Fire In the Belly!!

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Rod's World

What do 105 men do at a weekend mens empowerment event for 3 and a half days. I went along after having attended a total of three mens empowerment circles with an attendance of 4 people at each. having created all the worst case scenario’s of woad wearing rituals and group screamings I enrolled because everything that frightened me about it were the reasons I should attend.

My friend from a previous retreat Michael also enrolled and we drove down together to Grantville Lodge http://uccamping.org.au/grantville-lodge/ to a magnificent view of Westernport Bay on the friday afternoon of the Cup long weekend. We found our sleeping places and settled in , Michael found out an old friend of his was in our cabin and I chatted to another of the participants who had had much more experience with men’s groups than I and his reassurances that it would cover all shades of grey helped me greatly.

We then had dinner and this was followed by the opening ceremony where an incredibly moving fire ceremony took place with the lighting of the event fire that would burn all weekend until the completion of the event. We then were split into our tribal groups, each named after a volcano, our’s was Corvo; http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/corvo-volcano.html , it seems this is in the Azores. I was with three of the presenters and a person who volunteered at Men events as a leader. Our group leader was a wild man who didn’t fancy wearing shoes. We had an hour to get to know each other so shared some of our stories at this first meeting.

They had announced the following days workshops at dinner and at 6.00 a.m. next day was Mandance and I am a dancer so I attended. The atmosphere was extraordinary with only male energy present and the presence of testerone was high, men have 4 times the testerone levels of women. I am frightened of barechested caveman like behaviour so this was confronting for me but as it went on I got to see it was all within the passion to dance as we were sacredly held through an ecstatic wave to reach a state of trance to gain inner peace.

Workshops during the day were to open the heart space through physical movement and groups that included quite a bit of role playing to allow this to happen. The first I attended was on a technique called Life Mechanics that allowed you to see where you spent time in the negative where it was just as easy to be positive.

followed by the life freeing talk on Procrastination and Distraction, Playing with our Power that had me see how easily I get distracted in life and what it costs me big time – http://www.davidnaylor.net.au/ . I finished the day with Non Voilent Communication a technique I had had a bit to do with several years ago, It all came back to me with the I statements taking responsibility and how you felt and making requests to resolve issues. http://www.nvcaustralia.com/index.php?action=trainer&id=68.

I forgot to mention that during this event I had a raging viral infection and slept through the Saturday night ceremony Heart Space. I asked my friend Michael on the drive home what it was like and he said it gave credibility to the statement from Avatar I See you and was one of the more special things he had been through.

Day two, I didn’t wake up until 6.40 so missed the 6.00 session and went to breakfast provided by the wonderful Sun Hyland and his team http://www.newearthcatering.com followed by a session on the dangers of porn by one of my Tribal group, it was confronting to see the role of it in our society, http://manenough.com.au/events/man-enough-november-workshop-2/ . There had also been drumming and juggling sessions during the day but my body was still not up to it. There was a session on the work of Byron Katie so I attended that, I love the work of Byron Katie and the four simple but empowering questions Is that true?, Can you absolutely know thats true, how do you feel when holding the story and Who would I be without this story can change your life if you stick to the script. http://www.thework.com/thework-4questions.php . The last workshop I did for the day was Financial Sabotage, an inquiry into how we sabotage ourselves and what would be possible if we stopped doing so .

We then moved to the cabaret, a celebration of men’s talent, lots of singer songwriters, comedians but the highlight was the interpretive dance by our 92 year old elder, he gave us a Ted talk of his wisdom at each break, if only we all could be so lithe at the age of 92. My friend Michael said to me this should end soon, its one o’clock. I didn’t believe him because it had been such great entertainment, but it was.

To the final day when we said goodbye to our Tribal group whom I had fallen deeply in Love and Respect with, we had an hour and a half to complete and team Corvo embraced each other and declared themselves inside a group hug, we were gifted a final breakthrough in this session by one team member it was humbling and empowering that we trusted each other that much in such a short time. We then had lunch and came to the closing ceremony where the group thanked the committee for organising it, the group leaders for being a stand for us all, Sun and his team for the great service and then a crazy hand slap to everybody chaos ruled but it was beautiful. About 20 inspired men stood forward to organise next years event including my friend Michael, i’m sure he will be great.

