*

Make 2012 the year where we dare to dream..

2011-12-31T18:45:00.000-08:00

2012 has been surrounded with so many different energies; those who promote it as a year of doom and chaos, those who say it is a new beginning, those who say it is a year much the same as any other.

So which is true? They all are. Because what we imagine things to be is what they can become. How we react to change shapes our ability to influence outcomes and ultimately our life is only ever limited by the limits of our own imagination.

What is it we all want really? I would say it is peace. Peace in our own hearts, peace in our communities and peace on the planet. The problem with peace is that we are very clear on what peace is not, but no one ever really sits down and gives real time to imagine what a peaceful world might actually be like.

As my teacher often says, there are hundreds of paintings of hell (just think of Bosch). Every kind of horror is imagined. It's gruesome yes, but it's very varied and generally shows tremendous detail. However when it comes to heaven what do we get? Generally some fluffy clouds, green fields, angels and cherubs, girls in pretty dresses with flowers in their hair and that's about it. It all looks a little bit samey and deep down, if people are honest, they are not quite sure that wafting around in fields of flowers or fluffy clouds forever is really going to be that interesting or exciting!

This might sound amusing, but actually, if you look at it, whether we are aware of it or not this is quite an entrenched thought, deep down in many of our psyches. And if our lazily imagined peace is not really what jazzes us then how can we really expect that we can create peace on our planet?

So historically we haven't been that good at putting effort into imagining peace. And if we don't imagine something we have little hope of creating it.

Dare to Dream

So my challenge for 2012 is to forget the resolutions about what you are not going to do any more and resolve to do one thing - Dare to dream, dare to imagine a worked out version of peace. It will take effort, because it's a new territory.

Someone once said that there are no new ideas any more just recycled versions going round and round. That is true. There is very little new on the planet except for this one thing, there are absolutely no worked out imaginings of a peaceful world that also manage to stay interesting, stimulating and rich with innovation and creativity. Just think about it, there are no books, no movies, no songs - it's a whole new concept that collectively we need to dare to imagine and dream into existence.

So maybe we can make 2012 the year where we really begin to dream a whole new way of being into existence. We can ask ourselves these questions:

What is peace for me in my own life?

What can I do to contribute to peace in my own family and social network?

What would an interesting world of peace look like to me?

Wishing everyone a year filled with love, light, laughter, joy, strength, good health, peace and prosperity and I leave you with a prayer and a song ...

A Prayer for 2012

Guardian Angels of all creatures,

protect us all;

teach us to love,

to pray,

to respect the world we live in

and to be kind to every living thing,

so that one day we may understand

that all we do now

will be a part of us forever.

Angel Prayers & Messages by JM Hurley & Rosie Ismail

(verse from the Prayer to all Guardian Angels for Balance and Peace in the World)

The universe is listening to your heart.

2011-12-09T14:18:00.001-08:00

This lovely song came my way today and gave me the motivation to write something...

My heart was knocked this past week as some awful animal cruelty stories appeared in the press. I make a point not to read the papers too much for all the reasons I have already written about before. However these came to my attention and I'm not even going to describe what they were about as I don't even think it's a good idea to publicize such cases. I know it's important to highlight the work of animal rights workers, but over reporting such cases, I feel, just gives more ideas to those who are so damaged that they just go and reenact them,

What bothered me most is how it affected me. I went through rage, hatred, despair, the desire for vengeance and then gloom and despondency! So obviously I handled it really well - not!

I am so of the same view as Byron Katie that we are one giant schizophrenic mind trying to free ourselves one thought at a time. And if we are all one, then they, these people whose actions I so abhor, are part of me too. But as I tantrumed around the house berating the awful state of humanity I couldn't find any identification with these inhuman people.

I settled down a bit, got to a peaceful place in my knowledge practice and then went back to questioning again. 'I cannot identify with these people, is that true?' In reality it wasn't. As I felt my own inner peace and connection with my heart get stronger I saw immediately that I wanted to do to these people what they were doing to the animals. In fact I wanted to find even slower and painful ways of unleashing terror on them!!!

But these sad people are also living creatures and I was so hurt by their actions that for a brief period of time I had no problem whatsoever with the idea of even worse things being done to them. And in that moment of realisation, I found them in me. I saw that they could only do these things because some part of them is so hurt that they are lashing out because they have lost a sense of connection.

It doesn't excuse their actions. But it does give hope that connection can be restored as long as we keep our hearts open. I was shaken by how falling into the pit of rage disconnected me so absolutely, even if it was just for a few days. But I am lucky, I have to tools that help me to reconnect and feel my heart speak again. As lightworkers we must keep on going and spread whatever tools we have at our disposal to reach out, even to those we think we cannot reach.

And just as I got back to a place of peace, this beautiful song came my way and so here it is...

Dance with Life fans in Cork area...

2011-11-30T12:29:00.001-08:00

Peace begins in the heart of every human being. Who am I? What am I doing here? What am I all about? What is the purpose of my life?

DVD presentation of Prem Rawat Maharaji answering these questions December 4th Imperial Hotel Cork - Rossmore Suite at 4pm. Should be fun. Free entry. All welcome...

For a taste of Maharaji in action see below

People of the Story

2011-11-11T19:06:00.001-08:00

For some people life is a poem, for others it's a song, and there are those for whom it's a tragedy, or a black comedy or a giant, epic fantasy! Regardless of what way the story unfolds, the one guarantee is that a story is being written, one breath at a time.

We are ultimately the people of the story.

We have a constant need for stories. We like stories about the world around us (the "News"). As we grow up our stories evolve from picture books, cartoons and comics to full blown movies, novels and TV soaps. Such is our appetite for a story we don't seem to care whether the story is real or not and more and more we give equal weight to stories about celebrities and to Reality TV show stories featuring ordinary people.

If an alien civilization somewhere out there happened upon earth and began to observe us, they would probably say that this is a world of stories. To them, we might appear to be a young species of some kind who sit mesmerized as a giant story telling machine weaves its spell and enthralls us in its neverending supply of stories.

A story is of course a great learning tool, as long as you are aware that it is a story. It's when we are in the story and forget that it is a story that problems arise. We begin to believe the story that we are being told and that we are telling ourselves. We forget that as creative beings we have the power to co-create the story and to change its direction. Worst of all, we can become so entrenched in a version of a story that we fight anyone who is equally entrenched in another version. And so we have wars and conspiracies, financial meltdowns and power games.

More importantly, in the forgetting that it is all a story in the first place we can be manipulated by those who control the mass story telling machines. As the media industries of news, film and music become more and more amalgamated into large corporations they have the power to pump out a stories that can influence what we believe.

Right now we have a music industry that has become overwhelmingly mass produced, one dimensional and more like a giant porn and freak show. It is no surprise that the children incessantly being fed this one storyline are becoming confused, unhappy and angry. And the adults fare no better as the mass media is feeding us on a diet of war, fear and insecurity amidst channels full of largely meaningless programming.

But we have choice. We do not have to choose these stories. We have to move from our hypnotic trance and see that healing ourselves and the planet can start from little steps. One step is to wise up to the story we are being fed and start creating our own. Parents have a responsibility to watch what stories are being pushed on their children and to steer them to more creative and positive ways of seeing the world.

I feel very strongly about this as I see that the root cause of much of the dis-ease that my clients are now presenting with is stemming from a belief that it's all hopeless and awful out there because that is the story they are seeing every day.

Yes we are the people of the story. The story has shaped us since we first started to create pictures on the walls of caves. But in truth there are only two operating systems from which everything springs - love or fear. We must start rewriting the story and co-creating the stories of love. We must give attention to the stories that feed and nourish our souls, to the stories that inspire, teach and help us progress.

The other system, the one of fear has no place in our world. However, as long as we give attention and belief to the story machine of fear then we make it real. We give it power and then bring into reality all the things we absolutely don't want to experience.

If we just become a little more conscious about where we place our attention, we can wake up from the hypnosis and actively imagine a new way forward. Small steps and little choices can help us and those around us to unhook from the drip fed stories of fear. These are ways we can heal and grow.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

(Robert Frost from The Road not Taken)

I Choose Love ~ Shawn Gallaway

2011-10-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

What we practice we get good at...

2011-10-25T19:18:00.000-07:00

What we practice we get good at, so what are we practicing? Peace or war? Love or fear? Judgement or compassion?

I just wrote a piece for another block which I am reposting here as I think it's important to emphasize that we do have choice and that the choices we make are becoming more and more important.

