Do you Live Yours?

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Rod's World

I was wondering what to write about on the final day of the year, when this passed through my Facebook News Feed.

I can’t quite get an analogy for meeting people on FB.

It’s a bit like a party maybe but on FB, accepting friend requests is fraught with difficulty. At a party you might spend a while chatting with someone to find out who they are.

On FB the equivalent is looking at people’s profiles. Being a friend of a friend is not a valid reference, because the hackers, spammers and trolls have made it so. It’s your profile that tells the world who you are.

Like I’ve said, I don’t accept friend requests from people who do not show themselves on their profiles. Pictures of self, family and pets are no indication of who a person is, except they maybe indicate that the only thing public about this person is the generic, and this person does not care to step outside the common denominators of life.

Well a pale representation is not the richness of a human being and photos of family will never make up the difference.

Do we really have that much to hide? Are we really not allowed to have opinions, or discuss passions or inspirations, and are we not allowed to disagree with each other, with our employers opinions, with those who do not suffice as the leaders they claim to be? Something is wrong with that picture. Personally I’m not buying it.

My suggestion is, if you really cannot disclose to the world what you think and feel and who you really are then perhaps you could consider a pseudonym. FB cannot possibly keep track of them all. Just close your account, let your trusted friends know what you are doing, and start up a new one called Jane Carstairs or Adam Lake. No one cares what your name is but they do care who you are.

My friend Debra wrote this and it made me think of my 4,000 Gods and Goddesses of possibility on Facebook. I check each one and check if they are up to making a difference with their posts and if they have a PASSION. I send each of them a unique Facebook Birthday Card for being on my team.

So lets have a look at what the world says about living with passion. Here are the 15 quotes I have chosen, lets go :

1. Simple in its message, along with the passion throw in a handful of generosity. Its not about expecting something in return. Passion comes from within.

2. And who does our passion affect. Ralph Waldo Emerson says if even one person is touched by it, its worth the journey.

3. David Bowie wrote a song back in the 70’s titled Oh You Pretty Things: Classic Bowie. They were all Passionate people.

4. I changed a quote to include this because it is so beautiful and empowering. Lets turn one into the other in 2016.

5. Beauty again, my friend Vic used to say if you Love what you do, you’ll never work another day in your life. having discovered this at the tender age of 59, I would have to agree.

6. This perfect day, Every day is a once in a lifetime day, Choose Passion.

7. Blogger turned New York Times best-selling author and speaker Mandy Hale is affectionately known around the world as “The Single Woman.” With a heart to inspire single women to live their best lives and to never, ever settle, Mandy cuts to the heart of the matter with her inspirational, straight-talking, witty, and often wildly humorous take on life and love. Mandy’s Website.

8. Your Passion may be abstract art like my friend Yasemin, Yasemin’s Beautiful Art. She does all these things, buy some of her art, its beautiful and she needs money to heal at the moment.

9. Soul Growth, another way of saying living with passion, who said that it has to be perfect

10. Essence and Joy, two things I have been studying over the year through my participation with my mentor Arion Light and his Activation School – Arion’s website. I combine them in my passion day to day.

11. More and more people are walking away from the corporate world as they realise that money does not fulfil their hearts wishes. There is a new class of people , they live from their Passion.

12. Kelly Corrigan is an American writer born in the late 1960’s. Host of a show called Foreword, where deep thinkers take on deep subjects., she also launched a website called Circus of Cancer. Leading by example, she speaks her dreams out loud.

13. At times following our passion we sometimes feel lost. Do the above and you will soon return to the path you are meant to be on.

14. Are you as equally good at giving and receiving. I cannot say this. i am a classic giver but have some weakness in the area of receiving. I love Oprah because she is pure Passion.

15. The lucky last, four simple words and the cute cat photo. Do it with Passion, your unique Passion!!

Well , this is the last blog for 2015, Thanks to all the people all around the world who read my words. Have a beautiful time celebrating the New year, and remember: Passion, turn to the Left, the Right, Upwards and Downwards, but especially Inwards.

Namaste until next Monday my dear friends.

Where do you get Yours?

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Rod's World

I recently started my new small business, Rod has a way with Words. I started with a rush, dedicating hours to it, getting cards made, a webpage up, made bids for contracts but it has suddenly stopped lighting my life up.

I was speaking to my business mentor Arion, yes even startups need one about this in my usual clinical mind driven manner, when he asked me what was the Essence behind my vision for it. I do work with Arion via the Activation School, Creative Mastery for Life and with Danielle LaPorte via the Desire Map Process Your core desired feeling for a Luscious Life.