The main thing I got out of this event that it is OK to be a conscious man in 2014 in Melbourne Australia because there is plenty of other brothers out there and we will transform how men relate in society. Thank you Menergy 2014 http://www.menergy.org.au/wp/

Namaste until next time, my friends

Do you make enough requests?

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Rod's World

I have a promise to myself to write a blog every two days but missed out on it as I attended the Free Humanity weekend seminar led by Jeffrey Slayter http://www.jeffreyslayter.com on the recommendation of my friends Miroslav, Belinda, Paras and Mari who had spent the last few months travelling up to Byron Bay to do his courses. Free Humanity was coincidentally free so I instantly had concerns about background selling as I has spent 10 years attending Landmark Forum introductions that were also free.

I hopped on my Electric bike and rode down to Carlton and was surprised by the fact that I knew about a quarter of the crowd, friends from previous events Miroslav and co. had run, showing the faith we have in them, they are such beautiful people after all. After milling around and catching up with some of them we entered the room. Jeff spent an hour or so creating the space for him to led the weekend speaking of his background and his desire for the world to be free for humanity.

Having done this Jeff then moved on to the purpose of the weekend, to free each of us up to be the best we can be in every area of our lives. He made a statement that probably a lot of us had spent years working on our spiritual sides but had not spent a lot of time on learning how to value ourselves and make money from our knowledge. I know for me that this is true and for a lot of people I know in the spiritual field. How were we meant to shift this and be adept in all arenas? Well what occurred over the next two days was not what I expected.

Jeff had us look at areas in our lives where we are focussing on one thing which has put us out of balance with the other side of it, for me it was educating myself in the spiritual world and not focussing on my financial wellbeing. Each of us had our own version of it and Jeff was highly skilled at getting us see what yours was. We would meditate during each session to help clear our minds as health was one of the premises Jeff believes is important in living a vibrant life.

We also created our calling, This includes who you are going to be, what you are going to do, what you will have out of it and what emotion will it generate. Mine is –

I’m going to transform the world conversation to Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included.

I will do this via Social Media through the FaceBook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/Interulturalism/ and my blog I am an Interculturalist at http://www.Rodwill1707.com and having Intercultural Centres set up in every Local community in Australia for cultures to educate each other about the best they are.

I will travel to the six major energy points in the world, have a home in Australia and Costa Rica and I will have a soulmate to share my life with

The emotion this invokes in me is Bliss.

We also did breath work to release our fears from where they were entrapped in our bodies. The person I did this with laughed through the entire process so was obviously releasing something.

So to the final teaching and the reason behind the title of this blog. Requesting versus selling. Jeff intimated that requesting and asking are the two most powerful actions you can take, and that why a lot of us had little money was that we did not request closure for our services and did not value them highly enough. He requested that we learn to sell what we had to offer people and to build vehicles that expressed our talents and spiritual nature. That we not sell out and not do what we love doing. Working a full time job and part time dreams quickly becomes working your full-time dreams but you will never access this if you don’t give it a go. We all have plenty of experiences to teach others or we would not have been at the seminar so he implored us to get out there and start requesting.

Jeff has lots of other courses that cost money and yes he requested we enrol in them, I will when I get out of the financial situation my stories have kept me in.

Namaste till next time my friends.

Do you Mean to Kill Them?

Posted on October 21, 2014 by Rod's World

My carbon footprint in getting around is fairly low, Walking , Pushbike and Public Transport. I used to ride a motor bike for a few years but had an accident whilst drunk driving and lost my license for two years and never got it back.

On my journey around our fair city of Melbourne I cannot but notice the laziness of the general public in disposing of rubbish. It is discarded everywhere but in the receptacles provided it would seem. Cigarette packets and cigarette butts , junk food containers and alcohol bottles seem to make up the majority of it pointing towards a certain kind of person being the main contributor to this malaise.

