Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow

I would love to look into the eye of a whale.  In the wild seas.  Unafraid.

What mystery there?  What depth of wordless thinking?

Given that they cannot hug or speak, I'm certain they use other ways to connect.  I'm certain that they feel connected in spite of their seeming aloneness.  Inseparable from each other.  Inseparable from the ocean.

We do not know, but we can imagine.  It is gross arrogance to assume that other creatures are lesser, that they are biological automatons, without any Knowing.

http://www.wdcs.org.uk/

I would love to gaze, long and open, into the eye of a whale.  To see its being.  To understand its essence.  And to allow that eye to see me.  Allow that eye to reflect me back to me, filtered by the whale's dream.

Would I like to look into the eye of an orca?  Sea-wolf; huntress?  See the bloodlust, the thrill of the kill?  Not so much.  For I fear to awaken those urges in me.

We have the power to imagine anything.  To call up and create anything.  We are conjurers, magicians, mini-gods creating.

Let's not be small.  Let's be towering in our creative benevolence.  Let's put it all right, because we have the capacity to imagine it put right.  To imagine it all good.

Where first we imagine, the planners follow, then the builders, then everyone can come to inhabit these new places.

That's how a new world is made.

"...The infinite intelligence within you knows the answers.
Its nature is to respond to your thoughts…"



You gravitate to that which you secretly love most
You meet in life the exact reproduction of your own thoughts
There is no chance, coincidence or accident
In a world ruled by law and divine order
You rise as high as your dominant aspiration
You descend to the level of your lowest concept of your self
Free your mind and your ass will follow
The infinite intelligence within you knows the answers
Its nature is to respond to your thoughts
Be careful of the thought-seeds you plant in the garden of your mind
For seeds grow after their kind

Dr Funkenstein / Funkadelic

Healthy Money

Money isn't real.  It's what I've always instinctively felt and have insisted for years.  And now I'm hearing it confirmed by unassailable sources.

Not only is money not real, but it's being used in a highly effective con which concentrates more and more money (power) in the hands of a few, effectively enslaving the rest of us.  This money system, built on scarcity, creates suffering and starvation.  How many times have we heard that we have the resources to feed everyone on the planet?  Why can't we?  Because if there's no profit in it, the current monetary paradigm won't allow it to happen.

Now, I believe that without the distortion of this monetary system, people would prove themselves to be fundamentally cooperative and collaborative, and the hungry would soon be fed.  And I'm delighted to say that there are great minds at work on just how we can move from this current, seemingly hopeless, pathological system into one where that will be possible.  Not only will it be possible, but people all around the world are already putting many of the new ideas into practice.  Just don't expect to hear about it from the conventional media.

A fantastic introduction to all this and an inspiration to us all is provided (yet again) from the fabulous Shift Network.  They are running a Healthy Money Summit and it has really got me excited.  If you want to know a bit more about how you can make a difference to your own life and how what you do can slot into the bigger picture, I really recommend this free audio series. 

In fact, I urge everyone to listen in to at least some of it.  This is about how we CAN make the changes, starting right now.

Jumping up and down in glee ...!

Throw away your TV!

This is more or less the speech I gave at Toastmasters last week.

I'd rather go online than watch TV.

It's nearly two years since I moved into a flat on my own without a television.  I can honestly say there has not been one minute when I missed it.

What I've loved is the extra time it's given me to pursue my own interests, especially online.  I love the immediacy of the internet - I think of a question and within minutes I have an array of answers.  They don't always agree with each other, but that's OK, I can read them all, I can make up my own mind.  I'm constantly amazed by the scope too.  Think of a subject and someone, somewhere will have put something about it online.

I've discovered a vast treasure of information on subjects that interest me, like sustainability and self-development, cellular biology, natural health and even honey bees. 

Permaculture

One line of research will often spark another.  Something will be mentioned in passing, and I'll think, 'oh, I'd like to know more about that …' and I can, because I'm online.  So I open another window, and another row of tabs; I can have several windows waiting to be read and yes - hours can pass that way!  But they're really interesting hours, and I'm learning all the time.

Compassion in World Farming

To me, the internet stimulates thought and enquiry that way.

TV, however, deadens the mind.

Television dulls the senses, mesmerises, anaesthetises.

Have you ever caught yourself, in the middle of an advert break, wondering why you're still sitting there while they shout at you?  I always used to mute the ads, they'd drive me crazy.

Of course, these are fairly sweeping generalisations.  With all these things, it totally depends on how you use them.  One person may be very selective about what they watch on TV, while another may be a lot less discriminating about what they look at online.