With all the talk and speculation going on around October 28th and it’s association with Calleman’s projected “end” of the Mayan calendar, (see top picture) now is a very good time to look at what you choose to think and why.

There is certainly a sense of change growing on the Earth and even more so, there seems to be a real desire for positive change.

Whether October 28th has any real meaning in Mayan or astrological terms or not, doesn’t really matter as we are collectively giving it a meaning by looking towards it as representing something significant.

We can harness this significance and choose to focus collectively on positive change.So how do we do this? Mainly by letting go of fear.

"But this is a scary time!", some people will argue. Yes it is. We are certainly not downplaying the real issues that are bubbling on this planet of ours. As global financial structures collapse and with them all the livelihoods and ideas of what a secure life and a secure future should look like, then of course fear can get a toehold on the collective consciousness.Change brings with it a feeling of uncertainty and if uncertainty is not managed then fear can and will creep in.

But we have to be realistic about change. The clue is in the word and change really does mean change. Even when the change is for the good the process that nudges this new way of experiencing the world can be uncomfortable and unsettling.We can make change easier by flowing with it, staying in trust, reaching out to help each other and opening our minds to new ways of seeing and experiencing our daily lives.

Or we can make it difficult by resisting, grumbling, wallowing in fear based thinking and walling ourselves away from our true selves and from each other.

This is where our collective thinking can make a difference. If we expect the best, then perhaps we can nudge our collective destiny onto a smoother path that doesn’t have to create too much discomfort.

Here are some practical ways to create positive intention and vibration:

Stop feeding your mind with negative outcomes. That means be very discerning about watching news or reading newspapers. Either stop or at least be aware that for every bad story going on there are hundreds of good things happening that are never reported.
Find a positive angle in everything that you hear and actively look for positive stories..
Use vision boards and positive words to dream yourself happy and to include beautiful earth images so that a healthy, happy planet is always included in what you imagine. Connect with animals and nature.
Pass on positive stories to others. Don't pass on bad news, scare stories or engage in pessimistic conversations.
If your thoughts are stressing you, depressing you or making you sad then ask for help. There are hundreds of wonderful teachers and methods out there that can help so have a look around and work with whatever system appeals to you.
Find a meditation practise that works for you. Learning to be with yourself in silence opens you to the much bigger you that lives within you...
Don't listen to people who say that it's so hard to become enlightened and all that sort of separatist thinking. That's just another negative thoughtform disguised as a philosophy. A happy human being at peace with themselves and the world around them, doing his or her very best to consciously create a happier, healthier world is an enlightened human being. That's all. It's no big mystery and if you're not feeling like that right in this moment you're only a thought away from it!

The key to all of this is to be conscious. To live consciously and to remember that our time here is meant to be a joyful and fun experience. Remember that the news reports just give one side of the story. There have never been so many great teachers on the planet, so many people waking up and choosing to live consciously and so many ways in which to learn and experience conscious living.

And what does it even mean to be conscious? In essence it’s a way of simply living from the heart.

And because I haven't given any extracts for a while from Dance with Life here are a few to hopefully inspire and uplift!

Source: Dance with Life by JM Hurley (see links on right)

'Do you know what it means to be alive?
Do you understand that life is only a moment, just one moment after another?
Do you understand that?
There is no going back, no skipping ahead, just the moment called now, just the feeling that you carry within you.
Do you realise how much time is lost by spending all theyesterdays dreaming of tomorrows?
All the ‘should haves’ and ‘could haves’ are meaningless.
Tragedy is when you realise this too late.
Tragedy is when the first experience and understanding of this reality comes with the last breath.’

...

‘This is not a journey with outcomes,’ he said. ‘The journey is the destination. I can accompany you on this journey but it is your journey and I cannot take your steps for you. You need to feel it in your own heart. Face it with clarity and with courage.’

....

‘The inner voice can see in all directions,’ he replied. ‘To know yourself you must get to know your capacity in all directions. Good and bad are not qualities that exist outside. They are inside every human being. To be unaware of this would be to mislead yourself. Take time, let this settle. Look at what is around you; see things for what they are. Sometimes this will involve just seeing something exactly for what it is. Sometimes it will be to look beyond what is apparent. Listen to your gut feeling it is often a very good mouthpiece for the heart.’
...

Light is a real thing. It overpowers darkness on every level. I can’t remove another curtain and let darkness in to engulf the light. I can only create darkness by blocking out the light, but the light is always there, waiting for a chink through which it can pour. Even the smallest spark, the tiniest chink will let the light in. Never forget that. Even when it seems to be the darkest place, never forget that the light is there, waiting for the moment when you allow it to seep in.’

...

‘See this hand,’ he continued, holding one hand up, ‘imagine it’s your physical self with all its hopes and dreams. It has a finite route. It is made of the elements and it will return to the elements. Now see this hand,’ he said, holding the other up, ‘imagine this is the place inside that you have just experienced. This has been, is, and always will be.’He joined his hands, interweaving the fingers. He smiled.‘This is life. This is the merger of the finite and the infinite. Through the amazing feeling machine that is your finite self, your infinite nature can play in the symphony of life. With every breath the finite and the infinite meet. Their point of union is contained in that breath. It’s as close as the two realms can ever get to one another. The point of being alive, of understanding the nature of this breath is to feel and to experience this gift of life.’

.....

The heart feels no chaos. Its drumbeat is simplicity. Its desire is to be in love and to feel no duality. It is the happiness of contentment. Chaos lives in the mind, in the nerves, in the sinews. It feeds on turbulent emotions, on the rapidfiring of agitated brain cells; it battles against the simple calm of the soul. The dark night of the soul lives in the mind. Only the mind can create the very traps that lead it to self-destruct.

.....

Let no room for doubt in your heart. The heart is never off course. Trust in that.’

....

Every unconscious moment sets the seeds for a future disaster.There is always choice. You can choose to be swallowed by fear or you can choose to remove yourself from the control of fear. Do you have the ability to make that choice? Yes, because you are choosing to learn now about the process of living consciously.

......

‘The world!’ he exclaimed. ‘The world is a very peaceful rock floating in a very calm solar system. I don’t see Earth rushing at Venus or Mars, challenging them to a fight! And it has a very fortunate position, if it was anywhere else, Earth could be constantly bombarded by meteors. Instead it’s lucky to bump into something only every few million years or so. This world, this planet Earth, doesn’t need to seek peace, it already has it. It is people who create the wars, the random acts of violence, the hatred and destruction. And yet inside every human being is the most perfect peace. Every individual heart must seek that peace, must become conscious that everything connects, that taking responsibility for making the world a better place starts first within each person. Unconscious behaviour has a heavy cost.’‘The heaviest cost being death,’ she said.‘No,’ he shook his head. ‘The heaviest cost is in failing to notice life.’
.......

‘The true miracle of life lies in the breath and in the ability to experience the divine within. There areno other miracles,’ he added, ‘plenty of unusual phenomena maybe, but no other miracles. Too often the unusual takes over and the truly miraculous is forgotten.’
....

And to conclude, if you haven't already seen it the amazing and inspiring talk by Jill Bolte Taylor on what she calls her Stroke of Insight. A stroke at the age of 37 led Jill, a Neuroanatomist who specialised in brain research, not just to a new found medical understanding of brain function, but to a life changing meeting with her fully conscious, aware and blissful self...

Elisabet Sahtouris | The Butterfly Story

2011-10-20T14:30:00.000-07:00

This is a lovely take on the current world consciousness change by Elisabet Sahtouris, an evolution biologist and future consultant. It reminds me of the caterpillar story from Dance with Life, which I posted ages ago. But, as I believe in synchronicities and I was thinking about that story from Dance with Life when this one came tweeting in, I think I am going to dig it out and repost it at the end of this.
Enjoy...

The Butterfly Story
Elisabet Sahtouris | the butterfly story

A caterpillar can eat up to three hundred times its own weight in a day, devastating many plants in the process, continuing to eat until it’s so bloated that it hangs itself up and goes to sleep, its skin hardening into a chrysalis. Then, within the chrysalis, within the body of the dormant caterpillar, a new and very different kind of creature, the butterfly, starts to form. This confused biologists for a long time. How could a different genome plan exist within the caterpillar to form a different creature? They knew that metamorphosis occurs in a number of insect species, but it was not known until quite recently that nature did a lot of mixing and matching of very different genome/protein configurations in early evolutionary times. Cells with the butterfly genome/ proteins were held as aggregates, or 'discs' of stem cells that biologists call 'imaginal cells', tucked inside pockets of the caterpillar’s skin all its life, remaining undeveloped until the crisis of overeating, fatigue and breakdown allows them to develop.

