You May Never Be Good Enough For Everybody!!!

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Rod's World

Stage Two of writing about the shadow that comes with investigating possible opportunities in situations where you meet new and interesting women and you are deep in lacking confidence because you are listening to all those stories your identity has been telling you for years and years.

Self-criticism can be debilitating because when our criticism becomes internal, it can be very difficult to shake.

You know that little voice that chimes in when you screw up? The one that tells you you’re no good, or that you made a stupid decision, or that you can’t succeed? That’s the voice of self–criticism. And you’d be surprised how often that little voice runs the show.

Marisa Peer of MindValley has a great suggestion for dealing with this form of criticism. She encourages you to change that niggling voice of self-doubt into your own personal cheerleader.

The first step is being able to recognize the negative self-talk when it’s in action. The second step? Flipping the commentary to something more positive.

Marisa suggests imagining what a supportive parent or teacher might tell you. Would they tell you that you’re no good and that you’re only going to screw it up? No. They’d tell you that you’re a rock star and that you should keep trying and that you’re smart enough to get this done.

“It’s okay to make mistakes because you learn,” explains Marisa. “It is okay for someone to point out your mistakes because you can get better. What’s not okay is to beat yourself up.”

Unfortunately, I did not do this Saturday at Mojo – The Dance of Connection, I got stuck in my identity and gave myself a good beating.

What do the masters say about self-confidence, lets have a look:

1. Saturday night I failed Number One.

2. Forgot some of these essential self-loving things Saturday: Hey You.

3. Thich Nhat Hanh is one of our wisest.

4. Goethe learnt this at an early age, earning royal recognition at the age of 25: Who You Are.

5. Pride can be deemed to be negative or positive, most religions see it as the former and aim towards belief, in their god and yourself.

6. I am all these things at times: This Is Me.

7. In the book Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable: Transforming the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Dr Brené Brown, vulnerability is defined as “uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure.” Brené says that “vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy and creativity.

8. Fear or Love: Choose: Don’t Choose Out Of Fear.

9. More about Fear.

10. Be Okay for it to be Okay to be you: Be Yourself.

11. Your dreams do not live inside your excuses.

12. How good are you at resisting the world: Break Free.

13. Self-Care 101.

14. Written by the worlds greatest philosopher, Ms Unknown points to the magic of self-belief: Could It Be Magic.

15. And we finish with a silent meditation.

I am empowered by Brene Browns take on self-confidence. “Being vulnerable doesn’t just require courage and self-confidence. It requires self-compassion. Having self-compassion has profound effects both internally and externally. Even showing compassion to others can’t actually be achieved unless you have compassion for yourself. “When you cannot ask for help without self-judgment, you are never really offering help without judgment,” Brown says. “Because you have attached judgment to asking for help.”

This concept extends beyond helping. Whether it’s related to health, career or relationships, judging something about yourself means that you will always judge that same thing in others. For example, you must be able to accept and receive love before you can truly provide it.

Though 85 per cent of adults say they are capable of giving and receiving love, more than 30 per cent of men and women fear to be alone and tend to lose themselves in relationships. Reading Brene’s research and insights make me ponder where I am at the moment with all of it.

The playlist today contains that song from The Greatest Showman. We begin with Pink Floyd, followed by pop diva Jessie J. Then that song, Next is the Spoken Word from Jim Carrey. A fine rock song from Audioslave follows. The penultimate tune is from Ariana Grande, and we finish with disco diva Donna Summer: You May Never Be Good Enough For Everybody.

I feel that I am in the shadowland of the journey of having Love and Respect For All, Everyone Included be the world paradigm. Until we meet again, my dear friends.

inner peace 6

You Were Born An Original Work Of Art!!

Posted on July 4, 2019 by Rod's World

I am a Warrior of Love, It’s a 12-month long training program that allows you to live your life from Essence/Lifeforce instead of the identity we have built up over our lifetime. this is the link to my mentors’ school: Living as Essence.

My Essence is Unlimited Intimacy, recently as I search for it I have entered the shadowland where it does not exist in my life. My identity has taken me to many dark places over time as my solution is to wish it would go away, definitely not to spend time hanging out with it which is what Arion, my mentor sees as the way into healing and that I also intrinsically know is the way.

