No one can possibly feel what we feel, the way we feel it. That’s what makes us unique, individual and often alone. Our experience and perception is solely ours for the feeling and exploration. – Kazi

As I write the above passage, winds are pressing loudly against my window. I look out on a day attempting to be sunny and bright, but struggling, as clouds laden heavy with rain are frequently blown across the face of the sun.

I love the sound of wind as it meets with obstacle upon its path. The lulling, whispering and swooshing as it tangos with a tree, causing leaves to shake wildly with excitement. If it were not for obstacle it would be difficult to hear its elemental existence.

I have a habit of taking to the bush or rainforest on wild windy days, for like the rain, wind reveals a whole other darker, wilder side of nature. That same nature that rests within each of us.

Obstacle in the path of wind make fully its existence known. Just as the things we perceive as obstacle fully reveal our own existence and potential.

It is interesting to experiment with obstacle as a tool for development and growth. If we train ourselves to exercise the discipline to approach obstacle with appreciation and acceptance, we are able to transcend our problems, replacing crisis with opportunity and growth.

Purely from choice we are able to make a decision on how it is we will experience and perceive our world. That which we once perceived as obstacle can become, just as it is for wind, the very thing that allows us to resonate our unique and individual sound to the world.

The winds are ushering in an Australian autumn, one of my favourite seasons. I’m fortunate to live near by a large salt water lake which I walk around daily. I enjoy observing the changing colours of day and early evening, reflected on its vast surface.

After my walk I take time to sit quietly and observe the bird life, including a magnificent population of large black swans who feast greedily on thick wild reeds. I particularly enjoy watching baby birds learning how to navigate the strong currents which can sometimes blow fiercely across the open waters. It reminds me of myself when I’m endeavoring to undertake or learn a new skill. Their gracious persistence reminds me to be patient with myself during the process- learn to walk before I fly!

I love the shamanic relationship I have with my environment and grateful that I have reached a stage in my life where my mind in willing to move slow enough to observe the detail in life: tiny jewel like grains of sand, intricate patterns on broken shells, fluffy cloud formations all hold meaning for me, even if I don’t fully understand the significance in that moment, there is an energetic resonance between me and environment that takes effect and I drink it with my Soul.

The simple act of observation is nourishing, healing and powerful. Best of all its free for those who care to slow down and enjoy it. Shifting our vision in this way is expansive and invites the intuitive guidance of our Soul into being. Soul centered we are able to dance in harmonious unison with our beautiful planet.

Outside the conditions have become much wilder and the wind has gathered to its power, strength and speed. The trees look as though they are dancing. Flexibility allows them to bend and move with grace. Branches that have become rigid, snap and crash to the forest floor. It is a simple reminder to keep my mind and body flexible and I make a mental note to do some meditation and stretching this afternoon, for I have known in my past, what it is like to lay broken and motionless from inflexibility.

But my mind is eager for the nourishment of stillness now, it does not wait for the afternoon and I feel my thoughts automatically slowing down. With quiet mind my awareness turns toward the sound of wind. As if in harmony with my thoughts the wind begins to slow and soften, until it becomes a soothing lull.

I imagine myself as a feather gliding freely upon the wind. I feel myself gently rise and fall, spin and twirl according to its currents. In the stillness I contemplate the energy and freedom of wind- it cannot be caught, contained or held, it cannot be tamed or controlled, it has the power to move at will with decisive force or gentle lull.

It’s an easy meditation that evokes a sense of freedom for my spirit … and in that freedom I feel a deep resonance with peace.

Ancient Spiritual traditions remind us that each moment of the day, we make the choice to either affirm or deny our lives.
Every second, we choose to nourish ourselves in a way that support or depletes our lives, to breathe deep and life-affirming breaths or shallow, life-denying ones, and in a manner that is honoring or dishonoring.” ~ Gregg Braden

Life is a reflection of the choices we have made. Every moment of the day we stand at the point of choice. We determine how we want to perceive a situation, what we want to believe and what we will not accept.

How we respond to life, what we make of life is a collaboration of hundreds, thousands even millions of little choices we make through out our day. Although we often are unaware of choices we are making, all choice is ours alone. The life we want is within our power. It is within our reach.

