• Environmental Expression: Connecting With Nature Leads To True Spirituality

    For the past ten years or so, on most nights, whenever I shut my eyes to go to sleep, I would get a vision of plants – a forest, a tree or a potted plant.  I would get a zoom-in as the leaves come into sharp focus, before the whole vision fades out, leaving me as perplexed and as clueless about its significance as the night before.

    I’d never really thought of myself as the ‘environmental type’, yet the nightly visions pointed to a certain role I am to play in the environment.  I’m still unsure as to what that … Keep Reading

  • Trancing Out Into The Joy Of You

    One of the most rewarding things I’d found when I went on my spiritual journey was discovering that I could reach a trance state without the use of drugs.  I am reminded about this while conducting a group class this morning.  As I led the group through a series of meditative movements overlooking a vista of calmly-flowing river, I was aware of my senses becoming more acute and having an expanded sense of myself.  The essence of me, the juice of passion, flowed like warm treacle running through my veins and igniting sparks of inspiration that brought me closer to … Keep Reading

  • New Home: Lessons About Moving Forward With Change

    I woke up today feeling light, fresh and abundant.  I am no longer in a smog-filled city, but in a beautiful resort which is to be my base from now on.  To think that I’d been mildly resisting moving away from the city to live in the ‘countryside’.  For days I’d had a running commentary at the back of my head: How will a city girl cope with living in the countryside?

    On arriving at the resort where I’ve been employed as part of a team helping people with addiction problems, I immediately felt calm and at home.  This place … Keep Reading

  • Finding The Gift In An Illness

    Yesterday, I met up with a friend whom I hadn’t seen for almost three years.  She seemed so different from when I last saw her – her energy is expansive and bright, and she has an aura of peace about her.  The transformation from the last time I’d seen her was stark.  Her depression, the heavy sadness and pain which hung about her three years ago is gone, replaced by a certain presence and relaxed self-assuredness.

    She’s a model of someone who took responsibility to change for the better when confronted by what seemed like bad news.  A year ago, … Keep Reading

  • The Anti-Beauty Day

    I am in a shopping mall, browsing the shelves on a vendor stand lined with beauty products.  I’m intrigued and fascinated by some of the products for sale.  Each product I pick up seems to scream its promise at me:

    Lighten Your Nipples!

    Flatten Your Tummy! 

    Curl/Extend Your Eyelashes! 

    Enlarge Your Breasts! 

    Slim Your Face! 

    I note how I am absorbing this with a detachment that eluded me in the past.  As I recall how in the past I would easily fall victim to such beauty standards and be made to feel inferior, I shudder at what this could do … Keep Reading

  • Reconciling The Tension Of Temptation

    Every now and then, I hear of someone who’s on a diet and refuses to eat out with her friends because she’s afraid of yielding to temptation.  Or the ex-smoker or drinker who no longer socialises with his buddies to stay away from temptation.

    While I agree that the best environment for kicking an addiction is one that is removed from temptation (and probably essential in the early stages), that temptation must eventually be dealt with too, for the addiction to be completely healed.

    The objects of addiction – drugs, alchohol, TV, internet, porn, food – will always be around, … Keep Reading

  • I Dream Of Spiders

    Last night, I had “one of those” dreams.  It wasn’t a recurring dream, but the visual and emotional tones were familiar.  It had an ‘epic’ feel about it – stretched out in time and storyline.  There was a certain greyness about it, something macabre even, a bit reminiscent of the movie The Mist.

    Firstly, there were spiders.  Lots of them.  I am fearful of spiders.  I was standing in a kind of courtyard in a house.  From where I was, I could see the top of the trees in front of the house, beyond the roof.  Somebody was talking to … Keep Reading

  • “Something About Your Face …”

    Yesterday, I was sitting in an ice-cream shop with a friend, sipping a smoothie, when he looked puzzlingly at me and said, “We need to do something about your face.”

    “What, like plastic surgery?” I asked.

    “No, nothing that serious… I don’t know, there’s something not quite right about your face.”  Then he asked what I would do if I had gone to a plastic surgeon.  I couldn’t think of anything.  He was sceptical.  “Come on,” he pressed, “you know.”  I told him that I’d wanted a boob job in my 20’s, but not anymore.  He tried to help: “Maybe … Keep Reading

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