Such metamorphosis makes a good metaphor for the great changes globalisation, in the sense of world transformation, is bringing about., as Norie Huddle first used it in her children's book Butterfly. Our bloated old system is rapidly becoming defunct while the vision of a new and very different society, long held by many 'imaginal cell' humans who dreamt of a better world, is now emerging like a butterfly, representing our solutions to the crises of predation, overconsumption and breakdown in a new way of living lightly on Earth, and of seeing our human society not in the metaphors and models of mechanism as well-oiled social machinery, but in those of evolving, self-organizing and intelligent living organism.

If you want a butterfly world, don't step on the caterpillar, but join forces with other imaginal cells to build a better future for all!

======

I love the idea of imaginal cells. It never ceases to amaze me what we can learn from nature and how many life lessons are right under our noses! Anyway that was Elisabet's lovely story and now we can zoom in and see it from the viewpoints of the caterpillars!

======

A Tale of Two Caterpillars
“Once there was a brother caterpillar and a sister caterpillar. The sister spent all her time looking to the sky. She would watch the birds and all the other winged creatures with longing. She said to her brother ‘One day I’ll fly just like them. I really feel that I will.’
Her brother was scornful.
‘Don’t be so stupid,’ he said. ‘What would you even want to fly for. It’s lovely to be able to wiggle along the earth and to find a fat juicy leaf. I watch those silly birds and they’re always just darting about looking useless.’
She listened to him, but didn’t agree.
‘It’s not that I don’t like being a caterpillar and that I don’t enjoy every leaf and patch of earth that we explore, but I just can’t shake off the feeling that there’s something more. Haven’t you ever wondered why there are no old caterpillars? Where does everyone go?’
Her brother looked angry.
‘You are so STUPID,’ he shouted. ‘Why do you think those birds are so fat? That’s where we all end up – in their stomachs. We’re bird food! We just have a pointless reason here. It’s as simple as that. There’s nothing ahead except some sharp beak, then darkness. Just accept that and stop going on at me. And stop admiring the very creatures you should hate!’
Her brother was disgusted and wriggled away.
She curled on her little leaf singing happily to herself.
‘Maybe my brother is right, but it’s still lovely to look at all the other creatures,’ she said to herself.
Just then a dragonfly whirred past. He saw her on the leaf and landed to say ‘hello’.
She told him about her argument with her brother. The dragonfly clicked and hummed with laughter.
‘But of course you’ll fly. One day you’ll be a butterfly!’
She was thrilled and excitedly went to tell her brother.
‘And you believed him!’ he scoffed. ‘No one believes that mad fool. Even the very word, “butterfly”, I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous.’
Time passed and the urge came for the caterpillars to start spinning their chrysalises. She was full of hope, sure that this was going to take her towards her dream. Her brother was melancholy.
‘This is just packing you know,’ he said sadly. ‘It’s a cruel trick. They’ve engineered it that we do this to fill their stomachs even more. We’re too thin as we are.’
She tried to argue with him but he wouldn’t listen.
They hung, suspended in their chrysalises, for what seemed like an eternity. Then one day her chrysalis began to move. She felt it slip away. She couldn’t figure out where she was, everything looked red. She shook herself and a trickle of red fluid gathered at her little feet. As she looked down she noticed the most beautiful sight. She had wings of lilac and gold with little green spots for decoration. She flapped her wings and began to fly. It was the most amazing feeling. She landed on a flower and sipped delicately at the nectar. It was exquisite, beyond any taste she could have ever imagined. As she looked down on the earth below she felt extraordinarily privileged.
‘This is even better than being a bird,’ she sang out loud, ‘because they have only ever been birds. But I know how cosy and warm it is to snuggle in the warm earth and to chew the deep green leaves and now I know the joy of flight and the magical taste of nectar. I have been given two lives, two experiences in this one lifetime.’
She heard a grumbling coming from a rich yellow flower. Perched on the flower was a beautiful orange butterfly. It was her brother! She flew excitedly to him.
‘It wasn’t a trick, it was real,’ she cried, fluttering her wings to him in greeting.
He looked bitter.
‘Don’t be so naive!’ he snapped. ‘Look at the colour of us both. You bright gold and me bright orange. They’ll see us for miles. We won’t last a second I tell you!’
‘Oh brother! Why can’t you see how amazing this is? You’re beautiful. And we can fly!’
He grimaced.
‘What sort of awful stuff is this?’ he moaned, indicating to the nectar. ‘My teeth are gone. I can’t get a bite of leaf no matter how I try. And I hate flying. It makes my head spin. I tried to curl nicely on a leaf but these blasted wings keep slipping so I fall down.’
She shook her little head and spiralled upwards, realising that there was nothing that she could do to change his mind. He
was as determined to dislike their new life as she was to embrace it.
‘Perhaps in time he will like it more,’ she thought, as she caught a current of air and swooped and fluttered along it into the blue, blue sky.”
Dance With Life page 126-129

Jim Carrey Introduces Eckhart Tolle

2011-10-07T20:19:00.000-07:00

Jim Carrey discusses the Mainstream Media

2011-10-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

Prem Rawat - Just Us

2011-10-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

Prem Rawat - Maharaji: "What do you practice in your life?"

2011-09-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

Genetically Modified Foods

2011-08-08T13:25:00.000-07:00

The integrity of medicinal plants

2011-08-08T13:22:00.000-07:00

I had the great pleasure this week to spend time with a gifted herbalist who gave me a very interesting insight. He said that when choosing plants his top criteria is that they must have integrity. He explained that, for example, some species of potato have to be sprayed every week to prevent disease. That in his view is a plant without integrity. Why? Because if the plant cannot take care of its own health, how can we expect it to offer any benefit to us. So he will only use plants that grow naturally, have not been cultivated or interfered with by human hands and which are naturally resistant to disease. The God given plants he calls them, healthy in their natural state as nature intended. Then he learns from the plants and from the animals that eat them. He watches to see how they use the various plants to heal themselves, the order in which they choose the various plants and then he listens to the plants themselves and really hears what they offer. He has very high success rates with many difficult physical conditions so in my view his approach is spot on.

His biggest concern is with GM crops. These crops have been stripped of their integrity. They have been twisted into mutant and highly destructive broken creatures. The problem is what can happen to the healthy populations if they become infected by GM strains. It is vital that we do not lose the amazing medicine bank that nature offers us. GM crops are truly a blight on our natural landscape and to let them loose is playing russian roulette with the future of our planet.

Mind over Matter: Secrets of human aura revealed by Russian scientists

2011-05-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

Healing: Becoming a healer

2011-05-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

In the coming weeks I am going to begin to write here about the healing methods I use as a way of making myself write the book on healing that I've been promising to write for so long!

Before I start though, its important to talk about what it means to be a healer. Jonathan Goldman, an expert in music and healing frequencies, is someone whose music I use all the time in healing sessions. He remarks that frequency + intent = healing.

Intent is where the healer comes in. The intent is to heal obviously. But how do you get into that state? The healer is not immune from illness. He or she may have lots of things going on that they are working on in their own selves. Often this understanding adds to the ability to understand what a client might be experiencing. In my view that is fine as it keeps you human and not in danger of stepping into a role where everyone thinks you have all the answers. The important thing is to get out of your own way and not bring your own stuff into the sessions you conduct.

Intent is ultimately about being absolutely clear that anything is possible. The intent is 100% removed from thinking about outcomes, getting stuck in a diagnosis, or underestimating the life path of the client and what they may have chosen to experience and what they have the power to release.

So how do you get yourself to this state of intent?

My personal recipe is first to have a teacher or system that you can refer to that keeps you clear on a personal and heart level. I personally use the techniques of Knowledge as taught by Maharaji and find his teaching keeps me on track and in touch with myself.

Secondly, the healer needs to learn a system that helps to channel the energy not from you but through you. Again I personally trained in the Domancic method, which works well on physical conditions and in a Bioenergy healing method that works deeply on emotional conditions. For people with really stuck thinking I trained in The Work of Byron Katie.

Thirdly, a personal rule must be to separate work from life. The healer is a healer only at work. In life they have their own learning to experience and their own bridges to cross. It is vital to have a work-life separation. Too often the healer draws in "clients" to their personal life and the end result is rarely positive.