So after a healthy battle with my mind fighting me getting in touch with the Essence that I had come up with I was able to be in the presence of being Valued. For each project we have in our lives if we do not have an Essence or a feeling why we are doing what we do it quickly become day to day drudgery.

So where do you get your value from. It may be in Bliss, Ecstasy , Power or any other of the many feelings that empower us in our lives, we each have a different version of it. I have chosen 15 quotes as to what being valued means to me, here we go :

1. Don’t ever forget your value, find the people who cheer when you enter the room because they see it in spades. They are your keepers.

2. Bob Dylan had a world wide hit with I want You Bobs Hit, can you imagine it selling so well if it was title I Value You?

3. Steve Maraboli is known as the worlds most quoted man. He directs us towards placing value on ourselves that you should step up to on a daily basis.

4. Armies do not lead themselves, they need people who value the cause they are fighting for. Be it Joan of Arc, or William Wallace We Few Men, it is the great leaders that have triumphed in life.

5. Famous American Naive artist Grandma Moses who began painting in earnest at the ripe old age of 78 knows the Value of looking at the moments in life that satisfy not degenerate the value of your blessed life.

6. What you did with your time is what you will value your life for, your family , your friends who will attend your funeral and say I remember the value they were in my life.

7. Up to the age of 50 I was physically fit and then my mental health issues began. Hospitalised 5 times in 8 years I learnt the hard way the value of personal freedom, I lost it for over a six month period. I do not recommend having this occur in your life.

8. As I mentioned in the quote above about time, its not about the money exchanged it’s about the Essence of the actions people take, done from their passion they are giving you their everything.

9. My friend Emeli Paulo, founder of Collective Potential is currently doing 30 Days of Real videos on Facebook, I think they are called Vlogs. Em’s FB Page. She would love this quote. She values getting real as much as I do people being valued.

10. Author of my all time favourite quote ; Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead was a cultural Icon back in the days of the hippy movement. Her words and wisdom still live on.

11. Known as the leader of the French romantic school of art in the 1800’s Eugene knew way back then it wasn’t about the work that was being done, it was the purity of the essence behind it.

12. Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included the ethos I created for my FB page Interculturalism. Join up and help transform the world.

13. Time for some directness, living in that you are Valued does not include this practice. Time to let go.

14. Negative Feedback is about them not you, replace them with people who have you walk the talk and live inside your values and praise you for doing it, A Ho!!

15. D. H. Lawrence, the man I simply call Lawrence. I have watched David lean’s classic film about 20 times over the years. When you live from your Essence or Core Desired Feeling this state is obtainable whenever you wish to enter it.

So what is Yours? I wish you the best in locating it, it will transform your life. Namaste until next Monday, my dear friends.

Do Unicorns Dance?

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Rod's World

Had an amazing dance journey over the past three days, the first a Sacred Cacao ceremony, the second a pyschotranced filled shared house party spectacular and finally the completion of my beloved Kundalini dance journey with Leyolah Antara – Pathways to Ecstatic Awakening.

It was interesting that even though I danced to 4.30 a.m. in the morning at the house party I did not feel as touched by the music or the fellow dancers as at the other two events, which had my think that purposeful sacred dancing is a different experience to moving and shaking your body.

So having thought about it my definition of Sacred Dance is an exploration of movement that heals and transforms your soul. I researched as to what other people had to say about it and chose these 15 gems, Gabrielle Roth and Michael Jackson feature quite a bit. Here we go :

1. Possibly the greatest poet to have lived Rumi equates the sacredness of Dance to be able to crete verse as you move through the dance floor.

2. Gabrielle Roth (February 4, 1941 – October 22, 2012^[1]) was an American dancer and musician in the world music and trance dance genres, with a special interest in shamanism. She created the 5Rhythms approach to movement in the late 1970s; there are now hundreds of 5Rhythms teachers worldwide who use her approach in their work.

3. Dancing with Life day by day guarantees that love will be present on an ongoing basis.

4. Sacred dance has been a part of societies for generations. Black Elk, a Lakota Chieftain in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s compared completion of Sacred dance to floating in the air.

5. Sacred Dance practice takes a dedication to the art and a willingness to push through what you already know. It could be said it is a firm of Worship.

6. If we persist with Sacred dance it will flow over into other parts of our life making the dance all parts of our journey. And Yes, we will be healing and creating a better world.

7. From the Moonwalk to the incredible dance steps in Thriller The Killer of Thriller, Michael Jackson believed that dance is an eternal journey that is part of Consciousness, we as dancers are just its current disicples.

