I am in Charge of how I Feel!!

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Rod's World

Marc and Angel Chernoff’s book 1,000+ little things Happy Successful People do differently is one of the best buys I ever made. Unfortunately it is not available at the moment because it has gone for re editing. They are releasing a new book Getting Back to Happy: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Reality, and Turn Your Trials into Triumphs: which ships 22nd May 2018. Their website http://www.marcandangel.com/ has all the details and many of their fantastic lists to help you live a great life.

I opened the book today and the page was entitled Self Love Questions to make you think. The first question is : If you had a friend who spoke to you in the same way that you sometimes speak to yourself, how long would you allow that person to be your friend? There are nine other questions just as confronting and insightful about how we relate to self-love.

So what vignettes do we release into the world regarding this often hard emotion, let’s take a journey:

1. At times we need to do this to our dear old brain. its our own worst enemy.

2. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, remember to behold yourself first and foremost: Beautiful.

3. Lalah Delia is the founder of VibrateHigherDaily.com and Vibrate Higher Daily Blog. Vibrate Higher Daily is a sacred online space for personal growth, elevation, and transformation. By creating the hashtag #VibrateHigherDaily as a personal journey mantra and reminder, a new path was born. Soon, many others also journeying towards living their highest potential took community and joined in.

4. Not taken or single – Self Loved: I’m Real.

5. Such beautiful words to remember: You can’t lose you.

6. I had a session with my mentor the other day, He asked me who was I trying to be, and that wasn’t who I really was. I have fallen in love with the fact I will never be this more available Rod, I will be kind, supporting and loving Rod: I will Survive.

7. Or your kingdom, I think all of humanity could do with this list.

8. We all abhor violence toward others , why do we insist on regularly doing it to ourselves: Self Esteem.

9. How much has the person in your mirror been through, three cheers, they are still standing!!

10. Handed out at birth, keep working on it: Superpower.

11. Never, Never, Never, Never, Never, Never, Never, Never, Never, Never, Never, Never Ever.

12. Pierre was a French tragedian in the 16th century. He probably wrote this so we could avoid this other works: Alive.

13. André Gide (French: was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947 “for his comprehensive and artistically significant writings, in which human problems and conditions have been presented with a fearless love of truth and keen psychological insight”. That’s one hell of a way to say Self-Love.

14. We can see the magic in you so don’t forget that it’s there: All of Me.

And finally, remember self love can not come from another.

One more question from Marc and Angel: What’s something Nobody can ever steal from you – let’s go for Self Love.

Our music today is dominated by women. We start with Christina Aguilera, then Jennifer Lopez, travel back to the 70’s with Gloria Gaynor, then a sad number from The Offspring, to the mighty Beyonce, followed by Sia ending up with John Legend.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Always desire to Learn Something Useful.

Posted on April 5, 2018 by Rod's World

Once again we return to Danielle LaPorte’s great book White Hot Truth for today subject, that often misunderstood emotion called desire: Here’s the Link.

The chapter on desire is subtitled a broader view for creating reality and begins with the following poem:

Dear Infinity

soon

enough

My Future

will be

now

and my scars will have grown into

sacred geometry

(circles of Dignity, pyramids of Will, vortices of Love)

I hide what I have to let go of in furrows

behind a tail gate

and I whisper wishes

into every victory seed

I plant –

every one hears this prayer

Dear Infinity

Breathe life into

my every desire.

To give some context to desire let’s have a look at how different parts of society view it:

The Catholics: If you want it, you have to go through God to get it.

The Buddhists: Your problem is that you want it.

The Zen Buddhists: What’s to want?

The Hindus: You wanted that in your last life.

The Capitalists: You got to want it more than anyone else.

The New Agers: Just keep telling the Universe how much you want it.

I have followed Danielle’s Core Desired Feeling for over four years now, freed from my to do list perfection after one or two. So how do we as a society relate to this often verboten subject that is desire:

1. Some people say Donald Trump is Ayn Rand’s love child. He obviously forget this piece of advice.

2. I love this statement Tom Krause wrote about teaching, Welcome to teaching!!! You are now part of a profession solely dedicated to helping students of all ages learn. It is a profession where the more you give of yourself, the more you get in return. Most famous people are eventually forgotten. Teachers live on in the hearts and minds of their students for a lifetime: The Rose.

