Personal Spiritual Transformation and Development
St Stephens Practice, 21a St Stephens Road
Norwich Norfolk NR1 3SP

Birthing Ideas

Creativity begins with inspiration. That wonderful feeling of possibility. At first, just an inside tickle bursting with potentiality. Then it stirs the tap, tap, tap of the imagination as an idea starts to take form. Energy surfs, desire grows, prompting action.

That’s the easy part. The wanting to do. Channelling desire into manifestation more of a challenge. Why it that? 

How do we reach the top of a mountain? 

  • Put one foot in front of the other
  • Keep focus
  • Take manageable steps
  • Learn as you go 
  • Reconfigure when necessary

That’s it. Same with manifesting an idea. Do one thing. Then do the next.

Then why it is so difficult?

Why do so many great ideas never reach fruition? Ideas require commitment. Commitment can feel like a hard slog. While leaving the path may seem so much easier than forging ahead. When we step off, pull back, change direction the energy of desire dissipates. Dampening down motivation, we go a bit flat. No longer surfing, we have left the wave. Rationalising, we accept defeat. Putting the surfboard away for another day.

But when we commit? Those ideas? They become even greater.

Ideas are wonderful things. Fuelling hope, the innate ability to create, pops into gear. When it does? We do not walk alone. For just as a seed has all that it needs to grow, held within potentiality, so does an idea. 

What’s the secret? 

Let it become your teacher. And just as a seedling will show you if it has fallen on poor soil, not getting enough water or light, so will your idea. Pay attention. Stay open to learning.

I’ve been on such a path. Birthing my idea. Writing my first book. And now the book is with the publisher soon to be tangible held in my hand. ’The Sticky Book of Stuckness – What’s holding you back?’ a memorable teacher. Writing about thirty ways we get ourselves stuck has released me. Stuckness awareness shifting my energy patterns. Taught me the value of staying on the path by clearly letting me know when I moved towards its edge.

After the last edit I have had to let it go. Now in the hands of professionals I await with some trepidation. I will see the manuscript once more. But only to check the proof. Returned, set in stone. Where-as, before it was alive. Then I could move the words around, delete and add at my will, as feelings rose and fell. And the path? My teacher and I close to the summit. Soon the deed will be done. My thought – a reality.

The beginning of something new. 

I do feel a bit out of sorts. I suspect a microcosm of ‘empty nest syndrome’. Like child-rearing my book was a major focus and now? It teaches me about the natural next step. Letting go. Relinquishing control. Trusting all will be well.

Like the vibrant energy of a young adult, my book will grab hold, continue to grow. No doubt with a life of its own, change and teach. Of this I look forward to.

And meanwhile in my empty nest? After a few days feeling a bit lost I am now starting to feel that tap, tap, tap of inspiration. New ideas dropping down. Another book waiting to be born.

 

 

 

 

Stress Bucket – Overflowing?

Stress is a good thing. Fuelled by adrenalin it is designed to give us energy. Helping focus it moves us forward. But it needs to remain at a manageable level. When stress levels are too high everything goes haywire, all feels too much. If too low, energy drops, focus dims, drive dives. 

The answer to maintaining a functional level? Keep an eye on your stress bucket.

Within all is a bucket perfectly designed to contain accumulative stress. Tucked away in the background this bucket silently fills. All is well until the stress level reaches the top of the bucket. Then even a single rain drop hitting the surface sets chaos loose. Coping mechanisms go out the window. Super stressed everything intensifies affecting Well-Being. 

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COVID19 – The Lesson of the Dream

Last night I dreamt of finding two locked boxes on an empty road. I knew I had to open the boxes but they were securely locked down. I proceeded with caution but managed to open the lid of the first box only to find a second more colourful box within. After a bit of a struggle I unfastened the inside box. Discovering a tightly wound spring I carefully put it in my pocket. But then all of a sudden, the spring no longer contained burst forth. Changing into a cardboard cutout of a head shortly before erupting into multiple blossoms.

So let’s break it down.

Starting with the empty road, the dream is current. Depicting the silence on our roads and the lack of outside activity due to the COVID19 Virus. The locked boxes? The first box metallic and functional represents the lock down we are experiencing. We have to social distance, life on the outside for most stopped. While the second more colourful box represents the effects of feeling locked down, locked in ourselves. On hold, contained, feeling in-prisoned. Held in. Unable to get out.Read More

A Path Well Taken

Thinking about my Mom on her 93rd Birthday. She’s really well. No aches or pains. Her short term memory well.. is short. But the good thing is she’s not bothered about it. In fact, a few years ago becoming more aware memory was becoming difficult to hold on to I recall her saying “It’s ok. I only remember the good things.” It is that accepting positive attitude towards the ageing process which cushions her from limitations. In all fairness, although getting weaker and needing a wheelchair when we go out – she still pulls herself up into the front seat of my brother’s truck or insists of climbing into the backseat of my sister’s two door car (as well, getting out again. Not even easy for me.)