8. To reach the stage of no judgements of others and ourselves on the dance floor, that is the moment of sacred dance.

9. The five stages of the 5 Rhythm’s Wave are Flow, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical and Stillness – Gabrielle’s Wave. Dancing these as a daily practice makes this sort of life available to anyone.

10. When you obtain that magical and sacred moment on the dance floor when there is no you, just the dance, Empty Mind as my Tai Chi teacher Andy refers to it as, the Balance of Synergy becomes available.

11. Mata Hari is better known for being executed as a spy in WW1 than for her career, she was an exotic dancer and courtesan, but this beautiful quote shows that she did not see it as a secondary role.

12. The first time I heard about Gabrielle Roth was when I brought her book Sweat Your Prayers at Savers in Sydney Road Brunswick. My hand reached out and pulled it out of the secondhand books for $1, an action that would change my life profoundly.

13. It seems they can : Pink Fluffy Unicorns dancing on Rainbows

14. Early Christianity demonised dance but Famed Anarchist Emma Goldman had a different view, that the revolution would not succeed without it.

15. Editor of the renowned Huffington Post, Arianna feels that you need to balance planning with free thinking to allow all of life to dance at it wildest and most effective.

I will miss my Sunday nights in Fitzroy with the people who are willing to discover what is possible through Sacred Dance. I honour Leyolah Antara for creating this beautiful and sacred journey but request that she not forget us, the Men of Dance when planning her 2016

Namaste until Thursday my dear Friends.

What’s that rumbling in my Gut?

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Rod's World

I redid the process at Kundalini dance last night led by the remarkable Leyolah Antara, creator of the magnificent Kundalini Dance process that transformed my life in 2013 and set me back onto a healing path after being in a locked psych unit for six weeks a mere six months before. Here is the link to Leyolah’s web site : The Road to Freedom

The process was dancing blindfolded for up to two hours to investigate the wisdom inherently available by cleaning your Third Eye Chakra and freeing your intuition. We were meant to dance with a question in mind. In 2013 I chose How would I get to the $1300 festival that Nemone, my previous KuIdalini Dance teacher had said it would be good for me to go to when I had $50 in the bank. When I got home from the process, the payment plan email was the sixth I opened. I intuitively took from this I was meant to go , even though I had never heard of Tanishka Tantrika, The Moon Woman – she has 500,000 followers on Facebook, here’s her website, empowerment of women is her speciality : Star of Ishtar.

I chose as a question this time to dance to what would it take to cleanse the deep seeded mistrust of allowing myself to be loved by women following an incident when I was five when I was dacked by my best friends two elder sisters. Look up any good Australian slang dictionary for its meaning. So we will see what my intuition or gut feeling or as my friend Lissa Rankin in her new book The Fear Cure our Inner Pilot Light comes up with.

That’s why I have chosen 15 images on intuition, that old gut feeling to comment on, two of them don’t even have words, the image speaks for itself. Here we go :

1. Sacredness is a very special word and state of being to many of my friends. They have stepped outside their servant status and honoured the path of the intuitive.

2. Sylvia Clare, author of the best selling book Trusting Your Intuition : Rediscover Your True Self to Achieve a Richer, More Rewarding Life has written many quotes on the subject, I like this one on transcending all other abilities.

3. It wants the best for you, but how often do we give in to the dark side of reason and logic of our closed mind.

4. Your Inner Pilot Light is a beautiful way of expressing that voice with in our gut that says get out, get out now.

5. Here’s the first wordless image, as you can see it doesn’t need them.It creates its own powerful scenario and touches me deeply.

6. Is your gut rumbling, that’s your hunch speaking to you to listen and listen deeply.

7. I like number seven, Intuition has no age. How many times have we been shocked by the wisdom of our 5 year old nieces and nephews, How could they know that at such a young age.

8. A colourful mind map showing there are many ways to utilise our intuition, its not like our logical journey of right and wrong, black and white and good and evil.

9. The good old listen to your heart not your mind for the important things like who you love, what you do to fulfil your passion in life, where you live, who you live with and many other questions.

10. Trusting your Intuition, your third eye wisdom can transform your life into one of eternal bliss if you stick at it over an extended period.

11. McCall Erickson has a truly beautiful webpage, Pictures and Quotes on Life. He points at you have to become a risk taker and listen to that old gut feeling ,it gets you under its spell to sense the beauty that is possible following your intuition.

