August 26th, 2010
I was recently reviewing the journal I kept during my yoga teacher training and came across this entry, dated 18.6.05, which I felt was worth sharing. It begins;
We chanted the Guru Brahma* chant this morning and listened to a lecture by Sharon Gannon about its meaning. Meditating afterwards, I had the most profound sense of clarity about life. I was breathing very slowly, conscious of prana (a Sanskrit term for ‘life force’) moving in and out of every cell of every par
t of my body.
While this was happening, I came to realise that the universe is completely cellular; that there’s no distinction between what is outside of my physical body and what is inside it. That there’s no distinction between myself and my fellow students. No distinction between myself and the trees or the ocean or the grass.
I saw that in fact, there is no such thing as ‘me’. That we are all one. We are all the same.
WE ARE ALL ONE.
I saw the misperception we have about individuality and identity. I saw that the true nature of things is very different to what is generally perceived to be ‘reality’.
I felt like Neo in the Matrix; instead of people – individual and distinct – I saw cells of energy clumped together to form a certain shape. I saw that fear that holds us back from seeing this reality and I saw that in truth, there is nothing to be feared. Read the rest of this entry »
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August 11th, 2010
More and more regularly I speak with people who are constantly tired or teetering on the edge of overwhelm by their busy lives. It’s an illness I’m calling, ‘living in the thick of the thin things’.
The description comes from a book by Robin S. Sharma called ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari‘ in which the monk encourages his student to live a more simple life, focusing only on activities which are meaningful. Put simply he states; ‘one must never live in the thick of the thin things’.
It seems that eventually everyone is faced with this lesson. Some people arrive at it as a result of illness, some at the end of their lives, and some through the death of someone close. All these life experiences take the form of teachers and yet, wouldn’t it be preferable if you decided to cut yourself off from the thin things before something forcefully stopped you?
Cutting yourself off from the thin things takes commitment, it takes a certain level of discipline, and it takes support from those around you.
It takes support because underneath meaningless activity and busyness is fear. Read the rest of this entry »
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July 31st, 2010
At the moment, in the north-west coast of Nort
h America, there’s a group of people who are absolutely rocking it in the blogging/internet/lifestyle business world.
They are all making good money and they’re all running businesses they’re passionate about. Best of all, their businesses are location independent (i.e., they could be living anywhere and the profits would continue to flow).
Yes, they’ve achieved the three Ps which, my friends, constitutes the holy grail for a lifestyle business – passion, profits and place (of your choice/dreams).
I think of them as lifestyle revolutionaries who will forever change the way people think about ‘work’ and the so called ‘work/life balance’ which so many companies espouse in principle, if not in practice.
These people live creatively and they stand tall in their power. Read the rest of this entry »
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July 22nd, 2010
During a recent trip to London a dear friend gave me this gorgeous little book.
I found it so heart warming and true. Reading it affirmed many of the lessons I’ve learned over the years.
There is a depth in the teachings which belies their simplicity. Simplicity being, of course, the harbinger of truth.
Here are a few excerpts:
When I loved myself enough… I quit settling for too little
When I loved myself enough… I learned to meet my own needs and not call it selfish
When I loved myself enough… I began leaving whatever wasn’t healthy. This meant people, jobs, my own beliefs and habits – anything that kept me small. My judgement called it disloyal. Now I see it as self-loving
When I loved myself enough… I could tell the truth about my gifts and my limitations
When I loved myself enough… I stopped blaming myself for choices I had made – which made me feel safe and I took responsibility for them
When I loved myself enough… I started feeling all my feelings, not analysing them – really feeling them. When I do, something amazing happens. Try it. You will see
When I loved myself enough… My heart became so tender it could welcome joy and sorrow equally
I’m sure we all have a few (or even many) we could add to this list. Some of mine include:
- I stopped dating men who weren’t emotionally equipped to meet me half way;
- I started using my best wine glasses, plates and cutlery everyday;
- I paid someone to pamper my feet and polish my nails;
- I stopped worrying about career titles and salaries and started thinking about how I could spend my days doing what I most love.
What about you? How has your life changed as you’ve learned to love yourself enough?
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July 12th, 2010
Having just watched Spain defeat Holland in the World Cup final, I’ve been pondering the Spanish approach to football.
Undoubtedly they are beautiful to watch. They have exceptional technique, their control of the midfield is stunning, and their passing is consistently clean and purposeful.
I think though, that there’s something more to the team than merely technique. What makes them so lovely to watch is their exquisite lightness of touch.
I have heard criticism that their approach is too focused on passing rather than execution (i.e., actually scoring goals). Now, I’m not a footballing expert, but for my part, I don’t see this as a flaw. Certainly a football team must score in order to win, but in playing the way they do, Spain teaches us more than just how to put a ball into a net.
They teach us how to be in the moment. They teach us how to love the journey on the way to winning.