Begin each day consciously choosing how you want to live and create your life. Your choices direct the flow and blend of patterns, so be mindful and create a colorful tapestry by personally choosing your design and patterns. Avoid a tangled web of defeating choices, silence the voice of drama, the stride of pain, and the feelings of powerlessness, don’t be a martyr.

Weave choice into every moment of every day. Use your power of choice wisely to create a beautiful life.

In the morning, use prayer, meditation or your morning shower, to visualize how you will walk through your day. Set it up energetically before you even walk out the door. Create an energetic pattern that supports you making powerful choices well in advance.

As the day unfolds, consciously align yourself to those choices. Begin with small choices: imagine your commute to work. What will you choose to think about? When you arrive at work, how will you choose to greet co-workers and approach your work for the day?

Write the word “choice” on a card and keep it visible through out the day. When frustration begins, glance at the card and remind yourself that you are at a point of choice. Take a deep life-affirming breath, and choose your response.

Every day, consciously breathe life-affirming thoughts. Allow yourself to weave a tapestry of beauty, a life that you are proud of. Honor your life and fill it with joy and delightful experiences that support who you are and what you want to be.

Affirmation for today:

I honor my life by greeting each day with
joy and enthusiasm;
I support myself with life affirming thoughts and actions;
I create the life I have always dreamed;
I am a powerful being.

“A house can become a little self-enclosed world. Sheltered there, we learn to forget the wild, magnificent universe in which we live.” John O’Donohue

The spirit of homelessness can be viewed as the ability to walk through life without attachment- the ability to work and play without the inner walls of confinement restricting the spirit of our being.

O’Donohue informs that when we domesticate our minds and hearts, we reduce our lives. We disinherit ourselves as children of the universe. Almost without knowing it, we slip inside ready-made roles and routines which then set the frames of our possibilities and permissions. Our longing becomes streamlined. We acquire sets of convictions in relation to politics, religion and work. We parrot these back and forth at each other as if they were absolute insights. Yet for the most part these frames of belief can be viewed as self-constructed barriers, fragile cliches built around our lives to keep out the mystery.

As we break down the inner walls of confinement, we evoke homelessness of spirit, a vast and expansive movement that allows us to reach and navigate our full potential. Walls crumbled, we are no longer trapped within the invisible prison of the home but free to ride our vast ocean to great heights. In our humble state of homelessness the mystery of the universe becomes the table at which we dine.

Everywhere around us mystery never sleeps and this same deep nature is within us. “Each person” says O’Donohue, “is an incredibly sophisticated, subtle and open-ended work of art. We live at the heart of our own intimacy, yet we are strangers to its endless nature.”

Displacement, in Newtonian mechanics, measures the difference between the initial position and the final position of an object. It is a vector quantity that refers to an objects overall change in position. In contemplating the human condition, the object is us and the displacement our growth.

As we usher in change, we are required to stretch our awareness, thoughts and actions to new limits. The feeling of displacement is an indication that we are doing so. Encompassing new creation and new direction is bound to be painful.

Like a snake that is forced to shed its old skin, we too must expand if we are to allow new growth into an old way of life.

Exactly how much we are growing can be measured by the amount of displacement we feel. The more discomfort, the greater the movement, the greater the growth. Displacement can also evoke a deep sense of homesickness as we gravitate away from the environment we once felt safe and at home in.

Sometimes we describe displacement as feeling messy, fragmented, overwhelmed. We can fall into fear as we question our ability to survive and achieve our goals- even the small ones. The path of displacement is rarely smooth travel, to the unaware, displacement can feel like movement backward instead of forward, and for this we can often fall short of achieving our goals, giving up instead of pushing through the final frontier of struggle.

Struggle, like fear and pain, is another mask for growth.

Displaced we can often turn to disillusionment, the breeding ground for torment, self hate, negative judgement and depression. As this sets in, we are at our lowest point. With a vibration so low a multitude of prayer does not bring the relief of guidance. The valley of separation between a higher power and self is deep, dark and silent. God cannot reach us, for engulfed in negativity we loose the ability to hear.

Oscar Wilde once wrote: “Why is it that you and I were never told, that in our brain we hold, in just one single ivory cell … this kingdom called heaven or this kingdom call hell.”

We are all energy, traveling at a certain vibrational frequency and the only difference between where we are and where we want to be is our state of vibration. With this in mind we treat the condition of displacement by altering our vibration.

