It’s been a time of transition

Well here’s my blog – my new idea for a connection between newly evolving spiritually awakening people who want answers, connections, a place to learn and to teach, to share experiences and inspirations.

For me – it’s a long journey and I will write about it over the next few weeks – but my ‘coming out’ as a medium is a big deal as I’ve been so busy turning away from this for so long, not wanting to be seen to be ‘non-mainstream’ in my life and work. I wanted to sit on the serious side of life and ‘just be like everyone else’ but of course there is much resistance to my being resistant to who I really am from my guides who keep nudging me firmly into the direction I have taken and am slowly starting to feel comfortable in taking.

My direction as I grow and learn is something I’ll continue to blog about and I’ll share some of my stories, experiences in all kinds of things I’ve been called upon to do in the past couple of years.  I know that I’m blessed by having had many teachers and guides, as well as ‘signposts’ (those people who just turn up and deliver a message and then you may never see them again but you really needed to hear what they had to say).

For those of you who might visit and decide this is not serious enough for you – or that I’m only dabbling in things unknown, I will assure you that this is a long way from dabbling or testing ideas.  As I develop this blog site further this will become evident, but for now, I’m making a start and beginning the process and where it leads I know not at this time.

But welcome!

Maria

In the Flow

Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in busy but the ability to remind ourselves to just breathe and trust is what we all need to so.   Creativity thrives on rest and fresh air.   When we give ourselves up to this fresh state of mind, we are better able to hear the voices of our intuition/guides/guardians/commonsense – what ever you wish to refer to in this sentence.

So when was the last time you sat under a tree, walked in the park without taking your mp3 player, or got up really early to watch the sunrise?

 

That Question…

I knew it was coming – every year I know it, and yet I’m still never quite prepared for it.  “Mum, are we going to bother with Christmas decorations this year?”

Gulp, groan, um, ooh – um….

All these tiny inward reactions run through me as I look at Mr 13 Year Old, who tactfully tells me it’s ‘my choice’.

Huumph!  As if!

What’s the big deal you may ask…

Well, I’m a bit of a bah humbug over Christmas.  Partly because I think  it’s far too commercialized, and while I have a lovely relationship with God, and some very cool angels and guides, I’m not a ‘Christian’. But also, I’ve kind of struggled with Christmas for about 14 years now, as three days after that long ago festive date, my wonderful husband sadly passed away unexpectedly, leaving me pregnant and totally mad at the world.  So – anniversaries, being what they are, Christmas always comes around and I just quietly go into my cave and emerge just enough to ‘do Christmas for the kids’ and that’s about all.  And my kids, friends and family know that’s about how I approach it every year.  But this year, my son asked I think because he wondered if he should still care, now that he’s about to become a teenager and traded beliefs in Santa and toys for Girls and independence.

At our house we firmly believe in the Spirit of Christmas, but accept that it’s just lousy timing for us as a family.    I try to make it a great family time for the three of us – but this year my older son has moved to Australia and not likely to make it home for the holidays, and so there will be only the two of us.  “So Mum – should we bother with decorations this year?”  Mmmn.  Well, After sleeping on it, and really thinking hard about this, I think this is the year to make a real effort.  Let’s get festive, share the day with other very small odd-ball families like ours is, and drink our annual toast to absent loved ones with renewed love and sorrow, before diving headfirst into a day of frivolity.

To all of those people out there who are also struggling with Christmas for similar reasons, rest assured that you are not alone – and  perhaps we owe it to our lost loved ones to not miss a chance to be gracious and cheerful to our neighbors… and if for some of us it’s an emotional battle, we can gain comfort in the knowledge that we have made it through yet another year.  If this is your first Christmas with a missing place-mat at the table, just get through the season honoring yourself first and your right to handle Christmas any way you decide to do it.

And be gentle to yourself.  I’ll do the same, and think fondly of you all as I hang tinsel and angels and sing carols of joy with my boy.

