Partake in one of Life’s Pleasure, Your Body!

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Rod's World

I up to recently had been taking a medication that increased you appetite and because of this blew out to over one hundred kilograms. My frame is not made to carry this much weight and had bits that were hanging about.

I had been going to the gym for the past two years and this did not move “The bits”, and I used to not enjoy looking in the mirror. Magically since I have come off the medication I have lost eight Kilos and my belief that I can lose the magical fifteen has become a reality not another failed New Years resolution.

What do we as a community say about Body Image, most of the quotes are aimed at women, which says something about our society I believe as I think it is a cross gender issue but has been kidnapped by the fashion and marketing industries. Let us begin:

1. I never used to believe in gyms until I started going to one, becoming the virtual gym junkie, going at least three times a week. The main benefit was one of feeling lighter of mind not body.

2. I have a friend who is known for her expression when she is impressed with something, utters the good old Australian colloquialism Fuck Yeah. Here’s another way of saying you where given your unique body for a purpose.

3. The people who suffer the most attacks on their bodies must surely be Hollywood actresses. Friends star Jennifer Aniston suggests that it is not their job to satisfy the wishes of a blood thirsty media pack.

4. We are only given one body this time around, if you disregard it too often it will burn you to the ground and you will be in the line to get the next one.

5.Simply, beautifully, wonderfully uniquely you. The gateway to your soul is not disliking what you see in the mirror, but what your beautiful Inner Pilot Light says to you when you are loving yourself.

6. Dr. Vanessa Pawlowski provides Counselling for a new relationship to your worries and your body. This is her main mantra in life, I think is should be stuck on every bathroom mirror.

7. Marilyn was the film goddess of her time. She looked nothing like the catwalk models of today or the Parisian beauties of the Seventeenth Centuries. Proof that what is accepted as beautiful changes with time.

8. I am doing some work at the moment that disagrees with this, that we hold the memories in the body Arion’s Activation School. Altering the mind works for a while but if it remains in the body, it will come back.

9. Mainstream media lost me a long time ago, images of War, Death and pestilence. The message they spread about body image are just as harmful for the general population, why do they do this?

10. Michelle M. McGrath, convenor of the Sacred Self website has this beautiful quote pointing out the Sacredness and limitlessness of our bodies. Very empowering.

11. Our song for the day from Pop Diva Rihanna Diamonds, Comfort with your body is the way she travels.

12. Kurt Vonnegut is a fine Sci Fi writer and a well known social commentator. On the subject of the Body, he reminds us it is our greatest Instrument and we should take very good care of it.

13. Could I write on Body image without mentioning the practice of Yoga that has swept the West. B. K. S. Iyengar was one of the original Yoga gurus who brought his style to the west. He refers to the body as the temple and that it should be treated accordingly.

14. Frequently attributed to C.S. Lewis the popular origins of this quote actually go back to Quakerism in the 1892 journal Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood and there is evidence it was used earlier than this date. So work on your Soul and the body will follow.

15. And the final word to Emma Watson, British actress and model whom you may know better as Hermoine from the Harry Potter film series. Emma is outspoken about the pressure put on women to fit in to the images the media creates for them. She does not agree with it.

Most of the quotes seem to be saying that we are given a body and a soul, that we should look after both as they are inter connected. Go out and do this and you will live a healthy Life. Namaste until next Monday , my dear friends.

Are you Interested?

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Rod's World

I have lived in Preston, Victoria, Australia for four years now and find it a much more communal area than the suburb I previously lived in. Perhaps this is because of the local council who are committed to each of the 153 different cultures who make up its population and the Darebin Intercultural Centre that was sent up to ensure this happened. link to information on DIC.

What makes a great community, It is defined in meaning two distinct things

community

kəˈmjuːnɪti/

noun

1.

a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.

“Montreal’s Italian community”

synonyms: group, section, body, company, set, circle, clique, coterie, ring, band,faction;
2.

the condition of sharing or having certain attitudes and interests in common.

“the sense of community that organized religion can provide”

I have belonged to many different communities over my life: The football playing community, the singing community, the self development community and the Northside living community being some of them.

What has society said about Community over the centuries. The 15 quotes I have chosen say different things about it, lets have a look :

1. Author of the outstanding book Love and Will Rollo May states that Communication is an essential part of Community as it leads to us understanding each other not judging from made up opinions.

