Another Change in Leadership

It’s time for another change in leadership. Not just in the world of politics – although we have certainly seen enough of that on a local level in the past week – but rather in how we see ourselves as leaders and how we lead. And that means you!

Irrespective of how you see yourself, you are at the very least the leader of you, and as such it’s time to step up and BE a leader, DOING what it takes to lead from love rather than fear.

The world is crying out for inspiring leaders that walk the talk and make choices and decisions based on whole truth and responsive action. It’s no longer sufficient to talk the talk of change and walk the walk of comfort. Whether in your own life, your work or your world, how you show up consistently is what makes the biggest difference. When you are firmly and consistently grounded in BEING the most loving you that you can BE, when you are willing to tell the whole truth and truly respond, your very presence inspires others to BE more open and honest and loving too. When you BE who you are, when you open up and authentically share and then do what you know you need to do guided by love and truth, everyone wins.

2010 is almost here and I believe this next decade will be defined by your Inspiring Leadership from fear to love. As the acceleration of consciousness and our creative process continues to increase rapidly, so too will the opportunities to lead yourself out of the illusion of fear and into the peace of knowing that you are love and only love is real.

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"As we open our hearts more and more, we are moved in the directions in which we are supposed to go. Our gifts well up inside of us and extend of their own accord. We accomplish effortlessly"

Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love

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Merry Christmas!

For me 2009 has been a huge year of letting go and embracing change often! From dissolving the Open Up Partnership to running my Training Program for the first time in 6 years as well as confronting old patterns and issues have all contributed to a most powerful year of growth and awareness for me. In all of it I am profoundly grateful to have experienced so much support and love and care and nurturing from you: my friends, family, clients, colleagues and many mates around the globe. As the year draws to its inevitable conclusion I am reminded once again that the past is over if I let it go, the future has not been experienced yet so no need to project and get anxious about what has not yet occurred AND the only moment that matters is now. So right now I wish you joy and peace and love, right now.

Love Lornaxx

Please note: I will be on holidays from December 18th to January 18th and Maxine from December 18th to January 7th. Both of us will have limited access to emails.

Sharing The Love

A few weeks ago a client sent me an email telling me that the work we had done together was having an impact at home - in particular with her 12 year old daughter Lexi and her blog site called Oz Tween Talk. When I logged onto the site, I was blown away. Here is a “tween” spreading the essential message of love yourself, tell the truth and be responsible to her peer group through affirmations, poems, her own insights, clear suggestions and supportive commentary.

I wanted to know more about this self aware tween and I also wanted to see if there was any way I could help get the word out there to more young people. When I talked to Lexi she told me that she got the original idea of writing a blog for tweens when she discovered that there just aren’t many forums for young people to really talk about how they feel about themselves and the things that are really going on and she wanted to do something to help. When I asked what kind of help she told me that young people need to step-back and look at things differently and not get so frustrated about the things that don’t really matter. Lexi says young people need to realise that although everything is not always perfect, you can live a worry-free life if you choose. Lexi believes that having a positive outlook and attitude is very important and she encourages her peer group to actively love and appreciate who they are right now through her colourful and engaging blog. She also acknowledged that her Mum had been very helpful and supportive in getting it up and running and although she doesn’t have a large following…yet(!) it’s out there. How cool is that!



Let’s face it … the sooner you realise that loving yourself is the real key to peace and happiness, the sooner you let go of seeking approval, validation, acceptance or agreement from outside yourself and start living an authentic life being who you are – beautiful, valuable, lovable powerful and unlimited. I am delighted that Lexi is sharing her self love with her friends. Please share the love with your tweens and family and friends

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"Give to the world to receive the world.
That's how the universe works.
To get something you need to give something."

Lexi, Oz Tween Talk 10/11/09

Being

The value of Being cannot really be explained in words or pictures or models or stuff…the value of Being can only be known at a deeper level of self – an expanded consciousness beyond your usual jangly-blah day-to-day awareness. And in this ever quickening global village we live in it often seems like a tough choice to take the time to simply BE when there is always so much to do.
Yet being overwhelmed with doing, doing, doing takes its toll on your health and wellbeing - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Stress, worry and anxiety are very much at home in a doing-focussed, list-making mindset while peace, calm and joy reside somewhere else: Beyond the realm of doing into the domain of being fully who you are while you do whatever you do. Choosing to BE the most magnificent you that you can imagine while you do whatever you are doing. Choosing to be happy and peace-filled and joyful no matter what you are doing or not doing.
It’s a simple flip of an old paradigm of fear and resistance into a new paradigm of love and acceptance. At the very heart, all it really takes is a choice to BE conscious of who you really are - to accept that you are beautiful, lovable, valuable, powerful and unlimited - and to live in each moment from a ground of BEING that is not circumstance or situation dependant, but rather a conscious choice to be the most loving you that you can be no matter what is going on.
If you want to experience peace, joy and fulfilment focus on being who you choose to be, then do what you choose to do from love and you will have what you choose.

