A simple step

A close friend of mine was talking to me the other day about a change in consciousness. A change in global consciousness. They explained to me that this is a change in thinking and being, within us all and the world around us. It can be seen as a rebalancing of both the physical and metaphysical realms...a new reality which refocuses us on who we really are and why we are here. Quite deep stuff.. Recently in Christchurch, reiki has been used to help many people to overcome the mental trauma experienced following the earthquakes. It is a skill that we all possess within us and that is gaining in popularity. Whilst there remain many skeptics, there are clear benefits that arise for those practicing, and those receiving reiki. One of the simplest of these is rebalancing - reiki results in a meditative state of being that helps people to rest at both the physical and mental level. It also touches the metaphysical or spiritual level within us. Last week, in addition to a w...

Acceptance is a very powerful word, and one that often has a real influence on our direction and our future. The things that happen, the events that occur and how you react or respond to them helps to shape who you are and where you are going. Sometimes we react against things, fighting against what we believe and consider to be wrong, inappropriate or unsuitable. Typically, this reaction relates to things that have been, or that have occured. Sometimes it also relates to things and events that are on the horizon, pending or about to occur. In traditional psychology, pundits talk of 'flight or fight' as a response to things that affect or are likely to affect us in a 'bad' way - there is no obvious space here for doing nothing and simply accepting things as they are. Acceptance often brings peace of mind, no matter what the situation. Provided you are able to see fear for what it is, acceptance helps you to breathe. When you breathe, you often find that you can se...

Zoos are cool places. When was the last time you went to a zoo? This morning (as with most Sunday mornings) was Amelie time, Dad and daughter spending quality time together, so we went off to the zoo.. Wandering along the paths listening to the cries of the spider monkeys echoing throughout the park, we seemed to silently enter another world .. a world that is made up of the energy of living things, a world that does not get concerned with the time of day, the weather or what is going on outside the realm of the animals living there. Time kind of becomes irrelevant. That's peaceful. We saw the cheetahs having lunch, the gibbon sitting in her usual spot on a branch by her enclosure fence, sitting watching people come and go, the baby giraffe galloping across the 'savanna' towards her mother. We smelt the rhinos and watched the ostrich pecking the ground. It always surprises me how calm small children are when they are at the zoo - in awe of the animals around them, or ...

As we begin the Christmas season around this beautiful world, a period of reflection often occurs. Christmas (for most of the western world) is a time when we think about the year gone by, and about how far we have come along the road, and then we turn to the new year and begin to think about how far we are going to go and what we are going to do with our time next year. We all live life at different paces, sometimes we move quickly, at other times more slowly. We each choose how fast we want to move, making decisions that alter our progress and that sometimes take us in different directions. Sometimes those decisions help us gather momentum, at other times we lose it. That got me to thinking about physics...I was never really any good at school physics, I think the highest exam mark I ever got was around 40% despite the attempts of some very good teachers!, and the lowest was somewhere in the teens ....now a few years on from school, the querky reality is how much physics i...

What is it about the feeling of peace you get when sitting back and holding a book? Ever felt that? Is it to do with the fact that you are on a journey, similar to the characters in the book that takes you away from your day to day 'stuff', or the fact that you relate to aspects of the storyline or what the book is saying? Or is it the fact that in your hands is the work of another person, ideas put onto paper, the authors time and energy in your palms, shared for your enjoyment. In this new world of e-books, Facebook, blogs and all, one of the things that still feels cool is the bound tatty copy of Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance sitting beneath my glasses on my lap, it's wrinkled cover a reminder of the hands that have opened its pages to share in the journey that it contains. Facebook and stuff simply can't provide a similar feeling. There is something special about a brand new book, with an unbroken spine, no creases, and pages that slide apart for the fir...

We are all influenced, every day, by the events that occur, by the people we interact with, by the way we feel. We choose the latter - we are responsible for the way we feel. We seek peace of mind and contentment. We try to control what happens in our lives to achieve this. Can we control what goes on, or not? We can control - How we feel What we do Where we go How we go about it We all have triggers - words, experiences - that influence us. These triggers relate to past experiences and to the way we deal with them. Understanding our own minds helps us to move past these and gain clarity on the positive influences, the things that help us to move forward confidently.