3. “Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough. You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it.” “There are so many ways to be brave in this world. Sometimes bravery involves laying down your life for something bigger than yourself, or for someone else.

4. 3 percent of people write their goals down. In a study they earned on average 10 times more than the other 97 percent. Do you write down your passions, your desired feelings: Change.

5. Are you lost?

6. And the surest way for them to be uncontrolled is to deny they exist and not deal with them: Scary Monsters.

7. Whoever wrote this must have been following me around for a long time.

8. I think the last word is praised: Praise You.

9. But what if your fantasies become your reality: Yummy!!!

10. A force to be reckoned with, desire can take you to some strange places:

11. A photographer by trade, Jason uses his images and wealth to combat the negative effects ethnic identity has on the human race.

12. Blind from the age of 7 to 15 after falling down the stairs, Eric Hoffer is famous for this insight – A movement is pioneered by men of words, materialized by fanatics and consolidated by men of actions: Opportunity.

13. A prolific quoter, T. P. Chia has a site with over 800 quotes on it. Many of them pointing to it is up to us to fulfill our desires and turn them into achievements.

14. A synonym for desire, curiosity is defined as a strong desire to know or learn something – “filled with curiosity, she peered through the window. Other ways of saying it are inquisitieness, interest, and spirit of enquiry: Curiosity killed the Cat.

15. How many times has this happened in your life, never knew there was such a sexy word for it.

Danielle comments that in her experience, desire works best when you have intersecting reasons for wanting what you want. Yu want it for yourself, and you want it for others. You want it for pleasure, and to be of service. You want it because having it gives you joy, and you can send that joy ( or money, or resources, or healing ) out in other directions. I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment.

The songs this time begin with a classic Bette Midler tune, then the pop diva Taylor Swift. We then return to the 80’s with Bowie followed by Fatboy Slim. Then a Bollywood tune from the Havoc Brothers, some Sia ending with an Australian icon Little River Band.

Namaste until next time , my dear friends.

Put on your Perspectacles!!

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Rod's World

The quote in the empowering book Time for my Life: 365 Stepping Stones by Thea Westra for today is as follows: Goals help you keep in perspective what’s really important so you do not spend all of your time doing what seems important – Nido Qubein. Nido is an American Lebanese University president and philanthropist who has donated over $10 million dollars in his lifetime to education. He has not lost sight of his goal to his seemingly important day to day urgent tasks.

How do you stay in perspective when it comes to your purpose, your goals, your why in life? Another way of asking it is How can you be more effectively making use of your time? And how has society related to it over the years, Here’s a few takes at it:

1. How many people do you have in your life who would give you everything?

This piece of wisdom is from the First Century A.D. Marcus was a Roman emperor who sought the meaning of life and wrote an excellent book called Memoirs about it: Human.

3. I think I have wasted a few years of my 63 years not doing this, worrying about things that I couldn’t at the time change or do anything effective to change my circumstances, nice one Mary.

4. Too simple: Mean.

5. Remember when we were kids and we were going to astronauts or veterinarians, why did we change our perspective and stop looking?

6. They wrote a song about this a long, long time ago: “The Impossible Dream (The Quest)” is a popular song composed by Mitch Leigh, with lyrics written by Joe Darion. It was written for the 1965 musical Man of La Mancha. It is the main song from the musical and became its most popular hit. The song is sung all the way through once in the musical by Don Quixote as he stands vigil over his armor, in response to Aldonza (Dulcinea)’s question about what he means by “following the quest”. It is reprised partially three more times – the last by prisoners in a dungeon as Miguel de Cervantes and his manservant mount the drawbridge – like prison staircase to face trial by the Spanish Inquisition. It was awarded the Contemporary Classics Award from the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame: The Impossible Dream.

7. Love and Respect for All – Everyone Included.

8. Are we all star seed, energy in different forms. If we vibrate what we want on a daily basis, the universe listens: Across the Universe.

9. This makes me think of his Holiness’s statement about If we really listen, and not just wait to reply we actually might learn something new.