I write daily love memes and original Inner Pilot Light prose on my Facebook Newsfeed and have been given two opportunities recently to receive intimacy from two women I rather fancy as possible partners. The first put a heart on a love meme that spoke about being authentically loved. My reaction was to go into deep shadow thoughts about why would she do that and construct a maze around any possibility… I took this to my weekly session and did some work on sitting with the possibility versus rejecting it without any evidence as to it being a possibility. This morning I wrote the following

Dearest Rod,

You try SO hard to be perfect. But how do you think life will be better if you’re perfect?

Don’t you realize that your imperfections make you adorable? Just think what a beast you’d be if you were some Stepford person?

Freckles decorate a face.

Scars suggest a life well risked.

Mistakes make you relatable.

And holes in your jeans give others a place to sneak in tickles.

Relax your perfectionism, darling, and celebrate your glorious imperfections.

I sure do,

Your Inner Pilot Light.

About 10 minutes later a heart emoji appeared underneath it, this time I thanked the person and wished her well on her overseas travel, a slightly different reaction from an entirely different space. Who knows what will happen in either case but it appears shadow work frees up possibilities.

So what have our philosophers and society said about hanging out in shadowland over the centuries? Here is what Jung and his cohorts have said:

1. Shadow and Light, they travel together. Sometimes we forget this.

2. They travel together to remind us that we have a choice moment to moment: So Small.

Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman, 1887
Born	Walter Whitman May 31, 1819 West Hills, New York, U.S.
Died	March 26, 1892 (aged 72) Camden, New Jersey, U.S.

Signature

Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.

4. I think this 17th Century poet, critic, philosopher and theologian is pointing to our building up the strength of our stories as being the truth as we get older: Faded.

5. That smudgy name is the renowned Brene Brown. What if we were not afraid of our fears, but saw all opportunities as joyful?

6. I would definitely agree with this, on my three-month silent meditation retreat I spent the first two months quietening my mind and all the ways it thought I was doing it wrong: Bette Davis Eyes.

7. For one with such fame not much is known of his health issues. He produced the majority of his work from the age of 34 to 44. In 1889 at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterwards, a complete loss of his mental faculties. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster–Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900.

8. How we label our shadows sometimes, good sense: Pablo Picasso.

9. To dismantle them you must enter them.

10. Which included her shadow and her light: Song for Frida Kahlo.

11. Marcel Proust, was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental novel À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time; earlier rendered as Remembrance of Things Past), published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927. He is considered by critics and writers to be one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. He died seven years before the final volume was published.

12. How many of us are willing to do this: Waiting For The Sun.

13. From a champion of the shadowland of both types, drugs and alcohol, comes a summation after playing in the field for a long time, myself, it was forty years.

14. Shadows of beauty and mystery, not many people I know relate to them this way, perhaps my fellow Warriors of Love: Busy Being Blue.

15. And for our final lesson today we receive our lesson from the Godfather of darkness, Carl Jung.

I am practising sitting with my shadow world and not creating chaos by resisting it, perhaps other miracles will appear in my life as I continue down this path.

Today’s playlist is loaded with ballads. We begin with Carrie Underwood, then a newbie to me, Alan Walker. That song by Kim Carnes follows. Then two obscure bands in The Modern Lovers and TinPan Orange before we move on to the iconic Doors. K. D. Lang finishes this fine collection: You Were Born An Original Work of Art.

I know that I am closer to Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included when my Essence of Unlimited Intimacy is present in my life, I thank the Warriors of Love for creating a space for me to practise in. Until next time we meet, my dear friends.

When we have each other, We have Everything!!

Posted on July 1, 2019 by Rod's World

Defining family can be a tough thing as the word “family” alone is a powerful word that conjures up multiple different meanings and emotions. How does one put into words all that define how they feel when it comes to what family is?

Oftentimes people will say a family includes a mother, father, and children all living together under one roof. Some might say a family can be anything that involves love.

Webster’s dictionary defines a family as “a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household.” This definition is a good starting point when trying to define what family consists of, however, there are modern-day definitions that redefine what family is today. Yet, do these definitions define what family means to you? What comes to mind when you think of what family means?

