Tuesday 22 December 2009

For the Man Who Hated Christmas

It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past ten years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas--oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it--overspending... the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma---the gifts given in desperation because you couldn’t think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.

Read the full post here...
http://www.helpothers.org/story.php?sid=7893

Saturday 19 December 2009

Back on my feet

Saturday 12 December 2009

Street Art: Joshua Allen Harris' Inflatable Bag Monsters

Wednesday 9 December 2009

The Surprising Truth of Sufficiency

We each have the choice in any setting to step back and let go of the mind-set of scarcity. Once we let go of scarcity, we discover the surprising truth of sufficiency. By sufficiency, I don’t mean a quantity of anything. Sufficiency isn’t two steps up from poverty or one step short of abundance. It isn’t a measure of barely enough or more than enough. Sufficiency isn’t an amount at all. It is an experience, a context we generate, a declaration, a knowing that there is enough, and that we are enough.

Read the full post here...
http://www.ijourney.org/index.php?tid=673

Monday 30 November 2009

Tell Me Why

Sunday 22 November 2009

Consciousness: An Awareness of Self

This morning, over breakfast, I was listening to an NPR story about the Prague Spring with my son 8-year-old son, Tasman. We got into a conversation about the former Soviet Union, a bit of world history, the Cold War, and Stalin. I decided to advance the notion of deep ecology to him using Stalin’s horrific genocidal killings as a prybar.

Read the full post here... http://www.basilandspice.com/mind-and-body/consciousness-an-awareness-of-self.html

Sunday 15 November 2009

Inner Power and Protection

Everything, everyone is my teacher. No matter how difficult, how unexpected, how unwanted, since it has come into my life, I ask myself, "What do I learn now?"


http://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk

Saturday 14 November 2009

Charter for Compassion

Monday 9 November 2009

One Day by Matisyahu

Friday 6 November 2009

The Story of Stuff

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Watch the video here... http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Contagious Love Experiment

Let me start at the begining…

I was in middle school when I saw 9/11 on the news. I saw the hole in the Pentagon firsthand. For months afterwards, I’d wake up early before school to watch the news and better understand the situation. I understood that there were people out there who wanted to destroy my country and hated my religion. My religion (church, religious school) promoted war and I made a deal with God that if the war was still going on when I graduated high school, I would be honored to enlist in the army as an infantryman.

Well, the war was still going on and I was somewhat glad that I hadn’t missed out on the action. I left for basic training in July of 06 and was deployed to Baghdad by Feb of 07.

I had grown up hearing ideas like “love your enemies”, “return evil with good”, and “judge not lest you be judged”. But I treated these sayings that the central figure of my religion taught as if they were just nice sounding lines, but not practical. But slowly, my excuses started to fade away. I learned that the military trains people to hate and dehumanize entire people groups, not showing sadness for the difficult task of “removing evil”. I learned that the Iraqis weren’t waiting for us with open arms, men, women, and children from the town we were in protested our presence. I learned innocent people die. I learned that it doesn’t matter what uniform you have on, it’s about what’s inside. And sadly, the military tries to rob you of what’s inside and the result is people treating killing like a joke and showing little care for human life.

Read the full blog here... http://contagiousloveexperiment.wordpress.com/about

Monday 2 November 2009

A New Home

When you awaken to the evolutionary impulse behind the entire cosmos as your very own Authentic Self, you find yourself living in a new world. It’s not the small, personal world that your ego or separate self-sense has lived in since the day you were born. You may still exist and function in that world, but deeply, it’s no longer your home. Your home is the vast process that began the day the entire cosmos was born. When this kind of shift occurs irrevocably, the idea of living “for a higher purpose” doesn’t even make sense any more, because at an interior level, you and that purpose have merged and become one. You have become the actual manifestation of that higher purpose. It’s no longer external to who you are. To a significant degree, you and that higher purpose become indistinguishable. That’s what Evolutionary Enlightenment means. Your entire life becomes permeated by that evolutionary impulse, because that is who you have become.

http://blog.enlightennext.org/?p=2801

Saturday 31 October 2009

Did you know?