10. Amazing, really: Nowhere Man.

11. We are all unique individuals, love that about yourself.

12. And it’s also one of the great medicinal plants on the planet: Dandelion.

13. I remember The Hour of Power evangelist TV show from the 70’s that Robert Schuller hosted, seems he did it for 50 years until 2010. We all have fears though, I find facing them is the most useful way of lessening their influence over my daily life.

14. How we are training our young folk more and more these days. Self love is the reverse of this: I was Here.

15. Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation”. He was elected the first Saoi of Aosdána in 1984 by The Irish nation, the ultimate accolade a creative artist can receive in that country.

Martin Luther Kings distinction around perceptiveness Somebodiness’ which is a state of self dignity and worthiness, despite what others may think. It is a deep inner resolve that nobody can convince me that I am not somebody sums up how I feel about this subject well. Your perspective is just as valuable as anyone else’s, never forget this.

Music this blog has three song’s from the 1960’s , two pop diva’s and two people I have never heard of, that’s why I love what YouTube throws up for my requests. Rag ‘n Bone Man., Taylor Swift, Andy Williams, Rufus Wainwright, The Beatles, Tevin Campbell and Beyonce.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Only the pure of Heart can make a good Soup!!

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Rod's World

Nothing changes without Me

Sometimes, my heart is so open

I can’t tell if it is a gaping wound

or a portal for everything that ever was and ever will be.

I’ve learned to love the beautiful terror of eternity,

and scenario planning for how shattered I could be

If the dark things got tall

and if I fell backwards in my forgetting of the light.

But you can’t fall backwards in Space,

You can only only ever unfurl.

More than anything,

I’ve wed the certainty that nothing changes without me –

not coal becoming diamonds

not fertilizing eggs

or migration patterns

or medicine dreams.

And what I thought was a net cast to me from a higher God

is actually strands of truth and filaments of desire

that I have tied together with my own two hands.

And in precious encounters, I tie what I know and want to you,

so we can ride the winds of wonder.

Yes, and

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day – E. B. White

These are the first two entries in the chapter from Danielle LaPorte’s excellent book White Hot Truth on the Soul of Service: Link to the Book.

In this chapter Danielle discusses Conscious Optimism, the next quote is from Neil deGrasse Tyson:

I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday, and lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you.

Today we will discuss the second of these, how to lessen the suffering of others. To me, as demonstrated by all our great heroes and heroines it is through service this is attained.

How do we as humanity relate to this, lets have a look:

1. Although Muhammad Ali points to the other one in this quote.

2. How do we start to serve, from where we are: because From little things, big things grow: Classic Version of that song.

3. Giving from your soul turns on the love light.

4. Some beautiful words with deep insight from the master, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī: Light a candle in your Heart.

5. A man who died freeing his beloved India but believed that the answer lied in serving the culture of his country.

6. Achieving this lets us see more and more opportunities to be of service: Wrecking Ball.

7. Erica Jong is an American novelist and poet, known particularly for her 1973 novel Fear of Flying. The book became famously controversial for its attitudes towards female sexuality and figured prominently in the development of second-wave feminism. According to Washington Post, it has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

8. They say if you achieve this you will never work another day. A hint, look how you can serve others: Soul’s on Fire.

9. Wordy, but needs to be taken in.

10. Swami’s are meant to be very wise. This one seems to be in the area of service: Try Everything.

11. I know this is taking the piss out of Shakespeare’s more famous quote but I just had to include it.

12. Maya liberates my soul: And still I Rise.

13. You nearly need a magnifier to read this famous quote from Martin, but we all know the line anybody can serve.

14. Three beautiful gifts to give to the world: Just give me a Reason.

15. With the recent passing of Stephen Hawkings, the former president of India has a great point about the service to humanity that science provides.

And to finish some more words from Danielle that really sum service up:

Service is when spirit meets matter where it is. Service is being informed. Service is being enraged and compassionate. Service is being ruthlessly honest about the facts – then choosing to be hopeful about the future.

The music today starts with one of Australia’s preeminent Indigenous singers Archie Roach and Sarah Storer, then Paul Janz, Sarah Blackwood, Anthony Blackwood to the more well known Shakira, Maya Angelou and finishing with Pink.