2, This beautiful poster suggests many ways to build a sense of community. If these are in place I suggest you would be part of a vibrant one.

3. When you become a genuine part of a community there is something you give to it, your heart. One touched in your heart you realise that this is what fulfils you th emost in your life.

4. Marianne Williamson, known for her quote from her best selling book A Return To Love: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. This quote is often incorrectly credited to Nelson Mandela. Another powerful pointer to th epower of community from Marianne.

5. Synergy is another benefit of strong communities. Synergy is the interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, contributions, etc. You need less to achieve much more.

6. In your Face community, Love and Respect for all, Everyone Included – the ethos of my public FB group Interculturalism, a space to join and share your examples of Community that includes everyone.

7. Always look out for people who are in your community who are not partaking of what is available in belonging to it. Always give them the choice but don’t assume they don’t want to be.

8. I agree with Mahatma, when I am not partaking in a Community I feel a little lost as I did for the first year of living in Preston, but after discovering The Intercultural centre and its activities I became part of that beautiful gift one gives, Of Service.

9. Love this image and quote from Henrik Ibsen, father of the school of Realism. In a community anyone can step forward and lead, they tend to have less bureaucracy than other structures.

10 A gaggle of words that come out of Community. Things that you obtain, assets, a sense of wellness, support of others and events to attend and meet the others from your community.

11. I am listening to Mitch Albom’s book the Five people you meet in Heaven, a book about Ernie who dies where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever. Its fascinating and points out the importance of creating purpose and meaning in your life through community service.

12. David Bowie worked on this his whole love, from Ziggy Stardust to the Thin White Duke, he was all about including everyone in his fan group AKA his community. Here is one of his finest songs in relationship to Community: Heroes.

13. Jasmine Guy is an actress who pointed out that Community is not as easy as it used to be when we were part of a tribe living in a Village, but it is still is so worthwhile.

14. Maria Montessori was an Italian physician, educator, and innovator, acclaimed for her educational method that builds on the way children naturally learn. She created schools where the whole school was a community not broken up into separate classes.

15. And finally something to remember, that our bodies are a community as well, made up of millions of Star Seeds and Cells.

So have a think about what communities you say you belong to and those you would like to, I guarantee that it will open your heart more for you and by being of Service you will live a healthier life.

Namaste until next Thursday, my dear friends.

If Liberation feels like a chore, It isn’t Really Liberation is it ?

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Rod's World

This question goes deeply into our Psyche, doesn’t it. Its point to the fact you may go to conscious dances, attend bush Doof festivals, do ten day silent meditation retreats but if it is something you are doing to fit in, or because it is something you have always done it isn’t really liberating your Soul is it.

Wikipedia defines liberation as:

noun
the act of setting someone free from imprisonment, slavery, or oppression; release.
“the liberation of all political prisoners”
synonyms: freeing, release, discharge, deliverance, salvation, rescue, relief, extrication, setting free; More
freedom from limits on thought or behavior.
“the struggle for women’s liberation”

Being set free from imprisonment is how I relate to it on a personal level, that being that my mind is imprisoned when it comes to certain beliefs, and if I do not take actions to release it from its slavery to the thoughts that have me trapped there I do not liberate myself from these situations.

The 15 quotes I have chosen cover a wide range of views on what Liberation is and how it can affect your life. Lets delve into it :

1. The story of Nelson Mandela is living proof of this, Nelson said “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”

2. Jeanne Moreau is a French actress, singer, screenwriter and director, stated this early in her career after struggling like many actresses to have success in her career but knew the path to liberation was not over.

3. Eckhart Tolle, best known as the author of The Power of Now and A New Earth: Awakening to your Life’s Purpose. In 2011, he was listed by the Watkins Review as the most spiritually influential person in the world. What does he mean by this statement. Liberation lies in the answer to that question.

4. What is Harriet Tubman, well known slave abolitionist pointing to here, that what is called a certain life style by one person is not seen as that by another so can not be liberated because they do not understand the concept you are talking about, the power of language.

5. This should bring up some discussion, “believes she is human as a man”. My friend Justine posted recently that women run the world so don’t need to be liberated, they just need to wake the fuck up. Here’s some of her music Ikigai’s sweet tunes.