Whether it is a mother and father together, a single mom or dad with kids, or possibly your friends that help to fill the void that your biological family wasn’t able to fulfil, the word family is a powerful word. These are people that surround you with care, concern, and love. These are the people who see you, who understand what you are going through and through it all, they stand by your side loving you through life.

For me, it includes my three beloved siblings, Hugo, Ruth and Jann and my extended dance community friends. Some say I am extremely lucky that I have been able to get on with my siblings for such an extended period of time as often people have to replace their siblings with others as it just hasn’t happened that way.

How has society spoken about that unit that takes our attention on a daily basis, here are some of my favourite things:

1. Its all in the roots that keep us connected across time as we go in our different directions.

2. For me, this has always been my siblings and when they were alive, my parents: We are Family.

3. Find these ones, they are your family.

4. But can you have both, I’m lucky that I do: Respect.

5. Does family include the quality of being loyal – “his extreme loyalty to the Crown”. A strong feeling of support or allegiance.

6. And from what some of my friends have said to me, they cannot even spend time under the same roof, it makes me feel so lucky: True Colours.

7. George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond.

8. My siblings and I have made that choice on those days of struggle: Someone Like You.

9. I think that this may have a lot to do with how family relationships work out, imagine if we did this all our lives?

10. Find the Others: I Choose You.

11. They could be called the 12 Commandments of relationship.

12. And they were very sharp: I Don’t Feel Like Dancing.

13. But always be willing to ask.

14. You don’t remember the size of the house, later on, you remember the memories that occurred in them: Make Me Smile.

15. And we finish with a wide choice you can take your definition of family.

Childhood is supposed to be fun and carefree; but, the truth is, even little kids have stress, anxiety, and other issues affecting their mental well being. That’s why it’s so important to foster healthy habits early on and encourage resilience and self-esteem from day one. I reached out for a few top tips to help you with your Family journey.

Focus on feelings:

Let children make mistakes:

Let children make decisions:

Nurture them:

Lead by example and take care of your own emotional well-being:

I’m not sure if all of these things happened in my life so I count myself lucky that my family has turned out so well.

Some drippy songs in the playlist this week: We begin with Sister Sledge, then the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin. My favourite version of this song by Kasey Chambers is next, followed by Adele. Then 3 S’es finish it off: Sarah Bareilles, The Scissor Sisters and Steve Harley: When We Have Each Other, We Have Everything!!

From all that is written about families across the net, we have a little way to go to fulfil my world paradigm of Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. Until next we meet, my dear friends.

There Lies Hidden Love in Each Friendship!!

Posted on June 4, 2019 by Rod's World

Just spent a glorious weekend looking at Relationship with my fellow Warriors Of Love: Where we Hangout on line. One of the distinctions we looked at was How attachments learnt at an early age from our parents affect our ability to relate to society, as I had learnt a new set of distinctions on public speaking over the 6 previous weeks it felt like distinction overload. I relooked at it today and can see the benefit of studying the ideas a bit and how attachment can run your life.

So how has society dealt with attachment over the years, lets have a look:

1. I think they call it Mindfulness these days.

2. There is no try, yummy: Yoda’s Wisest Words.

3. Ralph Marston was a professional football player who spent a season in the National Football League with the Boston Bulldogs in 1929. His incisive motivational quotes are still used to this day.

4. His Holiness rocks: Contemplate Impermanence.

5. We are taught this from a young age, it takes a lot of practice to get over our early training.

6. I spent quite a bit of time away from my mum early on, it may have had some effect later on to my relatioships, ha ha: Can’t Remember to Forget You.

7. One word, Boom.

8. Due to the early influences we need to practice this on a daily ongoing basis: Let Go of Attachment.

9. The millennials take at it.

10. Laughing at yourself, real Self Love: I Love to Laugh.

11. Yasmin Mogahed received her B.S. Degree in Psychology and her Masters in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After completing her graduate work, she taught Islamic Studies and served as a youth coordinator. She also worked as a writing instructor at Cardinal Stritch University and a staff columnist for the Islam section of InFocus News. Currently she’s an instructor for AlMaghrib Institute, a writer for the Huffington Post, an international speaker, and author, where she focuses most of her work on spiritual and personal development. Yasmin recently released her new book, Reclaim Your Heart, which is now available worldwide. Visit her website, yasminmogahed.com, where you can find a collection of her articles, poetry, and lectures.