But it seems to me that the internet offers almost infinite choice.  You can 'veg out' and just view things on YouTube or on the TV channels' websites if you want to.  I've watched the odd nature documentary like that, and I confess I am re-watching that fab satire of the 90s, 'Drop the Dead Donkey', via 4OD.  The internet offers more though: you can interact, you can read other people's views following articles, you can put your own view, you can meet people.

TV merely comes at you and makes profit for corporations.

A few weeks ago I took a step further and put myself on Facebook.  I admit to start with I was a bit scared of it, so I put myself on with a false name and a false moustache.  Joking aside, as I began to find out what it was really all about, I've been blown away by the possibilities.  It's not just a way of connecting people, it seems to me it is a great facility to escalate change and good in the world.  I have found out about even more campaigns, charities, communities, ethical businesses and individuals who are actively creating a new way of being in the world since I've been on Facebook.  And wow am I feeling connected!  It's so lovely to 'meet' people on forums, feeling you already have so much in common.  I have already made some friends from around the world that way.

We can all be heroes

Contrary to what people believe before they go on Facebook (me included!) you are also totally in control of what others can see, and there are layers to that control, it's very sophisticated. 

So - I'd rather go online than watch TV.

When I watch TV, the news is fed to me, homogenised, filtered.  Online I can find news websites I trust, I can contrast several different sites, I can read the comments that people post after the news.

On TV the news is almost entirely negative.  I have found so much to be positive about online.  So many people and organisations daring to do differently, to operate from the heart instead of for profit.  So much you just don't hear about via conventional media.

On TV entertainment is fed to me.  On the internet I can search for things that specifically interest me.

Women Waking the World

In front of the TV I'm passive (unless you call dialling in to keep Ann Widdecombe dancing for another week 'getting actively involved').  Online I can interact, I can feel involved, I can participate.  I can make contacts.

Online I can feel connected.

Yes Group Norwich

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Allowing Emotions

This morning I woke in the pale grey with an idea I believed to be an inspiration. I propped myself on one elbow, switched on the light and made quick notes. I felt happy because I believed I was in the flow, allowing inspiration to flow through me. I felt good, sure that I was being inspired along the lines of my life purpose. I had the intention of acting on that inspiration today and putting my idea into practice.

A little later an innocent comment from someone triggered a reaction in me, a constriction and painful surge of emotions that felt like my big happy bubble had just burst. I suddenly thought that my idea would be seen as silly, ridiculous even. I felt in advance feelings of humiliation and shame. I imagined others' judgements of me, being associated with such a silly idea. I started to think that no-one else would want to be associated with my idea. My whole core felt hurt and diminished.

I tried very hard not to let the person who made the remark know what was happening inside me (we were on the phone, but even so, you can hear a lot in tone, or silence), because I knew immediately that this huge reaction was all about my own stuff, and not about his. After the phone call I allowed the emotions to wash over me, feeling awful, but trying at the same time to observe and learn.

Eventually, after a stream of gloomy thoughts, I began to pick myself up again. I thought, 'OK, perhaps I have to change the idea a little. But I don't have to abandon it altogether.'

Then I checked into Facebook. I've heard a lot about synchronicity. It's amazing, and funny, once this stuff starts to flow. Now I'm really getting it! I love the way Facebook allows the Universe to make seemingly random events happen right on the button.

This quote came up from Tao of the Giraffe, one of my favourite Facebook feeds:

"What other people think of you is none of your business."

And a little later, this video popped up from We Can All Be Heroes :



I very much enjoyed the whole scene, and the commentary, but especially the narrator's summing up at the end.


I'm beginning to access a detachment that allows me to feel the emotions as they occur, but not to be swamped by them or act on them in a way that will just cause more pain. It's not easy, but I'm motivated because it's better than being a slave to my painful emotions. I was helped very much in this regard by listening to Gary Zukav and Linda Francis yesterday evening in an interview in the Healing with the Masters series, and watching little videos on their website Seat of the Soul Institute. Another case of good timing? It would certainly seem so.

I'm laughing at myself now. I hope soon I'll be able to laugh even as I observe myself going through another bubble-bursting episode, sure that it will give me the opportunity to reduce the power that the painful emotions have over me. Or will that make people think I'm crazy? Ha ha, I don't care!

And the idea … ? Well, I'm still feeling a little shy about it, but I'm definitely working on it.

Magic

Now I understand why I cried so much as a teenager: I mourned the terrible loss of my belief in a deep magic inherent in life.

I didn't know it, but I was letting go, under a constant bombardment from the prevailing world view, of my connection to everything else.  To the wild things, to my inner self, to the magic of infinite possibilities.

I'm so very happy to have found it again.