12. Ingrid Bergman was one of the greatest actresses from Hollywood’s lamented Golden Era. Her natural and unpretentious beauty and her immense acting talent made her one of the most celebrated figures in the history of American cinema. Bergman is also one of the most Oscar-awarded actresses, second only to Katherine Hepburn. This beautiful quote speaks to the training required to nurture that small voice inside.

13. Another quote that speaks to the power of intuition over closed logic, discovery over knowing. Leonardo is a prime example of what you can create if you are willing to be intuitive in your actions.

14. Learning from within, the heroes journey. Its takes a modicum of courage and bravery to walk this path. Doe Zantamata is an author, artist, and photographer. In addition to the Happiness in Your Life book series, she also creates and designs poster books of different titles, including “Happy By Nature,” “Old Children, A Book for “Adults”,” and others. I like her pointing to don’t let yourself be talked into something that doesn’t feel right.

15. Wordless image number two to finish on, good versus evil. You definitely don’t need words to define this one. Who do you listen to the most?

Well if I have as much success with my intention from last night that I did with my 2013 one I am looking forward to a whole new relationship with many of my women friends I adore but have been unable to fully appreciate due to my deep held belief.

Namaste and speak to you again on Thursday my dear friends.

Doing the Honourable Dance!!

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Rod's World

I went to my friends Jules Mojo Trance Dance on the weekend. Its a dance where you change partners each song and dance to a theme. This month it was on being Honoured, not a subject that I think of much when it comes to Conscious dance. Jules is a beautiful, beautiful soul who’s commitment in life is to empower people’s souls and build community. Here’s the link to her Facebook page – Perpetual Mojo.

So how do you honour one another at dance. You follow the two signals, I want to dance with you, but I don’t want to be touched, there are a lot of Contact Improv people among the attendees who just love being touched and the other signal that I want my own alone time. You always get so much out of the night and the group Hug at the end is worth the money alone.

So what do we as human beings have to say about honouring one another. No Oprah again but some quality insights among the fifteen I have chosen. here we go :

1. We go way back to 400 B.C. for our first look at honour. Sophocles is one of the three surviving Ancient Greek playwrights, imagine out of such a prolific era that only three people made it through. His message is simple, Honour is all that matters, corrupt success is bad for the health.

2. Our school system seems to be focusing more and more on the three R’s, turning out corporate clones. What matters later in life is how you relate to others not your ability to know the 12 times table.

3. Samuel Langhorne Clemens is Mark Twain’s real name. He lived by this famous quote above, a true man of honour.

4. Remembered for saving England and smoking Cigars Winston Churchill was meant to be a man of simple tastes and it seems simple words – freedom, justice and of course Honour.

5. Back to the 400 B.C. time frame Socrates is held to be one of the founders of Western Philosophy. This cute and pithy quote points to how to live a great life, be who you say you are going to be, Astronaut or President or Postman. it doesn’t matter, the joy is in the honouring.

6. Winston again, He had a profound belief in the fact that if you kept your word that you could do anything, but that honour and good sense were vital ingredients in the recipe required. He helped save a country with this belief.

7. I have several of Martin’s speeches on audio. They go for over 15 minutes but you are riveted the whole time. One of the most honourable men of all of history he made a race of people believe they weren’t niggers, they were proud African Americans.

8. Balastar is a cool name, he is a Spanish Jesuit prose writer. He was also known for his insightful quotes, why say something with more words that necessary. Balastar points to the value of keeping your words in the face of pleasing others is what counts.

9. Looks like this has been taken off a graffiti installation, How many of us create our present moment to moment. I know I’m guilty of not doing this 24 hours a day.

10. The Law of Abundance, always remember that abundance does not mean more possessions. In fact most awards are given to those who have contributed the most to society, get out there and be abundant by giving of yourself.

11. Taking us back to the the fact that Honouring oneself not be so significant is well known screen hero Chewbacca. I could’t find the language on Google Translate but I’m sure it is profound.

12. Prepared to die, not many people live by this creed. Nelson Mandela was one such inspirational being. I remember singing Free Nelson Mandela in our singing group Soulsong and how much we were moved by it each time we sang it. Here is the Specials great version of the song The Specials.

13. Off to ancient Egypt for this one, 1300 B.C. Akhenaton was a Pharaoh. I suppose the Pharaohs words got saved before anybody elses. Interesting that the soul had importance way back when.

14. I have been a bit male centric this Blog, and unfortunately this is by an other man. But it is about our mothers. Sai Baba, eccentric Indian Hindu guru from the 1970’s made a promise that we would come to no harm if we honoured our mothers.