Namaste until next time my dear friends.

No Grit, No Pearl!!

Posted on March 1, 2018 by Rod's World

Circumstances change and priorities change with them. Are you certain that the goals you are pursuing today are goals to which you are still committed? Alternatively, are they simply something you once thought you should pursue and you are only hanging onto them in order to ‘be right’? Remember what you wanted in your 20’s are no longer the things that matter to you in your 40’s or 50’s. So , take a little time for reflection.

One reflection to look at is Mark Twain’s quote: Do not go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. The reflection that comes to mind from this is that it is up to me , nobody else is going to do it for me, they may assist me, bu if its my idea, its me that has to drive it.

There are a lot of quotes of the reflective nature, I hope you like the ones I have chosen:

1. Now I know what DKNY means on all those hoodies, Donna Karan comes from New York and runs a fashion label, therefore DKNY.

2. There are two choices, fix it or declare it complete and create new space for your new bold adventures: Something Better.

3. I remember being told the tale about African tribes not being able to see TV images bu my science teacher, That reminds me of this quote.

4. How did you get to know what you thought about your friends, did you ask or was it just a hunch?: Perception.

5. Also remember to hang out in the Now allowing for reflections on the past, all are needed.

6. Wise words from the man who best exemplifies this: Nelson Mandela.

7. A great mantra to reflect on Self Love.

8. A friend of mine met his life partner because he thought he had left his phone at work and went back to get it, It was in the bottom of his bag: Choice.

9. Do unto others as you wish to have happen to you, sometimes I forget!!

10. Sometimes the mind gets in the way, listen more deeply: Soul Kind of Feeling.

11. I think the new wave of entrepreneurs are part of this outlook on life.

12. I naturally think of Simon Sinek when I see a line like because we forget why we do it, here’s his inspirational TED talk on the subject: First Why and then trust.

13. There are some great quotes in the holy texts, this is one of them.

14. Proactive, not reactive is most powerful I find: The 7 Habits.

15. Trudy Symeonakis Vesotsky, what a cool name. See and be , observe and then take action. I like it!!

Some very worthwhile reflections amongst that collection, if I don’t say so myself.

Music and Worlds this week. The very dance-able Specials and Dynamic Hepnotics plus wisdom from Alan Watts and Simon Sinek and a mix of pop and rap.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

I love that feeling I Get!!

Posted on February 26, 2018 by Rod's World

Change your habits, change your life! Success in life needs to be deliberately managed. Replace three unproductive habits with three new ones that raise the bar. Success in any endeavour requires a lifestyle change and you could do all that at once! Not recommended, if you are someone who stops all action, when just one small thing gets in the way. A less painful and more sustainable way is to change daily habits bit by bit. You cannot change a habit by trying to get rid of it. You can replace an unwanted habit with a new one.

Remember to choose new ones that make you come alive, the world doesn’t need actions for actions sake, It needs people who have come alive/awake. What does the world have to say about this, here’s some of the things:

1. After talking to God, Neale came up with this very wise quote as to when we need to wake up in our lives.

2. There were about 200 versions of this quote in Google Images, I liked the simplicity of this one: Staying Alive.

3. Michael Morpurgo says “For me, the greater part of writing is daydreaming, dreaming the dream of my story until it hatches it out – the writing down of it I always find hard. But I love finishing it, then holding the book in my hands and sharing the dream with its readers.

4. Remarkably, anything can make us come alive at any moment in our lives, sometimes we forget this: Come Alive.

5. And when we discover them , that is when we are truly alive.

6. Love the irony of this: When you wish upon a star.

7. You can dance if you want to, I do every week.

8. And its called your passionate heart: Dreams.

9. Pursuing things make them come alive, make it your ambition in life.

10. You can choose to have it in your lives every day, Its always there: You and I.

11. Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime, and was considered a madman and a failure. He became famous after his suicide, and exists in the public imagination as the quintessential misunderstood genius, the artist “where discourses on madness and creativity converge”.