6. This takes what the mind does to us a step further, Nisargadatta, one of India’s great philosophers blames our bondage on it, and that our mission in life is to go beyond its influence on us.

7. How many of us have seen the pictures of horses being tied to plastic chairs and elephants held by the slenderest of ropes. They could leave whenever they felt like it but remain there imprisoned by their minds training.

8. Joseph Campbell, author of the Heroes Journey points to that liberation is not hanging on steadfastly to the life we have created so far. In fact we must let go of that exact one for us to have the life that awaits us.

9. Junebug is a mythical character of the Civil Rights movement in America. Liberation is being who you truly are , not what other people want you to be.

10. Stu Mittleman lives the above quote Stu Mittleman is an ultra distance running champion, as well as a fitness/running coach and author. Mittleman set three consecutive American 100-Mile Road Race records in the US National Championships 1980–1982. He is a liberated Elder proving that life does not stop at 60 when you retire.

11. Liberation is not handed to you on a silver platter, you have to work for it on a daily basis especially in the circumstances Assata Olugbala Shakur, who is an African-American activist and member of the former Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army who resides in Cuba describes above.

12. No one could ever accuse Mahatma Gandhi of uttering a Yes to please or worse, to avoid trouble, after all he led the movement that free the second largest country in the world.

13. Personal Revolution, one at a time is Jim Morrison’s cry for a large scale liberation. He wrote a classic song about this Break on Through.

14. There are thousands of references on Google pointing to Abe Lincoln being the first gay president, not something that makes it to mainstream media but David Herbert Donald wrote an extensive biography on Lincoln in 1995 that explored this.

15. Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence of Picasso on modern visual arts, the influence of Stravinsky on music, Martha says the path to Liberation is through discipline, blessed discipline.

Liberation is as we call it is unique for each and every person and culture. I hope you have enjoyed studying the history of Liberation with me.

Namaste until next Monday , my dear friends.

Did you Get It!

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Rod's World

I have started listening to Podcasts on the recommendation of my Anam Cara Emeli. I listened to a fascinating one about fulfilling your purpose by getting your message out there. This made me think did most people know what the Message they had to give in life was.

I have done several modalities to set up my message for the year and live from my Core Desired Feelings of . These are from Danielle LaPortes brilliant process The Desire Map. From the others my Word for 2016 is Sacredness and my Essence is Sacred Love, more about those in a later Blog.

I have chosen 15 diverse quotes, covering Love, Social Media and Purpose. No Oprah but there is Mother Teresa. Lets begin our journey.

1. This is describing the essence of Sacred Love, where you or someone say I Love You, and you don’t really have to say it again because they you or they hear it for the rest of you life this time in. Its to do with revealing your Sacred Stories.

2. Google didn’t find Aditya, but their message is Inspiring in its words and intention, don’t mess round delivering yours.

3. Its good to have a dream, I have a favourite image which is of a Unicorn and it says don’t let them kill your day dream. But to fulfil that daydream you also require the actions of Doing stuff.

4. Dennis S. Brown is a motivational speaker who grew up in a three room “Shot Gun” house in Central Louisiana is known as Mr Attitude. His ability to relate to transforming your message through real life events he has experienced draw people to him in the thousands.

5. Luke Rinehart wrote a book called The Dice Man back in 1971 where he shook a dice before making any decision. It is a fascinating read as to me the message is that we make decisions on much more shallow fears and judgements than this in our lives.

6. Throw in a bit of weird, a bit of not normal, Yes even some insanity to get that Message out there if you want it to be heard.

7. Probably not many people on Earth are quoted more than His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. When spreading you Message , if you want it to be joyful and easy look in the mirror and there is the person responsible for it happening.

8. There will always be critics, mainstream media makes a living from it, imagine if they reported the great messages that existed around the World instead, it would transform.

9. Parenting 101, give your used things to your next sibling or the family down the street who are not as well off as you. Thinking about it later and having judgements about it doesn’t get that Message out there.

10. I get to tell one of my sacred stories, about how I broke up a friendship via SMS because she said that it was a valid way to communicate and would not agree to meeting face to face. I told her it was a crap way and have not heard from her since after I said to her that I was not the negative person she talked about and that negative people did not send three things I love about you for 5 months each and every day.