15. Misunderstood critical thinker Werner Erhard, founder of the Landmark Forum, the mainstreams rite of passage into Transformational work came up with this classic. I did his work back in the 80’s and 90’s when he was still around. We did courses led by out there Americans who shocked us naive Aussies, so much that I went to the States and did two of their advanced course and ran the Moscow Peace Marathon the year before the Berlin Wall came down.

So I promise that my Blog on Thursday will be focused on that the wild women of our society have to contribute. Namaste until next time my dear friends.

Stop Running Away!!

Posted on November 12, 2015 by Rod's World

I have recently begun working with my friend Arion Light’s principles at his Activation School on setting up my new business Rod has a Way with Words FaceBook Link..I commit to three actions each week and have not yet completed them all.

At our weekly session I breathed into what did this mean to me and I felt this incredible sense of Fear of Success rise up in me. With Arion’s work you accept that being fearful is part of how you are. He asked me was it OK to be OK that I have a Fear of Success, checking into my body the answer was No. So I am working on having it be OK to be Fearful and be in action to have my business be an outstanding success.

So what does society say about fear. I have chosen 15 pithy quotes and yes, there’s one from Oprah , so here we go.

1. Around it, run from it, pretend its not there, all of these things do not work, you must enter it and have a play with it. Like the joy of entering a mud heap, getting dirty but having so much fun you forget about it.

2. Fear is more of a feeling than a solid object, yet is has the strength to immobilise us completely. Working to overcome it is possibly more beneficial than a few days at the gym.

3. Its often the what if’s that drive our fear. What if they don’t feel the same way, what if I try again and the same thing happens. No action has the same result, fear just makes us imagine it will be.

4. Bruce Lee talks about fearing the man who has practised the same kick 10,000 times more than the man with 10,000 kicks because the man with one kick has gone through many failure to perfect it and not listened to his fears.

5. The title of this Blog is Stop Running Away. I met my dear friend Emeli Paulo from Collective Potential Their Webpage. at a Yoga and Meditation day. We were putting out the chairs because we had arrived early, we’re both like that. Em did a mini 30 minute workshop in which she promised we would know what stopped us in life. I have her card in my wallet with the words – Stop Running Away on it. She delivered.

6. Oprah time. The rulers of countries don’t get the privilege of being wimpy about their fears for too long. They must make decisions daily and cannot afford to take days off to ruminate on them.

7. Eleanor Roosevelt was one bitching woman. She says she did her best work after the time she was the President’s wife. What she points to is thta your dreams and challenges live on the other side of the Fear.

8. Right Here, Right Now – In the moment there is nothing to fear, just being present. I plead guilty to have spent a lot of time in my past being focused on the past or worrying about the future. I’m getting better at it.

9. What are our largest fears. Mine are that people will find out I am unlovable and that I am disgustedly revolting. How good would it be if we were OK about them. I’m working on the first and truly OK about the latter.

10. Perfection the booby-prize that stops many people achieving in their lives. Linked with Fears this can be totally crippling. Salvador Dali, one of the great interpreters of the Absurd points out how silly it is to dwell on it, because it is essentially unobtainable.

11. On the other side of Fear is curiosity. A bit like the classic Divinyls track Pleasure and Pain Here’s the Video its a choice we can make as to how we interpret it. When a fear arises accept it and get curious about where it came from.

12. May Baker Eddy founded the Christian Science Church in the latter half of the 19th century. She would not have been able to do this as a woman in those times if she had given into her fears. The above quote sums it up nicely.

13. As a writer, this list empowers me. I took up writing again after doing Catherine Deveny’s Gunna’s Writing Class Link to her page which gave me the greatest gift: Just start, because beginning the writing dispels fear.

14. Fight and Flight both are not the answers to overcoming your fears, its in the acceptance of them that the power lies. Facing them full on as they approach and saying OK I’m fearful but it doesn’t have to disable me.

15. This can be construed two ways. You give power to the fear and they become all consuming, or you embrace them and inquire into why you have them and this allows for a more positive essence to emerge, I chose the latter.

So I will keep on embracing my Fears as this has given me power in being in action on a day to day basis.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

What does Lady Gaga mean to You?

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Rod's World

Its Blog writing time again, I read this fantastic one by Luminita AKA The Purpose Fairy this morning and it was about Integrity and it featured of all people Lady Gaga The Article. It was a short video by Lady, and Luminita’s discourse on it. Luminita is in my top 10 posters on Facebook. Her posts are always inspirational and well thought out. Here is a link to her Website – The Purpose Fairy.