 

 

Anxiety

I am learning to let go and not stress about things I can’t change.  This is HUGE for me.  I’m usually the one who is panicked, worried, and off my dinner over a comment that leaves me wondering if I’ve inadvertently upset someone, or unsure if I’ll get the assignment I’ve been chasing.  Things that I know I can’t do anything about immediately that tie me up in knots. But you know how ‘they’ say that we teach what we most need to learn?  Well this week I’ve been working with clients and several have mentioned that they too get all tied up in knots over similar things.   Then the first ‘aha’ moment.  I realised I was saying that they needed to work out if they could do something about the challenge of the moment, and if not, they needed to put it in a ‘safe place’ until they could.  And while it was in that safe place, they could trust that it would be there when they were ready and able to deal with it, but that worry would not change the shape or size of it at all – and so to focus on other things for now.  As I listened to this good advice I was sharing, I realised I needed to take it for myself too.

Then I heard myself twice say to someone else, that if something is not working the way it should, that perhaps instead of worrying it to death, try instead to consider what she needed to learn from the necessary change it was going to mean making.  Then I had my second ‘aha’ moment.  I also needed to learn this.

Finally, I had another client this week with whom I shared a discussion about making the present perfect.  ‘Present Perfect’ is a state of allowing what ever is happening right now to be ok.  Even if it’s getting stuck in traffic, or spilling something, missing something, or making a mistake – what ever it is, be it that it affects you for a moment, an hour or a day, or even much bigger than that, to make it ok, and realise it’s all just part of  the universe’s way of ensuring you end up being or doing something better, or different that has longer, bigger, better or totally different outcomes, that end up being so much better.

My third a-haa moment.

I found that inside all three of these insights I was sharing with others, were valuable lessons for myself too and that specifically the timing for each was significant for me right now.

And so, I thought long and hard about these lessons, took them on board and decided to work (really hard) on letting go of the what-ifs and maybe’s that often leave me feeling stuck, inadequate or unsure.

I also realised that the way we get our lessons is sometimes hugely profound and meaningful and that maybe we are all serving as messengers for those we meet each day.  What an interesting concept.

 

Meditation for Beginners

I have a client who is busy, always bouncing along in a competitive business world and always coming up with new ideas.  Finally I said to him this week, Adam, why don’t you try meditation?  I’m sure it will change your life and make so much of what you do flow more easily.  He dodged the comment.  I raised it again this morning, and he said: “yeah I suppose maybe… I’ll have to find someone to teach me”. I suggested a yoga teacher – and he said he’d tried Yoga and hated it.

As we live in separate countries I was unable to immediately think of an alternative option, but sure that I was onto a good/big thing for him, I went myself and meditated on the idea of how to get Adam ok with this concept and trying it.  I am sure we all have people like Adam in our lives, and let’s face it, many of us were also like him once too.   So I came up with this – and will send it to him this evening.

Meditation for Beginners

Walk into a garden, or find a quiet place at the beach, riverside, or park.  Sit where you feel like sitting – that’s out-of-the-way of others.  Turn off your cellphone, and give yourself at least 30 minutes.

Sit quietly in a position that is comfortable for you – take your shoes off if you like.  Loosen your tie, or belt, and just relax in a comfortable state.  You don’t have to sit cross-legged and go ‘ohhhmmmm’ but you can if you wish and there are many other mantras you could use if you wish. But for now, let’s just get comfortable with relaxing your mind a little.

As you get comfortable, then close your eyes.  Take several very deep breaths, and concentrate on breathing all the way in through the nose, and then slowly exhale through the mouth.  Do this maybe 4-5 times, and just focus on slowing your breathing down and calming your heart rate.  That is all.