Friday 30 October 2009

Thomas Berry and the Earth Community

Saturday 24 October 2009

Forgiveness

Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.

http://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk

Wednesday 21 October 2009

Symphony of Science - 'We Are All Connected'

Tuesday 20 October 2009

This is Your Brain on Bliss

After 2,000 years of practice, Buddhist monks know that one secret to happiness is simply to put your mind to it.

What is happiness, and how can we achieve it?

Happiness can’t be reduced to a few agreeable sensations. Rather, it is a way of being and of experiencing the world—a profound fulfillment that suffuses every moment and endures despite inevitable setbacks.

Read the full article here... http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/sustainable-happiness/this-is-your-brain-on-bliss

Thursday 15 October 2009

Clinging Causes the Pain

Genuine love and kindness is desperately needed in this world. It comes from appreciating the object, and rejoicing in the object, wanting the object to be happy and well, but holding it lightly, not tightly. And this goes for possessions too. You are in an extremely materialistic society in which the possession of more and bigger and better is held up as the total criteria for being happy.

Read the full post here... http://www.ijourney.org/?tid=658

Wednesday 30 September 2009

Love

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Monday 28 September 2009

Blog Action Day 2009

Wednesday 23 September 2009

Dan Gilbert asks, Why are we happy?

If You Really Pay Attention

When I was a little bitty kiddy, about five, my Dad began a process … anytime somebody came and said something to us, my dad would say, "You remember what he said, honey girl?” I would tell my father what the person said until I got so good at it that I could repeat verbatim even long presentations of what the person had said.

And he did this all the time.

Finally, one day there was this old gentleman, Richard Thompson. I still remember his name, he lived across the street. And every time my Dad started to mow the lawn, there came Mr. Thompson. And so I would stand out there.

Read the full post here... http://www.ijourney.org/?tid=654

Tuesday 22 September 2009

A Story of True Love and Acceptance

This is what True Love is all about:

It was a busy morning, approximately 8:30 a.m., when an elderly gentleman in his 80's arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He stated that he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.

Read the full post here... http://www.helpothers.org/story.php?sid=13998

Saturday 19 September 2009

Dan Reed - The Dictator

Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator Speech

Thursday 17 September 2009

How to Escape Perfectionism

According to the World Database of Happiness (yes, there is one), Iceland is the happiest place on earth. That's right, Iceland. Yes, I know it's cold and dark six months out of the year there. I'm just giving you the data.

The secret to their happiness? Eric Weiner, Author of The Geography of Bliss, traveled to Iceland to find out. After interviewing a number of Icelanders, Weiner discovered that their culture doesn't stigmatize failure. Icelanders aren't afraid to fail — or to be imperfect — and so they're more willing to pursue what they enjoy. That's one reason Iceland has more artists per capita than any other nation. "There's no one on the island telling them they're not good enough, so they just go ahead and sing and paint and write," Weiner writes.

Read the full post here... http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/bregman/2009/09/how-to-escape-perfectionism.html

Saturday 12 September 2009

Nicholas Winton - In the Presence of Good

"Don't be content in your life just to do no wrong. Be prepared every day to try and do some good." Sir Nicolas Winton

Wednesday 9 September 2009

Make a Gratitude Adjustment

As a child, Chris Peterson absolutely hated writing thank-you notes. His aversion continued right into his 40s, until one day he knew he had to face it.

A psychology professor at the University of Michigan, Peterson regularly gave his students an unusual homework assignment. He asked them to write a "gratitude letter," a kind of belated thank-you note to someone in their lives. Studies show such letters provide long-lasting mood boosts to the writers. Indeed, after the exercise, Peterson says his students feel happier "100 percent of the time."

Read the full post at http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200602/make-gratitude-adjustment

Tuesday 8 September 2009

Faith First

William James was an American Apologist. An Apologist is a defender of faith. The term is most often used associated with Christian thinkers who defend the existence of God. William James was taking on a scientific world and risking his own reputation by defending the right to believe in things for which you do not and perhaps can never have direct evidence of. James wrote an essay called “The Will to Believe” that is central to his thinking and is so profound that it demands careful consideration even today.