Maharaji once told a very good story to illustrate this. He gave the example of someone who comes to you with his finger cut off. He cries, "Look I've cut off my finger!" You help him bandage the finger, you talk about why he cut off his finger, you worry about how he's feeling and you take such care of him until that wound has healed. Then you turn your back and in seconds he's back. "Oh look!", he wails, "I've cut off another finger." You go through the same process again and then when all is well, he's back with yet another finger cut off. The point here, Maharaji says, is how many fingers are you going to stay for? Because the severed fingers will keep on coming. Compassion is staying for the first finger and maybe the second, but when the chopped fingers keep on coming then, if you stay, you are being lenient, not compassionate and leniency is no good for you or for the person chopping off his fingers.

A point comes when you have to walk away. For whatever reason you are not the person the deal with the severed finger syndrome. A 'finger chopper' can only be helped when they admit that the problem is that they can't stop chopping off their fingers.

Is walking away easy? No! Is walking away necessary? Absolutely! Healing is not rescuing or saving or performing some magical act. Rather it is a choice to cooperate with someone who wants to grow in their lives and by taking part and just being present without agendas or ego the healer also learns and grows with every client.

So the lesson of compassion versus leniency is vital in anyone's life, but especially in the life of someone who chooses a healing profession. Once that lesson is learned the intent becomes even more clear and more powerful. It also flows into professional life as clients also benefit. They can be guaranteed a compassionate approach but also a tough line in the sand that will not allow for any lenient acceptance of negative or destructive patterns.

The Heart of a Child

2011-04-26T17:34:00.000-07:00

The children arriving on the planet now (and in the past ten years) I feel are a very special batch that have a huge part to play in our movment towards a new phase in our evolution as spiritual beings. They are coming at a time when life on earth is very disturbed and out of balance.

It is vital to nurture and protect these children. To give them routine, structure and boundaries, while also allowing them to open to the spiritual world and to the power of their own conscious creation. To allow them time in nature, time to reflect, to think, read, paint, draw, create. No TV is the best option, as it is now so polluted with images of debasment and negativity, however nothing is all bad and excellent nature programmes and programmes which enhance learning and growth are good. Active parenting is the key. sharing meals together, conversation, debate, laughter, guidance and clarity.

It's just not on to plonk these kids in front of a TV or video game and expect that all will be well. It won't be. I'll talk about this more in later posts but for now I just want to let a young lady called Tia Nicole speak in the clip posted below:

Great Message and you will be surprised at the teacher

2011-04-26T17:32:00.000-07:00

TillyGreenway.mp4

2011-03-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

TillyGreenwayPrologue.mp4

2011-03-28T18:54:00.000-07:00

Inspiring and thrilling read...

2011-03-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

Tilly Greenway & the Secrets of the Ancient Keys Book One: Watchers is the first instalment in an epic fantasy saga.

It's a great story and I'm including it here as it is also a Katy Press publication (I didn't write it but I have read it and it's fantastic!) I'll include a few of the you tubes also. The book description below says it all....

Two worlds. One planet. A race to save mankind.

What if magic and myth are true and all that we have been told about the history of the earth is false? What if there is a sinister shadow government creating war and chaos in an attempt to destroy humanity? What if there are cosmic cycles that bring truth and lies face to face for one final showdown?

When all these forces collide, Tilly Greenway and her stepbrother Zack find themselves at the centre of a power struggle that reaches back to the dawn of time. What they do next will decide the fate of humanity forever...

When dreams come true and myths are real, anything can happen…and it certainly does in this tale of magic, mystery and dark intrigue….

What would happen if you blended The X-files with Lord of the Rings, added a pinch of Eragon and a few drops of Harry Potter? Most likely you'd get Watchers!

And, you might be forgiven for thinking that Watchers, the first book in the Tilly Greenway and the Secrets of the Ancient Keys series, is one of those classics that has been around forever and that somehow it's only now you're getting around to reading it. That's the peculiar thing about this book: it just has a sort of presence, like it has always been there, whispering its secrets to you from the dim recesses of your book shelf.

Maybe that's in part due to the nature of the story itself. Like the world we live in, there are many levels to this book and many parallel realities that flicker in and out of existence. Nothing is ever quite as it seems and there are wheels within wheels as the plot reveals its hidden secrets.

The rough story is as follows: The UK is straining under the pressure of the global war against terror. In the cities, school children live in fear of knife attacks and rampant pandemics. When a flood threatens to devastate London, twelve year old Tilly Greenway and her stepbrother Zack are evacuated to a creepy manor house in Wales.

Their lives are turned (even more) upside down when they find out that the world itself is controlled by a sinister organisation called ISIS who are in league with a group of shadowy alien entities. ISIS wants nothing less than to microchip the population with nano-brains that give them complete control over every human being on the planet. And they will stop at nothing to get their way.

Tilly and Zack soon discover that they have a big part to play in thwarting ISIS's plan. They must decipher a series of ancient riddles in order to unlock the secret locations of the mysterious ME Keys, objects of power that were hidden by an Egyptian Princess more than three thousand years ago.

On their journey they come across the Guardians of the Earth, a secret society committed to keeping alive the secrets of long ago. The Guardians help Tilly and Zack to locate the last twelve dragons, who are buried beneath England's hilltops. Then they must find and activate the first ME Key.

But ISIS and the calculating Director of Terror are hot on their heels. With their department of remote-viewers, they track the children's every movement, setting up a nail-biting finale on the peak of Glastonbury Tor…

The great thing about this book is that it has all the pace and intrigue of a Dan Brown thriller, whilst at the same time giving the reader many moments of respite (and humour) in quiet scenes that take the reader into the heart and soul of the countryside.

Magical creatures appear from the mists of time. Sacred sites are brought to life in ways that make them relevant for the modern reader and the real beauty of the world becomes a vital presence in the book, giving the children a deeper understanding of what it is they are fighting for.

Rarely does a book live up to its billing, but Watchers really is the exception to the rule. And the great thing is that the landscape of Tilly Greenway is real. You can visit every location (well, except for the scary ones, maybe)!

If you like epic fantasy, magic and myth, suspense-filled thrillers, or X-Files-type conspiracy stories…this is the book for you!

Buy it here amazon.co.uk

TillyGreenwayProphecy.mp4

2011-03-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

Dance with Life now available as an ebook

2011-03-08T15:10:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been a hopeless blogger but at least in all this time I've managed to learn how to convert Dance with Life into an epub ebook! Many people in the US have wanted Dance with Life and as it's on sale only via amazon.co.uk this added an extra cost that wasn't necessary. So now the book can be purchased from Lulu.com right now and ibooks and more in a few weeks as an ebook.

I'm posting the link in the side panel.

I'm an amateur at epub design so please feel free to let me know if there are any glitches in the epub book. x

It's been a long time!

2010-03-17T18:43:00.000-07:00

Gosh it's been such a long time since I posted...

It's been busy here as I've been very absorbed in BioEnergy Healing again and in using sound therapy also. I've just started one day a week also in my local Doctors surgery so that is very positive and a great testament to the very progressive and dedicated approach of this branch of the medical profession.

I've also been working on an online healing course which will guide others to open to their healing potential using a book and mp3s of the guided meditations I use in the healing course. I'm doing this because this healing method is powerful and I can't do it all on my own. The more people out there who can learn to do this, the more the energy can travel. We all have the ability within us and the methods I learned are a very grounded way to open to the universal healing forces without frying your system!

I started another blog called The Noetic Digest (link on left) which is more of a think-piece magazine relating to many of the interesting things going on out in this beautiful planet of ours that we never get to read about in the mainstream media. So if anyone out there has interesting articles to add please send them in.

Now I'm off to listen to a live webstream of Maharaji speaking in Miami this week. Plus Sonia Choquette is starting a great series of webinars called Travelling at the Speed of Love. speedoflovebook.com/

Isn't the internet just great!

The Magic Happens ...

2009-07-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

I've just been to a great talk by my teacher Maharaji (Prem Rawat). It was a great few days of learning for me. For one thing the event was announced at very short notice so I had two days to get there or not.

My head kicked in with all the reasons why this was too little time for me to get there. The questions came up - How would I juggle things? Why was the notice period so short?
Then the moaning - It's not fair! This is just too much to expect. I don't like to be rushed And what about the guys pulling this together how will they do it in time.