Then, when you feel that you can naturally breathe slowly and fully on each breath, relax a little more and concentrate on doing that for a few minutes.  Your mind may be wandering or even bouncing all over the place – but that’s ok.  Every breath will help.  Just let your mind wander – but like a butterfly flitting from thought to thought – not an excited puppy.  Whenever you find you are thinking about something specific like a work problem or a conversation… just say calmly to your mind – next please. And move on to the next thought.  Imagining of your mind as a beautiful garden with flowers everywhere – let the butterflies of thought move as they will from flower to flower – not pausing too long in any one place.

Let your other senses awaken slowly to the sounds around you.  Listen to the breeze – see if you can hear it.  Let your skin tingle with the feel of the air passing over it.  Feel your hair resting on your scalp. Let your mind wander over your body and see if it all feels ok.  That’s all.  Think about your body sitting where it is, comfortably listening to the breeze, feeling the air, warming in the sun or cooling in the shade.  Just sit and be.  Nothing more.

Take another deep breath and smile – simply enjoying the feeling of taking 10-20 minutes out of your busy day to totally recharge your batteries in this meditative state.  Keep smiling gently to yourself knowing that this 20 minutes can be easily made up in your day by being fresher at each task later after you’ve taken this valuable time out.

Take another deep breath, and ask your own self, if there is anything special you wish to give to yourself today – any thought, idea, knowledge, or inspiration.  Then wait and breath slowly, allowing any answer to come to you.   Just wait and see what is there inside your mind, that’s been waiting for a quiet moment to come forth.  These moments of brilliance are shy, and like to wait until they can be heard in the quiet, they struggle to compete with all the other clutter in your mind during the day. So give them a moment of absolute freedom to step forth and lay themselves down before you.

Then, thank your own self for that gift of a special thought, idea, or burst of inspiration, and taking another very deep breath, think about where you are, focus on the place you sit in, open your eyes when you are ready and stretch. Remind yourself that this was your own special time with your own self and that it was necessary to just sit quietly in your stillness for a few minutes today.

That is the first part of learning to meditate.

Do this every day

Allow yourself a free 30 minutes. You may only meditate for 20 minutes or so, or maybe you’ll take the whole 30.  But keep practicing at this every day until you find it easier and easier to relax and do this.  Eventually you may wish to do more intense levels of mediation, but for starters, just try this – it will increase your creativity, and your awareness of yourself and others.  This is the most valuable thing you can do for yourself and your business right now.

If you wish to record these instructions onto a disk you can do that too.

And don’t beat yourself up over whether or not you are doing this right – there is no right way – just do it your way. But following these simple steps will make it incredibly easy to get started.

Best wishes, and let me know how you get on.

A Knock on the Head

I was stupidly not walking carefully through the park a couple of Sundays ago with only my dog for company in the early morning and tripped, knocking myself out briefly as I fell to the ground.  Thinking I was fine, if a little stunned, I carried on and finished my walk, only realising later that day that my head was feeling decidedly disconnected from my body.  X-rays and a few moments of feeling really silly at the doctor’s clinic later, I accepted that I had concussion.

I’ve never had it before, and it took days for my brain to re-engage fully with my mind, and my neck and back to stop throbbing painfully as I settled back into my skeleton and skin properly.  Thinking each day that I was ‘fine’ and ‘much better today’ then realising each day that I had not been at all, I finally re-connected with myself properly after a lot of rest and self nurturing. I also realised that whether it’s getting sick, someone else near me getting sick or in this case, a real knock on the head, there are some times when you really have to just STOP and re-group, re-assess, and re-approach what ever you think is important on the to-do lists.  Often when forced into a slowdown, you find that the important stuff is all about just resting and allowing life to happen rather than try to cram a lot into it, or force time to change how it passes.

Yes indeed sometimes you just have to BE. And a knock on the head for me has meant I’m able to fully appreciate the value of just stopping and gathering myself into a state of ‘being’ at least once a day now.  And the funny thing is – I THOUGHT I was doing this before – but now I really do have a means of  measuring that.