The rainbow of your life

Don’t have a cent

When’ll I pay my rent?

And even my car doesn’t work

Me and my man, he’s the one to die for -

We have split up…

Can’t you see, life’s easy

If you consider things

From another point of view

In another way, from another point of view.

I see life and light

All the colours of the world

So beautiful – won’t you come with me?

I see birds and trees

All the flowers of the world

So beautiful – won’t you come with me?

When this song was released in 2002, it was very significant for me as I’d just discovered the benefits of ‘reframing’ – looking at events in my past and present from another perspective, or as the song says, “from another point of view”.  I still find this tune uplifting – I love the way it conveys the joy of being fully ‘awake’, no longer dragged down by petty worldly concerns, but instead buoyed up by the natural beauty around us.

Before I woke up and changed my perspective on life, I was inwardly focussed in the way that all unhappy and empty people are.  The internal brooding of an imbalanced individual is nothing like the  self-aware inner contemplation  of the holistically healthy.  Insecurity makes us very self-absorbed and negatively introspective  – the external world is only of  interest to our ego and all of our energy is used up trying to survive beyond the existential despair we feel. There’s very little of us left to appreciate a fabulous sunset or a breathtaking view. Now I’m much more content and balanced, I can’t get enough of ‘the colours of the world’. I love nothing more than to be out in the countryside on a fabulous sunny day - ‘life and light’ – and my heart soars when I’m surrounded by brilliant blue sky and lush green fields - ‘so beautiful’.

The other day I was enjoying the colours of my garden and noticed that there’s an abundance of yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet and white – but no red or orange. This got me thinking about the chakras and I wondered if my garden – which has been left to its own devices this year, a kind of ‘cultivated wildness’ – was maybe giving me a message about which chakras I still need to work on. It also started me thinking about the significance of colour in our lives and why we’re drawn to certain colours at certain stages of our lives. So here’s my own particular rainbow and a brief description of what these colours mean to me.

Red – the colour of the first chakra, it’s perhaps not surprising that this was my favourite colour as a girl, as I struggled to feel secure in my surroundings. This is also one of the colours in my bedroom, along with gold and green, and these represent my desires for my most intimate relationship – red for earthiness and passion, green for love and affection (heart chakra) and gold for spiritual connection (crown chakra).

Black – a non-colour, this is often a favourite of adolescents, as wearing black means we can hide in the shadows and become invisible. It also represents our shadow or dark side and as it’s the colour of mourning, could also represent grief at the loss of our authentic self. In more recent years, this is a colour I’ve naturally gravitated towards during difficult times.

Green – this colour can represent personal development, and it was my favourite when I went through a particularly intense growth period – a time when I was also feeling lonely and lacked affection in my life. I even painted my bedroom this colour (not a wise move – the green reflecting on my skin made me look horribly ill every time I looked in the mirror).

Orange – the colour of the sacral chakra. In 1995 I realised that I had been living my life according to other people’s values and decided it was time I started fulfilling my own needs and desires. That year I wore an orange shirt for the first time – and I wore it a lot.

Blue – still a favourite of mine, the colour of creativity and communication. I also associate blue with water, and symbolically water represents the emotions. My kitchen – where most of my conversations with my friends take place and where I love to sing – is blue, as is my bathroom. In my previous house, I painted the bathroom marine blue, symbolic perhaps of washing away negative feelings and finding my true voice. I love to wear blue now and also recently bought a beautiful blue shirt for my partner for his birthday – the colour really brings out the blue in his eyes, but perhaps I was also delivering a subconscious message about the importance of communication for me in my most intimate relationships…

Pink – I used to avoid this colour like the plague, with all its associations with good little girls who know their place, but now it’s one of my favourites. In my last house, I painted my office raspberry ripple pink, symbolic of my opening heart chakra as I poured my heart out into my work. I also have a vast selection of pink tops, perhaps a reflection of my acceptance of the positive aspects of my feminine side.

