The Big Peace

Don't forget we are meditating for Mugabe tonight and the next 21 days.

Don't forget that we're trying to light up Mugabe in the next 21 days. At the following times, between 6-7 am, or at 12 - 1300hrs or at 19-2000hrs, there should be people meditating around the world at that time in any one of several different countries and sending love to Mugabe. Why, oh why? you may ask.

Big Peacer Jacquie Wilson has created a campaign with her friend James to give Mugabe and his leaders an 'energy makeover' in attempt to bring an end to the violence and destruction currently devastasting Zimbabwe.

James was shocked when at a church service the vicar said: “What’s needed is someone to go in and assassinate Mugabe and get rid of him once and for all!” Whilst I understood his perspective entirely, I was surprised that a man of God should say such a thing. It got me thinking," says James.

 "I believe it is entirely possible that, if we were to very specifically send light to Mr Mugabe and his henchman, that we could raise their energy enough to come to the negotiating table and sign a worthwhile agreement and stop this reckless destruction of a nation. There are several of us who have been doing this for a while now, but doing it individually and at unspecific times, we are not enough – we need the power of many collectively to achieve this."

So instead of sending violent thoughts to Mugabe or feeling powerless, James and Jacquie are urging us to send love every time we meditate or pray, for a period of at least 21 days starting on 21^st December, the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year to Mugabe and his team. It needs to be specifically directed to Mr Mugabe and his henchmen.

"We believe that with this collective energy makeover, it will ease their fear, selfishness and aggression just enough to allow for the necessary agreement to take place. If it achieves more, all well and good but all that is needed is to create the start of real and necessary change is simply the willingness to make a reasonable deal," says James.   

James and Jacquie propose that we focus our energy at as by doing so, we actually multiply the power of the energy generated substantially. They have come up with three times of day, based on the hour between 6.00am and 7.00am, 12-1300hrs and 19-2000hrs. 

I mentioned this what I was doing to a journalist friend of mine today and she was rather dismissive and cynical. Ok, this exercise may stretch your belief system, if you don't believe in sending energy/love/raising vibrations etc but have you got anything to lose? Apart from an hour a day.

But just imagine, if we can shift something....imagine if that was possible....imagine.....

Love

As a coach, I ask people what they want to create and clients will give me a great, long list of 'wants' from yachts to a day off.

I then ask them - what will that give them....what do they really,
really want?

The answers range from freedom to security but more often than not,
it's love.

Today, listen to some loving words. Get a person who loves you to
sit you down and spend a few moments telling you why you are
fantastic, wonderful and loved exactly how you are right now.

If that's all too embarrassing (or a bit too Oprah) get them to
write it down.

P.S Don't forget that we are meditating for Mugabe today. See post three days back.

What went well today?

Big Peace December Day 20

I'm just gearing up to the 23rd December where I'm meeting with my closest girlfriends to have a Christmas dinner and a end of year review. We are asking the following:

2008 was the year of..................
(What will you remember 2008 for?)
What did you learn about yourself and life in 2008?
What made you happiest in 2008 and how you can do more of that in 2009?
What was the biggest leap you made in 2008 and what did you learn from that?
What is your greatest wish for 2009?

We are going to be creating 'vision boards' for 2009 - my poor girlfriends! all they wanted to do was have a glass of champagne and a gossip.

But it is a really great exercise to do at this time of year.

It's been rather a big year for me in terms of learning and leaping. In May, I made a big decision to leave my 15 year marriage, I've found a new path in The Big Peace, I'm creating new projects and businesses and I'm learning about the power of love and how it can transform the most horrible of situations. And when we drive our life from our Big Peace place (where our inner coach resides) then everything is really Ok, despite grief and lots of snot and tears.

I am alone for the first time in my adult life but feel more connected and loved than I have ever felt.  And that's quite a big ask. My parents died when I was younger so I don't have a traditional safety net to support me, my poor brother and sister-in-law are going through their own crisis right now as my beautiful sister in law Paula is battling breast cancer for the second time and about to embark on  her second chemotherapy session on Christmas Eve.

It's a big year for me and my family, facing big life and death questions. Which has led me only to dive more deeply into The Big Peace place. I am no good to anyone when I operate from fear and seperation. I can only do what I can do - I'm very human, as you know but if we can leap from fear into our Big Peace place, then I feel miracles can happen and they DO happen.

I always thought I would be serene, organised, tidy and floating round in a white gown smiling and hearing piped angel music when I found my Big Peace. But no, life is still a confused jumble, hectic, messy, snotty with pizza stains down the front of that metaphorical white dress. But I have never felt so alive or so connected, so sure that whatever happens I'm living the life I was meant to live. With lots of wobbles, sobbing and leaping back into fear in between.