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Earth Connection – Where Art Though?

Jet-lag for me is a killer. I am ok going from east to west but the return leaves me with my body present but no mind. Seriously. It is as though the mind takes a more scenic route and finally arrives a good few weeks later.

Until then?

Consequential brain fog. No short term memory. Walking into walls which are not there or going to step down when there is not a step to be taken. No balance, nauseous, headaches, totally out of sorts, no patience, short fuse, lost in the atmosphere. It’s a serious problem and a challenge for me. Not the sleep bit. I do all the adjusting to time zones and light but there is just nobody home – in me.

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Black Fur and White Cotton

Sitting in the garden, whites drying on the line and black cat sleeping in the chair beside me, life is good.

Stopping to read my first sentence, I feel blessed for the simple things which add to life. Often too easily we get caught up in drama, focusing only on problems or imprisoning ourselves in the web of pettiness. It’s good to be reminded held within any struggle are bountiful moments of ordinary peace which can go unnoticed flitting by a busy mind.  Something more pressing holds attention, like the last ping on our phones, the rampant to do list charging through our minds or echoes of conversations, both had and not had, reverberating, scoop us up and away.Read More

The Shifting of the Scales

Question: Why do you think people are so unsettled?

We live in a time when we’re loosing healthy balance. With too much emphasis on the material world (what we have, what we want, what we would like, how other people see us) the scales have shifted.

With technology making huge jumps it has taken centre stage and with it we’ve become far to surface. Both in thinking and and as well, doing. Every day social media grabs more minds into its web where (as my husband aptly described it) ‘surface to surface communication’ is applauded.Read More

Not enough time?

I had a dream about time.

The beginning of the dream was total darkness. Then a spotlight shining on an old grandfather clock. As I watched the face of the clock opened and out escaped a Court Jester. He started to run away and as he did, I realised that this was Time running away from me. My first reaction was to chase Time. But the faster I ran, the faster he ran. After a struggle I was able to corner him. Then using martial arts I tried to fight Time but to no avail, as always he just moved a bit out of my reach. Finally, after realising I could not stop Time by either catching or fighting I pointed my finger at him. Then with total focus directed the runaway back into the clock, making him get into the base of the clock rather than the face. This dream taught me that time is a concept which we all agree and the only way to control time is to focus, directing it to do what you want.

When stressed, minds speed up as does time. We believe there isn’t enough time to do all we need to get done. It’s all an illusion. Remember time is malleable. So when struggling with a deadline believing you don’t have enough time, stop and remember the many other deadlines successfully met. Proving even against all odds there always seemed to be enough. Positive reinforcement relaxes the mind and as it does the mind slows. The slower the mind, the more time we feel we have.

A relaxed mind expands time.

Then it is about defining time. If you have a project to complete – give it a start and finish. By defining that slot and then ‘pointing your finger’ with total focus on the work at hand, time will and does expand.

Remember Time will always step out of reach. We can’t catch or fight it but what we can do is take control through focus. Remember to do ‘your finger pointing.’

1  Recall past deadline successes

2  And Relax

3  Define a time slot – start to finish

4  And focus

Make Time do what you want. Time works very well with a relaxed mind. I have always found Time most agreeable.

Listener: What if we can’t get a picture out of our mind? How do we see inside our mind?

Two questions from one listener. In the first they struggle with the haunting of painful images and in the second want to see the beauty that lies within. Two questions from two perspectives.

So let’s start with the first. What if we can’t get a picture out of our mind?

Unable to forget, let go or move forward from a situation which haunts is indicative of an emotional intensity spike. Remember emotional energy fuels all things. Very useful when wanting something to manifest as that energy helps propel the desire into manifestation. But when emotions, feelings are not positive, causing despair, anxiety, anger (because the memory or situation has not yet healed) then these feelings like a hook get stuck feeding the mind-space, bringing it to the forefront. Demanding attention.Read More

Listener: How do we distinguish between what we need and what we want?

Loving this question. How do we know what is important or just something to attain?

A need prompts the path forward. While a want is a short lived satisfaction. For example if after looking high and low for those perfect red shoes myself  I ask myself “Hmm.. Do I really need these?” The answer maybe “Yes!! They’ll be perfect for the upcoming wedding!” This answer is short lived – shoes for the wedding than thrown to the back of the closet, no longer important. This makes them a want. I want shoes to match my dress.

However if I have an issue with my feet and buy shoes which really fit properly then it’s more of a need, as to have comfortable shoes helps you to go forward (both literally and figuratively). And red? Well, that works either way.

A want often is something which when we get it we feel good for the moment but then soon forgotten as another want comes along. There is nothing wrong with wanting but when you have limited funds it is often good to think – what will this do for me in the long run?Read More