What colours make up the rainbow of your life?

Solitude – some inspirational quotes

Solitude is painful when one is young, but delightful when one is more mature. - Albert Einstein

I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other. - Rainer Maria Rilke

Solitude is such a potential thing. We hear voices in solitude, we never hear in the hurry and turmoil of life; we receive counsels and comforts, we get under no other condition . . . - Amelia E. Barr

What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be. – Ellen Burstyn

Being solitary is being alone well: being alone luxuriously immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your own presence rather than of the absence of others. Because solitude is an achievement. – Alice Koller

The whole value of solitude depends upon one’s self; it may be a sanctuary or a prison, a haven of repose or a place of punishment, a heaven or a hell, as we ourselves make it. - John Lubbock

It is better to travel alone than with a bad companion. - African Proverb

Solitude is strength; to depend on the presence of the crowd is weakness. The man who needs a mob to nerve him is much more alone than he imagines. - Paul Brunton

Only in solitude do we find ourselves; and in finding ourselves, we find in ourselves all our brothers in solitude. - Miguel de Unamuno

I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.  We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. – Henry David Thoreau

We live in a very tense society.  We are pulled apart… and we all need to learn how to pull ourselves together…. I think that at least part of the answer lies in solitude. - Helen Hayes

It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts. - K.T. Jong

Only in quiet waters do thing mirror themselves undistorted.  Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world. – Hans Margolius

What a commentary on civilization, when being alone is being suspect; when one has to apologize for it, make excuses, hide the fact that one practices it – like a secret vice. - Anne Morrow Lindbergh

When we cannot bear to be alone, it means we do not properly value the only companion we will have from birth to death – ourselves. - Eda LeShan

No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength. - Jack Kerouac

We visit others as a matter of social obligation.  How long has it been since we have visited with ourselves? - Morris Adler

Loneliness can be conquered only by those who can bear solitude. - Paul Tillich

Solitude, though it may be silent as light, is like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world alone and leave it alone. - Thomas de Quincey

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinions; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude. - Aldous Huxley

In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself. - Laurence Sterne

Alone, even doing nothing, you do not waste your time. You do, almost always, in company. No encounter with yourself can be altogether sterile: Something necessarily emerges, even if only the hope of some day meeting yourself again. – E.M.Cioran

The good and the wise lead quiet lives. - Euripides

Violent passions are formed in solitude. In the busy world no object has time to make a deep impression. - Henry Home

Shakespeare, Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and Lincoln never saw a movie, heard a radio, or looked at a TV. They had loneliness and knew what to do with it. They were not afraid of being lonely because they knew that was when the creative mood in them would mark. - Carl Sa

Embracing our ‘inner geek’

On Monday I wrote about the joys of solitude and the invaluable benefits we gain from time spent with ourselves. For people who are unfamiliar with this – and perhaps a little afraid – I suggested maybe spending just 15 minutes a day by yourself writing your thoughts in a journal. Nothing too profound – just stream of consciousness stuff to kick-start the process of getting to know yourself. In a great piece of synchronicity, an hour or so after I posted this I happened to see an episode of Scrubs in which a pastor talked about the importance of taking 20 minutes a day for yourself to reflect – and the name of the episode turned out to be ‘My Words of Wisdom’.

Anyway, today I want to expand on this concept some more by talking about getting in touch with your inner geek. What do I mean by inner geek? Well, remember when you were a kid and you had some pastime which you loved to do when you spent time alone? It could have been drawing or colouring, building miniature towns with bricks or plasticine, digging holes in the garden, collecting pine cones or pretty pebbles – but the main thing was that this pastime took you away from your conscious self for a while. Time would just disappear and you would almost be in a trance whilst lost in your own little world for what seemed like minutes but was usually hours.  Of course, then we hit adolescence and our former fun pastime became too ‘uncool’ so we ditched it in favour of getting drunk with our mates in the park, swooning over pop stars or hanging round shopping centres. Fitting in with our peers is vitally important to us as teenagers but this urge to conform is often the last nail in the coffin for our essential self.