How do we relate to Integrity, do we try our best to keep our word but have it drop out when life get busy. Or do we make it what we base our existence or no matter what the cost. Myself I wander between the two. I spent many years doing the work of Landmark Education and did their Integrity seminar at least three times. It is a rigorous enquiry into what it takes to live from Integrity and brings up stuff in all the areas you are not in integrity. So myself I travel the path of improving the amount of time I can say I am in Integrity.

So what do other people have to say about it, no Oprah today but an interesting collection to comment on, Here we go.

1. A powerful way to see Integrity is as your Inner Lover. The person we give all of our heart to, who we try not to disappoint and make good our relationship as soon as we damage it.

2. The Chinese culture is known for its philosophers and wise sayings. Here is their cut on Integrity. Very simply, do what you are willing to have people know about.

3. Mainstream media is full of sensationalist drivel 90% of the time. Mostly it is reports on when people are out of Integrity. Murderers , Wars , Domestic Violence all come from Lives lived without Integrity. Why do they think that is what we want to hear as news, then again why do we want to know about it in the first place?

4. Wise people are often quoted as being the thought leaders of our generations. They put us on the Right path, but it is the life lived in Integrity that matters, Actions not Words deliver the goods.

5. I often in my younger life made decisions that did not have a lot of Integrity. all for the instant gratification moment and personal gain. Luckily as we mature we realise that this is not the noble path and amend our ways.

6. Are we leaders without Integrity, Dwight Eisenhower, one of the most respected of U.S. presidents didn’t think so. The cement that binds Leadership is Integrity at whatever level of endeavour we exist at.

7. By now you may have worked out that travelling the path of Integrity is not Easy. It is taking the Road Less travelled.

8. Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Atheist – It doesn’t make a difference that you have strong beliefs if your actions are suspect. Integrity lives in your actions and behaviour.

9. Do not admire the person who has made their wealth from raping and pillaging the land. They are crooked in their ways, instead admire those who say This shall be and deliver on it.

10. The conundrum of one with out the other weakens both. Weakness and danger lie waiting if both are not on display.

11. This one is right in your face. Success simply does not exist if Integrity is missing. Imagine if this is how it was measured instead of how much money was made?

12. We have all read the quote about 1 percent of the worlds population having 40% of its wealth. Douglas Adams, best known for the eclectic Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy novel points out that Sincerity and Integrity are what needs to be provided to deliver True Service. I agree whole heartedly.

13. Consistency of Action is not the world of the hypocrite. It returns you to Power and Truth in your life. I am always seeking this sacred place in my day to day journeys.

14. I am always moved by that other quote that states people remember how you made them feel, not what you give them. This quote also points in that direction as to the cost of breaking your Integrity with others.

15. Erich Seligmann Fromm was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory in the 20th Century. I like his quote being the last one, it states that which we already know, that Integrity is the basis of our identity. To break it is to violate it.

So Lady Gaga lies with some esteemed scholars in reminding us as to how to live a Life of Integrity. I have recently discovered her music as well , its not as bad as a cynical Indie rock and Singer Songwriter loving music fan thought it would be.

Namaste until next time my dear friends.

It’s not about selfishness—it’s about sanity!!

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Rod's World

Was in a quandary what to write today’s blog about when a friends video blog and this fantastic article Authentic Self Care appeared on my News Feed.

It raised in me memories over my life when I had not done this for myself. The times I would go to work with no sleep and fall asleep at my desk when I was meant to be managing Fourteen people. The times I would not take notice of my depression and anxiety returning and end up in hospital again. The times I would not be in contact with the people who loved me, my mother once sent me a post card with a picture of a ship on it asking if this was the ship I was returning to Australia in as she had not heard from me in 3 months. There are many other examples over my 60 years but I hope you get the point I’m making.

I have spent the last five years becoming more in contact with what is self care for me and am much more aligned with it these days. I gave up drinking, I declared a day the 40th Anniversary of commencing, thanked it and gave up, I investigated healing modalities and settled on Tai Chi as my practice, and I go Op Shopping with my Mum and sister every Tuesday.

So , onto the 15 quotes I have chosen to discuss the sacred practice of Self Care – Here we go.

1. I remember those times earlier in my life when it was about Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll. That life was about me and my pleasure. I have since learnt that Service is what provides true satisfaction. Some of my friends didn’t make it through.

2. The glass half full quandary is a popular way to look at how you look at life. The empty vessel is a state you do not really want to get to, what it does to your health can be devastating.

3. William S. Burroughs, one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century speaks to the power of relaxation in this oft quoted statement.