12. Now known as spiritual bypassing: Spiritual Bypassing.

13. One of a humans shadows, having to be in control, not easy to let go.

14. Is this Enlightenment?: Young and Beautiful.

15. And we finish with some uber wisdom from Ram Dass, if you need it or don’t there’s still work to be done.

I lost the sheet about the attachment styles so have meandered a bit from it, but it is worth a read.

The play list contains a lot of Spoken Word and even one silent track. We begin with Yoda, then to the silence of Art at Chance. one of our three female singers is next, it’s Shakira. Back to spoken word with Alan Watts. The over to the musical Mary Poppins. The penultimate spoken word is from Candance Van Dell and we finish with a sultry number by Lana Del Ray: There Lies Hidden Love in Each Friendship!!

I believe that racism comes from us attaching to the identities we are taught to attach to at an early age. That is why my mission is to have the world paradigm be Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included.

Until next we meet, my dear friends.

I like the Way You Make Me Feel!!

Posted on May 30, 2019 by Rod's World

Its Reconciliation Week in Australia, this is the official blurb for it:

At the heart of reconciliation is the relationship between the broader Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. To foster positive race relations, our relationship must be grounded in a foundation of truth.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have long called for a comprehensive process of truth-telling about Australia’s colonial history. Our nation’s past is reflected in the present and will continue to play out in future unless we heal historical wounds.

Today, 80 per cent of Australians believe it is important to undertake formal truth-telling processes, according to the 2018 Australian Reconciliation Barometer. Australians are ready to come to terms with our history as a crucial step towards a unified future, in which we understand, value and respect each other.

Whether you’re engaging in challenging conversations or unlearning and relearning what you know, this journey requires all of us to walk together with courage. This National Reconciliation Week, we invite Australians from all backgrounds to contribute to our national movement towards a unified future.

Our local cancel has been showing indigenous directed films nightly, last night I saw a beautiful documentary named Connection to Country: Here’s the Trailer.

So how do you connect to your land, your family and your friends? Lets have a look at what the world has said about it:

1. The one that this is happening with liked my Facebook picture yesterday. Is this a call to action?

2. it is what it is: doesn’t work to wish it was another way: Chemistry.

3. I’ve got the music in me, literally.

4. I can’t hear what you are saying from the sound of the energy emanating from you: Good Vibrations.

5. They aren’t called the gateway to the soul for no reason.

6. The greatest thing you can say to someone: I see You: That scene from Avatar.

7. And they are free.

8. Our indigenous people have a Treaty with the land here in Australia: Treaty.

9. This is what is written on Victoria’s landing page, beautiful: When you remain in your own authentic rhythm and peace you can exist and thrive as both a strong and tender thing simultaneously. Like poetry. Or plants. Or breath,
moving through the body. This is where your power lives.

10. And to the animals and the plants as well: Say Something.

11. All hail a life long friendship, they know all your tricks and when you need to be loved.

12. I don’t want to talk about the hummus: Listen to Your Heart.

13. One word: Brene.

14. My favourite refreshment: Follow The Sun.

15. And our final lesson for today is that what and whoever you connect with, be it the land or a new lover, it’s not about you but how you leave them feeling.

So I hope this helps you strengthen your foundation of connecting with our planet and its inhabitants.

Today’s playlist begins with another unknown pop lad named Asher Angel. Then back to the beaches of California with the Beach Boys. Next is the scene from Avatar that always makes me cry. Then we have the biggest selling indigenous song ever by Yothu Yindi, you can dance if you wish followed by pop diva Christine Aguilera. Roxette is the penultimate song and we close with a live version of Xavier Rudd’s anthem: I like the Way you Make me Feel.

My wish is we all connect through the paradigm, Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included. Until next time, my dear friends.

Everyone Has Oceans to Fly!!