So perhaps now it’s time for us to hark back to that intuitive wisdom of our child-selves and reconnect with that inner geek we left behind all those years ago. Spending time alone with only your inner geek for company can be just as effective as meditation (but an awful lot easier), as by focusing on our geeky pastime, we are freeing our creative subconscious to sift through and assimilate the contents of our mind without being distracted by our rational, logic-driven conscious mind. The pastime should be something which occupies you manually but is not too taxing or stressful and is not over stimulating to the brain – and definitely not a passive activity involving staring at a screen of some kind. My favourites over the last few years have been gardening, spring-cleaning, baking bread (with lots of kneading) and doing jigsaws. Jigsaw-doing is definitely top of my list though (despite the mirth it’s caused amongst my friends and family over the years). I’ve discovered, via several dozen 1000-piece jigsaws, that when the constant chatter of your conscious mind is focussed elsewhere, the voice of your inner guide has a better chance of being heard. If I have a lot of stuff whirring around in my head and it’s becoming more and more difficult to make sense of it – when I can’t seem to get out of the way of my own thoughts -  I find that spending several hours alone with a jigsaw helps me to clear my mind and put things in perspective. I’ve also come up with some of my best ideas whilst indulging in one of my geeky pastimes – what seemed to be a jumble of thoughts now has the space to become a clear and coherent whole.

I also mentioned that we often leave behind our ‘inner geek’ when we reach adolescence, a time when we learn to mask our true self for fear of not being acceptable to others. Unfortunately, it is this true self which also holds the key to our true life purpose. By re-introducing ourselves to our inner geek, we can therefore also pick up some clues as to what our life purpose might be or who our authentic self really is. Sometimes the connection is obvious – if as a child you liked nothing better than spending the day on the beach jumping waves and checking out rock pools, and you now spend the best part of your life stuck in an air-conditioned office, then your essential self is probably crying out to be exposed to the elements and get back to nature. Sometimes the connection is more esoteric – perhaps your essential self resonates with the wild, unpredictability of the sea but you’ve repressed this part of yourself in an attempt to conform or please someone other than yourself. My own choices reflect my desire to bring clarity to chaos, be it physically, emotionally or psychologically – and as I’ve learned to be true to myself, I now express this soul need in every area of my life, including my work.

So wake up that inner geek of yours who’s been slumbering inside you for all these years –  and who knows, perhaps you’ll also give your true self a long overdue alarm call.

Watch out, there’s an inner geek about…

Are you a Highly Sensitive Person?

Yesterday I wrote about the joys of solitude. For some people, ‘me-time’ is a necessary part of their self-nurturing. I regularly need to have some quiet time alone in my home to maintain my equilibrium – if I spend too long in an urban environment or anywhere with a ‘bad’ atmosphere, I start to feel uncomfortable and restless. When I spend time out and about with my partner, he can always tell when I’m ready to return to the peace of my sanctuary. (Just to give you an idea of how peaceful it is, the picture accompanying this article is the view at sunset from my blissfully tranquil back garden….)

However, I wasn’t always aware of this need. Rather than listening to my inner guidance, in my younger days I was more determined to feed the needs of my ego, resulting in not enough downtime and an extremely frazzled nervous system. Fortunately, having taken the time to get to know myself and listen to the wisdom of my inner guidance, I am now confident and clear about what is good for me and what isn’t, resulting in a firsthand experience of  how self-awareness helps us heal holistically and brings harmony and serenity into our lives.