4. Never forget to add a sense of humour to your Self Care principles, Snoopy has something to say on the matter.

5. What affect does does how you Self Care have on you, It shows the world how you are willing to be treated, so choose it wisely.

6. I handed this poster out at a Mental Health talk we gave at our centre last year, people still come up and thank me for it stating that it is on their Fridge door. it’s a great list of practices that can make profound changes in your health.

7. Guilty as charged, I was a Yes person for Years, Byron Katie is known for her generosity in having a website that enables you to do The Work for nothing. It is profoundly healing and transformational.

8. I like to pamper myself, be pampered by others and to pamper others. It is an excellent way to return to the heart, to me this is the journey we are on as we travel towards the time we are no longer here this time.

9. Sacredness is holy divinity, promising yourself to honour your own well being should be on your personal Ten Commandments.

10. I fill out my Desire Map daily planner every morning here’s the link Daily Planner, one of the five sections is Well Being, another Essence and Spirituality. These are just as important as work you have to do. All work and no Play makes us dull boys and girls.

11. I enjoy Mind Maps, they look swirly and a bit chaotic, which self care can be some times. Give it a go for your prescription for Self Care. A resource for this is the magnificent book by Lissa Rankin The Fear Cure.

12. Make a habit of Excellence in your Self Care, keep on doing it daily.

13. Blogger turned New York Times best-selling author and speaker Mandy Hale is affectionately known around the world as “The Single Woman.” With a heart to inspire single women to live their best lives and to never, ever settle. Her advice is to never give away being the source of your own happiness AKA self care to another.

14. My friend Emeli Paulo from Collective Potential, creator of the transformational RAW workshops and True Grit weekends, has us go around at the beginning of meetings and say I am enough to empower the space and get rid of the stories we have come in with. I recommend the practice if you attend or organise meetings or workshops, Its powerful.

15. Here is a mind map that I have followed for several years. At times I forget part of it and when life starts feeling dazed and confused I look it up and see what it is that I have let slip and put it back in place.

Writing this has reinforced for me the importance of including Self Care in your daily practices. Waking up, Showering, having a coffee, rushing off to work, Getting home, making dinner, Watching TV , crashing out, repeated daily is a formulae for disaster.

Here’s to a healthy dose of Self Care daily.

Namaste until next time, my Dear Friends

Passion, Power or Fruit?

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Rod's World

I have recently been getting a lot of articles in my News Feed about how the education system is letting our children down, that they learn very few practical skills for later in life and definitely do not look at what are you passionate about. When they begin at the age of four or so they are astronauts Prime Ministers, League footballers, Rock Stars but this is soon crushed out of them as impractical and everybody is taught from the same book.

So how do we get our Passion back? For me it was a journey of lots of workshops, long periods of mental health issues, running marathons, drug taking , singing in choirs etc. I found it attending a film night at the end of my last period of Mental Health issues. A Colombian film at the Darebin Intercultural Centre in Preston, Victoria, Australia I was impressed by the sense of community. I asked if I could volunteer and that is when my love of Interculturalism began. Here are the links to the Facebook group I created called Interculturalism, a place people can post their examples of the ethos, Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included Interculturalism.

I have chosen 15 quotes on Passion and of course, one of them is from Oprah, here we go.

!. Oprah, loved or hated. I’m part of the former group. A newsreader who has created an empire based on possibility and sharing it. One passionate individual.

2. It is said that your dreams often reveal your passion in life to you. I have been remembering mine more and more lately and it looks like it includes travel.

3. I recently posted that Ghandi, Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa had the same 24 hours as we did. What made the difference is their level of passion, I think. My brother went ape-shit at it, is saying I was being arrogant. Not arrogant, passionate.

4. I receive a post called The Daily Flame from my friend Lissa Rankin who I met in Byron Bay. My friends think I write it. It is empowering your Inner Pilot Light, her latest book is about it The Fear Cure. If your Inner Pilot Light is aflame people will notice.

5. Beauty is one thing that attracts our attention. It interrupts the mundane. How to transform the mundane into beauty is live a life of passion fulfilling your dreams.

6. Passion begins now. You don’t have to know how it s going to be fulfilled, that’s called perfectionism , one of life’s booby prizes.

7. I find that as I get into filling my life with things I am passionate about this rings true. Don’t know about no sleep though. A different time and space continuum I’m thinking.

8. Deepak Chopra, doyen of the Spirituality genre, says Always, yes lets repeat that again, Always go with your passions, Are You doing this?

9. Vincent Van Gogh, In just over a decade, he produced more than 2,100 artworks, including 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings, sketches and prints. This is passion, to me boredom is a made up concept that covers our profound laziness.