Wilde reminds us that our thoughts, feelings and actions establish our vibration. When we become mentally, emotionally and spiritually involved, we establish a vibration that draws to us the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Universal Law of Attraction opens us to two mysteries: that which we are seeking is seeking us and what we put in, we get back. But often, blinded by human condition, we fail to see how or what we are really putting in.

As we think, we travel. And we are forever moving in thought toward that which we secretly most love. But what if we secretly love to hate. What if we love to hate poverty, for example, more than we love to love prosperity.

Ask yourself this:

Do you hate misery more than you love happiness? Or do you love happiness more than you hate misery?
Do you hate poverty more than you love prosperity? Or do you love prosperity more than you hate poverty?
Do you hate your pain more than you love peace and wellbeing? Or do you love peace and wellbeing more than you hate pain?

How do you focus your energy? At what vibrational frequency do you travel? Do you secretly love to hate the things you don’t want in your life? Or do you love to love the things you do want in your life?

We are forever moving in thought towards that which we secretly most love.

At our lowest point, we often shift our focus to what we really hate in our life, and we secretly love hating it. But this, in turn, keeps pulling more of the same toward us. This type of displacement moves us further away from growth and further away from our goals.

Do you love happiness more than you hate misery?

The things we love are ours. The things we love to hate are ours also. As we learn to love more the things we want with less attention to the things we don’t want, we develop an attitude of gratitude, we experience a shift in the rate at which we vibrate and our displacement sweeps us toward a new sense of place. One that is rich and rewarding.

At its lowest vibration our energy creates depression. Success is energy at its highest vibration, and happiness and joy reflects energy at its most orderly vibration.

Every thought, feeling and action changes our vibration. The only difference between where we are and where we want to be is the state of our vibration.

We don’t get what we want, we get what we are! Everything we are seeking is seeking us, as we lift our vibration we can meet with nothing other than success.

Memory can sometimes spark moments of grief for a life long gone, particularly when all I recall are small glimpses, fragments of image, as though my life has been suspended in time rather than fluid and present.

Often memory evokes a sense of feeling rather than seeing, placing my past just outside my reach. How important is memory in recovering a sense of identity, in knowing Self and understanding why it is we do the things we do, the way we do them.

It seems memory may have an agenda of its own, for on it’s own accord, it has worked it’s benevolent way into the creative non-fiction work that has my attention and devotion at present.

I cannot ‘will’ a memory to life, only glimpses of it appear. And yet a place, smell or sound can open flood gates and I am dowsed with image, impression and feeling that reveals lapses of recorded time – events that have shaped and molded my persona.

I cannot block memory, yet memory can block itself from me – it’s stealth like rudder guiding my life course. The duality of memory can render me powerful and productive or usher destructive thoughts of fear.

And what of collective memory? To what effect does this have on my sense of space, place and achievement in the world?

My confidence, decisions and fears are all born out of memory: unconscious recordings of time that silently determine the choices I make in life.

My unspoken history is locked in memory, it’s my dreamtime. Memory is who I am.

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Contemplating memory has awakened a new sense of passion for me, one that requires an approach of observation. Zen masters remind us that life should always be approached with a ‘beginner’s mind’. For only a beginners mind is open to discovering all possibilities.

If this were my first or last week of life what would I notice most about my world? In the quiet hours what would I most wish to commit to memory?

Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?

William Stafford

Spirituality is not a religion or a philosophy and it does not belong to new age incense burning hippies. Spirituality relates to relationship and lifestyle. The type of relationships we have with self and others and the type of lifestyle we create for ourselves is a direct reflection of our level of spirituality.

So if we want to improve our relationships and lifestyle – we commit to spiritual development, and the first step toward spiritual growth requires changing the way we think. In a sense, it requires a spiritual renewal around our thoughts and attitudes.

The way we think determines the way we feel determines the way we act determines the way we create.

“Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.” proverb 4:23

Unfortunately we have a tendency to run on autopilot, that is, old tapes playing constantly in our head, shaping our thinking and therefore our behavior. Willpower has been proven ineffective when it comes to switching off autopilot. Whilst sheer will can produce results, they are usually short-term changes that create internal conflict and stress because it is not our natural behavior.