If alone-time is crucial in your life, then you may be one of life’s ‘Highly Sensitives’. If you’ve ever been called ‘too sensitive’, or felt that your view of life seems different to that of everyone else, then check out the article reproduced below which describes the HSP in more depth. And remember -  insight is the first step towards positive change…

By Jenna Avery, CLC, Life Coach for Sensitive Souls

http://www.highlysensitivesouls.com/

Do you often feel overwhelmed by your environment or the people around you? Has anyone ever called you shy, or worse, too sensitive? Do you care deeply about EVERYTHING? You may be a Highly Sensitive Soul, a person of deep empathy and high intensity, with powerful intuition, awareness, and intelligence.

Being Highly Sensitive, you have a uniquely perceptive sensory system. You are therefore more sensitive to emotions, energy, environmental conditions such as lighting or sound, other people, excitement, and stress. As a result of constant stimuli, you may feel easily overwhelmed or unable to cope. Things can be particularly confusing when others seem unperturbed by the same experiences. For example, your friends might be able to shop all day, go out to dinner, and then head to a loud party. For you, that would be unbearable.

Research psychologist Dr. Elaine Aron, author of The Highly Sensitive Person, has studied high sensitivity extensively. Her research shows that being sensitive is a personality temperament or trait, one usually inherited. According to Dr. Aron, up to 20% of the population is Highly Sensitive.

How To Tell If You Are Highly Sensitive

Being Highly Sensitive comes with a number of gifts, as well as challenges. See if any of these Highly Sensitive qualities resonate strongly with you.

1. You are deeply affected by all aspects of your life. As a Sensitive Soul, you have great emotional passion, intensity, and depth. You may have been told that your emotions are “too much.” You are sensitive, caring, and easily affected by the energy and emotions of others. These qualities make it easy to lose touch with your needs and desires.

2. You have heightened perceptive skills. A Sensitive Soul is intuitive, highly aware, and keenly observant of the subtleties of your environment, including energy, light, noise, smell, texture, and temperature. You may also be empathic or even psychic. Your perceptive skills operate in the physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual realms. You tie together things you see into complex and original concepts. This makes you a visionary.

3. You have a lower tolerance for stimulation than others. Because you receive so much information from your surroundings, your threshold for what’s “too much” is significantly lower than for those around you. This means: a) You may be seen as shy or timid; and b) You may feel uncomfortably dissimilar to others because you respond so differently to stimulation.

4. You are highly conscientious and thorough in all your undertakings. A Sensitive Soul makes a great employee. You concentrate intensely and process multi-source information. However, you require privacy, uninterrupted time, and little or no pressure in order to do your best work.

5. You have a strong relationship with aesthetics and art. As a Highly Sensitive Soul, you have a passion for beauty, art, and aesthetics. You may be highly artistic and creative yourself. You easily create beauty and comfort. Seeing things ‘out of alignment’ can actually be physically or psychically distressing.

6. Your inner life is just as intriguing and inspiring as your outer life. You likely have a rich, complex inner life and are highly imaginative. You may find it challenging to connect to ‘real world’ priorities and realities.

7. You absolutely require private time alone in order to feel replenished. Up to 70% of Highly Sensitive Souls are introverted. But even extroverted sensitives need downtime to rejuvenate, often in a darkened, quiet room.

8. You have a strong spiritual connection and depth. If you are Highly Sensitive, you experience a profound spiritual connection with the divine and/or spiritual realm. You ‘see’ a lot in what appears common. Because of this you may feel impatient with the truly mundane.

Learning to Thrive

Learning to thrive as a Highly Sensitive Soul presents challenges. If you’re sensitive, you have likely accumulated years of training in trying overcome the trait because you don’t ‘fit in’ with society. And yet being Highly Sensitive is a vital part of you.

A first step toward thriving as a Sensitive Soul is to understand and accept your trait. Hear this now: There is absolutely nothing wrong with you. You are just different. As one of my clients says, being Highly Sensitive is both a gift and a responsibility.

Sensitive Souls require regular self-care, meaningful work, and supportive relationships. Working with a sensitive coach or therapist who helps you tune into your own magnificent inner guidance system ‘your sensitivity’ is a powerful means of support.