10. Love this, the Drunkenness of the mind, when we have lost control of our senses. Being sensible and being passionate do nor correlate in my world.

11. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one of the great philosophers of the 1700’s was a poet, novelist, playwright, diplomat and civil servant as well. He points to you see the world as angry or sad if you have an angry heart, but it is just as easy to have a happy and passionate one. Its your choice after all.

12. Our hearts, the lifeblood for our bodies. Why are more and more people dying from heart attacks in our heavily compartmentalised world. I think its time we etched Passion on them at birth.

13. Dennis Waitley is a founding member of the Council for Self Esteem, the old chestnut of make you life about what lives in your heart , not your wallet. Love the image as well.

14. I see the sun come up most days. This is a new occurrence over the last few years. For most of my life my sleep was a sacred site as it filled up my day as relevantly as what I was doing to fill up the rest of the day. No alarm clock for me.

15. Novelist Galen Watson combines the two things that will have you live an extraordinary life, Passion and Love in his moving quote.

Passion turn to the left, Passion turn to the right or whatever direction you need to to fulfil your dreams. Namaste until next time my dear friends.

Love to Love you Baby!!

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Rod's World

I have struggled with Self Love my whole life. I have taken self loathing to the point of being hospitalised 5 times in the past ten years. I did numerous courses and read numerous books to try and work out why? It has been only recently since taking up body work with Arion Light through The Activation School and his ground breaking course Creative Mastery that I have shifted into the world of Self Love.

It was through the practice of acceptance of what I thought was wrong with me not get out damn spot that allowed me to access this precious state. I have chosen 15 beautiful quotes to have a discussion on what stops us and how we can come to it. Oprah’s included.

1. The first person who hears your words, spoken or not is the one looking back in the mirror, and they have a good memory, be kind and speak with compassion.

2. Brene Brown, expert on vulnerability was a University professor before her rise to becoming one of the most respected authors of the Conscious movement. In her work Brene pushes the importance of daily practice. For Self Love she suggested embracing the now not the when.

3. It doesn’t matter how often other people tell you You are beautiful, until you get this in your soul, they are wasting their breath.

4. Shine on , You Crazy diamond, great song from Pink Floyd, great advice to listen to when you wake up.

5. How many times have you said this to someone? Perhaps Awesome, you’re flying on all cylinders might be more appropriate.

6. When the applause dies down , what is left , Do things for your own pleasure not others because some day they will not approve of you.

7. I have just finished reading Lissa Rankin’s great book, The Fear Cure – Cultivating Courage as Medicine for the Body, Mind and Soul. You get to write your own prescription for Courage at the end, an acknowledgement what it is that provides you with Self Love to Ignite your Inner Pilot Light. Here’s the link to her page The Fear Cure

8. As I mentioned I have been hospitalised for mental health issues 5 times in the past 10 years. So I fully agree with this statement that being in love or not with yourself has a profound effect on your health.

9. Alan Cohen has two persona’s, owner of a national Ice Hockey team in the United States and author of 23 inspirational books on Hay House publishing. If you Love you Live Now is now my choice in life.

10. Remember when you were a kid and you and your friends used to go looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but really didn’t know which end it would be at. Here’s the solution, Live like there is a pot of Self Love at each end.

11. The Work is a fantastic site that Byron Katie has built for people to transform themselves through her 4 questions

Is it true? (Yes or no. If no, move to 3.)
Can you absolutely know that it’s true? (Yes or no.)
How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?
Who would you be without the thought?

It’s up to us to engender self love not others.

12. Oprah, people either love or hate her, there seems to be no in-between, I am a former. The opportunities she creates for people to enter the state of Self Love is profound, I honour her for her stand for possibility.

13. Is Hate to strong a word to use when referring to your self, perhaps we need to go all the way down to ground zero to come out the other side of Self Love

14. As I said in my previous blog Stand by Your!! I made one of the toughest decisions I had in my life asking the woman I thought was going to be my soul-mate to go away. This quote refers to why I did it. I treat myself a whole lot differently to how I did 12 months ago.

15. Finally a quote that points out how much psychological weight you carry around when you rely on the acceptance by others. A friend asked me how much weight I had lost the other day. I replied in kilo’s none, but in my mind and soul tons and tons.

Well, I know that this is a life time journey and I have a lot of years practising self loathing so I commit to a daily practice of self love for the years I have remaining, we will see what occurs, if its anything like the miracles that have occurred in the past 12 months I am in for a highly enjoyable wild rode.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.