According to Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life: there are two parts to spiritual growth or CHANGE – a ‘work out’ and a ‘work in’.

“The ‘work out’ is your responsibility, and the ‘work in’ is God’s role. Spiritual growth is a collaborative effort between you and the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit works with us, not just in us.”

Warren clarifies this statement by saying it “is not about how to be saved, but how to grow… During physical ‘workout,’ you exercise to develop your body, not to get a body.”

Our ‘work out’ requires us to be responsible and mature with our thinking and attitude – we grow up! The ‘work in’ requires meditation and prayer to evoke natural change – we grow rich!

When you follow your dreams, you connect to a wellspring of healing and happiness. Unite your life with Spirit by living the highest vision for your life. – Susan Santucci

With out awareness it is difficult to know where or how we are positioned, nor how to navigate through life’s wilderness. Self-assessment requires contemplation and reflection – tools that are responsible for the development of self-awareness.

A great self-assessment exercise is asking “What stands between me and the vision I have for my life?”

If we have the power to make the choices that create the life we have, then we certainly have the power to make the decision to chip away at the beliefs that hold us back.

I choose success, peace, security and serenity. But I have other material goals equally important to me … I choose to write and my goal is to produce books – lots of them.

This morning I took a long hard look at what steps I’ve been taking to achieve my own publications, and I’m afraid it’s been very little. I take on too many projects, which in turn steals my personal creative time and without this time I feel undernourished on a very deep level- a Soul discontentment. So today I choose to re-access where and how I utilize time.

There are two affirmation cards I keep permanently on my writing desk – SET A GOAL and TAKE ACTION! Two things I’ve been doing for other people, but lately, have neglected doing for myself.

It’s great helping other people achieve their personal and business goals, but it’s important that we also view our own goals and work as being equally important … something I don’t always do.

As I write this post, I am tantalized with a backdrop that is wet, wild and wintery. The wall of my home is glass and, nestled high on an escarpment, I am afforded the most beautiful elemental entertainment of rain, mist and wind, interacting in Nature.

Wrapped again the cold, beside a warm heater, I choose to take time to contemplate, re-access and set new goals.

I have written so much over the years, I could have produced a number of books, but always I divert from editing my own work. I do so much editing and design for other people, it seems like a chore when it comes to my own work. Perhaps it’s time to stop being the editor and, with a sanguine approach employ an editor to start shaping my work!

When I loose sight of the vision I have for my life … I tend to drift aimlessly, which is ok in short bursts, but not long periods of time.

On the back of my SET A GOAL affirmation card, there is a simple direction:

Set a goal, write it down,
and release the outcome.
Small steps make a big difference.

The words on these cards provide me with daily goals, they help me to maintain a focus on how I can provide safe, nurturing support for my soul.

This morning I have drawn spontaneity, compassion and authenticity – important qualities necessary for soulful creative expression.

It does not surprise me that I have drawn the word ‘authenticity’. The last few days I have been contemplating these two questions: How am I being authentic? How am I keeping my life real?

I grew up in an environment where it didn’t feel safe to feel, it actually felt uncomfortable.

This probably had a lot to do with the fact that neither of my parents grew up in family environments where they were encouraged to feel or discuss their emotions.

Im not unique in this situation, many of us grew up in emotionally silent environments. Some were raised in environments where they were punished if they felt angry, sad, mad or just wanted to yell or cry for no particular reason other than release pent up emotions.

Consequently, we are instilled subconsciously with the belief that it isn’t safe to feel or express the entire range of our emotions because we might be considered ‘bad’ or ‘ungrateful’.

As a result, we can mature into adults who are separated from certain aspects of ourselves, or think there is something wrong with us if we feel a particular way. Others spend a life time creating and acting out of false persona’s because they want to be someone or something they perceive as being acceptable to others.

We inherit a conditioned script from our family and culture. Based on this script we cast people in the movie that we call ‘our life’. The word “authentic” comes from the Greek meaning “one who acts on his own authority”. To be authentic we must ditch our conditioned script in order to become the author of our own life.

As authors, it is important that we examine our core beliefs because they provide the basis from which we make decisions about ourselves, who we invite into our life, and how we act or participate in our world. It is important to examine whether these core beliefs are based on fact, ie. are they real, or are they a product of our conditioning.

