What Now my friends

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Rod's World

Well, I did the inspirational work shop Now- The art of Having It All Incredible Workshop led by my friends Jules and Clare on the weekend and how could I not write my blog about one aspect of it.

There are 4 premises to live an inspired life through –

Creating Safety
Telling the Truth
Be Organised
Live Passionately

I was going to write about number three but I need to do a little bit of work in that area, face the truth , a lot of work really. So I have chosen number four, to live passionately. Mention passion and the image of Tony Robbins and his fire walk resonate for some, others the quieter realm of Eckhart Tolle’s the Power of Now meditations.So what had people said about it over humankind’s journey. Here are the 15 quotes I have used to exemplify how we feel about it.

1. We can’t start on too serious a note, when you live a passionate life you will find that people are drawn to you because they are inspired by your actions.

2. I am reading Lissa Rankin’s amazing book The Fear Cure, Lissa’s FB PAGE. In it she highlights how fear causes up to 60% of the illness that occurs on the planet. What if we were to concentrate on conquering or accepting our fears, then how remarkable would our lives be.

3. Back to the 17th Century for this one. John was the founder of Methodism, a religious order based in England. He believed in preaching outside and was known for his passionate oratory.

4. Beauty, Passion and Completeness certainly go well with Living, Dreaming and Loving. I looked up Herbacin and low and behold they are a cosmetic company. Great quotes can come from anywhere.

5. When you are living passionately you may find the desire to share it could have you ending up speaking to large groups of people as more and more of them want to hear about what you are up to. I recommend that you get some training in this so it is more effective.

6. It was recommended during the course to focus on one thing and surprisingly it will affect all the other areas as well. My friend Jeffrey Slayter says to Look where you are organised and that is where you will find your passion and purpose. Get organised and let your passion blossom.

7. In this time of advancing technology it is more and more possible to set up as an entrepreneur. Remember to choose passion not money as your driver.

8. Weapons of mass destruction, does this name scare you. Light your soul and petty items such as these do not stand a chance of overcoming the human spirit.

9. The Specials did a great song back in the day Free Nelson Mandela,The Specials. Thankfully they did and there are pages and pages of his eternal wisdom to be inspired by. He certainly didn’t settle for a life that was less. Are You?

10. Another way of saying passion is are you awake, the world needs people who are awake before we put the planet to sleep on a permanent basis.

11. I deliberately chose this image because it is hard to read the words the flower covers. They are beautifully and dream, powerful components in a life lived with passion.

12. In your face time, do not apologize for your life, passion is spelt and achieved very differently from being sorry for your life.

13. Affairs have a bad name. I did a retreat in 2013 where I married my self and took personal vows. I think this is one of the reasons so many marriages fail, because how can you keeps vows for another when you do not have any of your own. I have mine in my I phone and on my fridge door. Looking for someone to have an affair with, stop at the nearest mirror, there you go.

14. Passion on its own isn’t enough. Throw in some belief and faith, along with kick ass work and you have a chance to go all the way.

15. Over to Steve jobs for the final hurrah. Founder of Apple, one of the great innovators on the planet. What you do should be a matter of the heart, and you will know when you find it. here is a speech he made to the 2005 Stanford commencement class, Its inspirational Be Inspired.

Well, that’s my cut at living passionately, may you find it useful.

Namaste until next time my dear friends.

The one Life we Know we Have

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Rod's World

I am doing a personal development course Sunday run by two of my friends called NOW – The Art of having it All. They start the event blurb with the following line – Do you sometimes feel like a 40, 000 year old sage in some areas…And a shit scared 4 year old in others?.

A fantastic question. How would it be to live life full out in all areas. Here’s an explanation of what living life full out means for one person, Nancy Solari, life coach , radio host and best selling author who happens to be legally blind. Here’s the link to her webpage Living Full Out

Living Full Out is a way of viewing your world – your circumstances, your goals, your life story – as a springboard to success. When you live life full out, you not only embrace change, but also look for opportunities to create change. You never settle for stuck, never run from a challenge, never rest on your laurels. People are access to reaching your goals, not obstacles to get around. “Making a difference” becomes a mantra not a slogan. You wake up each day excited to greet what will happen next – the good, the bad and the frustrating. No area of your life is too small to bring passion to.

I have been part of a group of runners who had the main street of Leningrad, Nevsky Prospekt interrupted on a Friday Afternoon for us to run down with the mayor of Leningrad and other dignitaries to support Ending World Hunger. I have also been hospitalized for major depression five times. Is this having it all. I couldn’t keep up the commitment that saw me run down that promenade and make a huge difference to world relations, I also ran the Moscow peace Marathon when I was there and after a few years my knees told me that they didn’t like me running 100 kilometres a week anymore.

here are the fifteen quotes I have chosen on the subject, some from the famous, others quite unknown.

1. We have an official retirement age, in out country it is 65. People live to their 80’s in retirement. Wayne Dyer tells a story where a passenger on an airplane asked him how long he had been retired when he was about 70 years old. Wayne replied why do you think I am retired. I will retire the day they put me in a box. He lived up to this touring Australia the week before he recently passed away.

2. Leonardo Da Vinci left many a great gift to the planet. One of his obsessions was flight, he created designs for helicopters and gliders centuries before they came into being. This quote has also survived from his time. This link is to some other amazing things he did Why the sky is blue.