And what does this have to do with the cutie in the picture above, she is an albatross who lives on Midway Island. Fleetwood Mac in the 60’s wrote a magnificent instrumental about these birds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAefTj7GXwQ, they have survived happily on the Island for many years or have they. Where is Midway Island you ask, heres a map to give you an idea.

It s in the middle of the pacific island thousand and thousands of kilometres from the nearest land but this cute picture does not tell the harrowing tale of what is occurring on Midway Island these days. I attended the Sustainable Living Festival last year with my friend Kavisha and happened to be in BMW edge when there was a speaker by the name of Chris Jordan set down to speak. I forget the name of his talk but after being transfixed by the content not the subject matter. Chris is an American photographer with an interest in Environmental issues and had been producing a documentary about the albatrosses on Midway Island for the past few years.

Why he has been doing this is because we have been killing them with plastic. Adult albatrosses have been feeding their young with plastic gleaned from the ocean all those kilometres away and they are dying in their thousands. Here is a link to Chris sharing about the documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M9t2fm__K0. The only way the plastic gets in the ocean is because we as a race are too lazy to carry our rubbish with us to the nearest bin or to our homes to dispose of it in our own bins and it is washed into the ocean. Next time you are tempted to throw something away because there is no where to put it think of this image.

On my way walking to work or the market I have begun picking up rubbish as I come to it on the footpath knowing it will always be there because we are unthinking when it comes to the costs of dropping rubbish. I hope this little rant makes a few of you think.

Namaste until next time, my friends

Why do another Freeking Workshop?

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Rod's World

What you seek is seeking you – Rumi.

I have begun doing workshops after a five year break. I had reached the point where I seemed to not be receiving any benefits from spending my hard earned readies on another course I would probably use what I had learnt from it for a month or two and then go back to the old me I knew and loved/loathed depending on the day and my mood.

The last five years could be called traumatic in my life. I l lost my job of seventeen years, pensioned out never to work again, I had to move out of the house I had shared for over ten years and live alone, I hadn’t been in a relationship for ten years, generally you could say it included many nights of the dark soul. As Rumi states what you seek , seeks you and I had shown very little responsibility in any of these areas for a long, long time.

My heart had been yelling at me to get out of my government job at Centrelink for about 5 years and I took no notice going down the I have a secure job route, this manifested itself as mental Illness and four hospitalisations over the five year period. The house I was living in I shared with a drug addicted alcoholic and I must shamefully say I took on a lot of his practices in these areas. In relationships I had decided they weren’t worth the trouble they created cutting myself off from the possibility of love in my life. What I was teaching myself over these years was that being irresponsible and not listening to your heart has costs and they would continue as long as I kept acting in that manner.

This behaviour continued in my new one bedroom apartment or should one say flat as it was a 1950’s double brick structure in Preston. I was the king of take away food and the greatest lender of videos from the local video store, yes they still exist in the Northern suburbs of Melbourne. I also slept up to twelve hours a day. This went on for about a year and a half when I made a decision in the face of all the things that made up my life at the time. I went along to a Colombian film night at a place called the Darebin Intercultural Centre, I had decided it was O.K. to go as it was at six in the evening. It was a mixture of many different cultures attending and for some reason that I did not know at the time but I sense it was my heart screaming at me, grab the opportunity I asked did they have volunteer positions. Inaam, my now inspirational leader said yes even though they did not have any at the time and two months later after police checks etc. I was ensconced in the place.

Where do you know that all cultures are welcome to teach other cultures about the best they have to offer, this is what we do at the centre , link to us on https://www.facebook.com/DarebinInterculturalCentre?ref=hl. I was sitting at my desk one day when a statement passed through my thoughts Love and respect for All, No one left out, which we recently changed to Love and respect for All, Everyone Included as it is more inclusive as the word suggests. I feel in love with the ethos of Interculturalism and had found my passion at 59 years of age. I was still sleeping lots of hours and eating crap food but transformed this after attending a daggy Healthy Eating seminar put on by the local council two months later. I woke up next day at six o’clock threw out all my take away menus and joined my local organic food coop and have not eaten junk food since. The food coop was part of an environmental organisation i had belonged to when I was trying to fix myself up CERES environment park, its contact is http://www.ceresfairfood.org.au/ .

