The Big Peace

That was a yes, then!

Over 200 over you have signed up to walk The Artist's Way with me - how wonderful is that!
Keep your eyes peeled next week. We will start on Monday (26th) with the introduction and rules etc. For now, buy the book, if you haven't already got it and perhaps read the introduction.

One of my colleagues sent me this wonderful film yesterday - an amazing array of statesmen and personalities in 'the third act' of their lives (as Michael Parkinson says) all talking about wisdom.

It's lovely. www.wisdombook.org 

The Artist's Way - want to walk it with me?

I was talking this morning about Julia Cameron's best-selling book The Artist's Way. Essentially, it's about creative recovery but often it's a great book for life recovery too.

Just a thought. Would anyone like to do the 12 week course with me via this blog?

There is a weekly chapter with exercises to follow but that might be a wonderful way to start 2009? Perhaps we could start the introduction chapter week commencing 26th January so we're ready to start the 12 week course in February?

I think I may have just got a book deal with Hay House for The Big Peace! Just waiting for contracts to be signed. How exciting is that! Especially wonderful for me as Louise Hay, the founder of Hay House and author of You Can Heal Your Life as been one of my inspirations for so long. And Hay House publish so many of my favourite authors - from Dr David Hamilton to Michael Neill.

So if I'm going to be writing away for the next few months, I may need some creative inspiration so The Artist's Way is just the ticket.If you want to join me, sign up here.

Trust, be, now

I'm having a mastery lesson about staying in the present. When I saw my sister in law this weekend, I found myself gripped by fear. For her, for my family. Of course, she's calm, fabulous and amazing as ever - looking ever so glamorous in her platinum blonde wig.

When does fear ever, ever help? The only power we have lies in the present. Fear of the future, anxiety, dread about what life may bring - what a useless state to be in - for everyone concerned. You're not a fortune teller. Who knows what the future may bring...for good or for bad?

All we can do is TRUST. Trust that what ever happens, we will handle it. I think that was Susan Jeffers' (feel the fear and do it anyway) quote when she was going through breast cancer.

Be in the present and trust. Be creative and dynamic and powerful in the present moment and drag yourself away from that brooding past of hurts and anxiety (and hope) of what the future may bring.

The only place we are alive is the present. Right here, right now. Ask yourself these questions: How do you want to feel? What can you do? What do you want to do? Trust, be, now.

If only...give it up.

I'm about to fly up to Newcastle to see my brother and sister-in-law and my 11 year old nephew. It's his birthday. I remember his very first birthday and blowing the candles off his cake and now he's 11??? How is that possible? I've blinked and 11 years have gone.

When he was born I was in my twenties (just!) and so much has happened to us all in that span of time.

And how I've wished away my time, wasted time, loved my time, hated my time on this planet. And that feels all the more poignant as my sister in law battles breast cancer for the 2nd time. She's 37. 

How I have taken life for granted. How I have huffed and puffed and stamped my foot because things are not to my liking when I perhaps should suck on that air and be grateful for everything that I have and for all the people that I love. For everything, really.

But how quickly I forget. I lost both my parents to cancer - they both died young and I swore to myself that I wouldn't forget to live every second, to love the life I had, to live my life to the hilt, to appreciate my life. 

And year or so passes (a second passes) and I find myself grumbling and huffing and puffing that 'if only' this was happening or 'if only' that was happening.

I loved Marianne Williamson's latest book The Age of Miracles and when I'm grumbling about my lovely life, I hope that I can remember her wisdom. 

" Most people, men and women, have had the experience of ageing, looking at a picture of themselves when they were young and thinking, “I thought that was inadequate?” But when I was younger, I was thinking, “If only I had another job, it would better. If I only lived in another place, it would be better. If only I was in a different relationship, it would be better. So, the real issue is not age. The real issue the ‘if only’ mindset. Give it up. Live in the present. You are who you are, not who you might be one day. Your life is what it is, not what it might be someday.”

And if you're my Big Leaping client Sue Donelly that 'what is' is fabulous.

Sue has just turned 50 and rather than grumble, she set up a website. www.feelfabat50.com

Sue has fully embraced being who she is and she's showing how to do it in style.

Magnetic Abundance on the fridge

Happy 2009, everyone!

My party was a triumph! Great company, great laughs, beautiful 'chinese wishes' flying up into the sky at midnight and dancing to Mamma Mia 'til dawn. The theme was opportunity/crisis and I felt that it was a great way to end the year and wonderful way to begin 2009. I got everyone to write on their 'Chinese Lanterns' - what they wanted to let go of and what they wanted to create in 2009.

This is where I got the idea from - it was truly magical. 

It was a lovely night - a real affirmation of good people, good laughs and great lives. Loved it!

2009 has hit and am very excited by one of my client's new projects. Kate England is a swedish designer - she designed the cover of my Big Peace CD and she's just come up with a brilliantly simple way to organise our lives - fridge magnets. Inner peace via fridge magnets???? Yes! Actually. Bear with me.

What you focus on expands and where do I spent a lot of my time? The fridge (trying to warm up in this weather!) - so imagine having your dreams/your life diary/your vision board pinned to the fridge with 'life organizer' magnets. Fantastic!