Read the full post at http://evolutionaryphilosophy.com/2009/09/05/faith-first

Sunday 6 September 2009

Big Bang Briefly

Thursday 3 September 2009

Thoughts, Words and Deeds

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.

http://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk

Monday 31 August 2009

A Baby's Unconditional Trust and Love

We were the only family with children in the restaurant. I sat Erik in a high chair and noticed everyone was quietly sitting and talking. Suddenly, Erik squealed with glee and said, 'Hi.' He pounded his fat baby hands on the high chair tray. His eyes were crinkled in laughter and his mouth was bared in a toothless grin, as he wriggled and giggled with merriment.

Read the full post at http://www.helpothers.org/story.php?sid=14402

Sunday 30 August 2009

Lost Generation

Wednesday 26 August 2009

PS22 Chorus - "You just feel it!"

Tuesday 25 August 2009

The Power of Gifting Flowers

My Flower Power give started with a trip to the flower store. I purchased 48 long-stem roses. I chose 4-Dozen because I was heading into round 4 of my giving for the 29-Day Giving Challenge (give something everyday for 29 days!). The manager gave me a discount and gifted me a bunch of those little water-holding do-hickeys that you can put on the ends of the stems to keep the flowers alive. If I lived in a place where it was possible to go pick wild flowers…

Read the full post at http://www.helpothers.org/story.php?sid=13674

Saturday 8 August 2009

Riches

The greatest good we can do for others is not to share our riches with them, but to reveal to them their own.

www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk

Thursday 6 August 2009

The Secret of Happiness

The secret of happiness is to be free of fear. Fear is like a toxin that runs through much of our thinking. It feeds on insecurity, feeling of loss, loneliness, inadequacy and attachment.
You are loveable and loving. Accept this as Truth. Appreciate and care for yourself - truly, deeply, intensely, in a way that reflects your real value. Then you will automatically have the same regards for all other living beings and things.

www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk

Monday 27 July 2009

Positive Attitude

Your attitude creates an atmosphere around you. Your attitude is the result of the way you think and feel. You communicate your attitude. Create a positive attitude, filled with good feelings, and even just your presence will do wonders in situations.

www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk

Saturday 25 July 2009

The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes

Friday 24 July 2009

Music and Life

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Where are you going? And, why? (Pretending like crazy that what you’re doing really matters)

I recently had my mind blown by an incredibly profound experience of what Buddhists call emptiness, or “dropped-off body-mind.” In such an experience “how it all is and what it’s all about” becomes stunningly obvious. All ideas dissolve–ALL ideas. Ideas, premises, beliefs, theories, maps of reality, are seen as inconsequential, insubstantial, uninteresting, beside the point. Instead, there’s just an infinitely deep peace, a vast expansiveness, a deep and profound knowingness about the essence of it all–and, the realization that all of this is who you are.

Read the full post here...
http://www.centerpointe.com/blog/2009/07/13/where-are-you-going-and-why-pretending-like-crazy-that-what-youre-doing-really-matters/#more-51

Sunday 12 July 2009

Charter for Compassion

Thursday 9 July 2009

Greatest good

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own. --Benjamin Disraeli

Tuesday 7 July 2009

The How of Happiness

Wednesday 1 July 2009

Gratitude

We have thousands of opportunities every day to be grateful: for having good weather, to be able to sit in such a beautiful room on such comfortable furniture, to have slept well last night, to be able to get up, to be healthy, to have enough to eat. ... There's opportunity upon opportunity to be grateful; that's what life is. --Brother David Steindl-Rast

Tuesday 30 June 2009

Incline Your Mind Toward Joy

“One evening a Cherokee elder told his grandson about the battle that goes on inside of people. He said, “My son, the battle is between the two ‘wolves’ that live inside us all. One is Unhappiness. It is fear, worry, anger, jealousy, sorrow, self-pity, resentment, and inferiority. The other is Happiness. It is joy, love, hope, serenity, kindness, generosity, truth, and compassion.”The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.” ~ Marci Shimoff from Happy for No Reason

Read the full posting at...
http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/503-philosophers-notes/episodes/47894-incline-mind-toward

Monday 29 June 2009

The Responsibility to Trust Your Head and Heart

"If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself. Also you will have betrayed our community in failing to make your contribution to the whole."
-- Rollo May (1909-1994), American psychologist, from The Courage to Create

Read the full article here...
http://www.clarityconsulting.com/resources/success-tip.php?id=33&title=The%20Responsibility%20to%20Trust%20Your%20Head%20and%20Heart

Friday 26 June 2009

Man in the mirror

Wednesday 24 June 2009

Dogs have souls

For centuries, humans have imagined they are the only animals with morals. But humans are not alone in the moral arena, a new breed of behavior experts says.