Diving into The Big Peace is my intention for 2009. And I'm staying in the Big Peace bath as long as I can - even when my fingers go wriggly.

A short exercise today. You can do the above or just simply ask this one:

Studies by one of the 'happiness scientists' Martin Seligman at
University of Pennsylvania found that taking time each day to write
down a trio of things that went well and why, works brilliantly to
make us feel better about life.

 "Our studies show people are less depressed and happier three
 months later and six months later, " he says.

Create a daily habit and start today - ask yourself:

"What went well today and why?"

An attitude of gratitude

I'm a bit low energy today after all that partying this week. Back into those purple slippers tonight and I'll be counting my blessings. Why? Because a study at the University of California by two psychologists found that 'counting your blessings' does work.

The results of their study indicated that daily gratitude exercises resulted in higher reported levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, optimism and energy.

Additionally, the gratitude group experienced less depression and stress, was more likely to help others, exercised more regularly and made more progress toward personal goals.

According to the findings, people who feel grateful are also more likely to feel loved.

"The ones who benefited most tended to elaborate more and have a wider span of things they're grateful for," says psychologist Robert Emmons.

Today start your gratitude diary and go to town!

Then set a weekly date to count your blessing.

The research showed that people who counted blessings once a week significantly increased their overall satisfaction with life over a period of six weeks, whereas a control group that did not keep
journals had no such gain.

What are you really grateful for? 

Spend time with your mates

What a night! Spent last night with a group of Big Peacers at the wonderful and inspirational launch of Planet Positive. Steve Malkin, my wonderful Big Leaping client has created an way of us all saving the world and reducing our carbon footprint.

"Planet Positive is all about: action not words. It is about taking responsible steps to reduce global warming and also to help people in the developing world have a better life.

We want you to become Planet Positive. Measure and reduce your carbon footprint, then offset the remainder by 110%. Be positive about tackling climate change, take Planet Positive action," said the wonderful Steve from the front of the room. 

I'm a great believer in action. So join Planet Positive today and create a better way of living.

Apart from the inspirational message we also got to raise a glass (or, er two or three) with some of the lovely Big Peacers who have been following this blog. Great to meet you Lucy and Caite (wow! I loved your dress, Caite is a fashion designer....check out her website!) Lovely to see you again Tina and got to meet a brilliant website designer Tracey - I also love your concept. The Simple Web Company.

And not to mention the wonderful Ali Atwell, motivational speaker who makes you laugh - a lot!

And so many other interesting people. I got rather enthusiastic over a bio-degradable plate that you can use at festivals or parties, which comes with a sunflower seed. So once you've eaten your nosh, you plant the plate AND seed in the ground. June you have a barbecue with your mates, and by August, you have a sunflower field in your back garden! www.uutensil.com How cool is that. Brilliant idea.

A great night -  inspirational, fun, lots of wine with wonderful people. It made me happy but no surprise there.

Virtually all the happiness exercises being tested by positive psychologists have found that those that make people feel more connected to others work best.

That seems to be the most fundamental finding from the science of happiness.

 "Almost every person feels happier when they're with other people," observes Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow:The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

 "It's paradoxical because many of us think we can hardly wait to get home and be alone with nothing to do, but that's a worst-case scenario.  If you're alone with nothing to do, the quality of your experience really plummets."

A 2002 study conducted at the University of Illinois  found that the most salient characteristics shared by the 10% of students with the highest levels of happiness and the fewest signs of depression were
their strong ties to friends and family and commitment to spending time with them.

Today is a simple exercise - book a night out with your mates who you love and who love you.

Cheers!

Give up the 'I'll be happy when....'

Big Peace December Day 17 

How did your meditation go? How does it feel to observe your
thoughts rather than being in them?

Today, we're going to be focussing on the present.

We are giving up on the future and are going to work with what
we've got right now.

Let's work on the theory that there is no 'there' - there is only now.

Forget about the future making you happy - work out what can make
you happy right now.

Stop setting 'I'll be happy when ...' goals and focus on what you
can do right now in the present to feel more peaceful today.

Set a goal by all means but only if you are going to enjoy working
towards it today. 

-> Want to write a book? Buy a notebook and write a paragraph today.

-> Want to lose weight? Get a pen and write down 3 x 10 minute
   activities you can add into your day today.

-> Feeling overwhelmed? Start somewhere - even if it's just the
   washing up or sending one email.