11. Time for a song, Little Anthony from 1960. Tears on My Pillow, Tears may be necessary to move to the next level of getting your message out there. It isn’t always a cakewalk.

12. Penn Fraser Jillette is an American magician, juggler, comedian, musician, inventor, actor, and best-selling author known for his work with fellow magician Teller in the team Penn & Teller. He is also known for his advocacy of atheism, scientific scepticism , libertarianism and free-market capitalism . The Message is the Message, we often forget this as it becomes more difficult.

13. Mother Teresa is much loved and much maligned, there appears to be no middle ground with her. She got her Message out powerfully to the World about the slums of India. As she states, you need to light the flame daily for it to keep burning, same with your message.

14. There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers. The most popular language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are 1,213,000,000 people in the world that speak that language. How about if we wrote our message in every language, that certainly would make a difference.

15. Finally a bit of humour about getting your message out there. Make sure it is real for you. if its not why will other people listen to it.

Each of us have a message to bring to the planet and its people, it would seem that the messages being spoken the loudest are those of war, corruption and Terrorism. Do not worry, it is the last cries of a time that has seen its day. We are entering the Age of Aquarius. Peace and Love and Human Connection.

Namaste until Thursday, my dear friends.

Caring for Others = Too Sensitive?

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Rod's World

For the first few years of our lives we rely on our parents to take care of us, they are not accused of being too sensitive. I spend a day with my mother recently where she kept showing me a picture in our family reunion book of when I was a young child saying that I was a shy, sensitive child. Due to her memory issues Mum did it about 15 times in two hours.

Does this mean that I was a more difficult child to raise, that I reacted to things more readily than my siblings. I don’t ask my mother what she means by it as she is 88 years young and doesn’t remember what happened 5 minutes ago. So I have decided to see what society says about the Sensitive individuals that populate it. I have chosen 15 inspiring quotes on the subject, Lets explore them :

1. There are many articles and lists on what the actions of our pups and moggies mean. I agree with the statement that they know when their masters are angry or craving love, they are sensitive creatures who love those who care for them.

2. Its sensible to show your emotions by being sensitive to others and discussing your own because if you hold them in they will cause illness to arise. As a sufferer of Depression and Anxiety who was hospitalise 5 times I can assert the dangers of doing this.

3. Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian in the 1800’s. Famous for his quotes, He states the heart is our most sensitive organ.

4. Roy Ayers is a funk, soul and jazz composer. People who choose the Artists Way often face being considered sensitive as they grow up through the school system.

5. Love is the way of the sensitive soul. They feel what others are feeling, are highly empathetic and know when to contribute to another.

6. In being empathetic this opens up the area of suffering to enter your life, but you are also gifted much more Love and many more dreams of the night and day varieties.

7. Sometimes we sensitive people let people stay too long in out lives. This is something to always keep working on, staying strong and always Moving.

8. In our country boys are trained from a very early age to act like a man, this means no displays of emotion or sensitivity, that is women’s business. There are a lot of wounded souls amongst these men, I know I was one of them, at the age of 61 I am working my way out of this by attending men’s groups and ecstatic dance.

9. Time for a song, sensitive people tend to believe in the magic in life, here is Beyonce’s song about that, Yes we Believe in Magic. This is how we react.

10. With all the horror that is reported on mainstream media, which I recommend turning off, being sensitive is an act of Courage, worthy of an award.

11. Want to charm your beloved? Jane Austen says that the ultimate way to do this is through having a tender heart.

12. What a great line, an Empathetic Bad-ass with Superpowers Oh Yeah!!

13. Going through the struggle of the dark side gives you the gifts of appreciating life, a sensitivity and understanding of it and the ability to be compassionate.

14. Beth Gibbons is the lead singer and lyricist for eclectic band Portishead, her distinct voice catches your attention every time you hear it, writing on many an emotive subject, here is one of my favourite tracks, Mysteries. This is an example of the above statement.

15. The Heart is where you feel your sensitivity first, it is the home of Beauty and Love. These are signs you are a sensitive soul.

I have enjoyed creating this blog, as the Dalai Lama says, we need more Lovers, Artists, Musicians not soldiers, millionaires. I think a large dose of sensitive people would help solve the issues he is pointing at as well.

Namaste until next Monday my dear friends.