and exquisite creation that is YOU!

Peace and blessings for a wonderful 2013.