There are two paths to authenticity: the inner path and the outer path. The inner path requires more than a state of awareness, it is easy to be aware of who we are, however, feeling safe ‘BEING’ who we are is another story entirely. So the inner path is about a state of ‘being’ and the outer path requires that we effectively communicate this state of ‘being’ to the world.

Hence to be authentic we must consistently, and with integrity, honor and express our deeply felt impulses, our state of ‘being’. Authenticity requires daily commitment to who we are and how we feel.

Get used to looking to see how you feel. Don’t assume you know. – Cheri Huber

Today I restore authenticity in my life by allowing myself to feel the full range of my emotions.

I create a safe loving space within myself where I nurture and accept all aspects of my self without judgement.

I refrain from trying to analyse why I feel the way I feel and focus instead on how I feel. I accept that I cannot use a thought to work out a feeling.

Today I release all expectations of my self and just allow myself to “be”. I am loving and accepting of myself, I am proud of who I am.

I practise authenticity by keeping my life real.

I keep my life – my actions and responses, real by regularly checking in with how I feel. It is safe and human for me to feel.

I channel some of my best creative ideas and changes through what I once deemed negative emotions.

In maintaining a sense of safety, my inner artist in free to play and create art, just for the sake of creating.

Be willing to shift your gaze from the immediate world.
As we broaden our vision we allow our intuitive faculties to touch a world greater than our own. A world in which the Soul can be inspired and flourish – Kazi

Our immediate world is the environment around us that is filled with the day to day activity of living. We can often get so caught up in this world that we forget to lift our heads and look around. This simple action is how we shift our gaze.

Shifting our gaze requires shifting our attention, its an expansive feeling that allows us to access the spirit of life. When we add to this action a retreat into silence, we begin to manifest the ability to tap our intuitive faculties. In silence we align ourselves with Divine Will.

Shifting our gaze can be as simple as lifting our head and looking out upon the horizon, taking notice of a blade of grass, or loosing ourselves in the vastness of an ocean. Shifting our gaze requires looking up and slowing down. It requires paying silent attention to the detail in life.

Shifting our gaze can also be used as a technique to create abundance in our life. Shifting focus from what is wrong to what is going right in our life, promotes gratitude, and the energy of gratitude opens many doors for us in life.

Our thought, and the way in which we direct energy through thought form is so powerful. It is important to be constructive with that power, direct it in the right fashion or we ultimately suffer the consequences.

An example of misdirected energy is dwelling on the problem rather than living in the solution.

Effecting solution involves three steps:

1. Hand the problem to a higher power and ask for help.
2. Stop thinking about the problem.
3. Focus on the things that are working well in your life.

These three steps create an immediate shift in energy and create the space for a solution to arrive.

Every problem has a solution. In order for the solution to reach us, we must keep our minds free from fear and worry.

Shifting our gaze is all about perception, we don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are.

When we shift our focus to what is going right in our life we create more of the same vibration, we open a space for more great things to take place. This is what is known as the Law of Attraction. Writing a quick daily gratitude list keeps our focus in the right direction and broadens our perception on life.

Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness – Kahlil Gibran

Cambodia has some of the most intriguing, prehistoric jungle. I stood beneath roots that spanned the height of three story houses, then atop of this a tree that blows open the most vivid imagination. Equally fascinating is the ancient world buried beneath this jungle, its secrets held captive by these towering forms.

I spent an amazing amount of time exploring, wandering, sitting, contemplating and writing with both pen and camera; and I had the pleasure of stumbling across other artists tucked away from the world, in the bowels of this vast and truly remarkable landscape, writing with ink, brush and paint.

These artists were both locals and travellers like myself, all of us with similar goal in mind: to sit still enough, quiet enough, long enough, to capture a sense and feel for the stories hidden within this jungle; and I got the sense that, lingering here, were stories wanting to be told.

I believe that hidden within each of us, like these ancient tombs and temples, are stories wanting to escape, and I believe we are born to tell them.

There is a writer inside us all, waiting for permission to come out and play. In every moment of living, we tell a story in some shape or form – the way we dress, the way we conduct our business, create relationships, form community, play sport, paint, photograph or sing. In everything we do, we are writing.

The way we live and the way we die, is our story told.

Within us all are fabulous, amazing stories waiting patiently to be crafted and brought to light.