Having changed how I related to life this gave me the opportunity to begin to see what was out there in regard to transformational workshops that fitted into my somewhat meagre budget. The first I took on came out of left field. I saw that my old mate Sun was having one of his Kirtan gigs that I used to attend and there was a thing called Kundalini dance as well. As I used to dance before my hiatus in life I decided to go. The women leading the dance fascinated and scared me all in the one moment with her openness and freedom to move across the dance floor. I enrolled in her dance series as there was a payment plan. You dance your chakras through the series and when we got to dance blindfolded during the heart chakra session this was my first major breakthrough and one of the most massive heart opening I have had occur in my ilife. http://www.kundalinidance.com/

it was also during this series that I got to attend my next major transformational workshop Rainbow Bridge 13;13:13 and discover the amazing work of Tanishka Tantrika. We had to dance and focus on a project that would stretch us. Nemone has told me about this retreat up in Byron the following month that I would like. having $50 in the bank I danced to the possibility of going not knowing how. The fourth email I read that night was the six month payment plan so off I went not knowing what to expect. Over the 8 days of the retreat I got to marry myself and make powerful vows to live by, own my position as an elder in life and generally fall in love with myself. Check out Tanishka’s work at http://www.starofishtar.com

Having started to believe in myself and let go of what no longer serves me I am in the space to choose what workshops I believe will empower me. I have done two Own Your Fuck workshops to deal with my sexuality issues led by Miroslav and Belinda http://www.facebook.com/events/1546442818829919/?fref=ts a surprise workshop at an International Day of Peace event I attended were Emeli promised to get us see what it was that stops us living our dreams, Seems I have to stop running away. Emeli can be contacted at http://www.emelipaulo.com/ – she’s very real. I the did Connecting with Your Tribe to deal with the issues of being twice as old as all the people i was meeting. Led by Michele this is a fantastic look at the within and the without of your life, hence the business name https:// http://www.withinwithout.com.au, To discover what my career could be I did Get Paid Doing what you Love workshop with Charmaine and Miroslav, seems I’m a blogger and an author, contact on https://www.facebook.com/events/561276124006388/?ref_dashboard_filter=calendar&source=1 and lastly the work of Arion Light through Thrive to seek support in writing my book that I have had in me for 4 years http://activationschool.com/thrive-2/, I get a support call every week day now.

Are these the last workshops I will do, not really, Emeli is doing a series of workshops called RAW – there are no limits, so I will be going along to check out what areas in my life I have been setting small limits http://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/raw-there-are-no-limits-tickets-13594765309,

Namaste to next time my Friends

Surviving Earth

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Rod's World

Will the earth survive the human race? Of course it will, the earth is millions of years old and we have been here for nano seconds of that time. The question that is more relevant is will the human race survive earth? In the time since agriculture and capitalism joined and took over from growing your own food we have seen the need for four earths for humanity to survive in the amount of energy that it uses, I was not going crazy just showing you how many planets we need and its growing expediently, the world population has grown from 2 billion 120 years ago to 7.5 billion and is expected to grow to 10 billion by 2050.

We have the technology to end the use of Fossil fuels as our main energy suppliers but do not have the where with all to do it as the major energy companies spend millions of dollars to fight any reasonable campaigns that eschew this. 98% of scientific evidence points to the need to end the damage that fossil fuels are causing but the companies that make billions of dollars from its use drag out the 2% who are guns for sale and their cronies in the capitalist ideology driven governments around the world buy into it, an example is the extreme policies of the current Australian government in approving more and more coal mines in the name of job creation.

There is currently an argument going on in the city I live in Melbourne, Australia about building a 6.5 kilometre link road that will cost 5 billion dollars. Up to a third of space in cities around the world is taken up by roads and car parks and building more freeways has never resolved the issue of grid lock it has just added more localities for it to occur. I pass over a freeway on my way to work and cannot help be frustrated by the fact that most cars are single occupancy. I can remember the carpooling that went on amongst kids parents when taking them to various sporting events as they grew up, why can this not be legislated as compulsory if governments are serious about providing solutions for the traffic chaos on our roads. Its probably to much like community building for them and the afore mentioned oil companies would not want their profits cut. How much public transport infrastructure can you build for 5 billion dollars, quite a lot I would think.