Posted on May 23, 2019 by Rod's World

How do you know the difference between your preferences and your boundaries? I am doing this amazing online public speaking course called RISE with Fleassy Malay, it is the top 5 courses I have ever done, and I have done a lot over the years: Enter Fleassy’s World. and she points out that we often mix the two up, preferences become boundaries and boundaries become preferences. How do they differ, let’s look at their definitions:

Preference is defined as:

the fact that you like something or someone more than another thing or person:

Her preference is for comfort rather than stylish clothes.

I have a preference for sweet food over spicy.

Choosing furniture is largely a matter of personal preference.

It would be wrong to discriminate against a candidate because of their sexual preference (= the sex of the people they are sexually attracted to).

an advantage that is given to a person or a group of people:

We give preference to those who have worked with us for a long time.

Special preferences were offered initially to encourage investment.

Boundaries are defined as:

Like physical boundaries, emotional boundaries define separateness. Your emotional boundaries are the property lines that separate your thoughts and feelings from those of other people.

To me, preferences live in the realms of the examples above and boundaries are those gut feelings that much our stomach churn when we know they are not being respected or people have just walked through them.

So what does our society have to say about boundaries, there were some quite different expressions of it when I looked.

1. Unlimited giving is a surefire recipe for health problems to emerge.

2. Remember the age-old formulae: You are the result of the five people you spend the most time with, choose wisely: Get Up, Stand Up.

3. Lamott has described why she writes: I try to write the books I would love to come upon, that are honest, concerned with real lives, human hearts, spiritual transformation, families, secrets, wonder, craziness—and that can make me laugh. When I am reading a book like this, I feel rich and profoundly relieved to be in the presence of someone who will share the truth with me, and throw the lights on a little, and I try to write these kinds of books. Books, for me, are medicine.

4. You may lose some of your peeps when you put them in place, and who they are may surprise you: Brene’s take on it.

5. Boundaries bring out people’s real nature.

6. Have clarity when you set them, and then stand by them as if you are defending your child’s life: No Need to Argue.

7. Boundaries actually increase your ability to give over time.

8. You have to wake up with you in the morning, so make sure the respect is there: Respect.

9. Teach the people in your life, or they will make it up how they relate to you.

10. If how you relate to people crosses more than the one on one relationship you have some work to do: Crossing Boundaries.

11. Today’s boundaries are how you live your life.

12. Don’t accept an invitation if it crosses your boundaries, as said above no is a complete sentence: Ball and Chain.

13. But always remember there are times your boundaries need to be fluid.

14. Brene: Boundaries equals being courageous: Perfect.

15. Our final lesson comes from the great Persian poet, Rumi. Have boundaries but remember to remain curious.

As we travel along our timeline some preferences may become boundaries and boundaries preferences. that is the joy of being human, each moment is a new experience allowing us to chose to grow or diminish. It’s up to Us, Because We Can, It’s our Time.

The Playlist honours some extremely powerful divas today. We begin with the only male, Bob Marley. The spoken word is next from Brene Brown. The sultry voice of the lead singer of The Cranberries is next followed by the powerful vocals of Aretha Franklin. Then a mini discovery in Mina AlAli. One of the great performances from the ’60s is next by Janis Joplin and we close with Pink: Everyone Has Oceans To Fly.

I don’t really like the other types of boundaries, I am fighting them as hard as possible to ensconce my world paradigm of Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included. Until next we meet, my dear friends.

My Story Matters because I Matter!!

Posted on May 16, 2019 by Rod's World

Have you seen it, I’ve watched it five times, etc. etc.. I’m talking about the latest Netflix sensation, Brene Brown’s special The Call to Courage. I’ve watched it once but have viewed everything on Youtube several times over the years. The title of this blog is one of her quotes, and when her last book Dare to Lead was released I pre-ordered it three times by mistake, my two friends I gifted it to were rapt.

I have read every book she has written at least twice because she is a great writer and makes it easy to receive many aha moments per page. Let’s list them:

The Gifts of Imperfection.
Daring Greatly.
I Thought It Was Just Me: But It Isn’t.
Rising Strong.
Rising Strong As A Spiritual Practice.
The Gifts of Imperfect Parenting.
The Power of Vulnerability.
Braving The Wilderness.
Connections Curriculum – 12 Sessions.
Dare To Lead – Brave Work.
Women and Shame, Reaching Out.