12. Primarily it should be yours you make come alive first: Come Alive 2

13. The scent of the ocean at full power is my favourite scent.

14. Smiling and happiness are outcomes from coming alive, fantastic results: Come up and make me Smile.

15. Fear and Love, a little bit of both to come alive, methinks.

There have been many days in my life, that when I woke up I definitely did not feel like I had come alive, I am getting better at it though.

Music is from the musicals, the 70’s and one you would never guess – The Bee Gees and Cockney Rebel, The Greatest Showman cast, Julie Andrews and Paris Hilton.

Namaste until next time my dear friends.

Do what makes your Soul Shine!!

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Rod's World

In the Google Images page for quotes to avoid stopping this beautiful quote that is the title of this blog appeared, seems strangely out of place. The subject for today’s blog is taken from Time for my Life, Thea Westra’s excellent book; Here’s the link to her Website. It comes from the challenge for February 12 – face the situation and just complete whatever you are avoiding.

I think we spend as much energy on avoiding things as we do in completing them if we do not set our goals up to act on a daily basis. It’s easy to roll over for another half hour if we have no plans for the day. I tend to not make to many though so there is space for unexpected actions that I need to take. Two to four definites works for me.

So what do our fellow humans have to say about avoidance in their lives, here’s a few cuts at it:

1. If you don’t face it, will it ever go away? Turn around and walk towards it, time to stop running.

2. Reach out and Touch Somebody else. If you don’t do this, they may stop calling: Reach out and touch somebody’s Hand.

3. Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English writer, who is considered one of the foremost modernist authors of the 20th century and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf became one of the central subjects of the 1970s movement of feminist criticism, and her works have since garnered much attention and widespread commentary for “inspiring feminism”, an aspect of her writing that was unheralded earlier. Her works are widely read all over the world and have been translated into more than fifty languages. She suffered from severe bouts of mental illness throughout her life and took her own life by drowning in 1941 at the age of 59.

4. And also those who saw the gulp and stood by that person in their pain: Feel the Pain.

5. Lots of hashtags for this simple Nike like quote.

6. What was that you said? Oh, nothing, I suppose I will have to make up what you are thinking, then: Sounds of Silence.

7. And this may be one of the things I make up in my frustration at the silence.

8. The worlds greatest philosopher, Ms. Unknown chimes in with the formulae of acceptance, as resistance if futile in making something cease happening: Let it Be.

9. A mixture of both works for me!!

10. Fill in the missing words……: Let’s Hurt Tonight.

11. Founding Honda Motor company in his back shed in 1948, three years after Japan had been bombed into oblivion, Soichiro Honda definitely did not avoid the challenges and vision he saw. The possibility of failure must have been great in the beginning.

12. If you don’t know what you want, spend more time on finding out what you don’t so you create space for the former to surface: Look what you made me Do.

13. My friend Lissa Rankin says there are two types of fear, real fear and suggested fear. I think RD Laing is making the same point in this quote in regard to pain.

14. Other ways to spell inspired action and why avoidance sucks big time: Stronger.

15. And there are plenty more quotes to help you break through the avoidance, actually 51 in the area of overthinking, a classic avoidance method.

Often in avoidance we are facing the wrong direction, pain we are running away instead of turning to face what it has to offer us, what if …. we are facing the circumstances that stop us beginning when we should be facing the other direction of taking the action that compels us forward towards our bright future. Yes, it’s that time!!

Music today is from two different eras, the 60’s offering is Diana Ross, The Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel. Today’s are Kanye West, One Republic and Taylor Swift.

Namaste until next time my dear friends:

Invest in People who Invest in You!!

Posted on February 5, 2018 by Rod's World

I have 4,,828 friends on Facebook. I use the principle if we have 100 mutual friends and we have not met that we eventually will. This means I have a lot of the Melbourne Conscious Movement, musicians and female American life coaches as friends. I write a Facebook birthday card for each and everyone of them. Today one of the people was my friend from Landmark Education Thea Westra. As I wrote it I started to think about her remarkable book Time for My Life, 365 Stepping Stones, 2843 Life Power Boosters at your fingertips.

Thea wrote a book that has a page for every day of the year that has a stepping stone, action, challenge, quote, clearing, question and affirmation for you to contemplate. As an example her is today’s page.