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"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."

Epictetus

Change Is Constant

Change is the one constant in our human experience. The one thing we can count on is that things will keep changing. And with that comes the opportunity to get up-to-date with the value of change.

According to the late Ian Xel Lungold (of Mayan Calendar fame) the rate of major change/paradigm shifts in this past decade is 20x faster than in the previous 250 years! Think about that … 20x faster - which means that change (think technology), is occurring at an ever increasing rate. And chances are you have been feeling it and experiencing it and dealing with it in every facet of your life.

How you handle change and how you deal with it is up to you. And there are a few things worth remembering if you want to keep up without flipping out.

1. Accept that change is constant and will keep occurring no matter what you do or don’t do.


2. You can choose to resist, avoid, manage, protect and defend or you can choose to accept, embrace, allow and respond – your choice.


3. Detach from outcomes and be focussed only on the end game and enjoy the process, the ride, the experience.


4. Remember that only love is real and relationships are eternal. It’s just the form that changes and when the form changes, trust that it is perfect and that it will probably change again.


5. Relax ... it's happening whether you like it or not so you may as well relax.


6. Choose who you wish to be in relationship to change and let go.

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"True change is always made at the level of 'being' not 'doing'."

Neal Donald Walsch

Don't Be So Greedy With Your Giving!

Why is it so hard to ask and receive help and support? Why do you shy away from actually letting someone else give support and help to you when you go out of your way to give to everyone? I know it feels great to give but what else is going on?

Well surprise, surprise…it’s the same bottom line…the not good enough stuff in another guise. Many people feel that it’s better to give than receive…better to offer than take…better than what? Than being seen as somehow selfish and self-absorbed…somehow not deserving because in the old paradigm world of fear, the more you can do by yourself, for yourself, the better. I mean if you have to ask for help that shows that somehow you are weak and not ok. So the cycle becomes give, give, give and take very little – particularly if you have not really “earned” it!

How well is it working? Do you ever feel that you have given enough? Do you ever feel that it is really ok to let yourself ask for help, support and/or assistance and really let it in? If you do not then I suggest you consider that always giving and not receiving - like always picking up the tab at coffee, deflecting a compliment, always being the first to offer help no matter what, denying help for yourself etc. is actually quite “greedy”. When you are always the one giving, others are denied the joy of giving to you.

When you do let yourself receive, when you are aware that giving is only half of the whole process and that receiving is just as important, you will discover that joy abides in both giving and receiving.

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"Don’t be so greedy with your giving…"

Sri Narayani Amma

Letting Go

The key to letting go is acceptance. You cannot let go of that which you do not accept. The key to acceptance is awareness – awareness of who you are and what’s really going on moment by moment. And the key to awareness is a willingness to BE present with whatever is occurring as it is occurring, right here, right now.

Sounds simple and it is, although as with most things involving the sticky, messy, human experience, not very easy - particularly when you fear letting go. And that’s what you need to let go of – your fearful thoughts that lead to fearful actions and the insidious anxiety that comes with it. Although the feelings associated with being fearful are quite “real’ in the sense that you feel them, the attachment to something in the past projected into the future is not real. The stuff is all made up, and even though you can feel quite strongly about your stuff, it’s still an illusion.

Letting go of your illusions is very tricky unless you stop and breathe and become aware of your thoughts and feelings, accept them and allow yourself to feel the feelings, acknowledge the thoughts and then remember that you are the one who gets to choose what happens next.

When you let go of resisting what’s so, stop for a moment and get present to the now, energy can flow, feelings can be released and peace will preside. Letting go of your fearful thoughts and feelings is the way to peace. And it requires rigour and discipline and a willingness to be present, accept what is so and allow the energy to shift.

Letting go is effortless when you simply BE in all your magnificence and …let go.

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"How do you let go of things? This means you leave them as they are; it does not mean you annihilate them or throw them away. It is more like setting down and letting them be."

www.buddhanet.net

Are You Tuned In?

Over the past few weeks I have been attending a workshop exploring energy and the extraordinary power each of us possess to heal ourselves and others with love.

The basic premise of the workshop is that we are all energy; everything is energy and at our core is our own heart, the main generator of loving energy. Our ability to have our own generator fully operational is primarily dependent on being open, aware, responsible, loving and tuned into the highest frequency for guidance – the frequency of love.

Simple really … and as with everything on the growth path – not so easy to do. What it takes is first and foremost acceptance of who you really are and what’s possible when you stay tuned in to the universal radio station manned by God or Life-force or Source or whatever you call it – essentially it’s the energy of creation and that is love.