What can you do or think about differently that can help you feel
more peaceful in the here and now - enjoying the journey rather
than waiting 'til you've reached the destination? 

I'm off to the Planet Positive party tonight. www.planet-positive.org

My wonderful client Steve Malkin is a visionary and downright fabulous and has created a brilliant way we can all save the world. www.planet-positive.org. Join the community and become Planet Positive.

He has invited me and a few of my favourite people to the party tonight. I invited all you good Big Peace people to join me - and there's a little group of us going along so if you're free between 6-9pm tonight 17th December, do join us and come and raise a peaceful glass of wine and learn how to be superhero and save the world. A grand night out, I hope.

Come to the Planet Positive party at:

The Gallery

75 Cowcross Street

London

EC1M 6EL

Miracles and Mugabe

I am a big fan of Marianne Williamson, author of the best-selling Return to Love. I went to a talk she gave in London a few years ago and she wryly talked about the angry young woman she used to be when she embarked on her marches for peace in the '60s.

Finally, she talked about the shift she made from 'fighting for peace' to 'being peace' and quoted Ghandi: "Be the change you want to see in the world," she encouraged us. 

 "When we stop fighting for peace out there and start creating peace 'in here', miracles happen," she said.

Which is why I loved the email I have just received from a Big Peacer Jacquie Wilson who has created a campaign with her friend James to give Mugabe and his leaders an 'energy makeover' in attempt to bring an end to the violence and destruction currently devastasting Zimbabwe.

James was shocked when at a church service the vicar said: “What’s needed is someone to go in and assassinate Mugabe and get rid of him once and for all!” Whilst I understood his perspective entirely, I was surprised that a man of God should say such a thing. It got me thinking," says James.

 "I believe it is entirely possible that, if we were to very specifically send light to Mr Mugabe and his henchman, that we could raise their energy enough to come to the negotiating table and sign a worthwhile agreement and stop this reckless destruction of a nation. There are several of us who have been doing this for a while now, but doing it individually and at unspecific times, we are not enough – we need the power of many collectively to achieve this."

So instead of sending violent thoughts to Mugabe or feeling powerless, James and Jacquie are urging us to send love every time we meditate or pray, for a period of at least 21 days starting on 21^st December, the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year to Mugabe and his team. It needs to be specifically directed to Mr Mugabe and his henchmen.

"We believe that with this collective energy makeover, it will ease their fear, selfishness and aggression just enough to allow for the necessary agreement to take place. If it achieves more, all well and good but all that is needed is to create the start of real and necessary change is simply the willingness to make a reasonable deal," says James.   

James and Jacquie propose that we focus our energy at specific times of day as by doing so, we actually multiply the power of the energy generated substantially. They have come up with three times of day, based on the hour between 6.00am and 7.00am in 3 different locations around the world. All you need to do is fit in with one of those times daily, and you will be contributing substantially to this effort.

For times to meditate and for information: email James and Jacquie

[email protected]

I am a rather massive believer in the power of love and I love this campaign and will be joining them on the 21st December. Let's create a miracle together.

Happiness is a skill to be practised.

Yesterday, we were observing our thoughts versus
being in them.

Today, we're going to try a meditation exercise from Happiness,
A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill by Matthieu Ricard.

Give yourself 20 minutes.

Sit quietly in your meditation posture (sit straight backed
somewhere comfortable with your hands in your lap) and focus all
your attention upon a chosen object. It can be an object in your
room, your breath or your own mind.

Inevitably as you do this, your mind will wander.

Each time it does, gently bring it back to the object of
concentration, like a butterfly that returns again and again to the
flower it feeds on.

As you persevere, your concentration will become more clear and
more stable. If you feel sleepy, assume a straighter posture and
lift your gaze slightly upward to revive your awarenness.

Conversely, if your mind becomes agitated, relax your posture,
direct your gaze slightly downward, and let any inner tension
dissolve.

Notice how that made you feel.

Could this be part of your daily practice for inner peace?

Don't get eaten by a lion

Big Peace December Day 15.

After a roller coaster weekend for me, I want to go back to observing my thoughts. So thought I'd share this exercise.

The renowned meditation teacher and writer, Stephen Levine,
talks about seeing our thoughts as boxcars on a freight train. 

He asks us to imagine standing at a railway crossing, watching a
freight train passing by and challenges us to try to keep looking
ahead into the present, rather than being pulled towards looking
into each of the carriages:

'As we attend to the train, we notice there's supper in one boxcar,
but we just ate, so we're not pulled by that one,' says Levine.

