Archived Newsletters
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July 2008
Who is in the Driver's Seat?
Who is driving your life? Have you ever asked yourself this question? Who is influencing what you do, what decisions you make and how you live your life? Are you making decisions or taking action according to someone else's set of beliefs? Or are you fully connected to the here and now and fully present in your own life going where you want to go?
These questions are important to ask yourself when you find yourself dissatisfied with the way your life is panning out.
When I was younger I realised that I did not have any clue about what I wanted to do, where I wanted to live, I didn't know which company I wanted to work for or what career path I wanted to follow, I didn't know how I wanted to decorate my house....and when I did know what I wanted, if a significant other wanted something else, I would give up what I wanted and do what they wanted.
I realised that everyone close to me was driving my life....I handed it to them on a platter and just tagged along. Then, when I was depressed about what I had in life I could blame them. Then I decided to take my life back!
The first thing you need to do before taking your life back is to be brutally honest with yourself and make a list of all the times when you allow someone else to make decisions for you....do you always let your partner choose the movie? do they suggest somewhere to go and you want to go somewhere else but say okay to their idea without saying anything about where you would like to go? If you just make a note of all the times you abdicate your authority over your life you will have a better chance to change.
Once you have an idea of what you are doing and the real impact it is having on you then you can start slowly deciding things for yourself and speaking up when you are asked what you want.
Awareness is the first step to getting back in the driver's seat of your life.
In love & light Jenny
June 2008
Change
What happens when things change around us and we have no control over the events or circumstances that are taking place?
Lovers leave us, our children leave home, our partner becomes terminally ill, the stock market takes a dive and our savings are drastically reduced - these are some of the times in our life when we don't have any control over the situation. So what can we do?
The first thing I like to do is breath......yes, just spend some time tuning into my own breath. Getting in touch with myself....getting into my heart where there is no fear. From this place of gentleness and stillness I can think clearly and therefore not make hasty decisions about what I need to do.
When we act without getting in touch with our hearts, we will find it difficult to make the best decisions about what to do next. When we are in our hearts, our right brain is in gear and we have access to the creative part of ourselves that is able to look at possibilities and not just the facts.
We need to use both sides of our brain, the left hemisphere, where we have cognitive reasoning and the right hemisphere, where our imagination lives. If we only do what is reasonable and based on our left hemisphere thinking we will miss out on lots of alternatives that are "outside the box". It is when we can think outside the box that new ideas come and we know that all is not lost - a right hemisphere activity.
So instead of reacting to the next change that takes place in your life, get into your heart and allow the right side of your brain to bring to you the new possibilities that your left side can't access.
You will be amazed at what you can do with the change.
In love & light Jenny
May 2008
One of the most difficult things to do when we are working on becoming more spiritually enlightened is staying in our hearts for any length of time. It takes considerable awareness and commitment to know when we are in our hearts, but it takes much more awareness to know when we are not connected to the loving kindness and gentle nature that we truly are. We ask ourselves "Shouldn't it be easier to stay connected to my true nature now that I have decided that's what I want?"
In my experience, I have had to work at my connection. I have had to admit that I am out of my centre when I had been doing so well. It is even more difficult because I teach this stuff, when my children announce that I am not doing what I preach!!!
So, how do we learn to stay in our hearts most of the time?
We become aware!
That's it. We become aware of ourselves.....and we practice being nice to ourselves along the way. We accept that whenever we are learning something new we will slip up and not get it right.
I like to treat myself as if I were observing a child learning to walk. I wouldn't admonish a child for falling over when it had only just taken it's first steps. Therefore, I don't demean myself for not getting it right when I am learning to be in my heart centre.
I remind myself that I want to live my life from a place of gentle loving kindness and I go back to it. I don't look back at what I couldn't do, I look at what I am able to do right now.
In love & light Jenny
April 2008
The amount of stress everyone is experiencing at the moment is a sign of the imbalances present within the life of the individual and also on a planetary level. We do not really have a huge amount of influence on what happens on a planetary level but we have great influence on what happens within ourselves.
Each person has a mechanism to guide them into perfect balance. That mechanism is the human body. It is designed to always tell the truth. It cannot lie. If we don't get enough sleep it puts bags under our eyes. If we eat too much over a period of time it stores the excess so we know to cut back. If we don't eat enough we get thin and scrawny and we are guided to eat more. If we don't deal with our anger and push it down we get depressed. If we are always angry we get frown lines on our faces.....I think you are getting the picture. The body doesn't lie and in fact it can't. Its job is to help you to understand that what you are doing is either in your best interests or not.
So how do we help ourselves to stay in balance?
The first step is to spend time with our bodies. I can hear you now - "I am always with my body, if I wasn't I'd be dead." But I'm not talking about just carrying it around. I am talking about being still and listening to what is going on inside of you.
To do this you will need to sit quietly and close your eyes. Then allow your body to become at ease and allow it to relax as much as you can. Next, become aware of any sensations that are drawing your attention such as tightness, tingling, tension, numbness, or anything at all that you may feel within you. You may become aware that you are feeling light and happy. Whatever you are really experiencing is what you want to find out. Then you just acknowledge the sensations and feelings. It is important that you just observe rather than try to figure them out - just acknowledge and feel. After a few minutes you can open your eyes. Write down anything that you experienced.
This process can be eye opening. Over time, as you become more familiar with your body you will start to know intuitively what it needs to stay in balance.
March 2008
As we learn to be more loving towards ourselves and less focused on the fear that seems to run our lives we discover that life really is good. That at every point we are being drawn into balance. We have the ability to accept, consider, and be responsible for ourselves and all that happens in our lives.
Fear is a major part of most of our lives. It determines where we go, who we see, what we eat, where we live, what type of car we buy - almost everything. Fear is also the motivator for a lot of us. When I hear about someone waiting until they have a serious illness before changing their lives I know that they are motivated by fear. Even those who think they are being motivated by love quite often are really motivated by fear. Take the man who decides he needs to lose weight (a loving thing to do for oneself) but is doing it because the doctor says his weight is causing high blood pressure and he is heading for diabetes. He starts losing weight.....but what is his motivation really? We have to be careful that we understand the truth behind our actions. It isn't love that is motivating him - it is the fear that he will die - that is his motivation.
So what can we do to get off the fear wagon?
The very first thing to do is to start to become aware of the control fear has in your life. To be able to name fear when you feel it. This can take time and practice for some people because they were told "don't be silly, there isn't anything to be afraid of" when they were growing up and they have pushed the fear down so far they can't recognise it anymore.
And if you don't think you are afraid of anything know that -
Anger is always a disguise for fear!!
If you have anger and don't think you are afraid you are in denial. Whenever there is anger fear is always underneath it. The person who is angry uses the anger to stop themselves from feeling the fear. In my own life, every time I have been angry fear has been lurking under it. For example, If I am angry with my children for not hurrying up in the morning, I ask myself what am I afraid of? The answer that comes to me is that I don't want to be seen as a bad mother so I want them to be on time for school. If I was in a loving space instead of being in fear I would allow them to be late to let them experience the consequences of their behaviour.
Once I have acknowledged that I was afraid rather than angry I have a choice about how I behave. If I don't acknowledge my fear then I am under its control and I have no conscious choice in how I behave I just rant and rave. It is as if I am possessed by it and it has control over me.
When I know what I am feeling I have choice, I can accept myself for where I am at, I can be responsible for my actions, I create a loving space around me and I am at peace and life really is good.
In love & light Jenny
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