Oops, I have not read them all after seeing the list, two to go. I put Brene Brown quotes in Ecosia Images, I use Ecosia search engine ILO Google because of the fact they plant a tree for each click, and there were hundreds, it’s like all of her words are a quote that can transform your life. These are the ones I have chosen, It’s time for some Brene bliss:

1. These days of the online world, they are called Trolls.

2. And the booby prize is …: Perfectionist Complex.

3. Don’t forget the little things, remember to stop and smell the Roses.

4. If you only do what you know what you feel safe doing, the word boring comes to mind. Time to step up to mistake land: Another Lifetime.

5. Happy, Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy, Joy.

6. My marketing mentor laughed at me when I said I could do research for everybody. Andrew said, what about working with people you like working with, find the others: They must deserve It.

7. We are not Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, at the base of it all, we are all human.

8. Shadow and Light travel together, attempting to ignore the shadow is pure bullshit, the pain will remain and return tenfold until you are willing to deal with it: Growing Pains.

9. For me, it lives in the realm of what we don’t know we don’t know.

10. Kur-it. This is why my English students often stare at me with strange looks when I pronounce words for them: Reach Out.

11. Repeat after me, I am Enough. Repeat after me, I am Enough, etc. etc…

12. And at the base of it all, there is Love: Love Myself.

13. How do you respond when a beloved shares their life with you?

14. To be totally balanced in our bodies, we need to feel it all: Comfortably Numb.

15. And fro Brene’s final lesson, it’s a long one and a doozy. If all you get is the aha moment from this one then Brene has done her job.

My top three: Daring Greatly, Rising Strong and Dare to Lead. It is also worth checking out her website, her free resources are awesome: Access to all Things Brene.

The playlist begins with two newbies to me, Jubyphonic and Nao. The spoken word has of course to be Brene, that’s next. Pop diva Alessia Cara follows and then we go way back to The Four Tops. Then my favourite Self Love song from Hailee Steinfeld and Pink Floyd close the set: My Story Matters Because I Matter.

So that’s my love letter to Brene Brown. She would be a fan of my lifetime paradigm: Love and Respect for All: Everybody Included. Until next time we meet, my dear friends.

Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You.

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Rod's World

I crew on three drug and alcohol-free dances within our community so ever rarely come across toxic drug and alcohol abuse spaces. I attended one on Saturday night as I had been invited by a DJ friend of mine, Mickey Space to attend his birthday gathering at a place called Horse Bazaar. It was like a return to my dark secret past. This was the venue my wildest girlfriend and I used to attend to dance after taking Acid or Ecstasy over a two year period every Saturday night 15 years ago. I never thought I would return there.

Mickey plays great music, so I was enjoying the dance when this rather drunken, amazingly beautiful young women, most of them are young when you are 64, came up to me and said, “You are too transparent, you’re not allowed to be that transparent, it’s unfair.” I told her I was a Dancing Eros sister, an ISTA graduate and a Warrior of Love. I sat her down and showed her the Dancing Eros homepage, and said look it up when you are sober: Access to Dancing Eros.

What would life be like if we were all as transparent with each other as I was that scared the bejesus out of this young woman? I am an empath so often feel the effect we have on each other. Unfortunately, I feel the pain people think they are hiding that they don’t want people to see so often have to leave events early. What has society said about transparency over the decades? Here are the most relevant I could find:

1. This is one gift if you think of it as one you receive as you become more and more transparent.

2. Simply, His Holiness rocks: Dalai Lama’s Guide To Happiness

3. All you do is confuse others when you continually change directions.

4. Wikipedia thinks Himanshu is either an Indian Bollywood actor or a New York rapper, I’m not sure about that, but I really like the intent of this quote: There is So Much Magnificence.

5. I have discovered I have worn a lot of masks over the years: Shyness, Judgemental, Alcohol and Drug Abuse, it takes committing yourself to a journey to remove them.