Stepping Stone – Be willing to accept. A gift given and received requires two parties. The person who is giving the gift and the person who is receiving the gift. You must be open to receiving after you ask something to happen or to come your way.

Action – Today is the birthday of the author of this book. Send Thea Westra a hello birthday greeting. Just use the Contact Form at http://www.myforwardsteps.com . Your message will go directly to Thea’s inbox and she will reply.

Challenge – Be patient and focus on daily changes, rather than waiting for revelations.

Quote – Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non- essentials….Lin Yutang

Clearing – Check chair/table legs to see if they need new protective caps.

Question – Can you distinguish essential from non-essential?

Affirmation – I choose to be debt free.

So, do you allow time for your life? How does society relate to this noble practice, lets have a look:

1. The one time this happened to me was in a motorcycle accident and memories of people who were special to me filled my heart and mind.

2. I didn’t know Marilyn was a fan of Eckhart Tolle: Teach me Tiger.

3. The problem with this is that if the person you are talking about departs, it leaves a huge gap. Working on self love as the driver might be more useful then it can’t be taken away when someone leaves.

4. As we make more and more time for our life, we learn to stop doing the things that do not come from our passions: Lights.

5. They say the magic is in the silence not the small talk.

6. So many of the business gurus I read say it isn’t about the money, It’s about the time and to stop wasting time doing things you regret later or do not enjoy. It’s probably because of the second sentence above: No Regrets.

7. Seems a bit contrary, If you are in the Now why would you also be living life as I can’t wait to get to the future?

8. The 27 Club is a list of popular musicians, artists, or actors who died at age twenty-seven. It originated with an unsupported claim of a “statistical spike” for the death of musicians at that age, but this has been repeatedly disproved by research. Members are Jimi , Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones in the 1970’s and recently Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse: “27”.

9. At what age did you stop doing this with your friends, It’s supposedly when we grow up.

10. They say we meet a few people in our lives who we can be separate from for years but when we get back together it feels like five minutes, I think that’s because they have placed themselves in our hearts: You’re in my Heart.

11. I love the last line, sometimes I get stuck in the belief its a permanent fixture.

12. Don’t forget the people who teach you the hard lessons: Difficult.

13. It’s like the saying, if the door doesn’t open for you – It’s not meant to at that time in your life.

14. What if, why did that happen to me, etc. etc. Turn around and walk towards to your dreams: Mr. Brightside.

15. Rabindranath Tagore, also written Ravīndranātha Thākura, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of Gitanjali and its “profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse”, he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. Tagore’s poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his “elegant prose and magical poetry” remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He is sometimes referred to as “the Bard of Bengal”.

You can contact Thea via http://www.forwardstepsblog.com, it seems these days you receive a free 179 page eBook and for a paltry $10 Australian you can purchase the eBook of the book I am talking about in this blog.

Music is from Marilyn Monroe, Ellie Goulding, The Walker Brothers, the unknown Maria Stoian , Rod Stewart, Eminem and the Killers.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends

A Good Teacher is like a Candle!!

Posted on January 9, 2018 by Rod's World

The spiritual teacher and author Eckhart Tolle says, “The moment you become aware of the ego in you, it is strictly speaking no longer the ego, but just an old, conditioned mind-pattern. Ego implies unawareness. Awareness and ego cannot coexist. Recognising this is like taking the first step into the light, to get there you need to go through the dark because both come with each other.

In her brave new book Judgement Detox, Gabrielle Bernstein takes you on a journey that is a clear, proactive, step-by-step program that helps you heal judgment and rediscover your oneness with others. Link to the Book. We all make judgements, it’s just how we let them control us that creates the issue, by acknowledging the fact we do this the power they have over us lessens and we can return to the light after the dark of having made the judgement.

So what has society said about returning to the light over the centuries, here are some ways:

1. Probably the reason that there have been sun gods for a lot longer than deities in religious history.

2. Actions fostered by the light are much more dynamic than simply physical ones, Judy’s got it covered pretty well: Somewhere over the Rainbow.

3. Something all parents must think of in those first magic moments when their children magically enter the physical world.