Additionally, there are books, Web sites, Web-based communities, and teleconference gatherings on the subject. Connecting with like-minded souls is often deeply healing for sensitive persons.

As you begin to manage your life in a way that truly works for you, you will trust the power and gift of your sensitivity, and be inspired to share your much-needed wisdom with the world.

Further reading: The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Survive and Thrive When the World Overwhelms You by Elaine N.Aron

The Highly Sensitive Person in Love: Understanding and Managing Relationships When the World Overwhelms You by Elaine N.Aron

Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Personby Barrie S.Jaeger

The greatest gift you will ever give yourself

Recently David Walliams was on Desert Island Discs and confessed that he couldn’t bear to be alone at weekends: “I have this terrible fear of being on my own,” he said. “I thrive off the company of others so I have to make plans to see people all the time in order to do things.” He also requested a gun as his luxury item “So that if I got really lonely, I would shoot myself.”

No doubt many people would resonate with these sentiments, as for many people the thought of having to spend time with themselves is too much to bear. To a certain extent, I can  empathise – I too have been afraid to be alone at certain times in my life. But I’m also aware that those were times when I was feeling very insecure and unhappy and didn’t like myself – or my life – very much. Being around other people was essentially a way of escaping from myself and avoiding the emptiness and despair which seemed to fill my waking hours. Paradoxically, however, the loneliest I have ever felt was when I was in a relationship with someone who – as I pointed out when I finally found the courage to break up with him– didn’t really care much about me as a person, but simply had a ‘woman-shaped’ gap in his life that he needed to fill. (Like attracts like, of course, and the only reason I was with him in the first place was because I was feeling needy and insecure at that point in my life – the worst possible reason for starting a relationship, but sadly the foundation upon which the majority of relationships are built.)

It’s a shame that a fear of solitude is so prevalent in our society, as spending time alone is one of the greatest gifts you will ever give yourself. It’s only when you take time out from the incessant chatter of the world that you can begin to discover who you really are and what it is that you really want. People who are unable to spend time alone are usually people who stay in miserable relationships due to a fear of being alone, and in miserable jobs because they don’t know themselves enough to know what truly inspires them. Over the last few years, I’ve become a huge fan of ‘me-time’ as I’ve personally experienced the invaluable benefits of this. Time alone allows you to tune into the voice of your inner guidance, and consequently develop an external lifestyle which reflects who you are internally. By taking time to get to know myself, I’ve learned what brings me joy and what I need to achieve serenity and have adapted my life accordingly. You’ve also no doubt heard the sentiment ‘The minute you stop looking for Mr/Ms Right is when they appear’.  When you learn to enjoy your own company and live your bliss, then you are far more likely to meet Mr/Ms Right, as you realise you don’t need anyone else to complete you – you’re already whole, just as you are – so you’re less likely to pair up with someone – anyone – for the sake of ‘filling a man/woman shaped gap’.

Experience has also taught me that for many of us, there is a distinct pain threshold which you need to push through to be able to enjoy being alone. Initially your instinct will be to grab the phone, go on internet forums – anything to make contact with others to avoid facing up to yourself. If this is how you feel, then try this as a first step to ease yourself in gently. Buy yourself a journal (you could just use any paper but I find buying yourself a beautiful book makes the experience more special)  then try spending just fifteen minutes alone with only your thoughts – no TV, no radio, no internet, no books or other reading matter. As the thoughts come up, jot them down in your journal. Don’t worry about the content – it doesn’t have to be profound or even make sense to anyone but you.  Do this everyday – or as often as you can – and over time, you will begin to recognise the negative patterns in your life – do you spend a lot of time complaining about your relationship? Your job? Are you constantly beating yourself up about something? Is guilt, anger, disappointment, a recurring feature in your journal entries? Gaining insight is the first step towards positive change, and change always begins with you, so once you recognise these patterns, you can start to map out an alternative way of being for yourself. Dare to dream – jot down your greatest wishes and your most improbable-sounding fantasies and begin to explore ways in which you could make these a part of your reality.  For as you get to know and  be your authentic self, you will find that the universe will work with you to bring you the opportunities you need to be true to you – and you may find that those wishes and fantasies are not as far-fetched as you think.