Read the rest of this entry »
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June 22nd, 2010
I’m writing this somewhere over the Ukraine on my way from London to Sydney on my favourite type of aircraft, the A380, a.k.a. the airbus. More room, so much quieter, and a great entertainment system, which allows you to actually hear the movies… As such, I’ve just watched (and happily heard every word of) Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.
In the movie, Alice’s father comments to her; ‘sometimes I imagine six impossible things before breakfast’. He also advises that the best people are quite mad and encourages her to dream big and enjoy her imagination. (This, in turn, enables her to access the rabbit hole and navigate her way through Underland. A feat, the likes of which, would have been deemed impossible by children of less adventurous fathers.)
And so… with more than a little time on my hands, I took to pondering what our world would be like if we all adopted this practice.
The reason this is not common practice, is that so many of us are held back by what we assume to be a fixed reality.
Many of us have forgotten our co-creative role in the world. We have forgotten that what we see is determined by what we dream, think and feel. Read the rest of this entry »
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June 9th, 2010
In a yoga class, one of the first instructions I give my students is to become aware of the breath.
When I do so, the immediate response of so many students is to actively slow down their breath. They do this, despite the fact that the instruction was ‘become aware of your breath’, and not ‘slow down your breath’.
This may seem a minor thing, and yet, it says a lot about life.
Perhaps you are aware of the yogic saying; ‘what occurs on the mat, occurs off the mat’? In my experience, this is true 100% of the time.
Should you be eager to better understand yourself and your life, step onto a mat. All the answers are right there.
So what is really going on when students choose to respond to the instruction by changing the state of their breath rather than merely observing it? Read the rest of this entry »
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May 28th, 2010
At the recent Dakini Circles pilot we spent some time talking about delaying tactics. Tactics employed by each of us to not do the things we really love.
These tactics play out in myriad ways; ‘I don’t have the time’, ‘I don’t have the money’, ‘I’m too tired, perhaps next week/month/year.’ And so it goes; little by little we let die our passion, our creativity, our joie de vivre.
It is so very easy to be swept up by the day to day happenings of life and in so doing, forget the critical importance of filling our lives with activities and people that touch our souls.
A friend of mine has the most elegant test for determining whether the things that fill our lives – relationships, jobs, homes – are touching our souls. She simply asks;
‘does it make your heart sing?’
Arresting in its directness isn’t it? For if your answer is no, all rationalisations (and all the sensible grown up reasons you’ve told yourself for why you’re not doing the things you love), are suddenly seen for the smokescreen that they are. If your answer is no, change is imperative. You simply cannot partake in activities which don’t make your heart sing, and hope to live a happy and fulfilled life.
The decision to endure rather than revel in the juiciness of life must be reversed if your soul, your heart, your being is to continue to flourish.
And the person for the job is you. Read the rest of this entry »
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May 12th, 2010
Sydney has been blessed with a spectacular Autumn this year.
Actually, Sydney is blessed with a spectacular Autumn most years. Temperatures are in the mid 20s (let’s say, 77 Fahrenheit), the humidity is gone, and clouds loll at the edge of the horizon like picture frames, not daring to impinge on the beauty of the vast, blue sky.
In this utopic environment,
I spend my time with the lucky few. The ones who’ve arranged their lives to take advantage of opportunities like perfect weather and waves. The ones who have prioritised lifestyle above all else.
I’ve always wanted a life which works with nature; which appreciates the benefits of the seasons and which doesn’t see me missing the seasons in favour of artificial light and air.
I think many Australians would say the same thing and yet, I am always intrigued by just how empty the beaches and parks are during the week. Particularly in a city which is home to so many who love her because of ‘the lifestyle’ she offers.
Which got me to thinking, perhaps it’s our concept of ‘lifestyle’ that needs further consideration? Read the rest of this entry »
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April 29th, 2010
This morning I was listening to an audio recording by Seth Godin in which he advised; ‘Make your life a work of art’.
Make your life a work of art.
When I reflect on it, this has been the underlying principle of my life; using my intuition to create a life that is worthy of my being born to live it.
Of course, being human, sometimes I adhere to the principle and sometimes I forget it entirely.
Why? Well, to put it bluntly, sometimes fear stomps right over the top of my intuition and screams to get my attention.
Sometimes she is more subtle and lures me to her with the assistance of her closest companions; doubt, judgement and rationalisation.
Do you know them too? Doubt, judgement and rationalisation? They’re the ones that tell you that it’s ok to take the safe option. That it’s ok to take the higher paying job you don’t really want, over the lower paying job you would love. They tell you it’s ok to put off your dream of running your own business because you need to be sensible – that it’s better to have regular money coming in each week. After all, regular money means you can buy the things that make you happy (money is their favourite smoke screen and ‘money equals happiness’, their favourite equation). Read the rest of this entry »
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t of my body. 