I've just ordered my first batch to put my vision board up on my fridge. I've always been a bit shy about sharing it with everyone but the magnets are so groovy, that I don't care.

Check out Kate's blog and website: http://www.lifeorganizerblog.com/

I feel more organised just looking at it.

I'm also trying to source a really big magnetic board for my office so I can be creatively fabulously magnetic in my office too.

My fridge may get a little crowded.

Kate has also come up with the brilliant idea of creating 'power words' to be the focus on the day/month/year - words such as effortless or genius or abundance.

Wow! Just log on to the website and see why I'm so enthusiastic. 

And this is the lovely Kate - isn't she lovely?

Happy new year

It's the last day of the year and the last day of The Big Peace December.

Just waiting the arrival of my guests for a little party I'm holding at my house - where i hope to be sending Chinese Wishes up into the sky at 12pm. Think of me. I will be sending up a special wish for all of us for 2009 - one of peace, hope, love and just some massive fun for us all in 2009.

What is your greatest wish for 2009?

Here's for a peaceful, beautiful, lovely year for us all. 

Much love to you all.

I'm raising a glass to you all, with Oscar beside me who gives his best wuff too. 

Happy New Year!

Speak to you in 2009. 

Shackles off living

Big Peace December Day 30

Last night I wrote about napping more in 2009. But this morning I wondered what stops me napping more. And usually it's the drive to do more/more/more - answer emails, write more articles, drive myself, more driving myself. When I'm feeling highly creative and live and work from my Big Peace place, I feel exhilerated versus exhausted.

One tool I've come across that can really help me identify if I'm setting myself up for exhaustion or exhileration is from Martha Beck's (Oprah's favourite and mine too) book Steering by Starlight. She talks about making 'shackles on' or shackles off' decisions. Shackles off decisions taste of freedom, fun, love. Shackles on decisions make you feel trapped, gloomy, and wanting to chew off your own arm to escape.

Here's the interview I did with Martha earlier this year.

http://www.bigleaplife.com/audios/marthabeck0902_26un08.mp3

Today's exercise is to identify what daily decisions and actions make you feel 'shackles on' and what makes you feel 'shackles off.'

 

 

 

 

Napping time

Big Peace December Day 29

Today I have napped a lot. Two 90 minute sessions. "Just close my eyes for a few seconds," I said and then I was off. Not once but twice. It's been a full on year. It's good to rest. I'll defintely be napping more in 2009. Napping is definitely on my Big Peace Practice list. In fact, it's my only New Year's Resolution - to make napping my greatest skill for 2009.

Off to bed early now.

I'm having a day off, so you can too. No exercises today other than to simply close your eyes.

Night, night, sleep tight.

x

Somewhere over the rainbow

Big Peace December Day 28

Sorry for the late post today. I'm in Cornwall with my best mate. And we've been walking with the kids on the beach and getting cut off by the tide (always need that bit of adrenaline in my life, obviously!)

I've just read back on my last two posts and it brings up that push/pull dynamic that I feel that as I leap deeper into my Big Peace.

The push is the leap (the being brave piece, the leap into the unknown, the living from a different paradigm - for me this means living listening to my inner coach versus tuning into my inner pessimist radio) and then the pull is the 'growing slowly' piece. Which is the adjusting, the allowing for this new way of living to become just the way you live your life.

And accepting that the push and the pull are part of the journey. Leaping and 'growing slowly' are equally valid. I suppose it's that old yin and yang thing.

The 'growing slowly' piece for me is about making The Big Peace a daily practice. It' s the habit of meditating or dog walking or doing what gets us back to that place more quickly.

Over the last 2 years, I've put so much of my focus on 'finding' my Big Peace only to find that just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, all I've had to do is click my heels together and I'm 'home'. But the 'somewhere over the rainbow' living is very seductive and I still find myself in thrall of the Wizard of Oz or the Wicked Witch of the West (or so my ex says!) and want to believe there is someone or something external to me that will make me happy.

A somewhat beginner on the journey, I need to make The Big Peace a daily practice (or minute by minute sometimes) just so I can remember and remind myself that I've got my red shoes on and I'm a click away.

Oh but I do like a bit of variety!!! Hence all the tools I try and all the gurus I interview. I'm discovering there are lots of ways to leap back into your centre, your Big Peace, when you fall under the spell of the wicked witch ("I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too!!!") and I am so scared, I can scarcely breathe. Some have worked better than others for me. But we are all different.

So homework today....what practices have you experimented with over the past 30 days (life time) that really work for you? When the wicked witch in your head starts screaming at you, what gets Glinda by your side and those fabulous red shoes on your feet the quickest? 

 

What works for you and how can you practise this daily?

Leap into the Big Peace

I'm off to Cornwall today so spent time with my best girlfriend. She is brave, interesting and incredibly funny. And is constantly leaping in her life. She always encourages me NEVER to compromise and just leap.

She gave me this quote framed for my Christmas presssie:

"Sometimes you just have to take a leap and build your wings on the way down." Kobi Yamada.

Because she says that is what I have done all year. "And it has really worked. I have never seen you happier!"

If you were to leap into The Big Peace today - how would you do it?