The irony of solitude is that the more time you spend alone, the more emotionally balanced you will become – and the more emotionally balanced you become, the more you will begin to relish your time alone.  Soon you’ll long for  those times of solitude when you can just spend time  being you, doing the things which soothe your soul and raise your spirit.  If you want to find wholeness, harmony and serenity within yourself, give yourself the greatest gift of all and try that first step of spending just fifteen minutes a day with you.

The Hundredth Monkey

I know this story has been discredited in certain quarters but whether it’s true or not, I like the analogy so I thought I’d post it anyway. It resonates with me as this is how I believe the collective unconscious works and  I feel that even if the story is fabricated, it still works as a myth or fairy tale, in that it reflects some truths about an aspect of humanity.

The Hundredth Monkey

by Ken Keyes Jr.

The Japanese monkey, Macaca fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years.

In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkeys liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant.

An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too.

This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists.

Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable.

Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.

Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes — the exact number is not known.

Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes.

Let’s further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.

THEN IT HAPPENED!

By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them.

The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!

But notice.

A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea –

Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes.

Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind.

Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people.

But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!

Source: The Hundredth Monkey by Ken Keyes Jr.

Living Simply – some inspirational quotes

Property is not essential. But happiness, a love of beauty, friendship between all peoples and individuals, is life itself. – Laurie Stockwell

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent.  It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.   – E.F. Schumacher

There is great happiness in not wanting, in not being something, in not going somewhere. – J Krishnamurti

I think that a person who is attached to riches, who lives with the worry of riches, is actually very poor. If this person puts his money at the service of others, then he is rich, very rich. – Mother Teresa

Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labours of life reduce themselves.   - Edwin Way Teale

To be content with what we possess is the greatest and most secure of riches. – Marcus Tullius Cicero

Let your boat of life be light, packed only with what you need – a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends worth the name, someone to love and love you, a cat, a dog, enough to eat and enough to wear…   -  Jerome K Jerome

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.   - Confucius

I believe we would be happier to have a personal revolution in our individual lives and go back to simpler living and more direct thinking. It is the simple things of life that make living worthwhile, the sweet fundamental things such as love and duty, work and rest and living close to nature. – Laura Ingalls Wilder

It becomes necessary to learn how to clear the mind of all clouds, to free it of all useless ballast and debris by dismissing the burden of too much concern with material things. – Indra Devi

Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying.  The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.   – Elise Boulding

Money is not something to go mad about, and throw your hat in the air for. Money is for food and clothes and comfort, and a visit to the pictures. Money is to make happy the lives of children. Money is for security, and for dreams, and for hopes, and for purposes. Money is for buying the fruits of the earth, of the land where you were born. – Alan Paton

Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are.  When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.   – Lao Tzu

Countries like ours are full of people who have all the material comforts they desire, yet lead lives of quiet (and at times noisy) desperation, understanding nothing but the fact that there is a hole inside them and that however much food and drink they pour into it, however many motorcars and television sets they stuff it with, however many well-balanced children and loyal friends the parade around the edges of it… it aches! – Bernard Levin

I have learned to have very modest goals for society and myself; things like clean air, green grass, children with bright eyes, not being pushed around, useful work that suits one’s abilities, plain tasty food, and occasional satisfying nookie. – Paul Goodman

Want to change the world? Here’s how…

Sometimes I look around me at the world and feel so depressed, frustrated and helpless… What can one person like me do to change anything? At those times I feel powerless, stupid and inarticulate.

And then I remember that all revolution begins with just one person who dared to make a stand, that true power comes from within, and that the trick is not to spread myself too thin (much as I’d like to, I can’t change everything ) but instead to focus my attentions and commit.

