The Big Peace

WE HAVE MOVED !!!

WE HAVE A NEW HOME!!!

from Tuesday August 4th 2009

the new Big Peace website and blog

can be found at

http://thebigpeace.com/

Please click on the link and you'll go straight to the new site.

All the blog posts & comments from the years
this site has been going, are on the new site.


Thanks!
Suzy

The Breakthrough Experience

I am loving The Breakthrough experience by Dr DeMartini. (love his name too. I won't make a joke about Leonard Rossiter if you don't.)

Wow! The book (versus the drink) is profound stuff.

We have all traits - the good, the bad and the ugly. I did his 'collapse exercise' when working through some of my stuff on a person I was ranting about and got to a truly accepting and loving place about that person. And he rang me!!! Literally in the middle of it.

I'm thinking of starting a Big Peace book club - and we can work through exercises. What do you think?

More Leo....

I had to share this blog post from Leo of Zen Habits. Am in the midst of a life de-clutter and this couldn't resonate with me more:

Love Life, Not Stuff

Posted: 06 Jul 2009 12:51 PM PDT

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

We’re in love with stuff — with shopping, with acquiring, with owning, with collecting.

Let’s lust after life instead.

Our obsession with stuff has become unhealthy. When we have a void in our lives, we buy things. When we have problems, we buy things. And these things are becoming more and more expensive, bigger, shinier … more wasteful.

This obsession with stuff leads to owning a lot, having a lot of clutter … and yet this stuff doesn’t fill our lives with meaning.

It leads to deep debt, from buying so much, and needing bigger houses and storage spaces to contain everything. Financially, we’re worse off than ever, because of this obsession with stuff.

We buy things when we’re depressed, we buy things for others to show how much we love them … and in this way, stuff has separated us from actually dealing with our emotions, blocked us from truly connecting with others.

Let’s replace that lust for stuff with a lust for life.

Some ideas:

• Rediscover a passion for life. Get outside and feel nature, appreciate the beauty of the world around you. Get active, do some gardening or yardwork, play a sport, go for a walk, take a hike, go for a swim, ride a bike. Feel the life coursing through you. Breathe it in.
• Give experiences as gifts, not stuff. Instead of shopping for someone come birthdays or Christmas, think of an experience you can give them instead. A date with you, doing something fun, hanging out, cooking, playing, talking, exploring. A fun time at a park or beach. Something other than everyday. An experience is much more meaningful than an object.
• Connect with others. In real life. If you haven’t hung out with a friend recently, give him a call and go hang out. Get your kid away from the TV or video game player and take her outside to do something. Go on a date with your partner. Visit your mom or grandparents. And be present while you’re with them — really listen, really be there.
• Deal with your emotions. If you have a need to buy things, to shop when you are having emotional issues, be more aware of this. Then deal with the underlying emotions, rather than using shopping as a way to forget about them. If you’re depressed, or anxious, or lonely, deal with those. Find solutions, figure out what’s causing them. Good news: experiencing life, getting active, and connecting with others all help you deal with those emotional issues.
• Disconnect your attachment to stuff. Sometimes I find myself reluctant to give something up, even if I don’t really use it. And that’s when I ask myself, “Why?” What is holding me back from getting rid of this possession? Sometimes, the item has an emotional connection, but then I realize that it’s just an object, it’s not the emotion or the actual source of the emotion. Then I’ll take a picture of the item, upload it to my computer, and get rid of the object. I feel liberated, because I’ve broken an attachment to a physical object (but saved the memory). If you are attached to an object, figure out why — it’s not healthy in the long run.
• Realize that life, not stuff, is what matters. Objects are just objects — if you lose them, if they get stolen or destroyed … it’s not a big deal. They’re just objects — not your life. Your life is the series of moments that is steaming through your consciousness right now, and how you use those moments and what you fill them with is what truly matters, not what you fill your home with. At the end of this short journey, you’ll look back and remember your experiences, the people you loved and who loved you back, the things you did and didn’t do. Not the stuff you had.

www.zenhabits.net

Want to meet me next Wednesday?