I got here, step by tiny step, by beginning to entertain the notion first that I could overcome my limiting beliefs, then that I could change my circumstances.  As it turned out, the one followed on from the other.

One of the major landmarks along the road is when you give yourself permission to please yourself - not to the detriment of others, but in a self-nurturing way.  Prepare to think differently to everyone else.  Learn to ask yourself what you really want and "follow your excitement".  Life takes on new flavours, new colours, scents, sensualities, all run through with eagerness and joy.

I followed my excitement to study biology with the Open University.  So fascinating, so amazing, the extent of the activity in each tiny cell of my body, at a speed that defies comprehension.  Learning the science of life hasn't lessened my awe in the mystery, it's heightened it.

Three books which have helped renew my belief in magic* - a sort of marriage of science and mystery - are:

The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles (UK) - how our beliefs shape our biology, right down to the cellular level. You don't need any knowledge of biology or science to read it, it's really easy to read and explained very well.

Biology of Belief - US

Biocentrism(UK) - the notion that everything (yes, everything) exists because life exists, not the other way around.  A bit of a mind bender, again beautifully written.

Biocentrism - US

Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge(UK) - joining the dots between shamanic experiences and modern science. I defy any biologist to read this and remain closed to the concept that we are so much more than co-ordinated chemical reactions.

The Cosmic Serpent - US



*By magic I mean, that there is still a deep and beautiful mystery to life, the universe and everything; that so much more is possible than we have been led to believe by the rigid lines of this current collapsing paradigm.  One day these inexplicable phenomena will have everyday names and they won't be thought of as magic at all, because it will be totally accepted as normal!  I suspect, though, that there will always be some deeper mystery to go on chasing.  Hope so.  Let's keep it juicy.

Inspirational women

I have spent a wonderfully cloistered summer in my little flat, listening to some incredibly inspiring women.  I am profoundly grateful to Katherine Woodward Thomas and Claire Zammit for their Women on the Edge of Evolution teleseminar series.

Katherine Woodward Thomas

Claire Zammit

They're based in the US but people can dial in from anywhere in the world, or download the recorded conversations afterwards.  That's what I do, as I live in the UK.  I listen to them when I'm driving, or washing up, or when I just want to make myself relax for a while.

Two favourite new heroines for me are Diane Hamilton, who expresses a delicious feminine strength and loving acceptance, and Barbara Marx Hubbard, a leading light on conscious evolution with a fabulous sense of humour and extraordinary vitality at eighty.

Diane Hamilton

Barbara Marx Hubbard

There are many, many more marvellous women in conversation with Katherine and Claire.  By sharing their stories with us, they're demonstrating that we can all step into a new way of being.  Rather than feeling trapped, frustrated and helpless, by nurturing ourselves first and then operating from a position of inner strength, we can begin a joyful engagement with our modern problems.  They're demonstrating just how much demand there is now for feminine strength, feminine ways of thinking, even nurturing ways of doing business.  They're demonstrating that by stepping into her beautiful individuality, a woman is capable of incredible things. They're saying: "I am you.  Any of us can do this.  Start with a new kind of special care for yourself."  I feel very much more optimistic about the next few years for people and planet since I've been listening to these dialogues.

They're also saying: "We are the ones we've been waiting for."  That's exciting!

Women on the Edge of Evolution is easy to register for and it's totally free.

Becoming the new you

My butterfly friend has posted a chant on her blog very like one I used to great effect a year or so ago when I needed to make a big change in my life.  It's very simple and it may even seem a little silly at first glance, but the nursery rhyme rhythms get you nicely into your free child; you can imagine skipping along in the sunshine while you half sing it. You can play it through your head if it's not safe to say it, but I recommend saying it out loud whenever you can.

Once you accept that you can change and that it's beneficial to expect always to be changing, it's much easier to let go of patterns of thought and behaviour that are not serving you.  Accept how you were before and let it go.  "That's how I was yesterday, but that's not how I am today."  You can be endlessly, excitedly, becoming the new you.

And once this new way of thinking about yourself as eternally renewing becomes your belief about yourself, you also start to see that you are not trapped by your life's circumstances.  Once you change yourself, your circumstances change. 

Begin and see.  So exciting!
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yippee

Free as air

Joy is as freely available to us as air.  It is all around us and in us, just like air.

Once we dissolve the mental and emotional blocks constructed since childhood, we are able to feel joy flow through us, inhabit us. 

Let go of fear, let go of anger, jealousy, self-hate.  These are all veils hiding how easily accessible the joy is.  Cut them down, let them fall, let the wind blow the veils away.  We don't need that stuff, we can choose to be without all those fear-based emotions.

Try it.  Don't be surprised if you fly.