After reading the Surrender Experiment, which I reviewed here, I have decided to set up my own Surrender Experiment, where I will be tracking my surrender level, so to speak, each week. I am interested in using writing to find out how surrendered to life I am, to discover where I am stuck in an… READ MORE
Re-frame Your Story
Humans are story makers.
We are unique in the animal kingdom in that our consciousness lets us be aware of our part in the story of life and death. It is our placing of ourselves in a context of past and future. But sometimes this is more of a hinder than a help. Our minds can either be our foe or a friend in the way that they place us in the storylines of our lives.
Stories are powerful, just as the words that make them up are powerful. The stories we chose to tell about ourselves will change the way that we interact with the world around us and with other people.
What stories are you telling yourself right now about you, your place in the world and how your life is going?
Are they positive, empowering and uplifting stories? Or are they denigrating, debilitating and negative stories, or is it a bit of both? READ MORE
30 Days of Ashtanga Yoga: What happens during a month of showing up on the mat every day
After a month characterised by some heavy anxiety along the lines of: what I am doing with my life, what is going on, why I am in debt, why am I single, etc. etc., essentially, fighting with ‘what is’ and focusing on the negative, I realised I needed to take some drastic action to get back on track.
The external conditions and circumstances of our life are a pretty accurate reflection of our internal reality. If we focus on lack, and shine the light on what we don’t have (in whatever area of life) then this lack and not-having-ness will increase. And if we change our focus to gratitude and to what we do have, then abundance in all areas of our life will increase. The only thing we can really manage is our response to life, our attitude to what happens to us: essentially, our mind.
Change your mind by changing your thought patterns and beliefs, and by transforming and transmuting anxiety into creative energy, your external life will start to change accordingly. READ MORE
How to Heal Negative Thinking and Behaviours
So, after a month’s break in August, where the word was Illuminate, I am back with the Word of the Month for September: Eradicate.
It is spring here in Australia so it’s a good time for renewal and regrowth.
Cleaning out the mental and emotional closets is such a healthy (and necessary) practice for a good life. Life is a process of constant renewal, and in order to be present in the now, and be able to fully Express (the word for the year) we need to be constantly clearing out what is no longer necessary.
When we look at the etymology of ERADICATE – it comes down to roots.
Latin eradicat- ‘torn up by the roots’, from the verb eradicare, from e- (variant of ex- ) ‘out’ + radix, radic- ‘root’.
To eradicate is to pull something up by the roots. This is particularly relevant to the rooting up of old beliefs that no longer serve us.
What I am noticing that is coming up for uprooting at the moment is my attachment to views and opinions and the need to be right. All of this is of the ego, and while the ego, per se, is not a bad thing, it definitely isn’t a good idea to let it guide out lives. Attachment to views and opinions and being right strengthens the identity and the sense of self. Letting go of views and opinions and the need to be right helps us to be more in the flow of life and less in a vibe of conflict (fighting with what is). READ MORE
RELEASE: Let Go of What No Longer Serves You
The word for this month, June 2017 is RELEASE.
I have been writing an article on each word each month so far this year and we are now almost half way through!
A quick Google definition of Release gives:
1. ‘allow or enable to escape from confinement; set free’.
“the government announced that the prisoners would be released”
Synonyms: free, set free, let go, allow to leave, set/let/turn loose, let out, liberate, set at liberty, deliver, rescue, ransom, emancipate;
2. ‘allow (something) to move, act, or flow freely.’ “she released his arm and pushed him aside”; READ MORE
Open to RECEIVE
This year, according to my Feeling-Based Annual review, I have a prescribed word for each month of the year. The word for May was RECEIVE.
In life we are constantly partaking in a wheel of giving, receiving, offering, taking and allowing. There is a flow between all of these energies – sometimes we may be more in the mode of offering, other times we may be in the flow of allowing, and then other times we may feel evenly balanced between all of the modes.
An interesting experiment is to as you go through your day to see how you are doing in relation to these different qualities of giving, receiving, offering, taking and allowing. Check in throughout the day with your heart, and ask yourself, how am I feeling right now in regards to one of the elements of the flow… READ MORE
Breathe out Fear, Breathe in Love
Do you feel like you have tried everything but that some stuck patterns keep on repeating in your life?
I have been practicing yoga and meditation for over ten years, and also teaching them for a few years, but I still have some persistent areas in my life where stuck patterns make it difficult to move forward. Though I love Vipassana meditation for its illuminating clarity with regards to the workings of the human mind, and I adore yoga as a practice of unifying and harmonising body, mind and soul – sometimes you need something extra to release deeply stuck emotions.
It is how we feel about things that really makes a difference. We might be living the life of our dreams on paper, but if we don’t actually feel good inside that life, it doesn’t matter how great it looks from the outside. READ MORE
Anxiety: What it is and how to transform it
What is behind anxiety?
In its essence, anxiety is the result of attachment to thoughts. It means we are living more in our head than our body, and that we are not really in the present moment. As Eckhart Tolle says, in the present moment, there are no problems. Problems lie in the past and in the future (thinking about what you may have should have could have done in the past and worrying about what you should or could to to create a desired future.)
Anxiety though, can also be a wakeup call, that you have somehow slipped off your path in life, and that you are not being true to your heart’s desire. In my case I think this is a part of why the anxiety has shown up right at this moment. It’s the universe giving you a nudge: hey, what are you doing? What happened to that thing you said you were going to do? READ MORE