Natural historian Jake Page said some scientists are acknowledging what pet owners have told their canines all along: "Good dog."

Read the full article at...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009226383_dogs16.html

Tuesday 23 June 2009

Dancing Guy starts a Dance Riot at Sasquatch 2009

One man truly can make a difference...

Monday 22 June 2009

How to Awaken Your Heart

First, train in the preliminaries.

The preliminaries are also known as the four reminders. In your daily life, try to 1) Maintain an awareness of the preciousness of human life. 2) Be aware of the reality that life ends; death comes for everyone. 3) Recall that whatever you do, whether virtuous or not, has a result; what goes around comes around. 4) Contemplate that as long as you are too focused on self-importance and too caught up in thinking about how you are good or bad, you will suffer. Obsessing about getting what you want and avoiding what you don't want does not result in happiness.

Read more slogans by Pema Chödrön...
http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1562

Sunday 21 June 2009

Forgive

To tolerate someone else's mistakes is one thing. To forgive them is even greater.

Saturday 20 June 2009

The Difference Makers

Thursday 18 June 2009

Choosing to Live Fully

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, 'If I were any better, I would be twins!' He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

Read the full posting here...
http://www.helpothers.org/story.php?sid=12901

Wednesday 17 June 2009

Control over consciousness

“The knowledge of how to control consciousness must be reformulated every time the cultural context changes. The wisdom of the mystics, of the Sufi, of the great yogis, or of the Zen masters might have been excellent in their own time—and might still be the best, if we lived in those times and in those cultures. But when transplanted to contemporary California those systems lose quite a bit of their original power. They contain elements that are specific to their original contexts, and when these accidental components are not distinguished from what is essential, the path to freedom gets overgrown by brambles of meaningless mumbo jumbo. Ritual form wins over substance, and the seeker is back where he started.
Control over consciousness cannot be institutionalized. As soon as it becomes part of a set of social rules and norms, it ceases to be effective in the way it was originally intended to be.” ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi from Flow

Read Brian Johnson's illuminating comments here...
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=207821200345

Tuesday 16 June 2009

Stir Your World 2007

Monday 15 June 2009

Train Yourself to Be Positive in 5 Simple Steps

For a girl like me, being positive is not easy. When I think of the world, I tend to see it through a negative perspective, looking for the bad and ignoring the good. But, lately, I’ve discovered that it is possible to change that perspective. Earlier this year I decided that I was going to make a change in my life. I was going to start looking for the good, seeking the positive, and striving to make every day a joyful experience. As you can imagine, this wasn’t an easy task

Read the full post here...
http://calmandcool.com/130/be-positive.htm

Sunday 14 June 2009

Mankind is no island

Saturday 13 June 2009

Spotting Qualities

A compassionate person develops an eye for spotting the qualities that make each person special. Even when others are at their lowest ebb, it is possible to help them restore their self-belief by keeping a firm, clear vision of their goodness and specialities. Taking a gently encouraging approach, I must never give up on anyone.

www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk

Thursday 11 June 2009

Destination Addiction

Be aware of this affliction, something that we surely all suffer from to some degree.

Destination addiction is an attempt to get on with life faster in the hope that we will enjoy our lives better.

Read the full descriptions below...
http://www.itn.org.za/News/Articles/Destination.htm

http://frugaldad.com/2009/01/05/do-you-suffer-from-destination-addiction

Some great quotes...

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering. --Ben Okri

Anything less than a conscious commitment to the important is an unconscious commitment to the unimportant. --Stephen Covey

If at any time I begin to lose hope in myself, let me simply look inside my heart and see all the good actions I have ever performed, from the smallest to the grandest. When I see how much happiness I have given, I easily remember the purpose of my life. --ThoughtForToday (11 June 09)

Wednesday 10 June 2009

Living Wealthy On A Daily Basis

Do you really think that living wealthy is all about having an abundance of money? What good is it if that's all you have?

Read the full article here...