A solution to the fossil fuel conundrum is the use of alternative fuelled vehicles that are becoming more prevalent with the electric driven vehicle being the most prevalent. The ones being released are top end of the market but a talk I was at last night there was mention of being able to convert for as little as $7,000. The emission from cars is only 7% of the total of emissions on the planet so this helps but I believe we must focus on solar power to generate household energy use which is up to 50% in western countries.

I cannot understand how new houses are allowed to be built without solar panels being a required part of the construction. Australia has gone from 30,000 to 1 million users with a 20 year period. I remember reading an article recently about a state in America who made it compulsory to be connected to the grid, obviously this is influence from the fossil fuel companies fighting their last desperate battles against the march towards alternative energy, which when is becoming cheaper, is clean, efficient and in the end after several years free.

I watched the excellent documentary Surviving Earth http://www.survivingearthmovie.com/ last night at CERES environmental park, a living example of what is possible if like minded people take action together http://www.ceres.org.au/ and what inspired me most about it was the use of Bindi Irwin as one of the spokes persons. Bindi stated that she had grown up knowing that her generation could make a difference , quite different to the time when children were not expected to have opinions, sit there and be quite and do what they were told to do. I believe this generation will take the actions that are required to save the planet. In the film it also talked about having a new generation of political leaders, I see this as a definite requirement.

Namaste to next time, my friends.

My Free Organic Tea Towel

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Rod's World

I get my food from a food co-op CERES fair food http://www.ceresfairfood.org.au/ and they gave me a free tea towel because I sent them a thank you message the other day.

They have a fabulous ethos, sourcing their goods based on miles traveled so that they have the least carbon footprint effect on the planet. They produce a lot of their own goods on the farm at CERES environment park http://www.ceres.org.au/ a not for profit educational site on 4 acres of land on the banks of the beautiful Merri Creek in Melbourne, Australia. You can buy boxes from $27.00 to $72.00 depending on the size of your household and they have specialist intolerant boxes as well. I buy a juicers box as I have a fresh juice every morning and a Mixed basic Box that costs just over $60 and they last me the week at least.

They also help create community by setting up a group of Food Hosts for people to pick up their boxes from, many a friendship has been made at these drop off spots. You can also have them delivered to your door for the measly amount of $6.75 anywhere in Melbourne, a city of nearly 4 million people.

The service now has over 800 customers but my history goes back to their foundation days when 20 to 30 CERES staff got together and created the idea of starting a food co-op to get organic goods at a cheaper cost, we used to volunteer on box filling duty and pick them up from the CERES stables. That was about 10 years ago and my, how it has grown. I dropped out when I lost contact with CERES about 5 years ago and rejoined, its free when I took up eating a healthy diet again about two years ago.

They also have a guarantee that food will be delivered which I was very grateful for because one week someone needed my delivery more than me and took it, it was replaced next day. They also donated food for a Christmas event we hold at the place I volunteer for disadvantaged people in the Darebin area on Christmas Day https://www.facebook.com/DarebinInterculturalCentre.

Chris, the manager and Elenore, the marketing person do a sterling job and focus on providing employment for refugees and that is why I write and acknowledge their great work on a regular basis. If you are thinking of supporting an organisation who cares about your health and providing produce at a reasonable price you cannot go past CERES fair food

Make a Heart felt decision!

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Rod's World

Our life is filled with day to day decisions that we need to make to get from point A to B. Such as I will leave at this time to get to where I need to go to, I will continue doing the thing I do to make money even though it does not inspire me and it is definitely a job not a passion, and what will I give my priority too to make it through to another day.

When I walked out of Melbourne Clinic Psychiatric unit after 28 days just four months ago, which was my fourth internment in the last 10 years I vowed that I would never return. I have kept getting into these situations by not listening to my heart and just giving up. It seemed easier at the time, a seemingly silly thing to do that put me in a often called looney bin, but your mind is a fascinating beast when left to control itself.