4. And then there are the times we fail to recognise this fact, Inner not Outer: All of the Stars.

5. And from the 1600’s, Francis Bacon offers up this classic fact about life, with the light, the dark.

6. The quiet is always there, the skill is finding it amongst all the other stuff, such as the 50,000 thoughts per day: Light Up the Dark.

7. I remember living in the country when birds used to announce the coming of the dawn/light when it was pitch black, certainly proof of faith that light will always overcome the dark.

8. Isn’t it grand when someone enters your light who makes you forget to do this: Remember to Breathe.

9. You are leaving the dark chamber, time to enter the light and fly.

10. As I get older and older, I have more and more of these people in my memories light chamber: Memory Loves You.

11. Great name for the organisation who can up with this light quote, HealthyPlace.com

12. From the world’s greatest and most published philosopher Ms Unknown comes some sage advice, you have a unique light to turn on, other people’s will blow if you try and imitate them: Chasing Pavements

13. Some may just be more difficult than others, but the way to the top and the well-lit view is always there.

14. 5 simple words that point to the combination of the light and the dark. The second mention of stars so you know what song that means: Starman.

15. And a reminder for the last from George Bernard Shaw. Looking through the window we see dark and light, it’s your choice.

The first step in the book is Witness your Judgement without Judgement. If this is all I get out of it, it will have been worth spending the time. I’m sure I will get much more, Gabbi is a great thought leader.

Music today is from Ed Sheeran, Adele, Mr Bowie and some obscure artists with only 25,000 Youtube plays. Enjoy.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Be brave with your Life!!

Posted on January 4, 2018 by Rod's World

Just received Brendon Burchard’s new free book, High-Performance Habits – you actually pay the postage and handling in the mail and the premise of it is six habits, three personal and three social. The personal ones are Seek Clarity, Generate Energy, and Raise Necessity. The Social Ones are Increase Productivity, Develop Influence and Demonstrate Courage.

As Mark Twain relates ” Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” When we first do something that contains fear, such as skydiving, the level of fear first time is quite high, or at least it was for me. But the more we do something the more comfortable we get with it. That’s why leading a courageous life can also increase our fearlessness.

What have people said about having a dose of courage over the years, here are the quotes I have chosen:

1. Who is your standalone hero or heroine, Gandhi, Malala, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa? Or is it just someone from your local community?

2. Everyday courage could mean keeping a positive attitude or taking action despite great uncertainty, bad health or hardship such as sharing unpopular ideas or showing up every day for work even when things are tough at the office: What’s Going On.

3. Mainstream media and our government are telling us to be afraid of Africans with one politician stating that people were afraid to go out because they were afraid of being followed home by an African and having their home invaded. No courage there!!

4. Feel that tremor in your heartbeat, that’s the recipe for courage, go out and do it anyway: The Climb.

5. Unconditional Love, the ultimate emotion – includes trusting someone besides yourself.

6. One of my top ten, Brene Brown. Netflix or ring that person you have been putting that conversation off with, you choose which will have the most positive effect in your life: Be Brave, Show Up.

7. My favourite E. E. Cummings poem is the following: I carry your heart with Me, here it is:

I carry your heart with me ( I carry it in my heart ) I am never without it ( anywhere I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling

I fear no fate ( for you are my fate, my sweet ) I want no world ( for beautiful, you are my world, my true ) and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will sing is you

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows ( Here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide ) and this is the wonder that keeps the stars apart

I carry your heart with me ( I carry it in my heart )

To love that much is an act of immense courage.

8. The dark and the light, Fear and Courage, they travel with each other: So What.

9. Every great adventure began by putting one foot in front of another, the courage is in taking the first step.

10 Who remembers the cheesy song from the Mickey Mouse club, one of Walt’s first creations: The original mouskeeters.

11. Every year my friend Emeli from Collective Potential produces a workbook to implement 2018. This year its called On Purpose. If you would like a copy, join Collective Potential on Facebook and there is a link.

12. One of my other blogs is about this amazing woman Maya Angelou.

Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights, activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

She became a poet and writer after a series of occupations as a young adult, including fry cook, sex worker, nightclub dancer and performer, cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess, coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. She was an actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professors of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made around 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” (1993) at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961: Maya on Courage.