My lovely client Carole Ann Rice has just published her book Find Your Dream Job. And she's having a book launch at Borders Bookstore, 197-203, Oxford Street, London, W1D 2LE. Wednesday 10th June from 6.30pm

 

I'm going to support her and cheer her on - it's a brilliant, brilliant book. There will be a little talk - and a glass of wine or two. So if you're around, would love to see you. RSVP [email protected]
if you want to come along

 

If you can't make it, here's the interview I did with her on practical strategies of finding a job that you love. 

 

www.bigleaplife.com/audios/carolannefindyourdreamjob.mp3

 

Suzy x 

 

P.S Want to write your book? I have released 5 Golden Tickets for June. One to one coaching with me for 6 months. Click here for details.

P.P.S We've got 'book cook' Jo Parfitt coming to talk at our Storyville night on 29th June. 

Click here for more details. 

Zen habits

Isn't this sunshine lovely? I was lying in the sun today snoozing with my dog (whose recovering well from the snip, thanks for asking) and having 'isn't life grand?' moment when my inner pessimist started shouting very loudly from the bottom of the deck chair. 'What are you doing just sitting there? Are you insane? Have you no idea how many emails/articles/web content you have to write before tomorrow...blah...blah.'

But I managed to flick him off with my toe into the watering can because I've got a new school girl crush on Leo Babauta.

Leo Babauta is the author of The Power of Less and the creator and blogger at Zen Habits, a Top 100 blog with 160,000 subscribers — one of the top productivity and simplicity blogs on the Internet.

Babauta is considered by many to be one of the leading experts on productivity and simplicity, and has also written the top-selling productivity e-book in history: Zen To Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System. It has sold thousands of copies and has reached tens of thousands of readers.

And he's father to six kids!!!

His blog is fantastic and I've been following is Ultra-simple 3 Step Productivity System this week (hence my snooze in the sun.) Want to join me?
http://zenhabits.net/2009/04/ultra-simple-3-step-productivity-system-for-getting-amazing-things-done/#more-2983

Play all day, no, really!

I'm off on my holidays for half term this week - and doing lots of playing!
Have been totally inspired by my Big Leaper John Williams' free teleclass.

www.freestylesuccess.com/gofreestyle/playmasterclass.html

I met John when he invited me to talk at his Scanner's nights (creative, entrepreneurial people who have a million ideas and want to do them all - I felt like I was on drugs when I went to my first Scanners events. Scanners are so my tribe - fun, inspirational, creative, kind, lovely.........) I adore John and what he is creating and his whole philosophy.

"Passion is a magentic thing!" he says. Too right.

When I first started on my Big Peace journey, I thought it might be a bit boring - white clothes and a kind of white, blank mind where all we did was focus on Uranus. But what I've discovered is that it is one of the most passionate journeys of my life. I feel alive, connected, loved and in love - with my dog, my son and life....I feel passionate. Oh yes. And magnetic? I've started to attract wonderful stuff...book deals, beautiful clients best friendships, great people into my life.

John is an amazing and inspirational client. I dare you to listen to his teleclass and not get passionate. 

Play all day, no, really!

I'm off on my holidays for half term this week - and doing lots of playing!
Have been totally inspired by my Big Leaper John Williams' free teleclass.

http://www.freestylesuccess.com/gofreestyle/playmasterclass.html

I met John when he invited me to talk at his Scanner's nights (creative, entrepreneurial people who have a million ideas and want to do them all - I felt like I was on drugs when I went to my first Scanners events. Scanners are so my tribe - fun, inspirational, creative, kind, lovely.........) I adore John and what he is creating and his whole philosophy.

"Passion is a magentic thing!" he says. Too right.

When I first started on my Big Peace journey, I thought it might be a bit boring - white clothes and a kind of white, blank mind where all we did was focus on Uranus. But what I've discovered is that it is one of the most passionate journeys of my life. I feel alive, connected, loved and in love - with my dog, my son and life....I feel passionate. Oh yes. And magnetic? I've started to attract wonderful stuff...book deals, beautiful clients best friendships, great people into my life.

John is an amazing and inspirational client. I dare you to listen to his teleclass and not get passionate. 

Screw work, let's play!