Tuesday 9 June 2009

The Origin of the Word "Kind"

Have you ever wondered why we make such a big deal about living kindly? For a lot of us it’s just innate, feels like the right thing to do. But, that little voice in my head warned me one night, “Don’t take kindness for granted—find out why!” So I did, and made an exciting discovery in the process.

Read the full storey here...
http://www.helpothers.org/story.php?sid=12559

Monday 8 June 2009

Home Project



http://www.home-2009.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU

A long movie (1h 33m) and well worth watching if you have the time. Some more positive facts towards the end.

Sunday 7 June 2009

Breathing Earth

http://www.breathingearth.net/

This real-time simulation displays the CO2 emissions of every country in the world, as well as their birth and death rates.

Saturday 6 June 2009

Estonia Clean Up

Thursday 4 June 2009

President Obama calls for a "new beginning" between the US and Muslims

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8082948.stm

Wednesday 3 June 2009

The Stuart Davis Show – Episode 12 – A Foothill in the Mouth


The Stuart Davis Show – Episode 12 – A Foothill in the Mouth from integral ecology on Vimeo.

Tuesday 2 June 2009

Dan Goleman: Ecological Intelligence

There's a new kind of math for the environmentally concerned, one that answers those everyday eco-conundrums like, Which is better: a reusable stainless steel water bottle, or those throwaway plastic ones?

Read the full article here...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-goleman/ecological-intelligence_b_192437.html

Monday 1 June 2009

What about me?

Sunday 31 May 2009

The Sound of Music at a Train Station

Saturday 30 May 2009

The Performance of Personality

A few weeks ago we explored the idea that your personality is not you, but what you create. Unfortunately most of us don’t learn to make the distinction between our ‘self’ and our personality. We tend to identify with our personality and become dependent on it, even when it is not perceived to be positive by our self or by others.

Click title for the full post...

One place we can see the truth of this difference between the self and the persona, between the actor and the mask of personality, is on every theatre stage, every night. In this crucible of creativity each actor creates the character, the personality of the role they are playing. At the end of their ‘performance’ they cast aside the character and restore their original (prior to performance) personality. Occasionally some actors who are playing the same role on the same stage every day begin to blur the distinction between their personality and that of the character they are playing. Some of the personality traits and tendencies of the role rubs off and into their own personality. In extreme cases, where the actor becomes a little confused, they may go into some form of therapy in order to disentangle the traits and characteristics of each persona. Until, one day, they realise and remember that ‘personality’ is not what I am, it is what I create, but it is not me.

And then there are some actors who put on a one man or one woman show and, during the course of an evening, will play six different characters. They will tell you that the joy of playing so many roles is based in the challenge of ‘creating’ many personalities, made up of different combinations of traits and tendencies, intentions and thoughts, feelings and behaviours. As they enter this creative process they learn to shatter any self limiting beliefs they have learned to have about themselves. As they continuously perform this creative ensemble ‘on stage’ they often discover and develop more varied and profound ways to act and interact in their ‘off stage’ relationships. They will tell you that playing many different roles in a short period of time in such a disciplined way is an intense experience requiring tremendous flexibility, stamina and concentration. And they will affirm that the only way to learn to do this is by doing it.

But you don’t need to be on a theatre stage to realise and use your creative ability at the level of ‘personality’. You are already on the biggest stage of all, the stage of life. During each day you find yourself in many different ‘scenes’; the scene of the kitchen, the office, the meeting, the stadium, the church, the party, the crisis, the child throwing a tantrum, the employee throwing animosity at their colleagues and perhaps the next door neighbour throwing something over the fence! In each scene you get the opportunity to create and play a different role. When you awaken to life as an opportunity to ‘create’ and ‘play’ in this way, suddenly life itself becomes a playful and creative adventure. Unfortunately most of us learn to take it all far too seriously! Why, because we have a tendency to intensely identify with just one or two roles within the daily routines of our life, usually one at home, and one at work. In so doing we limit our unlimited creative capacity. We get bored with ourselves, with life, and sometimes feel stuck in a rut. Then we go to the cinema to live vicariously through the highly rehearsed and brilliantly portrayed personalities of fictional characters in a fabricated story.