6. Some words: Brene Brown, vulnerability, it’s worth it: Embracing Vulnerability.

7. Not greatly relevant, but I like it.

8. How often in our lives don’t we do this for the sake of keeping the peace: Honest.

9. Transparency may lead you here.

10. I think if you are living a transparent life, that the other two would just fall in place: I’m Your Man.

11. When I am writing a note to the woman I wish to be my beloved I write the following: Remember to Breathe next time we meet, my beloved. From your beloved, if that is what you have chosen. I am still waiting for a reply.

12. It’s all in the eyes. They say they do not lie as they are the gateway to the soul: Bette Davis Eyes.

13. Does this go along with Home is Where the Heart Is. Maybe.

14. This may be a fallout out if people are on different journeys towards transparency: So Am I.

15. And our final lesson comes from Bono, who points out powerfully the cost of not telling the truth.

There were quite a few definitions of what transparency means, this was my favourite: the quality of being done in an open way without secrets.

In tribute to being in Rise – Speaker Training the playlist contains two spoken word tracks. We begin with His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, then two of my favourites Deva and Miten. Then the current Netflix craze, Brene Brown. Then one of the many rappers around at the moment, Future. Two legends follow in Leonard Cohen and Kim Carnes, completing with Ava Max: Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You.

What I am transparent about is spreading the paradigm Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included. The more people I can have see this as a possibility, the merrier. Until we meet again, my dear friends.

There’s Enough Sun for Everybody!!

Posted on May 9, 2019 by Rod's World

I am part of the conscious community of Melbourne, we love dancing, workshops and parties. A lot of the people make there living from offering healings, workshops, and dances to the other members of the community. One thing people in the community are naff at is self-marketing. There are over 15 Facebook groups and several Webpages they could offer their products on for free, yet many do not seem to know of their existence.

They post on their personal page and their business page and cross their fingers that it will land on enough of their friend’s pages for people to find out about it. One thing that fascinates me is that not many people take the time to share their friend’s offerings on their personal pages. It takes at a maximum, 30 seconds and is one of the ways that you can best support their endeavours. Facebook algorithms are getting mean as fuck, so reliance on them is at best, stupid. I made a decision several years ago that I would share every event that I came across in the community as my gift to my friends. Recently this is a message I received from a friend I did it for Wow. Rod that is so incredibly kind of you. Thank you! I do often feel I am promoting a million things and it makes it hard to find a genuine connection to my community and audience (even though I know what I offer has value and worth). Having others spread the word is an incredible gift for me. Thank you.

To me, supporting local creativity is a no brainer, but what has society said about supporting each other, let’s have a look:

1. As I said, it takes 30 seconds to post an event on social media.

2. From an often pilloried POTUS, comes this beautiful request: Where Is The Love.

3. You may never know who you heal with your kindness, just be kind.

4. I was stopped in the central mall in our city by a young family one day, He said you may not remember me, I used to be a heroin addict who came to your Centrelink office, your kindness to me over time helped me get off it, you saved my life. What do you say when someone says that to you: People Help The People.

5. Hearts, Ears, and Hands. Everybody has them.

6. Cheap at half the price: Inspiration from Muhammad.

7. Empowerment is what works, jealousy is the booby prize.

8. Shadow and Light, they travel together. That which you focus on has the power in your life: Faded.

9. I have been working on this for over 40 years, it is not as easy as it seems.

10. That’s what friends are for, only one song really: That’s What Friends are For.

11. Find yourself, by losing yourself, not totally logical, but it works for me.

12. Who have you lifted up today, this week, this month, etc. etc: I Can See Clearly Now.

13. This means something totally different down here in The Land Down Under, check out Australia Slang Terms.

14. Pass it along: We are Family.

15. The final lesson is from the world’s curly-haired genius, Albert. Lets live a worthwhile life.

So my call out is every time you see an event shared by a friend, take the 30 seconds to share it, you could be paying their child’s school fees.

The Playlist today is a very positive one. Black Eyed Peas and Ariana Grande kick it off, then Birdy shares a very positive number. The spoken word is from Muhammad Ali today, New to me Alan Walker with his over 1 billion hits follows. Then a posse, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Gladys Knight combine. We head to the West Indies next to hear from Jimmy Cliff and finish with Sister Sledge: There’s Enough Sun For Everybody.