My head decided that the whole thing was too much for it and settled into a sulky "I'm not going and that's that" stand off.

My heart moved my hands to the computer and reserved a seat just in case my mind changed. Then by chance I spoke to one of the guys organising it and was he concerned? NO! "Ah just let the magic happen and it will all come together", he said.

I thought about that and saw that I was so in my own way. The river was flowing and I was letting my thoughts strand me on the dry rock in the middle safely and miserably out of the flow. I decided to get out of my own way. The flow started. Another telephone call offering all sorts of easy solutions, travel with good friends, accommodation for all of us in another friend's house. We went and had a marvellous time.

As he spoke Maharaji talked about illusion and the tremendous power illusion has to seem so real. How does the illusionist pull off a stunt? With clever distraction. The illusions in life are no different and what stunts are we not noticing? What are we allowing to distract us?

So short notice or perfect timing? I can only love what is and in this case the timing couldn't have been better as it allowed me to shed another set of concepts. What a gift to have been given. I was only saying a few weeks ago that I was finding training for Byron Katie's The Work tough going as I was running out of issues to work on. Boy did I find a few issues when the comfort zone of planning, of thinking I could know for sure what the next week would bring, was removed. I found the illusion that life can be known beyond the moment was shattered and the distraction of diaries, plans and arrangements are just ideas of what might happen but might or might not have any bearing on the reality of what is happening.

It was even fun to see my mind run riot again. That hasn't happened for a long time and thankfully an ego based sulk couldn't hold up against a heart that has been fulfilled, strengthened, expanded and bathed in bliss by the simplicity of Maharaji's teaching time after time after time.

The whole experience reminded me too of something Maharaji said some time ago - the ability to be in touch with the heart is no different to eating. It has to be done every day. You can't eat and then say that's fine, I've eaten now I never have to eat again. No every day the food has to be ingested and every day connection has to be made with the heart. A day skipped is a day spent hungry.

I'm grateful now to have experienced the hunger and the filling in the space of yet another 24 hours on planet Earth.

Something New

2009-04-14T17:02:00.000-07:00

Well it's been all change in the world or has it.. Fear affects us all in so may ways. I've been holding myself back for some time now from committing to establishing a healing centre in the small town I live in. But I'm following my heart and the Fusion Centre will open May 5th to offer The Work of Byron Katie, Intuitive Mentoring and Energy Healing. All things I've been doing for a while now but not in a committed full time capacity. My decision to offer it via the centre is largely based on my commitment to my own path and walking the walk as it were, rather than hiding behind the many excuses for not just admitting that writing and healing is all that I do.

And for all out there who may be feeling the effects of all the global fear please realise that this global lesson is a financial one. So many of us have come to see our worth and the worth of those around us in purely financial terms and that is such a slippery road to go on. In reality no money is secure, banks can fail, stocks become worthless, property prices fall, countries revolt. It's all a game and if we can't see that our only asset is love, family and community and the ability to give and receive love to our partners, family and friends then we truly lose because we are not recognising that the only currency that has any value or endurance is the currency of love.

The question we can ask ourselves in this situation is what did we value? What did we expect to gain from having houses that were so much bigger than our actual needs? Why did we need four wheel drives if we were living in urban or inner city ares? Why did we think the chemical peels, the botox or the facelifts would prevent the natural aging process? What did we really expect to gain from any of these transient things?

In looking at the false idols that we devote ourselves to, we may begin to get a sense again of what is real. So from a work perspective I would ask not "is the world economy in crisis" but rather "is our 'meaning of life' view being challenged"?

That's a nice question to sit with and do an inquiry on...

FREE YOUR MIND - FEEL YOUR LIFE - LIVE THE EXPERIENCE

2008-12-10T15:11:00.000-08:00

Well at long last have my website partially up! It's there in the links on the left called The Fusion Method or www.the-fusion-method.com.

It's been a while coming but I needed time to figure out where all that I was learning and assimilating was leading me. I use the Work of Byron Katie to free the mind, the teachings of Prem Rawat Maharaji to feel life and the huge joy bubble that is Sonia Choquette and her methods to live the experience. All the while I've been avidly studying the latest in quantum physics theories and their application to the particular healing system that I have developed. It all comes together in the Fusion Method and I'm excited about where it will lead.

I'm in the process of writing 'Dance with Life in Action', a workbook that embraces the Fusion Method, and in that I will develop some of the science and amazing theories that back up and underpin much of the centuries old teachings that I passed on in Dance with Life.

I'll keep you posted on how that all progresses.

The Fusion Method Healing Classes

2008-12-08T05:48:00.000-08:00

Healing Classes Begin in Bantry on Monday January 26th 2009

The Fusion Method is a mind-body-spirit approach to healing and holistic well being. The aim of this class is to give participants the tools to deal with stressful and negative thinking or any thoughts which block or prevent success. Participants will learn how to open and close their energy centres, how to work with guidance and how to energetically protect themselves. The healing method taught is a form of ‘hands-off’ energy healing that participants can use both on themselves and on others. Throughout the classes participants will be given techniques and exercises that, with practice, will help them to tune in to their inner selves, their bodies and their intuition.

Pre-class sign-up is mandatory and participants will be asked to complete a pre course worksheet to help them benefit fully from all these classes can offer.

Each week the class is broken into four segments

1. How the mind works
2. The Energy Body - Healing practise
3. Your toolkit
4. Guided meditation

Feel free to email me for more information. The email address is in the links section on left.

Mellen Thomas Benedict

2008-11-24T16:50:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine directed me to a site today about a man called Mellen Thomas Benedict who had an amazing near death experience. It really resonated with me as it so echoes all that came in for me when I was writing Dance with Life and all that my guidance is bringing in now. I know I said I'd say more about Sonia and I will later this week but one thing her workshops do is ramp up your abilities to tune in and clear the channels for guidance by an amazing degree. My readings are now bringing in a lot more detail and specific instruction.

Anyway enough about me, here’s some information on Mellen Thomas Benedict:
“Mellen-Thomas Benedict is an artist who survived a near-death experience in 1982. He died extremely discouraged about the nuclear and ecology crisis on our planet. He was dead for over an hour and a half and during that time, he rose up out of his body and went into the Light. Curious about the universe, he was taken far into the remote depths of existence, and even beyond, into the energetic Void of Nothingness behind the Big Bang. During his experience, he was able to learn a great deal of information concerning reincarnation. Because of his near-death experience, he was able to bring back scientific discoveries. Mellen has been closely involved in the mechanics of cellular communication and research dealing with the relationship of light to life called Quantum Biology. This research is providing dramatic new perspectives on how biological systems work. Mellen has found that living cells can respond very quickly to light stimulation resulting in, among other things, high speed healing. He is a researcher, inventor and lecturer who holds six U.S. patents.”

His story is too long to post here so this is his website:
http://www.mellen-thomas.com/stories.htm
(You can also click on this link in the links section on left)

A longer account can also be found here:
http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/tw/mtb-nde.htm

Enjoy!

Sonia Choquette

2008-11-16T16:28:00.000-08:00

I'm just back from an amazing few days training with Sonia Choquette. Sonia is a real "Joy Guide" and has a magical spirit that just lights up all the people she works with. I really recommend two of her books as must haves 'Trust your Vibes' and 'The Answer is Simple'.

I work in different ways with people. I use Byron Katie's The Work to deal with the mind, I use the principles in Dance with Life and various other healing techniques that I have developed for soul growth and unblocking creativity and I use a lot of what Sonia has taught me for the intuitive and healing side of what I do as I have found that as well as getting rid of stressful thought patterns and introducing positive ways forward, it's also necessary to clear the old energy patterns from the body through energy healing and intuitive guidance.

With all the turmoil in the world financial markets right now it's so important to remember that all that we do should bring joy and fun to our lives and that we can access that inner joy no matter what is going on in our lives or in the world.

I'm going to run a series of healing classes in the new year so that people can learn these techniques for themselves and have an easy to use and enjoyable personal toolkit that can bring positive growth to body, mind and spirit.