Playing different roles each day does not make ‘you’ the player any less real or genuine as a human being. It’s just that you awaken to both your creative potential and the need to express that potential through different roles in different real life scenes. This goes right to the heart of ‘personal development’, sometimes confused with ‘personality development’. People spend huge sums on courses and seminars under the impression it will help them create a new and better permanent ‘personality’, like a new and updated programme for the computer. And it may ‘seem to’ do just that, but it won’t make much difference because it is likely they will have missed the point. They will not see that they are not their personality. Personal development is not about creating a new improved up to date persona for the self. It is about going beyond identifying with personality. Only then can the self develop the ability to bring the ‘appropriate’ capabilities and capacities, intentions and perceptions, thoughts and responses to the fore, according to the scene, situation or circumstance.

For example the businessman who arrives home in the evening and continues his bossy and business like approach with his wife and children will soon find himself as part of an unhappy family. In the ‘home scene’ his family wants a husband and a father and all the characteristics and capacities that make a good husband and a good father. Friends who are going through an emotionally difficult patch need a friend to play the role of counsellor and confidant more than a teacher or advisor. In the ‘friendship scene’ they need someone with the capacity to listen and empathise, not instruct or cajole. The child needs the parent to be a master of their own feelings not someone dependent on the child’s behaviour for their emotional state in their relationship with the child. In the classroom the student is not the teacher so the teacher needs the capacity and capabilities to gently influence the students who think they know better, while being humble enough to be aware that occasionally they might! And so on.

While the actual scenes in life will be the main signal for the role that is required at any given moment, there will be other scenes where it’s not so easy to discern, where switching roles i.e. bringing to the forefront a different mixture/combination of capabilities and capacities will be necessary. This is one of the factors that makes life such a rich and unique adventure. It throws up such scenes and it is in these scenes that we get to know our self, what is within our self, and how to emerge what is essentially an unlimited array of capabilities, traits, talents, qualities, abilities and sensitivities. These are the strands, which when woven together, define the ever shifting tapestry that is our personality, our persona, our mask (not in a negative way) at any given moment.

While personality is not what you are, neither is it a façade, though some may either consciously or subconsciously use it as such. Whole branches of psychiatry and psychology are dedicated to the understanding of personality disorders, of which there appears to be many, including hiding behind our personality. But who is it that is hiding? The ‘root’ cause of all such disorders, however they may be defined, is simply an inability to see that personality is not what we are but what we create. When there is a clear sense of ‘self’ prior to personality, then personality is simply a creative instrument we use to ‘be appropriately personal’ in our relationships with others. It is our way to ‘connect personally’ through action and interaction with one another in time and space. Each personal encounter has to be different every moment, every day, every time we meet, otherwise we would be robots. Attempting to create the ‘exact’ same personality in every scene and in every relationship would be to attempt to defeat the very purpose of life which is to be creative and co-creative. That would be a perfect recipe for much suppression and tension, not to mention boredom.

This is why one of the best metaphors for our life together here on planet earth is as a drama or grand play. Within the unfolding drama of life, within ‘the movie’ in which we are all involved, you have a part, and no one else can play your part. Within your part you can create and play as many roles as you like, and when you ‘remember’ how to consciously create your roles then life becomes creative and playful again. And within the roles that you play it will be as if you will generate many personalities as your capacities and capabilities grow, intertwine and find flexible expression according to the scenes you are called to play your part within. And there, at the centre, in the control room of consciousness, is you, the authentic self, the master creator, awake and aware, never losing your creative authority within the creative process that is LIFE!

Friday 29 May 2009

You can do anything = Entrepreneur

Wednesday 27 May 2009

Heart Song

Everyone has a song in their heart. Everyone has a reason for being here and a season for making their highest, greatest most auspicious contribution. No one knows what that is or when that is for anyone else. Only our own heart knows what and when it is for us. Your heart wants to sing. Don’t die with your music still within you. There is a reason for everything and a purpose to your life. Too many fail to listen to the song in their heart and therefore fail to find their purpose and their part. What makes your soul sing and your heart dance? Actually you heart is your soul and you are both! Ask this one question of yourself but don’t be in a hurry to answer it. Live in the question for a day, a week, a month. Let it invite your heart to speak to you. And when you are absolutely sure what your heart is saying is true then begin to invoke the changes necessary in your life so that you live in alignment with your song. Be patient with this.