3. I have found that I feel the most full and content when I am doing good deeds that assist people and the planet. Focusing on myself takes me down a path that is not a great place to be.

4. How often my mind has said to me that you can’t do that, or no one will listen to you is uncountable. When I have achieved my greatest triumphs is when I have said thank you for sharing and ignored it allowing for me to breakthrough and get it done.

5. The joy and imagination of youth where nothing is impossible. Oh but if we could bottle this and drink its essence when the naysayers said to behave ourselves as we got older.

6. The story we tell our-self about how we are travelling in life is what makes possible apathy or success. Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King had stories just like us. Change yours if you want to live life more fully.

7. Popes and dying. The Eastern philosophies teach that you cannot really live until you realize that you are going to die one day. Our whole society in the west is focused on denying this until the moment it happens.

8. I love these 4 things. The lines that you can barely read say like no one is watching you, like you have never been hurt, like no one can hear you and as though heaven was on earth. 4 prescriptions to live full out without excuses.

9. Postscript , you cannot change that which has gone before, write your dreams down and go at it full bore, the past won’t care.

10. Ever had those days were you laugh and smile uncontrollably. They are the special ones. Replicate them as often as possible and you will live a fantastic life.

11. My friend Emeli has a saying, Get real, Get it Done. It is a fantastic way to look at life, because living it through another’s ideals or wishes is fake as it can be, your heart will shatter into a million pieces eventually.

12. We actually are living our lives full out moment to moment. Just that a lot of the time we know we could do better. Seek out resources to help you break through when you become blocked in your creativity.

13. We all have this silly assumption that we will wake up tomorrow, some people don’t and really we never know when it will be our turn. Big dreams full out, action like we only have this moment to fulfill them

14. I had a friend at high school who I wrote The Boston Gobbler, a satirical look at our life in a rural Victorian town. it lasted three episodes because the thrusting horses in the letters to the editor offended our conservative Christian head master. I gave up having my words in print for 40 years because i let the opinion of someone else define who I became. I love writing with a passion.

15. Whoever and whatever you believe about being brought to this mortal plane, it was for a purpose or it would not be your turn. make it a brilliant one.

I am looking forward to Sunday, Jules and Clare are brilliant facilitators and live their lives full of purpose more than most.

until next time Namaste my dear friends.

Within these walls Freedom lies.

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Rod's World

I have been doing a lot of work on what lies within me the last few years . At times deep depression and anxiety has lived there, causing me to spend time in a psych ward to recover my senses. But now having done a lot of body and breath work my within has moved from my head to my heart, and life has become a much more blissful place..

What lies within the person you just interacted with, were they speaking their truth or do they fear what would happen if they did so because only they really understand what goes on behind those thoughts enclosed in their often murky mind.

There are many quotes and readings on the matter, by famous to unknown contributors, here are my favorite 15.

1. We often say that our ideal mate will have certain characteristics, On my list it said I like green eyes. My closest friends has dark brown eyes and does not partake in my favorite three passions. What attracted me to her is mystifying, one thing for sure is her inner beauty.

2. Marvin sang of wanting some fine Sexual Healing but he knew that peace did not lie within that. That it was a personal matter that granted you Peace in my Time.

3. Maya Angelou, subject of my previous blog Why have I never heard of her, states that however bad it gets a little bit of your inner flame will continue to flicker allowing you to rekindle the flame of life.

4. You may have movie star looks, but they change with age. Your true beauty shines through your actions of Loving in a compassionate way through your life.

5. before it got all to serious , These three wise Tibetan monks would like you to realize the importance of this Sacred Practice.

6. Your gut feeling often tells you to do things that don’t seem to match your existing reality. Intuition does that sort of thing and it definitely comes from within, no external factors here my friend.

7. The art of self love allows us to recognize the love that others are offering to us in this awakening world. Practice an act of self love daily, it will keep the doom merchant away.

8. We were all sent to see Career counselors at the end of our schooling. They probably had less of an idea than we had what we would do with our lives. Society tries to fit us into little boxes. Get your happy on and listen to your body and heart as to what your glorious life is meant to be.

9. I have lived in many places in my 61 years. As a child and being the son of a school teacher, we moved every few years as you did back then. I have kept the habit up most of my life. Some places were intensely happy and others not so hot. The reason for this was that I was there wherever I moved to.

10. A French general during WW1, Ferdinand knew that it was not superior troop numbers that made the difference. It was igniting the passion within his troops that led to successful campaigns.

11. Perhaps the most famous purveyor of what comes from within. Gautama Buddha advised his millions of followers not to idolize him but to seek what they were looking for within themselves.

12. This beautiful image from Africa points to how you can lessen the fear you travel the world experiencing. By ramping up the self love you cannot be affected by others interactions with you, vindictive or otherwise.

13. The big O, loves the song that made this her catch-cry, here is the YouTube link This little light of Mine. Remember it all comes from within, shine there and the world will shine along with you.

14. Elizabeth Kubler Ross was one of the pioneers in the study of the dying. Her work empowered many people to die gracefully by sparking their beauty within.

15. For our last insight we return to Love. We must spend the time needed to have self love located within ourselves. It is not up to the world to provide us with the feeling, most times if we are looking externally for it, we have not reached a level of self love sufficient to be a fine example that is accepted and loved by others.

I will keep , as Byron Katie says doing the work that allows me to walk this earth with no or very few expectations. it is a life journey that will complete the day of my passing.

Namaste my dear friends until next time.