So how do you tune in and stay tuned in? Keep your circuits clear of disturbance – stress, worry, fear all create static in the energy field, static that interferes with a clear signal. Let go of the past, stop focussing on the future and get hip to where you are in each moment. Stop and breathe, long and often. Be here now. Listen to the voice of love; not the silver tongued voice of fear. Look after yourself – your whole self – mind, body and spirit – in the best way you can. Laugh often and out loud, smile and breathe and be with whatever is happening. Observe the energy rather than get caught up in the content and remember you are the most magnificent, powerful, valuable, lovable being on the planet.

When you stay tuned into the frequency of love, everything that appears to be a problem becomes an opportunity to respond from your own loving heart no matter what is going on. When you practice loving as your first response everything that is not love is transformed and wellbeing is assured.

Tune into that.

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stay tuned to the station

don’t slip off the dial

the information you seek

will come in a while

stay firm on the ground

while learning to fly

don’t hang around

or wait to get by

hook up to the godforce

let yourself know

you are the real source

you are the flow

healing will happen

it wants to occur

the stuff that just napping

comes right to the fore

it may be quite sticky

suffering will abide

release it is certain

set comfort aside

no more blanket to stifle

the truthseeking soul

opened up to the wonder

of where you can go

when letting love flow

while creating anew

stay tuned to the station

see what comes through

Lorna Patten

What Are You Resisting?

Whatever we resist - persists! Now this is not a new concept and yet recently I have been observing how often I still resist the relentless ebb and flow of energy in and around me – particularly when I do not like what is happening!

In this topsy-turvy world we live in there seems to be a lot to resist. Many people are feeling anxious and nervous about things that are happening right around the world. We are travelling in uncharted waters and it seems to me that the more we resist what is happening the more it happens. All the rescue strategies currently in play whether from Government or inside your own mind cannot resolve or dissolve the fundamental cause – fear. The more we fear, the more we feel scared and the more scared we are the more we shut down and the cycle continues.

To break the cycle requires discipline and commitment and a willingness to stop resisting whatever is happening and instead stop for a moment, take a breath and BE with yourself and whatever is happening right now. Not involved in what is happening but rather being with it, observing yourself and your feelings and your thoughts and your energy. It’s a simple practice yet not easy to engage in because fear is so much more comfortable and familiar than BEING. If you want to fully live the life you choose, the life you cause, then BEING is the most profoundly powerful state you can dwell in. When you stop resisting who you really are and show up in the moment BEING fully you everything changes.


PS: Do you want to explore and experience BEING in a safe and supportive environment with like minded others?

Then come to the Go Deeper Forum this Friday, May 29th!

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"...It's when we stop resisting at the deepest level of our being that everything truly changes in a way that is forever. I'm not just talking about having a powerful spiritual experience; I'm talking about a permanent, irrevocable, vertical leap in our own emotional, psychological, ethical, philosophical, and spiritual development. When we no longer want to resist our own Authentic Self's natural inclination to evolve, we will begin to transcend those structures in the separate self that limit us. And we will also awaken to a sense of spiritual buoyancy, a lightness of being, because we have finally ceased to resist in a fundamental way and that's what changes everything."

Andrew Cohen

Who’s Really Judging You?

Your human propensity to judge is hardwired. You need to be able to judge (discern) things in order to survive. However when your ability to judge becomes enmeshed with your own “not good enough” story it becomes a pervasive primary filter that informs how you see yourself, others and the world.

Here’s a simple test to see who’s really judging you:

• How often are you concerned or convinced that others are judging you?
• How often do you think you are being judged?

If you answered never, leave a comment sharing how you do it.

If you answered rarely, sometimes, often or always ... keep reading ...

When you think others are judging you ... who’s thinking that? Think about it ... Who’s thinking others are judging you? That’s right ... you are!

And when you think others are judging you, if that is the filter you look through, you’ll gather evidence to prove you are right ... you will feel judged because that is what you are doing to yourself.

Changing your filter from one of critical self-judgement to one of loving acceptance is simple although not easy at first.

Start by interrupting the flow of toxic thoughts as soon as you become aware of them. Then challenge their validity by saying to yourself “Thanks for the reminder…it’s not true that I am not good enough…this is an old story that has served its purpose and right now I choose to remember who I really am - I am ok, I am loveable and valuable because I am”. You may have to do this many, many times at first and if you persist, you will notice the thoughts don’t come up so often, so fully or linger for as long. And one day you will notice that the once pervasive “not good enough” rant is a merely a whisper.

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"For you are the one who has decided Who and What You Really Are – and Who You Want To Be. And you are the only one who can judge how well you are doing."

Conversations With God I, Neale Donald Walsch

Stop Trying To Change The World!

I mean it. If you really want the world to change ... stop trying to change it. It’s a fruitless occupation that never delivers the goodies. Now I realise it’s very tempting to focus your energy and attention on that which is outside of you. After all it makes sense to try and control everything ... or does it?