A beautiful journey

2008-08-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

My thoughts of the last few weeks have been with a very beautiful lady called Greta who died following a brave and inspiring battle with cancer. She and her husband are such an inspiration and brought me to a whole new thinking on the story of relationship. We get so caught up in the trivial stuff in life, the drama, the manipulations, the power struggles etc. that we can take the gift of living so for granted. Until of course reality comes knocking and the inevitable truth that our time here is precious, limited and uncertain. The question that this amazing couple brought me to is who can we die with? We spend a lot of time looking at who we want to live with, but when the chips are down, when every breath is precious, when there is no more room for pretense or polite conversation then what becomes magnified is truth and real nitty gritty warts and all love. This couple loved and grew in love to the bitter end, loved not only each other and their children but all who they knew and held close to their hearts. So many romantic novels of old ask the dramatic "Would you die for me?" question. But in real life the question is can you die with me and can I die with you? Can we hold and sustain each other through the hardest that life can throw at us? And even in the hard times can we find the space to learn and grow and evolve? The person you can die with is the person you can live with and whether that is a lover, a family or a friend it doesn't matter. All that matters is that it's real. Because in the end reality and truth and love are the things that sustain us. All the rest is trivia.

To see Greta speaking about her journey and her deep experience of Maharaji's beautiful teaching go to: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KPLbYS26Xu8
(direct link in links on left)

What is it worth?

2008-08-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

I was thinking today about the idea of what something is worth and it reminded me of something Byron Katie said. She said: "What you believe is your religion and your entire devotion is dedicated to believing that, and there is no room for God in it. That is your God. What you believe is your God."

We've all heard the saying 'Let go, let God'. The thoughts we need to question, the ones that brought us pain, suffering, angst and misery are the ones we have become devoted to. And they are the ones we have to let go of. So why do we find it so hard to let go? Perhaps because somewhere in there scrambled up in all the suffering were a few good moments. We want the good moments back and when we can't get them the tantrum starts, the argument with what is. In attaching to what we want something to be, we lose sight of the reality of what was and what is. We forget what clarity, acceptance and ease feel like. We become so devoted to the thought of how it could or should be that we lose all sight of how it actually is.

But we have a choice. We don't have to believe our thoughts. We can just question what we believe and in doing that they let go of us. Yes there is a cost involved. And we look at cost with a lot of concepts. Everything we do has a cost. A time cost, an emotional cost, a choice cost. One definition of cost is: " value measured by what must be given or done or undergone to obtain something". We tend to view cost as a loss of some kind or as a trial or suffering that we must undergo to get to the other side. But if we question our thoughts and our devotion to the cause to which we think we are so attached then the cost rapidly switches to a positive value.

The cost is simply the little bit of time and effort required in questioning a thought that when prised loose from the grip of misplaced devotion shines back at us with the simple uncomplicated truth of how it is. It's our choice whether to let go or whether to grip even harder. To me it's a no brainer. Let go and you get the whole 'let God' magic and the excitement of new possibilities. Grip harder and you right back on the same old merrygoround that you you went on before.

So what to choose - an old loop tape constantly repeating or open-ended freedom? I'll take the freedom every time along with another Katieism which is: "Reality is always kinder than the story we tell about it."

Angel Prayers and Messages is being reprinted

2008-07-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

Great news! We've finally sorted out Angel Prayers and Messages and it's going back on sale in mid August. It can be pre-ordered from Amazon right now.

Thanks to everyone who wrote, emailed and phoned and basically ordered us to get our fingers out and get this book back in print!

I was humming and hawing a bit about it this week and just handed the decision over. That morning I had a very nice email from a lady telling me she really needed several copies and the following day I had a phone call from someone else with the same request. Well, that combined with the response over the past few months, gave us the answer we needed and so Rosie and I decided to stop waiting and start acting.

The amazon link is posted on the left under the front cover image of the book.

For those of you who liked this book please go on amazon and post a review. It really helps to keep a book active in their system. I'd love if Dance with Life fans could do the same for that book.

love and thanks J

This amazing life...

2008-07-14T17:49:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for a while. It's been busy and I've had a wonderful time. I was in Carcasonne seeing the amazing Cathar sites, and then a workshop with Sonia Choquette about whom I'll post about next and finally an event with Maharaji who is, in my opinion, the most enlightened teacher currently on this planet! I'm posting some of what he said in recent talks below:

=========

Get to know. Get to understand something. Get to feel. Get to be in gratitude. Get to rejoice. When those things happen, you feel alive. That’s when you begin to live. Everything is such a dance. Such a movement.

The most magnificent movement is the coming and going of this breath. This does not require a scripture to understand. It needs no proof. It needs no buildup. Its divinity is obvious. Is it obvious to you?

---------

"In the heart of every human being resides god. In the temple of the heart. I too, feel that feeling - that within me resides that beauty, that power. It is no coincidence that when I turn within, my heart is filled with joy.

The blessing is joy. The blessing is peace.

In my life, I have to choose that every single day."

--------

Remember this. It was you—the same self—looked in the mirror and said, “I am so young.” The same self looked in the mirror and said, “I look good.” The same self is going to look in the mirror and proclaim, “I’m getting old.” Same self is going to look in the mirror and say, “I used to be young.” Same mirror. Mirror is mirror. Same self.

080712s2_warsaw_1So, are you not curious, what is this self? Are you not curious to understand your true nature? Are you not curious to understand what is this realm of existence? People talk about liberation, and I wonder. What liberation? This body comes from dust. This is what it came from. These simple elements. And it’ll go back to these elements and it’ll be re-used again and again and again. And again, and again, and again.

And then they go, “But the soul. Your essence will come back.” My essence cannot be separated from the essence of the infinite. It’s one and the same. This is where in me resides the infinite. This body is finite, and what lives inside this finite shell is infinite.

Maharaji

Clear Intent & magic

2008-05-14T16:11:00.000-07:00

I was thinking today about the states of insanity we try to live in, and all the while telling ourselves that this way of living is normal. No two opposing thoughts can occupy the same brain without leading to severe stress and yet this is what we do all the time.

Examples of opposing thoughts in action:

Having a desire for success while also feeling that 'that kind of luck just won't happen for me'.
Trying to start a new relationship while holding on to the remembered pain or joy of a past relationship.
Attempting to trust life while also believing that fearful things can just 'happen' to you.
Getting stuck in want based thinking which always put the desired outcome in the future and not realising that "act as if' means really absolutely believing on every level that what you want already is, right here, right now.

We all do this but we can stop it by questioning our thoughts, by getting present to what is real in our lives and by focusing on the breath. Each breath is so taken for granted but it is the miracle that lies literally under our noses. It seems so ordinary but it is the ultimate dividing line between life and death. And we cannot even control our breath. We are, in fact, being breathed and in each breath the huge cellular network that is our human form manifests us in this world. There is no control. There is nothing we can control. We can only flow with the action of being breathed, with the action of our cells manifesting form, and in that space we can in turn manifest the life we want to lead. It is that simple. It is that magical.

Jill Bolte Taylor - My Stroke of Insight

2008-05-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

Jill Bolte Taylor's talk at TED is really doing the rounds on the net and to me it is one of the best presentations I have ever seen.

She also has a book out called "My Stroke of Insight" and it is an excellent read.

Jill Bolte Taylor is a Brain Specialist who at the age of 37 had a stroke. Her book begins by explaining the way the brain works clearly and simply from a functional point of view. It also provides a valuable insight as to what a stroke victim experiences and is a must read for anyone working with or caring for a stroke victim.

But this book is much more than that. As Jill walks us through the process of her stroke, which shut down her left brain function and gave her an uninterrupted view of the right brain in action the book opens out to give us an experience of the amazing and boundless potential of the human as a being at one with and in direct connection with what she describes as 'the life force power of the universe.'

There are so many books trying to describe the human condition both from the perspective of science and biology and from the spiritual perspective. In this book both perspectives meet and back each other up. My reaction to this book was "At last! A scientist who not only understands the mechanisms that allow us to experience the full potential of our nature as spiritual and human beings but who, through her direct experience of it, can testify to the fact that we all have the capacity to be at one with all that is, right here right now while we are still alive and inhabiting the genius structure that is the human body."

As visitors to this site know, Dance with Life is an experiential journey through what it means to be alive and the ways of 'unlearning' all the concepts which block us from having a full experience of our place as awakened beings in a friendly and beautiful universe. Too often I've been asked if this is really possible, if everyone really has the ability to do this. Now I'm delighted to be able to say go read Jill Bolte Taylor's book and you'll find all the explanation and proof that you need. In fact I'd recommend that her last chapter should be required reading for anyone who wants to further their inner exploration as it paves the way to really understand and get the most from what all the spiritual journey books say.

Also check out her talk at TED the link is here: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229
and posted in the links column on the left.