Here’s a great article I found which sums this up beautifully – read it if you need inspiration, then get out there and change the world!

Top Ten Things to Think About If You Want to Change the World
By Michael Angier

http://www.positivepath.net

Mahatma Gandhi believed that we must be the change we want to see in the world. This was well demonstrated when he helped India gain its independence. Gandhi was a revolutionary man, but he accomplished India’s emergence as a nation without starting a revolution. In fact, he advocated no violence. One of the most powerful countries in the world yielded to the commitment of one man and the dream of millions.

What change can we effect? What’s the difference we want to make in the world?

Gandhi said, “In a gentle way you can shake the world.” Here are some things to think about how to do just that …

1. Know that all significant change throughout history has occurred not because of nations, armies, governments and certainly not committees. They happened as a result of the courage and commitment of individuals. People like Joan of Arc, Albert Einstein, Clara Barton, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Rosa Parks. They might not have done it alone, but they were, without question, the change makers.

2. Believe that you have a unique purpose and potential in the world. It’s not so much something to create as to be discovered. And it’s up to you to discover it. Believe that you can and will make a difference.

3. Recognize that everything you do, every step you take, every sentence you write, every word you speak-or DON’T speak–counts. Nothing is trivial. The world may be big, but there are no small things. Everything matters.

4. To be the change you want to see in the world, you don’t have to be loud. You don’t have to be eloquent. You don’t have to be elected. You don’t even have to be particularly smart or well educated. You do, however, have to be committed.

5. Take personal responsibility. Never think “it’s not my job”. It’s a cop-out to say, “What can I do, I’m only one person.” You don’t need everyone’s cooperation or anyone’s permission to make changes. Remember this little gem, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.”

6. Don’t get caught up in the how of things. If you’re clear on what you want to change and why you want to change it, the how will come. Many significant things have been left undone because someone let the problem solving interfere with the decision-making.

7. Don’t wait for things to be right in order to begin. Change is messy. Things will never be just right. Follow Teddy Roosevelt’s timeless advice, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

8. The genesis for change is awareness. We cannot change what we don’t acknowledge. Most of the time, we aren’t aware of what’s wrong or what’s not working. We don’t see what could be. By becoming more aware, we begin the process of change.

9. Take to heart these words from Albert Einstein–arguably one of the smartest change masters who ever lived: “All meaningful and lasting change starts first in your imagination and then works its way out. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

10. In order for things to change, YOU have to change. We can’t change others; we can only change ourselves. However, when WE change, it changes everything. And in doing so, we truly can be the change we want to see in the world.

Your money… or your life?

I first used this story in a MySpace blog about two years ago, but in view of current events, it seems even more relevant today. The people who run our governmental and economic systems have (finally) been uncovered as self-serving and corrupt,  and  the law-enforcers they use to keep us in check have been shown to be equally corrupt, and bully-boys to boot (pun intended).

Though the media is regaling us daily with tales of how truly dreadful  this recession is and how we’re all doomed, I actually feel quite optimistic about what’s occurring. A system where the rich get richer at the expense of everyone else is obviously seriously imbalanced and plain wrong, and it’s about time that everyone had their eyes opened to what some of us have known all along – that we’ve been sold a pack of lies for no other reason than to keep us fuelling the gravy train for a select few. If we want to construct a new system based on fairness and equality, then the old one must first be destroyed and that’s what I believe is happening now.

I’m currently working on a series of articles which will explore in more depth why our current system doesn’t work and what we as individuals can do to bring about change  (again, I first drafted these articles a couple of years ago, but they seem even more pertinent today). In the meantime, enjoy this little tale which takes a sideswipe at a culture which promotes working till you drop for the sake of cold hard cash – just so you can buy stuff to compensate for wasting your best years working till you drop – as a credible lifestyle choice…

An American investment banker arrived at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village just as a small boat with one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it had taken him to catch them.

The Mexican replied, “Only a little while.” The American then asked the fisherman why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican explained that he had caught enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, and stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.”