Screw work, let's play??? Now there's an invitation but also the new book title of Big Leaper John Williams - who has just got a big publishing deal for his book last week. 

 

John is running a masterclass tonight 20th May 7-8pm. (and it's free!)

On this masterclass, John will be showing us how to

• put creativity first
• do what comes naturally to you and what you most enjoy
• experiment and explore
• follow your instincts even if you don't know quite where they're leading you
• be responsive to feedback - from the world outside and also from inside of you
• realise that genuine passion for your work is better than any marketing trick
• see making money as part of the game
• ditch your career plan and your 5 year goals and starting to create the experience you want to have in life right now

John is so singing The Big Peace song! 

 

If you'd like a free place, click on this link: 

http://www.freestylesuccess.com/gofreestyle/playmasterclass.html

 

Suzy x

P.S can we all send big peace vibes to my dog Oscar. He's about to have the snip.

The Big Peace retreat

We've just completed our second Big Peace retreat www.bigpeaceretreat.co.uk - which we held at a beautiful hotel near Lewes in Sussex and it was wonderful. I love meeting you all and diving more deeply into the practices that will bring us peace.

It strikes me again how dynamic this process is (I thought the Big Peace would be about floating round in white clothes, with angels and birds tweeting in the background) But no! It's funny, human, brave and messy.

The Big Peace is about accepting all parts of our humaness - the dark and the light. One of the great things about a retreat like this is that we hear that other people also have an 'inner pessimist' - just as mean and ugly as ours - who beats us about the head with their stories of gloom and doom. And I love the 'aha' moments when we realise we have choice. That the inner pessimist is not real - we're making it all up and that if you can make up that vicious soundtrack, you can choose to make up a new, supportive, nurturing script for your life.

And ah! Bisto, it's so much more peaceful - and fun!

Here's an exercise we did on the retreat. Try these questions and create your own mini-retreat.

1. What is it you want to change?

 

 

2. What is the thinking behind your current behaviour?

 

 

3. What are the costs of that thinking?

 

 

4. What would your life be like without that thinking and behaviour?

 

 

 

5. What would you have to think differently to create new behaviour?

 

 

6. What actions can you take if you acted as if this new thinking was true?

 

 

7. Are you willing to let go of your old thinking and willing to embrace your new thinking?

 

 

8. Paint me a picture of what your life will be like with your new behaviours/thinking in place?

 

 

9. What do you commit to DO DIFFERENTLY to make this thinking a default setting in your life?

 

 

 

10. Paint me a picture of what your life will be like on one year from hence with this new thinking in place?

Let me know how you get on with these.
xxx

 

Fertile lives

Just have to share....I did a lovely interview with the amazing Big Leaper Tracey Lepine, who made the leap from stunt woman to psychotherapist (as you do!) She has just launched her new business http://www.mindbodybaby.co.uk/- how to increase your chances of being pregnant the natural way.

I'm pretty passionate about the mind/body connection and what we can create in our lives when we point our thoughts in the right direction. This must be the ultimate focus though - a baby! I love what Tracey has created.

 

There are fantastic free downloads and wonderful products. I sent Tracey's CDs to another client of mine a month ago and I just heard today - she's pregnant! Ah, Big Leaping babies!!! 

 

I interviewed Tracey last week on her inspiring and very personal journey on creating a business that she is passionate about. Her inspiring vision has now translated into a service that can also change so many of our lives. Now that's what I call a great big leap.  

 

Here's the interview: 

 

www.bigleaplife.com/audios.com/mindbodybaby.mp3 

 

Another Big Leaping client acupuncturist Katie Scampton has also just launched her website www.bumpacupuncture.com

If you live in London, and need some help getting pregnant, check out Katie's fantasitc site. 

 

 

Suzy x 

 

P.S I have just released 10 more golden tickets for the months of May and June. If you wish to get one to one coaching over the next six months with me, click on the link below. http://www.thebig-leap.com/big_leap_products/big_leap_golden_ticket.phtml

 

P.P.S We are also about to release tickets for the Change Your Thinking, Change Your Self Image with our guest speaker Nicky Hambleton Jones of 10 Years Younger Fame. If you wish to sign up for priority notification, sign up here www.biglifeevents.co.uk