I love my community, it is a place where my paradigm, Love and Respect For All, Everyone Included is very close to being fulfilled:

Intimacy is Into Me See!!

Posted on May 6, 2019 by Rod's World

What is true intimacy? This is a question and a state of play I have been exploring for the last three years. Admittedly I am coming from a very low base. I have found one of the things that most gets in my way is when I come from I think I know what intimacy is. All those memes, books and audios on finding your true soulmate have begun to confuse me, how she should look, how old she should be, what sexual predications she prefers, does she have or want children, etc., etc. etc.

I make chai at a dance called Mojo, The Dance of Connection, It is a truly sacred place where most of the angst that society attaches to intimacy disappears over the duration of the night. One night I looked out over the dancefloor late into the night, and a sense of sadness came across me because I realised that over 50 per cent of these beautiful souls would go home alone. The expression Sacred Love Letters passed through me. I had no idea what that meant.

Over the next two weeks, I had many thoughts to what it could mean. This is what I came up with. Here we go: As we get older we are trained to not share our intimate moments, being told that it is not safe to reveal our greatest secrets. What does this lead to: Three facts, the divorce rate, average length of relationships 18 to 25: six months and the proliferation of dating apps with their dick picture postings.

So this workshop idea came through, its called The Sacred Love Stories workshop and the premise is that for each chakra you tell your, “If they ever knew that about me, they would never talk to me again story as well as your: Yes I actually did this, and I am not boasting story”. The premise is in doing it with people you might not know as well as your intimate beloved people there will be not as much as a charge and it will move you down the path to doing it with your beloveds.

I have not had the gonads to actually run it yet, but have a list of people I have to contact when I do. Its very close.

So what does society say about intimacy? There are lots of beautiful quotes on the subject, here are some of my favourites:

1. I recently discovered that the person I hold in my heart does not feel the same way, surprisingly, in letting her go, I had the most erotic dance with her I have ever had in my life on Saturday night.

2. Would you get an A-plus or an F: Hold My Hand.

3. This is what I did the first night I put the women I mentioned in my heart.

4. So who of my readers have heard of the 70’s group the Seekers: A World of our Own.

5. Can’t read the authors name, but more Eye Gazing.

6. Kiara was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. She took her first steps into the entertainment world when she joined her school choir but, because of her distinctive, powerful voice, the rest of the members didn’t feel she blended in well and wasn’t allowed to stay in their musical ensemble. Seven best selling albums later, she sort of proved them wrong: Liberame.

7. Jim Carrey, Fear and Love, Google It.

8. Mazlo missed this one: All of Me.

9. One day we meet the one we never get over and then we know why all the others did not work out.

10. You look across the room, and their weird says, Thank god I finally found you, game over: Sweet but Psycho.

11. I love the saying it’s easy to get a kiss, not that hard to have sex, but finding the one who touches your heart and warms your soul, that’s hard shit.

12. Rollo Reese May was an American existential psychologist and author of the influential book Love and Will (1969). He is often associated with humanistic psychology, existentialist philosophy and, alongside Viktor Frankl, was a major proponent of existential psychotherapy: Hope.

13. Sometimes its not about the jiggy thing.

14. Break down the wall that prevents you from having intimacy in your life: The Mystical Power of Intimate Relationships.

15. And for our final lesson, a reminder that the intimacy must begin with ourselves.

So my breakthrough has come by being curious about it and checking with my heart, and not the memories in my head of my past failures. Would you like to be added to the Workshop waiting list? I promise it will happen this year.

Today’s playlist covers 5 decades and three countries. It begins with the County superstar, Jess Glynne. Then a blast from the past, the most popular 70’s Aussie band, The Seekers. We cross the ocean to Venezuela to hear Kiara. The smooth John Legend follows, then the quirky Ava Max. Pop diva Natasha Bedingfield sings a song of Hope and we finish with some spoken word from Marianne Williamson:Intimacy Into me See

As well as intimacy in my life I also wish for the community paradigm to be Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included. Until we meet again my dear friends.