So what have I done since then, I have taken the opportunities that come my way courtesy of my heart. Four workshops, two of the same to cut the mental ties that constrict me. I discovered that I had killed my sexuality 10 years ago in a toxic relationship that I was unwilling to walk away from powerfully and that this prevented me from being in another. My mind was providing the your’e just getting old story, reasonably believable at 60. This story was another one blocking my access to the beauty of my new friendships, I was harbouring the thought its not okay to be twice as old as your tribe, at one of the workshops I linked up with a 22 year old, someone a third of my earth years, it was like we had known each other for ever.

In one of the workshops Michele, the workshop leader http://www.WithinWithoutCoaching asked me had I put myself in the blog I wrote about my favourite ten thought leaders, Listening from my heart I could see this as a possibility, when I wrote the article my mind did not allow this but I have taken it on from my heart felt space. Another opportunity I got was totally unexpected, I attended the International World day of peace in Melbourne, Australia and met this remarkable woman, Emeli Paulo from http://www.collectivepotential.com.au. I had gone there to meditate and abuse my body with Yoga not to gain access to what stops me, this is the promise Emeli made in the mini workshop she ran, I discovered when it gets to great I run away, so I wrote on my card: Stop Running Away.

What is the difference between a heartfelt decision and a thought from your mind – the heart felt decision can transform you, mind thoughts you simply survive, I know this is good enough at times but no more in my life, thank you very much.

So my request, open your heart and soul and make decisions form there, your life will transform, I promise you. Namaste until next time my friends.

What is Community?

Posted on September 20, 2014 by Rod's World

I attended an amazing community event yesterday – Rewilding the Urban Soul – a campfire conversation. It was led by two women who had had two life altering experiences and written books about them: Maya Ward walked the length of the major artery in Melbourne, Australia, The Yarra River and Claire Dunn, who spent a year living off the grid. Maya’s book is https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Comfort-of-Water-A-River-Pilgrimage/129867517114277 and Claire’s https://www.facebook.com/myyearwithoutmatches

They had originally organised it for a site that seated at about 40 people at https://www.facebook.com/CERES.Environment.Park?fref=ts but had to move it as the Facebook attendees got to over 200, about 150 turned up. They were hugely different quests but both had a similar theme: that we have lost touch with the land and had got stuck in our daily routines however noble they were. Maya had spent years organising events at Ceres environmental Park and Claire had worked as an environmental activist for over a decade.

I am fascinated by the wisdom of Indigenous people and their contact with the land , they do not own it as we think we do , they are part of it. At most of the events I attend in my local area Welcome to Country is given at the beginning of the event. This is a special ceremony that welcomes you to the land and gives respect to the land and the wisdom of the elders for the local indigenous tribe the Wurrundjeri, who have been custodians of the land for 40,000 years.

Clare was asked a questions about whether she used local indigenous methods as part of her survival skills over the year. Clare replied that she had wherever possible but that there was so little reference material for native housing that she had had to experiment using her own experiences before she came up with a practical home after two months but that she tried to use indigenous practices from around the world such as starting fires without matches for all other things. Clare was a part of a group of six people who were close in proximity to each other for the period of the twelve months.

People were more interested in the inner journey rather than the outer journey but both Maya and Clare returned the conversation to the fact that the inner transformation had come from the physical actions of in Maya’s case, walking for 22 days and Clare, in being with the land for 12 months. I asked Maya a question after the event that they often said that as humans we do not listen, but are just waiting fir the right of reply. Maya replied that yes, thats what it was all about. Another person asked Clare was she afraid of dying during the period.

So how do we get this remarkable sense of community with the land and all its creatures, including us human beings? Attending events like this one helps as people get to share their dreams and actions about being able to live like this. Take off your shoes and get contact with the land on a regular basis and feel the energy of mother earth. Have technology free days or weeks, talk to your neighbours and workmates, do not assume they do not have similar dreams.

I have brought Clare’s book and will report on it later, Namaste until next time, dear friends.