The American was excited to think of how he could help this little fisherman achieve success and financial freedom, with just a few simple steps. “I am a Harvard MBA and can help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several more boats, and eventually, have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would also need to leave this village for a while and move to Mexico City, then L.A., and eventually, New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “15 to 20 years.”

“But what then?”

The American laughed. “That’s the best part. When the time is right, you announce a stock sale, sell your company stock to the public, and become very rich. You would make millions!”

“Millions….? Then what?”

The American explained, “Then you could retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings to sip wine and play guitar with your amigos.”

source: Spirituality for Dummies by Sharon Janis

The Chakras – a final summary

I hope you’ve enjoyed my series on the seven major chakras. I’ve pulled together various pieces of research to try and offer a comprehensive overview of each chakra, and in the process demonstrate the importance of having a totally balanced system. Focussed on enlightenment, many people seeking higher consciousness have disregarded the importance of the lower chakras, yet we all need the strong and solid support of our base chakras in order to open to the spiritual in a healthy and integrated way. The lower chakras focus on matters such as our  security, our personal relationships and our basic emotions, while the upper chakras develop perspective and wisdom that help us understand the grand order of the universe. All of our chakras affect one another and ultimately work together. As we learn to use the chakra system to understand our lives, we can gain insight into personal issues that require our attention, and use this insight to bring our chakras and lives back into balance.

In The Healing Handbook, Tara Ward summarises how a system of balanced chakras might manifest itself in our lives:

Let us now take a look at what happens if all the chakras are open and functioning fully:

You enjoy all of your physical, day-to-day life, you have a strong will to live and feel well-grounded in the present, appreciating your strong physical energy and vitality. (root)

You enjoy relating to people, you have a fulfilling sexual relationship/you appreciate sensuality, you are aware of your sexual strength and drive and enjoy its presence. (sacral)

You have a great sense of belonging, you have an expressive emotional life which creates mental satisfaction and fulfilment rather than worry.(solar plexus)

You have a strong capacity for loving others and are not judgmental or discriminatory in that expression, you feel connected with unconditional love to everyone and everything. (heart)

You have reached the stage in life where you no longer blame others for your own difficulties in life, you have reached fulfilment in your professional life, you go out and create what you want rather than relying on others, and live with truth and integrity. (throat)

Your spiritual concepts are fully formulated and you can ‘see’ universal truth and understand where you fit into that plan and then carry out your work accordingly. (third eye)

Your earthly personality has fused with all spiritual knowledge, you experience a state of bliss generally unknown to human experience and you ‘know’ divine law without question or confusion. (crown)

This is what is meant by holistic health – enjoying and appreciating every single facet of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health and resonating freely and fully with everyone and everything around you. The process to accomplishing this may take a little while, but it is not the process of curing something in spiritual healing which is important, it is the process through which you cure and what you learn which will change your energy and enable to enjoy every aspect of your life more fully.

And here’s the final word from a wonderful book on the chakras and how they can help us heal – The Rainbow Journey by Dr Brenda Davies.

Enlightenment: This is a never-ending, ever-expanding, never to be completed, amazingly wonderful state that we can touch and explore, but that few of us will ever conquer in this lifetime. Yet it’s the state for which we are ever striving even before we’re aware that we’re doing so….. Here at the end of the (chakra) rainbow, there’s no pot of gold …the gold was all the way along the journey. You’re more whole, more healthy, more real, more loved and loving. You’re more open and have new (or rather have redeveloped old) skills and have left behind much that troubled you. You’ve offloaded old grief, pain and resentment, found a better way to live which has love at its heart, both human and celestial, and you know too much ever to go back to where you were.

But there’s always more to know. More to explore, more to discover. And that’s how it needs to be.

This is the final blog on chakras for now. I will return to this topic in the future to explore more techniques for balancing our chakra systems, in order to bring healing, harmony and serenity into our lives.