And there is the problem ... when you try to do anything; you are on a path to nowhere. Trying is at best “an attempt” and at worst it actually means you are not doing something. Trying to do something is an underhanded way of avoiding telling the whole truth about what you are actually up to. And the whole notion of trying becomes very trying (couldn’t resist)!

Trying to change anything outside of yourself like another’s behaviour, outlook, mindset, feelings or a particular situation, organisation, culture or belief system is really hard work. It takes effort and persuasion and manipulation and usually after all that efforting ... it doesn’t work.

If you really want things to change, you have to start with changing what’s inside you. Examine your thoughts and feelings and actions and see where you can choose to change. If you are in the habit of always looking outside first, choose to begin looking inside first. If you are in the habit of wishing and hoping things will change, start BEING the changes you wish to experience. If you want more love start being more loving, if you wish for more acceptance, start being more accepting, if you hope for more of anything, start being more of everything.

When you stop trying to change things you’ll have more energy to create change from within.

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"Try? There is no try ..."

Yoda

What Happens When You Go Deeper?

I have been in heaven this past week. The Open Up Communication Training Program which began on February 18th was always going to be sublime for me and it was! And the icing on the cake was The Go Deeper Forum on February 20th.

Twenty magnificent human beings came to sit with me and Dorje for a day of BEING together for the purpose of BEING. It was a day of celebration and connection as people opened up and sat in the space of love and acceptance, sharing their deepest truths with courage and compassion. I was moved to tears more than once as layer by layer I let go of attachment to identifying with my incessant thinking and sank deeper and deeper into the stillness of simply being.

I felt overwhelmed at times by the sheer intensity of feeling – not so much emotional attachment but rather something so exquisite that I didn’t quite know how to be with it. So I sat in my chair, in my body, breathing in and out and observing myself while I sat in the space. When I found myself back in my head and thinking, I reminded myself there was nothing to do and no where to be and nothing to fix. And I kept breathing.

It was one of the most amazing days I have ever spent with other people. Feelings and emotions ebbed and flowed like waves in the ocean and then a return to perfect stillness and peace reigned.

Nothing I say can adequately capture the moments. You really had to be there.

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"You are a powerful being. You may be a great thinker, you may be a big feeler but at your depth you are an immensely powerful Being.
In this vast ocean of existence there are many individual waves that arise for a time and they dissolve again. If you follow any individual wave down to its depths you will find the one ocean, the source of all waves.
You are the wave, you are the ocean.
For as sure as there are waves they are supported by the very depths they arise from.
As you Go Deeper following your own awareness down to its depths you will find the oneness of being. This state of being is you and yet it is greater than you, for you are all things and yet you are no thing.

Be the wave, Be the depths.
Hold these two truths united in your heart mind and let the games begin. There is no bigger game to play. Enjoy."

Dorje

Love Your Discomfort – Its Helping You Grow!

I was given a pair of bright pink thongs (flip-flops to some) for Christmas. Now, as an adult, I am not one who usually wears this great iconic summer footwear, so decided to step outside my comfort zone (couldn’t resist this one!) and give the thongs a go. Little did I know I was embarking on a daily adventure in embracing discomfort!

When I was child, thongs were made of soft, squishy, sponge-like rubber. These new pink thongs certainly looked soft and squishy but when I put them on and walked a few steps, it felt like I was walking on sharp stones. The little plugs underneath that hold the straps in place are made of hard, solid plastic (not soft rubber) so each time I put my weight on them, they hurt my feet! I considered relegating them to the back of the wardrobe and resorting to my oh, so, comfy Crocs when I realised that these thongs presented me with an opportunity to learn how I respond (and react) to being uncomfortable!

So for the past few weeks I have worn my thongs every chance I get. I wear them outside and inside, to the beach and just walking around. And I have been acutely aware not only of my physical discomfort but also my mental and emotional discomfort that certainly exacerbates the physical pain. And I have noticed the many and varied ways I have of avoiding, managing and resisting being uncomfortable. When I agree with my head chatter that says it’s too hard to wear these thongs, they hurt etc, etc, I find the experience almost unbearable. Yet when I remember that I am choosing to wear them, that I have many other choices available to me and yet I still put these things on my feet each morning, I find myself relaxing into the thongs, allowing myself to feel and be with the experience and the pain simply disappears.

There you have it. A simple little lesson in being with what is so, taking responsibility for ALL my choices and allowing myself to fully experience all that I have chosen. When I do this, everything is easier and more flowing and I find my comfort zone expands.

As I sit here, wearing my pink thongs I am reminded not to underestimate how the little things in life can be such powerful catalysts for personal growth.

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"Every situation, indeed every moment, is of infinite value,
for it is the representative of a whole eternity."

Goethe