Workshops etc

2008-04-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

I'll be running 1 workshop in April (second half of month), 2 workshops in May and 2 workshops in June.
If you're interested, please email on the link to the left for times and dates.

I'm open to running an inquiry circle for anyone interested in the opportunity to do the work on an ongoing basis. I'd like to do this the first Tuesday of every month so again please email if you're interested.

One to one sessions are also available.

What is The Work of Byron Katie?

2008-02-28T17:17:00.000-08:00

In its most basic form, The Work consists of four questions and a turnaround.
The questions are:

Is it true?

Can you absolutely know that it's true?

How do you react, what happens, when you think that thought?

Who would you be without the thought?

Then turn it around, it being the concept you are questioning, and for each turnaround find three genuine and specific examples of each turned around statement in your life.

It's not a quick question and answer process. It's more of an active meditation. You sit with each question and answer and really feel it in your body and notice how you feel every step of the way.

For example I posted The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer here because I came across it again and remembered that I had liked it very much in the past. It is a poem about relationships of all kinds, not just romantic ones, and about all desires we think we should fulfil to connect with each other. Then I reread it and realised that I don't hold any of it to be true for me any more! So I'm going to use a line from that to show the work in action. (I've removed the post of The Invitation as it's very long but anyone wanting to read it can see it here: www.oriahmountaindreamer.com

The main thrust of the poem centres around 'I want to know" and then each 'I want to know" follows with a list of desired outcomes eg. "I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing."

So let's do the work..

I want to know - is that true?
Yes

I want to know - can I absolutely know that that's true
No I can't absolutely know that

How do I react, what happens, when I think that thought - I want to know?
I feel pressure. I feel out of control when I can't know. I feel angry and unsettled. My mind travels into the future and projects that if I can't know that I'll have lost something. The feeling of wanting becomes like a void or a giant mouth that just can't get enough. My body feels heavy and my stomach knots.

Who would you be without the thought - I want to know?
I'd be at peace. I'd be content with the openness of not knowing. The future feels open, exciting and expansive again. My body lightens and I feel a real sense of relief.

Turnaround 1
I don't want to know
eg. When I read a book or watch a movie I love the excitement of just moving through page by page or scene by scene not knowing where the story is going to take me
eg In life I live in a don't want to know way. I notice I don't really like very fixed plans and I prefer to let things evolve
eg. In relationships I realise now when I look back that I like the idea of knowing but in reality what I really look for is the comfort of just being. When the feeling is clear there is nothing to know.

Turnaround 2
I want to know about my thinking about want
eg. I notice that when I get into wanting to know what someone else wants or thinks that I put myself in a situation of stressful thinking as my thinking is trying to hold onto something impossible to attain. It is trying to project a future that hasn't happened and blocks acceptance of the truth of the present.
eg I realise that what someone else thinks or wants is their business and is in their minds. It has nothing to do with me and thinking that it has is hopeless
eg. People interacting only need to have one common thought, the thought that they like being in each others company. If they have that common thought they spend time together if they don't have it they don't. All the other thoughts are just ideas to swap around and play with. Thinking I 'want' to know more then blocks me from seeing what actually is right in front of me

So as an outcome what feels as true or truer. Having worked it I don't want to know is much truer for me. That thought brings me peace. When I believed I want to know it brought me stress.

Fun

2008-02-08T16:10:00.000-08:00

Just in case any one is wondering why there are some strange videos of cats currently in the Byron Katie selection it has to do with an analogy Katie uses when she says: "If you want reality to be different than it is, you might as well try to teach a cat to bark. You can try and try, and in the end the cat will look up at you and say, "Meow." Wanting reality to be different than it is is hopeless." So that's the reason that bit of fun is there at the moment.

As we're on the topic of fun, for anyone who enjoys a bit of humour there's a great site called www.theonion.com that runs spoof stories and really casts a humerous and sometimes risque eye on news and current affairs. Warning - most are fine but there are one or two that are not suitable for kids or adults either for that matter so be discerning before you click.

Inquiry Circle

2008-02-08T15:56:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all who came to the February workshop. I really enjoyed it and it never stops amazing me and inspiring me when I see the action of doing The Work having such an immediate effect, especially for those who are trying it for the first time.

We're going to try and get an Inquiry Circle going in the Bantry area so anyone interested please email me (link to email is on left).

The next workshop will be in March and I'll put the dates up next week.

Favourite Children's Books

2008-01-22T17:47:00.000-08:00

What we read and love as children stays with us and shapes the adults we become. I've been thinking a lot lately about the joy that reading brought me as a child, and reminding ourselves of that is such a good way of opening to and of remembering our inner creative process. With that in mind I've started a new blog (http://hotbooksthatrock.blogspot.com/ - link on right) where I invite everyone to write about the books that inspired them as children and indeed about any children's books they have discovered or rediscovered now as adults.

And what are children reading now? What do they like? What issues really get their attention? I'd love to know if it's all very different now or if children actually enjoy the same things generation after generation, I also really want to encourage children to write there so they have a forum to share their views, so if there are children you know who would enjoy this please ask them to write there - but only if they want to. Nothing should ever be forced in life :)

School for The Work

2007-11-29T06:33:00.000-08:00

In October I went to sunny LA to train at a nine day School for the Work with Byron Katie. What an amazing experience and what an incredible person to learn from. Katie is just an incredible presence and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn directly from her. Though the nine day course is very intensive and really hard work, no thought is left unturned and I personally came away from it very clear that Katie's method, simply called The Work, is really the most effective way for me to pass on the core messages of Dance with Life in a workshop forum. So I'm really looking forward to sharing this in the 2008 workshops. Speaking of which, the first workshop is on in February 2008:

Be Stress Free in 2008
Start the New Year with a Clear Mind!
Bantry - February 3rd 2008
One day workshop with J.M. Hurley
Our thoughts create all the fear, anger, stress and depression in our lives. How different would your life be if these negative thoughts never bothered you again?
We continually write our own stories. Who would you be without your story?
In this workshop participants will get a gentle introduction to stilling the mind, focusing intent and living consciously. Participants will also be introduced to The Work of Byron Katie, a radical, but very simple, mind-clearing process.

Update on workshops

2007-10-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

Most of the workshops are deferred until the new year as I'm off to complete a training with Byron Katie later this month. I've been using her techniques, called The Work, more and more as a means of making the ideas in 'Dance with Life' real in other people's lives. Sorry for all the chopping and changing, it's just that incorporating this format properly takes a bit of time. It will be worth it as The Work in action is pretty remarkable and fun too!

You were made for joy...

2007-10-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice extract from a talk given by Maharaji recently:

"It’s not about the what’s going on in the world. It’s about what’s going on in your life.
It’s about what you see. What you feel.

Do you feel your heart? Do you feel the passion to want peace in your life? Do you feel the passion for joy in your life? Do you feel the passion for contentment in your life? Do you feel the passion for understanding in your life?

Do you feel the passion for clarity in your life? What do you want?

What drives you? Every day, what drives you? Is it the logic or is it the passion? Is it all your reasonings – “But I have to, but I have to…” Or is it the desire from deep within you to want to be fulfilled?

If you acknowledge that in your life, then it becomes the companion. It becomes that force that shapes you, that evolves you, that turns you towards what you were made for.

You were made for joy."

Loving What Is - Byron Katie

2007-08-29T02:50:00.001-07:00

This was the title of Byron Katie's first book and the whole process she uses really has the capacity to turn your life around. She devised a method of inquiry which she calls The Work. The Work helps us see where we are at war with reality by using a process of four questions and a turnaround, to achieve a better understanding of ourselves. She commonly refers to this process as Inquiry which leads to self-realization and the end of suffering. Rather than explain how the whole process works here anyone interested can go to www.thework.com where you really will find all you need to do it for yourself.

What does it mean in reality? Well exactly that! All we have is in reality and reality is in the actual experience of the moment we are in. In relationships, in work situations, in family get togethers for example how often do we bring a whole other drama along in our own heads. When we sit there with 'he said', 'she said' and remembered hurts, arguments, conflicts and sad memories floating in our thoughts, how present are we to what is actually going on right in front of our eyes? Can there be any room for resolution or forgiveness or healing or even for simply relating when we sit there mentally throwing big cauldrons full of a blend of old and often misinterpreted issues, faulty thinking, and judgments at each other? The real aim is to feel unconditional love and unconditional truth for our own selves and by understanding what this means it flows naturally to include the people and events in our lives. It may be hard to do this. It may involve facing uncomfortable thoughts and emotions. It may involve having a really good look in the mirror and unconditionally accepting the person looking back at us. We cannot argue with reality. To do so is a waste of energy and resource. We can only accept it understand it, embrace it and then be open to live in the present. And that is freedom.