'The laundry list is the next one, so we reflect for a moment on the
blue towel hanging on the line to dry, but we wake up quite quickly
to the present once again, as the next boxcar has someone in it
meditating and we recall what we're doing.

A few more boxcars go by with thoughts clearly recognized as
thoughts. But, in the next one is a snarling lion chasing someone
who looks like us. We stay with that one until it's way down the line
to see if it gets us. We identify with that one because it 'means'
something to use.

We have an attachment to it.

Then we notice we've missed all the other boxcar streaming by in
the meantime and we let go of our fascination for the lion and
bring our attention straight ahead into the present once again.'

I loved this description of the way our thoughts work while in
meditation. But I also think it's a wonderful description of how
our thoughts operate in general.

Without the instruction or intention to keep our eyes straight
ahead in the present, how many of us realize that we have a choice?

How many of us remember that we can simply focus on another carriage
- the one with the supper or the laundry list in it? Or simply focus
on looking straight ahead into the present?

How many of us realize that whatever we put our attention on can
eat us up, whether it be a lion or a thought?

Negative thoughts are like snarling lions - they have us hooked. We
are attached to them and we do focus on them and wrestle with them
because we think if we don't, they'll eat us.

The irony is that the more we wrestle and fight them, the more
power we give them. However, to step outside and be able to observe
our beliefs dissolves their power.

Meditation is a great way to start training the mind to start
observing our thoughts versus be eaten by them. 

Today, see if you can observe your thoughts rather than be in them.
Sounds more simple than it actually is.

When I first tried this I was completely freaked out.
('You mean they are just 'thoughts' not reality. So what's reality????)

Just try it and see how you feel.

A Christmas tree sob

An early post today because I’m actually up late on Sunday morning and I’m sad. I’ve just put up our Christmas tree. We have this tradition every year where we get my son Charlie to plant a ‘magic’ seed and in the morning the Christmas fairy will have ‘magically’ grown a Christmas tree.

 

My husband and I usually put our son to bed and then decorate the Christmas tree together and put up the Christmas tree and then when Charlie wakes up – wow! a magical Christmas tree has grown.

 

 

The big news is that this year I was the magical Christmas fairy and I was alone. I announced in my blog in June that I had made a big leap earlier in the year and late May my husband and I decided to split. It’s been a challenging six months to say the least. And a mastery course in the Big Peace.

 

It’s easy to be in a Big Peace place when all is well and I took it as the ultimate opportunity to practise what I preach.

 

I’ve been ever so sad over the past few months, grieving the passing of 15 year marriage. But have worked every day practising my Big Peace.

 

It’s easy to practise when all is well but when the fundamentals of who you are and what you thought you stood for are shaken to the very core, then pow, the practise becomes very powerful and meaningful. You get to challenge your old patterns and thoughts but in a very emotional, triggered environment.

 

In the past 6 months, I’ve learnt so much. But one of the big things I’ve learnt is that it is ok to feel mad, bad as well as glad. In fact, I realised that one of my major obstacles to peaceful living was my belief that life ‘should’ be happy/good/pleasant/enjoyable.

 

Queen of positive thinking, mantras and affirmations, I had been trained to ‘re frame’ my thoughts and experiences so that I could feel good whenever I wanted. But you know what? This didn’t make me feel happy or peaceful, especially when I was chewing my left arm off with grief, it made just me feel wrong.

 

My thought process went like this……’I’m sad/mad/miserable so I’m not doing it right. Quick, what can I do to change how I feel?’ And that became exhausting.

 

I’m realising surrendering to both the negative and the positive points in my day, knowing it’s OK to feel a whole rainbow of emotions – grief-struck, sad, angry, happy, amused – sometimes all

within 5 minutes – doesn’t make you insane, it just make you human.

 

I have learnt that intense feelings come and then they go. The trick is, as the Buddhists tell us, is not to attach to them or resist them.

 

My mission in the last 6 months has been to embrace the good, bad and ugly parts of my day and not hold a magnifying glass over any of it. ‘This too shall pass’ has been my mantra.

 

And it’s very soothing.

 

Even when tonight I sobbed into a spiky Christmas tree and felt very, very sad.

 

So the exercise for today is simply this:

 

Allow yourself to feel whatever you are feeling today - without judgement – and observe the thoughts without analysing and see if that emotional intensity passes. Like a cloud crossing the sun, as the Buddhists say.

 

If ‘this too shall pass’ was your mantra – how would your life be different?

 

P.S my Christmas tree looks fab – despite a rather wobbly  lean to the left.