The Weather...

2007-08-15T13:49:00.000-07:00

I've been observing this summer just how much we are influenced by the weather. It's no accident that the sun is so often used as a symbol for the divine and for inspiration. Without our inner and outer sunshine we wither and fade and so sun deprivation can actually manifest as depression, negativity and general gloom! So what to do about it? Well I've just a few sugestions that really help me:

1. Take a holiday in the sun if you can (obvious but very therapeutic!)
2. Surround yourself with light colours. Introduce colour to your home, wear bright clothes, hang a bright sunny picture in a position where you see it most.
3. Listen to summer songs - light bubbly and full of fun to lift the spirits
4. Watch something or do something that makes you laugh every day
5. If sun deprivation really affects you physically get a light box, a daylight bulb and a himalayan salt lamp
6. Pick a positive thought and positive image to start and end every day. For example when you wake in the morning visualise yourself on a sunny beach or walking in a summer meadow, then think about all the things for which you are grateful. Try to return to that thought whenever you feel yourself slip during the day and really practise this before you go to sleep as it's very important for mental wellbeing that your thoughts before sleep are positive, cheerful and removed from whatever stresses are going on in your life.
7. Make yourself smile - even when you don't have anything to smile about! The facial muscles actually influence your mood so when the brain reads 'smile' signals it believe you are happy and releases the appropriate chemicals to verify this.. :)

Seminars

2007-08-15T13:38:00.000-07:00

Just a note to say sorry that I haven't posted seminar dates yet. It's been very busy and so unfortunately I have had to postpone all seminars until mid October. I'll post the dates as soon as I can. In the meantime if you want to go on the mail list then please click on Coaching & Seminars and email me via the email link there.

Monday9amTV

2007-07-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

Check out the Monday 9amTV mini-movies. They are incredibly inspiring. Click the second button on the right at the bottom of the screen to go to a menu of movies and choose what you think might inspire you. My favourite is 'Behind Every Old General'. At the moment anyway...

However 'An Eye in the Storm' has great resonance for me too as it features Lynne Franks, the 80s' PR Guru who developed Lynne Franks PR and who was the inspiration for the Ab Fab character Eddie (Edina Monsoon). My original career was in PR and I still do a certain amount of it. It's interesting that quite a few PR people migrate to the area of personal development. Maybe it's the idea of having to deal with the idea of the public persona and training people to deal with developing a public face that ultimately pushes us toward questions of what is real, and true and worthwhile and authentic...

A Tale of Two Caterpillars

2007-06-30T16:12:00.000-07:00

“Once there was a brother caterpillar and a sister caterpillar. The sister spent all her time looking to the sky. She would watch the birds and all the other winged creatures with longing. She said to her brother ‘One day I’ll fly just like them. I really feel that I will.’
Her brother was scornful.
‘Don’t be so stupid,’ he said. ‘What would you even want to fly for. It’s lovely to be able to wiggle along the earth and to find a fat juicy leaf. I watch those silly birds and they’re always just darting about looking useless.’
She listened to him, but didn’t agree.
‘It’s not that I don’t like being a caterpillar and that I don’t enjoy every leaf and patch of earth that we explore, but I just can’t shake off the feeling that there’s something more. Haven’t you ever wondered why there are no old caterpillars? Where does everyone go?’
Her brother looked angry.
‘You are so STUPID,’ he shouted. ‘Why do you think those birds are so fat? That’s where we all end up – in their stomachs. We’re bird food! We just have a pointless reason here. It’s as simple as that. There’s nothing ahead except some sharp beak, then darkness. Just accept that and stop going on at me. And stop admiring the very creatures you should hate!’
Her brother was disgusted and wriggled away.
She curled on her little leaf singing happily to herself.
‘Maybe my brother is right, but it’s still lovely to look at all the other creatures,’ she said to herself.
Just then a dragonfly whirred past. He saw her on the leaf and landed to say ‘hello’.
She told him about her argument with her brother. The dragonfly clicked and hummed with laughter.
‘But of course you’ll fly. One day you’ll be a butterfly!’
She was thrilled and excitedly went to tell her brother.
‘And you believed him!’ he scoffed. ‘No one believes that mad fool. Even the very word, “butterfly”, I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous.’
Time passed and the urge came for the caterpillars to start spinning their chrysalises. She was full of hope, sure that this was going to take her towards her dream. Her brother was melancholy.
‘This is just packing you know,’ he said sadly. ‘It’s a cruel trick. They’ve engineered it that we do this to fill their stomachs even more. We’re too thin as we are.’
She tried to argue with him but he wouldn’t listen.
They hung, suspended in their chrysalises, for what seemed like an eternity. Then one day her chrysalis began to move. She felt it slip away. She couldn’t figure out where she was, everything looked red. She shook herself and a trickle of red fluid gathered at her little feet. As she looked down she noticed the most beautiful sight. She had wings of lilac and gold with little green spots for decoration. She flapped her wings and began to fly. It was the most amazing feeling. She landed on a flower and sipped delicately at the nectar. It was exquisite, beyond any taste she could have ever imagined. As she looked down on the earth below she felt extraordinarily privileged.
‘This is even better than being a bird,’ she sang out loud, ‘because they have only ever been birds. But I know how cosy and warm it is to snuggle in the warm earth and to chew the deep green leaves and now I know the joy of flight and the magical taste of nectar. I have been given two lives, two experiences in this one lifetime.’
She heard a grumbling coming from a rich yellow flower. Perched on the flower was a beautiful orange butterfly. It was her brother! She flew excitedly to him.
‘It wasn’t a trick, it was real,’ she cried, fluttering her wings to him in greeting.
He looked bitter.
‘Don’t be so naive!’ he snapped. ‘Look at the colour of us both. You bright gold and me bright orange. They’ll see us for miles. We won’t last a second I tell you!’
‘Oh brother! Why can’t you see how amazing this is? You’re beautiful. And we can fly!’
He grimaced.
‘What sort of awful stuff is this?’ he moaned, indicating to the nectar. ‘My teeth are gone. I can’t get a bite of leaf no matter how I try. And I hate flying. It makes my head spin. I tried to curl nicely on a leaf but these blasted wings keep slipping so I fall down.’
She shook her little head and spiralled upwards, realising that there was nothing that she could do to change his mind. He
was as determined to dislike their new life as she was to embrace it.
‘Perhaps in time he will like it more,’ she thought, as she caught a current of air and swooped and fluttered along it into the blue, blue sky.”
DWL 126-129

What is the point of Being Alive?

2007-06-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

‘See this hand,’ he continued, holding one hand up, ‘imagine it’s your physical self with all its hopes and dreams. It has a finite route. It is made of the elements and it will return to the elements. Now see this hand,’ he said, holding the other up, ‘imagine this is the place inside that you have just experienced. This has been, is, and always will be.’
He joined his hands, interweaving the fingers. He smiled.
‘This is life. This is the merger of the finite and the infinite.
Through the amazing feeling machine that is your finite self, your infinite nature can play in the symphony of life. With every breath the finite and the infinite meet. Their point of union is contained in that breath. It’s as close as the two realms
can ever get to one another. The point of being alive, of understanding the nature of this breath is to feel and to experience this gift of life.’
DWL p 37

Do you know what it means to be alive?

2007-06-29T08:15:00.000-07:00

Have you ever asked yourself if there's more to life than this?
Have you thought - 'But I'm busy...I have a career, a family, a social life and all that inner peace stuff looks so time consuming. And surely it means trekking to off-beat locations?'
Well it doesn't! Inner peace is a lot more simple than you think.

It's hard to describe though and harder still to explain. However, having read hundreds of 'spiritual books' I never felt that I found one that really showed what it felt like to experience the inner journey. So that's what I tried to do in 'Dance with Life'.

'Dance with Life' is a short novel and though all it describes is true, to make it more understandable for the reader, it's written in a fictionalised format. In this book - and I'll quote from the blurb here - "the main character Mira explores the realm of the heart under the practiced eye of a life-changing teacher. Her journey is within, she doesn't even have to leave her front room! Travel with her and you might find that you'll never look at life in quite the same way again."